For most of the twentieth century, a rhetoric of international cooperation for peace and stability persisted as the lingua franca of foreign relations in Japan and around the world, even during the years of rampant nationalisms and global war. The advocacy and practice of multilateral cooperation, though attenuated and often distorted and abused, did not disappear during the years of aggression and war, but instead were channeled into new and unexpected directions. A broad view of international relations—one that takes into account but also looks beyond the official sites of multilateral coope ... More

For most of the twentieth century, a rhetoric of international cooperation for peace and stability persisted as the lingua franca of foreign relations in Japan and around the world, even during the years of rampant nationalisms and global war. The advocacy and practice of multilateral cooperation, though attenuated and often distorted and abused, did not disappear during the years of aggression and war, but instead were channeled into new and unexpected directions. A broad view of international relations—one that takes into account but also looks beyond the official sites of multilateral cooperation—uncovers a continuous evolution of internationalist thought and activity in Japan that extends across the dark valley of war and the historiographical schism of defeat. By examining international engagement not only in global organizations, but also through cultural exchange, the Olympic Games, political theory, and regional conferences, this study highlights connections between imperial and postwar Japan to tell a synthetic history of internationalism, imperialism, and the performance of diplomacy in the twentieth century through the materials of both high diplomacy and mass culture.