1996: Rewriting history

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Tags: Arts, history, winter-2009

Peter Mauch, BA (hons), PhD

For Associate Professor Peter Mauch, studying Japanese as a UQ undergraduate student ignited a passion for the history of Japanese security and foreign policies.

Dr Peter Mauch

Dr Mauch gained a BA from UQ in 1996 and first-class honours in history in 1997, and during his time as an undergraduate student was introduced to American diplomatic history by Joseph Siracusa.

This inspired him to specialise in the history of Japanese security and foreign policy, particularly Japan’s relations with the US.

After receiving a PhD in history from UQ in 2003, Dr Mauch was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Kyoto University, and is now Assistant Professor of International History at Ritsumeikan University in Japan.

Going to Japan enabled him to study documents that shed new light on pre-Pearl Harbor negotiations between the US and Japan.
Dr Mauch discovered Japan’s then ambassador to the US maintained a pipeline to the Imperial Japanese Navy.

“The conclusions we can draw from this Nomura-Japanese navy pipeline are of immense significance. In April 1941 the Japanese navy engaged in a clandestine manoeuvre, which aimed not only to appease the US and avoid war, but also to completely undercut the hardline foreign policies of Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka,” he said.

“The Japanese-US peace plan which emerged from the Nomura-Japanese navy pipeline ultimately failed because the naval leadership in Tokyo was too weak to confront the rest of the Japanese government with one simple truth: the Japanese navy could not defeat its American counterpart in war.”

By Amanda Sproule

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