Changing attitudes toward cultural interchange in postwar Japan

During the period from 1868 until the outbreak of World War II, Japanese attitudes toward cultural interchange evolved from the early Meiji Era focus on absorbing ideas from the West to a vigorous projection abroad of Japanese culture during the 1930s in an effort to win friendship and justify Japan's military actions abroad. The major initiative for cultural interchange, however, always came from the Japanese government. B. Winston Kahn of Arizona State University examines the background of major cultural interchange initiatives in the postwar years in the light of Japan's prewar experiences, and assesses the degree of continuity and change in Japanese attitudes toward cultural interchange.