Our Man in Tokyo

In 1932, Japan was in crisis. Naval officers had assassinated the prime minister. The military had a stranglehold on the government. War with Russia loomed, and propaganda campaigns swept the country, urging schoolchildren to give money to procure planes and tanks. Into this maelstrom stepped Joseph C. Grew, America's most experienced and talented diplomat. When Grew was appointed to serve as ambassador to Japan, not only was the country in turmoil, but its relationship with America also was strained-and rapidly deteriorating. For the next decade, Grew attempted to warn American leaders about the risks of Japan's raging nationalism and rising militarism, while also trying to stabilize Tokyo's increasingly erratic and volatile foreign policy. From domestic terrorism by Japanese extremists, to the global rise of Hitler, to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the events that unfolded during Grew's tenure proved to be pivotal for Japan, and for the world. And his dispatches from the darkening heart of the Japanese empire would prove to be prescient-for his time, and for our own. Drawing on deep research to bring to life this bygone world and the abyss that swallowed it, Our Man in Tokyo is a revealing portrait of man who risked everything to avert another world war, and of a nation whose nationalistic forces proved unstoppable--