Prologue - The 1950s: Postwar, Transwar, Cold War, Korean War

This chapter is an introductory chapter to this volume (of which I am the editor). It examines and questions conventional approaches to the periodisation of mid-twentieth century Japanese history. The period of the 1950s is generally labelled "the postwar era" by historians of Japan. However, some historians have recently observed that this emphasises the discontinuity created by Japan's defeat in war, and overemphasises the notion of a "new start" after the war. They have proposed the term "transwar", covering the period from the 1930s to the 1960s, instead. Others prefer to use the term "Cold War era". In my introductory chapter, however, I suggest the use of the term "the Korean War era", to describe Japan's 1950s history, because I believe this term brings to the fore important connections between Japan and its Asian neighbours which are obscured by terms such as "the postwar era" or "the Cold War era".