Japan and the Great War

East Asia, and particularly Japan, is often omitted from both popular and academic accounts of the First World War. This is evident not just in the Western historiography of the conflict but also in the Chinese and Japanese histories of the war, and does not do justice to the many ways in which the conflict shaped Japan both at the time and in its aftermath. Yet, if the First World War is to be truly understood as a 'world war', it has to be seen in its global context.

In order to look at some of these issues, Japan and the Great War brings together seven internationally renowned experts on Japanese and Asian history. These scholars investigate, with innovative methodological approaches, various aspects of the Japanese experience during and after the First World War.

Oliviero Frattolillo is Assistant Professor at 'L'Orientale' University of Napoli, Italy. He is Visiting Scholar at the Department of Law of Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and Associate Member of the Cluster of Excellence 'Asia and Europe in a Global Context" (Karl Jaspers Centre, Heidelberg University, Germany). Among his works are Il Giappone tra Est e Ovest. La ricerca di un ruolo internazionale nell'era bipolare (2014), Diplomacy in Japan-EU Relations. From the Cold War to the Post-Bipolar Era, (2013) and Interwar Japan Beyond the West. The Search For A New Subjectivity in World History (2012).

Antony Best is Associate Professor at the London School of Economics, UK. His main fields of research interests lie in Anglo-Japanese relations, the origins of the Pacific War; the international history of East Asia; the history of modern Japan, and intelligence and International history.