Establishment of the Japanese Mandate

Background

"Establishment of the Japanese Mandate" is a section from Chapter Five, "Historical Perspectives," in the Handbook of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1948, published by the United States Navy. It deals with aquistion and formalization of Japan's control during the Japanese Period (1914-1941).

Establishment of the Japanese Mandate

German control of Micronesia was abruptly terminated by the outbreak of World War I, as Japanese naval squadrons quickly took military possession of the Marshalls, Carolines, and northern Marianas. Although the acting German governor of New Guinea had formally surrendered these islands to the British on 17 September 1914, the Japanese methodically occupied Jaluit on 3 October; Yap and Ponape on 7 October; Truk on 12 October; Saipan on 14 October; and Anguar on 31 October.

Neither the Germans nor the islanders offered any overt resistance to the occupation, as there were no military forces to defend the islands. German officials were invited to enter Japanese service temporarily, but most declined and were eventually shipped back to Germany. The Japanese motive in quickly occupying Germany’s Pacific possessions apparently stemmed from her desire for hegemony over these areas, since Japan took no significant military steps to aid the allies until later in the war. For many years, indeed, the Japanese, in expanding their empire, had looked with covetous eyes upon these German possessions, and Japanese nationals had already won a trading foothold there to the fullest extent that German policies allowed.

Provisional military administrations were immediately established in all the islands by the occupying naval forces. In December 1914, their work was taken over by a newly created naval garrison or South Seas defense corps, with the dual capacity of both defense and administration. Its headquarters were set up on Truk, and regional garrisons were also established at Saipan, Palau, Truk, Ponape, and Jaluit to supervise the affairs of five administrative districts centering on these islands. In April 1915, a sixth district was created, with headquarters on Yap. The commander of each naval garrison was instructed, insofar as was compatible with military requirements, to act in conformity with the established practices of the former German regime, and, in particular, to respect the authority of local chiefs.

In 1918 this naval administration was modified by the creation of a civil administration department under the control of the naval commander. The new department set up branches at all stations where naval garrisons were located, and its personnel, composed entirely of civilian officials, assumed all general administrative functions except police duties.

Japanese occupation and control of the islands was not recognized by any of the major allied governments until March 1917, when Great Britain agreed to support Japanese claims for their possessions at the forthcoming peace conference. This agreement, contained in the so-called Secret Treaty of London, was concluded only after the Japanese had consented to supply badly needed naval escort patrols for allied shipping in the Pacific and Mediterranean. France and Russia subsequently approved the secret treaty. When the peace conference met in 1919 it was confronted with the fait accompli of virtual Japanese annexation of the islands, in addition to strong international support for Japanese claims. American and Australian efforts were powerless to effect any significant change, although the situation was made somewhat more palatable by the division of a special category of class C mandates within the League of Nations system to cover this case, and also those of the other former German possessions in the Pacific which had been taken by Australia and New Zealand.

Such a mandate, as defined in the League of Nations covenant, differed from outright annexation only by imposing upon the mandatory power certain internationally defined obligations. These were (1) to promote the material and moral wellbeing and social progress of the local inhabitants; (2) to rule out slavery, traffic in arms and ammunition, and alcoholic beverages; (3) to refrain from building fortifications and military bases or from giving military training to the inhabitants; (4) to permit freedom of worship and missionary activity; and (5) to submit an annual accounting to the League of Nations, by way of its mandates commission. A useful source for understanding more fully the origin and nature of the mandates system is a publication of the League of Nations, The Mandates System (Geneva, April 1945). Its basic principles as set out in article 22 of the League covenant (arts. 1 and 2) were as follows:

“To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the states which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilization. … The best method of giving practical effect to this principle is that the tutelage of such peoples should be entrusted to advanced nations who, by reason of their resources, their experience, or their geographical position, can best undertake this responsibility.”

The distinctions made between A, B, and C class mandates were based upon differences in the stage of development, and upon the presumed degree of independence or autonomy which might eventually be accorded as a result of political progress. The C type, to which Germany’s former Pacific island possessions were assigned, consisted of territories not expected to be granted independence in the foreseeable future. These territories could be administered as integral portions of the mandatory power, and the latter was not obliged as in the case of the A and B mandates to grant economic equality to other members of the League.

On these terms Japan was confirmed, on 17 December 1920, in her possession of the Caroline, Marshall, and Marianas Islands. Nevertheless, it was not until 1922, as a result of the Washington Conference, that the United States agreed to this arrangement, and then only after prolonged negotiations and special assurances that American interests would be safeguarded.

In accordance with the terms of the mandate, Japan began evacuating its armed forces from the islands in 1921 and completed the withdrawal by March 1922, when the naval garrison was finally abolished. During the period from 1920-22 the civil administration department continued to be under the supervision of the ministry of the Navy. In preparation for full civilian administration, however, the headquarters of the department were transferred in July 1921 from Truk to Koror in the Palaus. In April 1922, supervision of the islands was placed in the hands of a newly formed South Seas Government (Nanyo-Cho), a strictly civilian administrative organization.