Secret Talks Between Tokyo and Washington offers an insider's perspective of the political, economic, and security-related negotiations of Japan and America between 1949 and 1954. Translated by Robert D. Eldridge, for the first time the memoirs of Miyazawa Kiichi reaches a global audience. This book is a critical link to understanding the views and reactions of the Japanese government, both when it was under occupation and then as a newly independent nation, during which time the young, talented, and international-minded Kiichi played a central role. A firm believer in the 'Yoshida Doctrine,...

The tragic rape of an Okinawan school girl in September 1995 touched off the current Okinawa Problem and shook the bilateral relationship. It also had the effect of highlighting the need to understand the complicated history of Okinawa in the post-war US-Japan relationship. Ironically, one of the least examined periods in this post-war history is the same period that would have the most dramatic impact on Okinawa's future status, namely the years up until 1952, when the Peace Treaty with Japan, signed the September before in San Francisco, would go into effect. Using a multinational and...

Using a multi-national and multi-archival approach to this diplomatic history study, the author examines comprehensively and in great detail for the first time the origins of the so-called Okinawa Problem. Also inlcludes four maps.

Japan's Backroom Politics is the translation of a classic study of the rough and tumble of Japanese politics and conservative party factions in the first two decades of postwar Japan. The original book, published in 1967, was written by the preeminent political writer at the time, Watanabe Tsuneo, who later became the controversial owner of the Yomiuri Shimbun. The book was written when a generational change was occurring in Japanese politics after several of the early party leaders had passed away, including his political mentor, Ono Bamboku. Comprising ten chapters, including a...

This book examines the lives and times of Japan s postwar prime ministers, covering the period from 1945 to 1995. Written by Japan s leading scholars, it is the first English-language biographical portrait of these twenty-three individuals who helped lead Japan on its road to recovery, its return to the community of nations, and its subsequent prosperity. Each chapter brings out, to varying degrees, the larger political and historical environment, party dynamics, and personality traits of the prime ministers. In addition, the book discusses not only the policy choices the prime ministers...

First, the resurgence of tensions in Northeast Asia over territorial disputes, and the emphasis recent Japanese governments have placed on using the GSDF for defending Japan's outlying islands is driving media coverage and specialist interest in the GSDF.