Why did Japanese soldiers fight in Europe during WWI?
Ok, I'm gearing up for my annual Memorial Day tribute slide show and I'm looking through WWI photos online. A couple of the photos I come across are labeled "Ward at the Japanese Hospital in Paris" and "Convalescent patients at the Japanese Hospital, in Paris." Now before this I'd already known that Japan had been one of the Allied (Entente) Powers in the First World War, but I'd always been under the impression that they had been strictly fighting in the Pacific. So naturally I had to look things up and I learned that indeed they entered the war in 1914 both at the request from the British Empire to fight German raiders in the Pacific and as a way to claim German colonial territory in the Pacific. Fine, that's all well and good, but it doesn't seem to answer the question of what their soldiers were doing in Europe. Further look does reveal the British Empire did request Japanese Naval assistance in the Med, which lead to the arrival of a Japanese squadron arriving in april 1917. Considering the Mediterranean borders Europe, North Africa, and parts of the Middle East I can understand a hospital for Japanese sailors that might be wounded. But why Paris, why not in Malta or Italy? The pictures appear to clearly Japanese nurses (http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/graphics/gws_japanesehosppar_02.jpg and http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/graphics/gws_japanesehosppar_01.jpg) though the patients look like their of European descent. But it doesn't make sense they would have simply set up a hospital to tend to Allied soldiers from European nations unless they were also expecting to tend to their own troops as well. And Paris seems a bit far to send wounded sailors fighting in the Med when Malta (then a part of the British Empire) and Italy (which joined the Allies in 1915) were closer Allied territory. It suggests to me Japanese soldiers fighting in Europe, but why?
History - 2 Answers
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1 :
they had a limited role in that war they first demanded the surrender of german fleet at tsing tau then captured it they also used merchant ships to set up a naval blockade or part of that blockade in the mediterranean sea and provided medical help all a part of the treaty between Japan and England France was the safest place for the wounded at the time
2 :
They didn't actually fight in the west, but Japan sending medical teams to Europe would allow the British and French to free up more manpower for the front line. Japan did the same thing in Korea and Vietnam despite not having any infantry on the ground.
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