Sailor Diplomat : Nomura Kichisaburō and the Japanese-American War

As Japan’s pre–Pearl Harbor ambassador to the United States, Admiral Nomura Kichisaburō (1877–1964) played a significant role in a tense and turbulent period in Japanese–U.S. relations. Scholars tend to view his actions and missteps as ambassador as representing the failure of diplomacy to avert the outbreak of hostilities between the two paramount Pacific powers. This extensively researched biography casts new light on the life and career of this important figure. Connecting his experiences as a naval officer to his service as foreign minister and ambassador, and later as “father” of Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Forces and proponent of the U.S.–Japanese alliance, this study reassesses Nomura’s contributions as a hard-nosed realist whose grasp of the underlying realities of Japanese–U.S. relations went largely unappreciated by the Japanese political and military establishment. In highlighting the complexities and conundrums of Nomura’s position, as well as the role of the Imperial Navy in the formulation of Japan’s foreign policy, Peter Mauch draws upon rarely accessed materials from naval and diplomatic archives in Japan as well as various collections of personal papers, including Nomura’s, which Mauch discovered in 2005 and which are now housed in the National Diet Library. As Japan's pre–Pearl Harbor ambassador to the United States, Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo (1877–1964) played a significant role in a tense and turbulent period in Japanese–U.S. relations. Scholars tend to view his actions and missteps as ambassador as representing the failure of diplomacy to avert the outbreak of hostilities between the two paramount Pacific powers.This extensively researched biography casts new light on the life and career of this important figure. Connecting his experiences as a naval officer to his service as foreign minister and ambassador, and later as “father” of Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces and proponent of the U.S.–Japanese alliance, this study reassesses Nomura's contributions as a hard-nosed realist whose grasp of the underlying realities of Japanese–U.S. relations went largely unappreciated by the Japanese political and military establishment. Admiral Kichisaburo (1877-1964), the father of Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces, played an ambassadorial role during the failed Japanese-American negotiations that preceded the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that propelled the US into World War II. In this biography based on archives and personal papers that Mauch (U. of Western Sydney) discovered, he counters other historians' views of him as either a well-intentioned but bumbling amateur or a loose cannon who didn't tow his government's policies. His assessment of the Admiral as an under-appreciated realist considers him in the context of the complex role of the Imperial Navy in Japan's foreign policy. Photographs show Kichisaburo throughout his career. Distributed by Harvard U. Press. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Sailor Diplomat: Nomura Kichisaburo and the Japanese-American War Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures Preface Sailor Diplomat: Nomura Kichisaburo and the Japanese-American War 1. Nomura’s Early Years (1877–1899) 2. Young Navy Officer (1899–1911) 3. Assignments to China, Tokyo, and Washington (1912–1918) 4. Nomura and the Era of Naval Limitation (1919–1937) 5. Foreign Minister Nomura (September 1939–January 1940) 6. Ambassadorial Appointment (August 1940–January 1941) 7. Ambassador Nomura and the Draft Understanding ( January–April 1941) 8. A Mission Gone Awry (May–October 1941) 9. The Failure of a Mission and War (November 1941–August 1945) 10. Cold Warrior (November 1945–September 1951) Epilogue Reference Matter Notes Bibliography Index Harvard East Asian Monographs This biography casts new light on the life and career of Admiral Nomura Kichisaburō. Connecting his experiences as a naval officer to his service as foreign minister and ambassador, Mauch reassesses Nomura’s contributions as a hard-nosed realist whose grasp of the underlying realities of Japanese–U.S. relations went largely unappreciated.