Welcome to the deep dive. Really glad to be here
to get into this one. Yeah, me too. Because when
you consider the the geopolitical earthquake
that was the First World War, your mind probably
jumps straight to the Western front. Oh, absolutely.
That's what we're all taught. Right. You picture
the trench networks carving through France and
Belgium, the artillery barrages of the Somme,
the nutrition of Verdun. It's the standard narrative.
It is. Yeah. But today we are pivoting our focus
to a completely different honestly, severely
under -examined theater of that global conflict.
A massively under -examined theater. Right. We
are turning our attention eastward, way east,
to analyze the profoundly consequential role
of Japan during World War I. And you know...
It is a theater that rarely receives the same
mainstream historical oxygen as the European
fronts. Very true. Yet the decisions made in
Tokyo between 1914 and 1919, they essentially
architected the entire geopolitical framework
of the Asia -Pacific for the remainder of the
20th century. Which is wild to think about. It
really is. So our mission for you today, listener,
is to meticulously explore how an island nation
capitalized on this massive European distraction
and used it to transition into a global superpower.
Exactly. We are going to examine the mechanics
of their territorial expansion, the fundamental
rewiring of their domestic economy and the aggressive
real politic that permanently altered the balance
of power in the Pacific. It's a huge story. OK,
let's unpack this because to accurately grasp
the magnitude of what occurred. We have to look
at the global board as it existed in August 1914.
Right, we need to set that stage. Because imagine
you're playing a global strategy game and all
your biggest rivals are suddenly occupied fighting
each other on the other side of the board. What
do you do? You start expanding. That's exactly
what Japan did. This was not a nation stumbling
into a conflict. Not at all. This was a textbook
execution of geopolitical opportunism. The European
hegemonies had left a power vacuum in the East,
and Tokyo recognized that international law and
territorial boundaries, well, they only apply
when there is someone present to enforce them.
That is the exact strategic baseline we need
to establish here. Right. Because Japan entered
the First World War in 1914 aligned with the
Entente powers. Primarily Great Britain, France
and Russia. Exactly. But analyzing their entry
purely through the lens of alliance obligations
completely misses the underlying strategy. Which
was what exactly? Well, the political and military
leadership in Japan driven by figures like Foreign
Minister Kato Takaaki, they viewed the European
plunge into war not as a crisis, but as an unparalleled
strategic window. An opportunity. A massive one.
Their objective was twofold, really. First, aggressively
expand the Japanese empire's sphere of influence
across the Asian mainland, specifically China.
OK. And second, force the Western powers to formally
recognize Japan as a top tier, undisputed great
power in whatever post -war order eventually
emerged. And looking at the timeline, The sheer
velocity they're maneuvering is just stunning.
It's incredibly fast. I mean, within the very
first week of the conflict breaking out in Europe,
Tokyo was already proposing a highly specific
arrangement to the United Kingdom. They didn't
waste a single day. Right. They offered to enter
the war on the British side. But the caveat was
entirely self -serving. As these things usually
are. Right. Japan required the explicit green
light to dismantle and absorb Germany's colonial
possessions in the Pacific. And the British Admiralty,
who were acutely aware of how dangerously overextended
their own naval forces were globally, they recognized
they had little choice but to accept the offer.
They needed the help. desperately. So on August
7th, 1914, London officially requested Japanese
military assistance. Specifically asking them
to do what? tasking them with neutralizing the
Imperial German Navy's East Asia Squadron, which
was operating in Chinese waters at the time.
And armed with that formal request, Tokyo just
accelerates their timeline. Put the pedal to
the floor. They issued a stark ultimatum to Imperial
Germany on August 15th, which Berlin inevitably
ignored. Right, because. Given their complete
preoccupation with the mobilizing armies of France
and Russia, they had other things to worry about.
Slightly bigger problems, yeah. So Japan formally
declared war on Germany on August 23rd. And they
immediately followed that up two days later on
August 25th by declaring war on Austria -Hungary.
And the immediate pretext there was incredibly
localized, right? Oh, yeah, it was highly specific.
There was an Austro -Hungarian cruiser, the SMS
Kaiser and Elizabeth. OK. And it was anchored
in the German -leased port of Qingdao in China.
So when Vienna refused Japanese demands to remove
or disarm that specific vessel, Tokyo simply...
out of them to the declaration list. Yep. So
within a month, Japan is officially at war with
the central powers. But let's dig into the actual
mechanics of how this military machine operated.
Yes. Because the internal bureaucracy of the
Japanese government at this time is staggering.
