Eastern Phoenix: Japan Since 1945

by Mikiso Hane

It has been fifty years since Japan admitted defeat and accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration following World War II. At the time, Japan was in shambles, its imperial dream shattered, and its people reduced to scrounging for sufficient food to stay alive. Yet over the past half century, Japan has remade itself and emerged as one of the leading economic powers in the world. How did Japan achieve this success, and what has this remarkable rebirth meant for the Japanese people?In Eastern Phoenix, Mikiso Hane closely examines historical factors that have contributed to Japan's postwar development politically, economically, socially, and culturally. Beginning with the occupation by U.S. forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Hane shows how American reforms and initiatives combined with the political actions of subsequent Japanese leaders to create a country able to forge ahead economically while retaining many traditional aspects of prewar Japanese society.In addition to presenting a narrative overview of important events since 1945, Eastern Phoenix provides insight into the evolution of Japan's foreign relations, internal effects of prosperity on Japanese society, and problems that remain despite extraordinary progress. The book critically examines such media-hot topics as education, environmental degradation, organized crime, racial and class discrimination, the Japanese work ethic, and the role of women in society. To provide useful context for student readers, Hane frequently punctuates his discussion by contrasting Japanese statistics with those of the United States. The book also excels in examining how artists and writers have grappled with Japan's rapidly evolving contemporary history, and Hane points the reader toward books and films that can shed additional light on Japanese perceptions of the past fifty years.

260 pages, Paperback

First published February 29, 1996

About the author

Mikiso “Miki” Hane was a Japanese American professor of history at Knox College, where he taught for over 40 years. He wrote and translated over a dozen books, wrote many articles, and was appointed a member of the National Council on the Humanities in 1991.

Hane was born in California, lived in Japan during his teenage years, and was interned in Arizona during World War II. He taught soldiers Japanese at Yale, then studied there, where he attained a bachelors in 1952, a masters in 1953, and doctorate degree in 1957. Hane studied in Japan and Germany, then taught at the University of Toledo and studied in India before coming to Knox College in 1961. He lived in Galesburg for the rest of his life, and both wrote and taught up until his death.

Reviews

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This 1996 textbook, “Eastern Phoenix: Japan Since 1945” by Professor Mikiso Hane seems to have a boasting title but, indeed, his academic narrative with cited references and data has been inspiringly informative, undoubtedly as a model country in which her developments in those key decisive areas, for instance, industry, economy, education, etc. have long been categorized as one of the world class nations envious by many, probably worldwide after her defeat in World War II in 1945.

At first I think I would quote some lines from its back cover but I change my mind because you can read the synopsis on the right when you visit this website: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

However, while reading this book we need to keep in mind regarding 2015 the present year, therefore, its mentioning twice of “fifty years” there is not true and they should be silently changed into “seventy years” instead. I think this is a general case of immediacy, one of the flaws of textbooks. Nevertheless, we can still enjoy reading it as a foundation one, hoping to read its latest edition as soon as it is newly revised.

Furthermore, it should be a good idea dealing with its twenty-year span so that more recent progressive data acquired from those related sections in every five years or two decades would, more or less, suggest her particular amazingly outstanding advancements from data analyses. This might lead towards any advanced powerful economic model/theory in which, I think, many developing countries can learn a lot from Japan as a uniquely tough and learned one before it is too late for them.

[John Petty]

Although the book isn't as in-depth as I'd like it to be, it is a serviceable overview of the political, economic, and sociocultural development of Japan in the years following World War II. Hane has a tendency to offer simple numbers/raw data rather than interpretation, but she does an impressive job in presenting 50 years of history in a single,manageable volume.