The Origin of Ping-Pong Diplomacy The Forgotten Architect of Sino-U.S. Rapprochement

by Itoh, Mayumi

• ISBN13: 9780230118133
• ISBN10: 0230118135
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Why and how did Japan Table Tennis Association President Goto Koji invited China to participate in the World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, in 1971 (the Nagoya World's)? Against strong opposition at home and abroad, Goto Koji created a stage for Premier Zhou Enlai to launch Ping-Pong Diplomacy, which changed world history forever, opening China's "bamboo curtain," paving the way for Sino-U.S. rapprochement in 1972 and for detente in East Asia, ending the Vietnam War.

Author Biography

Mayumi Itoh is a former professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She has also taught at Princeton University and Queens College, City University of New York. She is the author of Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan (1998), The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership Through the Generations (2003), Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria: Forgotten Victims of World War II (2010), and Japanese Wartime Zoo Policy: The Silent Victims of World War II (2010). She has written extensively on Japanese foreign policy and domestic politics in academic journals.

Table of Contents

International Political Background * Goto Koji and Meiden School * Goto Koji and Table Tennis * Goto Makes the Decision * Mr. Goto Goes to China * Nagoya World Table Tennis Championships * U.S. Response:  President Nixon Goes to China * Japan’s Response:  Prime Minister Tanaka Goes to China * Conclusion:  Lessons of Ping-Pong Diplomacy