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書籍名 : Remembering Santayana: The Lessons Unlearnt from the War Against Japan
著者 : Paul De Vries
ISBN-13: 978-1514186596
[内容紹介]
During the prologue to the Iraq War of 2003, George W. Bush repeatedly employed the example of Japan
to advocate why Iraq could be remade as a democratic state within the Western alliance. If a nation
as divergent and unique as Japan could be agreeably transformed, he reasoned, any nation could.
The bulk of the pre-war assumptions of George W. Bush have long since been derided but this particular
premise remains broadly held. Even today, when failure is plain to see, there is still a general sense
that Iraq will ultimately emerge as another 'Japan'. Remembering Santayana, inspired in its title
by the adage of the Spanish-born philosopher, George Santayana, that "those who don't remember the
past are condemned to repeat it," sets out why this assumption by George W. Bush was, and remains,
fundamentally wrong. It revisits the history of interaction between the West and Japan, identifies
the problems which misconceptions have spawned and sets out a course for a future in which lessons
are learnt rather than mistakes remade.
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当書籍は、戦前、戦後を通じて日本が西洋とどういう関係にあったか、どういう歩みがあったかということを振り返り
「日本を成功例として、いかなる国も民主化できる」というアメリカの考えに疑問を投げかけています。
The Japan Timesへの過去の投稿でご覧いただけるように、内容は単なる歴史に
関する読み物ではなく、日本の近代歴史とアジア、アメリカをはじめとする西洋諸国との関係について論じたものになります。
※ 当初は英語学習書籍ではありません。English Speaker向けに書かれた本であるため難解な表現も多く含まれています。
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