Embracing Defeat

By: John W. Dower

Narrated by: Edward Lewis

Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2000

National Book Award, Nonfiction, 1999

In this illuminating study, Dower explores the ways in which the shattering defeat of the Japanese in World War II, followed by over six years of American military occupation, affected every level of Japanese society. He describes the countless ways in which the Japanese met the challenge of "starting over", from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes, fears, and activities of ordinary men and women in every walk of life. He shows us the intense and turbulent interplay of conqueror and conquered, West and East, in a way no Western historian has done before.

This is a fascinating portrait of an extraordinary moment in history, when new values warred with the old, and early ideals of demilitarization and radical reform were soon challenged by the United States' decision to incorporate Japan into the Cold War Pax Americana.

©1999 John W. Dower (P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Non-Fiction

"A magisterial and beautifully written book....A pleasure to read." (New York Times)
"An extraordinarily illuminating book....Surely the most significant work to date on the postwar era in Japan." (Wall Street Journal)
"The writing of history doesn't get much better than this....[Dower] deftly situates the political story within a rich cultural context....The book is most remarkable, however, for the way Dower judiciously explores the complex moral and political issues....Dazzling." (Publishers Weekly)

Wonderful history, abominable reading

I've heard John Dower speak a couple times, and likely have an autographed version of this book in my office. But I wasn't going to have time to sit down and read it, so turned to Audible to "read" it during my commute.

It is as thoughtful as I expected, well researched with a touch of cynicism in the writing, entirely apropos to the history he deftly weaves together. I've read enough economic and business history (and fiction in Japanese, including "business" novels that begin in the postwar chaos) to have images of that era, his analysis makes sense and gave me context for the bits I know. I intend to read more.

But the reading was almost unlistenable, because Lewis didn't take the trouble to learn how to pronounce Japanese. That's inexcusable, because the language only has 5 vowels, all present in standard English, and 14 consonants (counting h/p/b as one), only the "flap r" isn't present in English, but any singer knows it (singing an "rrrr..." is generally a no-no), and using a standard spoken "r" doesn't make names incomprehensible. I had to re-listen on occasion to catch a place name or personal name. I will not listen to anything else narrated by Lewis.

Now Audible has two other Dower works, by different narrators. I will surely listen to samples first, but may rather force myself to read the hard copies.

Production Note

I have already listened to this book and rated it very high. I forgot to mention one production note. After each section and or chapter there was no pause at the end before the next section. This was irritating and difficult to understand why it was done.

Very poor narration

The material is extremely interesting. In fact, fascinating. The level of detail and research is commendable. However, the narration leaves a lot to be desired. If I could I would return the audio book and purchase a hard copy instead.

Superb and detailed study

This is a great deep dive into Japan’s emergence after the war. It’s objective, interesting and very readable. Highly recommended.

Well done, author

I haven’t found many books covering this subject. They are more interested in the war. But this was well covered and very readable (or listenable) in spite of not having much competition.

A subject like this can easily become mired in statistics that cause the eyes to glaze over. A little of that, but without it you miss part of the stories.

Thanks to all who made this book happen.

A great comprehensive account of occupied Japan.

It's has rather long winded feel to it in some chapters, but one can certainly not accuse this book of not being thorough. Often times the "extra info" provided, like accounts or quotes from people... poets and the like... give an amazingly enlightening perspective to the events of the given chapter and enhance the experience of learning/listening. I just had to binge listen to this for finals week. Thanks Audible, for making my life easier.

Conflicted Story

The performance was mediocre with an almost constant drone. The spoken English was good but the delivery not so good.
The initial chapters contained much detail of the years after the war ended. The later chapters seemed like a patchwork of scattered facts.
This may be a case where reading the book might be a better alternative. The period of time discussed covered stretched roughly 70 years and may have contributed to the unequal treatment of topics.
However in spite of these shortcomings there was much I learned about the Japanese culture.

Informative and interesting

Pro:
As and American who studies much of the second world war, I find it very interesting and refreshing to hear and read information from other perspectives, especially the Japanese. this title delves into the social and economic changes and challenges that Japan faced after the war, during occupation. Truly fascinating.

Con:
The narration is okay, but just okay.
There is no delay between chapters, so the start and finish of each one becomes a run-on sentence. It is quite disorientating.
The author likes to frequently and frustratingly use many French descriptors in this English title. I like using such terms when necessary, but the frequency and need is questionable at best. I feel using an English term would be more descriptive and understandable to the audience in a historical title.

Fascinating history weakened by poor narration

In college I took a class in post-war Japanese literature, so I went into this book with some knowledge of the immediate post-war years. The author does a great job detailing the years after the war and includes stories of the hardships suffered by everyday people in Japan. Many of these stories are pulled from Japanese newspapers of the era. The book is very approachable and not academic like some histories of the era. But the narration is awkward and robotic and the narrator seems disinterested in the topic. This book deserves a re-do with a narrator that cares about the subject matter. If you like Japanese comics and movies, I recommend this audio book to better understand the experiences and trauma that shaped Japanese popular culture after the war. But be prepared to be occasionally frustrated with the narration.

Pulitzer Prize Winner!

Hey, why doesn't the description of this book even mention that it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000? This is a great history that dives into all aspects of Japan under the occupation. It goes way beyond the usual touchpoints of MacArthur, the Emperor and the Constitution to look at things like what (and how little) people ate, the black market, popular magazines, intellectual life, and the sudden reversal in American racist attitudes toward the Japanese when the war ended and democratization, rather than extermination, became the goal. I'd give it a five-star review except that the narrator simply cannot pronounce the Japanese terms properly, or even recognizably in a lot of cases, and there are a lot of Japanese terms in the book. So minus one star for the narrator.