Sexual slavery, human experimentation, mass murder, use of bacteriological and chemical weapons, the crimes committed in the name of Emperor Showa are countless. Still seen in the West as a puppet emperor used by unscrupulous military leaders to further their expansionist designs, Emperor Showa, generally known in the West by his personal name, Hirohito, remains one of the most controversial figures in modern history.
Since 1946, the image of a nervous little man wearing a badly cut civil servant’s cardigan and awkwardly saluting his subjects with a wave of his hat, an intellectual cut off from the real world, emerging from his laboratory only to ratify the decisions made in his name by a mainly faceless military clique, dominated the collective imagination.
Historians wishing to confront the “imperial hostage” thesis by invoking the wording of the Japanese Constitution that described the emperor as the “Head of the Empire” and the “Supreme Commander of the Army and Navy” collided for nearly 40 years with the “chrysanthemum curtain” erected in front of the imperial throne. The death of the Emperor in 1989, finally made it possible to lift up a few corners of this veil, leading in turn to the publication of a series of studies that for the first time revealed in broad daylight the true aspects of his role and personality.
“Showa: Chronicles of a Fallen God” is directly inspired by these studies and brings to life a monarch directly involved in government policies and totally aware of the crimes committed in his name by the military. This work also focuses on the tremendous propaganda campaign jointly carried out by the Japanese government and the American occupation command to exonerate the imperial family and protect countless war criminals in their fight against communism.
The novel is divided in four chapters, taking place from 1936 to 1946, and covering Japan’s plan to conquer the Far East, the military operations that resulted in the death of nearly 30 millions people and the policies that led to the defeat of the “Land of the Gods” and her shameful occupation by U.S. troops.
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Since 1946, the image of a nervous little man wearing a badly cut civil servant’s cardigan and awkwardly saluting his subjects with a wave of his hat, an intellectual cut off from the real world, emerging from his laboratory only to ratify the decisions made in his name by a mainly faceless military clique, dominated the collective imagination.
Historians wishing to confront the “imperial hostage” thesis by invoking the wording of the Japanese Constitution that described the emperor as the “Head of the Empire” and the “Supreme Commander of the Army and Navy” collided for nearly 40 years with the “chrysanthemum curtain” erected in front of the imperial throne. The death of the Emperor in 1989, finally made it possible to lift up a few corners of this veil, leading in turn to the publication of a series of studies that for the first time revealed in broad daylight the true aspects of his role and personality.
“Showa: Chronicles of a Fallen God” is directly inspired by these studies and brings to life a monarch directly involved in government policies and totally aware of the crimes committed in his name by the military. This work also focuses on the tremendous propaganda campaign jointly carried out by the Japanese government and the American occupation command to exonerate the imperial family and protect countless war criminals in their fight against communism.
The novel is divided in four chapters, taking place from 1936 to 1946, and covering Japan’s plan to conquer the Far East, the military operations that resulted in the death of nearly 30 millions people and the policies that led to the defeat of the “Land of the Gods” and her shameful occupation by U.S. troops.
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