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Paper short abstract:

This paper shows Japanese efforts to revitalize the Japanese-French Entente of 1907 to overcome diplomatic isolation following the Mukden Incident of September 1931. It also examines why France chose to decline Japanese offers until Japan withdrew from the League of Nations in February 1933.

Paper long abstract:

After the Manchurian Incident the Japanese government exerted efforts to revitalize the French-Japanese Agreement of 1907. The agreement of 1907 included clauses recognizing respective spheres of influence between Japan and France; but after the end of the World War I, it was superseded by the Nine Power Treaty of 1922, which supported the Chinese territorial integrity and independence according to the Open Door principle. If Japan could attract France to recognize Manchukuo by revitalizing the agreement of 1907, it could justify and consolidate its territorial gains in the Mukden Incident. Once such an approach was accepted by the French government, Britain might also be induced to join such a new arrangement over China, thus minimizing American pressure. Foreign Minister Uchida Kosai and Ambassador Nagaoka Harukazu promoted such a diplomatic strategy. Japanese military attaches exerted efforts to facilitate French capital investment to Manchukuo as well.

However, French Prime Ministers André Tardieu and Édouard Herriot and its foreign ministry, Quai d'Orsay, declined Japanese suggestions repeatedly throughout 1932. It was because France had to prioritize consolidating collective security, which could indirectly induce the other democracies, Britain and the United States, to support French security in any future crises posed by rearmed Germany. France also had to take caution not to go against American wishes, while trying to reschedule payment of its war debt owed to the United States amid the economic crisis. The liberal and leftist French leaders, including Édouard Herriot and Paul-Boncour, remained keen to preserve the recently established international regime undergirding collective security. Therefore, they remained reluctant to condone Japan's violation of international agreements, though the Japanese government and media claimed that Japanese military actions were taken to uphold its inherent right of 'self-defence' in face of Chinese violation of earlier agreements with Japan. In addition to French and English records, this paper makes full use of available Japanese diplomatic records, which also reveals Japanese initiatives as well as French responses to Japanese demarche, which have not yet been fully disclosed in the available French records.