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Rondon nikki, 1936-7 [London Diary 1936-7] by Oka Yoshitake, and Edited by Shinohara Hajime and Mitani Taiichiro (Japanese), Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 1997, 359 pages, ISBN 4-00-022357-7 Review by Ian Nish Readers may like to receive a brief notice (rather belatedly, I fear) of an interesting and insightful work. It is the London Diary of the Japanese academic, Oka Yoshitake (1902-1990) who became after the war one of the most eminent professors of Japanese political history at the University of Tokyo. As an assistant at that university, he spent the years 1936-7 on sabbatical in Britain, based in London. He wrote substantial diary entries daily and these were dutifully assembled by two of his successors after his death. He arrived in London by the Hakusan-maru in May 1936 with an encouraging message from Minobe Tatsukichi. As a graduate student he appears to have spent his time between Student Movement House, the Public Record Office, the London School of Economics and the Albert Hall (because he had a deep interest in western music). As a political scientist he were immersed in the study of fascism, National Socialism and communism and moved in circles close to the Fabian movement. He could not fail to be fascinated by the abdication of King Edward VIII, the political crisis that ensued and the general vitality of political life. He moved beyond Britain and examined the progress of an independent Ireland. The volume ends with an article written by Professor Oka in 1938 about students at the LSE and analyses by the two editors of the effects of this overseas immersion on Oka's political philosophy. He left Europe before the crisis erupted in East Asia in July; but he was much affected by the sinister movements in continental Europe. So far as Britain was concerned, he seems to have had a benign respect for the country but he makes some judicious criticisms of its policies. It is salutary for a Briton to read these contemporary reflections by a Japanese intellectual, which were probably never intended for publication. |
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