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Remaking Japan: The American Occupation as New Deal.

Theodore Cohen, edited by Herbert Passin
Reviewed by By Gaddis Smith
Winter 1987/88
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Theodore Cohen, edited by Herbert Passin
Free Press
1987
533 pp.
$27.50

Theodore Cohen began his study of Japan as a college student in the 1930s, served in the OSS during World War II, and was head of the labor section of the U.S. occupation under General MacArthur, after which he remained in Japan as a businessman. This fine book, completed before his death in 1983, describes the development and implementation of American occupation policies, the Japanese reaction and the role of strong personalities, beginning with MacArthur himself. It is a memoir reinforced with extensive research and lifelong experience, an indispensable source for understanding the transformation of Japan during the occupation, a transformation which must rank among the more remarkable phenomena of modern history.

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