“Sons of Heaven: A Portrait of the Japanese Monarchy”, by Jerrold M. Packard

 

400 pages, Scriber, ISBN-13: 978-0684186337

 

Y’know, when I read Farewell in Splendor: The Passing of Queen Victoria and Her Age by Jerrold M. Packard (reviewed on April 8th, 2020), I could have sworn I had heard that name before and, sure enough, I had: years ago I read Sons of Heaven: A Portrait of the Japanese Monarchy by the same author and thoroughly enjoyed it (so why its taken me this long to review it is beyond me; but anyway…) Sons of Heaven was published in 1987 when the Emperor Hirohito was still alive and reigning (damn, talk about longevity), and so some of what Packard wrote is naturally out of date, but everything up until that time is, so far as I can tell, relevant and accurate.
 

According to legend, the unbroken line of Japanese Emperors was founded by Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun and the universe, and has reigned for over 2000 years and sired 124 rulers at the time of writing (thus, in this context, the matronymic “son of heaven” is more than appropriate). However, these sovereigns of Japan never really served as chiefs of state who set policy and demanded its execution, unlike their contemporaries across the Sea of Japan or elsewhere in the world; rather, their principle role was in embodying the Empire’s religious and temporal aspirations and linking the Japanese people to their ancient heritage. They reigned rather than ruled and served as a kind of living beacon for their people, above politics and virtually god-like themselves. Good work if you can get it.
 

But it wasn’t necessarily good to be the Emperor - this cypher to whom all loyal subjects swore fidelity - as they were more often than not simply trapped within the grandest of all gilded cages, especially during the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868). Rampant xenophobia kept the country a caste-ridden society that shut itself off from the outside world (well, not according to David Abulafia in The Boundless Sea, reviewed on May 23rd, 2020, but that isn’t Packard’s take) until, during the era of the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912), reforms initiated by the Emperor Meiji transformed Japan into a modern industrial power during the latter years of the 19th Century. But a modern-day shogunate came to the fore in the form of militarism, the purveyors of which set Japan on a disastrous course that ended in atomic holocaust.
 

Packard dispenses culture and erudition over the entirety of Sons of Heaven, charting the history of the world’s longest reigning monarchy in a mere 400 pages or so. Naturally, such a brief overview can only scratch the surface of the lives of the Emperors of Japan, but anything to shine the light of day upon these shadowy enigmas of the past and bring them forth is a good thing. Packard has essentially produced a primer on Japanese history, and I now know that I really have to find a better, more detailed take on this most perplexing and fascinating people.