The Yoshida Memoirs. The Story Of Japan In Crisis. Translated By Kenichi Yoshida. Yoshida, Shigeru.

First US edition, first printing, presentation copy to Britain's wartime foreign secretary and subsequent prime minister Anthony Eden, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "Rt. Hon. the Earl of Avon, from the Author, Shigeru Yoshida". Yoshida was prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1949 to 1955. From 1936 to 1938, he served as Japan's ambassador to the United Kingdom, the same period as Eden's first stint as foreign secretary and prior to Eden's resignation over appeasement. Yoshida cites Eden as saying that they met at this time and "we had remained friends ever since" (p. 120). Yoshida similarly left the Japanese foreign service over his opposition to Japanese warmongering - though holding no official positions during the Second World War, he opposed war with the US and Britain and attempted to de-escalate the conflict. After the war, his pro-British and pro-American ideals led to his appointment as Japanese prime minister by the occupying powers. Eden served again as Britain's foreign secretary for much of Yoshida's latter premiership, prior to Eden's tenure as prime minister from 1956 to 1958. Yoshida's memoirs cover "Japan's miscalculation and its tragic consequences" leading to defeat and occupation, and give his view of those years "by one who was called upon to be the spokesman for a defeated Japan" (preface). The memoirs were first published in Japanese in 1957 and in Britain in 1961. Eden is referenced twice in the book. Firstly, Yoshida commends his behaviour towards the Queen: "there was in it a mixture of respect and affection which I am told the British people universally entertain towards their sovereign, and seeing Her Majesty in person made me realise why this was so" (p. 118). Secondly, he tells of an official meeting where Eden shouted at newspapermen who were crowding around to go away: "which reminded me of similar experiences that had befallen me in Japan" (p. 120). Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Front inner hinge neatly repaired, spine a little sunned, light rubbing. A very good copy.