Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

Herbert P. Bix grew up in Winthrop, Massachusetts, and earned his Ph.D. in history and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University. For the past thirty years he has written extensively on modern and contemporary Japanese history in leading journals in the United States and Japan. He has taught Japanese history at a number of American and Japanese universities, most recently at Harvard, and is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

“A historical bombshell…Compelling…The most controversial book yet on Japan’s previous emperor.” — The Economist“The author’s virtuoso scholarship and accessible narrative invite us into Hirohito’s world and change the way we think of recent history; his portrayal of a monarch rationalizing evil is superb.” — The New Yorker“”The triumph of Mr. Bix is that of a tailor able to assemble disparate scaps of material and sew them into a seamless whole.”” — The New York Times“Myth-shattering…[T]his superb biography should jog loose a few suppressed memories.” — Newsweek“Nothing published since the Berlin Wall’s fall quite comes up to Herbert Bix’s new book…It’s a startling work—awesomely ambitious, faultlessly researched, daring in its thesis, and profound in its implications.” — Business Week“Persuasive. . . . Bix proves, in an immensely readable 800 pages, that good imperial biography is still possible.” — The Times Literary Supplement