First Pacific War

The Pacific War was a war fought primarily between the United States and the Empire of Japan across the Pacific Ocean.

Historical Background
The long and winding history of American relations with Japan dates to 1837, when President Winfield Scott deployed a naval column under the leadership of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to the world, thus beginning the opening of the chrysalis of Japan's shogunate and the unveiling of the Empire within. Presidents Foote and Seward intervened in Japan's subsequent Civil War on behalf of a liberal faction led by Soejima Taneomi, playing a minor role in the brokering of an alliance between Taneomi and Emperor Meiji, which would lead to the re-installment of the Emperor to his former power, yet with the check of a constitution and elected parliament. Under the subsequent leadership of Taneomi, Japan's economy would begin to prosper, and the rise of Count Ito Hirobumi to office began Japan's era of expansion. Modernized technologically and socially, Japan first shocked the world by defeating China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1883-1884, and expelled any doubt of its rising power with its victories over Spain, Russia, and Viet Nam in the coming years.

The United States had its own vision for East Asia, one that differed as often as its rulers. According to John Bingham, who served under Longstreet as Ambassador to Japan, President Longstreet's view of the nation was highly favorable and he maintained grand plans for an American-Japanese alliance, viewing relations with China as doomed over the issue of Chinese exclusion. Bragg differed greatly, and even before causing an international incident in his post-presidency by denouncing Japan during the Sino-Japanese War, viewed it as inferior to China. Steering American policy towards China greatly, Bragg's views decimated American relations with Japan, damage from which they never truly recovered. Hopes of reconciliation weakened as expansionists from both nations such as ultranationalist leader Toyama Mitsuru and Senator James H. Kyle set their eyes upon a single island chain: Hawaii, located nearly squarely between the two nations. The Japanese annexation of the Philippines and the rest of Spain's Pacific colonies following the Spanish-Japanese War brought Japan close to Hawaii, as American trade and the influence of fruit magnate Sanford Dole attempted to skew the island in the direction of the United States. In between it all were the people of Hawaii and their native rulers, standing firm for independence amidst it all. The growing U.S.-Chinese relationship found itself in shambles following the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1890, leaving the United States without a major ally in the region even as expansionist sentiment grew. Yet, the Japanese annexation of Vietnam and subsequent seizure of Laos and Cambodia by Siam, with German support, would open the door to the Southeast Asian kingdom to bond with the United States over opposition to Japan.

Despite being an expansionist himself and leading the nation to establish a naval base on Oahu, Itagaki Taisuke opposed annexing Hawaii, arguing that a war with the United States would devastate Japan and yield little. On the American front, Presidents George and Trumbull opposed imperialism as a whole. The tranquil tension would be shattered by twin results in the elections of 1896, as 38 year old pro-annexation Texas Governor Aaron Burr Houston ascended to the presidency of the United States and 37 year old pro-annexation Toyama Mitsuru, head of the Genyosha secret society whose spy networks had masterminded the Japanese campaigns in multiple wars, was able to secure a majority in parliament, replacing the ultranationalist-liberal alliance led by Itagaki Taisuke with an out and out ultranationalist government. Amidst the election in the United States, a leaked letter revealed that Chinese immigrants continued to reach California shores through a smuggling operation that ran through the Hawaiian islands.

Boiling Point
Sanford Dole had spent years lying in wait. He and his allies had plotted their coup in 1887, yet the victory of Henry George in the American elections of 1888 popped their bubble and forced them to lie in wait for an American willing to annex Hawaii, an opportunity the election of Houston provided. Their plan was deceptively simple: imprison or otherwise detain Queen Liliuokalani and declare a Hawaiian Republic, then immediately submit themselves to the United States for annexation, with the assumption that such an action would prevent Togo Heihachiro and other Japanese Naval Commanders stationed in the area from reacting with a counter-coup of their own. As 1893 dawned, Dole and his co-conspirators such as Lorrin Thurston, Edward Hitchcock, and John H. Soper began to build a network of support, treading carefully around Genyosha agents with their own plan for a coup and supporters of the Hawaiian Monarchy who could attempt to foil the plan.

