The British World during the First World War: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the question of Japan

An examination of the attitude of the Pacific Dominions to Japan during the First World War indicates that each of the Dominions followed a path from heeding the Imperial government’s advice not to be too critical of its Far Eastern ally in the early stages of the war to giving voice to increasing concern about Japanese penetration into the Pacific as the war progressed. I focus on Japanese military mobilization at the outbreak of war, its takeover of the German Pacific colonies north of the equator, and its insistence on keeping them at the end of the war. These three episodes indicate that Dominion attitudes to Japan sometimes actually influenced the making of British foreign policy. There were points where the British government clearly tried to take on concerns from Australia, Canada and New Zealand in its position towards Japan. A good example of this is the British government’s attempts to secure the Japanese government’s support in issuing a joint statement that the latter was not planning on seizing former German colonies in the Pacific that the Dominions intended to deal with themselves in the early stages of the war. But there were also other periods where the realities of great power politics meant that the three Dominions had to accept the position adopted by the Imperial government.