The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The Diplomacy of Two Island Empires 1984-1907

443 Pages·2012·23.417 MB·English

by  Ian H. Nish

THE
ANGLO-JAPANESE
ALLIANCE
The diplomacy of two island empires,
1894-1907
Ian H. Nish
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THE
ANGLO-JAPANESE
ALLIANCE
The diplomacy of two island empires,
1894-1907
Ian H. Nish
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC COLLECTIONS
Japanese Politics and International Relations
B L O O M S B U RY
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published in 1985
This edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing pic
©Ian Nish, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
Ian Nish has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or
refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.
Bloomsbury Academic Collections
ISSN 2051-0012
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781780939810 (cloth)
ISBN: 9781780933191 (Bloomsbury Academic Collections:
Japanese Politics and International Relations)
ENTIRE COLLECTION ISBN: 9781780933184 (Bloomsbury Academic Collections:
Economics, Politics and History of Japan)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Printed and Bound in Great Britain
THE
ANGLO-JAPANESE
ALLIANCE
The Diplomacy of Two
Island Empires
1894-1907
by
IAN H. NISH
THE ATHLONE PRESS
London and Dover, NH
First published In 1966
Second edition published in 1985
by the Athlone Press
44 Bedford Row, London WCiR LY
4
51 Washington Street, Dover NH 03820
© Copyright Ian H. Nlsh 1966, 1985
Library of Congress Cataloging In Publication Data
Nlsh, Ian Hill.
The Anglo-Japanese alliance.
Bibliography: p.
Includes Index.
i. Great Britain—Foreign relations—Japan. 2. Japan—
Foreign relations—Great Britain. 3. Great Britain—
Foreign relations—1837-1901. 4. Japan—Foreign relations
—1868-1912. 5. Eastern question (Far East) I. Title.
DA4J.9.J3N5 198$ 327.41052 84-18600
ISBN 0-485-13139-0
British Library Cataloguing In Publication Data
Nlsh, Ian
The Anglo-Japanese alliance: the diplomacy of
Island empires 1894—1903.—2nd ed.
i. Great Britain—Foreign relations—Japan
2. Great Britain—Foreign relations—
1833-1901 3. Great Britain—Foreign
relations—1901-1910 4. Japan—Foreign
relations—Great Britain 5. Japan—Foreign
relations— 1868—1912
I. Title
323.4 io52 DA56o
ISBN 0-485-13139-0
Printed In Great Britain at the
University Press, Cambridge
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I SHOULD like first to acknowledge the gracious permission of Her
Majesty the Queen to make use of material from the Royal Archives,
Windsor Castle.
I am grateful to the following persons for allowing access to, and
giving permission to quote from, the archives under their charge: the
Marquis of Salisbury and the librarian, Christ Church, Oxford, for
the papers of the third Marquis; the librarian, Birmingham University
Library, for the Chamberlain papers; the Trustees, Mitchell Library,
Sydney, for the Morrison papers; the Trustees, National Maritime
Museum, Greenwich; and the Navy Department, Ministry of Defence.
Unpublished crown-copyright material in the Public Record Office,
London, is reproduced by permission of the Controller of H.M.
Stationery Office. I have also to thank the Trustees of the British
Museum for permission to consult the Balfour papers under their
charge and the librarian, Cambridge University Library, for access to
the Hardinge papers there.
I wish to convey my thanks to the staffs in these and other libraries
where I have worked for their many courtesies.
My research was aided by the University of Sydney which gener-
ously granted me funds for the purchase of photographed material
necessary for the preparation of this volume. For their assistance in
financing its publication, I am grateful to the Principal and Councillors
of St Andrews College within the University of Sydney and to the
Trustees of the Isobel Thornley Bequest.
I should like to thank Professor W. G. Beasley, Professor of Far
Eastern History, University of London, Professor Alun Davies,
Professor of International History, University College, Swansea, and
Professor W. N. Medlicott, Stevenson Professor of International
History, University of London, who have encouraged my researches
and judiciously commented on the present work in manuscript. A
special debt is due to Professor Beasley, under whose supervision
this study was prepared in one of its earlier manifestations as a thesis
for the University of London.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Anyone who is foolhardy enough to enter the field of Japanese
studies has to depend greatly on the labours of Japanese scholars and
I am very conscious of my obligation to them. Among the many
instances of co-operation which I have received, I should mention
especially the help of Professor Oka Yoshitake of the University of
Tokyo and Professor Imai Shoji of the Tokyo Foreign Languages
University in making available to me material on the alliance. For
assistance with translations, I am grateful to Professor Endoh Shinichi
of Kagawa University and Professor Sugiyama Chuhei of Shizuoka
University. For errors of fact and interpretation, I alone must be held
responsible.
It remains only to express my thanks to the staff of the Athlone
Press who have with great good nature guided me away from many
pitfalls.
I. H. N.
London School of Economics
and Political Science
September 1965
Preface to the Second Edition
WHEN this book was originally published in 1966, opinions about
Japan were rather different from what they are today. Its publication
followed the year 1964 in which Japan gained prestige as the host to
the Olympic Games in Tokyo but it preceded the period at the end of
the 19608 which came to be known as her * economic miracle' and the
period of the 19705 when Japan was seen as the main infiltrator into
American, European and British markets. Although many Japanese
would probably have wished their country to occupy a less exposed
position in the world, the fact was that through its many-sided
activities it had become internationally conspicuous and frequently
made front-page news. That led in turn to an increased fascination on
Japan's part with her own past and a greater interest abroad in Things
Japanese. In the case of Britain, this was shown in the response to the
Great Japan Exhibition in London in 1981. One of the intriguing
aspects of Japan's past was the two decades that her alliance with
Britain lasted. It generated many questions: why did Britain decide to
align herself with Japan in 1902? was it already clear by then that Japan
was so adept at acquiring modern skills and turning them to her own
benefit as she has subsequently shown herself to be? how far (if at all)
did this affect Britain's thinking and did the British ministers of the day
have special skills at 'talent-spotting'? These questions which derived
from British experience in the 19705 came to be directed at the Anglo-
Japanese alliance. Thus, the alliance acquired a contemporary interest
in addition to the intrinsic academic interest it has always had for the
part it played in the development of both Japan and Britain.
As a graduate student in the 19505 I was confident that my research
on the alliance was both significant and relevant. I was told, however,
by an octogenerian who had lived through the alliance period in Britain
that the first time he could recall Japan entering his consciousness was