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JAPAN AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS: Empire and World Order, 1914-1938. By Thomas W. Burkman. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, 2008. xiv, 289pp. (Photos.) US$58.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-8248-2982-7.
Thomas W. Burkman has written a valuable and important book on the League of Nations and Japan. Two major themes run through this work: the actual development of the Japanese involvement in the League's affairs and the corresponding evolution (and decline) of internationalism in Japan. Following the latter theme, he highlights both the interplay of ideas and the movement of people between the League and Japan, especially the most notable figures, Nitobe Inazo and Ishii Kikujiro. As Burkman writes, the Japanese relationship, with the League should be understood from "a biographical as well as an institutional perspective" (144).
On the institutional side, Burkman covers almost all the important developments: the Japanese initial hesitation with the League's ideas, the Paris Peace Conference and Japan's abortive efforts on the racial equality clause, activities in the 1920s, the Manchurian impasse and Japan's eventual withdrawal, and even the aftermath in the 1930s. The effective use of numerous primary sources, a product of the author's longtime engagement with...