Kenneth Pyle says his first memories of Japan were of watching war films when he was a child — "all the dogfights with Zero fighters and all that."
The 72-year-old American still keeps a close eye on Japan's military maneuverings. Now, though, he's a historian, scouring the 20th-century political landscape for hints about Japan's often inscrutable underlying goals and motivations.
Pyle is recognized in Japan and internationally as one of the leading scholars of Japanese modern history. From his base at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he is a professor, he has established a reputation for analysis that reveals the strategic thinking behind Japan's relations with the world. For example, Pyle says that Japan's disinterest in diplomacy and international involvement during the Cold War was a deliberate, long-term strategy to allow it to recover its strength after its wartime defeat and destruction.