The Department of History welcomes historian Andrew Levidis from Australian National University to share his work on the history of modern Japan post WWII. The creation of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in November 1955 remains one of the most significant moments in modern Japanese political history. Five years past the midpoint of the twentieth century, Japanese political leaders joined hands to unite a divided conservative movement into one of the most efficient machines of political power in modern times. The striking persistence of conservative ideas, institutions, and men has inured us to the contingencies, uncertainties, and alternatives futures that were possible in the decade after the Second World War.