This is the first full-length study of the role played by British Intelligence in influencing policy towards Japan from the decline of the Alliance to the outbreak of the Pacific War. Using many previously classified records it describes how the image of Japan generated by Intelligence during this period led Britain to underestimate Japanese military capabilities in 1941. The book shows how this image was derived from a lack of adequate intelligence resources and racially driven assumptions about Japanese national characteristics.

Autorentext

ANTONY BEST is Lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Britain, Japan and Pearl Harbour: Avoiding War in East Asia, 1936-41 and a number of scholarly articles on Anglo-Japanese relations in the 1930s.

Inhalt

List of Maps List of Tables List of Figures Usages and Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction The British Empire in East Asia in 1941 The Erosion of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1914-21 'A Cubist Picture': The Soviet Menace in China, 1918-27 Dealing with the Comintern Threat, 1927-31 From 'Weak Power' to Potential Enemy: Japan, 1921-33 'The Situation in the Far East has Changed Completely', 1933-37 The Sino-Japanese War, 1937-409 The Immediate Origins of the Pacific War 'The Jap is Good': Epilogue and Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index