History Theses and Dissertations

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The World They Wanted: The Japanese Delegation in the World Youth Forum
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-04) Blake, William; Goble, Andrew
This thesis introduces the contribution of Japanese teenage diplomats to the discourse of US-Japan relations in the 1950s. This thesis is focused on young Japanese individuals, and how they chose to represent both themselves and their country in the New York Herald Tribune World Youth Forum and the televised debates, The World We Want. I explain how Cold War diplomacy was not exclusively directed by veteran diplomats appointed by elected officials, but also by teenagers who took their opportunity to represent Japan with focus and with intention. My research, based on newspaper articles from the Herald Tribune covering the event, biographies written by the delegates, and the televised debates, emphasizes how the delegates took an active stake in Japan’s post war future while representing Japan on 1950s American television in the process.