YAP MANDATE

YAP MANDATE. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) ending World War I, Japan received a mandate over the former German possessions in the Pacific Ocean lying north of the equator. They included the Marshall, Mariana (Ladrone), and Caroline Islands.

Although agreeing to a Japanese mandate over these Pacific islands, President Woodrow Wilson objected to the inclusion of Yap, a strategically significant cable relay island in the Carolines. The controversy was settled during the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments, when the United States agreed to Japan's mandate over the island of Yap and in return obtained from Japan complete equality with respect to the cables.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buckley, Thomas H. The United States and the Washington Conference, 1921–1922. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1970.

Dingman, Roger. Power in the Pacific: The Origins of Naval Arms Limitation, 1914–1922. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

Clarence A. Berdahl/ T. G.

See also Japan, Relations with; League of Nations; Versailles, Treaty of; Washington Naval Conference; World War I.