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(★)(´Believing his conclusions to be relevant today, Mitani views the opening of Japan in the 1850s as typical of national confrontations in the modern era. One of his conclusions is that language issues divide the participants in complex negotiating processes. A second important conclusion arises from Mitani´s use of ´impasse´ to indicate a problem in foreign policy. To him an impasse offers an undesirable but plausible opportunity to resolve problems in a realistic way. His chief example is the bakufu´s response to the pressure to open Japan in the 1850s. At first the bakufu wanted none of it. After Perry, however, the seclusion policy left Japan at an impasse, so Edo revised itsattitude and hammered out agreements on diplomatic relations and trade. As Mitani sees it, this was the major achievement of the late Tokugawa state. By contrast, Japan faced a new impasse in the 1930s following the successful invasion of Manchuria, but this time the Japanese state and military blundered too far. Mitani finds a lesson here for all modern nations, especially the United States in Vietnam and Iraq. [George M. Wilson, Indiana University, Bloomington, American Historical Review, December 2007]´ ◆Mitani Hiroshi was born on New Years´ Day, 1950, in the city of Fukayama in Hiroshima Prefecture. He is a professor in the Department of Area Studies in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at The University of Tokyo, where he earned his B.A. in the Faculty of Letters and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology. He previously taught at Gakushuin University and has been a visiting scholar at Delhi University, Beijing University, and Harvard University. He has written extensively on politics and foreign affairs in nineteenth-century Japan, in works which include ´Meiji ishin to nashonarizumu (The Meiji Regeneration and Nationalism ; Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1997)´, which won a Suntory Foundation Prize for Social Sciences and the Humanities, and ´Meiji ishin o kangaeru (Thoughts on the Meiji Regeneration ; Yushisha, 2006)´. Another major area of interest is the issue of democracy and freedom in the non-Western world in the context of the modern East Asian history, a theme taken up in ´Higashi Asia no koron keishiki (Comparative Studies of the Public Sphere in East Asia ; University of Tokyo Press, 2004)´, edited and with an introduction by Professor Mitani. He is also concerned with historical reconciliation in East Asia and has published, with Liu Jie and Yang Daqing, a study entitled ´Contentious Issues in Sino-Japanese Relations (The University of Tokyo Press and Social Sciences Academic Press, Beijing, 2006. English edition forthcoming)´. ▼CONTENTS ／ Chapter One. Foreign Policy at the End of the Early Modern Period : Changing Principles of Foreign Policy, Early Nineteenth-Century Tensions with Russia／ Chapter two.Perceptions of the Outside World : The Entrenchment of ´Sakoku´ and the Rise of ´Jooi´, Collecting Foreign Intelligence, The Bureau of Astronomy and the Shogunal Academy／ Chapter Three.The Opium War and the Struggle over Domestic Reform : The Defence Issue and Internal Political Conflict, The Failure of Reform and the Rejection of ´Kaikoku´, News of the World and its Dissemination／ Chapter Four.The Debate on Foreign Policy : Conflict and Conciliation : Attempts to Revive the Order to Repel Foreign Ships, Conciliation between Shogunate and Daimyo, Three Templates for the Discourse on Foreign Policy／ Chapter Five.The West Looks Toward Japan.Abortive Missions to Japan, The American Vision of a Transpacific Steamship Route／ Chapter Six.Japan at an Impasse／ Chapter Seven.The Arrival of Perry／ Chapter Eight.Policy Debate and Playing for Time : The Death of Ieyoshi and Nariaki´s Bid for Power／ Chapter Nine.Stalling the Russians／ Chapter Ten.Perry Returns : Acceptance of Limited Kaikoku／ Chapter Eleven.The Multivalence of the Treaty of Peace and Amity／ Chapter Twelve.Opening Ports and Defining Borders : Treaties with Britain and Russia : The Anglo-Japanese Convention : Opening Ports by Accident, The Russo-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Amity／ Chapter Thirteen.Escape from Impasse : Approval of Trade Relations and Gradual Liberalization, The Leap to Diplomatic and Commercial Treaties／) |
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