George Sansom - Japan in World History

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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: JAPAN

JAPAN IN WORLD HISTORY

JAPAN IN WORLD HISTORY

GEORGE SANSOM

Volume 45

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published in 1952
This edition first published in 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

1952 George Allen & Unwin Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0-203-84506-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 13:978-0-415-56498-4 (Set)

eISBN 13:978-0-203-84317-8 (Set)

ISBN 13:978-0-415-58539-2 (Volume 45)

eISBN 13:978-0-203-84506-6 (Volume 45)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would
welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

JAPAN IN WORLD HISTORY

BY

SIR GEORGE SANSOM

Issued under the auspices of the
INSTITUTE OF PACIFIC RELATIONS

London

GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD

RUSKIN HOUSE MUSEUM STREET

This book is based on a series of lectures
delivered by Sir George Sansom in Japan,
under the joint auspices of the Japan Institute
of Pacific Relations and the University of
Tokyo. These lectures were made possible
by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation,
and first published by the Institute of Pacific
Relations in 1951.

THIS EDITION FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1952

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

This book is copyright wider the Berne Convention. Apart from any
fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1911, no portion may
be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiry
should be made to the publishers.

CONTENTS

Page

I.
INTRODUCTORY

The main purpose of these lectures is to make a small contribution to close and friendly relations between students of history in Japan and those in Western countries. I have come to ask your help in the promotion of Western studies of Japanese history andvery diffidentlyto suggest some ways in which Western students can make a modest contribution to the work of Japanese scholars.

I wish to make it clear that I have no right and I certainly have no desireto pose as an authority upon Japanese history. No foreigner can aspire to that, no foreigner can hope to achieve the depth of knowledge and understanding which we expect from Japanese scholars. We foreign students must depend upon their work; we must regard ourselves as pupils, not as teachers; and we must think ourselves fortunate if Japanese historians will take the trouble to instruct us or to guide our studies.

At the same time it is essential that Western scholars should pursue the study of Japanese (and all Far Eastern) history, even though they are bound to be dependent in many things upon the findings of Japanese historians. The West must know something of the history of the East for two very good and obvious reasons. Firstly, it is important from the point of view of international relations that Western countries should know as much as possible about the development of Eastern civilizations. And, secondly, since the study of history is an important branch of the study of human behaviour, it cannot be complete if it does not pay serious attention to the thoughts, the sentiments and the actions of the numerous populations of Eastern Asia.

These are obvious facts, and scarcely need be recited to any audience in a distinguished centre of learning like this great university. But they are facts which are often overlooked in academic circles in Western countries, principally, I think, because a long tradition of the liberal humanities in the West has so stressed the importance of classical studiesbased upon the cultures of Greece and Romethat until recent years, oriental studies have usually been regarded as almost eccentric, or at any rate so specialized as to be outside the sphere of orthodox higher education. They are a respectable, indeed a dignified, branch of learning, but they are in Western countries not yet widespread or advanced.

The subject about which I have the privilege to speak to you I have described as JAPAN IN WORLD HISTORY, and I should like to say a few words in explanation of that title.

I sometimes think that Western students are apt to exaggerate the isolation of Japan, and to assume that her history until modern times has little connection with or bearing upon the history of the rest of the world. Japans geographic position certainly made foreign intercourse difficult, and it is true that for about two hundred years she deliberately though not completely cut herself off from foreign influences. But a space of two centuries is not long in a nations history; and apart from that, as the chronicle of Buddhism alone is sufficient to show, Japan was never for long beyond the reach of spiritual and material influences from other parts of Asia.

Modern Europeans, so accustomed to worldwide travel, easily forget that before the great age of discovery and the great maritime voyages of the sixteenth century, their own range of vision was also restricted; and this is perhaps even truer of Englandan island country like Japanthan of other Western states.

You will remember that Marco Polo was nicknamed II Milione, The man of millions, because he was thought to have exaggerated numbers in his Description of the World. The story goes that because great and vast and almost incredible things were described in his book, he was asked by his friends to correct it, and to tone down his wonderful tales. However that may be, his accounts of Mongolia and China, Java, Sumatra and Ceylon, though in the main truthful, were not generally believed in his day; and that was because of the ignorance of Asia which then prevailed in the West. Most of that continent, and particularly the Far East, was regarded as remote and mysteriousanother world, unrelated to the world of European civilization about 1320.

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