30 - Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) and His Tour of Britain, 1920-1921

Summary

YANAIHARA TADAO (1893–1961) is probably best known for his opposition to the so-called ‘China Incident’ in 1937 and has been described as a ‘scholar, teacher, Christian, and pioneer in Japanese colonial studies’. He occupied the Chair of Colonial Policy at Tokyo Imperial University from 1923 until he was forced to resign in 1937 after the notorious ‘Yanaihara Incident’ caused a scandal, which rocked the academic world. Yanaihara resumed his teaching after the war and taught international economics at the University of Tokyo. He served as president of the University from 1951 to 1957.

Yanaihara's study of Japanese and international colonialism was the most comprehensive of its kind before the Pacific War. His thought was profoundly influenced by the internationalist and educator, Nitobe Inazō (1862–1933), and the founder of the mukyōkai or ‘Non-church’ Christian movement, Uchimura Kanzō (1861–1930). It was Uchimura who persuaded Yanaihara to convert to Christianity and, after Uchimura's death in 1930, Yanaihara became a leading light of the Non-church movement. His far-sighted, liberal critique of Japanese colonial policy was informed by Nitobe's humanitarian and liberal ideals as well as by Uchimura's Christian concepts of social and international justice. His ideas and principles, however, were also shaped by his travels through the British Isles from his arrival in London in December 1920 until his departure for a tour of Europe in September 1921. This chapter charts his impressions of Britain and examines the ways in which his studies influenced his thought.

LONDON LIFE

A study-tour of Europe and the United States was an essential part of the training of young graduates destined for positions within Japan's imperial universities, but it was less common for budding academics to be sent to Britain. One of the main reasons why Yanaihara found himself in London was that in the early 1880s J.R. Seeley, Regius Professor of History in Cambridge, was partly responsible for establishing the history of empire as a defined field of study. In addition, Nitobe's economic theories were profoundly influenced by Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and, indeed, Yanaihara was tasked with cataloguing Adam Smith's library after Nitobe had it shipped to Tokyo Imperial University.