Final The Washington Naval Conference

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by brittany brown3 views·Updated Apr 8, 2021
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  1. What a way to start my day here in January
  2. 1942 with the newest edition of Freedom News.
  3. Oh, yeah, it's the blast from the past edition.
  4. Did you forget about the Washington Conference?
  5. What was the Washington Naval Conference?
  6. Sure don't remember it Well, It says here that the
  7. Washington Naval Conference was an attempt at national disarmament following
  8. World War One that was held between the countries of
  9. Belgium, Britain, China, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal and,
  10. of course, the United States.
  11. But Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States were
  12. the nation's discussing limitations on Navy's, I guess, because they
  13. were the only naval powers at the time or the
  14. major naval powers.
  15. The four power treaty that resulted required the countries of
  16. the United States, Japan, France and Britain to reach an
  17. arrangement of proposed respect for each other's rights when it
  18. came to the Pacific.
  19. I guess that means if something broke out in the
  20. Pacific in terms of a disagreement between any of the
  21. countries, they would have to consult and then a five
  22. power treaty also resulted, which set deferring ratios for ships
  23. and aircraft at a country could have.
  24. Judging from the cover of this newspaper, it looks like
  25. somebody wasn't too happy about the 553 ratio.
  26. So what is the significance of the Washington Naval Conference?
  27. Well, it says here Japan, with somewhat offended about what
  28. was allotted to them in terms of ratio and size
  29. compared to the other nations.
  30. Actually, Japan, back home through newspaper media, actually had a
  31. lot of speculation towards what was going on with the
  32. trees and the conference, and the four power treaty replaced
  33. the Anglo Japanese alliance.
  34. The Anglo Japanese alliance apparently was some type of alliance
  35. between Great Britain and Japan that Japan wanted to be
  36. replaced instead of the four power treaty.
  37. And then the United States and Britain kept pushing Japan
  38. to make Allen's part of the treaty that were excluded.
  39. So I'm assuming that this is one of those islands.
  40. Okay, well, what were the causes of the Washington Naval
  41. Conference? It looks like somebody was building to bigger the
  42. navy from the looks of the picture.
  43. So why did it have to happen following World War
  44. One Disarm?
  45. It was needed After the Japanese wiped out the Russian
  46. navy. They what wiped out the Russian navy.
  47. The United States was building with hopes to have one
  48. of the largest Navy's second only to Great Britain and
  49. was acquiring Pacific possessions like Guam and the Philippines.
  50. Who why is Guam and the Philippines so important here?
  51. Well while in the Philippines led to uncertain threat of
  52. the United States to Japan and Japan to the U.
  53. S. Apparently, the Philippines would have required the United States
  54. to have such a naval build out that was just
  55. as strong as Japan in the case Japan attacked.
  56. But the minute that the United States didn't have that
  57. naval power, Japan was an obvious threat.
  58. And then the Anglo Japanese alliance was a threat to
  59. the United States, where I would assume so because the
  60. Great Britain fighting with Japan was what led to the
  61. Russian Navy wipe out and following World War One.
  62. The relations between Japan and the United States were not
  63. good, and another world war was being awaited for, but
  64. had to be prevented.
  65. But that doesn't make sense.
  66. We're in the middle of World War Two.
  67. So what happened?
  68. What now?
  69. Japan walked away somewhat positively, but still had a questioning
  70. attitude towards the United States at home.
  71. It didn't make sense to them why the United States
  72. would need a Navy power that was second only to
  73. Great Britain and Japan gained equality as a naval power
  74. in fact, even racial equality in these conferences that they
  75. so longingly saw it.
  76. But the Washington Naval Conference carved out some of the
  77. major players of World War Two.
  78. I guess Japan speculation eventually led to more uncertain attitudes
  79. that eventually did lead to the Second World War.
  80. Well, I guess you can always learn something from the
  81. newspaper.