ABSTRACT

A compendium of travel notes, personal recollections, sociological observations, humorous anecdotes, linguistic explanations, historical accounts and political commentary on traditional and contemporary Japan, John Whittier Treat's book is in large measure motivated by AIDS. Great Mirrors Shattered is not just Treat's personal reflection on his own experiences in Japan, it is also an extended meditation on the nature of the Japanese people and the dynamics of their political institutions, especially as the nation first responded to the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Treat's narrative reveals that our quest to fill the voids in our identities through travels to the exotic other, especially our sexual desires, is inevitably political in nature. Treat continues to note that Japan's economic prowess has led to its becoming steadily more international in composition and outlook, which has provoked the ire of xenophobic elements in Japanese society who are anxious to discredit the foreign at any cost.