Christopher Gerteis and Timothy S. George

‘An excellent interdisciplinary collection of essays on “postwar” Japan, from 1945 to 2011 – from the ashes of defeat to the anxiety of decline. It deserves to be read not only for its fascinating glimpses of Japanese society, economy and culture, but also for the comparative light it implicitly sheds on other advanced capitalist societies and their not always acknowledged arcs of uneven historical change.’  – Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University

December 2012 . PB 9781441101181 . 288 pages . £19.99

http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/japan-since-1945-9781441101181

Does Japan really matter anymore? The challenges of recent Japanese history have led some pundits and scholars to publicly wonder whether Japan’s significance is starting to wane. The multidisciplinary essays that comprise Japan Since 1945, however, demonstrate its ongoing importance and relevance. Examining the historical context to the social, cultural, and political underpinnings of Japan’s postwar development, the contributors re-engage earlier discourses and introduce new veins of research.

Japan Since 1945 provides a much needed update to existing scholarly work on the history of contemporary Japan. It moves beyond the ‘lost decade’ and ‘terrible devastation’ frameworks that have thus far defined too much of the discussion, offering a more nuanced picture of the nation’s postwar
development.

CONTENTS in brief

Introduction – Revisiting the History of Postwar Japan, Christopher Gerteis
and Timothy S. George

Part I: Civic Imaginations

Contributions from Laura E. Hein, Timothy S. George and Martin Dusinberre

Part II: Legacies of the War and Occupation

Contributions from David Tobaru Obermiller, Katarzyna Cwiertka, Sally A. Hastings and Tetsuya Fujiwara

Part III: State Policy for a Late-Capitalist Society

Contributions from Lonny E. Carlile, Bruce Aronson and Satsuki Takahashi

Part IV: Looking Out, Looking Back

Contributions from Christine Yano, Christopher Gerteis and Hiraku Shimoda

Conclusion, Stephen Vlastos