K. K. Kawakami, the most prolific journalist writing on U.S.-Japan relations in the forty-years before Pearl Harbor, analyzed and described the interaction between the country of his birth and his adopted country. His more than 2,000 publications show a gradual decline in US-Japan relations from the early twentieth century to Japan’s attack on the US. K. K. Kawakami and U.S.-Japan Relations: The Forty-Year Road to Pearl Harbor provides a careful reading of his analysis of U.S.-Japan relations to show that both countries bear responsibility for the tragic clash in Hawaii. From the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) until the Japanese attack on Manchuria (1931), the United States bore a major responsibility with its anti-Japanese policies, racial discrimination, and failure to recognize Japan’s role in in the world but with Japan’s aggression in Manchuria, Japan became the primary actor. Relations between Japan and the U.S. declined gradually over a long period with both sides bearing responsibility.

Japan is a mix of the old and the new, traditional and modern, and old fashion and innovative. It has traveled the road to a modern destination without totally losing sight of its traditions and values. Although some in Japan lament the passing of old ways, Japan has held on to a reasonable amount of its traditions and values. This is easier to find in its arts and crafts and its literature and films as well as in its social habits. This book will introduce the broad sweep of people, events, and trends, including the successes and failures, of postwar Japan. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Japan.