US-Japan alliance diplomacy 1945-1990 is a pioneering study of a remarkable relationship. Based upon extensive primary sources, it traces how over the past forty-five years the USA has moved from hostility to close friendship with Japan. Boger Buckley is concerned with three principal issues: the degree of continuity in American policies towards Japan, the role of personalities and the beneficiaries of foreign policy. He addresses these questions by highlighting the main features of each phase of the changing relationship. He also stresses both the inequalities of US-Japan ties until the 1970s and the present strains that the two nations face in attempting to come to terms with the twin challenges of shifts in relative economic power and a rapidly evolving international environment. The study concludes with an analysis of the overall character of this extraordinary alliance and demonstrates how strengthening ties are now the key to peace and stability in the entire Asian-Pacific region. In this book, Roger Buckley presents for the first time the historical background to a relationship that attracts widespread interest not only in the USA and Japan, but in the entire Asian-Pacific region and beyond. It will therefore be widely read by students and specialists of Japanese and American history, Asian studies and international relations.