It really is. The Imperial Japanese Navy didn't
wait for some meticulously crafted mandate from
the civilian parliament. No, not at all. They
essentially acted as an autonomous entity. What's
fascinating here is the institutional independence
of the Japanese military branches. It was a structural
flaw in their constitution that would have massive
ramifications later on. While the Navy operated
much like a modern, heavily funded intelligence
agency today, they had their own black budget
and virtually no civilian oversight. Wow. Yeah.
They identified the strategic objectives, which
were the German island colonies in Micronesia.
Specifically, the Mariana Carolina and Marshall
Islands, right? Exactly. And they simply sailed
out in October 1914 to take them. That level
of unilateral military action is chilling. when
you consider the implications for national sovereignty.
It is. And I have to imagine the German resistance
there was negligible given that their entire
logistical lifeline had been severed by the British
blockade back in Europe. It was virtually non
-existent. These archipelagos were administered
by German colonial officers whose defense capability
amounted to basically lightly armed indigenous
police forces. So it was a walkover. Completely.
The Japanese Navy secured these vast, strategically
vital territories north of the equator with almost
zero friction. And they didn't hand them over
to a civilian colonial administration either?
No. The Navy ruled these islands under direct
martial law until 1921. This highlights a crucial
domestic angle. It does. Because by executing
this rapid, bloodless expansion, the Japanese
Navy secured a massive bureaucratic victory over
their domestic rivals. The Imperial Japanese
Army. Exactly. They took these islands, presented
them as vital national security assets, and then
leveraged that victory to demand an astronomical
budget increase. They successfully negotiated
a budget that dwarfed the army's funding by a
factor of two. A factor of two. It is a master
class in bureaucratic maneuvering, using a global
conflict to permanently expand your own institutional
power within the government. And while the Navy
was consolidating its grip on the Pacific Islands,
joint military operations were actually underway
on the Asian mainland, too. Right. The primary
target there was the heavily fortified German
lease territory in China's Shandong province.
Centered around the port city of Qingdao or Tsingtao.
And on September 2nd, Japanese forces executed
amphibious landings in Shandong and invested
the German enclave, initiating the siege of Tsingtao.
And the siege provides one of the most remarkable
technological milestones. stones of the entire
conflict. This part is wild to me. We are talking
about the autumn of 1914. Aviation is barely
a decade old at this point. Right. The Wright
brothers weren't that long ago. The aircraft
are mostly made of canvas and wood and wire.
Yet during the operations around Tsingtao, the
Japanese Navy executed the world's first successful
naval launched air raids against both land installations.
and enemy vessels. The technological integration
there is profound. They utilized a vessel named
the Wakamia which was technically a seaplane
carrier. But just to be clear, the mechanics
of 1914 naval aviation, this wasn't a flat -top
aircraft carrier as we understand them today.
No, no, no. The Waccamio was equipped with heavy
grains. It would literally lower French -built
Maurice Farman seaplanes into the ocean water.
OK. The aircraft would then take off from the
water's surface, conduct their bombing runs,
land back on the water, and be hoisted back aboard
by the cranes. That sounds incredibly tedious,
but also amazing for the time. It was. On September
6th, one of these seaplanes conducted a bombing
raid against the Austro -Hungarian cruiser Kaiser
and Elizabeth and a German gunboat, the Jaguar.
Now, while the historical records indicate the
bombs themselves didn't critically damage the
targeted ships, this strategic precedent is what
really matters here. Absolutely. Launching aircraft
from a global naval platform to project power
inland against enemy fleets in 1914. It is a
terrifyingly accurate preview of the naval warfare
doctrines that would dominate the Pacific 30
years later. It proves Tokyo wasn't merely participating
in the war. They were utilizing it as a live
fire laboratory to test cutting edge military
theory. Yeah. But the siege itself concluded
relatively swiftly by World War I standards,
right? Yes. Outnumbered, blockaded, and with
zero hope of reinforcement, the German garrison
surrendered on November 7th, 1914. So by the
end of the year, Japan had systematically neutralized
every German military asset in East Asia and
the Pacific. fundamentally redrawing the regional
map. But their strategy wasn't purely kinetic
either. They understood the necessity of international
public relations. Soft power. Right. They needed
the Western Nantan powers to view them not just
as a regional strike force, but as an indispensable,
highly civilized global ally. And to that end,
they launched several incredibly effective humanitarian
and logistical initiatives. Like what? Well,
in late 1914, the Japanese Red Cross Society
mobilized three highly specialized medical detachments.
Each consisted of a senior surgeon and 20 highly
trained nurses. And rather than keeping them
in the Asian theater, they deployed these units
directly into the heart of the European carnage.
Yes. Between October and December 1914, these
squads arrived in Petrograd in Russia, Paris
in France, and Southampton in the United Kingdom.
The logistics of that deployment alone across
the globe in 1914 are impressive. But the soft
power return on investment was astronomical.
