May 21, 2023
The last time I read a nonfiction book cover to cover of my own volition, it was likely filled with pictures of dinosaurs or planets and targeted to 8-year-olds. Fiction, and particularly fantasy, are very much my comfort zone, and this year I’ve been making an effort to step outside that comfort zone a bit more. With that said, In the Realm of a Dying Emperor’s focus on the stories of real people living through a period of rapid change and cultural upheaval felt surprisingly familiar. The biographical-narrative structure help to bring the information to life, and the first-hand accounts that the book is centered around give humanity and color to what could have been a dry recitation of the facts and figures surrounding censorship and dissent in late 20th-century Japan.
Norma Field is a Japanese-born daughter of an American soldier and a Japanese woman, currently living in the US as a professor of East Asian studies at the University of Chicago. Her perspective is a unique one, simultaneously inside and outside each of her respective cultures. This provides her with the interesting ability to view the Japanese traditions with which she grew up with a certain amount of nostalgia, while also approaching them with the critical eye of an outsider. She is therefore able to give the reader (in this case a white American) a glimpse into the true nature of a traditionally tight-lipped culture.
The book is structured in three parts, each one a different story of dissent in some form relating to the Japanese government, and by extension, the emperor, whose death is the focal point for the books timeline. All three parts focus on different aspects of censorship and societal imperative, through the lenses of different kinds of Japanese citizens: an Okinawan grocery store owner and local leader, a Christian widow and organizer, and the then-Mayor of Nagasaki. Field details her interactions with each of them, as well as her experiences in each of their environments. She extends her research into the local customs of her subjects, working to understand the kind of worlds they live in that might give rise to such impactful acts of dissent. She interviews local elders, officials, friends, and mentors to give the reader a fuller understanding of the events that took place.
Each section brings new cultural concepts into play, usually with a great deal of overlap that helps tie the book together as a cohesive examination of Japanese culture. The section centered on Okinawa deals with discussions of imperialism and Japanese citizens as both victims and perpetrators, owing to their treatment of Okinawan citizens during the war as well as their practices abroad. Field indirectly examines American influence on Japan post-war, coupled with a discussion of the tension between a Japanese focus on culture and tradition with a push towards Western modernity as a form of cultural legitimization. This leads to a discussion in the book’s second part of Christianity in Japan, and the nature of a country whose national religion—Shinto—is treated as a cultural practice. I found especially interesting the notion that the traditional view is a fairly polytheistic one, given that Shinto does not predicate exclusivity, and yet Christians were still persecuted and discriminated against for much of Japans history. Field deals with uniformity, national solidarity, and the overwhelming pressure to conform as a hallmark of ordinary Japanese life. It is clear from the interviews conducted and the examples provided that a reputation is a ghastly offense, and even attention is considered distasteful. The book ends with an especially powerful series of letters from Japanese citizens that dig into the real feelings of the populace surrounding the nature of the war. Particularly striking were the letters of middle-aged at the time citizens recalling how their own parents dealt with post-war grief and guilt, and how they themselves were inspired by that experience to work towards a world where their children and grandchildren could have a different kind of relationship with their elders.
Interspersed between the stories that Field is researching are anecdotes and insights gathered from her own life, both as a child raised in Japan and as an adult returning there to visit family. The trip is clearly for both research and reflection, and her recorded interactions with her own family members allow for a more personal angle through which to view the broader societal ideologies and patterns that she aims to discuss. Her work is intellectual and academic, balanced by a rich understanding and translation of the emotional subtext underpinning what was a tumultuous period. The writing is thoughtful and considered, and opens a door into the polished and difficult to dissect conflicts that accompany peacetime society.
8/10
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