Britain and the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1939: A Study in the Dilemmas of British Decline

Important new information on the road to war in the Pacific and on Britain's decline as an Asian power is revealed in this book, which is based largely on newly opened, unpublished British Foreign Office and Cabinet records.

The book also takes a fresh look at the continuing debate over appeasement, explaining why Britain pursued a firm line with Japan while assiduously trying to conciliate Germany and Italy. In exploring these contrasting ways of dealing with what were perceived as essentially similar expansionist threats, the author quite naturally examines the interaction of developments in East Asia and Europe. Never losing sight of the importance of Anglo-American relations or of Britain's military weakness, he attempts to place Britain's East Asian policy within the overall framework of her response to a global crisis.

Considerable attention is given to showing how profoundly the Chamberlain government's inaccurate estimates of the relative strengths of the Chinese Nationalist government, the Japanese militarists, the Chinese Communist movement, and Soviet capabilities in the Far East affected the development and implementation of British policy.