Ian Hill Nish

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(3 June 1926 – 31 July 2022) was a British academic. A specialist in Japanese studies, he was Emeritus Professor of International History at the

London School of Economics and Political Science , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

(LSE). His scholarship relating to the

Anglo-Japanese Alliance The first was an alliance between Britain and Japan, signed in January 1902. The alliance was signed in London at Lansdowne House on 30 January 1902 by Lord Lansdowne, British Foreign Secretary, and Hayashi Tadasu, Japanese diplomat. A dip ...

, Japanese foreign policy and Anglo-Japanese relations in the twentieth century has garnered international renown.Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
''Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits,'' book launch.

Early life and war years

Nish was born in

Burghmuirhead Burghmuirhead (sometimes anglicised as Boroughmuirhead) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area lies between Bruntsfield to the north and Morningside to the south. West is Merchiston and east is Greenhill and then The Grange. The area w ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, on 3 June 1926. World War II gave opportunity to many young non-Japanese to become specialists in Japanese studies, and Nish became one of them. His first encounter with Japan came when he was still an Edinburgh schoolboy. His school announced a government program for volunteers who wanted to learn difficult Oriental languages, but he was too young then to apply. Three years later — not yet 18 but in the army and, with infantry and artillery training, posted to India — he put in for a crash course in Japanese and was accepted.Kenrick, Vivienne
"Personality Profile: Ian Nish,"
''Japan Times.'' 18 September 2004 -- May '08. The School of Japanese Studies had been opened in an old mansion in Simla, and it later moved to Karachi. The program had strong courses in Japanese language, but nothing in Japanese history or the nature of Japanese society. With the end of the war and the end of the course, the "semi-linguists" were sent to the Southeast Asia Translation and Interrogation Center in Johore Bahru, Malaya. The course graduates were given translation duties, and were used as interpreters at Changi prison. Within a few months, Nish was ordered to Japan. In

Kure is a port and major shipbuilding city situated on the Seto Inland Sea in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. With a strong industrial and naval heritage, Kure hosts the second-oldest naval dockyard in Japan and remains an important base for the Japan M ...

, Nish found himself in the headquarters of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Center. Amongst varied duties in the Translation Section, he was assigned to translate regional newspapers. In that role, he and others were not called upon to draw on their knowledge of the older 'kanji' which they had learned, since a working list of 1,800 characters had been specified by the Ministry of Education for use in the press from New Year's Eve, 1946.

Academic career

Two years later, Nish faced a choice. He could go to the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

(SOAS) in London and begin a degree in Japanese, or he could return to Edinburgh to pick up his interrupted honors degree in history. He chose the second option, and was awarded his M.A. from

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...

three years later. In Japan, Nish had collected material on the Anglo-Japanese alliance which had been formalized in 1902. With that material in hand, he moved to SOAS to begin work on his doctorate. At SOAS, he became a student member of the Japan Society of London and the China Society. Nish's first academic appointment was to the history department of the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. He spent six months in Japan on his way to Australia in 1957. He remembers that Sydney students at that time were becoming more interested in Japan. As he recalls, the courses in Asian history were ranked as popular during this period. Nish stayed in Australia until 1962. On his return to England, he embarked on 30 years of "congenial teaching" as a Japan specialist in the international history department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Two of his specialized courses there resulted in two monograph publications: "Origins of the Russo-Japanese War" and "Japan's Struggle with Internationalism". Nish pursued his own research into the history of Anglo-Japanese relations, which led to two more books. He was an active member of the Japan Society; and he was secretary of the

British Association for Japanese Studies The British Association for Japanese Studies, ''BAJS'', is an association at Essex University in the United Kingdom, whose aim is to promote studies in Japan. Founded in 1974, the organisation is a member of the Japan Library Group and hands out the ...

(BAJS). For three years from 1985 to 1988, he was president of the

European Association for Japanese Studies The European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS or ヨーロッパ日本研究協会　ヨーロッパにほんけんきゅうきょうかい) was established in 1973 by European scholars in order to facilitate academic exchange in the field of ...

(EAJS).Nish, Ian
''Collected Writings, Part 1,'' p. xii.
/ref> Nish retired in 1991. He then accepted the position of honorary senior research associate of the Suntory Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD). This position proved invaluable in enabling Nish to complete certain research projects which were crowded out by administrative chores during his last years of teaching. In 2001-2002, two volumes of his collected writings were simultaneously published in Britain and Japan. Nish was the Honorary Chief British Coordinator of the Anglo-Japanese History Project; and, to mark the centenary of the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, compiled and introduced an eight-volume collection of important historical works and documents, ''The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5'' (2004).

Personal life and death

Nish died on 31 July 2022, at the age of 96.

