ABSTRACT
Japan and the United States have a history of relations that dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century, and some of that history continues to shape the relationship. The US-Japanese relationship is characterized, however, by far more than the remarkable strength of its combined economic, military, political, and cultural resources. For Japan, the United States is its former benefactor, the linchpin of its national security, the leader of the free world, its largest foreign market, and an attractive magnet for capital investment. The Japanese attack on US naval facilities at Pearl Harbor in 1941 was a calculated pre-emptive strike designed to gain the initial military advantage in the Pacific and possibly to dissuade the United States from entering the war at all. With the US occupation in 1945, Japan crossed a major watershed in its own history and relations between the two countries entered a new and most constructive phase.
