This week, we’re beginning a multiparter on the modern relationship between America and Japan. We’ll cover the background of both countries and their relationship leading up to the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.
Asada, Sadao. From Mahan to Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States.
Hotta, Eri. Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy.
Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan.
Pyle, Kenneth. Japan Rising.
Images (Courtesy of the Wikimedia Foundation)
A map showing the continental expansion of the US over the course of 77 years.John A. Bingham, the US Ambassador responsible for establishing a good working relationship between Japan and the US.A letter from US Ambassador John Bingham requiring American ships to obey Japanese quarantine regulations to contain cholera. From the July 26, 1879 edition of the Japan Weekly Mail, courtesy of the Hathi Trust.Japanese troops on Taiwan in 1874. The dispatch of Japanese soldiers was protested by the US.King Kalakaua, the Hawaiian monarch who attempted to imitate Meiji Japan. American pressure caused the Japanese to rebuff him.The IJN Naniwa, dispatched to Hawaii to protect Japanese interests there. Its arrival precipitated the first Japan-US war scare in history.The USS Olympia entering Manila Bay. The US seizure of the Philippines from Spain upset some Japanese Pan-Asianists.
