The Pros And Cons Of The Disarmament Treaty

Starting in the early 1930’s, the Japanese began to display their great imperialistic dreams with ambition and aggression. Their goal was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" where they controlled a vast empire in the western Pacific.1 In September of 1939, Japan signed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Treaty, allying themselves with Germany and Italy in an effort to safeguard their interests in China from the Soviet Union. Japan’s only major obstacle left lay in the significant size of the United States Pacific Fleet. To rid themselves of this, Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet in hopes of crippling it enough to prevent any further hindrance from the

Over the span of a few decades, the Japanese and Americans were as is, heading towards war due to a varying amount of disputing between the two. In the 1930’s, Japan invaded China. This caused an uproar between the two countries at the time. This was one of the first few sparks to the flame. In order to create the perfect Yamato race, the Japanese felt that there was more validity if there were no one to stop them, (Document A). Destroying the Pacific fleet was the goal so they could expand and imperialize the world around them. America, being one of their main oil producers, made them the perfect target. Leading up to the attack, America placed an embargo on Japan, (Document C). Japan wanted to destroy the Pacific Fleet to gain oil and continue imperialization to obtain the perfect Yamato

With recent tensions rising between North Korea and the world, it is no surprise that the Japanese citizens are aligning themselves with a nationalist government. Japanese Prime Minister Abe has started to consider revoking the disarmament treaty. Revoking it would let Japan increase spending on the military, which would ultimately result in a much larger and advanced military. Although rearming the Japanese military would improve security in the country, it would only increase the tension, doing damage to not only myself, but future generations of Japanese citizens.

Japan and the United States had different kinds of relations that could have lead Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor.The United States military and Japan’s relationship seemed to get worse after Japan sank the USS Panay even though Japan apologized for sinking the ship. Japan became aware of the 19th and 20th century that there was threats from the different nations influence became very loyal. During 1939 - 1945 the United States, for the second time, applied domestic penalties to Japan and sends to Europe military supplies because Germany, Italy, and Japan made the Anti Comintern Pact. Japan wanted to take control over some land in northeastern China, this lead to domestic penalties that were charged against Japan from the United States and Europe. Even though the United States saw Japan as a minor threat because Japan had a few military compared to the United States navy. Japan decided to

Japan was a very nationalistic country in which the purpose of the civilians was to fight until death for their emperor. This was evident in the fact that they had practiced an extremely nationalistic concept of Bushido. This concept made surrender unacceptable for all Japanese people and they lived to die for the emperor. There nationalism was fueled by the fact that they won 2 large battles (Sino Japanese War and Russo Japanese war) against larger countries. Along with this, the Japanese also had Kamikaze pilots who suicide by deliberately crashing planes into American warship as a tactic of fighting. This extreme nationalism shows that they could not be fought with regular weapons and so posed a threat for the whole world.

In order to maintain independence and respect, Japan adopted militarism and an offensive military strategy. The 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was an example of Japan’s change from a small feudalistic military that kept to itself to an offensive, aggressive military reliant on military power.

In the present, Japan is a military and economic superpower with strong influence. However, it was not always like this. In the early 1700s, Japan isolated itself from the world and greeted foreigners unfortunate enough to shipwreck in Japan with hostility. In the 1850s, the United States attempted to make contact with Japan to establish a treaty. The U.S. knew even though Japan was hostile, it was weak compared to a western power. Although the U.S. was stronger than Japan, it was nowhere close to being as strong as other western powers such as Brittan or France and was struggling to keep up. Japanese hostility, U.S. power struggles, and Japan’s isolation all led to the inevitable Japanese and U.S. conflict.

Many historians continue to argue about president Woodrow Wilson’s success at the Paris Peace Conference, however the conference is regarded as one of Wilson’s biggest failures during his days. The Paris Peace Conference’s main goal was to establish the terms of peace after World War One. Moreover France and Britain which are known as the dominant powers of the Triple Entente, were seeking revenge and wanted to make Germany suffer after their glorious victory against the Triple Alliance. On the other hand president Woodrow Wilson was looking to “make the world safe for democracy (1).” President Woodrow Wilson outlined what he wanted in his famous fourteen points. His polices led to economic instability in addition to “ he invaded a number of

U.S. had put into place against Japan, and the fear of America becoming too powerful.

The Five-Power Treaty was an agreement between the United States, Britain, and Japan to reduce the amount of war ships that the nations held, with the ratio of ships between the nations being 5:5:3. There were more details in the treaty, but this was one of the largest parts. Japan was offended by this treaty at first, due to them only being allowed to have three ships for every five that one of the other nations held, however, several compromises had been made to persuade the Japanese to agree to such a deal, including promises from Britain and the United States to not fortify their land holdings in the pacific.

The United States would not tolerate such actions, yet had to strategically deal with in order not to confront Japan and start a war.

This made Japan uneasy as the U.S. could become a threat in later years. Japan expressed it’s worries appointed towards the United States by stating “‘When I think about the strengthening of American defenses in the Southwest Pacific...I see no end to

The attack of Pearl Harbor had significantly affected the United States as it altered the minds of those who were against the war and those who were for the war. The several issues that Japan had over the war in China gave the United States no choice but to help defend them. The U.S. had taken away the necessary resources that Japan needed in order to prevent Japan from further expanding and taking over the neighboring countries of China and the Pacific region. With the fear of the U.S. being in the way of their plans, Japan took precautions against the U.S. along with the support of their allies. Essentially, Japan’s greed and desire for having control over Southeast Asia and the Pacific region provoked a conflict that was bound to happen

necessary to avert an invasion of mainland Japan, due to the fact that so many non-combative

Anthony DiFilippo emphasizes in his book that "Although Washington and Tokyo had been working to strengthen the bilateral security alliance, there were some loose ends in the relationship (DiFilippo). These issues have been debated between the two nations for many years as differing views on military approach to foreign threats through the use of anti-missile technology, and an overall stigma against U.S troops in Okinawa, has created a great deal of political tension. “Japan adopted, and for several decades fully accepted, norms that support an antimilitarist culture” (DiFilippo). At a time where both nations are past diplomacy and statements of “fire and fury” are being used, the option of passivity is over. Those who have shown support for