American Negotiators: Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War
Debate:
The American-Japanese Negotiations in November 1941
& the Coming of the Pacific War
Source: Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War
- Background: “Introduction”, pp.1-13
- Japan’s Concerns
“Imperial Conference”, pp.14-38
“Plan A and Plan B”, pp.38-41
- America’s Concerns – From Compromise/Appeasement to Non-Negotiation
- “Joseph W. Ballantine’s Memorandum, Nov.20, Nov.22, 1941”, pp.52-63
- “Draft of Proposed Modus Vivendi with Japan”, pp.63-69
- “President Roosevelt’s rejection of Modus Vivendi with Japan”, pp.69-73
- Escalation of Conflicts
U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s “The Hull Note: Proposed Agreement between the U.S. and Japan”, pp.74-76
Reactions of Japanese Ambassador in Washington D.C. and Tokyo Government to “The Hull Note”, pp.79-86
“Japan’s Imperial Conference and Pearl Harbor”, pp.86-104
For the Debate:
If you had been the American negotiators in November 1941 and interested in a diplomatic settlement with Japan, how would you have persuaded the Japanese counterparts to avoid war?
What concessions would you have made to Japan during the negotiation?
What were the most important issues that you would go to war rather than compromise?
If you had been aware of the Japanese government’s decision on December 7, 1941 (pp.86-104), what would you have done to avoid the Pearl Harbor attack?
For the 2nd Critique (Due on March 24, 2015)
- From your reading of the diplomatic documents, what were the major geopolitical reasons for the outbreak of the Pacific War between the U.S. and Japan?
- To the U.S. and Japan, what were the most important concerns that they would go to war rather than compromise?
- Could the U.S. and Japan have resolved their disagreements and avoided war in November-December 1941?
- Did the diplomatic documents indicate that there was a lack of effective communication between Washington and Tokyo in November-December 1941?
TO BE RE-WRITTEN FROM THE SCRATCH
Major geopolitical reasons for the outbreak of the pacific war between the U.S and Japan
- Japan’s Denial of the Open Door Policy
Towards the end of the 19th century, the opening of plantations of sugar in Hawaii made significant numbers of Japanese to migrate. In 1898 Hawaii was absorbed as a state of the U.S., where the Japanese were the largest part of the population. Control over Hawaii had gotten toll of both the Philippines and the Japanese. Both the nations lend a hand to the European superpowers in cooling the Boxer Rebellion in the Republic of China in the 1900. The U.S was angry about the refusal of the Open Door Policy by Japan. The policy would allow all nations to trade with China on an equal ground.
Washington did not wish to anger Japan by a legislation which was supposed to ban the Japan from immigration into the U.S like it had happened to the Chinese immigration. Owing to his refusal to be hard on the Japanese there was a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” (1907) between the U.S and the Japan government. The agreement allowed Japan on its own to make sure that there was very limited or no immigration to the U.S. This agreement came through the Secretary of State Elihu Root and the Foreign Minister of Japan Tadasu Hayashi. The agreement further banned the Japan laborers from emigrating into the U.S or Hawaii.
- Twenty -One Demands
Japan and the U.S struggled on the allied side against each other. The military of Japan had taken over the German bases in the Pacific and in China. In 1919, however, the U.S had approved a League of Nations mandate to hold the German Islands in the northern part of the Equator.
Nevertheless there was a furious conflict with Japan on one hand and China, Britain and the U.S on the other hand over the Twenty-One Demands made on china by Japan in 1915.the demands forced that China should acknowledge the possession of the Japanese over the holdings that German had including it s economic dominance of Machuria and had the total influence to make China a puppet state. Washington strongly expressed negativity to the denial of the Open Door Policy by Japan. The Bryan Note issued by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan on the 13th of March, 1915, the U.S warned over the slow targeting of the Chinese sovereignty as it affirmed Japan’s special interests in Machuria, Mongolia and Shandong
President Wilson had truly fought hard against the wishes and demands of Japan on China in Paris in 1919 but lost due to the fact that Britain and France were on the side of Japan. There was all over China an Anti-Japanese sentiment that emerged and built up. Then therecame the May Fourth Movement that resulted from a student which demanded for China’s honor. Later Shandong, inclusive of the initially German holdings was handed to China whereas in reality the dominance by Japan went on.
Japan gained power over Manchuria in the year 1931 despite strong concerns against it by th the League of Nations, the United States and Britain. Amid strong U.S.A protests, Japan went on to claim control of the main cities of the East Coast of China. The leaders of Japan felt that owing to their very deep civilization in Asia it possessed a natural and unaltered right to acquire and control whichever zone it wished and hence it declined the pleas of the western countries to withdraw from China. The relationship between the United States and Japan got more strained there after the,Murkden Incident and also the seizing…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War ……………………………………
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