Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN: | 9789004213494 900421349X 190524620X 9781905246205 190524620X 9781905246205
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Digital file characteristics: | text file
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Notes: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-223) and index. Restrictions unspecified Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve Print version record.
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Summary: | Based on new documents, especially von Siebold & rsquo;s correspondence (including letters to his wife Taki), written advice and draft treaties which were placed in the public domain in 2002 by the Brandenstein-Zeppelin family, the author argues that such is their significance a full re-evaluation of von Siebold & rsquo;s advisory role vis a vis the United States, Russia and the Netherlands in particular, both before and after the successful opening of Japan in the 1850s is now justified. This new study challenges the conventional Western scholarly view that the key figures involved in the opening of Japan were confined to the US Navy & rsquo;s Commodore Matthew Perry, and the diplomats Townsend Harris of the US and Rutherford Alcock of the UK. A close examination of the new sources suggests otherwise and also puts von Siebold & rsquo;s agenda to & lsquo;save & rsquo; Japan from being overtaken by what he referred to as the colonial and commercial ambitions of the West & rsquo;s great maritime nations in a new light. The author also takes pains to debunk the long-held view that von Siebold was a Russian spy. Even so, it is accepted that von Siebold remains a controversial figure whose role was more often than not & lsquo;tinged with considerable selfish aspirations and a belief in his personal infallibility & rsquo.
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Other form: | Print version: Plutschow, Herbert E., 1939- Philipp Franz von Siebold and the opening of Japan. Folkestone, UK : Global Oriental, 2007 190524620X
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Standard no.: | 10.1163/ej.9781905246205.i-228
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