The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific

Akira Iriye’s volume in this highly-acclaimed series traces international relations in Asia from 1931, when the Japanese army seized control of Manchuria, to 1941, when Japan went to war against the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands. Professor Iriye examines the origins of the 1941 conflict against this broad background to answer the key question: why did Japan, which had not been able to defeat the isolated and divided forces of China, decide to go to war against so formidable a combination of powers?

While Professor Iriye necessarily focusses on Japan herself, he also discusses the policies of China, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany and other countries – for these latter, too, played an important role in creating an environment in Asia in which the Japanese perceived themselves to be ‘encircled’, and believed themselves to be justified in going to war for ‘national survival’.

The forty years and more which have elapsed since the end of the war have given historians access to a vast amount of source material. This book sums up the work of many scholars who have examined it; but professor Iriye’s overall interpretative framework is unique in setting the Asian-Pacific war in so wide a perspective of international history. His book will be widely welcomed by all those interested in Japanese foreign policy, and Japanese-US relations; and by anyone who wants a better understanding of the region today (and especially the growth of regional self-consciousness within it and its economic development) since in so many ways its crucial points of departure can be traced back into the history of the 1930s.

Above all, it presents to readers a balanced and perceptive account of the coming of the war – a subject still sensitive and disputed, as the “textbook controversy” of the Japanese government’s alleged attempt to rewrite history, and the storm of denunciation it provoked throughout Asia, has recently shown. Professor Iriye is an authoritative guide; and he illuminates, clearly and convincingly, the disastrous process by which Japan steadily became alienated from, and ultimately turned against, the international community of which she had hitherto been an established and responsible member.