JAPAN IN THE WAR
On August 15, 1914, the Empire of Japan issued an ultimatum to Germany.
She demanded the evacuation of Tsing-tau, the disarming of the warships
there and the handing over of the territory to Japan for ultimate
reversion to China. The time limit for her reply was set at 12 o’clock,
August 24th. To this ultimatum Germany made no reply, and at 2:30
P. M., August 23d, the German Ambassador was handed his passports
and war was declared.
The reason for the action of Japan was simple. She was bound by treaty
to Great Britain to come to her aid in any war in which Great Britain
might be involved. On August 4th a note was received from Great Britain
requesting Japan to safeguard British shipping in the Far East. Japan
replied that she could not guarantee the safety of British shipping so
long as Germany was in occupation of the Chinese province of Tsing-tau.
She suggested in turn that England agree to allow her to remove this
German menace. The British Government agreed, on the condition that
Tsing-tau be subsequently returned to China.
The Japanese Government in taking this stand was acting with courage
and with loyalty. Toward individual Germans she entertained no
animosity. She had the highest respect for German scholarship and
German military science. She had been sending her young men to German
seats of learning, and had based the reorganization of her army upon
the German military system. But she did not believe that a treaty was a
mere “scrap of paper,” and was determined to fulfil her obligations in
the treaty with England.
It seems to have been the opinion of the highest Japanese military
authorities that Germany would win the war. Japan’s statesmen, however,
believed that Germany was a menace to both China and Japan and had
lively recollections of her unfriendly attitude in connection with the
Chino-Japanese war and in the period that followed. Germany had been
playing the same game in China that she had played in the Mediterranean
and which had ultimately brought about the war.
The Chino-Japanese war had been a great Japanese triumph. One of
Japan’s greatest victories had been the capture of Port Arthur, but the
joy caused in Japan had not ended before it was into mourning because
of German interference. Germany had then compelled Japan to quit Port
Arthur, and to hand over that great fort to Russia so that she herself
might take Kiao-chau without Russia’s objection.
Japan had never forgotten or forgiven. The German seizure of Kiao-chau
had led to the Russian occupation of Port Arthur, the British
occupation of Wei-hai-wei and French occupation of Kwan-chow Bay. The
vultures were swooping down on defenseless China. This had led to the
Boxer disturbance of 1910, where again the Kaiser had interfered.
Japan, who recognized that her interests and safety were closely allied
with the preservation of the territorial integrity of China, had
proposed to the powers that she be permitted to send her troops to the
rescue of the beleaguered foreigners, but this proposition was refused
on account of German suspicion of Japan’s motives. Later on, during
the Russo-Japanese war, Russia was assisted in many ways by the German
Government.
Furthermore, the popular sympathy with the Japanese was strongly with
the Allies. It was the Kaiser who started the cry of the “yellow
peril,” which had deeply hurt Japanese pride. Yet, even with this
strong feeling, it was remarkable that Japan was willing to ally
herself with Russia. She knew very well that after all the greatest
danger to her liberties lay across the Japan Sea. Russian autocracy,
with its militarism, its religious intolerance, its discriminating
policy against foreign interests in commerce and trade, was the natural
opponent of liberal Japan.
The immediate object of Japan in joining hands with England was to
destroy the German menace in the Pacific. Before she delivered her
ultimatum the Germans had been active; ignoring the rights of Japan
while she was still neutral they had captured a Russian steamer within
Japanese jurisdiction, as well as a number of British merchant vessels,
and even a few Japanese ships had been intercepted by German cruisers.
This was the disturbance to general peace in the Far East, which had
prompted England to request Japan’s assistance.
Japan, when she entered the war, was at least twice as strong as when
she began the war with Russia. She had an army of one million men, and
a navy double the size of that which she had possessed when the Treaty
of Portsmouth was signed. As soon as war was declared she proceeded to
act. A portion of her fleet was directed against the German forces in
the Pacific, one squadron occupying Jaluit, the seat of government of
the Marshall Islands, on October 3d, but her main forces were directed
against the fortress of Tsing-tau.
The Germans had taken great pride in Tsing-tau, and had made every
effort to make it a model colony as well as an impregnable fortress.
They had built costly water works, fine streets and fine public
buildings. They had been making great preparations for a state of
siege, although it was not expected that they would be able to hold out
for a long time. There were hardly more than five thousand soldiers in
the fortress, and in the harbor but four small gunboats and an Austrian
cruiser, the Kaiserin Elizabeth. As Austria was not at war with Japan
the authorization of Japan was asked for the removal of the Kaiserin
Elizabeth to Shanghai, where she could be interned. The Japanese were
favorable to this proposition, but at the last moment instructions
arrived from Vienna directing the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to ask
for his passports at Tokio and the commander of the Kaiserin Elizabeth
to assist the Germans in the defense of Tsing-tau. The Germans also
received orders to defend their fortress to the very last. A portion of
the German squadron, under Admiral von Spee, had sailed away before
the Japanese attack, one of these being the famous commerce raider, the
Emden.
On the 27th of August the Japanese made their first move by taking
possession of some of the small islands at the mouth of the harbor
of Kiao-chau. From these points as bases they swept the surrounding
waters for mines, with such success that during the whole siege but one
vessel of their fleet was injured by a mine. On the 2d of September
they landed troops at the northern base of the peninsula upon which
Tsing-tau was situated, with the object of cutting off the fortress
from the mainland.
