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

ABSOLUTE SPHERE OF IMPERIAL DEFENSE • 31
later, proceeded to Austria. He participated in the Siberian intervention
following World War I, and was appointed vice army minister in
1928. Promoted to the rank of admiral in 1933, he was placed on the
army’s reserve list soon after the February 26 Incident of 1936. He
served as ambassador to China in from April to December 1940, and
was governor general of Korea when Japan surrendered unconditionally
to the Allied powers in August 1945.
Abe perhaps will be best remembered for his brief tenure as prime
minister from August 1939 until January 1940. Coinciding neatly
with Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland, which in turn plunged Europe
into war, Abe proclaimed neutrality in the European conflict. He was
confronted, however, by the steady worsening of Japan’s diplomatic
relations with the United States. Just prior to the inauguration of
Abe’s cabinet, Washington had responded to Japan’s ongoing war in
China by announcing its intention to abrogate the U.S.–Japan
Treaty of Commerce and Navigation. In accordance with the terms
of the treaty, this would become effective in January 1940 unless
Japan in the meantime could ameliorate U.S. policy. Working toward
that end, Abe personally saw to it that Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura,
who was widely trusted within the United States, was appointed
foreign minister. But, Nomura’s appointment could not offset
the obstructionism of the army, which was singularly unwilling to accommodate
American demands regarding China, and Abe’s cabinet
resigned days before the U.S.–Japan commerce treaty expired.
ABSOLUTE SPHERE OF IMPERIAL DEFENSE (1943). The wild
military success that Japan achieved in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor
came to an abrupt end with the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
Suffering defeat after defeat on the battlefield, the Japanese government
in September 1943 delineated its “absolute sphere of imperial
defense,” which incorporated the Kurile Islands, the Bonin Islands,
the inner South Pacific, western New Guinea, and Burma. Presumably,
Japan would do everything within its power to ensure that it
would not retreat from this position, although Chief of the Navy
General Staff Admiral Osami Nagano raised a storm when, at the
very time that the Absolute Sphere of Imperial Defense was established,
he frankly admitted that he could not “assure the future of the
war situation.”