Japans Struggle with Internation: Japan, China and the League of Nations, 1931-1933

Lord Lytton, the author of the League of Nations report on the Manchurian Crisis of 1931-1933, wrote: 'if only it was with the professors of the University of Tokyo and men like that I could make peace in a week'. It was widely recognized that there were liberal internationalists in Japan who were opposed to expansion in China and were trying to prevent it - ineffectively as it turned out. As the military advanced into China, the internationalists progressively found themselves with their backs to the wall and had difficulty in resisting pressure that Japan should pull out of the League of Nations. This is a study of the Manchurian and Shanghai crises, the first serious confrontation between Japan and the world community. Based on the study of a wide range of Japanese sources, both public and private, as well as western sources including the Lytton papers, the diaries of Sir Miles Lampson, the papers of the League of Nations and the letters of Sir Reginald Johnston, it throws light on the struggles both within Japan and among League enthusiasts to ensure that Japan, the Asian state which was at once most stable and economically most successful, should not end up in isolation from western nations.