Americans as Proconsuls: United States Military Government in Germany and Japan, 1944-1952

The unprecedented influence of United States military governments in Germany and Japan makes this volume a funda­mental contribution to several basic fields: history, political science, eco­nomics, archival administration, mil­itary studies, civil affairs, and inter­national law and criminal justice. Although the speeches and discussions of the 1977 “Americans as Proconsuls” Conference were often piquant, enter­taining, nostalgic, each addressed the core issues of the topic, often setting the historical record straight. The chief vir­tue of these essays, however, may be, as Edward N. Peterson states in his own piece, that “The scholar’s history of the occupation could still assist the public and the politician to avoid the pitfalls of impossible dreams and illusions created by an American isolation from the rest of suffering humanity.”