Geography and Japan's Strategic Choices: From Seclusion to Internationalization

by Peter J. Woolley

Geography, this author contends, is the indisputably unique feature of any country. Geography and Japan's Strategic Choices begins by explaining Japan's unique location and topography in comparison to other countries. Peter Woolley then examines the ways in which the country's political leaders in various eras understood and acted on those geographical limitations and advantages. Proceeding chronologically through several distinct political eras, the book compares the Tokugawa era, the opening to the West, the Meiji Restoration, the long era of colonialization, industrialization and liberalization, the militarist reaction and World War II, the occupation, the Cold War, and finally the rudderless fin de siecle. Finally Woolley demonstrates how Japan's strategic situation in the twenty-first century is informed by past and present geo-strategic calculations as well as by current domestic and international changes. For students and scholars of U.S.-Japan relations and of Japanese history and politics, this book offers any informed reader a fresh perspective on a critical international relationship.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its fine, weird occasional historical goofs like saying South Sakhalin when it should say North or claiming Tokugawa Ieyasu came from a commoner background like Hideyoshi did. Good overall survey of geography's role in Japanese planning though this focus becomes muddled as the narratives more further towards the present.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting something much different from this.