Front cover image for Leaving Japan : observations on the dysfunctional U.S.-Japan relationship

Leaving Japan : observations on the dysfunctional U.S.-Japan relationship

"This book is a critique of America's flawed Asia policy that centers on U.S.-Japan relations but harkens back to the same disastrous views that drew America into Vietnam. The technique is a narrative flow of short vignettes woven into longer chapters; the main strands are personal reflections and interviews. Among those interviewed are former USTR negotiator Glen Fukushima, James Fallows of U.S. News and World Report, author Karel van Wolferen, Chalmers Johnson, and many Japanese. This is an incisive, assessable, keenly observed, enlightening and enlightened account by an American journalist living and working in Japan." "The main themes of the book are: (1) Criticism of the long-term (since the nineteenth century) assumption that Asian countries will become more like America as they reap the benefits of capitalism. This approach, the author argues, is not only arrogant and led to disaster in Vietnam, it is also souring U.S. relations with Japan. (2) Exploration of why Japan will not become a "little America." (3) The positing and analysis of potential solutions in the hope that another disaster will be avoided."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2000
M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y., 2000
viii, 198 pages ; 23 cm.
9780765606594, 9780765606600, 0765606593, 0765606607
1015440728
Chapter 1 Japan’s Burden of the Past; Chapter 2 Memories of Failed Policies; Chapter 3 Rape on Okinawa; Chapter 4 A Small Islands Anger; Chapter 5 Trade Judo: Exploiting U.S. Strength; Chapter 6 Delusions of American Empire; Chapter 7 Meeting A Remarkable Man; Chapter 8 Charlatans and Mentors; Chapter 9 God on Their Shoulders; Chapter 10 Buying Influence in America; Chapter 11 Seeds of War, Saintly Flower; Chapter 12 The Politics of Betrayal; Chapter 13 Cross-Cultural Homecoming; Chapter 14 A Japanese View of Security; Chapter 15 A U.S. View of Security; Chapter 16 A Japanese View of Trade; Chapter 17 A U.S. View of Trade; Chapter 18 International Marriage; Chapter 19 Dreams of a Japan Fulfilled; Chapter 20 A Question of Transformation; Chapter 21 Japan and the Military Metaphor; Chapter 22 A Historical Debt to Germany; Chapter 23 Germans and Japanese; Chapter 24 A Buddhist Patriarch; Chapter 25 Too Much of a Good Thing; Chapter 26 Thwarting Development; Chapter 27 The Stifled Individual; Chapter 28 Birth of a Family; Chapter 29 A Lonely Rebel; Chapter 30 Flickering Revolutions; Chapter 31 Loyalty and Corruption; Chapter 32 Legacy of Tokugawa; Chapter 33 The Asian Crisis; Chapter 34 Return to Okinawa; Chapter 35 A Few Conclusions;