With the midterm elections of 1894 yielding an expansionist majority, Dole was prepared to act. President Houston established a naval base in Pearl Harbor in 1893, purchasing it under the condition of payment of an annual rent to the Hawaiian Kingdom. Throughout 1895, Dole and his allies worked to undermine the monarchy, and a tenuous near-alliance with the Genyosha. Both groups intended to act to overthrow the Hawaiian government to force it into the hands of their nation, and were largely content with staying out of one another's way, with both well aware that if and when they acted, it meant war. Thus, tension remained high, but neither side was willing to make the first move through 1895. The cat and mouse game of espionage persisted through early 1896, with Queen Liliokuoani firing over a dozen workers at the royal palace for in May ties to either Dole or the Genyosha. The statemate would finally break in July of 1896, as the United States announced that it would search every boat leaving the Hawaiian Islands en route to the United States for Chinese immigrants, leading Japanese businessmen on the island to seek the aid of the Genyosha in protecting their boats. On October 1st, the United States was scheduled to conduct its first search of Japanese trade ships, and Dole seized his opportunity. 130 militiamen loyal to Dole attacked Iolani Palace, with over 200 others, many of whom ostensibly members of the U.S. Navy, aided Dole elsewhere. With surprise on their side, Dole and his followers were able to capture the Palace after a bloody encounter, and proclaimed the "Republic of Hawaii" with Dole as President, who then declared that as his first and only official act he would submit Hawaii to be annexed to the United States. Queen Liliokuani refused to sign any documents legally submitting Hawaii to any other government, and was held hostage by the Dole.

The assault on Iolani Palace and Barracks may have been a success by Dole, but Genyosha agents were able to defeat Dole's allies on the rest of the islands, leaving only Oahu under Dole's control, although many plantation owners on other islands stood with him. Seizing the day themselves, Genyosha agent Ryohei Uchida proclaimed Hawaii as a protectorate of the Empire of Japan. With neither the Japanese nor American governments open consent, both sides clashed across the islands. As Dole began his assault upon the Palace, a Japanese shipman who refused to let American troops search his boat was seen by a group of 11 Japanese sailors, who intervened. A fight broke out, with troops from both sides entering into the fray. American and Japanese sailors joined the bands loyal to Dole and the Genyosha leaders, each capturing portions of the island.

Three days later, as fighting continued, Toyama Mitsuru praised the Genyosha's actions in Hawaii and stated his intention to annex it to the Japanese Empire, deploying Admiral Togo Heihachiro to command 7 battleships, 31 cruisers, 28 destroyers, and 18 torpedo boats and secure Hawaii, while appointing Ryohei Uchida as Military Governor of the Province and requesting that the United States apologize for the conduct of its sailors. Two days after that, President Aaron Burr Houston declared that he would accept Dole's requested annexation, and deployed Admiral George Dewey to Hawaii along with the vast majority of the American fleet: 9 battleships, 21 cruisers, 24 destroyers, and 24 torpedo boats. In response, Mitsuru submitted a formal declaration of war on the United States to Parliament on the next day, the 27th, along with a rider expanding his powers to regulate the press, suspending Japanese elections until the War was concluded, and appointing nationalist General and politician Matsutaka Matayoshi as Field Marshal of the Japanese Army and Minister of War.

The American Consul in Manila, 39 year old William Howard Taft of Ohio, fled to the jungles, where he was taken in by rebels under the command of Emilio Aguinaldo. The strongest rebellion in any Japanese colony, Taft's foreign service aids who fled to the Dutch East Indies were able to smuggle a letter from the Philippines from Aguinaldo, who had several American contacts already, to President Houston requesting a formal recognition of Filipino independence and predicting a grand alliance against Japan in the coming war. The American Ambassador to Tokyo, 80 year old John A. Bingham, stated that he would side with his country, but also decried the Houston Administration, and was given safe passage, while several other diplomats in Colonies were either arrested or fled to other nations, with the American delegation in Hanoi fleeing to Siam.

Two Fleets and Siam:
The reactions from across the world have been those of shock. Within East Asia, Chinese Emperor Li Hongzhang was expected by many to side with the United States and seek to avenge China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, yet Hongzhang denounced the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act and stated that China would remain neutral for the time being. The reactions in Vietnam and Siam have proven the most crucial as of yet. Despite Emperor Ham Nghi being held under house arrest in Saigon, a guerrilla Vietnamese resistance loyal to the Nyugen Dynasty allied itself with the Black Flag Army, a former band of Chinese mercenaries opposed to Hongzhang, numbering 2,000 total. With the Nyugen loyalists and Black Flag army receiving support from Siam and Germany, they have been able to undermine Japan's control over its foothold in Southeast Asia. The day the news of the war between America and Japan was transmitted to Chulalangkorn, King of Siam, he ordered troops to occupy disputed territories on the border of Siamese Laos and Japanese Vietnam.

