This article investigates Japanese cultural and political influence in the Kingdom of Siam, renamed Thailand in 1939. Early exchanges in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw the consumption of Japanese products in the Southeast Asian kingdom as status symbols. Japanese swords in particular were cherished and have become dynastic heirlooms since then. From the late nineteenth century onward, Imperial Japan was seen as a role model of successful modernization in Bangkok and Japanese advisors and instructors were hired by the court. Critics of the absolute monarchy meanwhile stressed that Imperial Japan had become a great power as a constitutional monarchy.
David M. MALITZ (Wed,) studied this question.