Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits

This Seventh Volume tracking the history of Anglo-Japanese relations through leading personalities and significant themes of the day offers a classic menu totalling 47 entries divided into ten sections - opening with three studies of Meiji Era leaders, (all of whom spent time in London) and concluding with the fascinating unpublished memoir of British diplomat Douglas Busk, who records embassy life from just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 until he and the remaining staff left on an `exchange ship' bound for Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, in July 1942. The other sections of the book are British Politicians; British Officials; Scholars, Writers and Journalists; Scientists; Missionaries; Art; Recreations; Charitable Work.

Among the personalities included in the volume are Cambridge scholar Carmen Blacker, historians Arnold Toynbee and William Beasley, British military observer and The Times reporter of the Russo-Japanese War General Sir Ian Hamilton, philosopher Bertrand Russell, playwright and orator George Bernard Shaw, the Choshu students Inoue Kaoru and Yamao Yozo who were later key figures in the modernization of Japan, and Walter Dening --- scholar and missionary. Themes treated include the history of horse racing in Japan, the Japanese influence on British architects, the beginnings of golf in Japan and Japanese gardeners in Britain.

Hugh Cortazzi, GCMG, was British Ambassador to Japan 1980-84 and Chairman of the Japan Society 1985-95.

He has written extensively on Japan. His many books include Isles of Gold: Antique Maps of Japan (Weatherhill, 1983), The Japanese Achievement (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1990) and his memoir Japan and Back and Places Elsewhere (Global Oriental, 1998). This is the fourth volume of Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits he has edited for the Japan Society, together with Japan Experiences: Fifty Years, One Hundred Views (Japan Library, 2001) and British Envoys in Japan, 1859-1972 (Global Oriental, 2004). Most recently, he published a translation of Crown Prince Naruhito's account of his years at Oxford, entitled The Thames and I (Global Oriental, 2006).

He continues to be closely involved in the field of Anglo-Japanese relations, writes regularly for the Japan Times and other publications, and is currently researching several new projects.