The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family [ペーパーバック]

"The Yamato Dynasty", Sterling & Peggy Seagrave's expose on the role of the Imperial Family in Japanese society since the Meiji Restoration is written in a style more resembling a political thriller than history. Sure, the mafia-like grip of Japan's all-powerful financial and business oligarchy over the nation's wealth and economy and the Imperial Family's collusion in willingly playing the part of a stooge in return for a lifetime of comfort and wealth with America's secret backing is a shocking eye opener for readers who know little of Japan's history. Reading the book helps us understand why the Japanese economy remains moribund and in a state of paralysis since the bubble burst in the early 90s. Genuine reform cannot take place because the oligarchs and political leaders pulling the strings will never act against their own interests. Neither will the bureaucracy which feeds from it. A truly damning appraisal of the state of Japan as a nation. Yet, I had difficulty accepting all of the Seagraves' account of it as history because of their highly controversial if not downright sensational style in telling it. If history were written and taught this way in school, you'd have no problems filling up the class. Don't get me wrong. The book makes for rivetting reading. It is absolutely unputdownable. Nevertheless, historians might react with horror at some of the gross oversimplication of the truth as told by the Seagraves. It is not difficult to imagine that that they might call into question the source and accuracy of some of the information used in the book. The Seagraves' monochrome/black and white portrayal of the wide cast of characters also turns history into faction, if not soap opera. I enjoyed 'The Yamato Dynasty" tremendously and would recommend it without hesitation to others. But I would be cautious in reading it as history. Better to judge it as a dramatised story of the Japanese imperial family in the post-Meiji era.

There was a quarrel in these reviews about the gentleman shown on the dust jacket of Yamato Dynasty, with one reviewer claiming it was not Hirohito but the former "boy emperor," later Emperor Pu Yi of Manchukuo (best known as the hero of the film The Last Emperor).

Well, I just now picked up a copy of Kempeitai by the British author Ramond Lamont-Brown, and the identical photograph (in black & white) appears on page 59, and captioned "His Imperial Majesty, Pu Yi, Emperor of China, 1908-12"

Of course, Lamont-Brown could be mistaken, but I am inclined to think that it was the publishers of Yamato Dynasty who made the howler. After all, the photo doesn't even look like Hirohito as an adult.

The Washington Post called this book "laughably ignorant," but it's a delightful read. Conspiracy buffs will love it, especially those who believe in a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy of Republicans bent on twisting history to their own money-grubbing advantage.

The history of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa emperors up to 1945 isn't bad, as opposed what follows. The Seagraves have a knack for making individuals and situations come alive. They also have a knack for getting things wrong: MacArthur escaped from Corregidor by PT boat, not submarine; Japan had army and navy air forces, not a distinct "Japanese Air Force"; the great fire raid on Tokyo featured incendiary bombs, not napalm, and it killed about half the 200,000 cited by the Seagraves; in 1948 Edward Lansdale was a major, not a general....

More ominously, for a book that purports to give the inside scoop on the Emperor System, the Seagraves don't read Japanese and rarely if ever had translations made. For the first half of the book, I read the copious notes along with the text, and found no instance in which the Seagraves refer to a Japanese text. I can't be sure of this because I gave up this practice when I realized that the really interesting stuff was never supported by a source I knew and trusted.

Golden Lily, for example: as the Seagraves tell the story, Japan looted the nations it conquered, hid the treasure in caves in caves and sunken ships, and used it to enrich the emperor, bribe MacArthur and Herbert Hoover, finance the country's postwar expansion, and fund the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Evidently the Seagraves came across some (uncited) informant, then spun a book around this germ of a story, using whatever English-language sources they could find.

Read it by all means, but don't take it too seriously.