Review by Choice Review
Buruma has written widely and well about Japan and East Asia. His frequent contributions to the New York Review of Books and his many longer works are always lucid and attractively written. This new book is no exception. It is a thoughtful, compact (177 pages of text) new treatment of Japan's modern history that argues that Japan's tradition of democracy was a "sickly child from the beginning," and that a deeply embedded irresponsibility at the highest levels of government has resulted in a continuing impoverished democratic system. Along the way, Buruma makes intriguing comparisons between Japan's development and that of European states, particularly Germany, as well as noting its effort, like many contemporary developing states, to become modern while invoking real or imagined cultural and religious traditions. Although this book is primarily an evaluation of Japan's political traditions, Buruma also provides brief but vivid descriptions of social and cultural conditions, which will help general readers and students make sense of the world within which those traditions emerged. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All readers and libraries. W. D. Kinzley University of South Carolina
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Compressing a century of complex history into one short but taut narrative, Buruma traces the remarkable metamorphosis that transformed an isolated island shogunate into an expansive military empire and then into a pacified and prosperous democracy. Predictably enough, Buruma begins with the oft-told story of Commodore Perry's 1853 naval mission to open Japan to American traders. But he invests this event with a new and darker meaning as he relates how this pivotal visit helped catalyze a firestorm of civil war, toppling the shogunate and ushering in the Meiji Restoration. The architects of that restoration Buruma depicts as tragically myopic, their nationalistic and religious authoritarianism dooming democracy to stillbirth and converting commercial wealth into imperial armaments. Just as impressive as Buruma's probing account of this cultural tragedy is his lucid analysis of Douglas MacArthur's remarkable--but finally flawed--achievement in guiding Japan toward the exemplary democracy that showcased its astonishing development in the 1964 Olympics, which Buruma takes as his end point. An excellent introductory study, complete with a helpful bibliography for those seeking more rigorous analyses. --Bryce Christensen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
A respected journalist adds this overview to the "Modern Library Chronicles" series. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Cool, informed historical primer from journalist-novelist Buruma (The Missionary and the Libertine, 2000, etc.), tracing Japan from its opening to the West in 1853 through its transformation into a militaristic state to its reemergence as a peaceful, pacifistic host of the 1964 Olympics. From start to finish, this concise narrative unfolds in dense ironies. In the 19th century, Commodore Matthew Perry's interpreter observed that the Americans hoped to disturb Japan's "apathy and long ignorance," unaware that his reluctant hosts knew a good deal about American politics, geography, and science. In the 20th, Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Japan following WWII, compared its citizens to children. In turn, according to Buruma, the Japanese have exhibited seesawing "overconfidence, fanaticism, a shrill sense of inferiority, and a sometimes obsessive preoccupation with national status." After the shogunate collapsed in the 1860s, Emperor Mitsushito began a regime that blended ancient Japanese myths with German authoritarianism and racism, transforming Shinto into an imperial faith, eviscerating intellectual dissent, and producing mass conscription. Buruma is particularly incisive in discussing the fateful period from 1931 to 1945, when 14 different prime ministers thrashed amid a scorpion's den of courtiers, the military, and bureaucrats. With nobody accountable, right-wing junior officers egged on the government to escalate tensions with China and the US; later, they paralyzed its ability to change course. (Even after Nagasaki, no consensus on surrender was reached until Emperor Hirohito broke the deadlock.) While acknowledging the nation's remarkable postwar conversion to a parliamentary government, Buruma bemoans "an intellectual culture stunted by dogmas of the Left and the Right," which has left unexamined national war guilt and an economic engine sputtering after 40 years of governmental corruption. A highly nuanced explanation of how a hybrid national polity and culture was created.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
