Kevin Lee- Week 3 Blog Post

            In Tang Siew Man’s article “Japan’s Grand Strategic Shift from Yoshida to Koizumi: Reflections on Japan’s Strategic Focus in the 21^st Century,” Man talks about the reconstruction of Japan after World War II. Japan suffered a lot of damage after World War II due to the nuclear bombing done by the U.S. After the war, Japan began to reconstruct and refine itself economically. Japan wanted to bring life back to its citizens because many were devastated and “marred by deprivation and suffering” (Man 119). Therefore, Japan focused most of its reconstruction for the people. This, in turn, allowed Japan to grow in power, economically. Japan decided to rely on collectivism rather than individualism, or the higher class. Japan is now known as a collective nation because Man mentions Japan’s “cooperative approach by introducing the idea of “acting together, advancing together”” (Man 134). This phrase shows how powerful it was in the contribution to the remaking of Japan through the act of working together as a whole to rebuild one’s nation.

Question: How far has Japan's economic power come since the war, and is Japan still increasing in power?

Work Cited:

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Tang Siew Man, “Japan’s Grand Strategic Shift from Yoshida to Koizumi: Reflections on Japan’s Strategic Focus in the 21st Century,” Akademika 70 ( January 2007): 117