Five Gentlemen of Japan: The Portrait of a Nation's Character (D'Asia Vu Reprint Library) (D'asia Vu Reprint Library (Series).)

Frontcover 1 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 8 CONTENTS 9 NOTE 10 PROLOGUE 13 1 THE WEB 17 2 BORROWERS AND BUILDERS 44 3 THE NATIONAL FACE LIFTING 71 4 THE PARALYZED DEMOCRACY 104 5 THE WILL TO WAR 134 6 THE DEFEAT OF GLORY 162 7 THE EMPTY SHRINE 189 8 ADVANCING GARRISON ARMY 211 9 THE COMMUNIST ATTACK 247 10 RICE, MOUNTAINS AND MACHINES 277 11 FIVE KINDS OF HOPE 312 EPILOGUE 381 Other Ebooks 384 Backcover 386 This classic account (1952) of the makers of "New Japan" tells the life stories of a journalist, an ex-Navy vice-admiral, a steel worker, a farmer, and Emperor Hirohito. Frank Gibney was a wartime U.S. Navy intelligence officer who became Time magazine correspondent during the American Occupation of Japan. He went on to be a major interpreter of Japan to Americans and America to Japanese, known as a knowledgeable, genial presence in the PBS series Pacific Century . In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Japan was a poor, broken, and troubled society. Many in both Japan and the West assumed that it would always be so. But Gibney reported on Japan in such telling and readable detail that we can see in this book both the now forgotten atmosphere of that time and the basis for the "Japanese miracle" to follow. Now an eminent scholar of Japan currently affiliated with The Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College, Gibney wrote these profiles in 1951 and 1952. Though he was young at the time, his experience with Japan was already extensive (including two years as Times Bureau Chief in Tokyo, among other activities). He spoke fluent Japanese (learned at the Navy's wartime school). The profiles presented here were his effort to convey his understanding of Japanese culture. Except for the emperor, he knew all of the men personally. In a new introduction, he says that he has not fundamentally changed his ideas, but was a lot surer of them at 27 than at 77. He includes explanatory notes, but no bibliography or index. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR