Carmen Kunz

Ms. Kunz s research project analyzes America s perceptions, attitudes, motives, interests, ideological and political concepts and strategies with regard to Japan. It follows their developments over time and in interaction with their Japanese counterparts, taking also into account changes in the international system from Japan s "opening" to the end of the Roosevelt/Taft administrations. This period is of particular importance since it is a time when the US began to play an active and important role in the world arena and in Asia in particular. Among the questions Ms. Kunz hopes to answer are, what images of Japan and the Japanese were picked out as central themes or perhaps even created in the US, and did these images have an impact on policy making.