Features essays and articles by Japanese visitors to the United States from many walks of life: writers and academics, bureaucrats and priests, politicians and journalists, businessmen, philanthropists, artists. Covering the period from 1878 to 1989, this title offers these visitors' perspectives on Americans and American society.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Illusion and Disillusion Sugiyama Shigeru, "On Relations among Nations" (1878) Shiba Shiro, "Strange Encounters with Beautiful Women" (1885--1887) Inoue Enryo, "Religion in America" (1889) Uchimura Kanzo, "First Impressions of Christendom" (1893) Kotoku Shusui, "Letters from San Francisco" (1905--1906) 2. Students and Immigrants Katayama Sen, "Advice on Going to America" (1901) Noguchi Yonejiro, "My Life in California" (1911) Aoyama Tetsushiro, "Home Life in America" (1916) Sasaki Shigetsu, "Excluded Japanese and Exclusionist Americans" (1920) Anonymous, "The Soul of America" (1921) Shibusawa Eiichi, "On the Anti-Japanese Movement in America" (1924) 3. Modan America Ashida Hitoshi, "America on the Rise" (1925) Maida Minoru, "The Characteristics and Peculiarities of the Americans" (1925) Abe Isoo, "Baseball and the American Character" (1925) Noguchi Yonejiro, "American High Society" (1925) Sasaki Shigetsu, "The Troublesome American Woman" (1927) Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke, "Motion Pictures: The Americanization Machine" (1929) Kiyosawa Kiyoshi, "America, the Land of Speed" (1929) 4. The American Enemy Konoe Fumimaro, "My Impressions of Washington and New York" (1934) Kada Tetsuji, "American Perspectives on Japan, and Vice Versa" (1941) Sawada Ken, "On the History of American Imperialism" (1941) Muneo Matsuji, "America's Race Problem" (1941) Miyake Daisuke, "Remembering American Baseball" (1941) Matsushita Masatoshi, "The American Home Front" (1942) Nakano Goro, "The Will to Annihilate the American Enemy" (1943) Sakanishi Shiho, "Why Do Americans Break the Law?" (1944) Roundtable Discussion: "Grasping the Reality of the American Enemy" (1944) 5. The American Occupiers Home Ministry, "Illegal Behavior by American Soldiers" (1945) Kagawa Toyohiko, "Whence the American Sense of Morality?" (1945) Ito Michio, "Culture and the Arts in America" (1945) Asahi shinbun, "Remembering General MacArthur" (1951) Symposium, "What We Have Gained from America and What We Have Lost" (1952) Sato Tadao, "What Is America to Us?" (1967) 6. America Ascendant Ishigaki Ayako, "The American Housewife" (1951) Goto Yonosuke, "The Dynamic Logic of American Capitalism" (1956) Tsuru Shigeto, "America after Fourteen Years" (1956) Oda Makoto, "The Other Side of American Society" (1961) Yasuoka Shotaro, "Living in Nashville" (1960--1961) Eto Jun, "America as I See It" (1963) Eto Jun, "The Old Face of America" (1964) Oe Kenzaburo, "Dealing with Pearl Harbor" (1967) 7. America in Decline Oda Makoto, "Americans: Between War and Peace" (1965) Honda Katsuichi, "Traveling through the Deep South" (1970) Kirishima Yoko, "The Lonely American" (1971) Yoshida Ruiko, "Hot Days in Harlem" (1972) Kosaka Masataka, "A Proposal for Encouraging America" (1980) Shimomura Mitsuko, "Glorious America, Where Are You?" (1980) Saeki Shoichi, "Rediscovering America's Dynamic Society" (1987) Yomota Inuhiko, "Koreans in New York" (1989) Morita Akio, "The Trouble with the American Economy" (1989) Notes

“Rediscovering America makes available in English for the first time a varied sampling of writings about the United States by Japanese observers from many different walks of life.” – Robert Tierney, author of Tropics of Savagery: The Culture of Japanese Empire in Comparative Frame

“Rediscovering America is a splendid collection of Japanese writings on "the American century," covering the period from 1868 to 1989 (from the Meiji to the Showa eras in Japanese calendar). Many of the issues raised by the authors are still heard today,” – Akira Iriye, author of Across the Pacific: An Inner History of American-East Asian Relations