The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History [Paperback]

Walter LaFeber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393318370 | ISBN-13: 978-0393318371 | Publication Date: September 17, 1998

Winner of the Bancroft Prize.

When Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor in July 1853, opening Japan to the West, a century and a half of economic, cultural, and occasionally violent clashes between Americans and Japanese began. Walter LaFeber, one of America's leading historians, has written the first book to tell the entire story behind the disagreements, tensions, and skirmishes between Japan — a compact, homogenous, closely knit society terrified of disorder — and America — a sprawling, open-ended society that fears economic depression and continually seeks an international marketplace. Using both American and Japanese sources, LaFeber provides the history behind the vicissitudes of rearming Japan, the present-day tensions in U.S.-Japan trade talks, Japan's continuing importance in financing America's huge deficit, and both nations' drive to develop China — a shadow that has darkened American-Japanese relations from the beginning. "Broad and deeply researched. . . . The Clash is beautifully written, with clear arguments and no irrelevancies."—Gaddis Smith, Boston Globe "[This] work will easily become the best history of U.S.-Japanese relations in any language."—Akira Iriye, professor of history, Harvard University "[LaFeber] succeeds brilliantly. . . . [W]ell-researched, meticulously sourced and highly readable."—Don Oberdorfer, Washington Post Book World Photographs, illustrations and maps

Editorial Reviews

Review

Broad and deeply researched.... The Clash is beautifully written, with clear arguments and no irrelevancies. -- Gaddis Smith, Boston Globe

[LaFeber] succeeds brilliantly. . . . [W]ell-researched, meticulously sourced and highly readable. -- Don Oberdorfer, Washington Post Book World

[This] work will easily become the best history of U.S.-Japanese relations in any language. -- Akira Iriye, professor of history, Harvard University

About the Author

Walter LaFeber is professor of history at Cornell University and the author of The Clash and Inevitable Revolutions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (September 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393318370
• ISBN-13: 978-0393318371
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable, scholarly, but a little biased, June 12, 2000

By 

Bob McGrew - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History (Paperback)

This book was required reading for my seminar on the US-Japan Alliance precisely because it gave such a good overview of the two nations' history together. Starting essentially with Perry's opening of the Japanese ports to American trade, LaFeber does a good job of chronicling the details of US-Japan relations up to the early 90s. Generally, this is a story of the transformation of Japan first into an authoritarian but developed state and then into a pacifist and American-dominated ally. For the most part, his arguments are factual and unbiased, but the book often seems determined to blame the US (for WWII, for example), when there is no compelling reason to do so and even in cases where there is little reason to place any blame. He reserves his greatest scorn, however, for those like John Hay who thought to tame the Japanese machine with trade (echoing Cobden). It sometimes seems as though he's grinding axes in the present rather than arguing about the past. It also should be noted how badly he miscalled the recession of the 90s, which he thought was a chance for the bureaucrats to "refocus" the economy, which would soon come rumbling back. All in all, however, once the author's biases are detected, a rather good - and very readable - scholarly overview of US-Japan relations

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Detailed but flawed, February 23, 2007

By 

Code Rite "TruthSetFree" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History (Paperback)

LaFeber's three-part thesis: 1) that the Americans and Japanese have endured a series of clashes throughout their 150-year relationship, 2) that differing forms of capitalism have been at the root of these clashes, and 3) that the clashes have focused on China, almost works. However, in trying to fit the entire history of U.S. - Japanese relations into a single overarching framework, he underemphasizes the fundamental shift in the Japanese posture following the horrific conclusion to the war in 1945. "The Clash" would more appropriately refer to that catastrophic event. The U.S. decision to rebuild Japan changed the Japanese view of the Americans. The Japanese also abandoned militarism as a means to achieve national goals. These changes represent a fundamental shift in relations between the countries, even though differences relating to their respective forms of capitalism and views of China persist. LaFeber's attempt to paint ongoing differences between the two nations as part of the same "Clash" that led to war fails to emphasize this fundamental shift; his brush is too broad.

Even so, LaFeber's work presents a great amount of information regarding the history of diplomatic relations of Japan with the U.S. and is certainly worth reading. His three-part thesis does bring to light ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Japan which might otherwise be overlooked.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Economic history of U.S-Japanese relations, August 18, 2003

By 

Lloyd Greg (houston, texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History (Paperback)

In THE CLASH by Walter LaFeber, U.S. Japanese relations collide over different visions of Asia. For Americans, Japan represented an opportunity to enter China and satisfy a western global reach built on the extension of Manifest Destiny. Asia stood as a far western American frontier. American commerce and power promised an enlightened deliverance of manufactured goods and a benign pacific paternalism, grounded within the western concepts of unrestricted capitalism and individual rights. For the Japanese, Asia never represented an idea, but a reality. Japan viewed China and other Asian countries through a historical lens encompassing thousands of years. Wishing to protect a harmonious culture and placing itself as a leading actor within Asian affairs, Japan clashed with the United States over a period of 150 years. LaFeber views economics and geo political factors as being the most important factors which shaped U.S. Japanese relations.
Beginning with Commodore Perry and the Five Ports treaty, America and Japan each resolved to satisfy their Asian objectives. America solved the the dilemna of overproduction, while Japan built a military and industrial complex that would place it on equal footing with Western imperial powers. After 1873, American and Japanese interests coalesced around the objectives of an Open China, a British alliance, a prevention of Russian and German colonialism, and acquiescence to American control over the Phillipines and Hawaii. In addition, america recognized Japanese control of Korea through the Taft-Katsura agreement. However, the relationship changed.
With the beginning of the 20th century, a U.S. Japanese clash emerged as Japan took control of Manchuria, asserted itself militarily through the Russo-Japanese War, and lost a British alliance through american post World War I credit. In addition, a world wide depression forced the United States and Japan to advocate total mobilization and a reevaluation of foreign policy objectives. Wishing to achieve a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese realized that U.S. Asiatic interests prevented Japanese control over Pacific resources. Therefore, Japan opted for a quick military strike against U.S. military forces. For Franklin Roosevelt, a world war provided domestic economic relief and the opportunity to integrate Asia within a US created global capitalist system. The dropping of two atomic bombs achieved American objectives.
Following a devastating defeat, Japan rebounded economically through American economic aid, Prime minister Kishi's move toward a more bureaucratic and central government, and american military conflicts within Korea and Vietnam, which provided substantial trading opportunities for Japanese industry. A reinvigorated and economically prosperous Japan produced another clash due to rising American trade deficits and the failure of Japan to stay politically in step with U.S. policy towards Asia and the Middle East.
After reading THE CLASH, I would agree that economic considerations played arole within the different competing visions of U.S.-Japanese relations. However, I would have liked to have seen more of an emphasis on American and Japanese cultural differences and the role they played in shaping relations. LaFeber hints at these differences with references to a nineteenth century Japanese delegation's observations of American female rights, the 1924 Excluson Acts, the rise of the zaibatsu, the Japanese internment, Truman's bestial comments, and the postwar interaction of American military personnel with Japanese citizens. However, LaFeber never gathers these divisive cultural factors into a cogent thesis.
This is strange , since Lafeber leaves no source unturned. Drawing on a large selection of Japanese and American sources, it would seem that LaFeber had an opportunity to focus on these cultural differences. Writing this book in 1997, LaFeber seems to have taken a modern U.S. Japanese foreign policy perspective which revolves around trade deficits and Asian markets. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the historical economic relationship between Japan and the United States and its impact on US Japanese relations. However, THE CLASH cannot be the sole source for explaining the different visions of Asia which contributed to a 150 year US Japanese relationship mired in misunderstanding.