Honors

Nish suggests that "a foreign scholar of Japan is often only a middleman attempting to distill the ideas of Japanese scholars". *

Japan Academy The Japan Academy (Japanese: 日本学士院, ''Nihon Gakushiin'') is an honorary organisation and science academy founded in 1879 to bring together leading Japanese scholars with distinguished records of scientific achievements. The Academy is c ...

(Honorary member), 2007. *

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. * Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 1991. *

Japan Foundation The was established in 1972 by an Act of the National Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture, and became an Independent Administrative Institution under the jurisdiction of the Ministry o ...

: Japan Foundation Award, 1991.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Nish,

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

encompasses roughly 200+ works in 300+ publications in 4 languages and 7,000+ library holdings. 2003 * Nish, Ian, ed
''The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5: A Collection of Eight Volumes.''
Folkestone, Kent : Global Oriental

(set) -
OCLC 56955351
** Volume 1: ''Historical Introduction Selected papers and Documents'' by Ian Nish ** Volume 2
''A Staff officer’s Scrap-book during the Russo-Japanese War, Vol. I''
(1905) by

Sir Ian Hamilton Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, (16 January 1853 – 12 October 1947) was a British Army general who had an extensive British Imperial military career in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Hamilton was twice recommended for the Victoria Cros ...

. ** Volume 3: ''A Staff officer’s Scrap-book during the Russo-Japanese War, Vol. II'' (1907) by

. ** Volume 4
''With the Russians in Manchuria''
(1905) by

Maurice Baring Maurice Baring (27 April 1874 – 14 December 1945) was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent, with particular knowledge of Russia. During Wo ...

. ** Volume 5:
''The War in the Far East''
(1905) by

Charles à Court Repington Charles à Court Repington, , (29 January 1858 – 25 May 1925), known until 1903 as Charles à Court, was an English soldier, who went on to have a second career as an influential war correspondent during the First World War. He is also credited ...

. ** Volume 6
''Port Arthur. The Siege and Capitulation''
(1906) by

Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett (11 February 1881 – 4 May 1931) was an English war correspondent during the First World War. Through his reporting of the Battle of Gallipoli, Ashmead-Bartlett was instrumental in the birth of the Anzac legend which ...

. ** Volume 7
''From Libau to Tsushima: A narrative of the voyage of Admiral Rojdestvensky’s fleet to Eastern seas, including a detailed account of the Dogger Bank Incident,''
tr. Major Frederick Rowlandson Godfrey (1906) By Eugene S. Politovsky. ** Volume 8: ''The Battle of Tsushima Between the Japanese and Russian Fleets, fought on 27 May 1905,'' tr. Captain Alexander Bertram Lindsay (1912) by Captain Vladimir Semeoff; combined with ''A Subaltern in Old Russia,'' tr. Ivor Montagu (1944) by Lieutenant-General A.A. Ignatyev. 2002 * Nish, Ian
''Collected Writings,'' Part 2: Japan, Russian and East Asia.
(''Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan,'' Vol. 7.) London:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. (cloth) 2001 * Nish, Ian
''Collected Writings,'' Part 1.
(''Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan,'' Vol. 6.) London:

. (cloth) 2000 * Nish, Ian. "Echoes of Alliance, 1920-1930" in ''The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations,'' Vol. I (edited by Ian Nish and Yoichi Kibata). London:

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

. * _________. "

Itō Hirobumi was a Japanese politician and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Japan. He was also a leading member of the ''genrō'', a group of senior statesmen that dictated Japanese policy during the Meiji era. A London-educated samur ...

's Overseas Sojourns," ''Bulletin of the European Association of Japanese Studies'', Vol. 55. * _________. "Nationalism in Japan" in ''In Asian Nationalism'' (edited by M. Leifer). London:

. * _________. ''Nichi-ei Kotsushi,'' Vol. I: 1600-1930; Vol. II: 1930-2000. Tokyo:

University of Tokyo Press The is a university press affiliated with the University of Tokyo in Japan. It was founded in 1951, following the post-World War II reorganization of the university. Honors * Japan Foundation: Special Prize, 1990. Location The headquarters of t ...

. * _________. "Policies of the European Powers in Southeast Asia, 1893-1910" in ''King

Chulalongkorn Chulalongkorn ( th, จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as ''Phra Phuttha Chao Luang'' (พร� ...

's Visit to Europe'' (edited by C. Tingsabadh). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press. * _________. "Repercussions of the Asia-Pacific War on Independence Movements in Indonesia" in ''Europe, Southeast Asia in the Contemporary World'' (edited by P. Bunnag, F. Knipping, S. Chonchirdsin, S. Nomos. * _________ and Yoichi Kibata
''The History of Anglo-Japanese Relations: The Political-diplomatic Dimension.''
Vol. I: 1600-1930; Vol. II: 1930-2000. London: Macmillan. 1999 * Nish, Ian."

