Ian Nish
Encyclopedia
Ian Hill Nish CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (June 3, 1926 - ) is a British academic, a specialist in Japanese studies, and Emeritus Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
His scholarship relating to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Anglo-Japanese Alliance
The first was signed in London at what is now the Lansdowne Club, on January 30, 1902, by Lord Lansdowne and Hayashi Tadasu . A diplomatic milestone for its ending of Britain's splendid isolation, the alliance was renewed and extended in scope twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1921...

, Japanese foreign policy and Anglo-Japanese relations in the twentieth century has garnered international renown.

War years

World War II gave opportunity to many young non-Japanese to become specialists in Japanese studies; and Ian Nish became one of them. His first encounter with Japanese came when he was still an Edinburgh schoolboy. His school announced a government program for volunteers who wanted to learn difficult Oriental languages, but he was too young then to apply. Three years later—not yet 18 but in the army and, with infantry and artillery training, posted to India—he put in for a crash course in Japanese and was accepted.

The School of Japanese Studies had been opened in an old mansion in Simla, and it later moved to Karachi. The program had strong courses in Japanese language, but nothing in Japanese history or the nature of Japanese society. With the end of the war and the end of the course, the "semi-linguists" were sent to the Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center in Johore Bahru, Malaya. The course graduates were given translation duties, and were used as interpreters at Changi prison.

Within a few months, Nish was ordered to Japan.

In Kure
Kure, Hiroshima
is a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 240,820 and a population density of 681 persons per km². The total area is 353.74 km².- History :...

, Nish found himself in the headquarters of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Center. Amongst varied duties in the Translation Section, he was assigned to translate regional newspapers. In that role, he and others were not called upon to draw on their knowledge of the older 'kanji' which they had painstakingly learned, since a working list of 1,800 characters had been specified by the Ministry of Education for use in the press from New Year's Eve, 1946.

Academic career

Two years on, Nish faced a choice. He could go to the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...

 (SOAS) in London and begin a degree in Japanese, or he could return to Edinburgh to pick up his interrupted honors degree in history. He chose the second option, and was awarded his M.A. from Edinburgh University three years later.

In Japan, Nish had collected material on the Anglo-Japanese alliance which had been formalized in 1902. With that material in hand, he moved to SOAS to begin work on his doctorate. At SOAS, he became a student member of the Japan Society of London and the China Society.

Nish's first academic appointment was to the history department of the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

. He spent six months in Japan on his way to Australia in 1957. He remembers that Sydney students at that time were becoming more interested in Japan. As he recalls, the courses in Asian history were ranked as popular during this period.

Nish stayed in Australia until 1962. On his return to England, he embarked on his 30 significant years of "congenial teaching" as a Japan specialist in the international history department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Two of his specialized courses there resulted in two monograph publications: "Origins of the Russo-Japanese War" and "Japan's Struggle with Internationalism". Nish pursued his own research into the history of Anglo-Japanese relations, which led to two more books.

He was an active member of the Japan Society; and he was secretary of the British Association for Japanese Studies
British Association for Japanese studies
The British Association for Japanese Studies, BAJS, is an association at Essex University in the United Kingdom, whose aim is to promote studies in the Japan...

 (BAJS). For three years from 1985 to 1988, he was president of the European Association for Japanese Studies
European Association for Japanese Studies
The European Association for Japanese Studies was established in 1973 by European scholars in order to facilitate academic exchange in the field of Japanese studies within Europe....

 (EAJS).

Nish retired in 1991. The emeritus professor then accepted the position of honorary senior research associate of the Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD). This position proved invaluable in enabling Nish to complete certain research projects which were crowded out by administrative chores during his last years of teaching.

In 2001-2002, two volumes of his collected writings were simultaneously published in Britain and Japan.

Nish was the Honorary Chief British Coordinator of the Anglo-Japanese History Project; and, to mark the centenary of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

, compiled and introduced an eight-volume collection of important historical works and documents, The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5 (2004).

