Postwar U.S.-Japan "Territorial" Issues and Their Contemporary Implications: Okinawa, Amami, Ogasawara, and the Senkakus

The territorial dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyutai islands now threatens to be the trigger for a deeper conflict between the two powerful Asian neighbors. This dispute has its origins in the postwar U.S. policy toward Japan, the decision to maintain the occupation of Okinawa and the Senkaku Islands under American administration, and the reversion of that territory to Japanese sovereignty. Dr. Eldridge, who has done extensive research on these issues and has published widely, including a new book on the origins of U.S. policy, will discuss his writings on Okinawa, Amami, Ogasawara/Iwo Jima, and the Senkakus to date and introduce research topics for the future.

Robert D. Eldridge is a visiting researcher at Okinawa International University’s Institute of Law and Politics, and a former tenured associate professor at Osaka University's Graduate School of International Public Policy. Eldridge earned his PhD in 1999 from Kobe University and is the author, editor, and translator of more than two dozen books on U.S.-Japan relations, Okinawan history, and Japanese politics and diplomacy, including several titles to be published in 2013: An Inoffensive Rearmament: The Making of the Postwar Japanese Army (Naval Institute Press); Japan’s Backroom Politics (Lexington); Iwo Jima and Ogasawara in U.S.-Japan Relations: American Strategy, Japanese Territory, and the Islanders In-between (Marine Corps University Press); and The Origins of U.S. Policy in the East China Sea Islands Dispute: Okinawa’s Reversion and the Senkaku Islands (Routledge).