The Energy of Empire 7. Japan, Honorary Aryans

‘Yesterday, December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.’

Franklin D Roosevelt

The above quotation is from the speech Franklin D. Roosevelt gave after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, which brought the United States into World War II. But how did they get there? What’s the deeper history, stretching back not to Franklin’s, but Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, that set up this collision course?

That’s what I’m going to examine in this chapter. Before I begin, there’s a further important historical event to look at.

On September the 6th 1901, the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, was shot in Buffalo New York. He died eight days later. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, perhaps the major driving force behind US imperial expansion, then became President.

McKinley’s was the third assassination of a President inside forty years. Theories about Franklin Delano Roosevelt aside, there’s only been one successful attempt in the hundred and twenty years since. His death led to the Secret Service, up until then an agency that investigated counterfeiting, taking on the role of protecting the President.

Mckinley’s assassin was a Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, who in his last words declared:

‘I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people—the good working people.’ 

The period of roughly 1870 to 1920 saw a considerable amount of anarchist violence. With bombings across Europe and the United States and assassinations of Monarchs and government officials. Czolgosz was particularly inspired by the then recent killing of King Umberto I of Italy.   

In some ways the anarchists were the radical Islamists of their day, and the war on their terror contained all the same complexity of its modern incarnation. With hundreds of thousands subscribing to their publications, anarchist ideology was far more threatening to the ruling class than a few bombs and assassinations. After McKinley’s assassinsation, Theodore Roosevelt declared:

‘When compared with the suppression of anarchy, every other question sinks into insignificance.’

Movements were heavily infiltrated with agent provocateurs leading groups in the direction of violence. Indeed Czolgosz himself had raised sufficient suspicion for a warning pertaining to him to be published in the Free Society newspaper, writing that:

‘His demeanour is of the usual sort, pretending to be greatly interested in the cause, asking for names or soliciting aid for acts of contemplated violence.’ 

If Czolgosz was part of a larger plot, directed by anarchists groups or agents of some state, he went to his grave without talking. After his execution his body was dissolved in sulfuric acid to remove all traces of him from this world.

At the time of Theodore Roosevelt’s nomination to the Vice Presidency, a position he’d been in part given to keep him out of the way, Senator Mark Hanna angrily declared: 

‘Don’t any of you realise that there’s only one life between this madman and the presidency?’

That possibility had now become a reality, and the ‘madman’ sat in the Oval Office. 

Turning our attention to Japan:

After the conclusion of the Sengoku or Warring States period around 1615, Japan entered about a two hundred and fifty year period of relative peace and stability. This was also a period of isolation, with the Japanese forbidden from travelling abroad and foreigners banned from the country. Only a small number of Dutch ships were given access to the country for trade. 

Japan’s Rulers, the Shogunate, had become suspicious of European intentions and of Christianity’s role as a tool of empire and moved to suppress the religion. The Japanese scholar Seishisai Aizawa wrote in the 1820s:

‘The European powers endeavour to attack all nations in the world. The wicked doctrine of Jesus is an aid in this endeavour. Under the pretext of trade or whatever, they approach and become friendly with people in all areas, secretly probing to see which countries are strong and which are weak. If a nation’s defences are weak, they seize it by force. But if there are no weaknesses to pounce on, they take it over by leading the people’s minds astray with the wicked doctrine of [Christianity].’ 

After an uprising by Christians in 1637, Japan began its two hundred and fifty year isolation. 

Between 1790 and 1853 the Japanese turned away at least twenty visiting US vessels. By the 1840s, Americans wanted to use Japan as a coaling station, a stopping off point for the major prize, the markets of China. US ships could sail from the West coast to Hawaii, but not make the remainder of the distance to China.

Expansionists of that time faced a problem, in that the US Declaration of Independence stated that each nation had the right to determine its interactions with other nations. This was philosophically overcome by thinking of the Japanese as being akin to the Native Americans in their level of development, living outside of the law of nations and not knowing what was good for them.

In 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Harbour and demanded Japan open its ports to American ships. If they refused, Perry threatened instantaneous war, and told them one hundred American ships would attack within twenty days. 

