Our Man In Tokyo

Starred review from October 10, 2022
The high stakes of international diplomacy are revealed in this captivating history from journalist Kemper (A Splendid Savage). Appointed U.S. ambassador to Japan in 1932, Joseph Grew spent nearly a decade in a doomed effort to maintain peace between the two nations. Following the invasion of China in 1931, the hard-right tilt of Japanese politics urging military conquest became relentless, Kemper explains, infecting all levels of government and insinuating itself into Emperor Hirohito’s court. Though he never learned to speak Japanese, Grew was popular in Japan, and grasped that neither the moderate, pro-Western politicians with whom he forged close relationships, nor the vast majority of Japanese people, desired the cataclysmic endgame promised by the country’s rabid militarists. His diplomatic efforts were hamstrung, however, by U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s “foreordained certainty that the Japanese were incapable of anything except treachery.” Despite the tumult of Japanese politics, which included coup attempts, assassinations, and increasingly repressive domestic laws, Grew refused to give up on the idea that war could be averted, and made a “last-minute appeal” to the Japanese foreign minister just hours before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Expertly marshaled from Grew’s diaries and reports, this is a poignant and profound look at diplomacy in action.

Starred review from October 1, 2022

An at-once depressing and instructive chronicle of Japan's descent from a democracy with free press and civilian rule (albeit represented by a deified and remote emperor) into a fascist society in which the military's wishes trumped social and political norms by Kemper (A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham). Joseph Grew was ambassador to Japan for 10 years, until Japan declared war on the U.S. in 1941. Based largely on Grew's detailed diaries and extensive communications with Cordell Hull's State Department, President Franklin Roosevelt, and his wide range of influential friends, the book is more in the category of annals. Grew's intimate knowledge is vital to any study of World War II. His attempts to modify the bloody Japanese invasion of China and the increasingly anti-Western focus of economic relations speaks to both the effects of untrammeled propaganda and the impotence of American diplomacy in the run-up to a global war. Although it may be difficult to follow for those new to the subject, the book presents an important view of the interwar relationship between the Japanese and the Americans. VERDICT Highly recommended for World War II and diplomatic collections at the undergraduate level and above.--Edwin Burgess

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2022
How a skilled ambassador tried to rein in a wildly dysfunctional nation. Historian Kemper speeds over the early life of Joseph Grew (1880-1965), who preferred travel to the lucrative family business. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1904 and rose steadily. Appointed ambassador to Japan in 1932, he served until World War II broke out. Japan had a constitution and elected parliament but also a godlike emperor. "To ensure this infallibility," writes the author, "he wasn't allowed to make any decisions, nor could he be held responsible for decisions made by others." The military swore loyalty to the emperor, not the constitution, so it was largely uncontrollable. Young, jingoistic officers regularly murdered their superiors or civilian officials who seemed insufficiently bellicose, proclaimed that they acted out of love for the emperor, and were treated with kid gloves. In this richly detailed narrative, Kemper emphasizes that Japan had genuine grievances against the West. The U.S. prohibited many Asian immigrants, and many states forbade Japanese from becoming citizens or owning property. Japanese leaders denounced Western imperialism--not because it was unjust but because they believed that Japan, not the West, deserved to rule the Asian world. Grew arrived after Japan had annexed Manchuria and would later invade China. This produced outrage in America, including among his superiors. Although equally unsympathetic, Grew explained that since America had no intention of using force, outrage alone produced irritation without accomplishing anything. His goal as a diplomat was to win respect from the Japanese and encourage more enlightened behavior. Grew himself did not rate his chances highly, and readers know how matters turned out, but Kemper's compelling history gives him high marks for winning popularity among the people and trust from Japanese leaders--far more than other Western diplomats. He accomplished this despite understanding that he was dealing with a deeply flawed government willing to commit hara-kiri in pursuit of its goals, which it proceeded to do. A fine account of an American diplomat who did his best to contain Japanese ambitions in the run-up to World War II.

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