William G. Beasley
William Gerald Beasley
Early years
Beasley was born in
Wartime and postwar service
Beasley had expressed a preference for the
One day in 1943 he found on his desk an Admiralty circular calling for volunteers to learn Japanese in the United States. In September 1943 he sailed from Liverpool in order to make his way to the US Navy Language School at Boulder, Colorado, where he did a 14-month course in Japanese. In spring 1945, when he had finished the course and had undergone some further training in Vancouver and New York, he flew to Australia, where he was attached to the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section and was required to make his way to Manila, where he interrogated Japanese prisoners. He was then ordered to join the British battleship HMS King George V but before he reached the ship he heard of the dropping of the atomic bombs. When the King George V entered Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremony, which took place on the deck of USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, Beasley had to act as interpreter when a Japanese pilot came on board.[2][3]
After the surrender ceremony Beasley went ashore as British naval intelligence liaison officer at US naval headquarters in Yokosuka. He was subsequently posted to the Naval Intelligence Section of the UK Liaison Mission in Tokyo, which represented British interests until diplomatic relations were restored in 1952. In March 1946 he was recalled to Britain and his naval career was over.[2][4]
Career
In 1946 Beasley returned to Westminster College to work on an MA in history but by summer 1947 he had decided that he did not want to be a school teacher. He wrote his thesis on the history of Anglo-Japanese relations for what had now become a PhD. In October 1947 Beasley accepted a part-time post lecturing in Japanese history and in October 1948 he was appointed Lecturer in Far Eastern History at the
Personal life
In April 1955 Beasley married Hazel Polwin.
Selected works
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about William G. Beasley, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 80+ works in 300+ publications in 8 languages and 11,000+ library holdings.[5]
- Great Britain and the Opening of Japan, 1834-1858 (1951)
- Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853-1868 (1955)
- Historians of China and Japan (1961)
- The modern history of Japan (1963)
- The Meiji Restoration (1972). Winner John K. Fairbank Prize
- Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society (1975)
- Japanese Imperialism, 1894-1945 (1987)
- The Rise of Modern Japan (1989)
- Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travellers in America and Europe (1995)
- The Japanese experience : a short history of Japan (1999)
Honours and awards
- British Academy, 1967.[6]
- John K. Fairbank Prize, 1972.[6]
- Order of the British Empire, Commander (CBE), 1980.[6]
- Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 1983.[1]
- Japan Academy, honorary member, 1984.[6]
- Japan Foundation Award, 2001.[7]
Notes
- ^ a b c Nish, Ian and Peter Lowe. "Professor W. G. Beasley, Historian who advanced the study of Japan in British universities," The Independent (UK). 4 December 2006; retrieved 2011-05-23
- ^ a b c d William G. Beasley, Traveller to Japan: incomplete and unreliable recollections of my life (typescript dated 2002).
- ^ Peter Kornicki, Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War with Japan (London: Hurst & Co., 2021), pp. 195–198, 201–203, 243, 245.
- ^ Peter Kornicki, Eavesdropping on the Emperor: Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War with Japan (London: Hurst & Co., 2021), pp. 267–268.
- ^ WorldCat Identities: Beasley, W. G. (William G.) 1919-2006
- ^ a b c d Sims, Richard. "Obituary: William Beasley, Historian of the Meiji Restoration and the end of Japan's isolation," Guardian (UK). 15 December 2006; retrieved 2011-05-23
- ^ Japan Foundation, Japan Foundation Award, 2001