The People's Emperor

In the first full-length English-language study of the monarchy in postwar Japan, Kenneth J. Ruoff examines not only its reform during the Occupation (1945-52), but also its evolution in the decades since the Japanese regained the power to shape their monarchy and polity. In order to understand the [...]
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In the first full-length English-language study of the monarchy in postwar Japan, Kenneth J. Ruoff examines not only its reform during the Occupation (1945-52), but also its evolution in the decades since the Japanese regained the power to shape their monarchy and polity. In order to understand the monarchy's function in contemporary Japan, the author analyzes the role of individual emperors in shaping the institution; interpretations of the emperor's new constitutional position as symbol; the emperor's intersection with politics; the issue of the emperor's and the nation's responsibility for the war; nationalistic movements in support of cultural symbols of the monarchy; and the remaking of the once-sacrosanct throne into a "monarchy of the masses" that is embedded in the postwar culture of democracy.