Prof. Ian H. Nish CBE This is Me

Education

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1. 1. The Japan Society of the UK

   www.japansociety.org.uk/about_ - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/28/2008   Last Visited: 6/28/2008

   Ian Nish

2. 2. The Japan Society of the UK

   japansociety.org.uk/about_comm - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/28/2008   Last Visited: 6/28/2008

   Ian Nish

3. 3. The Japan Times Online

   www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/g - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/18/2004   Last Visited: 9/23/2004

   An undergraduate at that time, Ian Nish joined the ranks of those who embarked upon sterling work that turned them into Japan experts.He speaks of his career of 30 years spent in "the widening of the frontiers of knowledge, especially my own."These words reveal his long-term steadiness, reliability and modesty.
   
   News photoIan Nish
   ...
   Within a few months, Nish was ordered to Japan.He sailed from Singapore, and recalls having his "first glimpse of Japan through the beauties of the Inland Sea."
   
   They were the gladsome days of the new peace and the old witchery of atmospheric Japan.Nish, in Kure, found himself in the headquarters of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Center.Amongst varied duties in the Translation Section, he translated regional newspapers.He said, "In general, we were not called upon to draw on our knowledge of the older 'kanji' we had painstakingly 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 1946."
   
   Two years on, Nish faced a choice.He could go to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and begin a degree in Japanese, or he could return to Edinburgh to pick up his interrupted honors degree in history."I chose the second option," he said.He received his M.A. from Edinburgh University three years later.
   
   In Japan, Nish had collected material on the Anglo-Japanese alliance formalized in 1902.With that in hand, upon graduation he moved to SOAS to work for a Ph.D.He became a student member of the Japan Society and the China Society.
   
   His first academic appointment was to the history department of the University of Sydney.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, and the courses in Asian history ranked as popular.
   
   Nish stayed in Australia until 1962.On his return to England, as a Japan specialist he embarked on his 30 significant years of "congenial teaching" 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."He pursued his own research into the history of Anglo-Japanese relations, which led to two more books.As well as being an active member of the Japan Society, he was secretary of the British Association for Japanese Studies, and for three years president of the European Association of Japanese Studies.
   
   Recipient of a CBE from the U.K., the Order of the Rising Sun with neck ribbon from Japan, and the Japan Foundation Award, Nish retired in 1991.The emeritus professor then accepted the position of honorary senior research associate of the Suntory Toyota International Center for Economics and Related Disciplines.He said: "This has been invaluable, since it enabled me to complete certain research projects which were crowded out by administrative chores during my last years of teaching.It was also of indirect assistance to me when I took on in 1995 the task of being honorary chief British coordinator of the Anglo-Japanese history project, entrusted with publishing a five-volume series of histories in English and Japanese."
   
   In summarizing his distinguished career and his prodigious output, Nish said: " I have been lucky in enjoying the friendships of many Japanese professors.