Possibly because of the authors own mixed heritage (Field, 6), the novel In

The Realm of a Dying Emperor presents a study of contradictions regarding

both the Japanese emperor himself, as well as, to a larger extent, the postwar Showa era. Through a prologue and epilogue centered mainly on the
authors own life, and three recounts of the struggles of everyday people
who fought against their inconsistent, tradition-bound country at the time of
the emperors protracted death, Norma Field reflects on the Japan of the
late 1980s and early 1990s, and all of the tensions, idiosyncrasies, and
Americanization therein.
Much like the emperor Hirohito continued to live on for some months before
eventually dying on January 7, 1989 (Field, xv), the presence titular man
hangs heavily throughout the pages of the novel. Whether a discussion of
the seemingly mundane, such as the word used to describe the emperors
death, hougyo (Field, 23), or a more serious tale such as that of the various
forms of resistance put up by Chibana Shouichi, Nakaya Yasuko, and
Motoshima Hitoshi, the man who spends much of the time covered in the
book slowly dying or already dead manages to still have an overwhelmingly
large presence on almost every page. Most contradictory within the book,
and therefore Japan, is the place the Showa Emperor has in Japanese life.
Aside from a seemingly general view of the emperor as a harmless old man
(Field, 24), not much care or thought it usually paid to the man whose reign
stretches from before the times of banzai-shouting soldiers (Field, 179)
and atom bombs, to the modern days of bullet trains (Field, 117) and
chemically perfect produce (Field, 11). Even as his death hung in the air,
the average citizen and store owner was more concerned about how much
of daily life and scheduled festivities had to be interrupted in order to
convey a proper amount of mourning (Field, 21-2). Children and adults alike
preoccupied themselves more with wondering if it was really necessary to
observe all of the typical rituals of mourning for someone they did not know
personally (Field, 211) than grieving over the dwindling life of the emperor.
However, the moment someone actively, staunchly stands in opposition of
the easy-going flow of half-hearted care and the convenience of historical

amnesia, the mood changes. Though there are always allies on the side of
people like Chibana, Nakaya, and Motoshima, in general the Japan that
was so quick to forget some sickly, aged monarch they had never met
easily rages against resistance from Chibana, stubborn unacceptance from
Nakaya, and Motoshimas too-truthful words. From death threats (Field, 46)
to actual attempted murder (Field, 269), to rebel against convention as do
Chibana and Nakaya or to outright speak against the emperor as
Motoshima does in stating his blame in the events of World War II (Field,
178-9) is quickly met with a firestorm of hatred and political havoc.
The change in attitude is perhaps surprising, but that attitude itself is likely
the product of the culturethe erathat nurtured it. Following surrender
and subsequent occupation, Fields book exudes a sense of affront and
serious resentment on the part of the Japanese people, even as their
culture dutifully adapts to the Western mould. As war crimes of the past
fade from memory, it is little wonder the emperor so much the cause of
them swiftly received the same fate. Resisting the easy acceptance to
pardoning Hirohito his place in the war or the deification of a fallen man
(Field, 110), so similar to the deification promised those men who died for
the emperor in the Second World War, forces the Japanese of this time
both to linger on the subjects that would just as soon be forgotten as well as
razes tempers long affronted by the events following the war.
This is the Showa era Field presents: one gleaming with modern
convenience brought on by forced occupation, and a long resentment,
notably amongst the older generation or noticeable by half-Japanese such
as Field herself, where tensions and differences are at their most obvious.
A country of soaring economy on a small stretch of land (Field, ), where
one by one old tradition bows to new, where the death of the emperor
whose life marked out this Japan of the late Showa era could easily be
forgotten in favor of newer, more interesting scandal and gossip (Field, 27).
This Japan does not want to dwell on the mistakes of the past, or even now
force the blame onto their once-divine monarch. So even as tiny rebellions
of sending cards at New Years are made (Field, 211) and the desire to

mourn with as little effort as possible is predominant, there is still an

underlying current of stung nationalistic pride that arises, sometimes to
violent heights, when men like Chibana Shouichi protest and then contest
their protestation, when women like Nakaya Yasuko fight to have their and
their familys individual rights protected, when politicians like Motoshima
Hitoshi say what no one else will: the emperor does bear responsibility for
the war. (Field, 178)
In The Realm of a Dying Emperor, Field studies the months centered
around the emperor Hirohitos deaths, and the decades proceeding it, with
brutal honesty and little forgiveness. Through the experiences and learning
of a woman half-in, half-out of the world of Japanese culture, who shares
the blood of conqueror and conquered, with a background born of the kind
of tensions that arise from such a union, and growing up in such a time,
Field strips away obfuscation and unsympathetically recounts the nature
and atmosphere of one of her native lands in a time that would have
otherwise passed unremarkably, had a few people not chosen to, much like
the lingering emperor himself, not allow their objections, circumstances,
and objections to Hirohito himself diejust yet (Field, 4).