What happens
This episode of The Pacific Story, first broadcast on September 19, 1943, traces Japan's opportunities during World War I. Japanese forces land north of Tsingtao and take the German stronghold, and the Japanese navy hunts for the German raider squadron of Vice Admiral von Spee in the Pacific. Diplomatic talks in Washington bring Count Ishii and Secretary Robert Lansing together over Japan's special interests in China. The Versailles conference then awards Shantung to Japan, and Chinese students in Peking protest, leading to the release of students and the dismissal of three pro-Japanese officials. Owen Latimore, director of the School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, reflects on these events.
Tsingtao, Shantung, and Peking, China; the Pacific Ocean; Washington, D.C.; and the Versailles Peace Conference, from 1914 to 1919
Characters: Admiral Thomas Aburo, Vice Admiral von Spee, Count Ishii, Secretary Robert Lansing, William Jennings Bryan, Sergeant Lin, Owen Latimore
Listen for: Japan's claims to Shantung and the German islands, the Lansing-Ishii agreement, and the Peking student protests of May 1919
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.