Embracing Defeat

1999 history book by John W. Dower

Embracing Defeat

First edition cover

Author| John W. Dower
Language| English
Genre| History
Publisher| W.W. Norton & Co.

Publication date

| 1999
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardcover)
Pages| 676
ISBN| 978-0-393-32027-5
Preceded by| The Bombed: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese Memory, Diplomatic History 19, no. 2
Followed by| Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II is a history book written by John W. Dower and published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1999.[1] The book covers the difficult social, economic, cultural and political situation of Japan in the aftermath of World War II and the nation's occupation by the Allies between August 1945 and April 1952, delving into topics such as the administration of Douglas MacArthur, the Tokyo war crimes trials, Hirohito's controversial Humanity Declaration and the drafting of the new Constitution of Japan.

## Reception

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Described by The New York Times as "magisterial and beautifully written,"[2] the book won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction,[3] the 1999 National Book Award,[4] the 2000 Bancroft Prize,[5] the 2000 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, the Mark Lynton History Prize and the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.[6]

Steven Tolliday sees the book as a rare example of a book that shows the post-war years from a Japanese perspective, and writes that it is a "massively researched and beautifully illustrated book".[7] Dower's writing is called "elegant, informative and easy to follow". Martyn Smith considers it to be "an outstanding account of US-Japan relations in the aftermath of the war and a useful guide to understanding the trans-national nature of Japan’s rise to economic superpower".[8]

Michael Schaller noted that Dower "uses not only a rich array of period photographs but also art, comic books, poetry, letters, and journals from the 1940s to examine how the Japanese coped with hunger, homelessness, and despair in the wake of surrender. In the process, Dower delves into the technical and human dimensions of the black market, prostitution, the treatment of demobilized soldiers, the blossoming of literature despite a rigid and often mindless censorship that barred virtually any discussion of the nuclear bombs' impact, and the evolution of language to accommodate Japan's radically altered circumstances."[9] J. A. A. Stockwin in his review for The New York Times calls it a "richly nuanced book" and writes that "Dower adopts a critical view of the occupation, but, interestingly, he is plainly enamored of the sheer democratic panache of that Constitution and of the largely -- though not wholly -- successful efforts of Government Section bureaucrats to prevent the Japanese Government from subtly undermining its key provisions".[2]

## Publication

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* Dower, John W (1999). Embracing defeat: Japan in the wake of World War II (2003 ed.). W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-32027-5. Total pages: 676.

## See also

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* Empire of Japan
* Japanese resistance during the Shōwa period

## References

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1. ^ Dower, John W. (1999). Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 676 pages. ISBN 0-393-04686-9. "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II."
2. ^ a b "This Space Occupied". The New York Times. 1999-07-04.
3. ^ "Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Nonfiction" (web). pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
4. ^ "National Book Awards – 1999" (web). National Book Foundation. 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-20. (With acceptance speech.)
5. ^ "The Bancroft Prizes; Previous Awards". Columbia University Libraries. Archived from the original (web) on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
6. ^ "1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners". Los Angeles Times. 2007. Archived from the original (web) on 2002-06-04. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
7. ^ Tolliday, Steven. "Embracing Defeat. Japan in the Wake of World War Two | Reviews in History". reviews.history.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
8. ^ Smith, Martyn. "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II | Reviews in History". reviews.history.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
9. ^ Schaller, Michael (2000). "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (review)". Journal of Cold War Studies. pp. 108–109. Retrieved 29 May 2024.

## External links

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* Embracing Defeat at Open Library
* First Chapter
* Interview with Dower on Embracing Defeat, Booknotes, March 26, 2000

* v
* t
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Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

1962–1975|

* The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore White (1962)
* The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman (1963)
* Anti-intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter (1964)
* O Strange New World by Howard Mumford Jones (1965)
* Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale (1966)
* The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture by David Brion Davis (1967)
* Rousseau and Revolution, vol. 10 of The Story of Civilization, by Will and Ariel Durant (1968)
* So Human an Animal by René Dubos / The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer (1969)
* Gandhi's Truth by Erik Erikson (1970)
* The Rising Sun by John Toland (1971)
* Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45 by Barbara W. Tuchman (1972)
* Fire in the Lake by Frances FitzGerald / Children of Crisis vols. 2 and 3 by Robert Coles (1973)
* The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker (1974)
* Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (1975)

1976–2000|

* Why Survive? by Robert N. Butler (1976)
* Beautiful Swimmers by William W. Warner (1977)
* The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (1978)
* On Human Nature by E. O. Wilson (1979)
* Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (1980)
* Fin-de-siècle Vienna by Carl Emil Schorske (1981)
* The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder (1982)
* Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan (1983)
* The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr (1984)
* The Good War by Studs Terkel (1985)
* Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas / Move Your Shadow by Joseph Lelyveld (1986)
* Arab and Jew by David K. Shipler (1987)
* The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes (1988)
* A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan (1989)
* And Their Children After Them by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson (1990)
* The Ants by Bert Hölldobler and E. O. Wilson (1991)
* The Prize by Daniel Yergin (1992)
* Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills (1993)
* Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick (1994)
* The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner (1995)
* The Haunted Land by Tina Rosenberg (1996)
* Ashes to Ashes by Richard Kluger (1997)
* Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (1998)
* Annals of the Former World by John McPhee (1999)
* Embracing Defeat by John W. Dower (2000)

2001–2025|

* Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix (2001)
* Carry Me Home by Diane McWhorter (2002)
* "A Problem from Hell" by Samantha Power (2003)
* Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum (2004)
* Ghost Wars by Steve Coll (2005)
* Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins (2006)
* The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright (2007)
* The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedländer (2008)
* Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon (2009)
* The Dead Hand by David E. Hoffman (2010)
* The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2011)
* The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt (2012)
* Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King (2013)
* Toms River by Dan Fagin (2014)
* The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert (2015)
* Black Flags by Joby Warrick (2016)
* Evicted by Matthew Desmond (2017)
* Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr. (2018)
* Amity and Prosperity by Eliza Griswold (2019)
* The End of the Myth by Greg Grandin / The Undying by Anne Boyer (2020)
* Wilmington's Lie by David Zucchino (2021)
* Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott (2022)
* His Name Is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (2023)
* A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall (2024)
* To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans (2025)

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