The political and diplomatic tensions in Japan’s trade with french Indochina, 1905 to 1932
Author: Daeumer, Masao
Under the direction of: Paul-André Rosental
Institut d’études politiques, Paris
Texte français
Keywords: History, Indochina, Japan, French Indochina, Trade, International relations, Foreign trade, Diplomatic negotiations, 1900-1945.
Abstract
This dissertation explores the political and commercial relations, negotiations as well as tensions between Japan and French Indochina in the period from 1905 to 1932. One of the major aims of this study is to clarify the use of economic and statistical arguments in a long-lasting controversy provoked by endless negotiations over the minimum tariff for Japanese imports in the French colony, Indochina. In addition, this analysis shows how different networks of actors engaged in the Japanese-Indochinese political economy regularly reposition themselves amid a long series of political and economic shocks. France and Indochina have to engage in a difficult balancing act in their interactions with Japan, the rising export and military power in Asia since its decisive victory over Russia in 1905. While they consider the Japanese empire as a promising strategic partner to counter the threats of Chinese nationalism and of Vietnamese revolutionaries, the colonial and metropolitan authorities have to negotiate with a country that discretely attempts to destabilize the French presence and covets the natural resources in the Indochinese peninsula. Altogether, this account dissects the numerous political, diplomatic, cultural and social tensions that permeated the negotiations over Japanese-Indochinese trade flows from the Franco-Japanese arrangement of 1907 until the Japanese-Indochinese “gentlemen’s agreement” of 1932. Thereby, it sheds a new light on previous scholarship that has presented the relationship between Hanoi and Tokyo as in the main balanced and peaceful before the violent occupation of the French colony by Japanese military forces in 1940.
