The English-language Press Networks of East Asia, 1918-1945

This study is the first to assess the combined significance of the English-language newspapers of China, Japan and Korea in the period 1918-45. It not only frames the English-language press networks in the international media history of East Asia but also relates them to media developments in the ‘British world’ linking Fleet Street to the Empire and Dominions, and to the rise of the United States as a broker of international opinion on and in the Asia-Pacific. The English-language newspapers occupied a narrow but significant segment of the public sphere in East Asia in the inter-war years.As forums of opinion on Japanese, Chinese and Western interests in East Asia, they also served as vehicles of propaganda, particularly during the crisis-ridden 1930s and the Pacific War. With this examination of the media affiliations, editorial line, and access to official bodies in East Asia and theWest of most of the English-language newspapers published in East Asia in the period under review, the author demonstrates that these publications formed distinct networks in terms of the editorial positions they took vis-a-vis the key issues of the day, especially Japan’s imperial project in East Asia.