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7460
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July 27, 2004
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Description:
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In The Yamato Dynasty, Sterling Seagrave, who divulged the secrets of Mao Tse-tung and the ruthlessness of Chiang Kai-shek in the New York Times bestseller The Soong Dynasty, and his wife and longtime collaborator, Peggy, present the controversial, never-before-told history of the world’s longest-reigning dynasty–the Japanese imperial family–from its nineteenth-century origins through today. In the first collective biography of both the men and women of the Yamato Dynasty, the Seagraves take a controversial, comprehensive look at a family history that crosses two world wars, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American occupation of Japan, and Japan’s subsequent phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the Second World War. The Yamato Dynasty tells the story of the powerful men who have stood behind the screen–the shoguns and financiers controlling the throne from the shadows–taking readers behind the walls of privilege and tradition and revealing, in uncompromising detail, the true nature of a dynasty shrouded in myth and legend
Book Review
THE YAMATO DYNASTY
"Written in a lively style, The Yamato Dynasty provides a great deal of human interest in portraying the emperors, the empresses and the imperial princes -- their personalities, idiosyncracies, influence in national affairs, and so forth. [Seagrave] is especially good at bringing the imperial women, including above all the imposing Sadako (Hirohito's mother), to life in these pages. He also tells us much about the many men at court and in the government who manipulated the imperial family to their own political ends. Another valuable contribution is his reconstruction of the little-known 'Quaker network' at court, which dates from the Meiji era; in particular, he shows how this network assisted the efforts of Bonner Fellers, Herbert Hoover and others, to maintain Hirohito on the throne after the War. In all these respects, Seagrave adds to our understanding of the imperial family and its historical significance.
"Similarly, this book is worth reading for what it says about operation 'Golden Lily': the imperial army's systematic looting of wartime Asia and efforts to hide the loot in Swiss bank accounts, caves and in ships which were deliberately sunk to avoid later detection by the Allies as Japan faced defeat in 1945." --Dr. Stephen Large, Cambridge University
See also "Gold Warriors" of the same author
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