Looking Back at Britain, Japan and Pearl Harbor: Avoiding War 1936-41

In this short talk, Dr Antony Best will address the most significant issues that he discussed in his first book on Britain and the origins of the Pacific War, including the role of intelligence and the economic factors that helped to propel Britain and Japan towards conflict.

It is relatively rare for a historian to get the chance to engage in critical reflection of his own work. In this short talk, Dr Antony Best will address the most significant issues that he discussed in his first book on Britain and the origins of the Pacific War, including the role of intelligence and the economic factors that helped to propel Britain and Japan towards conflict. In addition, he will reflect on the changes to the historical record since the date of its first publication in 1995 and how the book might now be revised in the light of different new methodological approaches towards the writing of history. In particular, he will discuss how the study of public opinion and institutions beyond Whitehall can be usefully incorporated in order to provide a more complete picture of British interaction with Japan in this crucial period.

Dr Antony Best is a Senior Lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Britain, Japan and Pearl Harbor: Avoiding War in East Asia, 1936-1941, (Routledge, London, 1995), British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia, 1914-1941 (Palgrave/Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2002), and co-author of International History of the Twentieth Century and Beyond, 2nd edition, (Routledge, London, 2008) [with J. Hanhimaki, J. Maiolo and K.E. Schulze]. He is currently working on a research-based book, provisionally entitled The Two Island Empires: British Interaction with Japan, 1854-1975 which will look at the course of Anglo-Japanese relations from the arrival of Admiral Stirling in Nagasaki during the Crimean War until the first visit made to Japan by Queen Elizabeth II. He is also editing a book for Routledge in memory of Dr Peter Lowe, entitled, Britain’s Retreat from Empire in East Asia, 1905-1980: Essays in Honour of Peter Lowe.

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