Deja Vu

Playing Our Game

Tags:

Japan,

Pearl Harbor,

Russia,

theodore roosevelt,

World War II

1941: In an op-ed for the New York Times, author James Bradley explains how the foreign policy of Theodore Roosevelt led him to admire the willingness of the Japanese to launch a surprise attack on the Russians in 1904, an attack which was used as a model for Pearl Harbor over thirty years later.

Japan’s declaration of war, in December 1941, explained its position quite clearly: “It is a fact of history that the countries of East Asia for the past hundred years or more have been compelled to observe the status quo under the Anglo-American policy of imperialistic exploitation and to sacrifice themselves to the prosperity of the two nations. The Japanese government cannot tolerate the perpetuation of such a situation.”

In planning the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto was specifically thinking of how, 37 years earlier, the Japanese had surprised the Russian Navy at Port Arthur in Manchuria and, as he wrote, “favorable opportunities were gained by opening the war with a sudden attack on the main enemy fleet.” At the time, the indignant Russians called it a violation of international law. But Theodore Roosevelt, confident that he could influence events in North Asia from afar, wrote to his son, “I was thoroughly well pleased with the Japanese victory, for Japan is playing our game.”

1904: Port Arthur was a Russian naval base located in Manchuria and the battle fought there inaugurated the first stage of the Russo-Japanese War. The Russian loss at this battle was referenced widely during the Russian Revolution of 1905, which pressured Tsar Nicholas to transform the government from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. A few weeks after the attack, Theodore Roosevelt wrote this letter his son:

For several years Russia has behaved very badly in the far East, her attitude toward all nations, including us, but especially toward Japan, being grossly overbearing. We had not sufficient cause for war with her. Yet I was apprehensive lest if she at the very outset whipped Japan on the sea she might assume a position well-nigh intolerable toward us. I thought Japan would probably whip her on the sea, but I could not be certain; and between ourselves—for you must not breathe it to anybody—I was thoroughly well pleased with the Japanese victory, for Japan is playing our game.

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