This issue examines different scenarios and functions of "reeducation" in Japan, Germany, and the U.S. in the early cold war period. It points to the relevance of race and gender in discourses of democratization and to the often ambiguous messages about the envisioned post-war future circulating in different areas of society (in the military and the media, for instance). Next to contributions by Jana Aresin, Katharina Gerund, and Akino Oshiro, the volume includes "a conversation about two occupations" with Susan Carruthers, Mire Koikari, and Heike Paul that establishes the cross-cultural framework for the volume.