Honors

Modestly, Nish suggests that "a foreign scholar of Japan is often only a middleman attempting to distill the ideas of Japanese scholars".
  • Japan Academy (Honorary member), 2007.
  • Commander of the British Empire
    Order of the British Empire
    The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

    .
  • Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon
    Order of the Rising Sun
    The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...

    , 1991.
  • Japan Foundation
    Japan Foundation
    The was established in 1972 by an Act of the Japanese Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an independent administrative institution under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Ministry of Japan on 1 October 2003 under the "Independent...

    : Japan Foundation Award, 1991.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Ian Nish, OCLC
OCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...

/WorldCat
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

 encompasses roughly 200+ works in 300+ publications in 4 languages and 7,000+ library holdings.

2003
  • Nish, Ian, ed. The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5: A Collection of Eight Volumes. Folkestone, Kent : Global Oriental
    Global Oriental
    Global Oriental is an imprint of the Dutch publishing house Brill . It used to be trade publishing company based in Kent, United Kingdom. It is the publisher of scholarly books on Japan and East Asia in fields such as History, Martial Arts, Arts and Literature...

    http://www.globaloriental.co.uk/book.asp?Title_ID=1. 10-ISBN 1-901903-06-0; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90306-5 (set) -- OCLC 56955351
    • Volume 1: Historical Introduction Selected papers and Documents by Ian Nish
    • Volume 2: A Staff officer’s Scrap-book during the Russo-Japanese War, Vol. I (1905) by Sir Ian Hamilton. 10-ISBN 1-901-90317-6; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90317-1
    • Volume 3: A Staff officer’s Scrap-book during the Russo-Japanese War, Vol. II (1907) by Sir Ian Hamilton. 10-ISBN 1-901-90322-2; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90322-5
    • Volume 4: With the Russians in Manchuria (1905) by Maurice Baring
      Maurice Baring
      Maurice Baring was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent...

      . 10-ISBN 1-901-90327-3; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90327-0
    • Volume 5: The War in the Far East (1905) by Charles à Court Repington
      Charles à Court Repington
      Lieutenant Colonel Charles à Court Repington , CMG, was a British Army officer and war correspondent.-Biography:Charles Repington was born at Heytesbury, Wiltshire in 1858, where his father was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament...

      . 10-ISBN 1-901-90332-X; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90332-4
    • Volume 6: Port Arthur. The Siege and Capitulation (1906) by Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett
      Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett
      Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett was a British war correspondent during the First World War. Through his reporting of the Battle of Gallipoli, Ashmead-Bartlett was instrumental in the birth of the Anzac legend which still dominates military history in Australia and New Zealand...

      . 10-ISBN 1-901-90337-0; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90337-9
    • Volume 7: http://books.google.com/books?id=QYRCAAAAIAAJ&dq=From+Libau+to+Tsushima:+A+narrative+of+the+voyage+of+Admiral+Rojdestvensky%E2%80%99s+fleet+to+Eastern+seas,+including+a+detailed+account+of+the+Dogger+Bank+Incident&lr=&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 From Libau to Tsushima: A narrative of the voyage of Admiral Rojdestvensky’s fleet to Eastern seas, including a detailed account of the Dogger Bank Incident,] tr. Major Frederick Rowlandson Godfrey (1906) By Eugene S. Politovsky. 10-ISBN 1-901-90342-7; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90342-3
    • Volume 8: The Battle of Tsushima
      Tsushima Island
      Tsushima Island is an island of the Japanese Archipelago situated in the middle of the Tsushima Strait at 34°25'N and 129°20'E. The main island of Tsushima was once a single island, but the island was divided into two in 1671 by the Ōfunakosiseto canal and into three in 1900 by the Manzekiseto canal...

