Background
Herbert Bix was born on September 21, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of James and Francis (Shapiro) Bix.
1960
Amherst, MA 01003, USA
In 1960 Herbert studied at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. There he got a bachelor's degree.
Cambridge, MA, USA
In 1968 Herbert got a Master of Arts at Harvard University. In 1972 he got a Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University.
Herbert Bix was born on September 21, 1938, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of James and Francis (Shapiro) Bix.
In 1960 Herbert studied at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. There he got a bachelor's degree. In 1968 Herbert got a Master of Arts at Harvard University. Then in 1972, he got a Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University.
From 1970 till 1977 Herbert worked as a research associate at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. From 1977 till 1978 he worked at Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. Then from 1988 till 1989, Herbert worked at the State University of New York in Binghamton. After that, in 1992 he worked in E. O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge. Herbert Bix worked as a professor of international relations and Japanese studies at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan. In 2013 he is a Professor Emeritus in History and Sociology at Binghamton University.
Herbert has written extensively, in leading journals and newspapers in the U.S. and Japan, on modern and contemporary Japanese history, in ways that have challenged long-established assumptions. His Peasant Protest in Japan, 1590-1884 (Yale University Press, 1992) was widely acclaimed in academic journals as one of the best books ever written on the subject of peasant rebellion in a premodern society. His Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (HarperCollins 2000-1) won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Herbert teaches at Binghamton University, New York, and writes on issues of war and empire.
Bix argued in Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, which won him the Pulitzer Prize, that the emperor was intimately involved in the decision-making behind his military's ruthless campaigns. Hence Bix contends, the Emperor bore heavy moral, legal and political responsibility. Bix explains why Japan will be unable to realize its full democratic potential without re-evaluating Emperor Showa. Bix also explores what lessons today's world leaders can learn from a study of this enigmatic figure. Bix maintains that Emperor Showa was shielded from trial by Allied commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his staff, who feared communists and wanted to harness the Emperor's domestic popularity to hasten Japan's recovery, and so suppressed damning evidence of his war involvement.
Quotations: "The new history suffers from serious omissions in editing and the arbitrary selection of documents, instead of tackling important issues head-on, the scholars noted Hirohito's schoolboy writings and commented on trivialities like the discovery of the place where his placenta was buried.''
Herbert married Toshie Watanabe. In 1961 she was deceased. They had got 3 children: Mark, Deborah, Meriam.