On May 31, 1921, Hirohito, who had found nothing, ended his visit to England and went on to visit France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. In Paris, Hirohito held secret meetings with young Japanese officers studying in Europe, and these young officers, who were close to him, became the backbone of Hirohito's power to replace the Choshu feudal lords, many of whom became the backbone of Japan's fascism in the thirties and forties. On September 3, Hirohito returned to Japan and officially succeeded Emperor Taisho on November 25, whose condition had deteriorated, and the curtain fell on the "Taisho Democratic Era".

On the other hand, on 11 July, during Hirohito's departure from England for a visit to other European countries, British Prime Minister Lloyd-George delivered a lengthy speech to the British Parliament, declaring that "the Anglo-Japanese alliance, the future of Asia and the Pacific, and the question of Anglo-American relations arising from these two issues are the main issues to be seriously considered by the Imperial Government...... The first principle of our policy is to maintain friendly cooperation with the United States, and we are convinced that peace and stability in the world can be better established by relying on this factor than any other single factor...... We also wish to maintain close friendship and cooperation with Japan, the greatest advantage of which is that it can coordinate the forces and activities of the two Pacific powers, so that the stability of the British Empire and peace in the Far East can be maintained. Lloyd-George's speech showed that Britain should first be in line with the United States in the new round of competition in the Far East, and at the same time Britain did not want to offend Japan too much to the detriment of British interests in the Far East. Hirohito was well aware of this outcome, and he understood that the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance" had come to an end with Lloyd-George's speech, and now all that was needed was a formality.

At this time, Hirohito's mind returned to the "package" international conference to be held in Washington.

Before World War I, Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, and the United States were competing in the Far East and the Pacific. After the end of the war, Tsarist Russia was destroyed, and Soviet Russia, which was subsequently formed, withdrew from competition in this region; Germany was defeated and excluded from the list of great powers, and the victorious powers did not allow it to gain any more advantages in any area other than its own territory; Having suffered heavy losses in the war, France is too busy to heal the wounds of the war and consolidate its vested interests in Europe to get involved in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, in the political arena of the Far East and the Pacific region, it is mainly a performance between the United States, Britain, China, and Japan, among which there are contradictions between Britain and the United States, as well as contradictions between Britain and Japan, as well as contradictions between China and Japan, and the most prominent contradiction is the conflict of interests between the United States and Japan, and the center of contention is China.

At the Versailles Peace Conference after the end of the war, the U.S. delegates strongly demanded that the former German Pacific Territories, including the Japanese-occupied islands and the Anglo-Australian and New Zealand territories occupied by the Anglo-Australian and New Zealand forces, be internationally administered, or simply return them to Germany. Japan, on the other hand, adheres to the principle of "advancing from the north to the south" and maintains that not a single German South Sea Islands seized by Japan should be left behind. U.S. President Wilson, who attended the peace conference, made a compromise proposal, that is, hand over the German islands north of the equator to Japan on the condition that they would not be fortified. In the end, the issue of Yap Island was resolved by the division of the three main cables between Japan, the United States, and the Netherlands, and the United States was free to enter and leave the island at will.

The Yap issue, the Pacific issue, and the debate between the United States and Japan over China and the open door policy at the Versailles Peace Conference are just the tip of the iceberg of the post-World War I dispute between Japan and the United States. There are many irreconcilable contradictions between the two countries in the Western Pacific, including China, Siberia, the Philippines, and Australia, so it is not surprising that the diplomatic and economic wars between the two countries quickly spread to the military field, and finally to fierce competition in naval shipbuilding. Secretary of the Navy Daniels in the Wilson administration issued a statement saying that "we have only two choices, either choose to join the League of Nations to maintain world peace and avoid a naval arms race; Either the most powerful navy in the world must be created, and there is no middle way. ”

The U.S. Navy's plans for massive expansion began before and after Japan forced China to sign the infamous "Twenty-One Articles" and its contents were announced. In 1916, U.S. President Wilson issued a five-year plan for the construction of the Grand Navy, planning to allocate $1.5 billion to build 10 battleships, 6 battle cruisers, 50 destroyers and 100 submarines, so that the U.S. Navy strength jumped from the fourth in the world to the first in the world at that time. In June 1919, the U.S. Navy officially announced the division of the fleet into two to form the Pacific Fleet. In August 1919, the U.S. Congress passed an ordinance to fund the Navy, increasing naval military spending from $137 million in 1914 to $433 million in 1921. The tonnage of new warships built by the Navy was 200,000 tons in 1916-1920, 400,000 tons in 1921-1925, and 120,000 tons in 1926-1929, totaling 720,000 tons, which was quite overwhelming the British Navy. ,

