Relationships between Japan and the World

During the period of 1914 to 1939, Japan established multiple relationships with the rest of the world due to the many incidents that occurred. Japan emerged as a powerful country and conquered their goal of dominance in which created many positive and negative effects with the world to an extent. Japan mostly formed negative relationships with other nations however, that were not friendly but in fact aggressive. These incidents include the Twenty One Demands, the rejection of racial equality and the rape of Nanking in the Sino-Japanese war. There were numerous events that shaped the poor relationship between Japan and other countries during 1914 to 1936.

There were multiple events that shaped the relationship between Japan and other countries during 1914 to 1936. This includes Japan enforcing twenty one demands in 1915 on China. Japanese was planning the twenty one demands because their forces were occupying Shandong and they wanted to extend their influence on China, Japan also wanted to show the world that it is a powerful country and everyone should feel threatened by them as well as it was a great opportunity to, as the west was occupied with the war in Europe. The twenty one demands on China was made up of five groups, that attacked chinese independence. These five groups included the Shandong demand, the South Manchurian and Inner Eastern Mongolia demand, The Yangste Valley demand, the Leases or Cessions demand and the Miscellaneous demand. China had to accept these twenty demands as Japan had warned China of retaliation, however this lead to a worse relationship as China no longer trusted Japan and now felt threatened by them. There was a positive effect with the twenty one demands on Japan to an extent as they now had reached their goal and extended into China as well as becoming internationally recognized as powerful, however Japan was also forced to delete the main points in the fifth group and were irritated. The twenty one demands in 1915 formed a overall negative relationship from Japan with China.

There were multiple events that shaped the relationship between Japan and other countries during 1914 to 1936. This includes the rejection of racial equality between Japan and other nations in the League of nations Paris Peace Conference 1919. Japan made a vote to alter the league of nations covenant so that all member nations would be declared racially equal. Japan took this action as they thought since they had helped the western countries in WW1 that they respected and liked Japan as well as Japan now being a powerful country in the world. However other countries actions including Australia and the United States rejected the insertion of racial equality in the covenant of the league of nations. ‘If the League of nations is able to compel a State to amend its immigration, naturalism and franchise laws there remains to the state only the shadow of a sovereignty’ The league of nations challenged Australia’s ‘All White Policy.’ This lead to an even worse relationship with Japan and the other nations of the world that rejected them (only 11 out of 16 nations voted for racial equality) as they now resented them for the negative effect it has left on Japan. Japan felt humiliated as they were not considered racially equal and were once again recognised as lower than the other nations. The Rejection of racial equality was an event that determined the negative relationship between Japan and the rest of the world during the time period of 1914 to 1939.

There were multiple events that shaped the relationship between Japan and other countries during 1914 to 1936. This included the Sino - Japanese war in 1937. During this war Japan invaded Nanking in a six week period starting december 13th 1937. This event is know as the rape of Nanking. The actions taken by the Chinese were defective as they only fought back for four days then 90 000 Chinese soldiers surrendered. This is due to China being poorly led by the Japanese and disorganized. The rape of Nanking lead to worse international relationships with japan as they were frowned upon from the rest of the world, however good relationships with Chinese and the rest of the world to an extent as many foreign nations protested the actions of the Japanese troops and some countries gave aid to the Chinese Nationalist government including the US. This had a negative effect on Japan as it brought shame upon them for indiscriminate rape, slaughter and torture of over 200 000 people including women children and soldiers, destroying and ransacking houses and killing overall 300 000 people. The Sino- Japanese war was an event that included the rape of Nanking that caused a negative relationship between Japan and China due to the Japanese troops actions.

Japan formed many relationships with the rest of the world during 1914 to 1939. These relationships were mostly negative due to hostile behaviour of the world. The rape of Nanking was an evil act that aimed to hurt China, which they exactly did so. It created a hatred of Japan not only from China but also from other nations as well. The fight of Japan to be racially equal amongst the world only backfired on Japan as the world did not think that regardless of the Japanese's racial characteristics, that it are still morally, politically, and legally equal and should be treated as such. It created an aggressive relationship from Japan, and a negative attitude towards all the nations that objected to their race. Japan also created a negative relationship with the rest of the world from the twenty one demands that they enforced in China, It only created a greater tension of both countries. The time period of 1914 to 1939 had events that occurred with Japan and other countries of the world which founded new relationships that were mostly unfavorable.

References
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Twenty-One Demands (Jan. 18, 1915) – 21 Demands by Japan to China. 2014. Twenty-One Demands (Jan. 18, 1915) – 21 Demands by Japan to China. [ONLINE] Available at: http://totallyhistory.com/twenty-one-demands/. [Accessed 01 May 2014].