Course Spotlight
Program Director
Ph.D. in International Relations,
Australian National University, 1972
The International Relations Program at IUJ has a special focus on the Asia Pacific region. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, analyzing global and regional affairs from political, economic and historical perspectives. One of the elective courses is described below.
Asia and Japan in the Prewar Period / Prof. Welfield (Elective course)
"The past, it seems, does not die", wrote the great British novelist John Galsworthy, "but lives on beside the present, and sometimes, perhaps, becomes the future."* Students of contemporary international politics in East Asia, especially those interested in relations between Japan and its neighbors, cannot help but recognize the validity of the first part of Galsworthy's observation, while fervently hoping that the second part embodies no more than the most remote of possibilities.
This course will examine international politics in East Asia and the Western Pacific during the period extending from the height of the Age of Imperialism in the mid-nineteenth century, through the First World War, until the eve of World War II.
The objectives of the course are to identify the elements of continuity and change in regional affairs, to disentangle and clarify relationships of cause and effect, and to demonstrate the continuing relevance of history to the understanding of contemporary events.
This is a wide ranging course and many issues will be discussed during the semester. A particularly close study will be made of Japan's domestic politics, diplomacy and evolving strategic posture during these years. Here, attention will be focused on the complex interaction of East Asian and Western traditions, institutions and ideologies, on factional policy conflicts and on the impact of these factors on the country's developing relationships with the British Empire, Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, the United States, Germany, France, China, Korea, Mongolia and the lands of Southeast Asia.
The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95; the character and purpose of the Anglo-Japanese alliance; the influence of events in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent on the Far East; the Russo-Japanese War and its impact; the incorporation of Korea into the Japanese Empire; Japanese attitudes towards the 1911 Chinese Republican Revolution; World War I and the evolution of Japanese policies towards China, Mongolia, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region; the Versailles settlement and the Washington Conference; the impact of American power, the Russian Revolution and the fragementation of China on Japan and East Asia; the Great Depression; the 1931 Manchurian Incident; Japanese perceptions of the resurgence of Germany and Italy; the anti Comintern Pact; the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937 and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Nomonohan and its implications; the outbreak of war in Europe; the 1940 Tripartite Pact; the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Agreement and the intensification of Japan's drive for hegemony of Asia will all be examined in detail.
Throughout, students will be invited to reflect upon the continuities and differences, the parallels and contrasts, between the prewar era and the times in which we live.
* John Galsworthy, Swan Song, Scribner, 1928, Part II,
Chapter 1
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