2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Apologize Unless You Mean It: A Lesson For Nation-States., April 2, 2011
This review is from: Troubled Apologies Among Japan, Korea, and the United States (Hardcover)
At just under 200 pages Dudden's book on international relations is short, almost too short given the complexities of the issues. This is not to say that the author did not conduct thorough research on the subjects of his chapters. He offers valuable insight and introduction to interest groups and political figures in ways that contextualize the significance of their political force in their respective country. For example, the comparison of a Japanese political critic to Bill O'Reilly really connected the issue he was discussing. Dudden's writing is articulate, educational, but also engaging in this way and I did not find it a dull read in the the least.
However, I can not help but feel that he only scratches the surface of diplomatic apologies between the three countries. Many incidents and facts that he places within his chapters have the potential to incorporate more detail and help paint a fuller picture between the two countries. To contrast this critique, it has to be understood that international relations is vastly complex and the information demands that authors pick which issues to focus on to paint a picture of the dominant issues between these countries. Nonetheless, Dudden mentions issues and incidents that beg to be explored more thoroughly. And at it's current size I can't help but think that it wouldn't have hurt to do just that, especially given its current listed price ($50 at time of writing.)
'Troubled Apologies' is broken into four chapters that involve international issues between Japan, Korea, and the United States. He covers a wide-array of issues to explain the complex and politically charged atmosphere, any of which is insightful and worth studying. They are broken down into the following:
Chapter 1: 'An Island by Any Other Name' - the land and sea disputes regarding who owns the Takeshima/Dokdo islands (South Korean occupied, claimed by Japan) and insights into the larger issue of how sea borders contributes to the equation
Chapter 2: 'Apologies All Around' - the rise in popularity in diplomatic apologies following World War II; the Japanese emperor's role in diplomatic apologies in context of atonement for Japanese expansionism in Asian nations; Japan and North Korean relations following N. Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens; the rise in popularity of Korean television programs in Japan
Chapter 3: 'Illegal Japan' - the history of Japanese occupation of Korea pre-WWII and the history of American/Soviet occupations of Korea post-WWII and the complexity of the claims of Korea that the occupation had been illegal; fishing boundaries between Japan and South Korea; state-sponsored violence in Korea since the 1950s; the legal/political struggles of South Korean comfort women and Japan
Chapter 4: 'History Out of Bounds' - international relations following two South Korean schoolgirls being run over by U.S. military vehicles in 2002; the deaths of Korean civilians at the hands of American Soldiers in the villiage of No Gun Ri in 1950; American censorship on the reporting of radiation sickness following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the hydrogen bomb testing in the Marshall Islands and the radiation exposure to Japanese fisherman; the refusal of the American government to apologize for civilian casualties of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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