Aoki Shūzō Viscount was a diplomat and Foreign Minister in Meiji period Japan. Biography Viscount Aoki was born to a ''samurai'' family as son of the Chōshū domain's physician in what is now part of Sanyō Onoda in Yamaguchi Prefecture). He studied we ...

1844-1914" in ''Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits,'' Vol. 3 (edited by J.E. Hoare). London: Curzon. * _________. "Auviarsi del Giappone verso L'Autonomia Economica: La Marina Mercantile" in ''La Rinascita di una Grande Potenza'' (edited by V. Ferretti, G. Giordano). Francoangeli. * _________. "Britain and Postwar Thinking on Decolonization in Southeast Asia, 1943-1946" in ''Europe and Southeast Asia in the Contemporary World'' (edited by F. Knipping). Nomos. * _________. "Changing Japan," ''Euro-Japanese Journal,'' Vol. 6, No. 1. * _________. "

George Bailey Sansom Sir George Bailey Sansom (28 November 1883 – 8 March 1965) was a British diplomat and historian of pre-modern Japan, particularly noted for his historical surveys and his attention to Culture of Japan, Japanese society and culture. Early lif ...

and his Tokyo Friends, 1903-47," ''Bulletin of the Asiatic Society of Japan,'' No. 8. * _________. "Sir George Sansom: Diplomat and Historian" (''Annual Cortazzi Lecture'') in ''Proceedings of the Japan Society''. 1994 * Nish, Ian and James E. Hoare, eds
''Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits,'' Vol. II.
London: RoutledgeCurzon. * _________, ed. ''Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits,'' Vol. I. Folkestone, Kent: Japan Library. 1972 * Nish, Ian. (1972)
''Alliance in Decline: A Study in Anglo-Japanese Relations 1908-23.''
London:

Athlone Press Continuum International Publishing Group was an academic publisher of books with editorial offices in London and New York City. It was purchased by Nova Capital Management in 2005. In July 2011, it was taken over by Bloomsbury Publishing. , al ...

. (cloth) 1966 * Nish, Ian. (1966).
''The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The diplomacy of two island empires 1894-1907.''
London: Athlone Press. eprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2004. (paper)">RoutledgeCurzon.html" ;"title="eprinted by RoutledgeCurzon">eprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2004. (paper)

