Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.-Japanese Relations, 1919-1941 [Hardcover]

This study explores U.S-Japanese relations in the interwar period to find that the seeds of the Pacific War were sown in the failure of cultural diplomacy and the growth of mutually antagonistic images. While most Americans came to see Japan's modernity as a fa?ade, the Japanese began to group Americans with the warlike European powers.The Seeds of War American Perceptions of Japan: Liberal Modernity or Feudal Militarism Japanese Response to Orientalism War Talk and John Dewey: Tensions Concerning China The Washington Conference, the Kanto Earthquake and Japanese Public Opinion: Victories for Liberals? Immigration Exclusion The Liberal Challenge: Responses to Immigration Exclusion New Emperor, New Tensions in Manchuria 'Oriental' Duplicity or Progress and Order: The Manchurian Incident 'America is very difficult to get along with:' Anti-Americanism, Japanese Militarism, and Spying, 1934-1937 'A Certain Presentiment of Fatal Danger:' The Sino-Japanese War and U.S-Japanese Relations, 1937-1939 The March to War Impact on the Postwar World

The focus is on changes over time in public opinion in Japan and the US about each other and the bilateral relationship leading up to 1941 through analysis of the writings of missionaries, intelligentsia, academics, and reporters. Secondarily, the focus is on private diplomacy of these same groups conducted through organizations such as the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). On these topics, Davidann makes valuable contributions.

- Choice

While there exist numerous studies of 'the origins of Pearl Harbor' and of mutual images across the Pacific, this book makes a new contribution by examining how these images influenced one another. No scholar has examined the English-language material in the two countries as thoroughly as Professor Davidann.

- Akira Iriye, Harvard University

Jon Thares Davidann's valuable study of the 'unofficial' side of l£Í