This report discusses the issues of the U.S.-Japanese trade relations of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, and the Clinton Administration.

Both the Bush Administration and the new Japanese Government headed by Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa had given considerable importance to the President,s planned trip to Tokyo in late November, now postponed in the interest of attending to domestic concerns.

Japan, as an issue, has entered the debate over U.S. approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in several ways. The Clinton Administration has argued that Americans should support NAFTA because if it fails to pass Congress, Japan will rush to negotiate a similar arrangement with Mexico. Proponents of NAFTA also have argued that since Japan opposes NAFTA (because of its presumed protectionism and the benefits it provides to North American businesses), it must be "good for America." Opponents of NAFTA argue that the agreement would provide opportunities for Japanese manufacturers to invest in Mexico and export unfettered to the American market. Also, they assert that NAFTA would be like previous trade agreements, particularly with Japan, that have ended up hurting the U.S. economy. In either case, the effects of NAFTA on Japan would likely be small.

Japan-U.S. relations are more uncertain and subject to greater strain today than at any time since World War II. Longstanding military allies and increasingly interdependent economic partners, Japan and the United States have worked closely together to build a strong, multifaceted relationship based on democratic values and interests in world stability and development. But Japan today is our foremost economic and technological competitor.

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Trade relations between the United States and Japan in the 1980s were marked by U.S. efforts to pressure Japan to absorb increasingly greater amounts of U.S. exports. The United States sought to improve its steadily worsening bilateral trade deficit with Japan by negotiating to lower barriers to U.S. exports through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Market Oriented, Sector Selective Talks, the Super 301 process, the Structural Impediments Initiative, and other bilateral fora. The United States succeeded in having Japan take some market-opening measures, and despite fluctuations, U.S. exports to Japan of most of the products which were the subject of negotiations by the two countries between 1985 and 1990 have increased.

On May 25, 1989, President Bush proposed that the United States undertake the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII), a series of discussions with Japan to address certain fundamental Japanese economic policies and business practices that the United States claims impede U.S. exports and investments. The SII was, in part, a Bush Administration response to the stubborn U.S. trade deficit and other problems that have caused friction in the U.S. trading relationship with Japan. It was also a response to congressional pressure to deal more aggressively with Japanese unfair trade practices and to calls from critics to adopt a "managed" trade policy toward Japan.

As a result of an initiative by Australia in 1989, the United States joined with eleven other Asia/Pacific nations in creating APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization. This report discusses the annual Ministerial Meeting of APEC in Seattle, held from November 17 - 19, 1993.

This report discusses the summit held by President Bill Clinton and other leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on November 19, 1995. The report discusses the primary reason for the summit, an Action Agenda intended to lead to free and open trade and investment among its members. The report also discusses how APEC countries were divided on certain issues going into this summit.

With Japan the United States has had one of its most important, and, at the same time, one of its most difficult, trading rela- tionships. Japan ranks second to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. It is also the largest single source of imports to the United States.

The U.S.-Japan framework talks were initiated in July 1993. The automotive negotiations between Japan and the United States focused on sales of U.S. vehicles in Japan; sales of U.S.-made original equipment parts in Japan and to Japanese transplants in the United States; and deregulation of the market for replacement parts in Japan. An unresolved dispute over shock absorbers and other replacement parts resulted in the United States launching a formal investigation of Japanese market barriers to imported car parts under Section 301 on Oct. 1, 1994.

Front: Text describes action on various war fronts: North Africa, Libya, Southern Europe, New Guinea, Solomons, Russia, Aleutians, Far East waters, Madagascar. Large world map is keyed to text and illustrates time zones around the world. Smaller map (3 insets): Invasion of Africa. Photographs: Practice led to invasion -- Tanks land for beach operation -- German planes caught by long-range fighters -- Captured Nazi officers perch on hood of British jeep. Back: Why we fight! Also includes photographs.

Text describes action on various war fronts: Russia, Italy, Air offensive, Southwest Pacific, China-Burma, Submarines, Greenland. Maps: Eastern Front, Advance toward Rome, Southwest Pacific. Photographs: Moving into Lae, New Guinea; Jap bases in the South and Southwest Pacific; Rocket glider used against Allied ships during the invasion of Italy; Germans trying to hold up the advance of the Allied Fifth Army on the Naples-Benevento Road fastened these aerial bombs to notched trees; Italian bombs unloaded from a rail car at an airfield captured in Italy. Back: U.S. Army ribbons representing decorations and awards. Includes a large color illustration of the Medal of Honor.

