Hi guys, I'm currently an undergraduate majoring in history. One of my subjects I'm taking now is on Modern East Asia, and at the end of the term we have to write an academic term paper on a topic of our choosing. I chose post war japan, and I was wondering if anyone knew some books on the topic. I'm mainly interested in the 1950's-60's, but I won't mind if gets a little farther than that.
The book you want to hunt down is Embracing Defeat by John Dower. He is a well respected scholar who has done a number of works on Japan in the 20th century, and Embracing Defeat looks at the immediate post-war period as Japan rebuilt and "rebranded", so to speak. Although it covers the 40s-50s, not 50s-60s, it really should be the first source you pick up I would venture, since that is obviously an essential foundation period to understanding mid-to-late 20th century Japan.
What are the languages you can read?
Besides, on which aspect of post-war Japan do you focus?