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

ANGLO–JAPANESE ALLIANCE • 39
tainly, a Japanese official had drawn a clearly defined line in the
sand—a line that the United States government was unlikely to accept.
Yet the subsequent efforts of Foreign Minister Hirota, as well as
the measured response of the United States government, suggests (if
nothing else) that a Japanese–American clash in 1933 was by no
means inevitable.
ANAMI, KORECHIKA (1887–1945). Korechika Anami entered the
Military Academy in December 1904. His foreign experience was
limited to a two-year stint along the Mongolian–Soviet border from
1923, and a seven-month stint in France from August 1927. Having
been promoted to lieutenant general in 1938, he was appointed vice
war minister in 1939. In this position, he played a leading role in the
dispatch of Colonel Hideo Iwakuro to the United States for the purpose
of the 1941 Japanese–American negotiations.
Anami was appointed war minister in April 1945. Along with Chief
of the Army General Staff General Yoshijirō Umezu and Chief of the
Naval General Staff Soemu Toyoda, he refused to concede defeat in
World War II. Anami’s arguments essentially boiled down to two interlinked
premises. First, the Japanese home islands remained secure
under the protection of the army. Second, the army could deal a decisive
blow to any invading forces, thereby affording Japan a card with
which to bargain at the end-of-war negotiating table. His opposition to
surrender in no way subsided after the atomic bombs against Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in August 1945, and it was only the emperor’s
decision in the aftermath of the bombs that forced him to back down.
Anami almost immediately tendered his resignation as a cabinet minister
and committed suicide by seppuku (also called hari-kiri).
ANGLO–JAPANESE ALLIANCE. This treaty between Great Britain
and Japan was concluded in 1902, renewed in 1905, again in 1911,
and was terminated on 17 August 1923. It provided the mainstay of
Japan’s foreign and military policies during the course of its existence,
and (at least initially) served to strengthen Britain’s hand in the Far
East. The alliance was originally concluded as a bulwark against Russian
expansion into the region. Most significant from the Japanese
point of view, the alliance specifically recognized that Japan was “interested
to a peculiar degree in Korea.” By this term, Britain helped to