In July 1920, the 43rd National Assembly of Japan finally approved the "88th Fleet" plan, which had been formulated for a long time and had been pending for a long time, and from 1919 onwards, the Navy often kept 8 battleships and 8 battle cruisers that were less than 8 years old, and completed the first round of shipbuilding cycle of the plan in 1927. At the same time, Japan also planned to build 25 light cruisers, 102 destroyers, and 113 submarines, and the navy's military spending soared, from 163 million yen ($85 million) in 1917 to 482 million yen ($245 million) in 1921. Judging from the shipbuilding plans that Japan and the United States had already drawn up and begun to implement, the naval strength of the two countries reached the highest level of strength in 1925, and after that, the US Navy would leave the Japanese Navy far behind, so 1925 was the year when war was most likely to break out, and the United States and Japan were gloomyly placed in front of the politicians of the United States and Japan. At that time, the words "war between the United States and Japan" had become a hot word in both countries, and the ideas and discussions of the war between the United States and Japan abound in the newspapers. A best-selling book entitled "Germany in Asia" was published in the United States, in which he described postwar Japan as "behaving much like Germany under Caesar,...... Savage, vulgar and aggressive".

In another book titled "Will We Go to War with Japan?" In the book, the author says: "The recent huge dispute between Japan and the United States far exceeds the dispute between Germany and the United States more than a decade ago...... Japan is expanding in East Asia, Hawaii, and our West Coast; Its interest in Siberia clashed sharply with U.S. international policy; Its control over the cable station on the German territory of Yap, and its demand for the League of Nations to grant it a mandate, caused us so deep unease...... Its aggression against China is incompatible with U.S. commerce, trade, diplomatic interests, moral sentiments, and U.S. 'open door' policies......."

The final two years of Wilson's presidency were fraught with the threat of war, with Tokyo and Washington at a standoff on every issue, and the capitals of both countries talking about war everywhere because of the competition between the United States and Japan in the Far East and the Pacific, as well as the central issue of the naval arms race. But is war avoidable for both the United States and Japan?

After Japan adopted a revised national defense policy on September 13, 1918, the United States and China, supported by the United States, became Japan's main imaginary enemy after Russia. After World War I, Japan's staff found that large-scale wars tended to become prolonged. The First Sino-Japanese War lasted for eight months, the Russo-Japanese War lasted for one year and seven months, and the First World War lasted six and a half years. The future war will be a "total war," a battle for national strength, a joint operation between international blocs, and it will undoubtedly be a much longer war, at a time when Japan was beginning to enter a period of long-term economic depression after the war.

On March 15, 1921, the Tokyo Stock Exchange experienced a stock price crash, which spread to the United Kingdom in April, and turned into a worldwide economic crisis that in turn further affected the Japanese economy. Compared with 1919, Japan's exports fell by 30 to 40 percent, and the productivity of steel, shipbuilding, raw silk and other industries fell sharply, and the Japanese cabinet at that time had to allocate 350 million yen to save related companies, which further led to the government's financial shrinkage and financial difficulties. Under such conditions, it is not permissible for Japan to actively expand its armed forces and strengthen its armaments.

Although some people in Japanese military and political circles claimed that Japan was "ready to spend as much money as the United States on building warships," this was only a slap in the face and a fat man, and Japan, which had a per capita income of only $21 at that time, was unable and unable to compete with the United States, which had a per capita income of $350. Since the establishment of the League of Nations, there has been an atmosphere of harmony in international relations among the major powers, and the idea of peace has prevailed, so Japan has had to adopt a steady attitude of "taking a long-term view of the country's major policies." Former Japanese Navy Minister Yuzaburo Kato said in early 1921 that Japan would also be willing to abandon the "88th Fleet" plan if other naval powers agreed to abandon the shipbuilding program.

For Britain, Japan's main ally at the time, the need to prevent a new naval race was even more urgent. Previously, Britain had maintained the "double power standard" of the navy, and did not allow a second country to compete with it, so the expansion of the German navy caused Britain to be jealous, which eventually led to the outbreak of world war. However, any great political power, if it takes a considerable amount of time, will induce change. The United States, which has been in charge of the Pacific since the 20th century, has spared no effort in naval expansion, while Britain has been devastated since the end of the war. Britain spent £17.497 billion on the war, equivalent to 52 percent of the country's total wealth during the period, lost one-third of its overseas investments after the war, and owed £982 million to the United States. After six long years, Britain's traditional overseas markets were all occupied by the United States, Japan and other countries, and the domestic steel, textile, machinery and other industries shrank in an all-round way, and foreign trade, which was regarded as the lifeline of the British economy, changed from more than 134 million pounds in 1913 to more than 832 million pounds in 1921. By 1921, the pound had fallen to 79 of its gold parity. British Prime Minister Lloyd-George realized that if he engaged in the costly naval arms race again, it would inevitably lead to the total collapse of the British economy, so Britain could no longer compete with the United States in any naval expansion, and even resolutely decided to abandon two centuries of maritime supremacy and compromise with the United States, which also belonged to the Anglo-Saxon civilization. ,

In March 1921, the British Admiralty Secretary and Foreign Secretary Balfour made a speech proposing that Britain and the United States have equal navies through negotiation. In April 1921, Britain officially notified the United States Government that it was "ready to abandon the traditional policy of having a fleet equal to the combined fleet of the other two most powerful naval nations in the world." However, the decision was made before Britain approved plans to build four 42,000-ton giant battle cruisers, 10 cruisers and more than 30 submarines in addition to the 10 capital ships already built.

