Jennifer M. Miller. Cold War Democracy

Jennifer M. Miller’s Cold War Democracy: The United States and Japan examines the contestation between the United States and Japan over the ideas and principles of democracy. The author details how American policymakers and military leaders, Japanese conservatives and progressives, and Japanese citizens and activists conceptualized, defined, and defended democracy during and after the U.S. occupation. While all agreed upon the centrality of democracy to Japan’s reconstruction in the aftermath of World War II, the author demonstrates that they did not share a single view of democracy. Rather, they developed strikingly different understandings depending on their political stances and ideologies. Whereas American policymakers conceived of democracy as supplying the mental and psychological strength to resist the Cold War threat of communism, and while Japanese conservative leaders conformed to this view, the Japanese Left placed their foremost value on such ideas as unarmed peace, egalitarianism, and political accountability. As a result, democracy played a central role in consolidating the U.S.-Japanese alliance and creating tension between the two countries and within Japanese society.

Alliance · Cold war · Communism · Democracy · Egalitarianism · Ideology · Miller · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies