Rediscovering America: Japanese Perspectives on the American Century

Rediscovering America: Japanese Perspectives on the American Century
ISBN-10
0520950372
ISBN-13
9780520950375
Series
Rediscovering America
Category
History
Pages
360
Language
English
Published
2011-09-01
Publisher
Univ of California Press
Authors
Peter Duus, Kenji Hasegawa

Description

In this extraordinary collection of writings, covering the period from 1878 to 1989, a wide range of Japanese visitors to the United States offer their vivid, and sometimes surprising perspectives on Americans and American society. Peter Duus and Kenji Hasegawa have selected essays and articles by Japanese from many walks of life: writers and academics, bureaucrats and priests, politicians and journalists, businessmen, philanthropists, artists. Their views often reflect power relations between America and Japan, particularly during the wartime and postwar periods, but all of them dealt with common themes—America’s origins, its ethnic diversity, its social conformity, its peculiar gender relations, its vast wealth, and its cultural arrogance—making clear that while Japanese observers often regarded the U.S. as a mentor, they rarely saw it as a role model.

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