Books
Writing in the foreword to Polak's book, Hiroshi Ueki, former director of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, called Polak "a recognized historian of Franco-Japanese relations as well as an accomplished businessman." Polak has written several books on the interaction between France and Japan from the Bakumatsu period around 1858, when both countries opened diplomatic relations. The art book Soie et Lumieres (2001) described the interaction between Japan's silk trade and France's exports of technology, and Sabre et Pinceau (2005) the military and artistic relations of the two countries.
"Lavishly illustrated with reproductions of woodblock prints, old photographs, and previously unpublished documents of the period, covers a little-known subject: the role of France in the modernization of Japan since the beginning of the 19th century .... The best specialist on this question, Christian Polak knows how to revive a forgotten epoch.
— Philippe Pons, le Monde
Polak has been published on French military missions to Japan of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1867-1868, 1872-1880, 1884-1889, and 1918-1919). He was sought for comment due to his work on the life of French adventurer Jules Brunet, an inspiration for the movie The Last Samurai.
He has also written on the involvement of various French engineers and traders in the Europeanization of Japan during the Meiji period, such as Emile Bertin and Léonce Verny. His collaboration with Soichiro Honda on Honda's autobiography was noted for its coverage of Honda's battles with Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry over the introduction of the kei car into the Japanese automobile industry.
Polak has written on artists who played a role in Franco-Japanese relations, such as in his book on painter Paul Jacoulet. Tai Kawabata, a Japan Times staff writer, calls him a Jacoulet expert.
According to the Monthly Letter of the French Chamber of Commerce in Japan:
"In parallel to his professional activities, Christian Polak cultivates his taste and his knowledge of History, as a teacher and a researcher. His assiduous studies gave birth to two sublime books of art, Soie et lumiere and Sabre et pinceau. Thanks to these works, people with amazing destinies find the light again, such as Jules Brunet: this officer, member of the French military mission sent to Japan as an artillery instructor, joined, after the defeat of the Shogun, the rebellion against Imperial troops, serving as an inspiration for the hero of the Last Samurai."
— Monthly Letter of the French Chamber of Commerce in Japan, p.9 "Diner des sempais en compagnie de M.Christian Polak.
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