BANGKOK In 1955, an 18-year-old Thai found himself overwhelmed by the dazzle and bustle of a Japanese city. One minute, he was standing in a sea of neon lights in Shinsaibashi, a busy shopping district in Osaka. The next, he was looking at a subway for the first time in his life.
A decade after its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan was on the cusp of breakneck economic expansion.
