Rebuilding Urban Japan After 1945

CAROLA HEIN is Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College (USA) in the growth and Structure of Cities Program. She has published and lectured widely on topics of contemporary and historical architectural and urban planning. From 1995 to 1999 she was a Visiting Researcher at Tokyo Metropolitan University and Kogakuin University, researching on the reconstruction of Japanese cities after World War II and the Western influence on Japanese urban planning. - JEFFREY M. DIEFENDORF is Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire. He has written extensively about postwar reconstruction in Germany and Europe, including In the Wake of War: The Reconstruction of German Cities after World War II and The Rebuilding of Europe's Bombed Cities. His fellowships have included awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. - ISHIDA YORIFUSA is a Professor Emeritus at the Center for Urban Studies, Tokyo Metropolitan University, specializing in urban planning history and land use policy. He is author of numerous books, including Nihon Kindai Toshikeikaku-shi Kenkyu [Studies in Japanese modern Urban Planning History] published in Tokyo in 1987, as well as numerous other works in the field.

'This book is a must for researchers and practitioners of urban planning, planning history and the urban history of Japan.' - Shun'ichi Watanabe, Tokyo Science University 'Here is a study grand in its range and significant in its relevance...which we can all learn from.' - Robert Venturi, Pritzker Architecture Prize Winner, 1991 'Long opaque to students of Twentieth-century architecture and planning in the West, the history of the reconstruction of Japanese cities after World War II is detailed for the first time in this authoritative collection of essays edited by Carola Hein, Jeffry Diefendorf, and Ishida Yorifusa. Eleven case studies and thematic overviews by Japanese and international scholars elaborate the political, economic, social, and cultural contexts of rebuilding at a key moment in Japan's modern evolution. This volume fills a significant gap in scholarship and sheds light on both the complexities of regenerating damaged cities and the singularity of Japan's approach to urban issues.' - Joan Ockman, Columbia University 'I feel entirely comfortable stating that the editors and contributors to this volume have produced a very significant work that will be of great interest to scholars of Japan, particularly those interested in urban history, planning, and post-war policy making...Hein, Diefendorf and Ishida have compiled an excellent edited volume on a topic that is woefully understudied and underrepresented in English language scholarship. Moreover, each essay in this work is thoughtful, well researched, clearly presented, and thoroughly engaging, which is no small accomplishment for an 11 chapter volume.' - J.Charles Schencking, University of Melbourne, Japanese Studies 'This book is the first substantial attempt in the English language to examine how the Japanese tackled urban reconstruction in the years that followed, focusing especially on the first decade or so of peace. Much ground is covered...The editors provide stimulating observations by way of introduction and conclusion, and also a very useful glossary...this is unequivocally an important collection, which will interest a wide audience, and no doubt provoke further fruitful scholarship in the years to come.' - Nick Tiratsoo, London School of Economics, Urban History

• Rebuilding Japanese Cities after 1945; C.Hein Japanese Cities and Planning in the Reconstruction Period, 1945-55; Y.Ishida Reconstructing Tokyo: the Attempt to transform a Metropolis; I.Hiroo The Rebuilding of Osaka and Central Themes of the Japanese Reconstruction; H.Junichi Reconstructing Hiroshima and Preserving the Reconstructed City; I.Norioki The Reconstruction of Nagaoka and its Influence on Urban Forms; M.Shoji War Damage Reconstruction, City Planning and U.S. Civil Administration in Okinawa; I.Takayuki Learning from Dairen, Learning from Shinkyo: Japanese Colonial City Planning and Postwar Reconstruction; D.Tucker Japanese Architectural Culture in the 1950s; C.Wendelken War and Reconstruction in Japan; J.M.Diefendorf Change and Continuities in Postwar Urban Japan; C.Hein