Centre for Economic Performance

Prof. Nish co-authored a number of Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) papers:LSE/CPE
Ian Nish papers
/ref> * 2005 - ''On the Periphery of the Russo-Japanese War Part II'' by Ian Nish, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/2005/491: Rea
Full paper (pdf) -- May '08
* 2004 - ''On the Periphery of the Russo-Japanese War - Part I'' by John Chapman, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/2004/475: Rea
Full paper (pdf) -- 2008
* 2003 - ''Studies in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1923)''. Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, Ian Nish, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/2003/443: Rea
Full paper (pdf) -- May 2008
* 2002 - ''Anglo-Japanese Alliance'' by Ayako Hotta-Lister, Ian Nish, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/2002/432: Read [ Full paper (pdf) -- May '08] * 1997 - ''Japan in the 1950s'' by Valdo Ferretti, Peter Lowe, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1997/322. * 1994 - ''The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 in its International Dimension'' by J Berryman, K Neilson, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1994/278. * 1991 - ''Aspects of the Allied Occupation of Japan, Part II'' by Susie Harries, Ian Nish, L. van Poelgeest: Paper No. IS/1991/229. * 1991 - ''Japan - Thailand Relations'' by Nigel Brailey, Patrick Davis, Junzo Iida, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1991/228. * 1991 - ''East Asia in the Postwar Period, 1945-55'' by Farooq Bajwa, Yoichi Kibata, Ian Nish, Ann Trotter: Paper No. IS/1991/225. * 1991 - ''The Occupation of Japan 1945-52'' by Akira Amakawa, Makoto Iokibe, Walter Miller, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1991/224. * 1991 - ''The British Commonwealth and its Contribution to the Occupation of Japan, 1945-1948'' by W G Beasley, Sir Hugh Cortazzi, Bruce Kirkpatrick, T B Millar, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1991/227: Rea
Full paper (pdf) -- May '08
* 1990 - ''Shigemitsu Studies'' by Antony Best, Ian Nish, L. van Poelgeest, Takahiko Tanaka: Paper No. IS/1990/219. * 1990 - ''Shigemitsu Studies'' by Antony Best, Ian Nish, L. van Poelgeest, Takahiko Tanaka: Paper No. IS/1990/219. * 1990 - ''The Soviet Union in East Asia'' by Jonathan Haslam, Ian Nish, Jon Pardoe, Zhang Yongjin: Paper No. IS/1990/213. * 1990 - ''The Social History of Occupied Japan: 1: Some Sources and Problems, 2: British Writings on Japanese History''by Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, Ian Nish: Paper No. JS/1990/214: Rea
Full paper (pdf) -- May '08
* 1990 - ''The Japanese Constitution of 1889'' by Stephen S. Large, Ian Nish, Chuhei Sugiyama: Paper No. IS/1989/208. * 1989 - ''Educational and Technological Exchange in 19th Century Asia'' by Oliver Checkland, E C.T. Chew, Ian Nish, Chuhei Sugiyama: Paper No. IS/1989/204. * 1989 - ''Japan and the Second World War''. Toshiko Marks, Ian Nish, R. John Pritchard; Paper No. IS/1989/197. * 1989 - ''Interwar Japan''by Janet Hunter, James W. Morley, Takafusa Nakamura, Ian Nish (1989): Paper No. IS/1989/187. * 1988 - ''Borrowing and Adaptation: Studies in Tokugawa, Meiji and Taisho Japan'' by Naoki Hiraishi, Ian Nish (1988): Paper No' IS/1988/177. * 1987 - ''South Asia in International Affairs 1947-56'' by Premen Addy, Ian Nish, Anita Inder Singh, Takahiko Tanaka: Paper No. IS/1987/166. * 1987 - ''Aspects of the Korean War'' by Akira Iriye, Olof Lidin, Peter Lowe, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1987/152. * 1986 - ''German-Japanese Relations in the 1930s'' by Nobutoshi Hagihara, Kiyoshi Ikeda, Ian Nish, Ian Nish, Erich Pauer: Paper No' IS/1986/140. * 1986 - ''Anglo-Japanese Relations in the 1930s and 1940s'' by A Adamthwaite, Yoichi Kibata, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1986/137. * 1986 - ''Aspects of the Allied Occupation of Japan'' by H Baerwald, Roger Buckley, Ian Nish, Ann Trotter: Paper No. IS/1986/131. * 1985 - ''Anglo-Japanese Naval Relations'' by John Chapman, Ian Gow, Kiyoshi Ikeda, Ian Nish, Chit-Chung Ong: Paper No. IS/1985/127. * 1985 - ''1945 in South-East Asia - Part Two'' by Ian Nish, Masaya Shiraishi: Paper No. IS/1985/123. * 1985 - ''1945 in South-East Asia - Part One'' by Louis Allen, Ian Nish, T. Smitabhindu, Judith Stowe: Paper No. IS/1985/116. * 1984 - ''Aspects of Anglo-Korean Relations'' by Roger Bullen,

James Hoare James Edward Hoare (born 1943) is a British academic and historian specialising in Korean and Chinese studies, and a career diplomat in the British Foreign Office. Academia Dr. Hoare is a graduate of London's School of Oriental and African Studie ...

, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1984/90. * 1984 - ''The Tripartite Pact of 1940: Japan, Germany and Italy'' by Ernest Bramsted, John Chapman, Jost Dulffer, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1984/107. * 1983 - ''The British Commonwealth and the Occupation of Japan'' by G Bolton, Gordon Daniels, G Goodman, Hamish Ion, Ian Nish, Eiji Takemae: Paper No. IS/1983/78. * 1982 - ''Some Aspects of Soviet-Japanese Relations in the 1930s'' by B Bridges, John Chapman, Jonathan Haslam, Akira Iriye, Ian Nish, Haruhiko Nishi: Paper No. IS/1982/56. * 1982 - ''The East Asian Crisis, 1945-1951 - The Problem of China, Korea and Japan'' by Roger Dingman, Chihiro Hosoya, Ian Nish: Paper No. IS/1982/49. * 1982 - ''Bakumatsu and Meiji: Studies in Japan's Economic and Social History'' by Oliver Checkland, Gordon Daniels, Janet Hunter, J-P Lehmann, Ian Nish, Shinya Sugiyama: Paper No. IS/1982/42. * 1981 - ''The Russian Problem in East Asia'' by Peter Lowe, Ian Nish, Naotake Nobuhara, David Steeds: Paper No. IS/1981/38. * 1980 - ''Some Foreign Attitudes to Republican China'' by Dudley Cheke, Taichiro Mitani, Ian Nish, David Steeds, Ann Trotter: Paper No. IS/1980/16.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nish, Ian 1926 births 2022 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh University of Sydney faculty Academics of the London School of Economics British Japanologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class Scottish orientalists British Army personnel of World War II People from Edinburgh