Ramienski: 090210 WWII U2 LP4 Origins of Pac War 2010 Rev PAGE

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Ramienski: 090210 WWII U2 LP4 Origins of Pac War 2010 Rev PAGE

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WORLD WAR II

Origins of the Pacific War

2010 Revision

Introduction

Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan

On March 31 1854 representatives of Japan and the United States signed a historic treaty. A United States naval officer, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, negotiated tirelessly for several months with Japanese officials to achieve the goal of opening the doors of trade with Japan.

For two centuries, Japanese ports were closed to all but a few Dutch and Chinese traders. The United States hoped Japan would agree to open certain ports so American vessels could begin to trade with the mysterious island kingdom. In addition to interest in the Japanese market, America needed Japanese ports to replenish coal and supplies for the commercial whaling fleet.

On July 8,1853, four “black ships” led by USS Powhatan and commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, anchored at Edo (Tokyo) Bay. Never before had the Japanese seen ships steaming with smoke. They thought the ships were "giant dragons puffing smoke." They did not know that steamboats existed and were shocked by the number and size of the guns on board the ships.

At age 60, Matthew Perry had a long and distinguished naval career. He knew that the mission to Japan would be his most significant accomplishment. He brought a letter from the President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, to the Emperor of Japan. He waited with his armed ships and refused to see any of the lesser dignitaries sent by the Japanese, insisting on dealing only with the highest emissaries of the Emperor.

The Japanese government realized that their country was in no position to defend itself against a foreign power, and Japan could not retain its isolation policy without risking war. On March 31, 1854, after weeks of long and tiresome talks, Perry received what he had so dearly worked for--a treaty with Japan.

The treaty provided for:

1. Peace and friendship between the United States and Japan.

2. Opening of two ports to American ships at Shimoda and Hakodate

3. Help for any American ships wrecked on the Japanese coast and protection for shipwrecked persons

4. Permission for American ships to buy supplies, coal, water, and other necessary provisions in Japanese ports.

After the signing of the treaty, the Japanese invited the Americans to a feast. The Americans admired the courtesy and politeness of their hosts, and thought very highly of the rich Japanese culture. Commodore Perry broke down barriers that separated Japan from the rest of the world. Today the Japanese celebrate his expedition with annual black ship festivals. Perry lived in Newport, Rhode Island, which also celebrates a Black Ship festival in July. In Perry's honor, Newport has become Shimoda's sister city.

Part One

The Meiji Restoration

The Meiji Restoration was a “revolution” in Japan which toppled the Tokugawa shogunate, "restored" imperial rule, and transformed the country from a feudal into a modern state. The opening of Japan's ports to Western colonial fleets, coerced by Matthew Calbraith Perry and others from 1853 onwards, exposed the weakness of the Tokugawa shoguns, and triggered nationalist unrest, under the slogan sonno joi ("revere the emperor, expel the barbarians"). Radicals inspired by the ideas of Motoori Norinaga saw a solution in the revival of imperial "direct rule"-especially young samurai from the western daimyo fiefs of Choshu and Satsuma, which had never embraced Tokugawa sovereignty. By the 1860s Shogunate and daimyo were importing Western technology and proposing new governmental structures to meet the foreign threat.

[Note 1: Daimyō (大名) is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings. In the term, "dai" (大?) literally means "large", and "myō" stands for myōden (名田?), meaning private land. They were the most powerful feudal rulers from the 10th century to the early 19th century in Japan following the Shogun.]

[Note 2: Shogun (将軍) (literally, "a commander of a force") is a military rank and historical title for (in most cases) hereditary military dictator of Japan. The modern rank is equivalent to a Generalissimo. Although the original meaning of "shogun" is simply "a general", as a title, it is used as the short form of seii taishōgun, the governing individual at various times in the history of Japan, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to the Meiji Emperor in 1867. A shogun's office or administration is known in English as a "shogunate". In Japanese it was known as bakufu (幕府?) which literally means "tent office", and originally meant "house of the general", and later also suggested a private government.]

