The Best Course Available : : A Personal Account of the Secret U.S.-Japan Okinawa Reversion Negotiations / / Wakaizumi Kei; ed. by John Swenson-Wright.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter UHP eBook Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Kei, Wakaizumi,
• HerausgeberIn: Swenson-Wright, John,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (384 p.)

This volume affords a fascinating and rare look at the sensitive issue of nuclear diplomacy between two critical Cold War allies, the United States and Japan, during the 1960s. Challenging the silence of the official bureaucracies in Washington and Tokyo, Wakaizumi Kei reveals the truth behind the secret 1969 agreement that ensured the eventual reversion of Okinawa to Japanese jurisdiction in 1972. Revelation of this secret accord created considerable controversy in Japan when Wakaizumi's memoir was first published in 1994. With the publication of this translation, his description of the events leading up to the closed-door agreement is available to an English-language audience for the first time. At a time when security matters are once again predominant in the U.S.-Japan alliance, Professor Wakaizumi's account is a timely reminder of the gap between official, media-filtered descriptions of diplomatic relations and the private discussions of national leaders. The long-standing reluctance of the Japanese government to declassify its postwar diplomatic records has meant that Japan's side of its relationship with the U.S. has been only partially revealed. The Best Course Available attempts to correct this shortcoming and at the same time provides insight into the complicated and arcane process of foreign policymaking, national leadership, and domestic politics in Japan after 1945.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Editor's Introduction -- Preface to the English-Language Edition -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. The Transition to the Nixon Administration -- Chapter 2. Denuclearized Reversion: The Prime Minister's Decision -- Chapter 3. Prime Minister Satò, Former Prime Minister Kishi, and President Nixon -- Chapter 4. Establishing the Political Hotline -- Chapter 5. The West Coast White House in San Clemente -- Chapter 6. Okinawa's Nuclear Weapons and Textiles -- Chapter 7. President Nixon's "Ultimatum" -- Chapter 8. Conveying Prime Minister Satò's Counterproposals -- Chapter 9. Top Secret Negotiations at The White House -- Chapter 10. Writing the Script in Collaboration with Henry Kissinger -- Chapter 11. A "Nuclear-Free, Homeland-Level" Reversion by 1972 -- Chapter 12. The Textiles Question -- Chapter 13. "All I Can Do Is Await the Judgment of Future Historians" -- Chapter 14. In the Dark Recesses of History -- Afterword -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author -- About the Editor