I began contemplating this book many years ago, when Germany appeared to be consolidating friendships in Europe while Japan seemed mired in hostility from Asian countries. Both had faced ghosts in their neighborhood—lingering memories of their own bad, sometimes brutal behavior in the past; but only one remained haunted. This struck me as an intriguing puzzle.

But it also proved to be a challenging one to solve. My research ultimately covered two continents, six countries, centuries of history, and a lot of trade and investment data. I am an Asianist specializing in Japanese politics—so I had to also learn about Europe, especially Germany (but also France and Poland). And I have mostly been a political economist—so I had to learn about “squishier” but equally important issues such as state-to-state apologies and international reconciliation.

The process was very long, and I accumulated numerous debts along the way. Please allow me to acknowledge those creditors, without relinquishing any responsibility for the final product.

Colby College was a generous employer, providing several grants for travel to many places in Europe and Asia. As a small liberal arts college, it also pushed me to acquire new areas of expertise beyond my training in graduate school. I ended up teaching courses on Chinese and Korean politics, as well as Japanese politics. And I taught a course on regionalism, comparing the mix of thin or relatively weak institutions in Asia with the thicker, stronger set of institutions in North America and Europe. This expanded curriculum made me a more competent researcher.

The college also helped me hire a small army of brilliant students as research assistants: Angie Sohn, Ryu Matsuura, Josh Brause, Anna Simeonova,Page xii → Tammi Choi, Clara Devers, Haolu Wang, Xinyi Chen, Mingwei (“Julian”) Zhu, Josh Connell, Vicky Yuan, Jill Greenstein, Valerie Coit, Anran Zhang, Eleanor (“Ella”) Jackson, Vicky Ni, Hannah Kim, Jayadev Vadakkanmarveettil, Jacob Marx, and Pawel Brodalka. Thanks to all of you.

I relied heavily on guidance from wonderful mentors Jim Caporaso, Peter Katzenstein, and T. J. Pempel—thank you, gentlemen. Kaz Poznanski, Günter Heiduk, and Agnieszka McCaleb opened doors for me in Poland; Jon Weiss and John Keeler were helpful with French sources; Sabine Seidler and Paul Talcott connected me with German diplomats; Choi Pyung Arm introduced me to Korean ones. Nicolas Jabko helped me secure a brief affiliation with Sciences Po in Paris; Verena Blechinger-Talcott helped me secure a similar affiliation with Free University Berlin. Dziękuję. Merci. Danke. Gam-sa-ham-ni-da—to each of you.

Thanks also to four anonymous reviewers, as well as the strong team at University of Michigan Press, especially editorial director Elizabeth Demers and editorial associate Haley Winkle. In addition, I am grateful to Dan Slater, head of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies, for including this book in the center’s series.

My greatest debt, though, is to my wife, Laurie B. Mann, who stood lovingly by me throughout this long process. I dedicate this work to her.