Japan’s Racial Equality Proposal: Changing History - English

 

Japan attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as one of the five great powers, and as the only non-Western great power. The Racial Equality Proposal was an amendment to the treaty at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference offered by Japan. Because of the rejection of British Empire and the United States, the proposal failed to become a part of the Treaty of Versailles. This rejection separated Japan from other great powers and this led increasing of nationalism continue.

The aim of the Japanese was to secure equality for members of the league of nations, but the proposal was not intended to be a universal principle. The Japanese delegation did not realize the full consequences of their proposal because this proposal could prevent colonial rule over non-white peoples and this is a situation that Europe was against.

Lord Robert Cecil, who was a British politician and one of the architects of the League of Nations, stated after Makino's speech that Japanese proposal was a very controversial one and he suggested that perhaps the matter was so controversial that it should not be discussed at all. Because the British government interpreted the racial equality proposal as a demand for improved immigration practices towards Japanese nationals in the Dominions, it became a Dominion issue.

The committee will focus mainly on the failure of the proposal, which revealed the limits of Wilsonian idealism in that neither Britain nor the United States at that time seriously considered the possibility of universal racial equality. Which points could be re-amended in order to make this proposal adaptable for the League of Nations?

Members: Voters for amendment, 17 delegates present

· Japan (2) Yes

· France (2) Yes

· Italy (2) Yes

· Brazil (1) Yes

· Republic of China (1) Yes

· Greece (1) Yes

· Serbia (1) Yes

· Czechoslovakia (1) Yes

Total: 11 Yes

· British Empire (2) - Not Registered

· United States (2) - Not Registered

· Portugal (1) - Not Registered

· Romania (1) - Not Registered

- We could have 1-2 delegates for a country in this committee.

 

Treaty of Versailles: Making Utopia Real - French

After four years of devastating fighting, the First World War came to an end in 1919 in Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was the most important of the peace treaties that ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I signed separate treaties.

Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required Germany to accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage during the war. This article, Article 231, later became known as the War Guilt clause. The treaty forced Germany to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers.

France’s main objective was to gain as much security as it could from the treaty, the tried to achieve this by weakening Germany as much as possible, draining its financial resources and its arms resources. Georges Clemenceau also thought that dividing Germany into different territories would prevent another war.

 

The committee will focus on the following questions: What is the best way to stop a war ever happening again? How much land should Germany lose and what should happen to the German army? Is it the right direction Clemenceau follows?

 

Members: USA, British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Kingdom of Hejaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Siam, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay + Germany (as a central power)

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