David Howland Bergamini (11 October 1928, in Tokyo, Japan – 3 September 1983, in Stamford, CT, USA)[1] was an American author who wrote books on 20th-century history and popular science, notably mathematics, though is best known for his controversial research on Japanese imperialism.
Bergamini, born in Tokyo, Japan, was interned for four years[1] as an Allied civilian in a Japanese concentration camp in the Philippines, along with his mother and father, John Van Wie Bergamini, an architect who worked for the American Episcopal Mission in China, Japan, the Philippines and Africa, and younger sister for the duration of World War II.
[2] Later, Bergamini's focus turned to researching Japanese think tanks which, leading up to WWII, had been dedicated to planning imperial conquest of the Asian mainland.
In this volume, Bergamini proffers a theory regarding an active role played by Hirohito in the planning and execution of Japan's aggression in the Asian region from the 1920s through the 1940s.
Bergamini's thesis implicates Hirohito and his lineage as the originators and directors of Japan's incursions into China, Manchuria, and South-East Asia, and provides arguments for why Hirohito, against the wishes of the Australian government's Prime Minister Ben Chifley and Minister for External Affairs H. V. Evatt, was not prosecuted for war crimes, and rather maintained a prominent role in post-war reconstruction at the behest of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur.