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Summary

In judging war responsibility, historical controversy has surrounded the issue of what responsibility the emperor bears. Hirohito was an elusive and enigmatic personality. Since his death, new materials and new interpretations continue to appear. The work of his American biographer, Herbert Bix, has itself been controversial. Historians have also judged the ideology and mindset of the elite and field grade officers of the Imperial Army as bearing responsibility. In Japan, the school of minshūshi (people’s history) originated in the 1960s and rejected the Marxist historiography so dominant in the early postwar years. Instead, this school of historians adopted a “history from below” approach rather than simply focusing on elites. Yoshimi Yoshiaki’s book on grassroots fascism grapples with the extent to which ordinary people bear responsibility for the war, ultimately concluding that they were both victims of imperial consciousness and victimizers perpetrating it.

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7 - Gauging Japanese Responsibility

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7 - Gauging Japanese Responsibility

Summary