Table of Contents

Introduction: 1919, East Asia, and the Dawning of a New Era

Part I: Era of Sovereignty and Nationalism in East Asia

Chapter 1: Building China Abroad: May Fourth, Overseas Chinese, and the Construction of the Chinese Nation-State

Chapter 2: From Trust to Mistrust: Sino-Japanese Relations after the Versailles Settlement

Chapter 3: The Rise of a New Generation: May Fourth Intellectual Factionalism and the Attacks on Kang Youwei

Chapter 4: The Buryat-Mongol National Movement and Japanese Interests in Siberia, 1917–1919

Chapter 5: 1919: The Historical Origin of the New Cold War on the Korean Peninsula

Part II: War, Peace, and Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific Era

Chapter 6: The Elusive Equality: Versailles as a Turning Point in U.S.-Japan Race Relations

Chapter 7: Making Peace from the Great War: A Generational Shift in Japanese Diplomacy in 1919

Chapter 8: A Lost Chance for Peace: The China Crisis of 1919 and the Debate on Japanese-Chinese Friendship in Japan

Chapter 9: Naval Powers in the Pacific at the Crossroads

Chapter 10: Future War and Future Peace after 1919: Ishiwara Kanji and the Imperial Japanese Army in the Wake of the First World War

Chapter 11: Tragic War, Lasting Peace: Japan and the Construction of Global Peace, 1919-1930

About the Author

Tosh Minohara is professor of US–Japan relations at Kobe University.

Evan Dawley is associate professor of history at Goucher College.

Reviews

As the title indicates, this major collaborative volume takes our attention beyond the Versailles peace conference to what happened in and around a pivotal year--'the 1919 moment.' The truly international background of the contributors reflects another shift of attention, this one opposing the Euro-American focus that has characterized most histories of the post-World War I years to highlight East Asia and East Asians, not merely as passive recipients, but as active agents of postwar transformative changes. From diverse methodological and interpretive approaches, the contributors demonstrate that the year 1919 led to 'a seismic shift in global politics' which East Asians actively attempted to shape as well as challenge.

This groundbreaking volume edited by Tosh Minohara and Evan Dawley helps us overcome all the Eurocentric historical narratives on the moment of 1919 by putting a spotlight on Northeast Asia. The volume makes a persuasive case that seeing 1919 from an East Asian context makes us better understand its global history and its enduring legacies today. Contributors to this volume collectively reorient the way we should think about both the spatialization and the periodization of 1919.

With new empirical and conceptual research and approaches, this volume provides a timely and refreshing historical perspective to help us understand today's South and East Asia, which has been experiencing equally challenging events such as border clashes between India and China, Taiwan's cry for international recognition, Hong Kong's fight for democracy, and China's belligerent policies and confrontations with many countries. Anyone who is interested in what happened one hundred years ago and wants to know the possible future of South and East Asia should read this book.