U.S. Territorial Disposal Policy Towards Japan(1942-1951)

Territorial disposal is one of the important issues for post-war disposal.As a militaristic country,Japan,before and during the Second World War,invaded the vast territory of East Asia,Southeast Asia,and the Southwest Pacific through violent aggression,and brought deep disasters to the countries under aggression.While fighting against the Japanese army in the Pacific battlefield,the United States began to plan for post-war territorial disposition policies,and experts from the State Council conducted investigations and studies on Japanese territories.In the wartime,the United States advocated a strict policy on the disposal of Japanese territory from the perspective of anti-fascism.At the same time United States and Allies passed Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation,issued that “Japanese shall be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized and occupied since the beginning of the First World War in 1914.” And “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu,Hokkaido,Kyushu,Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.” removed the territory conquered by Japan with violence and greed to achieve the purpose of punishing and restricting Japan.However,after the war,the international situation has undergone major changes.The two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union have gradually formed and are in opposition,which has led to changes in the attitude of the United States toward Japan.In the "San Francisco Peace Treaty",which was signed by the United States on September 8,1951,it changed the rules for the disposal of territories in wartime.In consideration of post-war interests and security of the Far East,the United States made concessions and compromises on Japan in the issue of territorial disposal.The main content of this paper is to study the evolution process of the US territorial disposal policy against Japan from 1942 to 1951 by collecting relevant historical archive materials.By combing the historical data,it is found that the US territorial policy toward Japan has evolved from a strict to a loose one.Through further research,it is found that the fundamental reason for the changes in the US territorial policy against Japan is the geopolitical security needs and colonialist thinking under the Cold War mentality.This paper is divided into four chapters: The main content of the first chapter is the background study of the US territorial policy against Japan during the war.It involves the process of Japan’s expansion of foreign territories,the basic principles of territorial disposal of Japan under the influence of the US wartime diplomatic concept,and the relevant institutions and representatives and viewpoints of the study of the US territorial disposal policy in wartime.The main content of the second chapter is about the specific content of the preliminary study on the territorial disposal policy of the US State Department during the war.In the wartime context,the United States has adopted a strict attitude toward the disposal of Japanese territory from the perspective of punishing Japan.The main content of the third chapter is the discussion on the post-war disposal of Japan in the post-war period.In the face of new changes in the international situation,the US domestic dissent on Japan’s territorial disposal policy has diverged,and the attitude toward Japan’s territorial disposal policy has gradually changed from strict to loose.The main content of the fourth chapter is the finalization of the "San Francisco Peace Treaty" and the territorial disposal policy of Japan.In the 1950 s,the international situation clearly developed into the US-Soviet confrontation,and it was a consensus for the US that the disposal policy against Japan territory should be loose.However,the Soviet,Chinese,and British did not fully agree with the United States’ disposal methods.The United States responded to the opinions of various countries through a series of diplomatic means.In the end,on the issue of territorial disposal of Japan,the United States reached an agreement with most capitalist countries including the United Kingdom to form a policy of territorial disposition in the interests of the United States.