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Japan participated inWorld War I from 1914 to 1918 as a member of theAllies/Entente and played an important role against theImperial German Navy. Politically, theJapanese Empire seized the opportunity to expand itssphere of influence inChina, and to gain recognition as agreat power in postwargeopolitics.
Japan's military, taking advantage of the great distances andImperial Germany's preoccupation with the war inEurope, seizedGerman possessions in the Pacific and East Asia, but there was nolarge-scale mobilization of the economy.[1] Foreign MinisterKatō Takaaki and Prime MinisterŌkuma Shigenobu wanted to use the opportunity to expand Japanese influence in China. They enlistedSun Yat-sen (1866–1925), then in exile in Japan, but they had little success.[2] TheImperial Japanese Navy, a nearly autonomous bureaucratic institution, made its own decision to undertake expansion in the Pacific area. It captured Germany'sMicronesian territories north of the equator, and ruled the islands until they were transitioned to civilian control in 1921. The operation gave the Navy a rationale for enlarging its budget to double theArmy budget and expanding the fleet. The Navy then gained significant political influence over national and international affairs.[3]
In the first week ofWorld War I, Japan proposed to the United Kingdom that Japan would enter the war if it could take Germany's Pacific territories.[4] On 7 August 1914, the British government officially asked Japan for assistance in destroying theImperial German Navy in and around Chinese waters. Japan sent Germany an ultimatum on 15 August 1914, which went unanswered; Japan then formally declared war onGermany on 23 August 1914 in the name of theEmperor Taishō.[5] AsVienna refused to withdraw the Austro-Hungarian cruiserSMS Kaiserin Elisabeth fromQingdao, Japan declared war on Austria-Hungary, too, on 25 August 1914.[6]
Japanese forces quickly occupiedGerman-leased territories in the Far East. On 2 September 1914, Japanese forces landed on China'sShandong province and surrounded the German settlement at Tsingtao. During October, acting virtually independently of the civil government, theImperial Japanese Navyseized several of Germany's island colonies in the Pacific—theMariana,Caroline, andMarshall Islands—with virtually no resistance as, while they were part ofGerman New Guinea, the islands were administered by German colonial officers with only small police forces of local Pacific islanders to defend them. There were small clashes between the defenders and the landing Japanese troops, but this did little to stop the Japanese takeover. The Japanese Navy conducted the world's firstnaval-launched air raids against German-held land targets in Shandong province and ships in Qiaozhou Bay from theseaplane-carrierWakamiya. On 6 September 1914, a seaplane launched byWakamiya unsuccessfully attacked theKaiserin Elisabeth and the German gunboatJaguar with bombs.[7]
TheSiege of Tsingtao (Qingdao) concluded with the surrender of German colonial forces on 7 November 1914.
In September 1914, by request of the Imperial Japanese Army, theJapanese Red Cross Society put together three squads, each composed of one surgeon and twenty nurses, which were dispatched to Europe on a five-month assignment. The teams left Japan between October and December 1914 and were assigned toPetrograd,Paris, andSouthampton. The arrival of these nurses received wide press coverage, and their host countries subsequently asked for these teams to extend their assignment to fifteen months.[8]
Japan also sent its armored cruiserIbuki to assist with the protection of theAustralian Imperial Force (AIF) troop convoy (which included contingents from New Zealand) as it sailed from Western Australia to Egypt on 1 November 1914.[9]
With Japan's European allies heavily involved in the war in Europe, Japan sought to further consolidate its position in China by presenting theTwenty-One Demands to Chinese PresidentYuan Shikai in January 1915. If achieved, the Twenty-One Demands would have essentially reduced China to a Japaneseprotectorate, and at the expense of numerous privileges already enjoyed by the European powers in their respective spheres of influence within China. In the face of slow negotiations with the Chinese government, widespread and increasing anti-Japanese sentiments, and international condemnation (particularly from the United States), Japan withdrew the final group of demands, and a treaty was signed by China on 25 May 1915.