In 1867 pro-imperial daimyo suggested that shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu should step down and acknowledge imperial authority. Yoshinobu agreed in principle in November 1867, but mistrustful Satsuma radicals seized the imperial palace in Kyoto on January 3, 1868, and proclaimed a restoration under the young Emperor Meiji. Yoshinobu's forces were thrown back from Kyoto, and an "imperial army" of Choshu, Satsuma, and Tosa clan forces secured peaceful surrender of the shogunal capital Edo. Most daimyo stayed neutral, and the civil war ended in 1869. Yoshinobu retired and left government to Saigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi, and other restoration leaders. Confiscated Tokugawa estates comprising some 25 per cent of Japan's arable land were put under their control, providing a springboard for broader policies. In 1869 the emperor moved to Edo, renamed Tokyo ("Eastern Capital"), the new imperial capital. The emperor was used by the new government as a focus of national loyalty and the sanction for the revolutionary changes they introduced.

By 1871 the daimyo domains had been surrendered to the throne and standardized into prefectures and the daimyo pensioned off as members of a new nobility. Mass education and military conscription were introduced, and curbs on Buddhism inspired by the regime's pro-imperial Shinto ideology produced iconoclastic outbreaks. Western experts were imported to create new railways, armies, fleets, and industries, building on pre-Restoration efforts. Samurai discontented with the abolition of their privilege of wearing swords and the taxing of their stipends rebelled, especially in the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, which was defeated by the new conscript forces. The Bank of Japan was established, fiscal policy reformed, and civic unrest firmly suppressed. An authoritarian constitution, drafted by Ito Hirobumi and others, was promulgated in 1889, establishing the Diet, but for most of the Meiji era power was exercised by an informal Choshu and Satsuma oligarchy outside constitutional controls.

Part Two

Japanese Expansion to 1914

Japan, a densely populated nation with few natural resources, substantially increased its territory in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The initial expansion up until 1898 was through treaties based on traditional Japanese claims to various islands adjacent to the four main Japanese “home islands” of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. In 1875, Japan added the Kuril (Kurile) Islands, which lie to the north of Japan. After exercising some military muscle and with much diplomatic finesse, Japan formally added the RyukuIslands in 1881, after occupying them in response to a long on going dispute with Imperial China.

The next period of expansion was primarily as a result of wars with China (1894-1895 -The Sino-Japanese War) and Russia (1904-1905-The Russo-Japanese War). From the 1895 war with China, Japan gained access to Korea, and took formal possession of the island of Taiwan (also known as Formosa), an island group known as the Pecadores and the LiaotungPeninsula in southern Manchuria. In 1905, with a peace in part brokered by then President Theodore Roosevelt, Japan formally absorbed Korea, the southern half of Russian-owned Sakhalin Island (also known as Karafuto) (1905), and Russian concessions in Northern China and Manchuria. It must be remembered that this was the golden age of European imperialism in China and many of the European powers as well as the United States were actively involved in internal Chinese politics. All the major European powers had “concessions” and spheres of influence in China and so Japan wanting to be a great power demanded and received her share of concessions and spheres of influence. In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is an area or region over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence.The Russo-Japanese War of 1905 is significant because Japan, a non-white, non-European country defeated a major European power decisively. After 1905, Japan considered Manchuria key to her economic and military security. Manchuria was rich in coal and iron, materials necessary for a modern industrial nation- materials that Japan lacked.

The First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War (1 August 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a war fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over the control of Korea. Aside from the direct political and military results of the Sino-Japanese War,

Map 1: Spheres of Influence, China 1910

it served to show how the Qing Dynasty had been weakened (both physically and in prestige) in the previous century (especially by the Opium Wars) and to demonstrate that modernization had been successful in Japan since the Meiji Restoration as compared with the Self-Strengthening Movement in China. Other major results were a shift in regional dominance in East Asia from China to Japan and a major blow to the Qing Dynasty and the Chinese classical tradition. These trends would later manifest in the 1911 Revolution in China.

The Japanese success during the war was the result of the modernization and industrialization embarked on two decades earlier. The war demonstrated the superiority of Japanese tactics and training as a result of the adoption of a western style military. The Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were able to inflict a string of defeats on the Chinese through foresight, endurance, strategy and power of organization. Japanese prestige rose in the eyes of the world. The victory established Japan as a regional power (if not a great power) on equal terms with the west and as the dominant power in Asia.

