Embassies in the East: The Story of the British and Their Embassies in China, Japan and Korea from 1859 to the Present

by Hoare; J E

• ISBN13: 9780700705122
• ISBN10: 0700705120
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-26
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

This text traces the history of three Far Eastern embassies through the vicissitudes of war and revolution against the background of an apparent steady decline of Western influence in Asia. Dr Hoare tracks the key events and people shaping the British view of Asia. Key 'dramatis personae' are Sir Harry Parkes, British Minister to Japan, China and Korea; Sir Ernest Satow, the student interpreter who became Minister in Tokyo and Peking, and in more recent years, Sir Charles Eliot, lover of big cars and scholar of Buddhism. This book will interest those wishing to know more about all aspects of Britain in East Asia, whether in the tense years of the Boxer troubles in China, during the wartime repatriation of Britons from Japan and the Japanese Empire, in the traumas of the Korean War, or during the excess of China's Cultural Revolution.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	ix
Foreword by The Rt Hon. Lord Hurd of Westerwell CH CBE	xi
Acknowledgements and Thanks	xiii
Introduction: The British in East Asia, 1600--2000	1	(16)
PART ONE: CHINA
The Beginning: The Duke of Liang's Mansion and the Establishment of the Legation, 1860--1900	17	(13)
Interlude: The Summer Legation Question	30	(10)
The Siege of the Legations and the Boxer Settlement	40	(11)
From the Boxer Rebellion to the Pacific War	51	(15)
Last Years of the Old Legation, 1945--59	66	(13)
Outside the Walls: The British Mission in Beijing Since 1959	79	(16)
PART TWO: JAPAN
The Early Days, 1859--72	95	(16)
The New Legation, 1872--23	111	(18)
After the Earthquake, 1923--40	129	(16)
War, Detention and Repatriation, 1941--42	145	(10)
After the War 1945--99	155	(16)
PART THREE: KOREA
Beginnings	171	(7)
The New Buildings	178	(7)
From Consulate-general to Consulate-general, 1894--1942	185	(10)
Seoul Since 1945	195	(14)
Epilogue	209	(3)
Appendix: Substantive Heads of the British Missions in China, Japan, and Korea, 1853--1998	212	(4)
Bibliography	216	(11)
Index	227