Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

Extended Essay – fyw899

had significant diplomatic power at the Paris Peace Conference. Indeed, Japan was one of the

five major powers and the only non-western nation. Significantly, Japan had a close strategic

relationship with Britain as the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was established in 1902. 5

Consequently, the Japanese delegation had more diplomatic leverage than its Australian

counterparts.

Like the other great powers, the Japanese delegation had a strategic objective. Japan desired

the inclusion of an article in the Covenant of the League of Nations that established the principle

of racial equality, both for international negotiations between countries and for the treatment

of indigenous people. In the words of Japan’s diplomat Naoko Shimazu, the motive ‘equality’

objective was

means of reaffirming its great power status by securing racial equality with the western great powers in the League of Nations, a justification for Prime Minister Hara whose pro-League position was maintained by a fragile domestic consensus against sceptics in the government and wider public; and finally a means of resolving Japanese immigration problems in the US and British Dominions. 6

Importantly, the Japanese objective for racial equality was supported by a majority of delegates

(11 out of 17) these 11 being: Japan, France, Italy, Brazil, Republic of China, Greece, Serbia

and Czechoslovakia. 7

Despite the majority vote, there was significant overt and tacit opposition from two major

powers to racial equality. The first being US President Woodrow Wilson, who was ironically

the moral compass for the ideals of self-determination and collective security. Wilson opposed

Japan’s proposal due to domestic pressures and status of Afro-Americans, who were legally

5 The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was an alliance signed in 1902 binding Britain and Japan to assist each other in the safeguarding of their respective interests in Asia. Off the basis of this tie, Japan participated in World War 1, fighting on the side of the Allies. (Sinha 2014) 6 Shimazu, Naoko. 1995. The Racial Equality Proposal at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference: Japanese Motivations and Anglo-American Responses . University of Oxford. 7 McCarthy, Joe. 2010. "Japan's Demand For Racial Equality (1919)", 1-2.

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