Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 475, Southward Ho, Part 4.

It wasn't really until 1940 that war came directly to Micronesia.

Its indirect effects had been felt for years by that point, however.

Japan had been involved in conflict for three years by this time on the Asian mainland,

as part of the long slog of the so-called China incident.

But outside of an uptick in patriotic exhortations, and an extension of the draft to those Japanese civilians eligible for it,

the China War's main impact on the area was the

implementation of rationing protocols to military resources like gasoline and steel.

In the China War, at least, Micronesia was very much a rear area, and so its mobilization

was correspondingly limited.

Starting in 1940, as tensions grew worse with the United States, this began to change,

which actually leads us to an important point from the jump.

Remember, one of the terms of Japan's League of Nations mandate in Micronesia was an agreement

not to militarize the islands with defenses or bases.

Both its mandate charter and the treaties signed by the interwar government banned the fortification

of the area.

In particular, the Five Power Treaty on Naval Arms Limitation signed in 1922 proclaimed that, quote,

no new fortifications or naval bases shall be established in the territories and possessions specified,

that no measures shall be taken to increase the existing naval facilities for the repair and maintenance of naval forces,

and that no increase shall be made to the coast defenses of the territories and possessions above

specified.

Now, the decision by the Nanyo Chul to close the islands outside of a few specific open ports

...