America's Japan: The First Year, 1945-1946One of the few non-Japanese Americans trained to read, write, and speak Japanese, Princeton undergraduate Grant Goodman had a privileged position during World War II. As an Army lieutenant, Goodman served in the Philippines at the close of the war and in Tokyo as an intelligence officer on General Douglas MacArthur's staff. Goodman translated thousands of letters, interviews, and other documents by Japanese citizens of all kinds, and came to know, as few Americans could, the hearts and mindsof a defeated people as they moved slowly to democracy. This book is a not only a fascinating personal chronicle of Grant Goodman's unique experience in Japan. Moving deftly between his role as an Army officer gathering essential information and as a young scholar fascinated by Japanese culture, he provides a vividly drawn portrait of daily life in occupied Tokyo.Here he looks back at signal events: Japan's responses to occupation, the writing of the new constitution and the de-deification of the Emperor, the International Military Tribunal and the issue of Japanese war crimes, reactions by ordinary Japanese to American occupiers, and much more.September 2, 2005, marks the 60th anniversary of the Japanese surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. First published in Japanese in 1986, America's Japan is not only superb history. It is also a timely reminder of the realities of war and the responsibilities of victors and vanquished alike. Grant K. Goodman is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Kansas. The author or editor of many books and articles, he was influential in establishing Japanese studies in the United States. |
Contents
| 1 | |
My First Study of JapaneseMy Matriculation at Princeton University | 4 |
My Memories of the Army Intensive Japanese Language SchoolThe University of Michigan | 9 |
Practical TrainingFort McClellan and Fort Snelling | 18 |
To the Front Lines in the Philippines | 23 |
Meeting the Surrender Envoys | 33 |
Our Landing in Japan | 36 |
My Work as an ATIS Officer | 44 |
The Movements of ReformThe Dynamic and the Static | 80 |
The Appearance of Emperor Kumazawa | 85 |
The Yokohama Court | 91 |
The Democratic Boom the English Boom and the Christianity Boom | 97 |
Two Suicides | 106 |
My Trip to Shanghai | 112 |
The Mikado | 122 |
Observing the Tokyo War Crimes Trials | 130 |
Common terms and phrases
able Accordingly Allied Council Allied forces AMERICA'S JAPAN American American-style Army Intensive Japanese asked ATIS OFFICER Ba Maw became bombing China CHRISTIANITY BOOM Council for Japan course courtroom Daiichi Seimei Building democracy diary draft Emperor Kumazawa Ernie Pyle extremely foreign concessions Fort Snelling gaijin graduated Grant Goodman heard Hotel Imperial incident Intensive Japanese Language interrogation Japanese constitution Japanese Language School Japanese soldiers kanji Kiyose Ko-Ko landed in Japan large number letters living look MacArthur Manchukuo Manila matter Meiji Constitution Mikado Nanki-Poo Needless to say newspaper NYK Building OBSERVING THE TOKYO Occupation army Operation Olympic operetta Pacific Pacific War Philippines Princeton Professor Pu Yi reform romaji SCAP Shanghai Snelling sort Soviet Union speak story suicide surrender teachers thing tion Tōjō Hideki TOKYO WAR CRIMES translation tribunal Ulithi University of Michigan village Yamagiwa Yokohama Yokohama Court
Popular passages
Page 1 - Incident," that is, around 1931, when I was seven years old and in second grade. I was...