Oh, the arrival of these Japanese medical teams
generated massive glowing press coverage across
the allied nations. Because they were initially
slated for a standard five month deployment,
right? Right. But the host nations were so overwhelmed
by the sheer scale of industrial casualties that
they actively petitioned the Japanese government
to retain them. So they stayed longer. The deployments
were ultimately extended to 15 months. Wow. It
was a brilliant diplomatic maneuver, creating
a narrative of deep shared sacrifice. And that
integration extended to the naval sphere as well.
The Imperial Japanese Navy took on the responsibility
of securing vast stretches of Allied shipping
lanes. Give me an example of that. A prime example
occurred on November 1st, 1914, when the Japanese
armored cruiser Ibuki actively escorted the massive
Australian Imperial Force troop convoy. which
included the New Zealand contingents, the ANZ
-AX. Exactly. The Ibuki escorted them safely
across the Indian Ocean toward Egypt and the
European theaters. That specific visual is just
striking. A heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese
Navy escorting tens of thousands of Australian
and New Zealand soldiers across the globe to
fight the Ottoman Empire and Germany. It perfectly
encapsulates the unprecedented interconnected
reality of the First World War. It really does.
However, this spirit of unified allied cooperation,
it begins to severely fracture as we examine
the events of 1915 and 1916. Yes, the tone shifts
completely here. Because having secured their
immediate military objectives with minimal losses,
Tokyo realized that Britain, France and Russia
were entirely consumed by the horrific stalemates
in Europe. They were bleeding out in the trenches.
Exactly. no one was policing the Asia Pacific.
So Japan decided to aggressively test the structural
integrity of the international order specifically
regarding China. And this brings us to a pivotal
geopolitical crisis. The 21 Divans presented
to Chinese President Yuan Shikai in January 1915.
Right. To understand the audacity of this move,
we have to recognize that China was in a state
of deep internal political fragility following
the 1911 revolution. And Japan sought to exploit
that weakness entirely. Completely. The demands
were segmented into five distinct groups. Break
those down for us. Well, the first four groups
sought massive expansions of Japanese economic
and territorial privileges in Shandong, South
Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Essentially locking
Western capital out of these regions. But looking
at this diplomatically, it seems like madness
to aggressively alienate the United States and
Great Britain right when you are ostensibly fighting
a war on their behalf. It does seem counterintuitive.
What was the internal calculus in Tokyo that
made risking the ire of the entire international
community seem viable? The calculus was deeply
rooted in real politic. The Japanese government
believed the Western powers were simply too desperate
for Japanese naval assistance to risk a rupture
in the alliance. They thought they had them over
a barrel. They did. Furthermore, the most insidious
part of the proposal was Group 5. OK, let's talk
about Group 5. This final set of demands would
have required the Chinese government to install
Japanese advisors into its police forces, its
financial ministries, and its military command.
So if implemented, Group 5 would have effectively
ended Chinese sovereignty. Yes. It would have
reduced the massive nation to a de facto Japanese
protectorate. Which unsurprisingly triggered
an immediate and massive geopolitical backlash.
While the Chinese public erupted in fierce anti
-Japanese boycotts, the most consequential pushback
actually came from Washington. Right. The United
States viewed the 21 demands as a direct assault
on the open door policy. Which was supposed to
guarantee equal trading access to China for all
Western powers. Exactly. So U .S. Secretary of
State William Jennings Bryan issued what became
known as the Bryan Note. explicitly warning Tokyo
that the United States would refuse to recognize
any agreement that compromised Chinese political
or territorial integrity. And the diplomatic
pressure from that was immense. Facing intense
isolation and realizing they had fundamentally
misjudged the tolerance of the United States
and Britain, Tokyo was forced into a humiliating
retreat. They backed down. They dropped the draconian
group five demands entirely. A severely diluted
treaty was eventually signed with China in May
1915. While Japan still secured significant economic
concessions from that deluded treaty, the diplomatic
damage was catastrophic and permanent. Oh, yes.
It shattered any illusion that Japan was a benign
actor in the region. But Tokyo didn't simply
retreat into isolation after that humiliation,
did they? No, they immediately pivoted to exploit
the fractures within the Entente itself. Germany
actually watched this friction and initiated
back channel negotiations throughout 1915. Trying
to broker a separate piece and pull Japan out
of the Allied coalition. Japan entertains the
back channels just long enough to weigh their
options, but ultimately realized there was zero
strategic utility in aligning with a blockaded,
geographically isolated Germany. That makes sense.
