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

TO – GO – , SHIGENORI • 241
tary of War William Howard Taft and Japanese Prime Minister Tarō
Katsura. By the terms of the agreement, Japan acknowledged American
sovereignty in the Philippines. For its part, the United States
promised its approval if Japan should find it necessary to assume
control of the international relations of Korea.
United States President Theodore Roosevelt approved the agreement
on 2 August 1905. As an executive agreement, it avoided potentially
raucous ratification debates in the U.S. Senate. Concluded
before Japanese and Russian delegates met to negotiate the terms of
the Portsmouth Treaty (which brought a formal end to the
Russo–Japanese War), the Taft–Katsura Agreement should be seen
within the larger context of a Japanese–American effort to prevent a
clash between their growing empires. The agreement formed the basis
of the Root–Takahira Agreement of 1908, which reaffirmed
American and Japanese commitments to respect each other’s possessions
in Asia.
TERASHIMA, MUNENORI (1832–1893). From Satsuma domain,
Terashima studied Western languages and medicine, and was one of
several Satsuma samurai sent to study in England in 1865. After returning
to Japan, Terashima became the minister of foreign affairs in
the new Meiji government and thereafter served in several foreign affairs-related
posts. See also MEIJI ERA.
TŌGŌ, SHIGENORI (1882–1950). Shigenori Tōgō was a career
diplomat who held the post of foreign minister at the time of both
Pearl Harbor and Japan’s surrender. A graduate of Tokyo Imperial
University, he entered the Foreign Ministry in 1912. His first post
was to Mukden, the center of Japanese activities in Manchuria. During
the war, he was posted to Switzerland, before serving as a member
of Japan’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. In the early
post–World War I era, Tōgō was posted to Berlin. He returned to
Tokyo in 1921, and after working for recognition of the Soviet government,
he was posted to the United States in 1925. After a brief
subsequent stint in Germany, Tōgō again returned to Tokyo in 1933.
He worked closely with Foreign Minister Kōki Hirota, and in 1937,
was posted as ambassador to Germany. Soon thereafter, he was transferred
to Moscow, at which post it fell upon him to negotiate an end
to the Battle of Nomonhan.