Taft-Katsura Memorandum

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TAFT-KATSURA MEMORANDUM

TAFT-KATSURA MEMORANDUM (29 July 1905), a so-called agreed memorandum exchanged between Secretary of War William Howard Taft, speaking for President Theodore Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Taro Katsura of Japan. The memorandum invoked Japanese-American cooperation "for the maintenance of peace in the Far East." Thus ornamented, it expressed an approval by the United States of Japanese suzerainty over Korea and a disavowal by Japan of "any aggressive designs whatever on the Philippines." Roosevelt assured Taft afterward that his "conversation with Count Katsura was absolutely correct in every respect," thus emphatically approving the agreement, which remained secret until 1925.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Esthus, Raymond A. Theodore Roosevelt and Japan. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966.

Minger, Ralph E. "Taft's Missions to Japan: A Study in Personal Diplomacy." Pacific Historical Review 30 (1961).

Samuel FlaggBemis/a. g.

See alsoDiplomacy, Secret ; Diplomatic Missions ; Japan, Relations with .