Although China's navy has become the world's second largest navy with the help of the United States, China's economic strength is obviously not enough to support such a large navy for a long time, so the United States is the only one left with the capital and strength to build a global naval superpower. But those in power in the United States are well aware that their citizens may not necessarily support the government's war against Japan over the Siberian question or the open door issue of China, and that the US Congress will probably not continue to make huge naval allocations for this purpose. What's more, the United States is Japan's main commodity export market, selling more than 97% of Japan's raw silk, and 80% of Japan's total imports of steel and machinery come from the United States, and the economic ties between Japan and the United States are second only to the economic ties between the United States and China.

In order to ease the deteriorating US-Japan relations and the tensions they have brought about, US Senator William Brown, who has consistently criticized Japan for pursuing an expansionist policy in the Asia-Pacific region. On December 14, 1921, Bora introduced a motion in Congress advocating that the United States, Japan, and Britain should cut their naval construction plans in half over the next five years to avoid a vicious outcome. "If we are drawn into a massive naval shipbuilding race, coupled with threats and criticism, we are likely to have a bitter war with Japan for the next 25 years," Bora said. This suggestion was proposed by the newly elected President of the United States, Warren ? Adopted by Harding.

At his inauguration, Harding said that "the United States is willing to discuss and consult with the rest of the world...... propose ways to reduce armaments and reduce the unbearable burden on the army and navy". Senator Bora proposed an amendment to the Navy Bill, authorizing the President to "invite representatives of the British, Chinese, and Japanese governments to a conference aimed at reaching a speedy understanding and agreement, so that the naval construction plans of Britain, the United States, China, and Japan participating in the meeting may be reduced to the extent specified in the agreement for the next five years." The U.S. Senate then voted 74-0 to approve the proposal to convene a meeting of the Consultation Industry Association, and the House of Representatives also passed the bill by an overwhelming margin of 330-4.

Harding accordingly instructed Secretary of State Charles? Hughes asked the Japanese government whether it would agree to participate in a conference convened in the United States to reduce naval armaments and coordinate the resolution of conflicts of interest between the two countries and other countries concerned in the Far East. At the same time, the United Kingdom and its self-governing territories, Canada and Australia, also raised the issue of convening an international conference. As the third Anglo-Japanese alliance of 10 years was about to expire, the British Empire, caught in the sharp confrontation between the United States and Japan, held a meeting to discuss how to deal with the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Canada, Australia, and Japan's politically and economically sharply opposed British Dominions have asked Britain to clarify its alliance with Japan, because these countries have seen that in the future conflict between Japan and the United States in the Pacific, they can only stand on the side of the United States for their own security and interests. The absurd spectacle of war with Dominions such as Canada and Australia, which are allied with the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Meehan delivered a speech at the Imperial Conference, firmly opposing any renewal of the Anglo-Japanese alliance that could lead to Canada's break with the United States or with the British Empire, and called for the convening of a conference between the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan to discuss the Anglo-Japanese alliance. The Australian Prime Minister made the same call. Against this background, British Foreign Secretary Balfour proposed to convene a package of international conferences on Anglo-Japanese relations, US-Japan relations, Sino-Japanese relations, the Pacific issue, and the post-war naval race. Therefore, the British government decided to propose to the United States to convene the conference, and the United States would decide on the date, place, and countries participating in the meeting, and issue invitations.

After intense discussions, the participants held a meeting of the Emperor's Imperial Council, a Cabinet Meeting, and a Foreign Affairs Committee, and after heated discussions, they held that if Japan rejected the US proposal, it would be difficult to escape the accusation of "interfering with the plan to guarantee international peace" as the United States and Britain supported arms limitation, and therefore decided to participate in the arms limitation conference. Subsequently, the Japanese Government replied to the United States and agreed to participate in the decision of the United States, Britain, France, China, Japan, and Italy to participate in the six-nation arms limitation conference and the international conference on the Pacific and the Far East.

After receiving a positive reply from the Japanese side, the United States issued a formal invitation to the "Washington Conference" to "relevant countries," including Britain, China, Japan, France, Italy, and other countries involved in the naval arms race, as well as Canada, Australia, India, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Of course, Sovietized Russia was not invited for conceivable reasons, Germany and Austria-Hungary were defeated countries, and Austria-Hungary itself had dissolved and therefore both were excluded from the conference......

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