Assignment: Tokyo; An Ambassadors Journal
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1974. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xii, 396 pages. DJ has some wear, tears and soiling. Some edge soiling. Inscription on half-title page reads: June 7, 1973. To Jean and Charles, With appreciation for so many kindnesses and with all good wishes for ever greater successes in service to our country. Armin H. Meyer. Includes Foreword by Edwin O. Reischauer., Acknowledgments, Appendix A, and Index. Chapters include Mission: Adjustment to the Realities of the 1970's; As Okinawa Goes, So Goes Japan; Mutuality and Mutability in Security Partnership; Detente with Mainland China: Nixon's Billiard Shot; Nixon Shock Number Two: Economic Reciprocity; Textiles: Taxing Tokyo's Tensile Strength; The Changing Art of the Possible; and Two Great Powers in Search of Their Roles. In Ambassador Meyer's words, the purpose of this book is to awaken greater public interest in the gravity of America's relationship with Asia's foremost power, and in the delicacy which must be exercised by those to whom responsibility for the relationship is entrusted. The partnership, so critical to peace in Asia, cannot be taken for granted. The postwar development of Japan has been nothing less than phenomenal. Within a quarter of a century, a nation which was physically devastated and morally crushed rose to become one of the world's three leading industrial powers. But with successes come new problems. By 1969, major adjustments to new realities were necessry--in Japan, and in the all-important relationship between Japan and the United States. This book is his account of the critical issues which were faced, and how they were handled. Armin Henry Meyer (19 January 1914, in Fort Wayne, Indiana – 13 August 2006) was an American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Lebanon (1961 to 1965), United States Ambassador to Iran (1965-1969), and United States Ambassador to Japan (1969-1972). Meyer graduated from Capital University in 1939. In 1941, he earned a master's degree in mathematics at Ohio State University. In 1943, Meyer joined the staff of the United States Office of War Information in Cairo. Meyer found his tenure in Japan to be ”particularly challenging ... because he faced the task of ‘easing the shock of President Nixon’s historic breakthrough to China.’”. While in Japan, he led negotiations which ultimately let to the return of Japanese sovereignty in Japan. Richard Nixon creates a task force on international terrorism after Israeli athletes were killed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Meyer returned to the State Department to head the task force. Derived from a Kirkus review: As Ambassador to Japan, Meyer rode out some world-historic storms. Above all there came the crisis of August 15, 1971, when the U.S. announced the New Economic Policy. Japanese export levels and Japanese hopes of postponing a yen revaluation fell overboard at once. Meyer says that neither he nor Tokyo was informed ahead of time. He reviews American-Japanese discussions before and after this economic contretemps with a censure of popular protest -- which seem to have endeared him to his authoritarian-minded Japanese counterparts like Kiichi Aishi. Meyer describes his "lifelong creed" thus: "Accentuate the positive; don't accept the negative." This disposition came in handy for soothing Japanese worries about Nixon's China policy. Bilateral "discretion" explains both the difficulties and the successes of these 1969-1972. rounds, whose merely tenuous connection with real decision-making is what Meyer's tizzy in August 1971 signifies. He's obviously told us only a fraction of what he knows. Condition: Very Good / Good.
Keywords: Ambassador, Japan, New Economic Policy, Richard Nixon, People's Republic of China, Bilateral Relationships, Kiichi Aishi, Diplomacy, Japanese Sovereignty, Negotiations, Okinawa Reversion
ISBN: 0672519615
[Book #82384]
Price: $125.00