From Ally to Enemy : : Anglo-Japanese Military Relations, 1900-45 / / Philip Towle.

• VerfasserIn: Towle, Philip,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 2006.
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

This study, closely researched by Philip Towle over the past thirty years, is principally concerned with the military relations between Britain and Japan during the first half of the twentieth century and the ambivalence, misunderstandings and misconceptions that informed their relationship, described by the author as 'an epic tragedy'. Following the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, Japan was held up as a model in Britain and Britain in Japan. But within a generation, the British came to see Japan as the first country to challenge the League of Nations and to begin a new age of imperialism. Conversely, the Japanese armed forces saw Britain as the greatest obstacle to Japanese ambitions in China and elsewhere. In 1936, Lieutenant Commander Tota Ishimaru's book Japan Must Fight Britain was printed in Britain, its significance ignored at many levels, and five years later the two countries were at war. 'The feelings stirred up by that conflict,' notes Towle, 'still have resonance today.' From Ally to Enemy brings together a most important body of research that is long overdue in book form and will be widely welcomed by historians and researchers of the period, as well as those seeking more detailed analysis of specific aspects of the pre-war Anglo-Japanese military relationship.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Alliance and War -- 2 Helping the Japanese -- 3 Reporting on the War -- 4 Observing the War -- 5 The War and the British Army -- 6 The War and the Royal Navy -- 7 Ending the War -- 8 The Impact on India -- 9 The 1920s and 1930s -- 10 Strategy and Economics -- 11 Prisoners of War -- 12 The Literature of Slaves -- 13 Korea, Japan and Britain -- 14 Afterword -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.