Description
Book SynopsisNo nation was more deeply affected by America’s rise to power than Japan. The price paid to end the most intrusive reconstruction of a nation in modern history was a cold war alliance with the U.S. that ensured American dominance in the region. Kenneth Pyle offers a thoughtful history of this relationship at a time when the alliance is changing.
Trade ReviewA brilliant, elegantly written work destined to become one of the essential books on United States–Japan relations. It reflects Pyle’s broad knowledge and lifelong effort to bring coherence to the grand strategy of the United States since its rise as a dominant power in Asia and the consequences of that strategy for both nations. -- Ezra F. Vogel, author of
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of ChinaThis is a fine book, intelligent and necessary. Pyle, a distinguished historian of modern Japan, writes in a subtle and supple way, with an unerring sense of balance. His careful linking of the unconditional surrender demand by the U.S. to the character of the Japanese postwar settlement is fresh and provocative. I hope those who make American policy toward Japan read what he has to say. -- Andrew Barshay, author of
The Gods Left First: The Captivity and Repatriation of Japanese POWs in Northeast Asia, 1945–1956In a book that devotes equal space to the view from Japan and the U.S., [Pyle] shows equal discernment in recounting the ways in which each country came to collide and then cohabit with the other over the last hundred years. On each side Pyle uncovers things missed by a regiment of prior historians. -- Edward Luttwak * London Review of Books *