seeds of war. Countless historians have pointed  out the rise of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy as  

having roots in the Treaty of Versailles, signed  in 1919 at the tail end of the First World War.  

However, Germany and Italy were only two of  the three major Axis powers, which plunged  

the world into war in the 1930s. Traditionally,  the treaty of Versaille is thought to have had  

little impact on 20th century Japan, but in  truth, a string of superseding events leading  

up to that fateful day in June 1919 made it  so that, when the treaty was finally signed,  

the land of the rising sun was pushed  firmly on the path that would lead it  

to become an Axis Power in WW2. In this video,  we will explain why the Treaty of Versailles  

became the straw that broke the camel's  back, pushing Japan towards the Axis.  

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Our story begins with a brand new Empire which  took to the global stage by replicating what  

it had learned from the great powers of Europe  and America. By the end of the 19th century,  

the formerly feudal and isolationist nation of  Japan had undergone the Meiji Restoration , an  

incredible process of hyper modernization,  catching up on centuries of technology in  

a matter of decades to avoid being colonized  by technologically advanced European powers.  

On top of European technology, the Japanese of  this period also picked up on the European habit  

of colonial expansionism. In the 1890s, Japan  utilized its newfound technological superiority  

to enforce exploitative treaties upon the Korean  Joseon Dynasty. This brought it into conflict with  

the Qing Dynasty, to whom Joseon was a tributary  vassal . The outcome was the First Sino-Japanese  

War of 1894-1895 which saw the legendary siege  of Port Arthur and the naval battles of Yalu  

River and Weihaiwei. The Empire of the rising sun  defeated the Qing dynasty handily, becoming the  

dominant Asian power in the east. The population  of Japan beamed with pride, they had achieved a  

major objective in their goal to become one of the  great powers, but this elation was only temporary. 

The treaty of Shimonoseki signed on April 17th of  1895 recognized the total independence of Korea  

from China, and ceded Taiwan, the Penghu Islands,  and the much-desired Liaodong Peninsula to Japan.  

However, after its ratification, Japan was  suddenly approached by the triple intervention of  

France, Germany, and Russia who argued  Japan should return the Liaodong Peninsula  

to China . When Japan sought the aid of the  United States and Great Britain, they instead  

advised Japan to increase the indemnity fees as a  replacement for the Liaodong peninsula. Thus Japan  

reluctantly acceded to the triple intervention as  it was in no position to resist the 3 great powers  

militarily . Then, to the shock and fury of Japan,  Russia immediately signed a 25-year lease of the  

Liaodong peninsula and began setting up a naval  base at Port Arthur. It became clear that among  

the congress of nations, Japan would never be  taken as seriously as any of the European powers. 

Japan was extremely unhappy with the  outcome, but she was not alone, Britain,  

one of Russia's principal geopolitical rivals,  was also wary of Tsarist encroachment in China.  

Thus the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902 was  signed to ward off Russian expansion in east Asia.  

This ultimately allowed Japan to recover the  face it had lost in the Liaodong incident,  

and allowed the young Empire to achieve its  primary geopolitical aims in the region.  

This principally constituted establishing  dominance over Korea, which it did by  

commercially exploiting Joseon with unequal  treaties, and, ironically, shaking off all  

the remaining unequal treaties imposed upon itself  by the great European powers, when they had forced  

Japan to open the country decades earlier. However, Japan had its sights on more than  

just Korea, and also sought a sphere of  influence in the breadbasket of Asia,  

Manchuria. Their opportunity came when the Qing  dynasty was engulfed in the Boxer Rebellion  

of 1899-1901, wherein eight nations with colonial  interests in a weak, complacent and stable China  

stepped in to help the Qing Emperor quell the  uprising. Japan and Russia found themselves on  

the same side in this conflict, but the outcome of  the war caused further conflict between the two.  

By the end of the uprising, Russia had sent over  177,000 troops into Manchuria under the pretext  

of protecting railway construction in the region  from insurgents , promising they would withdraw  

once the rebellion was over. After the rebellion,  100,000 troops remained settled in Manchuria,  

and by 1903 Russia had yet to establish a  timetable for withdrawal. Soon, Russia became even  

bolder and began the construction of inroads into  Korea. Seeing all this as a threat to its national  

security, Japan attempted to diplomatically deal  with the Russian encroachments, but nothing came  

to fruition , notably as a result of the racially  motivated Yellow Peril rhetoric being pushed by  

Kaiser Wilhelm II onto Tsar Nicholas II. The  result was the cataclysmic Russo-Japanese war  

of 1904-1905 seeing such battles as Mukden  and the legendary naval battle of Tsushima.  

