Interdependence wasn’t always easy. In 1959, the Electronics Industries Association appealed to the U.S. government for help lest Japanese imports undermine “national security”—and their own bottom line. But letting Japan build an electronics industry was part of U.S. Cold War strategy, so, during the 1960s, Washington never put much pressure on Tokyo over the issue. Trade publications like Electronics magazine—which might have been expected to take the side of U.S. companies—instead noted that “Japan is a keystone in America’s Pacific policy…. If she cannot enter into healthy commercial
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