       Between the Japanese and Russian Fleets, fought on 27 May 1905,
      tr. Captain Alexander Bertram Lindsay (1912) by Captain Vladimir Semeoff; combined with A Subaltern in Old Russia, tr. Ivor Montagu (1944) by Lieutenant-General A.A. Ignatyev. 10-ISBN 1-901-90347-8; 13-ISBN 978-1-901-90347-8


2002
  • Nish, Ian. Collected Writings, Part 2: Japan, Russian and East Asia. (Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan, Vol. 7.) London: Routledge
    Routledge
    Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...

    . 10-ISBN 1-903-35012-3; ISBN 978-1-903-35012-6 (cloth)


2001
  • Nish, Ian. Collected Writings, Part 1. (Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan, Vol. 6.) London: Routledge
    Routledge
    Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...

    . 10-ISBN 1-873-41060-3; ISBN 978-1-873-41060-8 (cloth)


2000
  • Nish, Ian. "Echoes of Alliance, 1920-1930" in The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations, Vol. I (edited by Ian Nish and Yoichi Kibata). London: Macmillan
    Macmillan Publishers
    Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...

    .
  • _________. "Itō Hirobumi
    Ito Hirobumi
    Prince was a samurai of Chōshū domain, Japanese statesman, four time Prime Minister of Japan , genrō and Resident-General of Korea. Itō was assassinated by An Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist who was against the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire...

    's Overseas Sojourns," Bulletin of the European Association of Japanese Studies, Vol. 55.
  • _________. "Nationalism in Japan" in In Asian Nationalism (edited by M. Leifer). London: Routledge
    Routledge
    Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...

    .
  • _________. Nichi-ei Kotsushi, Vol. I: 1600-1930; Vol. II: 1930-2000. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press
    University of Tokyo Press
    The is a university press affiliated with the University of Tokyo in Japan. It was founded in 1951, following the post-World War II reorganization of the university.-Location:...

    .
  • _________. "Policies of the European Powers in Southeast Asia, 1893-1910" in King Chulalongkorn
    Chulalongkorn
    Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Chulalongkorn Phra Chunla Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama V was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri. He was known to the Siamese of his time as Phra Phuttha Chao Luang . He is considered one of the greatest kings of Siam...

    's Visit to Europe
    (edited by C. Tingsabadh). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press.
  • _________. "Repercussions of the Asia-Pacific War on Independence Movements in Indonesia" in Europe, Southeast Asia in the Contemporary World (edited by P. Bunnag, F. Knipping, S. Chonchirdsin, S. Nomos.
  • _________ and Yoichi Kibata. The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations: The Political-diplomatic Dimension. Vol. I: 1600-1930; Vol. II: 1930-2000. London: Macmillan. 10-ISBN 1-403-91967-4; 13-ISBN 978-1-403-91967-0


1999
  • Nish, Ian."Aoki Shūzō
    Aoki Shuzo
    was a diplomat and Foreign Minister in Meiji period Japan.-Biography:Viscount Aoki was born to a samurai family as son of the Chōshū domain's physician in what is now part of Sanyō Onoda in Yamaguchi Prefecture)...

     1844-1914" in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. 3 (edited by J.E. Hoare). London: Curzon
    Curzon
    Curzon may refer to:As a British family name, it particularly refers to the Curzon family, and is an Anglo-Norman territorial name. The Curzon family was involved in the Norman Conquest, and is named after the French town of Notre-Dame-de-Courson in Normandy from which they hail; their seat is at...

    .
  • _________. "Auviarsi del Giappone verso L'Autonomia Economica: La Marina Mercantile" in La Rinascita di una Grande Potenza (edited by V. Ferretti, G. Giordano). Francoangeli.
  • _________. "Britain and Postwar Thinking on Decolonization in Southeast Asia, 1943-1946" in Europe and Southeast Asia in the Contemporary World (edited by F. Knipping). Nomos.
  • _________. "Changing Japan," Euro-Japanese Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1.
  • _________. "George Bailey Sansom
    George Bailey Sansom
    Sir George Bailey Sansom was a historian of pre-modern Japan particularly noted for his historical surveys and attention to Japanese society....

     and his Tokyo Friends, 1903-47," Bulletin of the Asiatic Society of Japan, No. 8.

