The Royal Navy, Japan, and British Strategic Foreign Policy, 1932–1934

British strategic foreign policy was in disarray between 1932 and 1934, when Japan was the major concern for British strategic planners. Japan’s challenge to British interests affected British policy generally, and particularly Anglo-American relations. British departments had differing views: the Treasury preferred improved Anglo-Japanese relations, the Admiralty wanted a fleet sufficiently large to deal with both Japan and Europe, and the Foreign Office rejected the Treasury’s position as naïve, preferring to work with the United States to check Japan as much as possible. The cut and thrust among the various departments underlined the matter’s complexity and the difficulty of deciding British policy at this juncture.