This book is a naval-diplomatic history of Nomura Kichisaburo. Some will recognize him as Japan’s pre-Pearl Harbor ambassador to the United States; he was also an admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, a one-time foreign minister, and spiritual godfather of postwar Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Force.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?recid=30837

As Japan’s pre–Pearl Harbor ambassador to the United States, Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo (1877–1964) played a significant role in a tense and turbulent period in Japanese-U.S. relations. Scholars tend to view his actions and missteps as ambassador as representing the failure of diplomacy to avert the outbreak of hostilities between the two paramount Pacific powers.

This extensively researched biography casts new light on the life and career of this important figure. Connecting his experiences as a naval officer to his service as foreign minister and ambassador, and later as “father” of Japan’s Maritime Self Defense Forces and proponent of the U.S.-Japanese alliance, this study reassesses Nomura’s contributions as a hard-nosed realist whose grasp of the underlying realities of Japanese-U.S. relations went largely unappreciated by the Japanese political and military establishment.

In highlighting the complexities and conundrums of Nomura’s position, as well as the role of the Imperial Navy in the formulation of Japan’s foreign policy, Peter Mauch draws upon rarely accessed materials from naval and diplomatic archives in Japan as well as various collections of personal papers, including Nomura’s, which Mauch discovered in 2005 and which are now housed in the National Diet Library.

“This impeccably researched study gives us the best picture yet of Nomura Kichisaburo, a vital figure in twentieth-century Japan. The clarity and significance of this in-depth biography mark this work as a major contribution to our understanding of modern Japanese history and Japanese-American relations.”

–Michael Barnhart, SUNY Stony Brook

“This impressive book makes indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the events leading up to Pearl Harbor. The author has conducted extensive research in the archives, including Nomura’s family papers, and skillfully analyzes the often contradictory ideas and strategies pursued by the Japanese government.”

–Akira Iriye, Harvard University

“Sailor Diplomat is an illuminating, authoritative, and persuasive recasting of a tense and turbulent period in Japan-U.S. relations and of Nomura Kichisaburo, a major and tragic figure of that era. This important work will undoubtedly take its distinguished place in the historiography of the origins of the Pacific War.”

–Mark Peattie, Hoover Institution