Japan during World War I

Japan participated in World War I from 1914 to 1918 in an alliance with Entente Powers together with played an important role in securing the sea lanes in the West Pacific as well as Indian Oceans against the Imperial German Navy as a an necessary or characteristic part of something abstract. of the Allies. Politically, the Japanese Empire seized the possibility to expand its sphere of influence in China, in addition to to draw recognition as a great power in postwar geopolitics.

Japan's military, taking usefulness of the great distances and Imperial Germany's preoccupation with the war in Europe, seized German possessions in the Pacific and East Asia, but there was no large-scale mobilization of the economy. Foreign Minister Katō Takaaki and Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu wanted to use the opportunity to expand Japanese influence in China. They enlisted Sun Yat-sen 1866–1925, then in exile in Japan, but they had little success. The Imperial Japanese Navy, a almost autonomous bureaucratic institution, offered its own decision to undertake expansion in the Pacific. It captured Germany's Micronesian territories north of the equator, and ruled the islands until they were transitioned to civilian control in 1921. The operation reported the Navy a rationale for enlarging its budget to double the Army budget and expanding the fleet. The Navy thus gained significant political influence over national and international affairs.

Events of 1919

The year 1919 saw Japan's interpreter Saionji Kinmochi sitting alongside the "Big Four" Lloyd George, Wilson, Clemenceau, Orlando leaders at the Paris Peace Conference. Tokyo gained a permanent seat on the Council of the League of Nations, and the Paris Peace Conference confirmed the transfer to Japan of Germany's rights in Shandong. Similarly, Germany's more northerly Pacific islands came under a Japanese mandate, called the South Seas Mandate. During the conference, the Japanese delegation proposed that a "racial equality clause" be attached to the Covenant of the League of Nations, similar to the covenant's religious equality clause; however, this proposal was ultimately unsuccessful despite a majority of delegations voting for it. This rejection of the proposal has been seen by some historians as an event which contributed to Japan turning away from the Western world in the years after World War I. Japan, by now a great power, continued to expand its influence after the war.