Category
Poster - Textual or Investigative
Description
The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 was a storm of nations, all pursuing their own agendas with respect to the coming peace. Most notable were the Big Four: Great Britain, the United States, France, and Italy. Close behind them, however, was Japan, the Allied power largely responsible for the capture of German colonies in East Asia. Though it acted under the approval of a treaty with Great Britain, Japan’s true aim was to utilize the chaos embroiling Europe to solidify their influence and territorial gains in Asia. Their territorial ambitions sated for the moment, Japan largely ignored the Western theater of the war, and their peace plans assumed that each nation would tend to its own affairs. However, after the Western powers announced an armistice and declared that the following peace would be determined by President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, Japan set out once more to establish its place in the post-war order. Its requests of the Conference were twofold: Japan would retain control of all territories captured from Germany during the war, and the soon-to-be League of Nations would guarantee racial equality among its member states. Seeking to protect its own colonial territories, yet not wanting the League to fall before it started, Great Britain assented on the former point but refused to vote on the latter. The United States followed suit and dismissed the proposal for racial equality, stating that such a matter must be agreed upon unanimously. Japan never forgot this perceived insult, and resentment festered until it finally withdrew from the League in February 1933. Japan’s behavior during World War I and the ensuing peace talks proves that its territorial ambitions were nowhere near sated by its wartime acquisitions.
Uneasy Peace: Imperial Japan at Versailles
Poster - Textual or Investigative
The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 was a storm of nations, all pursuing their own agendas with respect to the coming peace. Most notable were the Big Four: Great Britain, the United States, France, and Italy. Close behind them, however, was Japan, the Allied power largely responsible for the capture of German colonies in East Asia. Though it acted under the approval of a treaty with Great Britain, Japan’s true aim was to utilize the chaos embroiling Europe to solidify their influence and territorial gains in Asia. Their territorial ambitions sated for the moment, Japan largely ignored the Western theater of the war, and their peace plans assumed that each nation would tend to its own affairs. However, after the Western powers announced an armistice and declared that the following peace would be determined by President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, Japan set out once more to establish its place in the post-war order. Its requests of the Conference were twofold: Japan would retain control of all territories captured from Germany during the war, and the soon-to-be League of Nations would guarantee racial equality among its member states. Seeking to protect its own colonial territories, yet not wanting the League to fall before it started, Great Britain assented on the former point but refused to vote on the latter. The United States followed suit and dismissed the proposal for racial equality, stating that such a matter must be agreed upon unanimously. Japan never forgot this perceived insult, and resentment festered until it finally withdrew from the League in February 1933. Japan’s behavior during World War I and the ensuing peace talks proves that its territorial ambitions were nowhere near sated by its wartime acquisitions.
Comments
Undergraduate - 2nd Place Award Winner