George Bailey Sansom
Encyclopedia
Culture of Japan
The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America...
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Born in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and educated in France, he first served in Japan as an advisor and representative of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1904, and continued in similar positions for roughly 44 years hence. Knighted in 1935, he served as a member of the staff of the British consulate in Japan from 1939-1941. He was sent to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and then to Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
as war approached in 1941, and spoke with some of the top officials of the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
the day before the sinking of the HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse
The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a Second World War naval engagement that took place north of Singapore, off the east coast of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang where the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and...
, events which mark the beginning of the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
for the UK.
Sansom returned to Washington, D.C. and remained there throughout World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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Sansom later taught at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1947–1953), though he began teaching Japanese history there in the late 1930s; he became the first director of the East Asian Institute. His image can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/Magazine/Spring2002/AsianStudies.html
He retired in Palo Alto, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, home to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
whose Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press
The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
had published his 1931 one-volume history of Japan and which in the late fifties and early sixties published his 3-volume history, still the standard account. He died in Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
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As a scholar of Japanese history and society, he was closely associated with a number of other scholars, including Helen Craig McCullough
Helen Craig McCullough
Helen Craig McCullough was an eminent scholar of classical Japanese poetry and prose. Born in California, she graduated from Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in political science. After the outbreak of World War II, she entered the U.S. Navy’s Japanese Language School in Boulder, Colorado...
, the faculty of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
in London, and many others.
Widely regarded as expert at keeping his own opinions absent from his historical writings, his opinions and character were revealed in a memoir published by his wife, Katharine Sansom, in 1972. Consisting primarily of letters and papers written by Sir George, and remembrances on the part of his wife, these memoirs illustrate much of his biographical story, particularly illuminating his experiences in Japan prior to World War II.
Honors
- Order of St. Michael and St. George, Knight Commander -- KCMGOrder of St Michael and St GeorgeThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
Works
- Sansom, George Bailey. (1911). The Tsuredzure GusaTsurezuregusais a collection of Japanese essays written by the monk Yoshida Kenkō between 1330 and 1332. The work is widely considered a gem of medieval Japanese literature and one of the three representative works of the zuihitsu genre, along with Makura no Sōshi and the Hōjōki.Tsurezuregusa comprises a...
of Yoshida No Kaneyoshi. Being the meditations of a recluse in the 14th Century. - _________. (1928). An Historical Grammar of Japanese. Oxford: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
.- 1946—2nd edition by Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- 1968—reprinted by Clarendon Press, Oxford. ASIN: B0007ITUYC
- 1995—reprinted by RoutledgeCurzon, London. 10-ISBN 0-700-70288-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-700-70288-6 (cloth)
- _________. (1931). Japan: A Short Cultural History. London: Cresset Press, 1931, and New York: D. Appleton, 1931.
- _________. (1933). Trade conditions in the Philippine Islands. ASIN B0008D0H5W
- _________. (1942). Postwar Relations with Japan. (Secretariat paper) ASIN B0007ETL9K
- _________. (1949). The Western World and Japan A Study in the Interaction of European and Asiatic Cultures. New York: Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
. 10-ISBN 0-394-45150-3; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-45150-3- 1973—reprinted Vintage BooksVintage BooksVintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
, New York. 10-ISBN 0-394-71867-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-394-71867-5
- 1973—reprinted Vintage Books
- _________. (1952). Japan: A Short Cultural History. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-804-70952-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-70952-1 (cloth) 10-ISBN 0-804-70954-8; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-70954-5 (paper)
- _________. (1958). A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-804-70523-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-70523-3; OCLC 224793047
- _________. (1961). A History of Japan: 1334-1615. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-804-70525-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-70525-7; OCLC 43483194
- _________. (1963). A History of Japan, 1615-1867. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-8047-0527-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-70527-1; OCLC 173092834
- _________. (1984). Japan in World History. Tokyo: Tuttle PublishingTuttle PublishingTuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions...
. ISBN 4-805-30432-4; ASIN B0007IZ02I (cloth) [reprinted 1986. 10-ISBN 0-804-81510-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-804-81510-9 (paper)]
- _________. (19__). The Reminiscences of Sir George Sansom. ASIN B0007J22K0