Nitobe Inazô
Subtitle: Japan's bridge across the Pacific
By: edited by John F. Howes.
Contributors: Howes, John F.
Publisher: Westview Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Boulder
Language: eng
Number of pages: 331
Subjects: Nitobe, Inazō, 1862-1933.; Educators -- Japan -- Biography.; Japan -- Officials and employees -- Biography.
Description: This collection of essays chronicles for the first time in any language the career and works of pre-World War II Japan's premier internationalist. A self-proclaimed "bridge across the Pacific," Nitobe used his superb command of English to interpret the Japanese people to the English-speaking world and to explain the West to his fellow Japanese. His success led to his appointment as Under Secretary of the League of Nations, before the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 led to his tragic downfall.

Japan had forsaken his cosmopolitan vision, and not even his Quaker charm and eloquence could stand against the raw evidence of the Japanese army's aggression.

At the time of his death in 1933, Nitobe was the best-known Japanese outside his country, yet he has been ignored for six decades, perhaps because his fellow citizens have been unable to face the sober realities of their complicity in their army's excesses. In this groundbreaking volume, historians from North America and Japan revisit the signal contributions of this remarkable man and provide thoughtful new insights into the origins of Japan's road to Pearl Harbor.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.