One staple of left-leaning nationalist propaganda in Korea (the South as much as the North) is that the US "sold out" Korea to be dominated and annexed by Japan in the early 20th century. This creates an even older justification for Korean anti-Americanism than the usual narrative that blames the US, but not the USSR, for the division of Korea.
I was always irritated by this type of argument. It struck me as tendentious and disingenuous. It also struck me as anachronistic, acting like the U.S. at the dawn of the 20th century had the type of powers and responsibilities of the post-WWII superpower U.S., when that was far from the case.
In OTL the Taft-Katsura agreement did say that the U.S. would not interfere with Japanese oversight of Korea, but this was not so much "setting Japan loose" on Korea as basically a recognition of spheres of influence as they existed, motivated by the geographic vulnerability of the U.S. occupied Philippines.
However, frequent discussions on this board, about Japan's dependence on British and American finance before, during and after the Russo-Japanese War got me thinking, "maybe there was something the U.S. could have done to restrain Japan, not only in China, but in Korea too".
The smart money on this board basically says that the Japanese achieved nearly their best possible result with OTL's Russo-Japanese War, and most scenarios that lengthen or otherwise alter the war pose a high risk of Japanese failure and a Russian victory of sorts.
Essentially, Japan relied a lot more than Russia on borrowed money and imported gear for its war effort.
So, with that in mind, could the U.S. have used financial and trade pressures in the late 19th, early 20th century to prevent Japanese de facto and de jure annexation of Korea?
How much blowback could Japan have generated if the US had a policy of using means short of war to keep Korea out of Japanese hands? It seems that Japan's ability to impose any serious costs on the U.S. is quite limited, especially in this era.
How well could any Korean government between 1890 and 1910 have taken advantage of opportunities provided by American diplomatic and financial and moral support?
Now at this time, Britain was an even more important financial and diplomatic and naval player than the U.S.
So, theoretically, even with America opposed to Japanese aggrandizement, Japan might have been able to achieve OTL's basic results on British support alone.
But, from the 1890s on, Britain deferred often to U.S. preferences and seemed to want to avoid getting at cross-purposes with the U.S. Notably, Britain's general attitude towards Japanese and continental European complaints about American aggressiveness in Hawaii, the Caribbean and Philippines, was "shut up, that's reality, we don't want to confront the Yanks and you don't either". Later on, Britain leaned to the US against Canada in the Alaskan Panhandle dispute.
So, could the U.S., by showing a strong desire to restrain Japan early, have rallied British and maybe other support to oppose Japan's takeover of Korea? In OTL, the 1922 USA basically demanded Britain ditch the Anglo-Japanese alliance. If it had wished, could the U.S. have indirectly vetoed the alliance's creation in 1901-1902?
I was always irritated by this type of argument. It struck me as tendentious and disingenuous. It also struck me as anachronistic, acting like the U.S. at the dawn of the 20th century had the type of powers and responsibilities of the post-WWII superpower U.S., when that was far from the case.
In OTL the Taft-Katsura agreement did say that the U.S. would not interfere with Japanese oversight of Korea, but this was not so much "setting Japan loose" on Korea as basically a recognition of spheres of influence as they existed, motivated by the geographic vulnerability of the U.S. occupied Philippines.
However, frequent discussions on this board, about Japan's dependence on British and American finance before, during and after the Russo-Japanese War got me thinking, "maybe there was something the U.S. could have done to restrain Japan, not only in China, but in Korea too".
The smart money on this board basically says that the Japanese achieved nearly their best possible result with OTL's Russo-Japanese War, and most scenarios that lengthen or otherwise alter the war pose a high risk of Japanese failure and a Russian victory of sorts.
Essentially, Japan relied a lot more than Russia on borrowed money and imported gear for its war effort.
So, with that in mind, could the U.S. have used financial and trade pressures in the late 19th, early 20th century to prevent Japanese de facto and de jure annexation of Korea?
How much blowback could Japan have generated if the US had a policy of using means short of war to keep Korea out of Japanese hands? It seems that Japan's ability to impose any serious costs on the U.S. is quite limited, especially in this era.
How well could any Korean government between 1890 and 1910 have taken advantage of opportunities provided by American diplomatic and financial and moral support?
Now at this time, Britain was an even more important financial and diplomatic and naval player than the U.S.
So, theoretically, even with America opposed to Japanese aggrandizement, Japan might have been able to achieve OTL's basic results on British support alone.
But, from the 1890s on, Britain deferred often to U.S. preferences and seemed to want to avoid getting at cross-purposes with the U.S. Notably, Britain's general attitude towards Japanese and continental European complaints about American aggressiveness in Hawaii, the Caribbean and Philippines, was "shut up, that's reality, we don't want to confront the Yanks and you don't either". Later on, Britain leaned to the US against Canada in the Alaskan Panhandle dispute.
So, could the U.S., by showing a strong desire to restrain Japan early, have rallied British and maybe other support to oppose Japan's takeover of Korea? In OTL, the 1922 USA basically demanded Britain ditch the Anglo-Japanese alliance. If it had wished, could the U.S. have indirectly vetoed the alliance's creation in 1901-1902?