Kenneth J. Ruoff has done yeoman's work in unearthing a vast array of sources and interesting anecdotes that enliven the narrative, serving up a fascinating social history that helps readers today understand what it must have been like to live in wartime Japan, an account that challenges narratives of unrelenting tribulation. His captivating book explains how tens of millions of Japanese reveled in the orchestrated jingoism of the celebrations, cheered on by the media, intellectuals and all the businesses cashing in on patriotic consumption. In doing so, he reveals the extensive web of complicity and mobilization that belies assertions Japan was hijacked into war by a small coterie of military hotheads.- Jeff Kingston (The Japan Times) Kenneth J. Ruoff has sifted through documents long buried in Asian libraries and postcards procured at Kyoto flea markets to produce a meticulous study of Japanese life in the 1930s and '40s. Imperial Japan at its Zenith is, like the few available accounts of present-day North Korea, alternately chilling and amusing in chronicling efforts of the state to indoctrinate and manipulate citizens.... Ruoff shows how Japan went to extremes in its colonial heyday, inventing elaborate stories glorifying its divine imperial lineage to boost patriotism and justify colonial conquest.... [This book] provides rare insights... into the way a cult of militarism can pervade a nation and propel world events. Among the book's nuggets is the fact that the Zero fighter plane, of Pearl Harbor infamy, was named for the zeros in 2,600.- Richard Read (The Oregonian) In terms of charismatic cult, architecture and mass mobilization, Ruoff highlights important similarities between Japanese and European fascism. In so doing, he helpfully moves the debate beyond mere definitions of fascism to think instead of comparative fascist practice—an approach that complements recent attempts to find a 'new perspective' on the histories of modern Germany, Italy and Japan.- Martin Dusinberre (Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History)
