/Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo/
Harvard University Press, 2018
ISBN 9780674984424


Dear Colleagues,


I am delighted to announce the publication of my book /Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo/ (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674984424), which analyzes the impact of the massive 1960 protests in Japan against the US-Japan Security Treaty from multiple perspectives.


Topics covered include US-Japan relations during the John F. Kennedy and Ikeda Hayato administrations; Japanese domestic politics in the 1960s; the Japanese labor and student movements; postwar intellectuals; Japanese literature, art, & theater; the mass media; police and the courts; and right-wing groups and yakuza. There is also an in-depth introductory chapter describing the course of the 1960 protests in great detail, as well as their prehistory in the events of the 1950s.


An expanded table of contents can be found here:
<https://history.camden.rutgers.edu/files/Expanded-Table-of-Contents.pdf>

https://history.camden.rutgers.edu/files/Expanded-Table-of-Contents.pdf


<https://history.camden.rutgers.edu/files/Expanded-Table-of-Contents.pdf>

Please consider assigning some or part of the book in your courses. The introductory chapter would be useful for providing students with a broad overview of the course and background of the 1960 protests. Chapter 1 would be particularly useful for courses on US-Japan relations. Chapter 5 would be particularly useful for courses on Japanese literature and art. And the entire book would be useful for courses on Japanese politics, Japanese social movements, and general Japanese history.


From the inside flap:

In spring of 1960, Japan's government passed Anpo, a revision of the postwar treaty that allows the United States to maintain a military presence in Japan. This move triggered the largest popular backlash in the nation's modern history. These protests, Nick Kapur argues in /Japan at the/ /Crossroads/, changed the evolution of Japan's politics and culture, along with its global role.


The yearlong protests of 1960 reached a climax in June, when thousands of activists stormed Japan's National Legislature, precipitating a battle with police and yakuza thugs. Hundreds were injured and a young woman was killed. With the nation's cohesion at stake, the Japanese government acted quickly to quell tensions and limit the recurrence of violent demonstrations. A visit by President Eisenhower was canceled and the Japanese prime minister resigned. But the rupture had long-lasting consequences that went far beyond politics and diplomacy. Kapur traces the currents of reaction and revolution that propelled Japanese democracy, labor relations, social movements, the arts, and literature in complex, often contradictory directions. His analysis helps resolve Japan's essential paradox as a nation that is both innovative and regressive, flexible and resistant, wildly imaginative yet simultaneously wedded to tradition.


As Kapur makes clear, the rest of the world cannot understand contemporary Japan and the distinct impression it has made on global politics, economics, and culture without appreciating the critical role of the "revolutionless" revolution of 1960―turbulent events that released long-buried liberal tensions while bolstering Japan's conservative status quo.


Sincerely yours,


Nick Kapur, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History
Rutgers University, Camden