Lee Goodan

HIST 4000-A01

June 24, 2004

Fourth Book Review

 Excellent.  You writing is concise and straightforward.  I like your attempts at analysis.  You could find out where the essays were published.

John W. Dower

Japan in War & Peace: Selected Essays

New York: The New Press, 1993.

368 pp, photographs, charts, illustrations.  $30.00

1-56584-067-4

 

John W. Dower, in his book Japan in War & Peace: Selected Essays, contends the foundation of Japan’s leading place in the world’s economy is a result of rapid military industrialization during the 1930’s.  His theory is in opposition to the prevailing assumption among historians that the United States’s post-World War II occupation is responsible for Japan’s economic viability.  The book is a collection of 13 essays Dower wrote over the past 15 years; most of the essays were formerly published in academic journals.  He explores the links between Japanese politics, economics, and culture from pre- and post-World War II to modern days.  Dower focuses on the individuality of Japan’s society, and examines how Japanese racism could pose possible problems to their relations to the United States and the world at large.

Dower received his Doctorate in 1972 in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University.  He is currently a professor of Japanese history at MIT.  He has written several books on Japanese history and their relations with the United States.      

Dower asserts that to understand modern Japan, one must examine its pre- and post-World War II history.  He contends that there are links of continuity in Japan before, during, and after World War II.  Dower addresses such topics as Japanese opinions on the atomic bomb, unfocused nuclear weapon research, wartime movies, and ex-Prime Minister Shigeru Toshida’s foreign policy.

Dower examines expressions of Japanese racism towards the United States during and after World War II.  However, he also states that the United States’s continuing ethnocentrism has not helped relations between the two countries.  This two-sided hostility, Dower maintains, affected Japanese and United States economic and political associations.  As he investigates Japanese economic development, Dower explores their rise to become a world leader.  Dower also addresses the topic of potential discord among the Japanese people.  He uses as sources of discontent such things as cartoons, graffiti, and films to show Japanese society is not as congruent as typically believed. 

Dower’s essays offer valuable insight into the nature of twentieth century Japan.  His writing style is understandable to most readers, but is aimed at a scholarly audience.  The footnotes provide a wealth of sources for individuals interested in the topics he addresses.