My ability to complete this project has been immensely strengthened by the support of many. I must acknowledge with gratitude the incredible scholars who shaped my approach to the study of Asia at Columbia University: James William Morley, Carol Gluck, and Gerald Curtis tutored me in modern Japan; and Jack Snyder and Robert Jervis taught me to bring rich history and regional expertise to the study of international relations. In 2006, I was awarded an Abe Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council, with funding from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, allowing me to make two extended research visits to Tokyo. There I was affiliated with Keio University’s Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies in the East Asia Research Institute as a guest of the renowned China scholar Kokubun Ryōsei. Keio was a wonderful place to visit, a beautiful campus with dynamic and engaging scholars of Northeast Asia.
During this complex project, my colleagues at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) provided generous support and intellectual stimulation. I would like to thank Richard N. Haass, president; James M. Lindsay, director of studies; and Elizabeth C. Economy, director of Asian studies, for their support and encouragement. My research associates have made it all possible. Early on, Sophia Yang kept the Japan Program running with great aplomb and professionalism while I continued my research in Japan. Charles McClean worked tirelessly through the final stages of the writing, contributing research assistance and a keen editorial eye as the pages turned into chapters and the chapters turned into a manuscript. He also was unfailingly steady in his support as I juggled a complicated schedule to find writing time. In Tokyo, Tsuneoka Chieko accompanied me to interviews with the Japanese advocates and interests whose stories are such an integral part of this book. Quite literally, this book could not have been written without Chieko’s persistence and precision. Finally, I thank the talented group of interns at the Japan Program who kept me up to date on the next emerging crisis: Murai Hideki, Minoura Haruna, Iioka Keiko, Naiki Miyuki, Jennifer Ijichi, Ashley Sutton, Katayama Go, Shimada Yuko, Joelle Metcalfe, Yoshihisa Yuki, and Jingtian Gong.
I owe a different sort of debt to the Kuruba family. From my early study of the Japanese language to my research today on politics and foreign policy, I have had a willing group of respondents to my never-ending questions. The late Kuruba Kenji would talk with me into the night about Meiji and Showa Japan and his own experience as a young naval officer in the final days of the war. Kuruba Hiroko, too, shared her insights into wartime and early postwar Japan; taught me how to read the Kōjien as well as operate an electronic dictionary; and, today, at the age of eighty-eight, teaches my son o-hajiki and go and still makes the best harumaki. I am deeply grateful that Keiko, Michiko, and Izumi; their husbands; their children; and now their children’s children, continue to invite me to call the Kuruba family my own.
But beyond this special window onto generational change, I, like so many Japan scholars before me, have rarely found a door closed in Japan. As you will see from this book, my research led me to some interesting sites and introduced me to many people in Japan who had little contact with American academics and their research ambitions. Yet with only a few exceptions, my requests for interviews and follow-up information were tolerated and even welcomed. Despite the sensitivity of my questions, I was offered information and insights. Many who have come to know me over the years continue to try to correct my misapprehensions about their country and to challenge my conclusions. Many in the Japanese government have taken time to discuss their work with me, and I have gained invaluable insights from their perspectives; and many of Japan’s senior political leaders and bureaucrats directly responsible for managing the increasingly difficult relationship with Beijing have given generously of their time. I was privileged to interview four of Japan’s prime ministers for this book: Nakasone Yasuhiro, Fukuda Yasuo, Abe Shinzō, and Noda Yoshihiko. I also discussed Japan’s relations with China with four of Japan’s foreign ministers over the past decade: Kōmura Masahiko, Nakasone Hirofumi, Okada Katsuya, and Maehara Seiji. Fukuda Yasuo and Sengoku Yoshito, cabinet secretaries to Prime Ministers Koizumi Jun’ichirō and Kan Naoto, respectively, also granted me multiple interviews. I have done my best to acknowledge in the notes those whom I could acknowledge, but many others asked that their conversations remain off the record.
Little did I know that my research would become the stuff of headlines around the globe and crises at the highest levels of governments, including my own. Asia policymakers in the United States also deserve my gratitude for their insights into and thoughtful feedback on my work. Academics and experts are allowed the luxury of thinking out loud without direct reference to what may happen next, but those in government must communicate intentions across the intricate and fragile pathways of diplomacy, all amid contentious domestic politics. As I witnessed in the most recent episode of tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, U.S. policymakers have a direct role in the response to diplomatic crises and maritime confrontation between Beijing and Tokyo. I therefore now have a more immediate appreciation of just how much the success or failure of individual policymakers can shape outcomes.
I also benefited greatly from the generosity of scholars and friends in Japan and the United States. Let me thank first the members of my CFR study group, who provided early advice and encouragement: Richard C. Bush, Victor Cha, Elizabeth Economy, Carl Green, L. William Heinrich, Fred Hiatt, Mike M. Mochizuki, Stanley Roth, Richard J. Samuels, and Adam Segal. In addition, I thank Akiba Takeo, Jeffrey Bader, Kurt Campbell, Ralph Cossa, Carolyn Fleisher, Michael J. Green, Susan Griffin, Charles Grubb, David Janes, Funabashi Yōichi, Ishiba Shigeru, Ishii Masafumi, Chris Johnstone, Katō Yōichi, Kobayashi Yōtaro, Michael McDevitt, Nagashima Akihisa, Sasae Kenichiro, Michael Schiffer, J. Thomas Schieffer, Seguchi Kiyoyuki, Allan Song, Takahara Akio, Takamizawa Nobushige, the late William J. Tyler, Umemoto Kazuyoshi, and so many others for their insights and support. My father, Ralph Edward Smith, read every word in every draft and assiduously provided editorial feedback. As a retired naval officer who served most of his career in the Pacific, he continues to have an avid interest in the geopolitics of Asia. His dedication to this book may have been born of a different motive, but I could not have asked for a more thoughtful critic.
Projects of this sort cannot be completed without the support of family and friends. Let me thank first my parents, Ralph and Barbara Smith. I must thank Margaret Rulon-Miller and Louisa Rubinfien, who have been my dearest companions since college, and continue to give me courage in all that I do. Finally, a special note of gratitude is due my son, Ian. As a young boy, he was always happy to don his backpack and head for Tokyo, Beijing, Okinawa, and even Washington, D.C., to help Mom with her research. I am even more delighted that my teenager still smiles and says, “Sure, Mom, let’s go!” when I ask if he’s up for another trip to Asia. It is in the hope that he continues to find the world an inviting and exciting place that I dedicate this book to him.