SHŌWA

At noon on August 15, 1945, the people of Japan heard their emperor's voice for the first time. He told them that the war was over, and that they must "endure the unendurable." For forty-four more years, he would remain on the throne — as Japan rebuilt itself from ruins into one of the richest nations on earth.

Hirohito, known in Japan as the Emperor Shōwa, reigned longer than any other emperor in Japanese history. To some, he was a gentle scientist and a powerless constitutional monarch who bravely ended a war his generals would not stop. To others, he was a well-informed wartime leader who escaped responsibility because the Americans found him useful. Historians still disagree.

This book tells his story from beginning to end. A prince taken from his parents as a baby and raised by an old admiral. A schoolboy who lost his most admired teacher, General Nogi, on the night of his grandfather's funeral. A young crown prince who saw Europe and came home admiring kings who reigned but did not rule. An emperor who rebuked a prime minister and then resolved never to do so again; who crushed a rebellion of young officers; who read a poem of peace to his war council and then approved the war. And the man who, after the atomic bombs, broke the deadlock and ended it.

Told as a narrative history from beginning to end, with a cast of characters, a map, and a travel guide to the places you can still visit today, this book says plainly what the records show, what historians still debate, and which famous stories are only legends.

Inside, you'll find:

The prince raised apart from his parents, and the general who taught him duty
Six months in Europe, and the kind of monarch he wanted to be
The Tanaka affair, and the lesson he said he learned from it
The February 26 Incident, and the emperor's fury at the rebels
"The Pacific is vaster": his questions to the generals, and the poem he read before the war
"One more victory": the emperor at war
The sacred decision, the attempted coup, and the voice on the radio
The photograph with MacArthur, and the words that may never have been spoken
From living god to symbol: the tours, the laboratory, and the 1975 press conference
Yasukuni, the Tomita memo, and the debate that continues today
A guide to visiting the places in this story today, from the Imperial Palace to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa
If you want a simple verdict — hero or villain, puppet or mastermind — this is not your book. If you want the real story of the man who sat on Japan's throne through its most violent century, and why historians still argue about him, turn the page and meet the real Emperor Shōwa.