Abstract

Mainstream historiography of Japan in the First World War generally does not employ the framework of ‘Japan at war’. More often than not, the war is defined as the ‘European War’ (Ōshū sensō) or even the ‘Japan-German War’ (Nichidoku sensō) betraying Japan’s limited combatant role. However, it was also the Japanese who had recognized the global nature of the war as early as September 1914, by referring to it as the ‘Great World War’ (sekai taisen). Unlike many Western powers, Japan was a well-practised combatant state by 1914, having won two international wars in 1894-95 and 1904-5. Hence, we see threads of continuity in Japanese wartime activities connecting the 1914-18 experiences to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, for example, in Japan’s ‘diplomacy of humanitarianism’ over its treatment of the POWs from the siege of Qingdao. For the Japanese military observers, the First World War was pivotal in gaining first-hand observations, which formed the basis of Japan’s future vision for a ‘total war’ (sōryokusen). The story of Japan’s involvement is integral to the global story of ‘modern societies at war’, as Japan became a foremost practitioner of a fashionable contemporary thinking that prioritized a strong military in the construction of an ideal modern society.

Biographical Sketch

Naoko Shimazu is Professor of History in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London. Her major publications include Imagining Japan in Post-war East Asia (co-editor, Routledge, 2013), Japanese Society at War: Death, Memory and the Russo-Japanese War (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Nationalisms in Japan (editor, Routledge, 2006), Japan, Race and Equality: Racial Equality Proposal of 1919 (Routledge, 1998), as well as scholarly articles in Modern Asian Studies, Political Geography, Russian Review, Journal of Contemporary History, War and Society. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Professorial Associate of Japan Research Centre at SOAS, a former fellow of the Japan Foundation and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. She serves on the editorial boards of Japan Forum, Reviews in History, and Modern Asian Studies. Her current major project is a monograph, Diplomacy as Theatre: Asian and African Performances at the Bandung Conference of 1955.