I owe a special thanks to Ted Franck of the Asian Division. His administrative flexibility and encouragement made it possible for me to conduct follow-up research and to finish the manuscript. I also wish to thank Osamu Ishii of Hitotsubashi University for his helpful advice and consistent support in Japan. It has been a pleasure to work with the staff of the University of North Carolina Press at each step in the process of turning the manuscript into a book. Executive editor Lewis Bateman and managing editor Ron Maner deserve special mention for the care and thoughtfulness they have shown in bringing this project to successful completion.
Fine teachers can motivate a person for a lifetime.
I thus owe a great debt to Glen Knight and Steve Betchart, two of my teachers in high school. Of the friends and colleagues with whom I have discussed various aspects of my research, I would like especially to thank Jon Lee, Mark Stout, Hiro and Yuki Hioki, Chris Held, Noriko Yokoi, and Dennis Doolin. I also wish to thank Akiko Miyamoto, my former Japanese teacher, for her tireless patience as I learned to read Japanese government documents. Lastly, I wish to thank my wife and my family, who have always been there for me and tolerated me when I was totally absorbed in my work. Despite this generous assistance, the responsibility for all matters of fact and interpretation is mine alone.