ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Japanese student movement in the contexts of the United States (US) Cold War in Asia and post-war US-Japan relations between 1948 and 1973. The close interstate relationship between the two countries was one of the most crucial factors fueling the post-war Japanese student movement. The interactions between the US Cold Warriors and the Zengakuren-led Japanese students forced each side to reassess and revise its strategies and had profound and lasting impacts on Japanese society and US-Japan relations. American and Japanese governments agreed to extend the runway of the Tachikawa Air Base, which spurred the mobilization of the anti-base movement in Japan. Built for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force during Second World War and subsequently appropriated by the US military, the runway at the Tachikawa airfield proved too short to accommodate modern American jets. The Japanese national consensus proved strongly in favor of the alliance and maintaining US military bases, which were predominantly in Okinawa.
