The United States and Japan in the Postwar World

In 1984 a group of distinguished American and Japanese scholars met under the auspices of the Social Science Research Council--with the support of the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Japan-United States Friendship Commission--to examine relations between their countries in a historical and global context. They recognized that the constantly growing issues between the two countries, which were becoming so complex that many across the Pacific were warning of a 'drifting apart, ' if not a rupture, of two of the closest allies since the war, could only be understood if examined historically--in relation to the overall themes and trends in the past several decades--and globally--in the context of changing world and regional affairs.