Although I’m not sure how they read them, Perry gave the Japanese two books on the recent war with Mexico, emphasising his personal role in the amphibious assault on that country. 

Under further threat of gunships, Japanese leaders signed the United States–Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1858. In 1861 Russia briefly invaded the island of Tsushima, located between Japan and Korea, and were only evicted with British assistance.

The Western powers imposed what became known as ‘unequal treaties’ on Japan which stipulated that the Japanese must allow citizens of these countries to visit or reside on Japanese territory and must not levy tariffs on their imports or try them in Japanese courts.

Over the following two years the British and US navies shelled Japanese civilians to discipline the Japanese for firing on their ships.

The Japanese isolationist strategy, which had been successful at preventing the kind of  imperial conquest so many other countries had suffered, had now completely backfired, leaving Japan two hundred years behind Europe and the USA technologically. This once great military power was now entirely unable to defend itself.

The Japanese saw the fate of China, India, Indonesia and Indochina, all falling to European Imperial powers. Certain Japanese came to see that radical action was necessary if they were to stand any chance of evading the same fate.

Dissatisfaction with this situation led to a brief civil war in which the two hundred and fifty year Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown, replaced by restoration of the Emperor to a place of prominent power. Known as the Meiji Restoration, Meiji means ‘Enlightened Rule’.

If you’ve seen the film, The Last Samurai, this is where the scenes of men with swords on horseback being cut down by gatling guns are taken from, it was a meeting of two entirely different worlds.

Although the revolutionaries were incited by the intrusion of foreigners into Japan, they quickly realised they had no way of expelling them and made an about turn in tactics. Rather ingeniously, they fully embraced not only Western technology, which would have been understandable, but also Western cultural practices too. 

The Meiji Government repudiated violence against foreigners and lifted the centuries old ban on Christianity. It introduced railways, telegraph lines, a universal education system and hired hundreds of advisers from Western nations, with expertise in such fields as mining, banking, law, military affairs, and transportation. The Japanese adopted the Gregorian calendar and Western fashions and hairstyles.

One tactical reason for this was the Japanese coming to understand how Westerners saw the world: in terms or racial and civilisational hierarchies. They sought to stave off colonisation by presenting themselves as Westerners in the East—to be adopted as honorary aryans.

One leading advocate of Westernisation was the popular writer Fukuzawa Yukichi, who today appears on the ten thousand Japanese yen note. He wrote:

‘We cannot wait for neighbouring countries to become enlightened and unite to make Asia strong. We must rather break out of formation and join the civilised countries of the West on the path of progress.’ 

The Japanese leadership also saw the need to reform religion, turning Shintoism into a state cult and declaring the emperor to be a living god. A substantial portion of the state budget was dedicated to enshrining this cult into the public mind, with schools being used as centres to indoctrinate the youth.

As an aside, there’s a comparison here to what is going on in Britain at the same time. There’s a perception in the United Kingdom that royal weddings and coronations are majestic and timeless ceremonies, stretching back for a thousand years. In reality they are an invention of the 19th century, a way to implicate the public with royalty after an upswell of republican sentiment upon the demise of the debauched and unpopular monarch, George the IV.

In the 1870s, with Japanese students studying in American universities, some US expansionists started to see Japan as a potential imperial partner, a proxy force through which they could extend greater influence into East Asia. 

In 1871, Okinawan sailors heading for China were blown off course onto the island of Taiwan. In what became known as the Mudan Incident, fifty four of the sixty six who made it to shore were massacred by Taiwanese natives. Initially the Taiwanese provided hospitality and it’s not entirely clear why the massacre occurred. There are actually reconciliatory efforts between the two Islands going on till this day.

Okinawa and the wider Ryukyu Island chain, linking Japan with Taiwan, were over the following eight years annexed by Japan. The Japanese followed a similar course to the Americans in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, attempting to eliminate the Ryukyuan language, culture and religion. Public education was introduced that permitted only the use of standard Japanese, while shaming students who used their own language by forcing them to wear plaques around their necks.

