Throughout Asia and in much of the world recently, contemporary Japan has become as famous for its history textbooks that obscure, or even white- out, unpleasant facts as it is for its wealth or fading industrial prowess. How does one explain, then, the extraordinary popularity of a 900- page history of the immediate post- war period that, among many other uncomfortable topics, assigns guilt to Emperor Hirohito and explores the role of politicians and organized crime in prostituting Japanese women to United States soldiers?

It is rare that a foreign-written book becomes critical in explaining another country's history to its own people. But Embracing Defeat, John W. Dower's 2000 Pulitzer prize-winning history, published here in two volumes that have together sold about 122,000 copies in a few months, is well on its way to becoming just that kind of rare work.

Historically speaking, many Japanese today say the Second World War and its immediate aftermath have become a sort of collective black hole. Of course, plenty of books about the war have been written here. But many readers complain that those books have too often resembled the sterile polemics of the right or left. One type justifies Japan's actions, perpetuating a self- image of Japan as an innocent victim; the other demonizes Japan's militarists and seeks to perpetuate the country's official pacifism.

Knowledge of the country's history is further obscured by school curriculums that reach so far back into the past that the school year usually ends before arriving at the 20th century. Furthermore, strong taboos on critical examination of the emperor's role, or indeed of the imperial system itself, are enforced by thuggish nationalists. Even today they have free run of Tokyo's streets and use high-decibel sound trucks to intimidate perceived opponents.

Mr. Dower's history, in translation, has landed like a lifesaver in this morass for generations of Japanese who are too young to have formed their own direct impressions of the middle part of the last century, which created so much of the Japan they live in today. Many of those who have read it say they have understood their country's recent history for the first time.

To get a sense of the history's effect on its Japanese readers, Arts & Ideas gathered together five people to discuss it. Among the biggest revelations to them: the origins of the constitution, which was written in secret in Tokyo by 24 Americans in little more than a week; the creation - largely by occupation forces - of an all-powerful bureaucracy that still dominates Japanese life today; and the reinforcement by occupation censorship and secrecy of the tendency to paper over differences and suppress open debate, often regarded as quintessential Japanese traits.

But most of all, through reading the anecdotes of ordinary people, excerpts from the popular songs and comics, or manga, of the day, those interviewed said they had come to understand better than ever what it was like to live as Japanese during the 1940's and 1950's. "Unlike other history books, which write about the responsibility of the Japanese government or relations with other countries and so on, this book writes about the Japanese people," said Hidetomo Imamura, a 21- year-old university senior. "It tells how Japanese lived through that time."

Mr. Imamura, who learned of the book from a professor, was the youngest participant in the discussion group. Readers from other generations, though, shared his feeling of having history revealed. "I thought I had understood my parents' generation," said Mikiko Sugita, 55, a saleswoman. "We learned about democracy from school, not from our parents. They could never understand it because they were too busy just trying to survive."

Ms. Sugita, who was born in Dalian, China, said that the history had helped her understand why Japan was occupying that country in the 1930's in ways that Japanese histories had not. Her parents were among the thousands of Japanese civilians who lived in China during and briefly after that occupation. She said Mr. Dower's history had also given her an appreciation for the American side of the war and its aftermath. She began to cry during the discussion when she spoke with guilt about an incident when she was an exchange student in Illinois in the 1970's. Her landlord, an American veteran of World War II, showed her the belongings of a Japanese soldier he had killed and asked her to help find the man's family. "He was a soldier," she said, "and I couldn't accept that he had killed a Japanese. I couldn't help him."

For Yoshio Kisa, author of a book that compares Japan's and Germany's handling of war guilt, Mr. Dower's work is more than a simple history: it is analogous to a psychoanalysis of postwar Japan. "Japan died in a sense and was reborn," said Mr. Kisa, who is 48. "The period immediately after World War II was like the nation's infancy, a decisive time for Japanese society. That's why I read the book. Most people do not know what happened during the occupation period."

"Embracing Defeat" was no less of an eye-opener for Aya Iida, a 23- year-old employee of a nongovernmental agency that studies the abuse of women. "When I read this book I realized that I had been brain- washed in a certain way," she said. "I had believed that the emperor was also a victim of the war. It was said that he didn't have his own thoughts and that he was only reluctantly involved in the war as a symbol of Japanese leadership. That's what I was taught, and before now, I didn't question it."

If so many people of such different backgrounds have found Mr. Dower's work is revolutionizing their understanding of their country's history, the question arises as to why no Japanese author has plunged as deeply or as candidly into this material. Why did it take an American, like Mr. Dower, who is a professor of history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to undertake the task? The question will undoubtedly arise again when the 2001 Pulitzer prize-winning book on Japanese history, "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan" by Herbert P. Bix ispublished here in translation.

"Why can't Japanese write a book like this?" Tadao Suzuki asked. "Dower is married to a Japanese and has no problem reading Japanese documents. We Japanese tend to see only the Japanese side. That was his advantage. But there is still the matter of taboo. Even Japanese authors who recognize Hirohito's responsibility, don't write about it. Dower is American and has nothing to lose."