Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan

Summary

A revisionist biography arguing that Emperor Hirohito was an active and informed participant in Japan's military expansion, not the passive constitutional monarch portrayed in postwar accounts. Bix marshals diaries, court records, and Japanese-language sources that became available after the emperor's death to reconstruct his role in key wartime decisions. The book substantially altered scholarly debate over imperial responsibility and the bargain struck during the American occupation.