Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast.

Episode 64.

An Unnatural Intimacy, Part 2.

Last time, we spoke about the emergence of the U.S.-Japan relationship and its early years, culminating in the dawn of the 20th century.

Although there were some rough patches in the relationship, on the whole, the two rising powers found much to agree over, and their relationship was, for the most part, a friendly one.

The growth of both nations culminated around roughly the same time, with their explosion onto the world stage.

The United States crushed Spain in a war in 1898 and established itself as a major military and colonial power.

Japan, meanwhile, shocked the world by defeating Russia in 1905.

The period after 1905 saw the U.S.-Japan relationship transition into a new shape.

Both were, at least for now, no longer expansionist

states but leading great powers, and neither one was, again for now, expanding its territory,

instead concentrating on reaping the rewards of previous expansion. Japan was being drawn ever

closer into the Anglo-American orbit.

Its formal alliance with the United Kingdom, signed in 1902, and Great Britain's ever-growing

closeness with its former colony, created a de facto Anglo-American Japanese block, which

dominated East Asia.

Now, there's one thing I should stop to point out here.

The astute among you will remember that it was after 1905 when the Imperial Japanese Navy began considering the United States Navy as its primary hypothetical enemy and adjusting

its fleet building and tactical plans accordingly.

This hardly seems compatible with ever-growing friendship between those two nations, but it's actually,

paradoxically, an outgrowth of the heavily westernized nature of the Imperial Navy.

Of course, the primary model for Japan's Imperial Navy was Great Britain's Royal Navy, but inspiration

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