Hirohito

Set during the final days of August 1945, this novel unfolds inside the sealed world of the Imperial Palace as the Japanese Empire approaches its irreversible end. Through a sequence of quiet, precise entries — each anchored to a single day — the narrative observes history not through battles or proclamations, but through silence, ritual, and the slow collapse of certainty.

While cities vanish, armies disintegrate, and the outside world becomes unrecognizable, the palace attempts to preserve...