Seventy years ago this month on August 15th, 1945, just after noon Japan Standard Time, Japan announced its surrender to Allied troops. Soon after, on September 2nd, Japan formally surrendered in a ceremony aboard the USS Missouri. World War II was finally over.

America was at last free from the battles that resulted in the deadliest and most widespread war in history. But while the fighting was over, the country’s work was not yet done. As part of its post-war rebuilding efforts, America spent the next six years involved in a Japanese occupation that would affect every level of Japanese society and change the dynamics of world politics.

At the end of the war Japan was a country shattered, demoralized, and adrift. It faced three million dead and many more wounded, starving, and homeless. Yet surprisingly Japan was also at the cusp of a dramatic social and political transformation. 

Under the occupation, ancient imperial Japan was, with astonishing speed and great societal upheaval, turned into a democracy, and this once insular country eventually became a free-market powerhouse. It was an amazing yet harrowing metamorphosis for the people of Japan.

This turning point in Japanese history is deftly explored in John W. Dower’s riveting book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II.  The book won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for Nonfiction and is held up as an example of history writing at its best. It’s backed with copious research and a myriad of personal stories, drawing heavily on popular culture references to show what Japanese life and society was life during this stunningly swift, traumatic, and singular transformative period.

You can find this book and many others like it at the Kyle Public Library. Stop by and check out our collection!