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THE CLASH:US-JAPANESE RELATIONS THROUGHOUT HISTORY by Walter LaFeber (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997)
THE JAPAN-US ALLIANCE: NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE 21sT-CENTURY by Nishihara Masashi (ed.) (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000).
TROUBLED TIMES: US-JAPAN TRADE RELATIONS IN THE 1990s by Edward J. Lincoln (Washington: Brookings Institute Press, 1999)
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON US-JAPAN RELATIONS by Gerald L. Curtis (ed.) (Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000)
The inauguration of the new Bush administration in Washington provides a timely opportunity for reassessing some of the United State's (US) key foreign relationships. In this context, there is none more important than the US's relationship with Japan, which is arguably the single most important bilateral interaction between two individual countries in the world. The hyperbole about the rise of China notwithstanding, the combined economic and strategic influence of the US and Japan still has the potential to continue profoundly shaping international relations in the twenty-first century especially, but not exclusively, in East Asia. The books under review here all address the impact of this crucial relationship, and while some are more concerned with contemporary issues than others, they provide a useful base from which to assess the manner in which US-Japan relations have, and may continue to evolve.
Although some of these books in whole or part address a number of different aspects of the relationship, for the sake of simplicity, the following discussion will be divided into broadly historical-strategic and politico-economic sections. One of the things that becomes clear from such an exercise is that, although the relationship remains fundamental to the overarching economic and security strategies of both countries, the precise operationalisation of such policies owes a great deal to relatively contingent and transient factors. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, in the US in particular, attitudes and policy toward Japan is very much a function of America's domestic politics and economic conditions.
Unlikely allies - the relationship in context
Published in 1997, Walter LaFeber's The Clash, has subsequently been showered with accolades and awards. I can only add to them. It is a masterly survey of the historical interaction between Japan and the US. LaFeber has an enviable ability to be both scholarly and accessible at the same time. Given that he seeks to present the entire history of...