<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GoodreadsResponse>
	<Request>
		<authentication>false</authentication>
		    <method><![CDATA[]]></method>
	</Request>
	<review id="36966801">
    <user id="84337">
    <name><![CDATA[Jared]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[China]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/84337-jared]]></url>
    <image><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1179845593p3/84337.jpg]]></image>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">273197</id>
  <isbn>0393320278</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780393320275</isbn13>
  <ratings_count type="integer">213</ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">28</text_reviews_count>
  <title>Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II</title>
  <average_rating></average_rating>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/273197.Embracing_Defeat_Japan_in_the_Wake_of_World_War_II</link>
<author>
  <id type="integer">55123</id>
  <name>John W. Dower</name>
  <ratings_count type="integer">401</ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">56</text_reviews_count>
</author>
</book>

    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="history" />
        <shelf name="japan" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Nov 05 11:35:11 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Nov 05 11:36:04 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[John Dower's Embracing Defeat is masterful both stylistically (particularly in its prose) and in its ability to synthesize so many strands of historical inquiry.  He moves seamlessly from detailing economic inflation figures to analyzing the culture of sexual servitude.  This breadth comes nearly as close as one could hope to capturing a full snapshot of the origins of postwar Japan. Two things jump out about his portrait.  The first is that 1945-52 is fascinating as a period self-consciously peering over the edge of history.  Rupture is ubiquitous.  In his words, &quot;liberation&quot; was &quot;not political but psychological.&quot;  At once, all was reborn.  The emperor spoke aloud.  &quot;Democracy&quot; was proclaimed.  State Shinto was abolished.  Tension that had built up gradually over a decade and a half—sometimes stretching back to the turn of the century or earlier—was suddenly released.  An entire paragraph is dedicated to detailing the neologisms: new history, new labor, new life, new women, etc.  Though, almost equally compelling is the ways Japanese adapted and endured.  The initial Allied hands-off economic approach paved the way for a vibrant, if unsettling black market.  The urban gardens that sprung up in bombed-out lots to supplement insufficient rations.  If any one theme ties together Dower's work, it is that the imposition of democracy from a foreign power had to be negotiated through an uncertain cultural milieu and an apprehensive populace, and that success was always contingent on Japanese receptiveness—actually and psychologically.]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/36966801]]></url>
</review>

</GoodreadsResponse>