In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the Rising Sun's darkest hour. A provocative new biography of Emperor Hirohito makes the case that he was responsible for prolonging the Second World War. Also, a memoir of the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans, and a visit with Kazuo Ishiguro, the quintessentially British writer who was born in Japan.

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro tells Steve Paulson that people sought escape from the horrors of modern warfare in the mystery fiction of the 1920s and 30s, and we hear a clip from Miss Marple to help make his point. And Ishiguro compares his experience moving from Japan to England to that of the central character in his new novel, "When We Were Orphans." Also, Japanese American novelist Kyoko Mori tells Jim Fleming a funny story about one of the ways she's still Japanese and reflects on the place of Japanese ancestry in her writing.

Historian Herbert Bix is the author of "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan." He tells Jim Fleming that the Japanese Emperor prolonged the Second World War and perfected a system for avoiding accountability. Also, historian John Dower tells Steve Paulson what General Douglas MacArthur did as Supreme Commander of the American occupation of Japan: draft a liberal constitution and enable the population to start over. Dower's much-acclaimed book is "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II."

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto's first novel, "Why She Left Us," is based on her family's experiences in the Japanese American internment camps of the Second World War. She tells Jim Fleming she accompanied her mother and grandmother to an internee reunion and found that people process the past in various ways in order to move on.

Distribution dates:

• week of 11/19/2000 - hour 1