Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-192) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Civic engagement: the dependent variable; 3. War and civic engagement: a theoretical framework; 4. Quantitative analysis: the rise of civic engagement across forty-six Japanese prefectures; 5. The long-term effects of wartime mobilization: cross-national analysis; 6. Repression and revivial of the YMCA Japan; 7. Wartime promotion and postwar repression of a traditional martial art; 8. Civil society and reconstruction in postwar Japan; 9. Conclusions.

"Despite reduced incomes, diminished opportunities for education, and the psychological trauma of defeat, Japan experienced a rapid rise in civic engagement in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Why? Civic Engagement in Postwar Japan answers this question with a new general theory of the growth in civic engagement in postwar democracies. It argues that wartime mobilization unintentionally instills civic skills in the citizenry, thus laying the groundwork for a postwar civic engagement boom. Meanwhile, legacies of prewar associational activities shape the costs of association-building and information-gathering, thus affecting the actual extent of the postwar boom. Combining original data collection, rigorous statistical methods, and in-depth historical case analyses, this book illuminates one of the keys to making postwar democracies work"-- Provided by publisher.