Living with the Bomb: American and Japanese Cultural Conflicts in the Nuclear Age American and Japanese Cultural Conflicts in the Nuclear Age

The development and use of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki number among the formative national experiences for both Japanese and Americans, as well as for U.S.-Japan relations throughout the last half of the twentieth century. It is now clear, however, that memories and lessons learned from the bombings are still being reworked and contested, perhaps even more heatedly than they were in 1945. Tracking the development of that fifty-year trajectory, this volume explores the ways in which the bomb has shaped the self-image of both peoples: for Americans, the dominant story is that the bombs provided an appropriate and necessary conclusion to a just war; for Japanese, it is a symbol of their victimization. The distinguished contributors analyze the ways in which memories of the bombs, constantly reworked in the media, in the arts, and in the political arena, continue to define important, albeit often unacknowledged, undercurrents in the U.S.-Japan relationship.

The ideal first reading for any course in public policy, this brief text traces the dynamics of the policy making process: -- the triggering of issue awareness; -- emergence of an issue on the public agenda; -- the formulation of a public policy commitment dealing with the issue; -- the implementation process that translates policy into practice.Throughout the book. Gerston brings his analysis to life with abundant examples from recent and historic cases of public policy making. At the sa time, with well-chosen references, he places public policy analysis in the disciplinary context of political science and deftly orients the reader to the classics of public policy studies. Study questions and lists of recommended readings accompany each chapter.

Laura E. Hein, Mark Selden