Dominion and the Rising Sun
The Dominion and the Rising Sun is the first major study ofCanada’s diplomatic arrival in Japan and, by extension, EastAsia. It examines the political, economic, and cultural relationsforged during this seminal period between the foremost power in Asiaand the young dominion tentatively establishing itself in worldaffairs.
The book begins with the opening in 1929 of the Canadian legation inTokyo -- Canada’s third such office overseas -- and concludeswith the outbreak of hostilities in 1941. Primarily a diplomatichistory, the book also assesses the impact of traders, interest groups,and missionaries on Canadian attitudes toward Japan during the interwaryears. More fundamentally, it examines Canada’s diplomatic comingof age closely, revealing its important Pacific dimension and thetension between Canada’s commitment to peace and its trade withan aggressor.
Meehan has given us an important book that will serve as a benchmark for future historical research related to Canada-Japan relations…The book reminds us of long-forgotten details of Canadian foreign policy…[and] Meehan rightly upbraids traditionalists for the ‘Eurocentric focus of studies of Canada’s inter-war foreign policy.'
A well-written and well-researched book, The Dominion and the Rising Sun will be, for many years, the starting point of future studies on Canada-Japan and Canada-East Asia research.
With its seamless prose and array of interesting details, John Meehan’s The Dominion of the Rising Sun is an accessible piece of scholarship on a previously neglected story within Canadian diplomatic history, Canada’s official relations with Japan from 1929 to 1941.
College, University of Regina.
Tables, Maps, and Photographs
Acknowledgments
Note on Names
Abbreviations
Prologue: Raising the Flag
1 A Window on the Orient
2 From Grand Beginnings to Depression Diplomacy
3 Manchuria Erupts
4 Failure at Geneva
5 The Calm before the Storm
6 A Bitter National Spirit
7 A Rude Awakening
8 The Road to War
9 Pacific Promise
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
