Japan was not a major
actor in World War I, but it did play a role. Right as war broke
out in August of 1914, the Japanese were
interested in taking control of German possessions. And they were already
allies with the British, so they communicated
with the British, and they came to an
agreement that if Japan were to attack German
possessions in the Pacific and in China, then Japan
could take control of them. And so Japan
proceeded to do this. In particular, it took a siege
of Tsingtao, which we already talked about, was a
German possession. These are Japanese boats
landing there, Japanese troops. And this was actually of
technological significance. It was the first
time that you had a naval-based aerial assault. This wasn't really using what
we would consider aircraft carriers, although they
did carry the aircraft. But they would place
them into the water, and then the aircraft would
take off from the water as they tried to take the town
of Tsingtao, which they were eventually able to do
by the end of 1914. On top of that, they
were able to take control of many of Germany's
other possessions in the Pacific, specifically
the Pacific Islands. And on top of that, Japan
did send some aspects, or some parts of its navy, to
help protect Allied fleets as far away as the Mediterranean. So Japan did play a role here. The other interesting
historical note, because of Japan's
involvement in World War I, is what came out of
the negotiations. First of all, by being
involved, it kind of put Japan at the
seat of major powers. And as we'll see,
in World War II, Japan ends up being one of the
major players in World War II, and it's essentially going on
the other side by that point. But because of its
help of the Allies, Japan does have a seat at
the table at the Paris Peace Conference. And as they are negotiating
the Treaty of Versailles and coming up with
the League of Nations, Japan is eager to kind of
have an equal footing with all of the other European powers. And so it attempts to place this
in the charter for the League of Nations. "The equality of
nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the
High Contracting Parties agree to accord as soon as possible to
all alien nationals of states, members of the League, equal
and just treatment in every respect"-- let me
underline that-- "equal and just treatment
in every respect, making no distinction
either in law or in fact, on account of their
race or nationality." Essentially the
Japanese were saying, hey, look, you Europeans,
you guys have to view us and-- based on the way this
is phrased-- other people as equals. Just to get a sense of what
the world was like then, this was not passed. Even though the
League of Nations was the product of these
very idealistic thoughts by Woodrow Wilson, it
did not get passed. Obviously the British, they
had subjugated many people in their empires. Woodrow Wilson was
afraid that if this were to be included in
the League of Nations, it would have trouble
passing-- getting ratified in the
segregated South. We now know later that
the League of Nations wasn't ratified anyway. And so this essentially
does not happen. And even the
Japanese themselves, they were eager for
equality for themselves. But as we'll see as we
enter into World War II, they themselves had a
sense of racial superiority and they subjugated
many of the other people in Asia, especially the
Chinese and the Koreans. This is an interesting quote
from the Chinese delegation. "We are not too
proud to fight but we are too proud to accept a
place of admitted inferiority in dealing with one or more
of the associated nations. We want nothing but
simple justice." So it tells you how
different the world was. This is not even 100 years ago. And the real relevance
of World War I for Japan was it elevated it to becoming
one of the powers of the world.