This Pulitzer Prize-winning history, told primarily from the Japanese point of view, traces the dramatic fortunes of the Empire of the Sun from the invasion of Manchuria to the dropping of the atomic bombs, and demolishes many myths surrounding this catastrophic conflict. Why did the dawn attack on Pearl Harbor occur? Was this inevitable? Was the Emperor a puppet or a warmonger? And, finally, what inspired the barbaric actions of those who fought, and those who speak here of the unspeakable - murder, cannibalism and desertion?