The fuss surrounding a recent book by U.S. academic Herbert Bix, "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan," said to detail for the first time the Showa Emperor's allegedly close involvement in Japan's past militarism, seems strange. The critics are making much of Japan's lack of interest in these revelations.
But David Bergamini's 1971 book, "Japan's Imperial Conspiracy," made many of the same points in great detail. It, too, was largely ignored in Japan.
Should the Japanese show interest when Westerners insist their former leaders were war criminals? The critics compare Japan's reluctance to admit war guilt with Germany's willingness to admit past Nazi crimes.