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The International Opium Conference of 1924–25 and Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2002

Harumi Goto-Shibata
Harumi Goto-Shibata
Affiliation:
Chiba University, Japan
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Abstract

I do not understand very clearly what has happened at the Opium Conference except that Japan is taking sides with America against us. This no doubt means that Japan is glad to show America that in spite of the exclusion clause she has no objection to friendly cooperation on occasion. It is also a hint to us. . . . Japan also sometimes feels it prudent to defer to this same powerful country though in so doing she may to her great regret inconvenience her former ally.

This is what Sir Charles N. E. Eliot (1862–1931), the British Ambassador to Japan from 1920 to 1926, wrote home regarding the Japanese representatives' stance at the International Opium Conference held in Geneva from November 1924 to February 1925. At the initial meetings of the conference, unexpected arguments between the representatives of Britain and Japan puzzled the British officials. This paper examines why the Japanese delegates took such a firm attitude on the occasion, and why Japan failed to adopt policies which might have altered the situation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , October 2002 , pp. 969 - 991
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Prof. Ian Nish, Dr John Darwin, Dr Steve Tsang, Dr Naoko Shimazu and those who attended the ninth session of the third Anglo-Japanese Historians' Conference held on 29 September 2000 for their suggestions to improve the earlier version of this article.