Washington Naval Conference – 1921-22 (jan 1, 1921 – jan 1, 1922)

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Unlike the previous nature of Japan being based on principles of expansionism, a shift in government attitude occurred in the early 1920s. The military government seems to lose most of its power in favour of a civilian government, who, afraid of potential conflict with the USA and Britain, wanted to ensure to them that Japan was not aggressive through Diplomacy. The main motivation for attending and following this conference was in an effort to ease the tensions between Japan and the USA. The military government was not pleased by these actions, and felt as if it was betraying the manifest destiny of an imperial Japan.
With the actions of this conference, Japan was left divided. The internationalists believed this to have been a successful endeavor, as by recognising Chinese territory and sovereignty, accepting the other nations territories, along with reducing their navy, they successfully showed Europe that they were indeed capable of peaceful coexistence, and that their aggressive nature of expansion would not threaten the colonial status quo. The internationalists achieved exactly what they wanted. The nationalists however did not. They were completely furious, as the sheer principle of accepting Chinese sovereignty went against the entire nature of Japanese expansionism, and once again dishonored Japan and made it cave to the west.

There were a multitude of both positives and negatives with the Washington Naval conference. In terms of following the civilian governments desire to appease the West and to prevent any conflicts from occurring in the short term, it was very successful. The civilian government got exactly what they wanted, and a positive consequence would be that it worked, and was able to slightly lessen the tensions regarding the West and their involvement in asia. They also saved money by not spending it on the military, and that they were pleasing Japan's main trading partners.A major negative consequence would be the divisions which occurred as a result of this appeasement to the west. The nationalists and ultranationalists found this treaty to be preposterous, and caused a great deal of opposition to occur within Japan from various militant and conservative groups. By bending down once again to the will of the west, the nationalists groups felt disrespected, and ultimately led to the assassination of multiple pro-internationalist individuals. It also ultimately led to economic problems, population issues, more division, and a weak military.

In terms of following the civilian government's goals, 10/10 would be my answer as they successfully proved to the west that they were capable of coexisting with peace. In terms of the military government and a vast majority of the Japanese population, a 3/10, as not only was their navy limited, they were forced to recognize Chinese sovereignty. It also resulted in a lot of division, and long term economic problems. Not only that, the treaties were viewed as unfair, as Britain and the USA were allowed almost double the battleships of the Japanese.

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