Shidehara diplomacy

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Shidehara diplomacy ( Japanese幣 原 外交shidehara gaikō ) is a phase of moderate Japanese foreign policy that was particularly shaped by Shidehara Kijūrō , the foreign minister of Japan from June 11, 1924 to January 30, 1926 and from July 2, 1929 to 14 April 1931 .

He served under Prime Minister Katō Takaaki , who had come to power through the second Taisho coup , his successor Wakatsuki Reijirō and Hamaguchi Osachi .

The opponents of this policy sat mainly in the government-independent general staff of the Imperial Japanese Army , which promoted an expansionist policy in Asia.

After the war, Shidehara, as Prime Minister, was responsible for the repatriation of the armed forces and on January 24, 1946 proposed to the American General Douglas MacArthur ( Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ) that an article be included in the constitution - later Article 9 of the Japanese "Peace Constitution " - in which war is outlawed as a political tool.

First phase

The cornerstones of the policy were support for the Washington Fleet Agreement , cooperation with Great Britain and the USA . In China , a policy of non-interference and economic development was followed. The Japanese-Soviet basic treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in 1925 . When the communist revolutionary army approached the Yangtze in 1927 , Shidehara rejected the naval bombing demanded by the British . This independent attitude, which the Japanese military felt was too soft, led to his dismissal.

Second phase

In his second term as Foreign Minister, the London Fleet Agreement and a customs agreement between Japan and the Republic of China were signed. Shidehara resigned as foreign minister in protest against the attack on the South Manchurian Railway, later known as the Mukden incident , and the subsequent invasion of Manchuria .

After Shidehara resigned, Japanese foreign policy finally turned to militarism . Japan withdrew from the League of Nations , henceforth ignored the naval treaties, and finally began the Second World War in Asia in 1937 with the Second Sino-Japanese War .

literature

  • Klaus Schlichtmann, Shidehara Kijuro , statesman and pacifist. A political biography , Hamburg: German-Japanese Lawyers Association, Vol. 8, 1998 ISBN 3-929124-07-6