The American Occupation of Japan The Origins of the Cold War in Asia [Paperback]

In this novel and intriguing book, Michael Schaller traces the origins of the Cold War in Asia to the postwar occupation of Japan by U.S. troops. Determined to secure Japan as a bulwark against both Soviet expansion and Asian revolution, the U.S. instituted ambitious social and economic reforms under the direction of the flamboyant Occupation Commander, General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur was later denounced by the Truman Administration as a bunko artist who had wrecked Japan's economy and opened it to Communist influence, and power was shifted to Japan's old elite. Cut off from its former trading partners, which were now all Communist-controlled, Japan, with U.S. backing, turned its attention to the rich but unstable Southeast Asian states. The stage was thus set for U.S. intervention in China, Korea, and Vietnam.

The first step toward significantly rewriting the history of an era...Schaller recounts in fine detail the five years during which the autocratic MacArthur vied with Washington for dominance in Japan and a role in world affairs. --Philadelphia Inquirer

[A] brilliant, provocative study. --Journal of American History

A valuable contribution to the understanding of the origins of the cold war in Asia....It is the first comprehensive and detailed study on the aspect of U.S. occupation policies. --International History Review

A careful historian's account of the origins of the cold war in Asia with a particular focus on the U.S. occupation of Japan. --Foreign Affairs

Schaller has written the best kind of history, the kind that has great scope, supported by solid scholarship. --Kirkus Reviews

A very good book....Schaller points out...that American military and political advisers did not fashion their plans for the future of East Asia in a vacuum, but hammered them out in the context of their own ideological and strategical concerns. --The New Rlc"