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

LONDON NAVAL CONFERENCE • 165
Several factors combined to ensure the London Naval Conference’s
successful conclusion, although the most important of these
was Anglo–American conciliation. Some months before the conference
opened, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald met with
United States President Herbert Hoover in the White House, where
the two men reached mutual understanding on the issue of naval limitation.
In this way, the recrimination that had characterized Anglo–American
relations since the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927
was dispelled, and the Anglo–American dispute that had broken up
the Geneva Conference was resolved before the London Conference
was convened.
The most protracted negotiations that took place at the London
Naval Conference were those between U.S. Senator David Reed and
Japan’s ambassador to Great Britain Matsudaira Tsuneo (parallel
talks were also held between Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson
and former Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō). The Japanese delegates’
negotiating position was informed by the so-called Three Basic
Principles, which the Japanese government in November 1929
had adopted as basic policy. The principles regarded as necessary a
70 percent ratio for Japan (vis-à-vis the United States and Great
Britain) in auxiliary vessel strength; called for a 70 percent ratio visà-vis
the United States in heavy cruisers; and maintained that Japan
should be able to possess submarines totaling 78,000 tons. They
achieved in large part these objectives, and, on 14 March, sent a complicated
plan to Tokyo that gave Japan a cruiser strength approximately
70 percent of that of the United States and Great Britain, and
allowed Japan to maintain its 78,000 tons in submarines.
In Tokyo, the cabinet of Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi was receptive
to this plan. The core policymaking group within the Navy
Ministry—Vice Navy Minister Yamanashi Katsunoshin, chief of the
Naval Affairs Bureau Hori Teikichi, and chief Navy Ministry adjutant
Koga Mineichi—were also willing to accept the plan. Prime Minister
Hamaguchi, on 1 April, cabled his government’s acceptance of the plan
to the conferees, and, on 22 April, the London Naval Treaty was
signed.
For both the Japanese navy and government, the aftermath of the
conference was messy and complicated. The Navy command, led by
Chief of Staff Admiral Kanji Katō and his vice-chief, Vice Admiral