Officers from all three services have done stints in post-war Japan as advisers during the Occupation years. Their tasks were to observe the demilitarization of Japan and then to develop contacts with the Self-Defense Forces, and more recently to promote defence sales from British manufacturers. Here a number of previous service attachés recount their experience in Japan. 

Former ambassador John Whitehead's Canterbury address marking the fiftieth anniversary of VJ Day.

This essay charts Charles Boxer's (1904-2000) abiding love for Japan throughout the Second World War and his internment as a POW, his position as chair of Portugese studies at London University, and his authorship of The Christian Century in Japan.

This portrait charts the dual interaction of Christmas Humphreys (1901-83) with Japan as a junior at the Military Tribunal for the Far East and as a devotee of Buddhism.

Eddie Ripley gives an account of his efforts to study Japanese and of his early experiences as a vice-consul in Yokohama in the late 1950s and '60s.

Lewis Bush was a POW who had lived in Japan prior to the war. This chapter comprises extracts from his account, The Road to Inamura.

This essay details the military career of Francis Festing (1912-76), along with his hobby as a connoisseur of Japanese swords and acts of reconcilliation.

Although few British politicians have had more than a cursory knowledge of Japan, large numbers of MPs have visited the country, and some have managed to achieve more than a passing acquaintance with it. The British Japan Parliamentary Group and the UK-Japan 2000 Group (later UK-Japan 21st Century Group) have been the driving force behind this. Here key figures from these organisations describe their dealings with Japan.

Novelist Frank Ashton-Gwatkin revisited Japan for the first time after the war in 1974. In this chapter he recalls his first experiences of Japan, where he worked for the Japan Consular Service in 1913.

Hisaakira Kanō's (1886-1963) family rode the tide of a rapidly changing Japan, being open to Western ways and modern thinking, but responding in ways that were rooted in his traditional samurai background.

This essay provides an account of Honda Sōichirō's (1906-1991) life, personality, and business relationship with Britain.

This essay details Ian Fleming's (1908-64) 1959 visit to Tokyo for the Sunday Times, as part of a five-week tour of his personal canon of 'the thrilling cities of the world', and the impact this and his subsequent visits to the country had on his writing.

Ian Nish, later Professor at SOAS, gives an account of his work in the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, where he translated contemporary newspapers, along with documents from during the war, and was later involved in the first post-war elections.

As the first British Ambassador to Japan after the War, Esler Dening (1897-1977) was the central figure in Anglo-Japanese relations at a time when British opinion was distinctly anti-Japanese.

This chapter puts the individual accounts included within Japan Experiences into the context of Anglo-Japanese post-war relations.

Peter Lowe's Introduction to Part III of British Envoys in Japan: The Post-war Years.

Diplomat John Figgess was among the first of the British contingent to arrive in Tokyo in 1945 and in this chapter he describes his arrival and his work in Japan.

This essay gives an overview to some of the prominent businessmen who spent significant parts of their careers in Britain.

Kenneth Gardner (1924-95) held senior posts in the British Museum and British Library, and was instrumental in these posts in promoting Japanese culture and Anglo-Japanese relations. This essay charts his career and significance within his field and beyond, including his war service as part of Translators V.

Dorothy Britton was born in Japan before the war and returned there during the Occupation. This chapter gives an account of her life as a bridge between Japanese and English cultures.

This portrait details the life and career of scholar Louis Allen (1922-91), especially his wartime service and postwar reconciliation efforts.

Louis Allen studied Japanese at SOAS during the war, and worked in Burma as a translator and interrogator. Here he describes his experiences of that time, as well as a remarkable reunion twenty years later.

F.S.G Piggott was one of a small number of japanophiles left in post-war Britain, preferring to overlook the worst excesses of Japan's pre-war leaders. This chapter details his nostalgic view of life in pre-war Japan.

This essay details the miltary and diplomatic career of Major-General F.S.G. Piggott (1883-1966), whose efforts to secure peace and improve relations between Japan and Britain were fatally clouded by an uncritical love for Japan. Following the Pacific War he devoted his life to the restoration of Anglo-Japanese friendship.

This essay explores their relationship between Richard Storry - one of Britain's leading historians of Japan - and leading Japanese intellectual Marumaya Masao (1914-96), both of whom pioneered analysis of the Pacific War's implications for Japan. 

Royal Dutch Shell  was one of the few 'British' companies (a majority of the company's expatriates were British) to train its staff in the Japanese language. Here Paul Bates, Neville Fakes and Michael Wingate recall their experiences with Shell from 1952 to '72, with a focus on the process of doing business in Japan at this time.

Morita Akio (1921-99) was one of the main driving forces behind the Sony Corporation. This essay details his career, personality, and business philosophy, as well as his relationship with Britain.

