Comprising ten volumes of some 4000 pages with over 240 entries, The Post-War Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952: Selected Contemporary Readings - Series 2: Pamphlets, Journals, Press and Reports, offers a representative selection of English-language reportage and commentary written during a critical era in twentieth-century history and international politics. It concentrates on how General MacArthur's demilitarization, reformation and reconstruction programmes for war-blitzed Japan were variously reported and assessed as the occupation evolved. The views of American journalists who were on the spot, especially those writing for the New York Times, as well as commentators for general magazines and specialists journals within the United States, necessarily have priority. Attention is also placed on British and Australian opinion and the vocal responses of Japanese politicians and writers to the enforced, radical transformation of their society. The use of contemporary official and unofficial documentary material highlights the wide divergence of viewpoints between and within nationalities as contested American policies for Japan shifted from major reform to economic consolidation. The first half of the collection concludes with debates over the making of the controversial San Francisco peace conference against the backcloth of the Cold War in the Asia-Pacific and the establishment of an enduring US-Japan alliance. The second half of the collection (volumes 6-10) comprises valuable and some rarely seen primary source material including many SCAP Directives on such subjects as Peace and Order, Education, War Criminals and Religions, as well as Department of the Army reports on a Self-Supporting Japanese Economy and the important SCAP review of Post-War Developments in Japanese Education.