ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Washington Conference and the arrival of the second wave of international change: the reappearance of the Soviet Union as a significant actor in East Asian international politics and the rise of Chinese nationalism. In reviewing the course of the negotiations over East Asian issues at the conference, it focuses on the relationships between the three major powers of Japan, Britain, and the United States, divisions in American thinking towards East Asia, and the role played by China. It argues that Britain played a key role at the conference as a mediator on behalf of Japanese interests and that, while Japan’s diplomatic strategy was largely a continuation of Hara Diplomacy, the Japanese leadership came away from the conference with a renewed appreciation of the usefulness of cooperating with the Anglo-American powers. This led them to move away from Hara’s policies and increasingly embrace non-intervention not due to external pressure but due to the belief that it was beneficial to Japan. The influence of the second wave would also introduce what came to be seen as the “three threats” in the years following however: the threat of the Soviet Union; the threat of the Chinese anti-Japanese movement; and the threat of the Chinese Nationalist Revolution.
