Book Review: Far East: Before Aggression, after Imperialism
| Author | Phillip L. Thompson |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200156 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
REVIEWS
147
In contrast
to
Mr.
Buchanan,
the
three
authors
of
this
work
doubt
the
ability
of
the
Chinese
to
maintain
themselves
in
the
future;
to
increase
food
production,
technical equipment,
fertilizers,
and
irrigation
facilities.
The
magnitude
of
the
problem
which
faces China
is
clearly
stated.
The implication
for
those
nations
with
food
surpluses
is
made
less
explicit,
but
one
wonders
how
long
the
inability
of
the
richest
nation
on
earth
to
aid
or
to
trade
with the
most
populous
nation
on
earth
can
be
justified
on
ideological
grounds.
University
of
Alberta
BRIAN
L.
EVANS
BEFORE
AGGRESsIoN.
Europeans
Prepare
the
Japanese
Army
By
Ernst
L.
Presseisen.
1965.
(Tucson:
University
of
Arizona
Press.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern.
viii,
163pp.
$6.00)
AFTER IMPERIALISM.
The Search
for
a
New
Order
in
the
Far
East
1921-
1931.
By
Akira
Irlye.
1965.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
Saunders.
viii,
375pp.
$9.50)
Despite
the
vaguely
sinister
connection
suggested
by
their
titles
when
taken together,
the
two
books
under
review
are
substantially
different.
But
although
they
are
dissimilar
in
subject
matter
and
ann,
the
two
works
do
have
in
common
that
they
are
carefully
and
clearly
written,
well-documented,
and
thoroughly
researched.
Both
authors have
used
a
variety
of
Western
language
and
Japanese
sources,
and
the
excellence of
their
work
reflects
this.
Mr.
Inye
in
particular
is
to
be
commended
for
his extensive
use
of
the
microfilmed
Japan
Foreign
Ministry
Archives
at
the
Library
of
Congress.
Professor
Presseisen's study
will
probably
interest
only
a
limited
number
of
specialists,
for
it
is
rather
narrowly
conceived.
The
mono-
graph
treats
in
detailed,
but not
unlively,
fashion
a
little-known
aspect
of
Japan's
post-Restoration modernization.
It
is
a history
of
first
French,
and
then,
the
more
decisive
German,
influence
on
the
growth
and
development
of
the
Japanese
army
before
the
Sino-Japanese,
and
Russo-Japanese
wars.
The
study
is
essentially
limited
to
a
description
of
French
and
German
military
missions in
Japan
during
the
1870's
and
1880's;
to
related
-problems
in
Japanese
military
history-
and
to
diplomatic
relations
among
Japan, France,
and
Germany
as the
two
latter
nations
competed
for
influence
in
Japan
in
and through
the
modernizing
army
It
is
the
topic
"Military
Advisory
Groups"
in
the
unfamiliar
and
exotic
setting
of 19th
century
Japan
that
lends most
interest
to
the
book. One
or
two
chapters
are
especially
good:
one
dealing
with
the French
contingent
of
advisors
to
the
rapidly
dis-
integrating
Shogunate
before
1868,
and
also
those
relative
to
the
career
of
the
German
Major,
later
General,
Jakob
Meckel
(1842-1906)
a
man
whose
thought
and
whose
methods
of
training
appear
to
have
been
of
great
importance
for
the
generation
of
Japanese
officers
who
led
their
country
to
its
first
great
victories
in
the
wars
with
China
and
Russia.
Mr.
Iriye's
book
will
recommend
itself
to
a
wider
group
of
readers,
for
it
is
the
more
ambitious
and
broadly
conceived
of
the
two.
In
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