"a timely and important history... a well-documented examination of the politics and diplomacy of Japan's path to recognizing China." - Robert D. Eldridge in Japan Forward 'Hattori’s book contributes greatly to the existing scholarship with his vivid picture of the interactions between Tanaka and Ōhira. This is interesting, even for scholars of modern China, by revealing the inner workings of in an important country for China. Different cultures and patterns of behavior partly explain the different logic and dynamics in China’s relations with Japan versus countries like the United States. ... Hattori’s scholarship debunks some misunderstandings. Japan did not embark on diplomatic rapprochement to transform China, and its foreign aid and economic cooperation commenced only when Deng Xiaoping started reform and opening at the end of the 1970s. The liberalizing potential of economic cooperation with China surfaced after the 1990s and was never as prominent in Japan as in the West. Hattori ends his book with the following remarks: “The process that led to Sino-Japanese normalization provides extremely modern lessons to those living today. It is a history that deserves to be repeatedly turned to and referenced” (137). Indeed.' - Ming Wan in The China Journal