William Gerard Beasley, subsequently a professor at SOAS, arrived in Japan in 1945 with the Americans. This chapter comprises extracts from a talk given on his experiences of the flurry of activity in the early occupation, particularly with regard to demilitarization and early post-war economics.

Peter Bates sums up the feelings of the arriving British troops and their impressions.

As a prisoner of war, Peter Dean was one of the first westerners to experience Japan after the surrender.

This portrait considers Peter Hewett's (1920-82) major contribution to the post-war growth inAnglo-Japanese trade.

Peter Parker reached Japan in October 1945 as a British officer. In this chapter he describes his experiences both of Japan and the American Occupation.

This portrait details Philip Malins' (1919-) military career and key role of  in postwar reconciliation between Britain and Japan.

Shortly before his resignation as Prime Minister in 1954 Yoshida Shigeru visited Britain. This essay examines the political controversy surrounding Yoshida's visit, as well as the visit itself and an assessment of its success.

R.H. Blythe (1898-1964) was not a scholar, but his writing had a profound influence upon the popular British understanding of Zen Buddhism, haiku and the Japanese monarchy.

The pre-war Japan Consular Service sent selected new entrants each year to study Japanese, creating a corps of Japanese-speaking consuls. The Foreign Office realised that Japanese-speaking officers would be needed after the war in the embassy, and in consular posts in Japan, and so revived the practice in 1951. In this chapter Dick Ellingworth and Brian Hitch describe the system.

Sir Esler Dening looks back on his time in post-war Japan.

Malcolm MacDonald (1901-81) presided over an era of Anglo-Japanese relations during which he was forced to consider Japan's position post Second World War and its impact upon the British Empire. This essay acknowledges his relative ambivelance towards Japan, but also his key role in diplomacy with the country.

Sir Alvary Gascgoine (1946-1951) headed the British liaison mission in Tokyo from 1946 to '51, and was responsible for establishing postive relations with General Douglas MacArthur.

This portrait seeks to assess Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden's (1897-1977) attitude towards Britain's former ally and contemporary adversary, Japan, as well as detail his efforts to rebuild relations in the wake of the bitter legacy of the Pacific War.

Concerning Sir Esler Dening (1897-1977) as a main figure in Anglo-Japanese relations following the ending of the Pacific War, at a time when British opinion was anti-Japanese. 

This essay provides an account of Julian Ridsdale's (1915-2004) interest in Japan and politics, and how these two came together in his long service to Anglo-Japanese Parliamentary relations.

Businessman Sir Peter Parker (1924-2002) made an outstanding contribution to Anglo-Japanese relations in the final decades of the twentieth century. This essay offers an account and analysis of his career and impact in relation to Japan.

Robert Scott’s (1905-82) career goes some way to illustrate Japan’s impact on the world in the 20th Century, particularly with regard to British and American foreign policy in South East Asia following the Second World War.

This essay considers the careers of journalists and writers in post-war occupied Japan, and the impact of their writing upon British perceptions of Japan.

This portrait examines the six year internment of businessman Takayuki Eguchi in Pentonville prison during the Second World War.

This essay provides an account and analysis of The Shōwa Emperor's (Hirohito's) visit to Britain in 1970. It marked the first Japanese state visit to Britian, as well as the first time a Japanese emperor had ever made a visit abroad.

Dick Ellingworth, First Secretary and Olympic Attaché at the Embassy from 1963 recalls the state of Japan at this time, and the Embassy's role in the Tokyo Olympics.

Eric Elstob looks back on over thirty years in Japan in a career that started with the Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust. Meanwhile, Dugald Barr was recruited in 1969 by Vickers, da Costa, a company that was among the first to invest in the Tokyo market, to conduct research and open their Japan office, the first of a London broker in Japan. With Haruko Fukuda, he built up the largest business of any foreign broker in Japan. Here he racalls his experiences.

In 1947 Vere Redman reinstated the policy of attaching a prominent writer as teacher of English to the mission in Japan, to be 'placed at the disposal of Japanese Universities'. Edmund Blunden, George Fraser and D.J. Enright all held this post, and this chapter records their thoughts on Japan, along with those of a number of prominent figures with the British Council in Japan, Reg Close, Francis King, Leslie Phillips, Ronald Bottrall, E.W.F.Tomlin.

This essay details the role of William Patrick - Britain's appointed judge - in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-48, along with the problems faced by the Tribunal.

The politically active part of Sir Winston Churchill's (1874-1965) life almost coincided with the emergence, decline and rebirth of modern Japan. This essay details Churchill's part in Anglo-Japanese relations both pre and post Second World War.

This portrait details the two years Yoshida Shigeru (1878-1941) and Mme Yoshida spent at the London embassy from 1936-38 - a difficult period in Anglo-Japanese relations.

This portrait details the two years Yoshida Shigeru (1878-1967) and Mme Yoshida spent at the London embassy from 1936-38 - a troubling period for both of them as they did what they could to stabilise Anglo-Japanese relations.