ABSTRACT
Events after 11 September 2001 brought to light debates about the revival of public diplomacy and the role of media propaganda in the domestic and global communications of the United States. Japan did not experience orchestrated terrorist attacks on the homeland that spawned a nationwide anti-terror neighborhood watch, color-coded security threat system, violent interventions in two Muslim countries, and an ideologically neoconservative policy called GWOT (Global War on Terror). Japan had a triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and three nuclear meltdowns) known as 3/11, that led to many recovery phase initiatives, including the U.S. Armed Forces disaster relief assistance program, Operation Tomodachi (Feikert and Chanlett-Avery 2011), the rise of the celebrity diplomat Lady Gaga, who reassured the world that Japan was safe to visit again (Henderson 2011), and the recruitment of superstar Japanese girl group AKB48 in support of postdisaster municipal bonds (Warnock 2012). Further, Japan’s post-3/11 era shifted from Tohoku to Tokyo as the Age of Abe set in a Global Information War that is pitting pro-government vs. anti-government forces, pro-historical revisionists vs. anti-historical revisionists; and pro-secrets vs. pro-transparency warriors. Japan’s battle is not taking place as much globally as it is internally, and at ground central for information, Japan’s media and public relations system. Japan is taking many lessons from its former occupier-turned-chief-ally and military protector, the United States government, an appropriate teacher about how to use manipulative communications and the cult of personality to manage citizens after a national disaster (Healy 2008; cf. Burrett Chapter 19).
