ABSTRACT
Like many other great issues in history, Japan's path to Pearl Harbor poses many problems but no definite answers. The conspiracy theory of Japan's foreign relations first popularized by the Par Eastem Military Tribunal has been replaced by serious reexaminations conducted by the scholarly conununities both in Japan and in the United States. In viewing the tragedy ofthe Pacific War, in place of guilt, attention has gravitated toward the motivation of the Japanese; in place of plot, toward the unique process of decision making; and in place ofhastily sketched denunciation of Japanese character, toward the historical roots of Japanese attitude. 1
The task of reexamination and reinterpretation has been greatly facilitated by the opening of archives, not only of Japan and Germany, but also of the United States and Great Britain, and by the publication of a large number of private papers and other documents around the world. The interpretive works both in this country and in Japan have also brought to light multifarious factors that contributed to the coming ofwar.
