This volume examines key issues within international relations in East Asia between the end of the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895 and the present, with particular reference to the role of Japan. The principal theme concerns conflict and amity in Japan's relations with other powers as reflected in developments culminating in the Pacific war (1941-45) and in the repercussions of the war for the ensuing pattern of relations from 1945 to the present.

The authors are colleagues or students of Ian Nish who has made outstanding pioneering contributions in fostering the study of Japan within international relations, and the volume is in honour of Ian Nish on the occasion of his retirement from the London School of Economics. It is a timely reminder of the rivalries that led to the outbreak of the Pacific war in December 1941, and of the struggle for a more stable order to accommodate Japan as an outstanding economic power.