Japanese Forces

Yamamoto Isoroku in London.

Future Marshal Admiral Yamamoto attending the 1934 London Naval Conference as a Delegate. The efforts to limit the proliferation of naval power had commenced in the early 1920s (Washington Naval Conference) and featured a number of Diplomatic Conferences and Agreements (or attempted Agreements) into the mid-1930s. However, the whole effort was less than successful; even counterproductive, since it tended to foster distrust among the parties. In particular, lesser but ambitious naval powers (notably Japan) resented the limits which, in practice, the established naval powers (principally the US and the UK) were attempting to pressure them to accept. So general was this distrust that, even as the (typically) lengthy series of diplomatic negotiations dragged on, much treaty-breaking and naval rearmament went on. The matter was, really, viewed as too important by all concerned that nobody wanted to be left behind for the sake of a treaty. The 1934 Conference was, really, the last hurrah for the Naval Treaty arrangements. In 1935, Japan repudiated its naval treaty obligations, an act which, in effect, destroyed the system. Best regards, JR.