HARVARD EAST ASIAN MONOGRAPHS
Cover: The People’s Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945–1995, from Harvard University PressCover: The People’s Emperor in PAPERBACK

Harvard East Asian Monographs 211

The People’s Emperor

Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945–1995

Product Details

PAPERBACK

$24.95 • £21.95 • €22.95

ISBN 9780674010888

Publication Date: 02/28/2003

Short

360 pages

6 x 9 inches

25 halftones, 4 line illustrations

Harvard University Asia Center > Harvard East Asian Monographs

World

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Few institutions are as well suited as the monarchy to provide a window on postwar Japan. The monarchy, which is also a family, has been significant both as a political and as a cultural institution.

This comprehensive study analyzes numerous issues, including the role of individual emperors in shaping the institution, the manner in which the emperor’s constitutional position as symbol has been interpreted, the emperor’s intersection with politics through ministerial briefings, memories of Hirohito’s wartime role, nationalistic movements in support of Foundation Day and the reign-name system, and the remaking of the once sacrosanct throne into a “monarchy of the masses” embedded in the postwar culture of democracy. The author stresses the monarchy’s “postwarness,” rather than its traditionality.

Awards & Accolades

  • 2004 Jiro Osaragi Commentary Prize, Asahi Shimbun

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