I was following Wellerstein, who takes the Soviet invasion as a powerful factor, but not the deciding one.
In my experience it's historians of Japan who are more definitive about this, most likely because of the required language skills; it hasn't filtered over into other disciplines yet. And on the American side, as the Enola Gay controversy in 1995 demonstrated, there was a lot of weight put on the myths for various reasons. I don't know how much those pressures have diminished twenty-five years later.
what was/is your field of study? Modern Japanese history, with a designated emphasis in new media. For my second field in history I did comparative empires, looking at China and ancient Rome.
no subject
In my experience it's historians of Japan who are more definitive about this, most likely because of the required language skills; it hasn't filtered over into other disciplines yet. And on the American side, as the Enola Gay controversy in 1995 demonstrated, there was a lot of weight put on the myths for various reasons. I don't know how much those pressures have diminished twenty-five years later.
Modern Japanese history, with a designated emphasis in new media. For my second field in history I did comparative empires, looking at China and ancient Rome.