  • _________. "Sir George Sansom: Diplomat and Historian" (Annual Cortazzi Lecture) in Proceedings of the Japan Society.


1994
  • Nish, Ian and James E. Hoare
    James Hoare
    James Edward Hoare is a British academic and historian specializing in Chinese and Korean studies, and a career diplomat in the British Foreign Office.-Academia:Dr. Hoare is a graduate of London's School of Oriental and African Studies...

    , eds. Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. II. London: RoutledgeCurzon. 10-ISBN 1-873-41062-X
  • _________, ed. Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. I. Folkestone, Kent: Japan Library
    Global Oriental
    Global Oriental is an imprint of the Dutch publishing house Brill . It used to be trade publishing company based in Kent, United Kingdom. It is the publisher of scholarly books on Japan and East Asia in fields such as History, Martial Arts, Arts and Literature...

    . 10-ISBN 1-873-41027-1


1972

1966

Centre for Economic Performance

Prof. Nish co-authored a number of Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) papers:
  • 2005 - On the Periphery of the Russo-Japanese War Part II by Ian Nish, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/2005/491: Read Full paper (pdf) -- May '08.
  • 2004 - On the Periphery of the Russo-Japanese War - Part I by John Chapman, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/2004/475: Read Full paper (pdf) -- 2008
  • 2003 - Studies in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1923). Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, Ian Nish, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/2003/443: Read Full paper (pdf) -- May 2008
  • 2002 - Anglo-Japanese Alliance by Ayako Hotta-Lister, Ian Nish, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/2002/432: Read [ Full paper (pdf) -- May '08]
  • 1997 - Japan in the 1950s by Valdo Ferretti, Peter Lowe, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1997/322.
  • 1994 - The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 in its International Dimension by J Berryman, K Neilson, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1994/278.
  • 1991 - Aspects of the Allied Occupation of Japan, Part II by Susie Harries, Ian Nish, L. van Poelgeest: Paper No. IS/1991/229.
  • 1991 - Japan - Thailand Relations by Nigel Brailey, Patrick Davis, Junzo Iida, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1991/228.
  • 1991 - East Asia in the Postwar Period, 1945-55 by Farooq Bajwa, Yoichi Kibata, Ian Nish, Ann Trotter: Paper No. IS/1991/225.
  • 1991 - The Occupation of Japan 1945-52 by Akira Amakawa, Makoto Iokibe, Walter Miller, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1991/224.
  • 1991 - The British Commonwealth and its Contribution to the Occupation of Japan, 1945-1948 by W G Beasley, Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Bruce Kirkpatrick, T B Millar, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1991/227: Read Full paper (pdf) -- May '08.
  • 1990 - Shigemitsu Studies by Antony Best, Ian Nish, L. van Poelgeest, Takahiko Tanaka: Paper No. IS/1990/219.
  • 1990 - Shigemitsu Studies by Antony Best, Ian Nish, L. van Poelgeest, Takahiko Tanaka: Paper No. IS/1990/219.
  • 1990 - The Soviet Union in East Asia by Jonathan Haslam, Ian Nish, Jon Pardoe, Zhang Yongjin: Paper No. IS/1990/213.
  • 1990 - The Social History of Occupied Japan: 1: Some Sources and Problems, 2: British Writings on Japanese Historyby Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, Ian Nish: Paper No. JS/1990/214: Read Full paper (pdf) -- May '08.

