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

154 • KATSU, KAISHU
In 1880, he graduated from the Naval Academy. He was chief gunner
on the cruiser Yoshino during the Sino–Japanese War of
1894–1895, and during the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–1905 was
appointed fleet chief of staff, a position in which he was directly responsible
to commander of the Combined Fleet Admiral Heihachirō
Tōgō. He subsequently served as vice minister of the navy,
commander-in-chief of the Kure Naval District, and commander of
the First Fleet, before being appointed navy minister in August 1915,
in the cabinet of Shigenobu Okuma. As navy minister, Katō
emerged as the architect of the so-called eight-eight fleet plan—
which entailed a fleet with a nucleus of eight battleships and eight
cruisers. In the immediate postwar era, however, the United States
began trumpeting its policy of constructing a navy “second to none,”
and it was obvious to Katō that Japan simply could not keep pace.
In such a frame of mind, Katō led Japan’s delegation to the Washington
Conference of 1921–1922. Violent opposition from within
naval ranks notwithstanding, he accepted Secretary of State Charles
Evan Hughes’s proposal for the reduction of capital ship strength according
to the ratio of 5:5:3 for the United States, Great Britain, and
Japan. In so doing, he conceded that the Japanese navy was not an instrument
for war against the United States. It was instead an instrument
for deterring the United States from interfering in Japan’s
sensed prerogatives.
Katō assumed the prime minister’s post soon after his return from
the Washington Conference. He also remained as navy minister. He
established a foreign policy of cooperation with the great powers. To
this end, he effectuated the withdrawal of Japanese troops from
Siberia and China’s Liaotung peninsula (both issues had been a sore
point in post–World War I Japanese–American relations). He also implemented
the Washington treaties, although he died in August 1923
while still in office.
KATSU, KAISHU (1823–1899). Born in Edo, Katsu was a student and
then instructor in Western languages and military science, and served
as a top naval officer in both the Tokugawa shogunate and Meiji
governments. In 1860, he commanded the Kanrin Maru, one of two
ships taking Japanese officials of the Shogun’s Embassy to the
United States. After returning from the United States, Katsu estab-