Japan, Italy and the Road to the Tripartite Alliance

228 Pages·2018·2.6 MB·English

by  Ken Ishida

Security, Conflict and Cooperation
in the Contemporary World
Japan, Italy and
the Road to the
Tripartite Alliance
K I
EN SHIDA
Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the
Contemporary World
Series Editors
Effie G. H. Pedaliu
LSE Ideas
London, UK
John W. Young
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
The Palgrave Macmillan series, Security, Conflict and Cooperation in
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Ken Ishida
Japan, Italy and the
Road to the Tripartite
Alliance
Ken Ishida
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Chiba University
Chiba-shi, Japan
Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World
ISBN 978-3-319-96222-1 ISBN 978-3-319-96223-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96223-8
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P a
reface and cknowledgements
This book draws on my research of 1981–2017 and examines how the
foreign policy of the Axis can be compared and analyzed in the context
of international politics. After attending a seminar by Ernst Nolte in
1981 and researching Renzo De Felice’s archive in 1986, I was struck
by the historical incongruity of each Axis country, which prompted
me to start a long journey studying commonalities as well as peculiari-
ties among ultra-nationalist Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This
monograph is a part of my work as a researcher commuting between
Europe and East Asia over the last thirty years. During this period, I
incurred many debts to researchers around the world, many of whom are
unable to read Japanese. With this publication, then, I hope to reach out
to the English-language historiography on comparative foreign politics.
My greatest debt is to the archives and universities in Japan, Italy,
Germany, Britain, Austria, France, Spain and the United States. In addi-
tion, because of my physical and psychological distance from European
countries, I am grateful for the assistance and friendship of many
archivists and scholars, especially Antony Best, Filippo Focardi, Lutz
Klinkhammer, Effie Pedaliu, Mario Rossi and Stefania Ruggeri.
Exploring sources in Europe, I am also indebted to many sen-
ior professors, in particular to Denis Mack Smith, Ian Nish and Jens
Petersen. They were extremely helpful to the unestablished scholar
from the Far East that I was, enabling me to gradually understand the
relationship among the Axis powers. At various stages, Yasuo Baba,
Richard Bosworth, Shuichi Kato, Elisa Signori and Susumu Takahashi
v
vi PREFACE AND ACKNoWLEDGEMENTS
encouraged me to pursue this ambitious project based on a multinational
perspective. The staff of Chiba University were supportive, too, while the
academic situation deteriorated into the serious global competition of
economic rationalism over those thirty years.
This work has been made possible with the help of a number of
people in different ways. My warmest thanks are due to the follow-
ing individuals: Aki Adachi, Patrizia Bertoletti, Luca Borzoni, Marah
Dickson-Wright, Valdo Ferretti, Adelaide Frabotta, Linda Germi, Reto
Hofmann, Janis Mimura, Kei Murase, Hajime onozaka, Jože Pirjevec,
Keiko Sakai, Michael Smitka, Tomohiro Suemasu, Yu Suzuki, Atsuroh
Toba and Patrizia Todaro.
owing to my father’s career as an exchange professor, I was exposed
to the experience of living abroad, including in the United States,
Mexico, Tanzania and West Germany, from my childhood onward,
which led to my interest in the subject of comparative studies of various
nations. Moreover, my mother’s engagement in civil and peace move-
ments such as the anti-Vietnam War campaign stimulated my interest in
international relations. Hence, this study is dedicated to my parents.
Chiba-shi, Japan Ken Ishida
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Foreign Policy Decision-Making Structures
of Japan and Italy 6
1.2 The Prehistory of the Axis Formation 9
1.3 A Brief Overview of Chapters 14
2 The Ideological Backgrounds of Axis Foreign Policies 19
2.1 Fascism as a Point of Reference 23
2.2 Racism as a Hierarchical Prejudice 29
2.3 Anti-communism as a Common Adhesive 37
2.3.1 Criticizing the League of Nations 41
2.3.2 Justifying Military Intervention 44
2.3.3 Aligning Against Communism 48
3 Coordinators: The Two Prime and Foreign Ministers,
Koki Hirota and Benito Mussolini 53
3.1 Features of Public Utterances 55
3.2 The Basic Attitude Toward Naval Disarmament
and the League of Nations 61
3.2.1 The Japanese Complacent Repudiation
of Naval Treaties 62
3.2.2 Italian Ambiguous Diplomacy Toward the League 65
vii
viii CoNTENTS
3.3 The Coordination Mechanism in Decision-Making
Processes 70
3.3.1 Hirota’s Passive Attitude of Unlimited
Magnanimity 71
3.3.2 Mussolini’s Active Judgment of Phased Strategy 76
4 Planners: The Two Undersecretaries, Mamoru
Shigemitsu and Fulvio Suvich 85
4.1 Financial Problems as a Tool of Foreign Policy 87
4.2 The Search for Regional Hegemony 92
4.2.1 Shigemitsu’s Plan to Tame Chinese Nationalism 92
4.2.2 Suvich’s Plan for Pro-fascist Austria 95
4.3 Axis Interference and British Non-commitment Policy 100
4.3.1 Partial Success in 1934 and the Exit of Shigemitsu 100
4.3.2 Suvich’s Stalemate Over the Crises of Austria
and Ethiopia 106
5 Negotiators: The Two Ambassadors to Britain, Shigeru
Yoshida and Dino Grandi 115
5.1 The Degradation of Being Ambassadors in London 116
5.1.1 Emerging Political Diplomats 116
5.1.2 The Double-Dealing of the Anglophiles 120
5.2 Disobedient Imperialists 125
5.2.1 Anti-communist Stances 126
5.2.2 Extraordinary Negotiations 128
5.3 Two Pendulum Theories 133
6 Traditional Diplomats and New Actors 139
6.1 Followers and Promoters: Yakichiro Suma and Raffaele
Guariglia 141
6.2 Powerless Critics: Naotake Sato and Giuseppe Bastianini 145
6.3 New Key Actors: Fumimaro Konoe and Galeazzo Ciano 150
7 The East Asian Crisis and Globalization of the Axis 157
7.1 The Brussels Nine Power Treaty Conference 159
7.2 Conclusion of the Tripartite Anti-Comintern Pact 163
7.2.1 Italy’s Ideological Inclination 163
CoNTENTS ix
7.2.2 Japan’s Ambiguous Realism 166
7.2.3 Germany’s Internal Turmoil 169
7.3 The Italian Recognition of Manchukuo 172
7.4 The German Mediation of the Sino-Japanese War 176
7.5 The Italian Withdrawal from the League of Nations 181
8 Conclusion 189
Select Bibliography 197
Index 213