Instead, they the leverage of those German overtures
to secure their position with another massive
power in the region. Imperial Russia. Which is
a remarkable pivot considering the two empires
had slaughtered each other in the Russo -Japanese
War, barely a decade prior. It is a stunning
reversal. But in July 1916, Tokyo and Petrograd
signed a highly classified treaty. And when you
examine the text of that 1916 treaty, it is a
master class in imperial cynicism. Publicly,
it was framed as a mutual pledge not to sign
a separate peace with Germany. But the classified
annexes effectively carved the Chinese mainland
into sovereign spheres of influence. Yes. They
literally used the Chinese Eastern Railway as
a geographic butcher's block. Everything north
of the tracks was recognized as the Russian sphere
of exploitation, and everything to the south
belonged to Japan. And Tokyo managed this dynamic
brilliantly, recognizing that the Tsarist government
was bleeding out on the Eastern Front in Europe.
Japan actively discouraged Russia from fully
annexing territories like Heilongjiang. ensuring
Japan remained the ultimate undisputed hegemon
in the region. Right. If we connect this to the
bigger picture, this entire diplomatic sequence,
the 21, demands the Brian Note, the secret Russian
pact. It lays bare the fundamental geopolitical
fault line of the 20th century. How so? The United
States was drawing a line in the sand regarding
Pacific dominance, and Japan was systematically
probing that line, determining exactly what they
could take before triggering a military response.
It perfectly illustrates how the architectural
plan for the Second World War were drawn up while
the First World War was still raging. Exactly.
And to underscore just how deeply the British
Empire was relying on Japanese enforcement during
this period, we really have to look at the Singapore
Mutiny of February 1915. That is a fascinating
incident. A massive regiment of Indian troops.
deeply integrated into the British colonial military
apparatus mutinied against the local British
administration. Right, in Singapore. And who
did the British governor call upon to suppress
a rebellion within their own crown colony? The
Imperial Japanese Navy. Several Japanese warships
happened to be docked in Singapore, and heavily
armed Japanese Marines were rapidly deployed
into the city to engage the mutineers alongside
British, French, and Russian detachments. It
is a stark, undeniable admission of imperial
exhaustion. Yes. The British military was stretched
so thin across the European and Middle Eastern
theaters that they required Japanese combat troops
to maintain basic civil order within their own
imperial borders. So by the end of 1916, Japan
has established unassailable dominance in the
Pacific, tested the diplomatic boundaries of
Washington, managed the collapsing Russian empire,
and proved themselves indispensable to British
colonial security. They are holding a lot of
cards. But the question that naturally arises
is regarding the central theater of the war.
Did this massive highly capable Japanese military
apparatus ever deployed to the primary zones
of conflict in Europe. They absolutely did. And
the catalyst was desperation on the part of the
Royal Navy. Tell us about that. By late 1916,
the Allied maritime supply lines in the Mediterranean
Sea were on the verge of total systemic collapse.
Because of the U -boats, right? Exactly. Due
to the relentless efficiency of the German U
-boat campaigns. So in December 1916, the British
admiralty officially requested direct Japanese
naval deployments the Mediterranean. And Tokyo,
operating under Prime Minister Tarochi Masatake,
saw another prime opportunity for leverage. They
never miss a beat. They did not immediately dispatch
the fleet out of a sense of allied solidarity.
They countered the British request to the strict
condition. Japan would provide the destroyers,
but only if London formally legally guaranteed
their support for Japan's permanent post -war
annexation of the German Pacific Islands and
the Shandong concessions. It was diplomatic extortion
at the highest level. It was. And the timing
was impeccable. The British government initially
balked, but their strategic reality deteriorated
rapidly. On February 1st, 1917, Germany announced
the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.
Meaning the Kaiser's U -boats were now ordered
to sink any vessel, military or civilian, attempting
to reach Allied ports. The threat of national
starvation forced London's hand. They formally
acceded to Japan's territorial demands. Having
secured their payment in advance, the Japanese
Navy mobilized the 2nd Special Squadron. Now
this wasn't a token force for public relations,
right? Not at all. This was a highly lethal,
purpose -built, anti -submarine fleet. They dispatched
forces from Singapore to secure the vital sea
lanes around Cape Town, South Africa, and sent
the core of the squadron directly to the absolute
hornet's nest. The Royal Navy Mediterranean headquarters
in Malta. Right. The deployment was commanded
by Rear Admiral Kyusha Sato, who arrived in Malta
in April 1917 aboard the cruiser Akashi. And
he brought with him an initial force of eight
modern destroyers, having navigated the complex
logistical routes via Colombo and Port Said.
And they continually reinforced that squadron
until it became a formidable armada of 17 vessels.