The US Minister to Japan, Charles De Long, suggested that Japan dispatch a military expedition to discipline the Taiwanese and lay the groundwork for the takeover of the island nation. Minister De Long assured the Japanese that the United States was: 

‘partial to its friends who desired to occupy such territory for the purposes of expansion.’

The Japanese found an advisor in Civil War veteran Charles LeGendre. LeGendre had served as a US diplomat in China, and had tried and failed to encourage the Chinese to invade Taiwan and civilise its tribal inhabitants. Unable to do so, he saw another opportunity with the Japanese, who willingly bought his military expertise. 

LeGendre hoped to become governor of the island. He wrote to a friend in the United States that he took the job after: 

‘It was proved to me that, in doing so, I was but aiding in the carrying out of certain views which our government looked upon with extreme favour.’

LeGendre proposed the Japanese adopt a ‘Monroe Doctrine for Asia’, In 1823, President James Monroe had declared that only the United States could meddle in the Americas; the United States would view European actions in the Western Hemisphere as aggression requiring US military intervention.

LeGendre recommended Anglo-Saxon methods:

‘Pacify and civilise them if possible, and if not… exterminate them or otherwise deal with them as the United States and England have dealt with the barbarians.’

The Japanese government created a Bureau of Savage Affairs and incorporated new Western words like koronii—colony—into the Japanese language. Japanese newspapers otherized the Taiwanese aborigines, calling them cruel and inhuman, and spoke of Japan’s responsibility to civilise the savages. In early May of 1873, Japan invaded Taiwan with US military advisers supporting the operation. Within two months, the Taiwanese submitted to Japanese military force.

Instead of holding the island as a colony however, fearful of provoking war with China, Japan withdrew after extorting an indemnity of around eighteen tonnes of silver. The invasion also allowed Japan to break any Chinese claim over the Ryukyuan islands and served as a trial run for future imperial ambitions. When Japan and China did go to war twenty years later, Japan emerged with Taiwan as a colony. This could be pegged as the start of problems which exist with Taiwan today, as one of the world’s hot points that could spark a nuclear war.

This might sound strange today, as China is supposed to be taking over the world any minute now, but at the turn of the twentieth century Theodore Roosevelt did not see the Chinese as a future world power. This in spite of the country's size, historical civilisation and immense population. He believed China would be contested between the Anglo Saxon and the Slav, in a great battle for civilisation. It was imperative then that the Russians did not gain a foothold in China, something they had a massive geographic advantage to do.

At the same time, the Japanese felt the Russian bear breathing down their necks. They had ceded territory back to China at the insistence of European powers, only to watch Russia come in and take Dalian (also known as Port Arthur), by acquiring a twenty five year lease from the Chinese. If Russia occupied the Eastern Chinese province of Manchuria, then moved down into Korea, it would become the central player in East Asia, blocking any further Japanese imperial ambitions.

On the far side of the world, British imperialists also wished to prevent Russia’s march into Manchuria. They had other concerns with the ‘Russian menace’ too. For twenty years they had been at loggerheads over territorial claims in Iran, Afghanistan and China. The British feared that Russia would one day try to take India off them, and they knew they did not have the troop numbers to stop them.

In 1902 Britain and Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Treaty, which stated that if any nation became allied with Russia during a war with Japan, Britain would enter the war on Japan’s side. This was actually controversial and caused debates in Parliament, as Britain had traditionally avoided entangling alliances. A series of rebellions across the Empire however, caused British imperialists to seek out new strategies. British shipyards also supplied the Japanese with its navy and when war broke out, pressured the French and German governments to not supply the Russians with coal for their fleet.

Whilst such treaties were controversial in the British Parliament, at this time it would have been impossible for a US President to get such an agreement past the Senate. Theodore Roosevelt therefore engaged in secret diplomacy, making handshake style agreements with the Japanese. Seeing the Japanese as embodying Anglo Saxon values, he also encouraged them to adopt a Monroe Doctrine for East Asia. 

