The Cross and the Rising Sun

A. Hamish Ion, a specialist in modern Japanese history, currently teaches in the History Department at the Royal Military College of Canada.

The influx of Protestant missionaries from Britain to Japan, Koreaand Taiwan was an integral part of the British presence in East Asiafrom 1865 to 1945. Ion draws on both British and Japanese sourcesto examine the life, work and attitudes of the British missionaries, women and men, who ventured far from their homeland to preach thegospel. He explores the role played by British Protestants as bothChristian missionaries and informal ambassadors of their own countryand civilization. Through their educational, social and medical workthe missionaries helped introduce Western ideas and social pursuitswhich in turn affected different facets of society and culture inJapan, Korea and Taiwan. The study illustrates how the British missionaries'intent to introduce Christianity was affected by the response of theEast Asians to Western ideas.Chosen as one of the 15 outstanding books of 1993 for mission studies by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.