A work Hata had written in 1984, "Hirohito Tennō Itsutsu no Ketsudan" ("Emperor Hirohito's Five Decisions"), attracted the attention of Marius Jansen, who arranged to have it translated into English as "Hirohito: The Showa Emperor in War and Peace". According to Edward Drea, on the question of "whether the emperor was really Japan's ruler and power-holder or merely a puppet and robot ... concludes that the answer to this complex question lies somewhere in between, although Hata credits Hirohito with considerable political savvy." Apart from Drea the book also garnered highly positive reviews from Stephen S. Large and Hugh Cortazzi.