Empire in Eclipse: Japan in the Postwar American Alliance System : A Study in the Interaction of Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy

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Summary: A startling book by a master author
Review: Professor Welfiel study of Japan's strategic relationship with US during the cold war is very impressive. He draws a mandala of Japanese political leaders from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and their rules in one of the most important alliances during the cold war. What is more impressive, is to know that the author has met nealy all those important figures and got their views first hand. Having studied East Asian cold war history under Prof. Welfield brilliant presence, the book is the cream of many years of observation from a very knowledgable man.

Rating:
Summary: history and domestic politics are indispensable
Review: This book must be in the library of anyone interested in foreign policy of Japan. The author brilliantly combines history with International Relations and offer many clues to understand current foreign relations of Japan. His approach takes the reader to a journey of Japanese intellectual history as early as Meiji era in addition to domestic politics, and convincingly establish their relevance in the study of Japanese foreign policy.
The author utilizes original Japanese material as well as interviews as his sources. A look at his list of sources would reveal the amount of work he put in this work. Although the subject matter he tackles is very dense, his language is easy to follow. This is neither a superficial journalist account nor a dry work that discard history and domestic politics.