The Troubled Encounter: The United States and Japan

Malabar, Florida: Robert E. Kreiger Publishing Company, 1979. Third Printing . Trade Paperback. Good. 5" x 8 1/4. 257 Pages Indexed. A 1981 Reprint of the 1975 Edition. Blue ink underlining throughout. Front cover has some edge wear and scuffing. First title page has a four-word inked note and back end-paper has 15 lines of inked notes.. Otherwise a tight, square book with clean white pages. How did two friendly nations like Japan and the U.S. end up in an all-out Pacific war? No other book offers such a full and satisfying explanantion of why tensions arose, conflicts emerged, and an all-out war erupted between the U.S. and Japan. Synthesizing a large amount of specialized literature this book explores the many facets of each government's policy. The intellectual assumptions, bureaucratic perspectives, domestic political currents, and national aspirations which fuse to form official decisions. Broadly apoproaches formulation of policy and carefully traces the influence of missionaries, businessmen, and government officials on policy-making. Deals in depth with both sides of the interaction. At the same time the book emphasizes the confusion within each goverenment, the haphazard way decisions were made and how the self-centered statesmen failed to assert control over tragic events. Finally, by linking past conflicts to the present, the book sheds light on current American foreign policy failures in Asia and the world today (1979).