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Japan sent Germany an ultimatum on 15 August 1914, which went unanswered; Japan then formally declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914 in the name of the Emperor TaishÅ. [5] As Vienna refused to withdraw the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth from Qingdao, Japan declared war on Austria-Hungary, too, on 25 August 1914. [6]
The onset of the First World War in Europe eventually showed how far German–Japanese relations had truly deteriorated. On 7 August 1914, only three days after Britain declared war on the German Empire, the Japanese government received an official request from the British government for assistance in destroying the German raiders of the Kaiserliche Marine in and around Chinese waters.
Japan joined World War I in order to acquire Pacific colonies. [1] During October 1914, the Japanese sent vessels to occupy German colonies in the Mariana, Marshall, Palau and Caroline Islands. [2] These islands were later used for strategic advantage in World War II.
Japan saw the alliance as a necessary deterrent to its main rival, Russia. Japan demonstrated its potential by its victory in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, and the alliance continued into World War I. When the war in Europe began in August 1914, Britain promptly requested Japanese assistance.
After Japan aligned itself with Britain in 1900, Germany and Japan became enemies in World War I. Japan declared war on the German Empire in 1914 and seized key German possessions in China and the Pacific. In the 1930s, both countries adopted aggressive militaristic attitudes toward their respective regions.
The Korean Peninsula was officially part of the Empire of Japan for 35 years, from August 29, 1910, until the formal Japanese rule ended, de jure, on September 2, 1945, upon the surrender of Japan in World War II. The 1905 and 1910 treaties were eventually declared "null and void" by both Japan and South Korea in 1965.
The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 volumes) (2005); online at eBook.com; United States. War Dept. General Staff. Strength and organisation of the armies of France, Germany, Austria, Russia, England, Italy, Mexico and Japan (showing conditions in July, 1914) (1916) online; The War Office (2006) [1922].
The United States was involved in at least one hostile encounter with Germans in the Pacific during World War I. On 7 April 1917, SMS Cormoran was scuttled in Apra Harbor, Guam to prevent her capture by the auxiliary cruiser USS Supply. The Americans fired their first shots of the war at the Germans as they attempted to sink the ship.