Front: Text describes action on various war fronts: Open Metz drive, Strong barriers ahead, Pressure on Budapest, Tirpitz goes down, Japs stiffen resistance, B-29s over targets, Evacuate U.S. air base. Maps: Western front, Budapest to Miskolc front, Third Army offensive, Leyte, Allied troops strike south in Burma. Back: Text highlights amphibian armies' combat strategies and victories. Includes 3 photographs plus images of the Ampib's shoulder patch and pocket patch.

Front: Text highlights some of the issues of using atomic energy and weapons. Includes information on the three-nation [U.S., Great Britain, Canada] declaration on atomic energy. Photographs: Smoke from an atomic bomb blast towers miles above Nagasaki; All but the base of a steel tower holding an atomic bomb was vaporized during test explosion in New Mexico; Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer; These men took part in the atomic bomb conferences at the White House : Prime Minister Attlee; President Truman; Prime Minister Mackenzie King; T. L. Rowan, Attlee's secretary; Dr. Vannevar Bush, U. S. expert; Maj. Gen. E. I. C. Jacob, British expert; Representative Charles A. Eaton of New Jersey; Senator Brian McMahon of Connecticut; Canadian Ambassador Lester B. Pearson; Secretary of State James F. Byrnes; Representative Sol Bloom of New York; Admiral William D. Leahy; the Japanese city of Hiroshima after it had been leveled by an atomic bomb. Back: Text and illustration give a progress report on demobilization of Army, Marines, and Navy as of 1 November 1945.

The white paper on comprehensive environmental policy describes the role of Japan's economy in a sound global environment. In the first part, the report describes current the environmental conditions of the Earth and of Japan, human activities in Japan and overseas, their environmental impacts, and the pathway to the environmental century. The second part of the white paper reports on various measures.

A joint message on Climate Change Negotiations between Japan and U.S.

Interview with J. Glen Cleckler, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He discusses his background, including the day he and seven of his friends skipped school to see a movie. In order to provide a believable excuse for their absence to their principal, they went to a recruiting office to get informational forms. The principal then gave them permission to graduate early to join the Marines. He discusses his experiences in boot camp and other training programs and the Battle of Iwo Jima, including hygiene during the battle and the famous flag-raising there. He shares some stories about one of the flag-raisers, Harlan Block, who had been part of the group that enlisted in the Marines with him. He also recalls returning to the United States on a ship full of Section-8 soldiers (PTSD victims), meeting German prisoners of war, and living with Jim Crow laws.

Typed note which includes descriptions of a rifle which was made in Italy in 1940.

This report discusses the G-20, an international forum for discussing and coordinating economic policies among major advanced and emerging economies. Previous summits have, for example, focused on financial regulatory reform, global imbalances, funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), voting power of emerging economies in international financial institutions, and fossil fuel subsidies.

Interview with landscape architect and Army veteran William Garbo Sr. The interview includes Garbo's personal experiences about the G Troop, 112th Cavalry, in the Southwest Pacific Theater during World-War II, growing up in an Italian-American family in Mississippi during the Great Depression, volunteering for the draft and processing at Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, basic training at Camp Lee, Petersburg, Virginia, being assigned to the 26th War Dog Platoon and to New Guinea in 1944, the Battle of the Driniumor River and his attachment to elements of the 32nd Infantry Division, jungle patrols on New Guinea with his dog, his transfer to Troop, 112th Cavalry and the invasion of Layte, Philippines, and the living condition in the Philippine jungles. Additionally, Garbo speaks about the fighting prowess of his comrades in the 112th Cavalry, jungle patrols on Leyte and Luzon, the 112th's activities around Marungko and Antipolo, Luzon, descriptions of cannibalism by Japanese soldiers, his wounds from artillery shrapnel and evacuation by helicopter, his return to the 112th Cavalry and preparations for the invasion of Japan, witnessing the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay, occupation duty at Tateyama, Honshu, relations between Japanese civilians and American occupation troops, the destruction of Japanese defensive fortifications …

Photograph used for a story in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Caption: "Hisayo Maeda, a teacher at a nursing school in Tokyo."