Moreover, the World War settlement for Japan, as finally reached at
Washington, was no empty achievement. Japan had not obtained her larger
ambitions in China or Siberia, it is true. But the former German
islands north of the equator--of great strategic, if not economic,
importance--were now a Japanese mandate. Japan’s rights in South
Manchuria had become much more firmly established. Her naval and
commercial fleets had greatly expanded, she occupied a permanent seat
on the Council of the League of Nations, and she was recognized as one
of the half-dozen Great Powers. Japan had also made important economic
gains, to which we must now turn our attention.