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EMPERORS OF THE RISING SUN: THREE BIOGRAPHIES STEPHEN S. LARGE
Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1997 231 pages. 2,200
Writing this biography of Japan's modern emperors posed unusual problems. The first hurdle, as Stephen S. Large observes, concerned sources: "Whereas students of an English monarch can study personal letters and other papers, research on Japan's emperors is hindered by limited access to crucial sources of this kind. One must work with mirrors, as it were, using indirect evidence found in the diaries, memoirs or private papers of high court officials and ladies-in-waiting, government leaders, military men and foreign observers."
The inclusion of this volume in a biographical series on illustrious threesomes (which thus far includes figures in the martial arts, modern fiction and kabuki) added further constraints. Although the photographs on the cover proclaim that the book is about the Meiji emperor, his son the Taisho emperor, and grandson the Showa emperor, the physically and mentally weak Taisho emperor did not provide enough material to make even a modest chapter. To compensate, Large has filled out Chapter 2 with the regency of Crown Prince Hirohito, who became the Showa emperor. The regency lasted from 1921 until the...