Japan attacked the Russian fleet in February of 1904, then moved to occupy Korea. Like the British, Roosevelt notified Germany and France that if they assisted Russia he would:

‘Promptly side with Japan and proceed to whatever length was necessary on her behalf.’

In May of 1905 Japan won a stunning naval victory. In spite of the perception that victory was at hand however, the war was bleeding the Japanese economy, whilst Russia had inexhaustible man-power to draw upon. Whilst the Russians couldn’t win the war in the East, there was no possibility of Japanese soldiers marching on St Petersburg.

Not wanting to sue for peace directly and thereby appear weak in negotiations, the Japanese approached Roosevelt and asked him to go to the Russians on their behalf—without the Tzar knowing he was acting for them. 

This ultimately led to the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, for which Roosevelt would, ironically, receive a Nobel Peace Prize.

Roosevelt initially supported Japanese demands that Russia pay the costs of the war, but ultimately pressured the Japanese to drop this condition. Russia simply recognised Korea as part of the Japanese sphere of influence and agreed to evacuate Manchuria. This led to substantial anti-American rioting in Tokyo. When Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice, visited the country, she was advised to say she was English.

In 1882 the Korean King Gojong had signed a treaty with the United States, which declared that there: 

‘Shall be perpetual peace and friendship between Korea and the United States. If a third power acted unjustly or oppressively with either country, the United States and Korea promised to exert their “good offices, on being informed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrangement, thus showing their friendly feelings.’

The Koreans therefore assumed the United States would offer them some form of protection against Japanese encroachment. Twenty three years later, wanting Japan to take Korea, Theodore Roosevelt ignored their pleas and turned over the US legation building in Seoul. 

Roosevelt later justified his abandonment of the treaty by saying:

‘The treaty rested on the false assumption that Korea could govern herself well…. [Korea was] utterly impotent either for self government or self-defence.’

Japan thus laid claim to Korea as a protectorate in 1905, followed by full annexation in 1910, thus beginning its imperial stride onto the Asian mainland.

You might recall from the chapter on Cuba, I pointed out the synchronicity of the last Spanish ship to be sunk by the US fleet was named Columbus. Well, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, who had been instrumental in the secret diplomacy with Japan, returned to the United States on a ship called Korea—named after a country whose existence he had just terminated.

Japan set out to suppress many traditional Korean customs, including eventually even the Korean language itself. The Japanese occupation lasted until 1945, and set up the conditions by which Korea remains divided into two countries to this day.

After the First World War, Britain and France negotiated a series of secret treaties with the Japanese, transfering parts of China to them, in return for Japanese recognition of European spheres of influence in Asia. President Woodrow Wilson accepted Japan’s control of a part of China, in order to keep the Japanese in his proposed League of Nations. 

These are the events that put Japan and the United States on a collision course, resulting in the day of infamy and war. Japan transitioned from being a junior partner, to an imperial rival in the Pacific. The reassurances Theodore Roosevelt had received regarding Japan having no interest in the Philippines turned to a full blown occupation.

There are multiple perspectives that are worth exploring on why the United States and Japan ultimately went to war. There is also of course the question of Pearl Harbour, and whether the US Military had advanced knowledge of the attack or not. I’ll have to content myself with having covered this early period of history today, and return to those at a later point.

My purpose here has not been to take the blame of Japanese imperialists for the arising of the Japanese Empire, rather it is to demonstrate the role that the British and American actions (or perhaps better to say British and Roosevelt actions) played in bringing it about.

After World War Two Japan ended up being something less than a junior partner, with the Islands being a home to more US Military bases than anywhere else in the world. Ironically, a disproportionate number of bases are on the Island of Okinawa, not historically a part of Japan, but annexed with American encouragement. There is certainly a sense in which the American occupation of Japan has been continuous since 1945. As I write this, the media is reporting on a potential doubling of Japanese defence spending, as the United States looks to use the island nation as a counterweight to China once more. I wonder to what extent history is repeating.

Notes

The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War, by James Bradley

Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War, by Gerry Docherty and Jim Macgregor

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, by Charlmers Johnson