Shoichi Watanabe – författare

This is a book concerning the Japanese identity, a subject which has become the source of speculative historical and psychological debate since 1945. It seems to the author that the Pacific War revealed the characteristic features of two nations and he suggests that the result is a dichotomy between the "equestrian" and the "peasant" society. Ability, effectiveness, competition, leadership are what he identifies as the dominating values in an "equestrian" society , in contrast to the good-natured and competitive-free community spirit of the "peasant" society. To support his argument Professor Watanabe draws on Japanese and European classical literature, on the history of warfare and on studies of law and business management. The author's publications include "The Spirit of the Japanese Language", "An Approach to the Intellectual Life" and "Introduction to English Etymology"

In Asia the 1950s were dominated by political decolonization and the emergence of the Cold War system, and newly independent countries were able to utilize the transformed balance of power for their own economic development through economic and strategic aid programmes. This book examines the interconnections between the transfer of power and state governance in Asia, the emergence of the Cold War, and the transfer of hegemony from the UK to the US, by focusing specifically on the historical roles of international economic aid and the autonomous response from Asian nation states in the immediate post-war context. The Transformation of the International Order of Asia offers closely interwoven perspectives on international economic and political relations from the 1950s to the 1960s, with specific focus on the Colombo Plan and related aid policies of the time. It shows how the plan served different purposes: Britain’s aim to reduce India’s wartime sterling balances in London; the quest for India’s economic independence under Jawaharlal Nehru; Japan’s regional economic assertion and its endeavour to improve its international status; Britain’s publicity policy during the reorganization of British aid policies at a time of economic crisis; and more broadly, the West’s desire to counter Soviet influence in Asia. In doing so, the chapters explore how international economic aid relations became reorganized in relation to the independent development of states in Asia during the period, and crucially, the role this transformation played in the emergence of a new international order in Asia.Drawing on a wide range of international contemporary and archival source materials, this book will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in Asian, international, and economic history, politics and development studies.