(Chinese translation version is available for this book.)

America's Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy

Naoko Shibusawa (Author)

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; Reprint edition (September 30, 2010)

Review

America's Geisha Ally is a rarity: a sophisticated historical study that combines theory, archival research, and literary grace. Insightful and highly original, the book shows how popular culture reshaped the samurai and kamikaze villain into the innocent and seductive geisha and "oriental" child of the western imagination. How Americans came to terms with their victory over Japan is a marvelous counterpart to the literature on how postwar Japan came to terms with defeat.
--Michael Schaller, University of Arizona (20070505)

A wonderfully compelling history that demonstrates the historical, political, and moral complexities of Cold War liberalism. The book builds a much-needed bridge between U.S. history, Japanese history, and Asian American history.
--Mari Yoshihara, University of Hawaii (20071001)

This superb book shows how ideas about gender and maturity allowed Americans to reconstruct the Japanese as well-intentioned and cooperative, if not their equals altogether. Sophisticated and imaginative, America's Geisha Ally is as delightful to read as it is compelling in its arguments.
--Andrew J. Rotter, Colgate University (20071201)

An unusually interesting book that traces the parallel transformations of Japan and the United States after their long war. As the American occupation personnel were teaching the defeated Japanese how to reform their ways, the American people also were learning, through their occupation experiences, how to become racially tolerant, liberal "world citizens." A major addition to the literature on post-1945 U.S. and international history.
--Akira Iriye, Harvard University

A significant contribution to both American cultural history and international relations. As she shows Americans' use of hierarchical notions of gender and maturity to "re-imagine Japan," Shibusawa never lets the reader forget that such public ideologies play critical roles in American foreign relations.
--Beth Bailey, Temple University

Naoko Shibusawa, assistant professor of history at Brown University, has written an entertaining and erudite account...of the evolution of American views of Japan in the years following Japan's surrender in August 1945...I wholeheartedly recommend this book to specialists and nonspecialists alike. Shibusawa's training in U.S. history, not only intellectual history but popular culture, enables her to offer insights into the process by which Americans reconceived a hated racial foe into an eager pupil in need of paternalistic tutoring.
--Kenneth J. Ruoff (Asahi Weekly )

An entertaining and erudite account (a rare combination!) of the evolution of American views of Japan in the years following Japa''s surrender in August 1945...Shibusawa's sparkling prose makes America's Geisha Ally a fun and enlightening read.
--Kenneth J. Ruoff (Asahi Weekly )

Naoko Shibusawa has written an entertaining and erudite account (a rare combination!) of the evolution of American views of Japan in the years following Japan's surrender in August 1945...Shibusawa's sparkling prose makes America's Geisha Ally a fun and enlightening read.
--Kenneth J. Ruoff (Asahi Shimbun )

Shibusawa provides a fascinating account of how the U.S. image of the Japanese in the decades after 1945 underwent a remarkable change from hated enemy to valuable ally needing guidance towards democracy...[A] sophisticated cultural history.
--M. D. Ericson (Choice )

Ingeniously combines social history and domestic history by discussing how American citizens contributed to the process of incorporating Japan into the US-led liberal capitalist framework in the years immediately after the Second World War. By analyzing a range of cultural texts, this book provides a nuanced understanding of the ways in which postwar ideologies in the United States supported American foreign policy.
--Yujin Yaguchi (Journal of American Studies )