Pacific Rival, 1894–1930

  • William R. Nester

Abstract

At the century’s turn, America’s relationship with Japan shifted from patronage to rivalry.1 Until this time, although increasing numbers of American businessmen haggled in the world’s bazaars, and American gunboat diplomacy had forced Japan’s opening, the United States was not yet a full-fledged imperial power. An American overseas empire emerged from its successful war with Spain in 1898, just as three years earlier Japan had carved out its own empire after victory over China.

Keywords

Open Door Japanese Imperialism Foreign Minister Open Door Policy Pearl Harbor 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Notes

  1. 1.
    Among the excellent studies of this period see, Raymond Esthus, Theodore Roosevelt and Japan (Seattle: University of Washington, 1966);Google Scholar
  2. Charles E. Neu, An Uncertain Friendship: Theodore Roosevelt and Japan, 1906–9 (1967);CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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  6. 4.
    Joshiah Strong, New Era, or the Coming Kingdom (New York) p. 222. For other prominent American imperial writings, see Charles Morris, Civilization: An Historical Review of its Elements (Chicago, 1890);Google Scholar
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  8. 5.
    Takahashi Kamekichi, Nihon Kindai Hattatsushi, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Toyokeizai shimposha, 1973) p. 23.Google Scholar
  9. 6.
    John Witney Hall, Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1971) p. 300.Google Scholar
  10. 7.
    Quoted in David M. Pletcher, The Awkward Years: American Foreign Relations under Garfield and Arthur (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1962) p. 70.Google Scholar
  11. 9.
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  12. 10.
    For different views, see Walter Mills, The Martial Spirit (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishers, 1931, 1989);Google Scholar
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  19. 11.
    See Paul A. Varg, The Making of a Myth: The United States and China, 1897–1912 (1968);Google Scholar
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  22. 12.
    Frederick W. Marks, Velvet on Iron: The Diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt (Linclon: University of Nebraska Press, 1979) p. 14.Google Scholar
  23. 13.
    Arthur H. Smith, China and America Today: A Study of Conditions and Relations (New York: F. H. Revell, 1909) p. 54.Google Scholar
  24. 17.
    Alfred Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy, 1896–1906 (New York: 1928) p. 242.Google Scholar
  25. 31.
    Homer Lea, The Valour of Ignorance (New York: Harper & Brothers 1942, 1909).Google Scholar
  26. 32.
    Thomas F. Millard, America and the Far Eastern Question (New York: Scribners, 1909) p. 11.Google Scholar
  27. 34.
    For an overview of Wilson foreign policy, see William Parsons, Wilsonian Diplomacy: Allied-American Rivalries in War and Peace (St Louis, Mo.: Forum Press, 1978);Google Scholar
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  29. 35.
    For an excellent overview, see Roy Curry, Woodrow Wilson and Far Eastern Policy, 1913–1921 (1957).Google Scholar
  30. 36.
    See Burton Beers, Vain Endeavor: Robert Lansing’s Attempts to End the American-Japanese Rivalry (1962).Google Scholar
  31. 37.
    Arnold Offner, The Origins of the Second World War: American Foreign Policy and World Politics, 1917–1941 (New York: Praeger, 1975) p. 8.Google Scholar
  32. 38.
    See Ernest May, The World War and American Isolation, 1914–1917 (1959);Google Scholar
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  35. 39.
    See Russell H. Fifield, Woodrow Wilson and the Far East: The Diplomacy of the Shantung Question (1952).Google Scholar
  36. 40.
    For two interesting analyses of the treaty ratification process which attribute the defeat to Wilson’s psychological rigidity, see C. Alexander and Juliette George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, and Edwin Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography (1981 ).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. 43.
    For an excellent account of this period, see Akira Iriye, After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–31 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965).Google Scholar
  38. 44.
    Sadao Asada, “Japan’s ‘Special Interests’ and the Washington Conference, 1921–22,” American Historical Review, vol. 67 (October 1961) pp. 62–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© William R. Nester 1996

Authors and Affiliations

  • William R. Nester
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of GovernmentSt John’s UniversityNew YorkUSA

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