Introduction: Japan and the Great War

Abstract

Both popular and academic accounts of the First World War often omit East Asia, and any reference to Japan. This is evident not just in the Western historiography of the conflict, but even in the accounts produced in China and Japan. Yet, if the First World War is to be truly understood as a ‘world war’, it has to be seen in its global context. The events in the East Asian theatre and the ways in which the conflict profoundly influenced its political, economic, and social histories in both the domestic and international spheres therefore have to be looked at and analyzed accordingly. This is particularly relevant because, as specific memories of the conflict have receded in time, the orthodox factual and ethical foundations of the Western interpretation of the war are crumbling on different fronts and stress on the military aspects alone is broadening out; thus new aspects of the conflagration can now be identified.