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

YAMAKAWA, SUTEMATSU • 265
the Far East was essential if Japan were to be defeated in a timely
fashion. Roosevelt and Churchill thus sought—and duly received—a
reiteration of Stalin’s earlier promise that the Red Army would enter
the war against Japan after Germany’s defeat. There was, of course,
a political price to pay for Soviet intervention, but one that Roosevelt
was willing to pay. In short, the conferees agreed that the Soviet
Union would recover the Kurile Islands, southern Sakhalin, and obtain
a naval base at Port Arthur in Manchuria. Dairen would become
an internationalized port, and the Soviets would exercise joint control
with China over the Manchurian railways. Outer Mongolia’s status as
a Soviet puppet state was also recognized. For his part, Stalin indicated
that he would support Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese
government—not Mao Tse-tung’s Communists—in the forthcoming
effort to unify China.
No single act of Roosevelt’s presidency has been more harshly
criticized than his actions at Yalta. After all, the territorial agreements
as they pertained to the Far East appeared to betray the selfsame
Open Door principles for which the United States was fighting
Japan. Yet, on the assumption that Soviet military intervention
might save the lives of countless American soldiers, would another
president in Roosevelt’s place have refused it? See also WORLD
WAR II.
YAMAGATA, ARITOMO (1838–1922). Regarded as the “father of
the Japanese army,” Yamagata was a samurai from Choshu who
strongly supported the imperial restoration movement that overthrew
the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868. He played a key role in establishing
and developing Japan’s army using Western strategies, tactics,
and materials during the Meiji Era. He served in a number of government
positions throughout his long career, including Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Minister of Military Affairs, and twice as Prime
Minister. See also ITO, HIROBUMI; MEIJI RESTORATION.
YAMAKAWA, SUTEMATSU (ALSO KNOWN AS BARONESS
OYAMA; 1860–1919). From an Aizu samurai family, she was one
of five young women chosen to accompany the Iwakura Mission in
1871. She and the other Japanese girls (Umeko Tsuda, Shigeko Nagai,
Ryo Yoshimasa, and Tei Ueda) lived with American host families
and attended American schools. Yamakawa lived with the Bacon