The Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908

Abstract

IN THE SUMMER Of 1907 Japanese-American relations wore an ominous aspect. Although the San Francisco school crisis had been settled earlier in the year by the Gentlemen's Agreement, there was still much dissatisfaction on the Pacific Coast over the immigration issue, and the California legislature was debating discriminatory anti-Japanese legislation. American merchants interested in Manchuria, then a part of China, were registering loud complaints against what they claimed was Japan's determination to take advantage of her recently-won position in that area, even at the cost of the Open Door. In July, 1907, President Roosevelt startled the world by announcing that the entire battleship fleet would be sent to the Pacific, and this spectacular move, though not actually undertaken until December, caused the alarmist press of both America and Europe to predict imminent hostilities. In some quarters it was even believed that Japan was preparing to seize the Philippine and the Hawaiian Islands.'

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