And the fleet composition tells you exactly how
seriously they took this mission. They deployed
three heavy cruisers, the Akashi, the Izumo,
and the Nishin. But the workhorses were the 14
destroyers, primarily the Kaba class and Momo
class. To give some technical context, the Kaba
class destroyers were built incredibly rapidly
in Japan, specifically for this type of grueling,
continuous escort work. They were coal -fired,
robust, and designed to absorb the punishment
of heavy seas while hunting submarines. Because
their operational theater was arguably the most
dangerous maritime environment on Earth at that
time, they were tasked with securing the absolute
lifeline of the Allied war effort. The maritime
corridor stretching from the Suez Canal to Marseilles
in southern France. Without that specific route
remaining open, The massive influx of colonial
troops and raw materials from India, Australia
and New Zealand would never reach the meat grinder
of the Western Front. Exactly. The Japanese ships
were hunting and being hunted by German and Austro
-Hungarian submarine wolf packs operating at
a fortified bases in the Adriatic, the Agen and
Constantinople. The operational statistics of
the 2nd Special Squadron are staggering. Operating
out of Malta, these Japanese crews conducted
348 individual escort sorties. They successfully
shielded 789 Allied vessels. And we aren't just
talking about grain shipments here. Those vessels
were transporting roughly 700 ,000 soldiers.
By successfully delivering nearly three -quarters
of a million men to the European battlefields,
the Imperial Japanese Navy's contribution to
preventing an Entente collapse in 1917, it just
cannot be overstated. Here's where it gets really
interesting though. That level of operational
tempo in a submarine -infested sea guarantees
horrific engagements. Yes. The Japanese crews
demonstrated extraordinary courage under fire,
ultimately rescuing over 7 ,000 survivors from
Allied ships that had been torpedoed and were
actively sinking. And the most harrowing of these
incidents involved the British troop ship SS
Transylvania. The Transylvania disaster perfectly
encapsulates the terror of the Mediterranean
theater. In May 1917, the troop ship was struck
by a German torpedo. Two Japanese destroyers,
the Matsu and the Sakaki, immediately diverted
into the debris field. Despite the active confirmed
presence of the enemy submarine, which could
have easily reloaded and targeted them while
they were stationary. The Japanese crew spent
hours pulling nearly 3 ,000 drowning soldiers
and nurses from the water. It was an incredible
display of naval discipline and humanity. However,
the Mediterranean deployment exacted a toll.
Yes it did. Just weeks after the Transylvania
rescue, the destroyer Sakaki was ambushed off
the coast of Crete. An Austro -Hungarian submarine,
the U -27, managed to slip through the screen
and put a torpedo directly into the Sakaki's
forward section. The resulting detonation was
catastrophic and 59 Japanese sailors were killed
instantly. Over the course of the Mediterranean
campaign, 72 Japanese sailors lost their lives.
We also see casualties at the highest levels
of military liaison work. Right. Commander Kiyosuke
Edo, a brilliant Japanese naval attaché embedded
with the Royal Navy, was killed when the British
dreadnought HMS Vanguard suffered a massive internal
magazine explosion while anchored at Scapa Flow.
So Japanese blood was shed to secure European
waters, and the operational excellence of the
squadron earned them immense respect. British
Admiral George Alexander Ballard went on record
with intense praise for the Japanese forces,
specifically noting their unparalleled operational
readiness rates and their absolute refusal to
back down from any escort request, regardless
of the weather or the U -boat threat level. Yet
we must also view this deployment through the
lens of long -term Japanese strategic acquisition.
Meaning the Malta deployment was essentially
a massive technology transfer program. Exactly.
By integrating seamlessly with the Royal Navy.
Japanese officers absorbed state -of -the -art
British anti -submarine tactics, convoy management
protocols, and hydrophone technologies. They
were actively downloading the software of modern
naval warfare. And it gets even more transactional.
While they were fighting, they were also acting
as defense contractors. Right. The French Navy
was so depleted that Japan actually manufactured
and exported 12 Arab -class destroyers, which
were essentially upgraded copies of their own
Kaba class directly to France in 1917. And the
ultimate intelligence coup occurred at the end
of the war when the Japanese Navy secured seven
surrendered German U -boats as official prizes
of war. Those seven U -boats were arguably the
most valuable assets Japan acquired during the
entire conflict. Unquestionably, they were transported
back to naval arsenals in Japan, systematically
disassembled and reverse engineered. The technological
leaps gleaned from German diesel engines and
hull designs directly birthed the terrifyingly
capable Japanese submarine fleets that would
devastate Allied ships. decades later during
the Pacific War. Meanwhile, as the naval war
raged in 1917, the overarching geopolitical architecture
experienced a massive shockwave. In April 1917,
the United States formally entered World War
I. Suddenly Washington and Tokyo found themselves
as co -belligerents fighting on the same side
of a global alliance. But the reality of that
alliance was deeply dysfunctional. The diplomatic
relationship was toxic poison by the lingering
fallout of the 21 demands and an intense mutual
paranoia regarding post -war dominance in China.
