Japan in the World

The twentieth century is as remarkable for its world wars as it is for its efforts to outlaw war in international and constitutional law and politics. Japan in the World examines some of these efforts through the life and work of Shidehara Kijuro, who was active as diplomat and statesman between 1896 until his death in 1951. Shidehara is seen as a guiding thread running through the first five decades of the twentieth century. Through the 1920s until the beginning of the 1930s, his foreign policy shaped Japan's place within the community of nations. The positive role Japan played in international relations and the high esteem in which it was held at that time goes largely to his credit. As Prime Minister and "man of the hour" after the Second World War, he had a hand in shaping the new beginning for post-war Japan, instituting policies that would start his country on a path to peace and prosperity. Accessing previously unpublished archival materials, Schlichtmann examines the work of this pacifist statesman, situating Shidehara within the context of twentieth century statecraft and international politics. While it was an age of devastating total wars that took a vast toll of civilian lives, the politics and diplomatic history between 1899 and 1949 also saw the light of new developments in international and constitutional law to curtail state sovereignty and reach a peaceful order of international affairs. Japan in the World is an essential resource for understanding that nation's contributions to these world-changing developments.

Klaus Schlichtmann has written an impressive, ambitious book in which he traces the evolution of Japanese pacifism and internationalism through the career of an eminent diplomatist, Shidehara, and in the framework of the history of global affairs and thought. Anyone interested in the shift from prewar militarism to postwar pacifism in Japan, as well as in the contemporary debate on the revision of its "peace constitution," would find here an excellent guide to connecting developments in Japan to those elsewhere. An admirable study that corrects the "exceptionalist" accounts of Japanese history that still abound in the literature and places it in a comparative and transnational context., This book details the origins and principled development of Japan's peaceful diplomacy during the 1920s until the the Japanese military frustrated it by the Pearl Harbor attack; but war did not deter the architect of the policy, Shidehara Kijuro, who later crafted Article IX in Japan's postwar Constitution. It continues to inspire all nations to deal peaceably with their neighbors. Japan in the World is a real contribution to the field.

Klaus Schlichtmann is a lecturer in Peace Studies at the Japan Women's University; he also teaches German at Nihon University.