Tokyo
To get the government to make up its mind as quickly as possible, Uchida Kosai slightly altered his wording, exaggerating the consequences of failed negotiations and attaching the proposal put forward by the British.
The Japanese cabinet was intimidated, all because of one phrase—the League of Nations would "forcibly disarm" them if the negotiations failed!
On the surface, there seemed to be nothing wrong with those words, but everyone knew that such an outcome would be extremely unfavorable to the Japanese government!
If they refused to make concessions and the international community truly issued them a forced disarmament order, what then? Would they comply or not?
After all, there were many ways to enforce disarmament. The mildest was diplomatic pressure, followed by trade sanctions, while the most severe was to settle it directly by force!
"The British Far East Fleet has been active in the East China Sea lately. The French fleet in the Far East is moving closer to them as well. The Dutch South Seas Fleet and the Bulgarian Pacific Fleet are also converging on the British," Prime Minister Hara Takashi reminded them.
Kato Tomosaburo lost his nerve. The navy was not the army; its officers were generally well educated and far broader in outlook. They understood all too clearly the gap in strength between Japan and the world's top powers.
If it were only the warships currently in the Far East, they would still dare risk a battle. So long as they launched a surprise attack and defeated them one by one before they completed their assembly, their chances of victory would remain quite high!
Unfortunately, they did not dare take that gamble. This was merely one of the other side's squadrons. Even if they wiped it out entirely, it would accomplish nothing. During their last