UCLA Asia Institute
Today in Asian History
April 20
1927
General TANAKA Giichi of the Seiyukai party took over as Japanese
prime minister. Tanaka (1863-1929) had been minister of war 1918-1921 (when
Japan fought in Western Russia) and 1923-1924. He pushed an aggressive
foreign policy and briefly intervened against Chiang Kai-shek's efforts to
unify China. He was unable to ameliorate Japan's banking crisis and lost the
support of the army when he sought to punish officers for the 1928
assassination of Zhang Zuolin, the Chinese warlord controlling
Manchuria. A
"Tanaka Memorial" articulating a plan of expansion was widely
circulated (for example, Japan's Dream of World Empire: The Tanaka
Memorial, edited and introduced by Carl Crow, Harper & Brothers,
New York, 1942), but is considered by most scholars to have been a
forgery. In
1929, Tanaka became the first prime minister to reside in the shusho
kantei, the building that served as the official residence until April
2002. 1949 During the campaign to take the
Guomindang (Nationalist) capital at Nanjing, the Chinese Communist-led army
fired on a British frigate, the H.M.S. Amethyst. The
Amethyst was attempting to resupply the British embassy in Nanjing. Many
of the crew, including the captain, were killed. Two other British gunboats
sought to come to the ship's aid, but were driven back by heavy fire. Some
in Britain called for a military response, but the government was not so
inclined. A British naval attache, John Kerans, was dispatched to represent
the British government at the scene. In late July, he managed to guide the
ship and the remaining crew down the Yangzi to the Pacific Ocean. This
"escape
of the Amethyst" became big news in Britain and elsewhere,
even becoming the subject of a movie (The
Yangtse Incident). On April 21, Communist-led forces crossed the Yangzi River. They
captured Nanjing on April 23. By September the Communists controlled most
of China and established their capital in Beijing. 1951 The United States government
announced the creation of the Military Assistance Advisory Group for Taiwan
in the U.S. Defense Department. This decision to provide the Guomindang
(Nationalist) regime on Taiwan with military and economic aid. Direct
American military aid to Taiwan had stopped with the Communist takeover of
the mainland in 1949, but the outbreak of the Korean War the next year
brought a shift in policy. In June 1950, U.S. Pres. Harry S Truman
sent the U.S. Seventh Fleet to shield Taiwan. And in 1951, the U.S. began
supplying Chiang Kai-shek's forces on Taiwan with weapons. The AI "Today in Asian History" page is compiled by Clayton
Dube.
He welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send them to <cdube@isop.ucla.edu>. Copyright 1998-2002 by the UCLA Asia Institute.
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