Although Japan had achieved what it had set out to accomplish, namely to end Chinese influence over Korea, Japan reluctantly had been forced to relinquish the Liaodong Peninsula (Port Arthur) in exchange for an increased financial indemnity. The European powers (Russia especially), while having no objection to the other clauses of the treaty, did feel that Japan should not gain Port Arthur, for they had their own ambitions in that part of the world. Russia persuaded Germany and France to join her in applying diplomatic pressure on the Japanese, resulting in the Triple Intervention of 23 April 1895. [Today Port Arthur is known as “Lüshunkou” a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Lüshunkou is located at the extreme southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula. It has an excellent natural harbor. During the first decade of the 20th Century it was world famous and was more significant than the other port on the peninsula, Dalian. In Western diplomatic, news, and historical writings, it was known as Port Arthur, and during the period when the Japanese controlled and administered the Liaodong (formerly Liaotung) Peninsula it was called Ryojun.]

In 1898 Russia signed a 25-year lease on the LiaodongPeninsula and proceeded to set up a naval station at Port Arthur. Although this infuriated the Japanese, they were more concerned with Russian encroachment towards Korea than in Manchuria. Other powers, such as France, Germany, and Great Britain, took advantage of the situation in China and gained port and trade concessions at the expense of the decaying Qing Empire. Tsingtao and Kiaochow was acquired by Germany, Kwang-Chou-Wan by France, and Weihaiwei by Great Britain.

Tensions between Russia and Japan would increase in the years after the First Sino-Japanese war.

Map 2: Liaodong, Shandong –Port Arthur area

The Russo–Japanese War

The Russo–Japanese War (10 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the LiaodongPeninsula and Mukden, the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea.

The Russians were in constant pursuit of a warm water port on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. The recently established Pacific seaport of Vladivostok was only operational during the summer season, but Port Arthur would be operational all year. From the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and 1903, negotiations between the Tsar's government and Japan had proved futile. Japan chose war to maintain exclusive dominance in Korea.

The resulting campaigns, in which the fledgling Japanese military consistently attained victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. These victories, as time transpired, would dramatically transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. The embarrassing string of defeats inflamed the Russian people's dissatisfaction with their inefficient and corrupt Tsarist government, and proved a major cause of the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The Battle of Tsushima

The Battle of Tsushima was naval history's only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets. It was fought on May 27–28, 1905 (May 14–15 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia) in the TsushimaStrait between Korea and southern Japan. In this battle the Japanese fleet under Admiral Heihachirō Tōgō destroyed two-thirds of the Russian fleet under Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky which had conducted a voyage of over 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km) to reach the Far East. Historian Edmund Morris calls it the greatest naval battle since Trafalgar.

Prior to the Russo-Japanese War, countries constructed their battleships with mixed batteries of mainly 152 mm (6-inch), 203 mm (8-inch), 254 mm (10-inch) and 305 mm (12-inch) guns, with the intent that these battleships fight on the battle line in a close-quarter, decisive fleet action. The battle demonstrated that big guns with longer ranges were more advantageous during naval battles than mixed batteries of different sizes.

The Treaty of Portsmouth

The defeats of the Russian Army and Navy shook Russian confidence. Throughout 1905, the Imperial Russian government was rocked by revolution. Tsar Nicholas II elected to negotiate peace so he could concentrate on internal matters.

The American President Theodore Roosevelt offered to mediate, and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort. Sergius Witte led the Russian delegation and Baron Komura, a graduate of Harvard, led the Japanese Delegation. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on 5 September 1905 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.

Russia recognized Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. Japan would formally annex Korea in 1910, with scant protest from other powers. Russia also signed over its 25-year leasehold rights to Port Arthur, including the naval base and the peninsula around it. Russia also ceded the southern half of SakhalinIsland to Japan. It was regained by the USSR in 1952 under the Treaty of San Francisco following the Second World War.

Consequences

This was the first major victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Russia's defeat had been met with shock both in the West and across the Far East. Japan's prestige rose greatly as it began to be considered a modern nation. Concurrently, Russia lost virtually its entire Pacific and Baltic fleets, and also lost some international esteem. The war caused many nations to underestimate Russian military capabilities in World War I.

In the absence of Russian competition and with the distraction of European nations during World War I, combined with the Great Depression which followed, the Japanese military began its efforts to dominate China and the rest of Asia, which eventually led to the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, theatres of World War II.

Japan in World War I

At the beginning of the 20th century, Japan’s key ally in Asia was Great Britain. Indeed the Japanese admired the British very much and modeled their navy after the British Royal Navy. When Great Britain went to war with Germany in 1914, the start of World War I, Japan shortly thereafter declared war on Germany and helped the British to conquer German possessions in the Pacific and German concessions in China.