Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction: The Unintentional Role of Coincidence in History
- 1 Secret U.S. Plans to Absorb Hawaii and Guam (1897)
- 2 Alfred Thayer Mahan Invents Island-Hopping (1911)
- 3 Yuan Shikai Preapproves Japan’s “21 Demands” (1915)
- 4 Gallipoli’s Unexpected Connection to the Armenian Genocide (1915)
- 5 The Historical Importance of 7 December 1902/1917/1941
- 6 The Halifax Explosion and Unification of the U.S. and British Navies (1917)
- 7 Woodrow Wilson’s Clerical Error and the May Fourth Movement in China (1919)
- 8 Soviet Gold Mining and the Sudden End to the Mongolian Gold Rush (1924)
- 9 The Soviet Great Purges and Gulags as a Reaction to Japan’s Proposed Immigration Policies in Manchukuo (1937)
- 10 Secret Western Manipulations behind Japan’s Pearl Harbor Attack (1941)
- 11 The True Origin of the Kamikazes (1944)
- 12 Why the Kurile Islands Were Disputed after World War II
- 13 How Secret Yalta Talks Resulted in Post-War Soviet Colonization (1945)
- 14 Secret Negotiations of the Sino-Soviet Border (1945)
- 15 The CIA Argument for Why China Should Be Allowed to Become Communist (1948)
- 16 Both North Vietnamese Tonkin Gulf Attacks Were PerhapsReal (1964)
- 17 The U.S. Anti-Soviet Blockade during the Vietnam War (1965)
- 18 The Secret U.S. Anti-SAM Strategy in the Vietnam War (1966)
- 19 The 3 March 1969 Creation of the Top Gun School (1969)
- 20 The Real “Signaling” History of the 4 May 1970 Kent StateMassacre (1970)
- 21 The Secret Agreement that May Have Really Ended theVietnam War (1975)
- Conclusions: The Profound Influence of Coincidental History on Twentieth-Century History
- Bibliography
- About the Author
- Index
1 - Secret U.S. Plans to Absorb Hawaii and Guam (1897)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 March 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction: The Unintentional Role of Coincidence in History
- 1 Secret U.S. Plans to Absorb Hawaii and Guam (1897)
- 2 Alfred Thayer Mahan Invents Island-Hopping (1911)
- 3 Yuan Shikai Preapproves Japan’s “21 Demands” (1915)
- 4 Gallipoli’s Unexpected Connection to the Armenian Genocide (1915)
- 5 The Historical Importance of 7 December 1902/1917/1941
- 6 The Halifax Explosion and Unification of the U.S. and British Navies (1917)
- 7 Woodrow Wilson’s Clerical Error and the May Fourth Movement in China (1919)
- 8 Soviet Gold Mining and the Sudden End to the Mongolian Gold Rush (1924)
- 9 The Soviet Great Purges and Gulags as a Reaction to Japan’s Proposed Immigration Policies in Manchukuo (1937)
- 10 Secret Western Manipulations behind Japan’s Pearl Harbor Attack (1941)
- 11 The True Origin of the Kamikazes (1944)
- 12 Why the Kurile Islands Were Disputed after World War II
- 13 How Secret Yalta Talks Resulted in Post-War Soviet Colonization (1945)
- 14 Secret Negotiations of the Sino-Soviet Border (1945)
- 15 The CIA Argument for Why China Should Be Allowed to Become Communist (1948)
- 16 Both North Vietnamese Tonkin Gulf Attacks Were PerhapsReal (1964)
- 17 The U.S. Anti-Soviet Blockade during the Vietnam War (1965)
- 18 The Secret U.S. Anti-SAM Strategy in the Vietnam War (1966)
- 19 The 3 March 1969 Creation of the Top Gun School (1969)
- 20 The Real “Signaling” History of the 4 May 1970 Kent StateMassacre (1970)
- 21 The Secret Agreement that May Have Really Ended theVietnam War (1975)
- Conclusions: The Profound Influence of Coincidental History on Twentieth-Century History
- Bibliography
- About the Author
- Index
Summary
The Pacific Ocean has three major North-South island chains, including the so-called “first island chain” that runs from the tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula down through the Kurile Islands, the Japanese home islands, Okinawa, Taiwan and on through to the Philippines. The so-called “second island chain” splits away from Japan, and runs southward toward the Bonins, Guam and the Marshall Islands. Meanwhile, the so-called “third island chain” runs from the end of the Aleutian Trench southward along the Emperor Seamount, through Midway, and ends up in the Hawaiian Islands (see Map 1).
During the late nineteenth century, Japan expanded along the first and second island chains and into the Western Pacific. In 1876, Japan obtained all of the Kurile Islands in exchange for ceding the southern half of Sakhalin Island to Russia, and also seized the Bonin Islands, about 1,300 kilometers to the southeast of Japan. In 1879, the Ryukyu Islands were formally annexed by Japan and became the prefecture of Okinawa. Finally, after the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), Japan obtained the island of Taiwan—in theory in perpetuity—in 1895, which gave it unbroken control from Kamchatka to Taiwan. Japan's expansion effectively cut the U.S. sea line of communication (SLOC) to China, which was considered to be a major trading partner.
In 1897, assistant secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, and Commander C. J. Goodrich, president, U.S. Naval War College (NWC), carried on a confidential correspondence discussing how Japan's recent expansion impacted the United States. The original letters are in the NWC Historical Archives. On 23 June 1897, Goodrich explained that a Japanese attack on the United States would have to be staged from either Dutch Harbor (Unalaska) in the Aleutians or from Hawaii:
Honolulu, on the other hand, is the bone of contention, and therefore a principal objective point. Though farther than Unalaska from Japan, it can be approached by stages, Midway, or one of the adjacent islands being occupied for a base of coaling station whence to operate against Honolulu, only 1,000 miles or so distant. Such a course of action by Japan would force the United States to operate at a distance of 2,000 miles from its own coast.
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- The Impact of Coincidence in Modern American, British, and Asian HistoryTwenty-One Unusual Historical Events, pp. 3 - 6Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2023