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

178 • MCKINLEY, WILLIAM
Matsuoka’s diplomacy failed because it rested on several false assumptions.
First and most important, the alliance relationship with
Germany did not empower Japan vis-à-vis the United States. Even as
Japan and Germany announced their alliance relationship to the world,
Washington retaliated to Japan’s simultaneous occupation of northern
Indochina by slapping a virtual embargo on aviation gasoline, highgrade
iron, and steel scrap. Throughout Matsuoka’s time as foreign
minister, the United States continued to insist that rapprochement was
only possible if and when the Japanese government dissociated itself
from Adolf Hitler and his brand of militaristic aggression.
The possibility of rapprochement with the Soviet Union proved
Matsuoka’s second false assumption. Although there is some historical
debate concerning whether or not he sought to incorporate the
Soviet Union into the Tripartite Alliance, there is no mistaking
that Matsuoka was caught off guard when, in June 1941, German
forces invaded the Soviet Union. Showing scant regard for the nonaggression
pact he had personally negotiated in April 1941 with Soviet
leader Josef Stalin, Matsuoka in late June–early July 1941 urged
an immediate attack against the Soviet Union’s Far Eastern
provinces. This put him in direct opposition to the army and navy
leadership, who responded to the outbreak of the Soviet–German war
with a renewed enthusiasm for an advance into Southeast Asia, and
he soon found himself dismissed as foreign minister.
MCKINLEY, WILLIAM (1843–1901). President of the United States
from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. During McKinley’s presidency,
the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and
Hawaii came under formal United States control. The situation in
Hawaii, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and Secretary of State John
Hay’s Open Door Policy caused political tensions between the
United States and Japan. See also ROOSEVELT, THEODORE;
SPANISH AMERICAN WAR.
MEIJI CONSTITUTION. Promulgated in 1889, it was an important
symbol of Japan’s national progress. Based to a large extent on the
Prussian monarchical constitution, the Meiji Constitution placed the
emperor as head of state; instituted a two-house parliament (Diet)
with a cabinet of ministers led by a prime minister; allowed for in-