In the Realm of a Dying Emperor: Japan at Century's End, by Norma Field

Norma Field's In the Realm of a Dying Emperor was written about the end of the 1980s in Japan, when Emperor Hirohito was dying. In a culture characterized by homogeneity (at least, assumed homogeneity) of culture, behavior, and values, some Japanese stood out by challenging these values. This book is about three of them; an Okinawan who, after years of being treated like second-class citizens, publicly burned the Japanese flag, a Christian woman who challenged the courts to keep them from venerating her husband in a Shinto shrine, and the mayor of Nagasaki who stated his belief that the dying Emperor Hirohito had responsibility for World War II.

Though this book is very pessimistic (and may take its pessimisms to extremes), it displays the values of Japanese people very clearly by showing what happens when they are violated. Some ideas that can be inferred from this book are explicitly defined in books such as Shutting Out the Sun. Since Field is a Japanese-American who reports not feeling at home in either Japanese or American culture, this book is far more honest and takes the culture at face-value far better than any full Japanese can, but with the intimate knowledge of the culture that an American does not have access to.

Discussion Questions:

• What does the public reaction to these three people the book focuses on show about Japanese values and assumptions?
• What does Field mean by "self-restraint?" How does it differ from the Western concept of self-restraint?
• This book was written before the collapse of the bubble economy, and much has changed in Japan since then. Read Shutting Out the Sun. How have Japanese values changed between the publishing of these two books?
• Think about your own culture's values and assumptions. How did you come to realize that you or others around you held them?