Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

GREATER EAST ASIAN CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE • 93
GREAT WHITE FLEET. After the Spanish–American War of 1898,
the United States emerged as a power to be reckoned with. Central to
the nation’s rise was the strength of its navy. In 1904, the United
States possessed the world’s fifth largest navy, and had risen to second
place in 1907. Much of the fleet’s expansion was directly attributable
to President Theodore Roosevelt’s enthusiasm for naval
strength. In July 1907, Roosevelt decided to flex his nation’s naval
muscle, directing the service to embark on what became one of the
most impressive peacetime naval demonstrations of all time.
After numerous port calls throughout Latin America—which
through the so-called Roosevelt corollary of the Monroe Doctrine
had been declared totally off limits to all powers but the United
States—the Great White Fleet traveled to New Zealand, Australia,
and the Philippines. The Japanese government requested a visit by
the fleet, which duly arrived at Yokohama in October 1908. The ships
were granted a wildly enthusiastic welcome by both Japanese officialdom
and people alike.
The effect exerted by the Great White Fleet on Japanese–American
relations is difficult to gauge. Certainly, its arrival in Japanese waters
coincided with increasing tensions between the two nations. In October
1906, the authorities in San Francisco ordered that all Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean children go to a segregated oriental public
school (See CALIFORNIA). The Japanese government duly protested
the segregation of its citizens, and a war scare exploded on both sides
of the Pacific. Given the rousing reception the Great White Fleet received
in Japan, it seems fair to conclude that it poured oil on these
troubled waters. It may also have facilitated the signing of such conventions
as the Taft–Katsura Agreement and the Root–Takahira
Agreement. It is also necessary to recognize, however, that the U.S.
Navy in 1906 had begun planning war scenarios with Japan as its hypothetical
enemy, and continued to do so through 1907 and beyond.
For its part, the Japanese navy in 1907 nominated its American counterpart
as its hypothetical enemy number one.
GREATER EAST ASIAN CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE. The Greater
East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere was a slogan devised in mid-1940 to
rationalize Japan’s frankly aggressive designs toward the resource-rich