Table of contents

This accessible collection examines twelve historic events in the international relations of East Asia.

An accessible, analytical survey of the rise and fall of Imperial Japan in the context of its grand strategy to transform itself into a great power.

This new book covers the Sino-Japan Naval War 1894-1895, a little-known part of late 19thC naval history. The First Sino_Japanese War (1 August 1894 _ 17 April 1895) was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea. After more than six months of continuous successes by the Japanese army and naval forces, as well as the loss of the Chinese port of Weihai, the Qing leadership sued for peace in February 1895. The background, operations and outcomes are described in detail. All the ships involved, both Japanese and Chinese, are described and illustrated with full technical specifications. Profusely illustrated with scale drawings, maps, drawings and rare photos.

The first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was Japan's first modern war, and their first military action overseas for over 300 years. One notable result of this conflict was a huge burst in popularity for senso-e ("war pictures"), a genre of ukiyo-e which first evolved as a mutation of musha-e ("warrior pictures") with the need in the 1870s to document the contemporary conflicts which had raged in Japan as a result of the Meiji Restoration, in particular the Seinan War of 1877. Dozens of artists, from the celebrated to the obscure, added to the mass of images which circulated as the Sino-Japanese War progressed (an estimated 3,000 prints were created in just 10 months). Most of the scenes depicted were based on news reports sent back from the front, with artists rushing to replicate events as quickly as possible. The triptych, with its almost cinematic visual scope, was the preferred format for depicting such scenes of turmoil and carnage. Whilst there is a huge range in quality between the prints made by various artists, the very best senso-e of the Sino-Japnese War remain amongst the finest in ukiyo-e, providing a bold, if brief, resurrection for an artform which was in danger of dying out due to the advent of new imaging technologies. MASSACRESe ^INe ^MANCHURIA features over 200 rare and exceptional Japanese woodblock prints of war. The artists featured in the book include Kiyochika, Gekko, Toshihide, Toshikata, Nobukazu, Chikanobu, Ginko, and numerous others -- a list of many of the most outstanding ukiyo-e artists of the late Meiji period, each of whom used their immense artistic talent and imagination to brilliantly illuminate contemporary conflict as it unfurled.

"Rise of a Japanese Chinatown is the first English-language monograph on the history of a Chinese immigrant community in Japan. It focuses on the transformations of that population in the Japanese port city of Yokohama from the Sino–Japanese War of 1894–1895 to the normalization of Sino–Japanese ties in 1972 and beyond. Eric C. Han narrates the paradoxical story of how, during periods of war and peace, Chinese immigrants found an enduring place within a monoethnic state. This study makes a significant contribution to scholarship on the construction of Chinese and Japanese identities and on Chinese migration and settlement. Using local newspapers, Chinese and Japanese government records, memoirs, and conversations with Yokohama residents, it retells the familiar story of Chinese nation building in the context of Sino-Japanese relations. But it builds on existing works by directing attention as well to non-elite Yokohama Chinese, those who sheltered revolutionary activists and served as an audience for their nationalist messages. Han also highlights contradictions between national and local identifications of these Chinese, who self-identified as Yokohama-ites (hamakko) without claiming Japaneseness or denying their Chineseness. Their historical role in Yokohama’s richly diverse cosmopolitan past can offer insight into a future, more inclusive Japan."

Studying the development, expansion, and eventual collapse of Japanese imperialism from the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 through 1945, Beasley here discusses the dynamic relationship between a successful industrial economy and the building of an empire.

Demonstrates the close relation between Japan’s changing international status and the thought process behind this by focusing on the public discussion on China and China politics during the interwar years 1895-1904. Winner of the JaDe Prize 2010 awarded by the German Foundation for the Promotion of Japanese-German Culture and Science Relations