  • 1990 - The Japanese Constitution of 1889 by Stephen S. Large, Ian Nish, Chuhei Sugiyama: Paper No. IS/1989/208.
  • 1989 - Educational and Technological Exchange in 19th Century Asia by Oliver Checkland, E C.T. Chew, Ian Nish, Chuhei Sugiyama: Paper No. IS/1989/204.
  • 1989 - Japan and the Second World War. Toshiko Marks, Ian Nish, R. John Pritchard; Paper No. IS/1989/197.
  • 1989 - Interwar Japanby Janet Hunter, James W. Morley, Takafusa Nakamura, Ian Nish (1989): Paper No. IS/1989/187.
  • 1988 - Borrowing and Adaptation: Studies in Tokugawa, Meiji and Taisho Japan by Naoki Hiraishi, Ian Nish (1988): Paper No' IS/1988/177.
  • 1987 - South Asia in International Affairs 1947-56 by Premen Addy, Ian Nish, Anita Inder Singh, Takahiko Tanaka: Paper No. IS/1987/166.
  • 1987 - Aspects of the Korean War by Akira Iriye, Olof Lidin, Peter Lowe, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1987/152.
  • 1986 - German-Japanese Relations in the 1930s by Nobutoshi Hagihara, Kiyoshi Ikeda, Ian Nish, Ian Nish, Erich Pauer: Paper No' IS/1986/140.
  • 1986 - Anglo-Japanese Relations in the 1930s and 1940s by A Adamthwaite, Yoichi Kibata, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1986/137.
  • 1986 - Aspects of the Allied Occupation of Japan by H Baerwald, Roger Buckley, Ian Nish, Ann Trotter: Paper No. IS/1986/131.
  • 1985 - Anglo-Japanese Naval Relations by John Chapman, Ian Gow, Kiyoshi Ikeda, Ian Nish, Chit-Chung Ong: Paper No. IS/1985/127.
  • 1985 - 1945 in South-East Asia - Part Two by Ian Nish, Masaya Shiraishi: Paper No. IS/1985/123.
  • 1985 - 1945 in South-East Asia - Part One by Louis Allen, Ian Nish, T. Smitabhindu, Judith Stowe: Paper No. IS/1985/116.
  • 1984 - Aspects of Anglo-Korean Relations by Roger Bullen, James Hoare
    James Hoare
    James Edward Hoare is a British academic and historian specializing in Chinese and Korean studies, and a career diplomat in the British Foreign Office.-Academia:Dr. Hoare is a graduate of London's School of Oriental and African Studies...

    , Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1984/90.
  • 1984 - The Tripartite Pact of 1940: Japan, Germany and Italy by Ernest Bramsted, John Chapman, Jost Dulffer, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1984/107.
  • 1983 - The British Commonwealth and the Occupation of Japan by G Bolton, Gordon Daniels, G Goodman, Hamish Ion, Ian Nish, Eiji Takemae: Paper No. IS/1983/78.
  • 1982 - Some Aspects of Soviet-Japanese Relations in the 1930s by B Bridges, John Chapman, Jonathan Haslam, Akira Iriye, Ian Nish, Haruhiko Nishi: Paper No. IS/1982/56.
  • 1982 - The East Asian Crisis, 1945-1951 - The Problem of China, Korea and Japan by Roger Dingman, Chihiro Hosoya, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1982/49.
  • 1982 - Bakumatsu and Meiji: Studies in Japan's Economic and Social History by Oliver Checkland, Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, J-P Lehmann, Ian Nish, Shinya Sugiyama: Paper No. IS/1982/42.
  • 1981 - The Russian Problem in East Asia by Peter Lowe, Ian Nish, Naotake Nobuhara, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/1981/38.
  • 1980 - Some Foreign Attitudes to Republican China by Dudley Cheke, Taichiro Mitani, Ian Nish, David Steeds, Ann Trotter: Paper No. IS/1980/16.

See also

  • Global Oriental
    Global Oriental
    Global Oriental is an imprint of the Dutch publishing house Brill . It used to be trade publishing company based in Kent, United Kingdom. It is the publisher of scholarly books on Japan and East Asia in fields such as History, Martial Arts, Arts and Literature...

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