The United States viewed Japan as an aggressive,
untrustworthy imperial power, while Japan viewed
the United States as a hypocritical hegemon attempting
to choke off Japanese economic survival. To prevent
this diplomatic Cold War from turning hot while
they were supposedly fighting a common enemy,
they attempted a diplomatic bandage. In November
1917, they signed the Lansing -Ishi Agreement.
Ostensibly, it was an agreement to respect the
open -door policy in China, but it was riddled
with ambiguous language regarding Japan's special
interests in the region. It was a classic diplomatic
fudge temporarily burying the explosive contradictions
in the relationship. It was a temporary fix because
as we move into 1918, the internal pressures
within Japan were reaching a boiling point. We
have extensively discussed the military and diplomatic
maneuvering, but the domestic economic transformation
occurring within the Japanese home islands was
arguably more volatile and historically significant.
The economic data from this period is staggering.
With the entire industrial base of Europe dedicated
to slaughtering itself, global supply chains
collapsed. The allied powers desperately needed
munitions, textiles, merchant shipping, and raw
materials, and they turn to the only industrialized
nation outside the blast zone. Exports didn't
just grow, they quadrupled between 1913 and 1918.
This specific mechanism is crucial. The massive
influx of European and American capital radically
rewired the Japanese financial system. For centuries,
Japan had been a debtor nation reliant on foreign
capital to fund its modernization. But by 1918,
the geyser of wartime profits transformed Japan
into a net creditor nation. The world now owed
Tokyo money. However, the distribution of this
wealth was disastrously skewed. The capital concentrated
in the hands of the Zaibatsu. The massive monopolistic
industrial and financial conglomerates like Mitsubishi
Mitsui and Sumitomo. Yes. Which brings us to
the dark underbelly of a massive economic boom
driven by external wartime demand. While the
Zaibatsu directors were swimming in capital and
expanding their shipyards, the rapid influx of
cash triggered horrific unchecked inflation across
the domestic economy. The working class saw their
wages stagnate while the cost of living went
vertical. And the crisis crystallized around
the absolute fundamental staple of the Japanese
diet, rice. The inflation wasn't merely a byproduct
of general economic heat. It was exacerbated
by rampant predatory speculation. Wealthy rice
merchants and agricultural conglomerates utilizing
the massive influx of wartime credit actively
hoarded rice reserves artificially restricting
supply to drive the price into the stratosphere.
Exactly. The situation became entirely untenable.
The nation was technically richer than it had
ever been, but the urban working class and rural
peasantry were facing legitimate starvation.
This catastrophic systemic failure ignited the
rice riots of August 1918. These were not localized
protests. This was a massive decentralized uprising
of millions of furious citizens that swept across
rural towns and major urban centers throughout
the home islands. The violence was so severe
and the police force is so overwhelmed that the
government had to mobilize the Imperial Japanese
Army to brutally suppress its own starving populace.
This raises an important question regarding the
structural stability of the Japanese state. You
have a society where the military is acquiring
vast new territories and the corporate oligarchs
are achieving unprecedented wealth, yet the civil
society is fracturing under the weight of hyperinflation
and state violence. It is a highly unstable societal
matrix, and yet amidst this terrifying domestic
chaos, the military establishment remained entirely
fixated on external expansion. Which perfectly
transitions us to the most audacious and frankly
bizarre military undertaking of the war, the
Siberian Intervention of 1918. In the aftermath
of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Russian
Empire collapsed into a horrific multifactional
civil war. The Western allies, panicked by the
ideological contagion of communism and desperate
to reopen an eastern front against Germany, organized
a multinational intervention force. The stated
objective was to deploy to Siberia, rescue the
trapped Czechoslovak legion and provide logistical
support to the anti -communist White Army forces
commanded by Admiral Kolchak. Japan agreed to
participate, joining the United States, Britain
and France in sending troops to Vladivostok.
However, the Imperial Japanese Army possessed
an entirely different set of operational orders.
Right. They had zero interest in the ideological
nuances of the Russian Civil War. The Japanese
general staff viewed the total collapse of Russian
state authority as a once -in -a -century opportunity
to permanently eliminate their greatest historical
rival in Northeast Asia and physically annex
a massive expanse of the Eurasian continent.
The scale of their ambition is almost difficult
to comprehend. The initial operational plans
drafted by the Japanese military did not call
for a limited coastal security force. They planned
to deploy an overwhelming army of over 70 ,000
combat troops. And their geographical objective
wasn't just the maritime provinces they intended
to drive, the Japanese military occupation zone
all the way west to Lake Baikal. When you look
at a map, Lake Baikal is nestled deep in the
heart of Siberia. That would have constituted
one of the largest territorial annexations in
modern history, establishing a massive buffer
state loaded with natural resources. It was an
act of breathtaking imperial overreach, and it
immediately triggered a catastrophic diplomatic
collision with the United States. Washington.
already deeply paranoid about Japanese intentions
following the 21 demands, recognized the deployment
for exactly what it was an imperial land grab.
