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Japan World War I
Seizing the opportunity of Berlin's distraction with
the
European War and wanting to expand its sphere of influence
in
China, Japan declared war on Germany in August 1914 and
quickly
occupied German-leased territories in China's Shandong
Province and
the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall islands in the
Pacific. With
its Western allies heavily involved in the war in Europe,
Japan
sought further to consolidate its position in China by
presenting
the Twenty-One Demands to China in January 1915. Besides
expanding
its control over the German holdings, Manchuria, and Inner
Mongolia, Japan also sought joint ownership of a major
mining and
metallurgical complex in central China, prohibitions on
China's
ceding or leasing any coastal areas to a third power, and
miscellaneous other political, economic, and military
controls,
which, if achieved, would have reduced China to a Japanese
protectorate. In the face of slow negotiations with the
Chinese
government, widespread anti-Japanese sentiments in China,
and
international condemnation, Japan withdrew the final group
of
demands, and treaties were signed in May 1915.
Japan's hegemony in northern China and other parts of
Asia was
facilitated through other international agreements. One
with Russia
in 1916 helped further secure Japan's influence in
Manchuria and
Inner Mongolia, and agreements with France, Britain, and
the United
States in 1917 recognized Japan's territorial gains in
China and
the Pacific. The Nishihara Loans (named after Nishihara
Kamezo,
Tokyo's representative in Beijing) of 1917 and 1918, while
aiding
the Chinese government, put China still deeper into
Japan's debt.
Toward the end of the war, Japan increasingly filled
orders for its
European allies' needed war matériel, thus helping to
diversify the
country's industry, increase its exports, and transform
Japan from
a debtor to a creditor nation for the first time.
Japan's power in Asia grew with the demise of the
tsarist
regime in Russia and the disorder the 1917 Bolshevik
Revolution
left in Siberia. Wanting to seize the opportunity, the
Japanese
army planned to occupy Siberia as far west as Lake Baykal.
To do
so, Japan had to negotiate an agreement with China
allowing the
transit of Japanese troops through Chinese territory.
Although the
force was scaled back to avoid antagonizing the United
States, more
than 70,000 Japanese troops joined the much smaller units
of the
Allied Expeditionary Force sent to Siberia in 1918.
The year 1919 saw Japan sitting among the "Big Five"
powers at
the Versailles Peace Conference. Tokyo was granted a
permanent seat
on the Council of the League of Nations, and the peace
treaty
confirmed the transfer to Japan of Germany's rights in
Shandong, a
provision that led to anti-Japanese riots and a mass
political
movement throughout China. Similarly, Germany's former
Pacific
islands were put under a Japanese mandate. Despite its
small role
in World War I (and the Western powers' rejection of its
bid for a
racial equality clause in the peace treaty), Japan emerged
as a
major actor in international politics at the close of the
war.
Data as of January 1994
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