Consisting of twenty-three essays, The Decade of the Great War examines the 1910s as a pivotal period with deep connections both to the imperialist heyday of the 1880s‒1890s, and to the vibrant global politics, commercial expansion, and social movements of the 1920s. It critically reviews Japan’s diplomatic and military relations, offering both a reexamination of some of the issues addressed in the earlier scholarship on the war years and a needed sense of the breadth of Japan’s new international relations. It highlights the importance of transnational approaches to the study of Japan’s domestic, intra-imperial, and foreign affairs. Together, the essays in this volume provide a wide-range of perspectives on relations within Asia and between Asian, European, and North American states.
Contributors are: Isao Chiba, Yuehtsen Juliette Chung, Evan Dawley, Martin Dusinberre, Bert Edström, Selçuk Esenbel, Rustin B. Gates, Tze-ki Hon, Masato Kimura, Chaisung Lim, John D. Meehan, SJ, Tosh Minohara, Hiromi Mizuno, Tadashi Nakatani, Sochi Naraoka, Yoshiko Okamoto, Sumiko Otsubo, Ewa Pałasz-Rutkowska, Caroline Rose, J. Charles Schencking, Chika Shinohara, Shusuke Takahara, and Sue C. Townsend.

Table of Contents:
Preface …ix Acknowledgements …xi List of Tables …xiv List of Figures …xv List of Volume Editors and Contributors …xviii Japan and the Wider World in the Decade of the Great War: Introduction …1 Tosh Minohara, Tze-ki Hon and Evan Dawley Section 1: Diplomacy and Foreign Relations The Clash of Pride and Prejudice: The Immigration Issue and US-Japan Relations in the 1910s …21 Tosh Minohara From Alliance to Conference: The British Empire, Japan and Pacific Multilateralism, 1911-1921 …45 John D. Meehan Out with the New and in with the Old: Uchida Yasuya and the Great War as a Turning Point in Japanese Foreign Affairs …64 Rustin B. Gates The Imperial Japanese Navy and the First World War: Unprecedented Opportunities and Harsh Realities …83 J. Charles Schencking Securing the Maritime Trade: Triangular Frictions between the Merchant Marines of the US, UK and Japan …107 Masato Kimura From Cooperation to Conflict: Japanese-Russian Relations from the Formation of the Russo-Japanese Entente to the Siberian Intervention …130 Isao Chiba The Wilson Administration and the Mandate Question in the Pacific: Struggle among the Powers over the Disposition of Former German Colonies …149 Shusuke Takahara What Peace Meant to Japan: The Changeover at Paris in 1919 …168 Tadashi Nakatani A New Look at Japan’s Twenty-One Demands: Reconsidering Katō Takaaki’s Motives in 1915 …189 Sōchi Naraoka Japan as a Distant Friend: Scandinavian Countries Adjusting to Japan’s Emergence as a Great Power …211 Bert Edström The Making of a European Friend: Japan’s Recognition of Independent Poland …231 Ewa Pałasz-Rutkowska Friends in Opposite Camps or Enemies from Afar: Japanese and Ottoman Turkish Relations in the Great War …257 Selçuk Esenbel Section 2: National and Transnational Networks Women on the Move: Shifting Patterns in Migration and the Colonization of Taiwan …281 Evan Dawley The Great War and Urban Crisis: Conceptualizing the Industrial Metropolis in Japan and Britain in the 1910s …301 Susan C. Townsend Gender and the Great War: Tsuda Umeko’s Role in Institutionalizing Women’s Education in Japan …323 Chika Shinohara The Science Room as an Archive: Taishō Japan and WWI …349 Hiromi Mizuno Of World History and Great Men: A Japanese Village and its Worlds …372 Martin Dusinberre Buddhism and the Twenty-One Demands: The Politics Behind the International Movement of Japanese Buddhists …394 Yoshiko Okamoto Railroad Workers and World War I: Labor Hygiene and the Policies of Japanese National Railways …415 Chaisung Lim Sovereignty and Imperial Hygiene: Japan and the 1919 Cholera Epidemic in East Asia …439 Yuehtsen Juliette Chung Fighting on Two Fronts: Japan’s Involvement in the Siberian Intervention and the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 …461 Sumiko Otsubo Changing Mutual Perceptions of China-Japan Relations in the 1910s in Chinese and Japanese Textbooks …481 Caroline Rose Global Competition for Power and Wealth: The Chinese Views of the World before and after the Great War …504 Tze-ki Hon Compiled Bibliography …521 Index …532