Khross wrote:
Diamondeye:
I think the word "should" confuses you. In fact, I'm not even talking about the Naval Fleet rules for the Treaty of Versailles. I'm simply talking about the fact we prohibited them from being represented by themselves in the actual negotiation. It's just one of those things ...
OK, again, who exactly is "We"? Is it the United States? The Western portion of the WWII allies (i.e. the U.S., France, and Britain)? All the other allies? France/and or Britain without the U.S. or other allies?
Quote:
We should not have insulted them so egregiously. It doesn't mean we didn't. It doesn't mean we can or should even endeavour to change the things that happened. It simply means that in an ideal world we should not have insulted the Japanese.
Again, all this is meaningless without defining "we", and in any case, is hardly relevant to the question of whether we should have fought in WWII after we were attacked.
It should also be pointed out that we did not exclued Japanese leaders; rather, they chose to leave after initially being part of the negotiations, and they were not the only nation to do so
Treaty of VesaillesQuote:
Until March 1919, the most important role for negotiating the extremely complex and difficult terms of the peace fell to the regular meetings of the "Council of Ten," which comprised the heads of government and foreign ministers of the five major victors (the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan). As this unusual body proved too unwieldy and formal for effective decision-making, Japan and—for most of the remaining conference—the foreign ministers left the main meetings, so that only the "Big Four" remained.[6] After his territorial claims to Fiume (today Rijeka) were rejected, Italian Prime Minister, Vittorio Orlando left the negotiations (only to return to sign in June), and the final conditions were determined by the leaders of the "Big Three" nations: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, and American President Woodrow Wilson.
Moreover, Japan contributed relatively little to the overall war effort beyond taking German posessions in China and the PAcific and driving the German Asiatic squadron into the Atlantic where the British destroyed it. In return, they got several German posessions, especially the Chinese ones, and a permanent seat on the League of Nations council. It's hard to see any insult to Japan as terribly severe in view of the relative amount of damage inflicted on France and Russia (who admittedly were not participants either) or even compared to the casualties suffered by Britain or even the U.S.
Indeed, Japan's war participation was limited to the naval events of 1914 and taking German colonies, some escort assistance to the British in 1917, and in securing for itself various forms of control over China.
Japan may indeed have felt insulted by the details of the proceedings and the fact that the "Big Three" ended up in control of Versailles at the end, but in practical terms they had little to complain about.
As an aside, the naval rules for Versailles were aimed almost entirely at Germany. The major limitations on other powers came from the later Washington and London treaties, although these were obviously at least partly an outgrowth of Versailles.