For the first time in modern history, an  Asian power defeated a European power,  

sending shockwaves throughout the globe.  Japan emerged as the dominant power in Asia,  

but similarly to Russia, had bankrupted itself  with the war and was eager to make a peace deal.  

Theodore Roosevelt was chosen to mediate between  the two nations at Portsmouth, and much to the  

shock and dismay of Japan, he advised Japan to  accept a peace deal without monetary reparations,  

nor significant territorial gains  . The Japanese public was furious,  

leading to the Hibiya riots of 1905 . Japan  felt betrayed and cheated by the United States. 

Despite not achieving the peace deal they sought,  Japan still had achieved more national objectives,  

she now held the sphere of influence over  Manchuria and quickly seized a lease on the  

southern Manchurian Railway, mining concessions,  and the Liaodong peninsula. Japan would follow  

this up with the annexation of Korea in 1910  officially making Korea a colony of Japan and  

allowing it to be exploited even more brutally.  A few years later, one of the most lucrative  

opportunities in Japanese history occurred,  the Great War. At the outbreak of the conflict,  

Japan proposed of its ally Britain that she should  enter the war on the condition she could seize  

German held territory in the Asia-Pacific. Britain  was reluctant at first, but officially asked for  

Japan's assistance in destroying the German East  Asia Squadron led by Maximilian von Spee. The  

Entente formally gave Japan the status of full  ally, guaranteeing it support at the prospective  

peace conference and to support Japanese  claims over German possessions within China.  

However Britain also quietly warned Japan to not  seize German held territory in the south or east  

pacific, which Britain had pegged for annexation  by its Australian and New Zealand based forces. 

Japan set to work, submitting an ultimatum  to Germany on August the 23rd of, 1914,  

which went unanswered, leading Japan to besiege  the German-held Chinese port of Tsingtau.  

The siege of Tsingtau saw many firsts in  military history, from seaplane-carrier Wakamiya,  

Japan conducted the first naval-launched  air raids against German held land targets  

in Shandong province and ships in Qiaozhou Bay;  the first night-time bombing raid; and possibly  

the first aerial victory when Pluschow claimed to  have downed a Japanes Farman MF.7 with his pistol.  

Ultimately, Japan defeated the Germans and seized  Tsingtau, while the IJN simultaneously seized the  

Mariana, Caroline and Marshall islands much  to the annoyance of Britain. This would prompt  

Britain to publicly tell Japan not to seize  any more German colonial possessions in the  

south and east pacific, thereby handing Japan an  insult on the world stage it would not forget. 

Now being the dominant and uncontested power in  Asia, Japan had the ability to throw its weight  

around as she saw fit. With all of Europe's great  powers currently grinding each other into dust on  

their home continent, Japan felt it was time  to seize more of its vital interests in China.  

The Qing dynasty had collapsed during the Xinhai  revolution of 1911 and a fragmented Beiyang  

government led by Yuan Shikai was trying to keep  the ailing nation together. On January 18th of  

1915, Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu  drafted and sent the infamous Twenty-One Demands  

to President Yuan Shikai privately, threatening  dire consequences should China reject them.  

It would grant Japan all the territory it seized  from Germany ; expand its influence in Manchuria  

and Inner Mongolia ; expand its role in the  development of railways and mining in China . Most  

egregiously of all, it would give Japan a  decisive voice in China's financial, policing, and  

governmental affairs . In other words, it would  effectively make China a protectorate under Japan,  

much like what Korea was prior to full annexation.  Japan was well aware of what it was asking,  

thus demanding the Beiyang government keep  the matter secret, but the Beiyang government  

leaked the demands in an effort to earn European  powers' support against Japan. China rejected  

the humiliating demands on April 26st of 1915,  prompting the Genro of Japan to delete the most  

egregious parts of the demands and present  a new Thirteen Demands on May 7th of 1915,  

this time in the form of an ultimatum with a  2-day deadline. Yuan Shikai was competing with  

warlords to control a fragmented China and was  in no position to risk war with Japan, so he  

accepted and signed the demands on May 25th, 1915. While the signing seemed like a great victory for  

