著者

バークマン トマス・W 酒井 眞理

出版者

JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

雑誌

国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)

巻号頁・発行日

no.56, pp.102-116,L6, 1977

---

The label "Silent Partners of the Peace" is commonly applied to the Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. This epithet belies the intense interest of the Japanese government and public in the issues of the post-World War I settlement and masks the extent of Japanese efforts to make major documents of thepeace amenable to her national interests.<br>The historical record reveals that Japan was very uneasy about the kind of global power structure that was taking shape in the wake of Germany's demise. Foreign policy spokesmen feared that Woodrow Wilson's peace program would thwart Japanese intentions to become the predominant power in the Far East. At Paris the emerging international order was taking on concrete embodiment in the Covenant of the League of Nations. At the conference table and behind the scenes Japan made concerted efforts to bring the Covenant and its sister document, the International Labor Convention, into line with her diplomatic goals. Heretofore unpublished amendment drafts found in the papers of Japan's leading spokesman at Paris reveal in a tangible way Japan's fundamental dissatisfaction with the Versailles system and suggest some Japanese alternatives to the Wilsonian vision.<br>Japanese efforts to modify these instruments of international organization were directed at some ten articles encompassing the issues of mandates, disarmament, arbitration, collective security, racial and national equality, and labor standards. Japanese diplomats achieved considerable success in diluting provisions on disarmament and labor. While many of the delegation's actions reflected the nation's search for status equal with the major powers, opposition to the strict standards of the International Labor Convention revealed that Japanese leaders did not regard the prize of equality as worth the price of accelerated domestic social change. On the whole, Japan's modification efforts showed a desire to make the Covenant and the Convention more flexible and hence less enforceable. While the extent of her involvement in the peace conference reflected an internationalist trend, Japan at the same time was intent upon protecting the unique economic, political, and strategic regional advantages accorded by her geographical position.