The U .S. State Department issued fierce, unequivocal
ultimatums to Tokyo demanding they drastically
scale back the deployment numbers and restrict
their operational footprint. The diplomatic screaming
matches that must have occurred over the telegraph
wires between Washington and Tokyo set the stage
for decades of animosity. Japan was ultimately
forced to dial back their most extreme territorial
ambitions in Siberia due to American pressure,
further cementing the deeply held belief within
the Japanese military that the United States
was the singular existential threat to Japanese
destiny. So as the armistice finally halts the
slaughter on the Western Front in November 1918,
we must assess the new reality of the Japanese
empire. The transformation is absolute. They
possess an economy heavily industrialized by
war profiteering, but structurally weakened by
inflation. They control a massive new archipelago
of strategic islands stretching across the Pacific.
They hold a physical stranglehold on vital Chinese
ports and railways. And they possess a massive
battle -hardened military apparatus that operates
with terrifying independence from civilian oversight.
The board has been completely rearranged. And
now the victorious powers converge on France
to codify this new reality. This brings us to
1919 in the Paris Peace Conference. For Tokyo,
this was the culmination of half a century of
rapid modernization and warfare. This was the
moment they demanded to be acknowledged not merely
as a regional heavyweight, but as a peer among
the global elite. They dispatched an elite diplomatic
delegation led by the highly respected elder
statesman Marquis Sayongi Kinmochi. Visually,
the conference delivered the optics Japan craved.
Sayonji was seated at the highest levels of power,
negotiating directly alongside the big four leaders.
Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain.
President Woodrow Wilson of the United States
premiered Georgia's Clemenceau of France and
Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuel Orlando of Italy.
Japan was officially recognized as one of the
big five victorious powers shaping the New World
Order. And their diplomats proved highly effective
at the negotiating table securing massive tangible
assets. They fought for and won a permanent seat
on the executive council of the newly established
League of Nations. Which was the contemporary
equivalent of securing a veto wielding seat on
the UN Security Council. Furthermore, the conference
ratified the transfer of all former German economic
and territorial privileges in China's Shandong
province directly to Japan. And regarding those
Pacific Island chains the Navy had seized back
in 1914, the international community officially
legitimized the conquest, granting Japan a Class
C mandate over the territories which became known
as the South Seas Mandate. Analyzing the raw
geopolitical ledger, Japan achieved virtually
every single territorial and institutional objective
they had established in 1914. However, the absolute
most critical, historically devastating moment
of the entire Paris Peace Conference for Japan
involved a seemingly minor procedural vote regarding
the charter of the League of Nations. Because
beyond the land grabs and the railway rights,
Japan's ultimate objective was intangible, they
wanted ideological parity. During the drafting
of the League of Nations Covenant, the Japanese
delegation proposed a specific amendment. They
noted that the Covenant already contained language
guaranteeing religious equality. So Japan argued
that if the League was to be a genuine arbiter
of international justice, it required an explicit
racial equality clause. Legally establishing
that all member nations and their citizens must
be treated equally regardless of race or nationality.
This was a brilliant, highly calculated diplomatic
maneuver. It forced the Western imperial powers
to confront the foundational hypocrisy of their
own colonial systems. And the Japanese proposal
was incredibly well received by the broader assembly.
When the amendment was put to a vote, a clear
majority of the international delegations voted
in favor of adopting the racial equality clause.
But the amendment was violently opposed by the
British Empire delegation. Specifically driven
by the virulent racism of Australian Prime Minister
Billy Hughes, who was absolutely terrified that
a racial equality clause would legally dismantle
the white Australia immigration policy. Facing
intense pressure from the British bloc and navigating
his own horrific record on racial segregation
back in the United States. President Woodrow
Wilson, who is serving as the chairman of the
committee, executed a devastating parliamentary
maneuver. Despite the clear majority vote in
favor of the Japanese proposal, Wilson unilaterally
declared that an amendment of such profound significance
required a unanimous vote to pass. Since Britain
and the U .S. opposed it, Wilson ruled the racial
equality clause defeated. It was a staggering
act of diplomatic duplicity. The psychological
impact of that rejection on the Japanese delegation
and the Japanese public cannot be overstated.
It was a visceral public humiliation on the world
stage. Despite possessing a massive industrial
economy, a world -class navy, and a seat at the
highest councils of global governance, the Western
powers had explicitly legally refused to recognize
the Japanese as their racial equals. So what
does this all mean when we synthesize this data?
