1. Little historical research in the Japanese language has been conducted on the relationship between UNESCO and Japan. In fact, there are only brief descriptions or personal stories about UNESCO written by its former officials. See Noguchi Noboru, Yunesuko: Gojunen no Ayumi to Tenbo [UNESCO: Its 50-year History and Prospect] (Tokyo: Shingurukatto Sha, 1996); Matsuura Koichiro, Yunesuko Jimukyokucho Funtoki [Laborious Days of the Director-General] (Tokyo: Kodan Sha, 2004); Matsuura Koichiro, Sekai Isan: Yunesuko Jimukyokucho wa Uttaeru [World Heritage: An Appeal from the Director-General] (Tokyo: Kodan Sha, 2008). On the other hand, it is also arguable that very little attention has been paid to Japan in the historiography of UNESCO. For example, see Chloé Maurel, Histoire de l’UNESCO: Les trente premières années. 1945–1974 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2010); Fernando Valderrama, A History of UNESCO (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1995); James P. Sewell, UNESCO and World Politics: Engaging in International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975).
2. For details about the social circumstances of Japan in the aftermath of World War II, see John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999).
3. Ibid., 63. See also Nihon Yunesuko Kokunai Iinkai ed., Nihon Yunesuko Katsudo Junenshi [Ten Years’ History of UNESCO Activities in Japan] (Tokyo: Nihon Yunesuko Kokunai Iinkai, 1962), 3; Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996); Thomas U. Berger, Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Japan and Germany (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2003).
4. In concert with “A Statement by eight distinguished social scientists on the cause of tensions which make for war” issued by UNESCO in July 1948, leading Japanese intellectuals formed Heiwa Mondai Danwakai (Peace Problems Discussion Group) and expressed principles for the problem of world peace, as well as the problem of the peace settlement for Japan. Advocating the overall peace, the maintenance of neutrality, the opposition to giving military bases and the objection to rearmament, this group played the central role in the debate over peace in post-war Japan. For Japan’s pacifism, including this group in this period, see Rikki Kersten, Democracy in Postwar Japan: Maruyama Masao and the Search for Autonomy (London: Routledge, 1995).
5. Nihon Yunesuko Kyokai Renmei, Yunesuko Minkan Katsudo 20 Nenshi [Twenty Years’ History of Private Activities for UNESCO] (Tokyo: Nihon Yunesuko Kyokai Renmei, 1966) and Liang Pan, “Senryoka no Nihon no Taigai Bunka Seisaku to Kokusai Bunka Soshiki” [Japanese International Cultural Policy under the US Occupation and International Organizations: The Case of UNESCO Cooperation Movement], Kokusai Seiji 127 (2001): 185–205.