American Political and Cultural Perspectives on Japan: From Perry to Obama

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American Political and Cultural Perspectives on Japan: From Perry to Obama is an historical survey of how Americans have viewed Japan during the past 160 years. It encompasses the diplomatic, political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of the relationship, with an emphasis on changing American images, myths, and stereotypes of Japan and the Japanese. It begins with the American opening of Japan in the 1850s and 1860s. Subsequent chapters explore American attitudes toward Japan during the Gilded Age, the early 1900s, the 1920s, the 1930s, and the Pacific War. The second part of the book, organized round the theme of the postwar Japanese-American partnership, covers the Occupation, the 1960s, the troubled 1970s and1980s, and the post-Cold War decades down to the Obama presidency. The conclusion offers some predictions about how Americans are likely to view Japan in the future.

Reviews

Miller provides an accessible yet sophisticated historical survey that focuses on American views and interpretations of Japan from the mid-19th century to the present. In the first half of his study, entitled Acquaintances, he analyzes the initial 100 years of the bilateral-relationship, from the opening of Japan by Admiral Perry's Black Ships in the mid-1850s through the Gilded Age of the 1890s and onward through the tumultuous years of WWI and WWII. US views of Japan and the Japanese at this pointalternated between a romanticized fascination to a war-induced repulsion and demonization. In the second section of his work, entitled Partners, Miller addresses the postwar partnership from the American-led occupation through Japan's high growth years of the 1950s and 1960s, the bitter bilateral trade disputes of the 1970s and 1980s, and ultimately Japan's significant economic challenges in the post-Cold War era up to the Obama administration. Despite a nuanced and realistic assessment of the US's Asian ally, Miller predicts that popular American views will continue to be influenced and occasionally inflamed by culturally laden mythology rather than political realism. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE *
A well-written, reliable account of the history of U.S. relations with Japan with a focus on changing American perceptions of the country and its people. -- Akira Iriye, Charles Warren Research Professor of American History, Harvard University

Author Bio

John H. Miller taught at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu and is former Asia chair at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia.