Japan: A ReinterpretationThe Japanese are in the process of re-creating themselves--an endeavor they have undertaken at intervals throughout history, always prompted by a combination of domestic and global forces. In this landmark book, Patrick Smith asserts that a variety of forces--the achievement of material affluence, the Cold War's end, and the death of Emperor Hirohito--are now spurring Japan once again toward a fundamental redefinition of itself. As Smith argues, this requires of the West an equally thorough reevaluation of the picture we have held of Japan over the past half-century. He reveals how economic overdevelopment conceals profound political, social, and psychological under-development. And by refocusing on "internal history" and the Japanese character, Smith offers a new framework for understanding Japan and the Japanese as they really are. The Japanese, he says, are now seeking to alter the very thing we believe distinguishes them: the relationship between the individual and society. Timely, measured, and authoritative, this book illuminates a new Japan, a nation preparing to drop the mask it holds up to the West and to steer a course of its own in the world. Jacket image: The Great Wave of Kanagawa, from 36 Views of Mount Fuji (detail) by Katsushika Hokusai. Private collection. |
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Page 181
... gone only in a direction that suited us . We would have gone ahead very slowly , and yet it is not impossible that we would have discovered our own substitute for the trolley , the radio , the airplane of today . They would have been no ...
... gone only in a direction that suited us . We would have gone ahead very slowly , and yet it is not impossible that we would have discovered our own substitute for the trolley , the radio , the airplane of today . They would have been no ...
Page 239
... gone now , and women are forced simply to become men . One painting showed a woman sitting outside the door to a traditional house that had no interior . Inside there was nothing - only another house , another blue sky above its roof ...
... gone now , and women are forced simply to become men . One painting showed a woman sitting outside the door to a traditional house that had no interior . Inside there was nothing - only another house , another blue sky above its roof ...
Page 246
... gone more than a couple of hundred yards out , Sensei turned and spoke to me . The sea stretched all around us , and there seemed to be no one near . The bright sun shone on the water and the mountains , as far as the eye could see . My ...
... gone more than a couple of hundred yards out , Sensei turned and spoke to me . The sea stretched all around us , and there seemed to be no one near . The bright sun shone on the water and the mountains , as far as the eye could see . My ...
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