Historians universally point to the rejection
of the racial equality clause as the catastrophic
turning point in 20th century relations between
Japan and the West. It annihilated the credibility
of the pro -Western liberal politicians within
the Japanese government. The domestic narrative
crystallized instantly. We modernized, we adopted
your economic systems, we bled for your alliance
in the Mediterranean, we built an empire according
to your rules, and you still view us as inferior.
And that profound sense of racial and diplomatic
betrayal collided violently with a domestic economy
that was entering a death spiral. Because the
massive wartime economic boom we discussed earlier
was entirely artificial, built on the temporary
collapse of European industry. When the war ended
and European factories came back online, the
Japanese export bubble violently popped. Japan
rapidly hemorrhaged its capital reserves, plunging
back into the status of a deader nation. The
economic contraction was brutal. The massive
industrial conglomerate survived, but the financial
architecture supporting the broader economy began
to buckle. This instability compounded over the
next few years, culminating in the devastating
Shua financial crisis of 1927, triggered by a
panic over unbacked earthquake bonds and failing
regional banks. The civilian government appeared
completely impotent, unable to stabilize the
economy or secure international respect. So you
have a society trapped in a lethal pressure cooker
containing three highly volatile elements. First,
you have a civilian democratic apparatus that
is widely viewed as corrupt, economically incompetent
and deeply humiliated by the West. Second, you
have a rapidly expanding corporate oligarchy,
the Zaibatsu, demanding new external markets
and resources to survive the economic crash.
And the third absolutely critical element is
the institutional memory of the Japanese military.
When the Imperial Army and Navy looked back at
the First World War, They did not see the horrors
of trench warfare or the grinding attrition of
the Somme. The historical data points to a very
different lesson learned by the Japanese general
staff. They experienced the ease of victory.
Exactly. They had successfully annexed vast archipelagos
and secured dominance over Chinese provinces
with virtually zero military resistance and incredibly
low casualties. They had doubled their budgets
and secured massive domestic political power
through rapid aggressive unilateral action. To
the militant factions within the Japanese leadership.
The First World War proved that aggressive unilateral
military expansion was not only highly profitable,
but relatively simple and fundamentally consequence
-free. They learned exactly the wrong lessons
from a global catastrophe. And it was the fusion
of those elements, economic desperation, profound
racial resentment toward the United States and
Britain, and the deeply flawed belief in the
supremacy of rapid military aggression that directly
birthed the hyper militaristic fascist government
that would seize control of Tokyo in the 1930s.
The military simply discarded the weak civilian
government and applied the playbook they had
perfected in 1914 to their catastrophic invasions
of Manchuria, the broader Chinese mainland, and
ultimately the initiation of the Pacific War
against the Allies. phenomenally complex historical
arc. We have meticulously tracked Japan's evolution
from a regional opportunist executing a naval
land grab to an industrial juggernaut protecting
allied fleets in the Mediterranean to a profoundly
disillusioned and economically volatile empire
stonewalled at the Paris Peace Conference. Examining
this period forces us to acknowledge how global
conflicts generate shockwaves that fundamentally
reorder the architecture of the world in completely
unforeseen ways. While the European powers were
in entirely consumed by the trauma of surviving
the Western Front, they inadvertently facilitated
the rapid permanent transfer of hegemonic power
in the Pacific. They invited a new apex predator
to the table and systematically laid the psychological
and geopolitical groundwork for a conflict that
would dwarf the First World War in its savagery.
Absolutely. And that brings me to a final provocative
thought I want to leave you with today. As we
analyze the overarching narrative of this period,
the concept that continually surfaces is that
he's a victory experienced by the Japanese military.
It's a dangerous precedent. It forces a deeply
uncomfortable evaluation of geopolitical strategy.
Are the absolute easiest, most bloodless victories
actually the most structurally dangerous events
a nation can experience? When a geopolitical
actor is able to massively expand its borders,
double its military funding, and achieve sudden
staggering wealth with almost zero friction as
Japan did between 1914 and 1915, does it fatally
corrupt their institutional understanding of
the true horrific cost of war? That is the question.
Does a string of cheap victories trick a nation's
leadership into believing that kinetic military
action is simply a reliable mechanical lever
for solving complex national crises? It is a
highly relevant metric to consider the next time
you hear an analyst or a policymaker aggressively
advocating for a quick, clean, and easy military
intervention. History suggests there is almost
always a catastrophic delayed invoice attached
to those easy wins, and the brutal reality is
that the bill is usually paid in blood by the
subsequent generation. Thank you for joining
us on this incredibly expansive deep dive. Keep
rigorously questioning the simplistic historical
narratives you think you know, and we will catch
you next time.