Throughout 1915–1916, German efforts to negotiate a separate peace with Japan failed. On 3 July 1916, Japan and Russia signed a treaty whereby each pledged not to make a separate peace with Germany, and agreed to consultation and common action should the territory or interests of each in China be threatened by an outside third party. Although Russia had a claim to Chinese territory by theKyakhta and other treaties, Japan discouraged Russia from annexingHeilongjiang and began to slowly push the other powers out, such as the Germans in theTwenty-One Demands (1915). The delineating line between Russian (north) and Japanese (south) spheres of influences in China was theChinese Eastern Railway.[10]
In February 1915, marines from theImperial Japanese Navy ships based inSingapore helped suppress amutiny by Indian troops against the British government.[11]
On 18 December 1916, the British Admiralty again requested naval assistance from Japan. The new Japanese cabinet under Prime MinisterTerauchi Masatake was more favorably inclined to provide military assistance, provided that the British government back Japan's territorial claims to the newly acquired German possessions in the South Pacific and Shandong. When Germany announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on 1 February 1917, the British government agreed.[12]
Two of the four cruisers of the First Special Squadron at Singapore were sent toCape Town,South Africa, and four destroyers were sent to the Mediterranean for basing out ofMalta, headquarters of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. Rear-AdmiralKōzō Satō on thecruiserAkashi and 10th and 11thdestroyer units (eight destroyers) arrived in Malta on 13 April 1917 viaColombo andPort Said. Eventually this Second Special Squadron totaled three cruisers (Akashi,Izumo,Nisshin, 14 destroyers (8Kaba-classdestroyer, 4Momo-classdestroyer, 2 ex-BritishAcorn-class), 2 sloops, 1 tender (Kanto).
The 17 ships of Second Special Squadron carried out escort duties for troop transports and anti-submarine operations against attacks from German andAustro-Hungarian submarines operating from bases along theeastern Adriatic, theAegean Sea, fromConstantinople, thus securing the vital eastern Mediterranean sea route between theSuez Canal andMarseille, France.
The Japanese squadron made a total of 348 escort sorties from Malta, escorting 789 ships containing around 700,000 soldiers, thus contributing greatly to the war effort, for a total loss of 72 Japanese sailors killed in action. A total of 7,075 people were rescued by the Japanese from damaged and sinking ships. This included the rescue by the destroyersMatsu andSakaki of nearly 3,000 persons from the troopshipSS Transylvania, which was hit by a German torpedo on 4 May 1917. No Japanese ships were lost during the deployment but on 11 June 1917Sakaki was hit by a torpedo from the Austro-Hungarian submarineU-27 off Crete; 59 Japanese sailors died.
With theAmerican entry into World War I on 6 April 1917, the United States and Japan found themselves on the same side, despite their increasingly acrimonious relations over China and competition for influence in the Pacific. This led to theLansing–Ishii Agreement of 2 November 1917 to help reduce tensions.
On July 9, CommanderKyōsuke Eto, military attaché with theRoyal Navy, was killed in theVanguard disaster.
In late 1917, Japan exported 12Arabe-class destroyers, based onKaba-class design, to France.
The British under AdmiralGeorge Alexander Ballard gave strong praise to the high operational rate of the Japanese squadron, and its quick response to all British requests. In return, the Japanese absorbed British anti-submarine warfare techniques and technologies and gained invaluable operational experience. After the end of the war, the Japanese Navy brought back seven German submarines as prizes of war, which greatly contributed to future Japanese submarine design and development.
In 1918, Japan continued to extend its influence and privileges in China via theNishihara Loans. Following theBolshevik Revolution in Russia, Japan and the United States sent forces toSiberia in 1918 to bolster the armies of theWhite movement leader AdmiralAlexander Kolchak against theBolshevikRed Army. In thisSiberian Intervention, theImperial Japanese Army initially planned to send more than 70,000 troops to occupy Siberia as far west asLake Baikal. The plan was scaled back considerably due to opposition from the United States.[13]
Toward the end of the war, Japan increasingly filled orders for needed war material for its European allies. The wartime boom helped to diversify the country's industry, increase its exports, and transform Japan from a debtor to a creditor nation for the first time. Exports quadrupled from 1913 to 1918. The massive capital influx into Japan and the subsequent industrial boom led to rapid inflation. In August 1918,rice riots caused by this inflation erupted in towns and cities throughout Japan.[14]
The year 1919 saw Japan's representativeSaionji Kinmochi sitting alongside the "Big Four" (Lloyd George,Wilson,Clemenceau,Orlando) leaders at theParis Peace Conference. Tokyo gained a permanent seat on the Council of theLeague of Nations, and theParis Peace Conference confirmed the transfer to Japan of Germany's rights inShandong. Similarly, Germany's more northerly Pacific islands came under a Japanesemandate, called theSouth Seas Mandate. During the conference, the Japanese delegation proposed that a "racial equality clause" be attached to theCovenant of the League of Nations, similar to the covenant'sreligious equality clause; however, this proposal was ultimately unsuccessful despite a majority of delegations voting for it. This rejection of the proposal has been seen by some historians as an event that contributed to Japan turning away from theWestern world in the years after World War I. Japan, by now agreat power, continued to expand its influence after the war.[15][16]
The prosperity brought on by World War I did not last. Although Japan'slight industry had secured a share of the world market, Japan returned to debtor-nation status soon after the end of the war. The ease of Japan's victory, the negative impact of theShōwa recession in 1926, and internal political instabilities helped contribute to the rise ofJapanese militarism in the late 1920s to 1930s.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. Country Studies.Federal Research Division.—Japan| National | |
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