Japan, the opposite would turn out to be true.  Without the most egregious demands included,  

Japan gained very little it did not already have  in China, but now lost the trust of the United  

States and its European allies, particularly  Britain. Tensions between the two powers began  

straining when Japan was asked for further  assistance as the first world war raged on,  

which it did by sending the Japanese Red Cross  to the western front and escorting ANZAC troop  

convoys to the middle east. In February of  1915, the IJN was asked to help quell the 1915  

Singapore Mutiny and did so begrudgingly  . Then in 1916, Britain began requesting  

the IJN's assistance in the Mediterranean to  protect Entente shipping from U-boat attacks.  

Japan agreed to do so in 1917 upon reaching an  agreement with Britain that she would support  

Japan's territorial claims in the Asia-Pacific.  The IJN second special squadron would make 348  

escort sorties in the mediterranean sea, escorting  788 ships containing over 700,000 troops, saving  

the lives of 7075 Entente personnel from U-boat  attacks at the cost of 72 IJN sailor deaths. 

When WW1 came to an end, Japan emerged  as one of the big five victors. Japan  

had helped neutralize German naval forces in  the Pacific, captured German-held territories,  

sent the Red Cross to the front, and aided in the  escorting of Entente shipping within the Pacific,  

Indian and Mediterranean seas. In return for all  of this Japan expected a sizable postwar dividend.  

Japan achieved the coveted status of being a  “great power” and this was recognized officially  

by granting it a permanent seat at the new League  of Nations council. However, there was something  

missing from the Paris Peace conference  and it was of grievous importance to Japan.  

While she was recognized as a great power, she  was not recognized as being fully equal to the  

other great powers. Thus at the final season on  April 11, 1919, Japan issued the Jinshutekisabetsu  

teppai teian - “proposal to abolish racial  discrimination” amendment to the Treaty of  

Versailles . Japan had bitter memories of the  “yellow peril” rhetoric that had come to fruition  

during the Russo-Japanese War. She had and still  was undergoing severe immigration restrictions and  

racial discrimination from many of the  great powers, notoriously the United States.  

The Racial Equality proposal stipulated “The  equality of nations being a basic principle of  

the League of Nations, the High Contracting  Parties agree to accord as soon as possible  

to all alien nationals of states, members of the  League , equal and just treatment in every respect  

making no distinction, either in law or in  fact, on account of their race or nationality.” 

To the conservative magnates of Europe,  this proposal was very controversial,  

and some politicians like Lord Cecil of Britain  suggested the matter not be discussed at all.  

However, racial equality had some support among  the highest brass. The Italian Prime Minister  

Vittorio Orlando spoke in favor of it on the basis  of human rights. French Senator Leon Bourgeois  

urged for its adoption and argued it would be  impossible to reject the proposal because it  

“embodied an indisputable principle of justice”.  Ultimately, was put to a vote and won through a  

majority , 11 Ya's out of 17, but while there  were no Na's, there was considerable push back.  

Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes  offered vocal criticism, arguing the proposal  

would mean an end to the “White Australia”  immigration policy . “No Gov't could live  

for a day in Australia if it tampered with a  White Australia” Hughes stated. Hughes began to  

strong arm the rest of the British delegation into  opposing it, putting British Prime Minister David  

Lloyd George in an awkward situation, with Britain  still needing to honour its alliance with Japan  

while also dealing with xenophobic and  white-supremacist elements within its own Empire.  

Meanwhile, Canadian prime minister Sir Robert  Borden and South Africa's prime Minister General  

Jan Smuts tried to work out a compromise by  mediating private meetings between Hughes and the  

Japanese body politic. They were able to persuade  Hughes to accept the proposal given a clause was  

made that it would not affect immigration, but  Nobuaki and Chinda would reject the compromise. 

In the end it was the segregationist President  of the United States Woodrow Wilson who came  

up with a method of killing the proposal  without ever openly opposing it. Wilson  

required votes from the segregationist southern  democrats in order to secure a democrat held US  

Senate to ratify the treaty. Wilson also held  a personal belief in white racial superiority,  

an ideology that had guided his  administration's policy since he took office.