ABSTRACT
International crises rarely, if ever, happen in isolation. Certainly there are few instances in which a country’s policy makers, at the moment of an unforeseen catastrophe or diplomatic disaster, are able to respond instantaneously and with complete attention, undistracted by competing issues of comparable importance. The Lucky Dragon Incident of 1954, in which the 23 crew members of a JapaQHVH¿VKLQJYHVVHOZHUHH[SRVHGWRUDGLRDFWLYHIDOORXWIROORZLQJWKHWHVWLQJRI D86K\GURJHQERPELQWKH3DFL¿FZDVDPDMRUGLVUXSWLRQWRUHODWLRQVEHWZHHQ Washington and Tokyo. In the words of one observer, it imposed ‘the most serious strain on Japanese-American relations since 1945’.2 The US government, and its apparent failure to give adequate consideration to Japanese grievance, angered public opinion in Japan, and subsequent scholarly analysis has often been sharply critical of American actions.3
