A scholar's worldly-wise appraisal of the mutually expedient ties
that have bound the US and Japan since the end of WW II. Drawing
largely on archival sources to provide a perceptive overview of the
crucial period from the Occupation through the mid-1970s, Schaller
(Douglas Mac. Arthur: Far Eastern General 1989, etc.) makes a
persuasive case for the arresting proposition that latter-day Japan
is to a great extent what American foreign-policy made it. To begin
with, be recounts how Washington (concerned that Tokyo might try to
improve relations with the Red regimes in Beijing and Moscow)
decided to promote the defeated country's economic development and
open domestic markets to its merchandise. In the name of continuity
and stability, then, its puissant industrial combines were left
largely unscathed; in like vein, many politicians penciled in as
candidates for rough military justice found themselves summarily
rehabilitated. When the Cold War turned hot, first in Korea and
later in Vietnam, the author (History/Univ. of Arizona) documents,
money poured into Japan from the US, accelerating the island
nation's recovery. In addition, Schaller points out, presidents
Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all provided the Liberal
Democratic Party with sizable amounts of secret financial aid,
largely to ensure that its conservative, anti-Communist leaders
would remain in power. By the 1960s, he observes, America's Asian
ward had become a formidable economic force and appreciably less
deferential to its longtime protector. The author provides details
on the increasingly difficult relations between Japan and the US
through the so-called Nixon shocks (imposing restrictions on
imports, pulling troops out of the Far East, and reaching a
rapprochement with China). In conclusion, he fast-forwards through
the past two decades, an equally convulsive era during which the
USSR's implosion depreciated Japan's value as a strategic partner.
An informative briefing on a decidedly odd geopolitical couple's
increasingly ambivalent alliance. (Kirkus Reviews)
Michael Schaller supplies the historical background to show how the US transformed Japan from enemy to ally, covering the crucial years from 1945 to 1973 in which Japan emerged as a regional and global economic power. Schaller focuses on political, strategic, and economic relations, illuminating the connections between America's early trade policies toward Japan and the desire to secure the country as a bulwark against Communism in Asia.
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