1911 Yuan Shih-kai - Sun - Yuan - both from the International Year Book
Wilson feared "wedge" of revolution 1911 and rise of Japan
TR gave Japan Korea and S. Manchuria, S. Sakhalin, Liaotung at Portsmouth 1905 and in Taft-Katsura 1905 - map
Root-Takahira 1908 recognized status quo and Japan's dominance, but was considered "terrible blunder" by Willard Straight who sought to help China with consortium to provide loans and banks and E. H. Harriman's railroad
China Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen 1905-1912, but Yuan Shih-kai replaced Sun Yat-sen March 12, 1912
Koumintang's Sung Chiao-jen won elections Feb. 1913, but Yuan killed Sung March 20, 1913, and Sun Yat-sen began a "second revolution" and civil war with Yuan
Wilson granted recognition to Yuan May 2, 1913, to encourage a parliament
no support for 6-Power railroad consortium's loan, but Yuan got money
Wilson agreed with Sen. James Phelan effort to stop Japanese immigration; already 50,000 arrived and California becoming a "Japanese plantation"
Webb Land Act 1913 to prohibit aliens owning land
strong Japanese opposition to U.S.; fear of war; Navy sought preparedness
Wilson dissolved Bradley Fiske's Joint Board in April 1913
Wilson used diplomacy, not military; sent William Jennings Bryan to California; Webb Act did not mention Japanese, only aliens "unqualified for citizenship"
realists in Wilson's 1915 cabinet: Lansing (State), McAdoo (Treasury), Josephus Daniels (Navy), Lindley Garrison (War)
R. Lansing vs. minister P. Reinsch
Wilson followed "moral suasion" and status quo
Twenty-One Demands 1915:
On January 18, 1915, the Japanese government secretly presented to China a list of twenty-one grievances of which it required immediate resolution. In practical terms Japan was taking advantage of its wartime status as an Allied power to seek to extend its influence in the Pacific, chiefly at China's expense. It relied upon its status as an ally of Britain to reduce the likelihood of intervention from that quarter. Already by the time the Twenty-One Demands were published, Japan had successfully invaded the German base at Tsingtao. The Demands - comprising five groupings - required that China immediately cease its practice of leasing out territory to foreign powers. Japan also demanded that it be given ascendancy over Manchuria and Shantung and that China accept so-called "advisors" to assist with many aspects of government policy. China finally capitulated to a Japanese ultimatum of May 7, 1915, which threatened war in the absence of Chinese agreement. Thus on May 8, 1915, China reluctantly acquiesced to Japan, although Britain and the U.S. succeeded in removing the requirement for China to accept government advisors. The Chinese legislature did not however ratify the treaties signed between the two countries. Japanese hegemony over China was merely temporary. Although the Treaty of Versailles granted Japanese control over former German territories in Shantung, the effects of the Demands were subsequently annulled by the Washington Conference of 1921-22 when Japan agreed to withdraw its troops from Shandong and to restore sovereignty to China.
The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, being desirous to maintain the general peace in the Far East and to strengthen the relations of amity and good neighbourhood existing between the two countries, agree to the following articles:
The two contracting Parties mutually agree that the term of the lease of Port Arthur and Dairen and the term respecting the South Manchuria Railway and the Antung-Mukden Railway shall be extended to a further period of 99 years respectively.
The Chinese Government grant to the Japanese subjects the right of mining in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia. The Japanese subjects shall have liberty to enter, reside, and travel, to lease or own land required either for erecting buildings for various commercial and industrial uses or for farming.
The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, with the object of effectively preserving the territorial integrity of China, agree to the following article: The Chinese Government engage not to cede or lease to any other Power any harbour or bay on or any island along the coast of China.
China to agree to give to Japan the right of constructing a railway to connect Wuchang with the Kiukiang-Nanchang and Hangchou and between Nanchang and Chaochou.
In view of the relations between the Province of Fukien and Formosa and of the agreement respecting the non-alienation of that province, Japan to be consulted first when- ever foreign capital is needed in connection with the railways, mines, and harbour works (including dockyards) in the Province of Fukien.
Lansing-Ishii Agreement 1917:
Robert Lansing
On Friday. November 2, 1917. the Secretary of State and Viscount Ishii, the special Japanese Ambassador, exchanged at the Department of State the following notes dealing with the policy of the United States and Japan in regard to China:
Note from the Secretary of State to the Japanese Ambassador, Department of State, Washington, N0v. 2, 1917.
The governments of the United States and Japan recognize that territorial propinquity creates special relations between countries, and, consequently, the government of the United. States recognizes that Japan has special interests in China, particularly in the part to which her possessions are contiguous.
The territorial sovereignty of China, nevertheless, remains unimpaired, and the government of the United States has every confidence in the repeated assurances of the Imperial Japanese government that while geographical position gives Japan such special interests they have no desire to discriminate against the trade of other nations or to disregard the commercial rights heretofore granted by China in treaties with other powers.
The governments of the United States and Japan deny that they have any purpose to infringe in any way the independence or territorial integrity of China, and they declare, furthermore, that they always adhere to the principle of the so-called "open door" or equal opportunity for commerce and industry in China.
Moreover, they mutually declare that they are opposed to the acquisition by any government of any special rights or privileges that would affect the independence or territorial integrity of China or that would deny to the subjects or citizens of any country the full enjoyment of equal opportunity in the commerce and industry of China.
Ishii Vases from the Meiji Period of Japan, 1868-1912
Ishii Vases
These vases were bequeathed to the Lilly library at Duke in the will of Mrs. James A. Thomas. James A. Thomas, a friend and business associate of both James B. and Benjamin Duke, spent over thirty years in China managing operations for the British-American Tobacco Company. In the late 1920's, after his return to the United States, Thomas was instrumental in the creation of a Far Eastern Collection in the Duke University Library. The vases are cloisonne, dating from the Meiji period of Japan. The Meiji, or "enlightened rule" period lasted from 1868 to 1912, when the feudalistic shogunate was overthrown in favor of a constitutionally selected emperor. Cloisonne is an ancient process in which enameling partitions,cloisons, are constructed on a thin sheet of metal by attaching metal strips edgewise. The cloisons are then filled with glass or enamel paste, sometimes with gemstones, and fired. The enamels shrink while cooling and the process is repeated until the surfaces are level. Japanese Special Envoy Ishii Kikujiro originally presented these vases to Secretary of State Robert Lansing in 1917. The Lansing-Ishii Agreement resulted from correspondence, conducted throughout 1917, between the two representatives, and amounted to a joint United States-Japanese declaration that recognized Japanese special interests in China, while it also ostensibly affirmed Chinese territorial integrity, an "open door" policy, and equal opportunity in commerce and industry. Disagreement over the interpretation of this declaration arose as the United States insisted that Japan's interest had to be confined solely to economics and could not extend into the political sphere. As a result, the Lansing-Ishii Agreement was abrogated in 1923.
