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

SINO–JAPANESE WAR • 231
influence into Manchuria and Russia’s Far Eastern provinces. In short,
the Japanese army emphasized that the Bolshevik revolution afforded
an opportunity to eliminate the Russian threat to Japan’s national security.
The army moreover evinced a willingness to dispatch troops,
regardless of the attitude of other nations. Although Foreign Minister
Ichirō Motono supported the army’s stand, most policymakers in
Tokyo emphasized the necessity of first gaining allied understanding.
Debate in Tokyo heightened after receipt of a British–French
proposal for an allied intervention into Siberia. The army and Foreign
Minister Motono remained proactive in their emphases on a
move into Siberia, although various members of the powerful Advisory
Council on Foreign Relations—including Takashi Hara
and Nobuaki Makino—as well as Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake
urged caution. Their major point of focus was the perceived
need for American cooperation. Washington in March made clear
its stance when it stated that intervention might arouse “hot resentment”
in Russia. American attitudes turned, however, after
Bolshevik forces clashed with some 60,000 Czech troops who had
been fighting the Germans. So far as Tokyo was concerned, the issue
was decided when, in July 1918, Washington proposed a joint
intervention.
The allied troops’ ostensible purpose was to guard military
supplies—which it was feared might fall into German hands—and
to assist in the escape of the above-mentioned Czech troops. American
troops, in reality, kept a close eye on their Japanese counterparts,
whose numbers quickly swelled from 7,000 to 80,000. For
their part, Japanese troops were motivated by the perceived need to
halt the Far Eastern territorial gains of the Bolshevik regime. A significant
step to this end was taken when, in May 1919, the Japanese
government granted de facto recognition to the Aleksandr
Kolchak regime in western Siberia. Even after that regime collapsed,
Japanese troops continued fighting against the Sovietsponsored
Far Eastern Republic. In a conciliatory gesture to the
United States, Tokyo withdrew its troops in 1922.
SINO–JAPANESE WAR (1894–1895). Once the internal Tonghak Rebellion
in Korea grew too large for the Korean government to contain,
both China and Japan sent in military forces to protect their nationals
and their economic interests. Chinese and Japanese troops soon began