Lord Lytton (1876–1947) and Anglo-Japanese Relations in the 1930s

One British historical figure whose name will always be associated with Japan is Victor Bulwer-Lytton, the second Earl of Lytton. This is not because of any long association with the country – his first visit to Japan came, after all, in his fifty-fifth year – but because of his involvement in one momentous episode, the League of Nations Commission of Inquiry into the Manchurian crisis and its subsequent report in October 1932. 1 Having been elected by its other members to the chairmanship of the commission, Lytton became its public face and lightning rod. Consequently, its report would forever be associated with his name, and, depending where one stands in regard to the crisis, he is seen either as a symbol of naivety or a wise man who proffered the only feasible solution to an otherwise intractable problem. Lytton’s connection with the crisis in East Asia did not, though, end with the commission’s conclusion. In its aftermath, he emerged in the Anglo-American world as a reluctant expert on the region’s problems and, exasperated by Japan’s rejection of his recommendations, as one of China’s more vocal supporters.