The confrontation between Japan and the United States was long and slow, and it probably began in 1897, when Japan clashed with the United States, which was seeking to annex Hawaii, over immigration. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Hawaii was the most important relay station on the U.S.-China route and the main supply base for U.S. whaling ships, and the U.S. recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1874, but tried to annex it several times since. Japan established diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Hawaii in 187 and signed the Treaty of Reconciliation between Japan and Hawaii, and since then poor Japanese farmers have continued to emigrate to Hawaii with their families. By 1890, there were 12,000 Japanese immigrants to the Hawaiian Islands, compared to less than 2,000 Americans.

In 1893, with the help of the U.S. Consulate and 160 Marines, the "Four Families" of American immigrants in Hawaii staged a coup d'état to overthrow the Queen of Hawaii and establish a "republic". Although Japan's action to send warships did not interfere with the purpose of the American diaspora d'état, it still aroused the dissatisfaction of the United States, and Washington received a secret report that the "Naniwa" had transported weapons to Japanese nationals in Hawaii.

In February 1897, the United States and Japan first had a dispute over Hawaiian immigration as the local government of Hawaii began to block the entry of Japanese immigrants. Japanese Navy Minister Saigo ordered the cruiser "Naniwa" to go to Hawaii again to demonstrate, and the United States responded by sending the battleship "Philadelphia" to confront it. It was not until the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 that the crisis ended with the government of the "Republic of Hawaii" paying $75,000 in compensation to Japanese immigrants who were denied entry.

A wave has not settled, and another wave has risen. In June 1897, the Republic of Hawaii and the United States signed a treaty of union in Washington, D.C., and President McKinley submitted the treaty to the Senate on the same day. The move was fiercely opposed by Japan, and the Japanese minister to the United States, Hoshihiro, flew home overnight, suggesting that Foreign Minister Shigenobu Okuma "take advantage of the existing relations between Japan and summer." In the name of retaliation, a number of powerful warships were quickly dispatched to occupy the island".

Subsequently, the Japanese envoy again sent a note to the United States, saying that "the scope of Japan's expansion activities is in the Pacific." It was not until December of that year that Japan withdrew its protest against the U.S. annexation of Hawaii.

The annexation of the Philippines by the United States brought greater influence and shock to Japan. At that time, the Japanese Navy dispatched three ships, "Naniwa", "Akitsuzu", and "Matsushima", to Manila in the name of "watching the battle". Witnessed the defeat of the Spanish fleet by the American Asian fleet. After that, there were divisions in Japan over the Philippine issue, and the faction in the military ministry that advocated a southward expansion and the faction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that advocated a northward expansion came into conflict.

The "Southern Expansion faction" demanded assistance to the Philippine movement, at least changing the exclusive occupation of the Philippines by the United States to a joint occupation by Japan and the United States, on the grounds that "the imperial defense should be expanded in the vicinity of the Philippines and Malay as the first line, and seek peace and security in East Asia"; The "Northern Advance faction" believed that in the future, the first line of Japan's defense would be China's Manchuria and Korea, rather than the Philippines in the south.

Because Japan had to resist Russia's expansion in Northeast Asia at that time, and because the "northward expansion faction" always occupied a dominant position in Japan's strategic ideological circles for more than 30 years, the US occupation of the Philippines did not become the trigger for Japan-US relations.

But it was only a matter of time before Japan moved south. The US occupation of the Philippines is tantamount to planting a bomb on Japan's southward march, and as long as US rule in the Philippines does not end, Japan will detonate this bomb sooner or later.

The real start of tension between Japan and the United States was after the Russo-Japanese War.

The outcome of the war was the most disappointing for the United States, because Japan pursued a fanatical and blatant policy of "closing the doors" in Korea and South Manchuria, to a degree that Tsarist Russia could not have dreamed of.

In July 1907, Russia and Japan secretly signed the First Entente to divide the spheres of influence of the two countries in Mongolia and Manchuria. and jointly oppose the attempt of the United States to share the Manchurian market.

At first, the United States insisted on the idea of an "open door" in Manchuria, but soon ran into a wall in front of the Japanese. Harriman, the American railroad magnate, tried to buy the South Manchurian Railroad after the war. But it was vetoed by the foreign minister of Komura. The Japanese used administrative measures and discriminatory railway toll policies to slowly and systematically squeeze out and eradicate the enterprises and trade of the United States, Britain, and other countries in Manchuria.

There is no doubt that Roosevelt, the veteran imperialist whom the Kaiser called "Theodore I", could not sit idly by and watch the Japanese petty calculations. The United States retaliated by restricting Japanese immigration to California, and then raised tariffs on raw silk, Japan's main export.

After the failure of the Harriman acquisition plan, the United States tried to pry open the door to Manchuria again, and President Roosevelt proposed that China, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Russia jointly acquire the South Manchurian Railway. It was merged with the remnants of the Manchurian Railway in the hands of Russia and operated by the six countries. This plan was rejected by Japan without any suspense, and its effect was only to further intensify the contradictions between Japan and the United States.

The suspense was unveiled on April 19, 1907. On this day, Japan adopted the "Imperial Defense Policy" and began the era of using the United States as an imaginary enemy. Although Japan still relied on British and American capital and markets in its initial stages, some of the provisions of the Imperial Defense Policy were only an undercurrent buried under the Navy's shipbuilding appropriations. But it will inevitably become public and explode in the future.

Therefore, Roosevelt's decision to send the Great White Fleet on a conspicuous cruise around the world was in June 1907. In private, Roosevelt did not hide his true intention in sending fleets to the Pacific Ocean: to deter Japan. In one of his letters, he wrote: "The real purpose of the battlefleet's circumnavigation of the world was to respond to the very ugly talk of war that Japan had begun to gerge. This is the best example of the following phrase that I know: 'Speak kindly, with a stick in hand'. ”

As for China's political arena and political situation, the United States is also actively supporting the "pro-American" faction.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Xu Shichang became the governor of the three eastern provinces, and Tang Shaoyi, who graduated from Yale University, was the governor of Fengtian. Both are powerful figures in Yuan Shikai's Beiyang system and are also considered to harbor pro-American sentiments.

At the suggestion of the United States, Qing court officials in the three eastern provinces began to consider bringing in American capital to build a railway from Xinmin to Faku and extending it to Qiqihar to form a link of the "global railway" around the world. The United States has also proposed the establishment of development banks in the three eastern provinces. These measures were bound to break Japan's monopoly in Manchuria, and thus caused great unease and hostility in Japan.

Although the U.S. proposal was very difficult to implement in the three eastern provinces, Americans were pleased that there was another strong pro-American figure rising in the south: Chen Wenqiang. (To be continued.) )