INTRODUCTION

Winston S. Churchill was born six years after the Meiji Restoration (1868). The politically active part of his life almost coincided with the emergence, decline and rebirth of modern Japan. In 1900, he had been elected as a member of parliament and he took part in the vote on the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. He followed with close interest the 1904–5 war, which Japan narrowly won against Russia under the aegis of the Alliance. As first lord of the Admiralty before, and at the beginning of, the First World War he strongly advo cated extensive naval collaboration with Japan.

Initially,Japan was not a major focus of interest for him, but Anglo- Japanese relations came to demand his attention increasingly as he climbed the ladder in politics and government. Through the years, he acquired enormous knowledge and information about Japan. He had an insatiable intellectual curiosity and carefully followed political trends in Japan through the statements and writings of Japanese leaders and military officers. The extensive information he accumulated is reflected in his numerous speeches and articles. In this respect he was singularly different from other world leaders like Roosevelt and Stalin.

Churchill's exposure to Japan was negligible until his parents went on their long tour of Japan in 1894, the year in which Japan went to war with China. The impressions of Japan, which his mother conveyed to him, appear to have left indelible marks on Churchill. He was then twenty years of age and emotionally attached to his mother whom he ‘loved dearly though at a distance’. Lady Randolph Churchill's intelligent, unbiased and aesthetically active mind enabled her to have penetrating views of ‘Things Japanese’ as amply demonstrated in her excellent article ‘A Journey in Japan’.

Churchill never visited Japan but maintained a friendly, under standing and compassionate attitude towards the country. He once contemplated a visit in conjunction with his lecture tour in the United States in 1933 but in the end did not go there. Anglo-Japanese relations were far from agreeable at that time and it is debatable whether his sympathetic attitude towards Japan would have changed, if the visit had taken place.