 | Imperial Japan at Its Zenith In 1940, Japan was into its third year of war with China, and relations with the United States were deteriorating. But in that year, the Japanese also commemorated the 2,600th anniversary of the founding of the Empire of Japan. Kenneth J. Ruoff is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University. He is the author of The People's Emperor: Democracy and the Japanese Monarchy, 1945-1995 , the Japanese translation of which was awarded the Osaragi Jiro Prize in 2004 for the best book in the social sciences published the previous year. |
