“When did we beat Japan at anything?” Trump railed in 2015. “They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn’t exist, folks. They beat us all the time.” Commentators at the time laughed at Trump’s Japan fixation. They called it “anachronistic,” “out-of-date,” and “odd.” But Japan has in fact been foundational to Trump’s worldview, as historian Jennifer M. Miller has argued, dating back to his...
