The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations throughout History

TLDR

The opening of Japan to the West by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 sparked a century and a half of economic, cultural, and sometimes violent clashes between the United States and Japan. The book aims to trace the historical roots of U.S.-Japan relations, from Japan’s rearmament to contemporary trade tensions, fiscal interdependence, and the shared competition with China. LaFeber draws on a wide range of American and Japanese primary sources to construct the narrative. Critics praise the book as a comprehensive, well‑researched, and readable history that will become a definitive account of U.S.-Japanese relations.

Abstract

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