Issue 23 (November 2009, Volume 4, Number 5)

Our lead review in this issue takes us back to late Victorian London when fascination with Japan was reaching its zenith. In 1885 the seemingly unquenchable demand for knowledge and insights into the mysterious Land of the Rising Sun led to the creation of a mock Japanese village in Knightsbridge populated by Japanese artisans as well as the debut of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ever popular comic opera The Mikado.

In an excellently researched book, Sir Hugh Cortazzi brings back to life the long forgotten Japanese village situated in the heart of Victorian London and examines its connection to the The Mikado.

Susan Meehan provides our annual review of the highly popular “Premiere Japan at BAFTA” event which features some of the most interesting Japanese movies of the year. In this issue Susan looks at three films, Shindo Kaneto’s touching Teacher and Three Children (石内尋常高等小学校 花は散れども), Hiroki Ryuichi’s sentimental and naturalistic Your Friends (きみの友だち) and Kumakiri Kazuyoshi’s emotional rollercoaster Nonko.

Roger Buckley delves into a substantive new work on the Iwakura Embassy to America and Europe which takes off some of the historical gloss surrounding the mission to give us a behind-the-scenes account.

Ian Nish takes us into the murky world of Japanese wartime military intelligence with Ken Kotani’s ground-breaking study “Japanese Intelligence in World War II.”

Sir Hugh Cortazzi explores Brian Burke-Gaffney’s well researched volume on Nagasaki, where the author has lived for many years. Burke-Gaffney furnishes us with some truly intriguing historical and cultural insights.

Fumiko Halloran assesses the intriguing Japanese language book “Okamoto Yukio: Genba Shugi o Tsuranuita Gaikokan” about a former foreign ministry high-flyer who created shockwaves by quitting his job in order to think outside the box and challenge orthodox views.