Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army
Sabine Fruhstuck and Katharine Rodger
Abstract
Following World War II, Japan's postwar constitution forbade the country to wage war or create an army. However, with the emergence of the Cold War in the 1950s, Japan was urged to establish the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) as a way to bolster Western defenses against the tide of Asian communism. Although the SDF's role is supposedly limited to self-defense, Japan's armed forces are equipped with advanced weapons technology and the world's third-largest military budget. This book draws on interviews, historical research, and analysis to describe the unusual case of a non-war-making military. Writ ... More
Following World War II, Japan's postwar constitution forbade the country to wage war or create an army. However, with the emergence of the Cold War in the 1950s, Japan was urged to establish the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) as a way to bolster Western defenses against the tide of Asian communism. Although the SDF's role is supposedly limited to self-defense, Japan's armed forces are equipped with advanced weapons technology and the world's third-largest military budget. This book draws on interviews, historical research, and analysis to describe the unusual case of a non-war-making military. Written by the first scholar permitted to participate in basic SDF training, the book offers a firsthand look at an army trained for combat that nevertheless serves nontraditional military needs.
Keywords:
Japan,
Japanese Army,
Self-Defense Forces,
Asian communism,
advanced weapons technology,
military budget,
Cold War,
self-defense
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520247949 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520247949.001.0001 |
