America's relationship with Japan recently passed its 140th anniversary. Over those years, hundreds of books and thousands of articles have explored different issues or periods of the relationship. Yet within that vast library no book has analyzed the entire relationship from beginning to present. The void can perhaps be explained by the relationship's complexity and changes over time.

Two great cycles of initial partnership and eventual rivalry have shaped American-Japanese relations, one geopolitical (1853-1945) and the other geo-economic (1945 to the present day).

This analytical history of American policy toward Japan fills that void; it does not simply chronicle events, it tries systematically to make sense of them. It untangles the interrelated perceptions, convergent and divergent national interests, and shifting power relations which have shaped American policies toward Japan.

More specifically, this study highlights the personalities, national moods, domestic issues and political alignments, and other pressing international concerns within which Washington has attempted to define and assert its interests in Japan.