The heavy rains which were customary at that season prevented much
action, but airplanes were sent which dropped bombs upon the wireless
station, electric power station and railway station of Kiao-chau, and
upon the ships in the harbor. On September 13th General Kamio captured
the railway station of Kiao-chau which stands at the head of the bay.
This placed him twenty-two miles from Tsing-tau itself. On September
27th he captured Prince Heinrich Hill, giving him a gun position from
which he could attack the inner forts. On the 23d a small British force
arrived from Wei-hai-wei to co-operate with the Japanese.
[Illustration: THE GERMAN GIBRALTAR IN THE FAR EAST WHICH FELL TO THE
JAPANESE]
The combined forces then advanced until they were only five miles from
Tsing-tau. The German warships were bombarding the Japanese troops
fiercely, and were being replied to by the Japanese squadron in the
mouth of the harbor. The great waste of German ammunition led General
Kamio to the opinion that the Germans did not contemplate a long siege.
He then determined on a vigorous assault.
Before the attack was made he gave the non-combatants an opportunity
of leaving, and on the 15th of October a number of women and children
and Chinese were allowed to pass through the Japanese lines. On October
31st the bombardment began, and the German forts were gradually
silenced. On November 2d the Kaiserin Elizabeth was sunk in the harbor.
The Allied armies were pushing their way steadily down, until, on
November 6th, their trenches were along the edge of the last German
redoubts. At 6 o’clock on that day white flags were floating over the
central forts and by 7.30 Admiral Waldeck, the German Governor, had
signed the terms of capitulation.
Germany’s prize colony on the continent of Asia had disappeared.
The survivors, numbering about three thousand, were sent to Japan as
prisoners of war. Japanese losses were but two hundred and thirty-six
men killed. They had, however, lost one third-class cruiser, the
Takachiho, and several smaller crafts. The whole expedition was a
notable success. It had occupied much less time than either Japan or
Germany had expected, and the news was received in Germany with a
universal feeling of bitterness and chagrin.
After the Japanese capture of Kiao-chau Japan’s assistance to the
Allies, while not spectacular, was extremely important, and its
importance increased during the last two years of the war. Her cruiser
squadrons did continuous patrol duty in the Pacific and in the China
Sea and even in the Indian Ocean. She occupied three groups of German
Islands in the South Sea, assisted in driving German raiders from
the Pacific, and by her efficiency permitted a withdrawal of British
warships to points where they could be useful nearer home. She
patrolled the Pacific coast of North and South America, landed marines
to quell riots at Singapore, and finally entered into active service in
European waters by sending a destroyer squadron to the assistance of
the Allies in the Mediterranean.
The Japanese fleet was one of the strongest in the world. It had
twenty-one first- and second-class cruisers, ten superb new destroyers,
with a reserve of twenty others, as well as twenty battle-ships and
battle cruisers.
One of Japan’s most important contributions to the cause of the Allies
was her assistance in convoying to Europe the Anzac troops, and it was
because of the approach of her fleet that the German raiding squadron
in the South Pacific was driven to the point near the Falkland Islands
where it was destroyed by Admiral Cradock’s British cruisers.
But while the aid of Japan’s navy was important to the Allies, her
greatest assistance to the Allied cause was what she did in supplying
Russia with military supplies. The tremendous struggle carried on
by Russia’s forces during the first years prevented an easy German
victory, and was only made possible through the assistance of Japan.
Enormous quantities of guns, ammunition, military stores, hospital and
Red Cross supplies, were sent into Russia, with skilled officers and
experts to accompany them. Before the Russian revolution disorganized
Russia the total value of those supplies had reached $250,000,000.
This tremendous exportation, of course, enormously benefited Japan,
but it was essential to Russia. Japan also shipped to both England and
France vast quantities of flour, beans, peas and canned goods, and
other supplies in proportion. Japan’s financial aid was also of great
value. She made great loans, to Russia $60,000,000; to Great Britain
$50,000,000. She has become today a great workshop, and her merchant
shipping has grown in proportion to the growth of her manufactures.
Immense cargoes were moved, not only from Japan to Allied countries,
but from the American seaboard to Vladivostok. More than one hundred
thousand Chinese laborers were put at the service of the Allies in
France and England, and a great part of her magnificent merchant fleet
was sent as a reinforcement to the merchant fleets of the Atlantic
powers when they had been depleted by the attacks of the German
submarines.
In the last year of the war Japan once more came prominently in the
public eye in connection with the effort made by the Allies to protect
from the Russian Bolsheviki vast stores of ammunition which had been
landed in ports of Eastern Siberia. She was compelled to land troops to
do this and to preserve order in localities where her citizens were in
danger. Upon the development of the Czecho-Slovak movement in Eastern
Siberia a Japanese force, in association with troops from the United
States and Great Britain, was landed to protect the Czecho-Slovaks
from Bolsheviki treachery. These troops succeeded in their object, and
throughout the latter period of the war kept Eastern Siberia friendly
to the Allied cause. In this campaign there was but little blood
shed. The expedition was followed by the strong sympathy of the allied
world which was full of admiration for the loyalty and courage of the
Czecho-Slovaks and their heroic leaders.