In an age when democracy is often pursued, yet rarely accomplished, Japan's transformation, post-1945, from defeated military power into thriving constitutional democracy commands attention. The authors show that the country's affirmation of democracy was neither cynical nor merely tactical. "The most detailed and reliable book that has been written in English on the formulating process of Japan's present Constitution by two authors who are specialists in modern Japanese history and American Constitutional development. This book reveals in great detail, for the first time the drafting process of the GHQ/SCAP version based on interviews with, and the private papers of Colonel Kades, the main drafter of the Constitution. This book, from an original point of view, throws light on the present debate on Japanese Constitutional revision which is the most serious political issues of the postwar period."--Shoichi Koseki Professor of Constitutional Law Dokkyo University, Japan