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

ROOT–TAKAHIRA AGREEMENT • 219
Root left the State Department in 1909, and was subsequently
elected senator of New York state. A powerful Republican voice on
foreign affairs, he worked with fellow Republican Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge to draft reservations as conditions for Senate ratification
of the Versaille Peace Treaty (See PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE).
Wilson refused to bend, and so did the Senate. The United States
signed a separate peace with Germany in 1921.
As an elder statesman, Root played an important role in the Washington
Conference of 1921–1922. He drafted a statement of principles
designed to tie Britain and Japan to a broad interpretation of the
Open Door, or respect for the principles of China’s territorial integrity
and the equality of commercial opportunity in that country.
Root refused to countenance, however, that American principles visà-vis
China should poison the nation’s relations with Japan, intimating
to the Japanese delegation that the United States would not insist
on any change in Japan’s status in Manchuria.
ROOT–TAKAHIRA AGREEMENT (30 NOVEMBER 1908). On 30
November 1908, Secretary of State Elihu Root and ambassador
Takahira Kogorō signed an agreement designed to dispel Japanese–
American frictions that had intensified in the aftermath of the
Russo–Japanese War. One source of friction—Californian discrimination
against resident Japanese citizens—had been removed earlier in
1908 by means of the Gentlemen’s Agreement. An equally important
source of friction, however, remained: Tokyo’s actions threatened to
shut the Open Door in Manchuria. It was precisely this issue that the
Root–Takahira Agreement sought to address.
By the agreement, the two nations agreed to respect each other’s
possessions and to maintain the status quo in the Pacific. They also
affirmed the “independence and integrity of China and the principle
of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in
that Empire.” At the same time, the agreement confirmed American
recognition of Japan’s possessions in Korea and Manchuria. This
last provision—particularly as it pertained to Manchuria—seemed
to depart from the two nations’ declared commitment to the principle
of equality of opportunity throughout China. Yet it is necessary
to recognize—as did Root and President Theodore Roosevelt—
that Washington was in no position to force the open door upon the