On October 21st, both Houses of Congress overwhelmingly passed the Cullom Resolution, authored by Secretary of State Shelby Cullom and presented to Congress by Congressman John Tyler Morgan (D-AL), officially accepting the United States annexation of Hawaii. Siamese troops began clashing with Japanese border guards, and as the clashes intensified over the coming days, Siam used them as impetus to declare war upon Japan, with the Black Flag Army and Nyugen loyalists beginning a guerrilla effort to aid Siam by disrupting Japanese supply lines and the Japanese parliament accepting the Declaration of War on October 31st.

American ships in Hawaii remain, with Dole and his allies in the Navy holding Oahu as Japan holds the other islands and the fleets of Heihachiro and Dewey rush to alleviate their comrades, while the United States has found an ally in Southeast Asia. It is upon this backdrop that voters journey to the polls on November 3rd to elect America's next President.

The Battle of Hawaii
Togo Heihachiro and his fleet reached Hawaii in December, making their first landing at Midway Atoll to connect to the Japanese forces already in the vicinity before travelling to Koloa on the island of Kauai, where Admiral Heihachiro would formulate his plan of engagement. His fleet surrounded Oahu, yet declined to directly attack the island held by Dole and American troops, instead focusing on laying in wait for the arrival of what had been George Dewey's and was now William T. Sampson’s American fleet while the Japanese Army under Kodama Gentaro focused on capturing Oahu. In a surprising move, Admiral Dewey had been reassigned from the Hawaiian fleet to a smaller naval force sent to the Southern Pacific to attack Japan’s possessions in Polynesia. With Sampson days away, Gentaro launched an assault on Keeau Beach, on the far west of Oahu, with 600 troops outnumbering the 346 militiamen of Dole and his allies, and capturing the beach by the end of the 17th of December. The next day, several hundred more Japanese troops landed on North Beach on the other side of Oahu, as those on Keeau marched north to cut the island in half. Yet, Dole was prepared, With 70 of his men, he took several Gatling guns and a two "potato diggers," recently created automatic weapons, and intercepted the Japanese forces advancing from Keeau at Trimble Road, leading to his plantation, which he suspected they aimed to attack. Opening fire from the bushes, his men were able to devastate Japanese ranks and prevent any attack on Dole's own property.

Surprised at the defeat, Gentaro sent 2,000 troops to Kawela Bay in the North of Oahu near the islands jungles, from which they advanced south towards the Dole Plantation, clashing with American troops during a second landing at Waialua Bay on the morning of the 20th.Japanese troops avoided attacking the Dole Plantation itself, instead clashing with his troops across the island as they worked to capture all but Honolulu and the Plantation. Dole himself largely retreated his forces to protect his plantation as the 21st dawned, leaving only 37 Americans to defend Honolulu against the advancing Japanese, with William T. Sampson’s Ameeican fleet only a day away. Hoping to capture the final stretch of Oahu's coast not in Japanese hands before the arrival of Dewey, Gentato had his troops attack Honolulu, with the force of 2,198 Japanese far outnumbering the few Americans and a handful of Native Hawaiian allies who considered them the lesser of two evils for the time being. Nonetheless, the Americans held control of the entire reserve of automatic weapons Dole had used at the Battle of Trimble Road, and were able to last through a several hour siege at Iolani Palace itself, firing every round of ammunition they took with them until the six remaining Dole troops surrendered.The next day, the 22nd, Sampson’s fleet of 7 battleships, 17 cruisers, 20 destroyers, and 18 torpedo boats caught sight of the island of Hawaii.

Approaching from the North, he pivoted West to the island of Maui. Heihachiro had awakened early and his fleet, consisting of 7 battleships, 31 cruisers, 28 destroyers, and 18 torpedo boats was prepared, approaching Sampson from the South while a third was ordered to pivot North, attempting to catch the aging American Admiral in a fork. Sampson sent his own splinter to the Lahaina Roads, referring to the waters between Molokai, Maui, and Lanai, as his fleet as a whole surprised Heihachiro by pivoting to the South. With the bottom portion of Heihachiro's fork pursuing as the Northern portion circled around, Sampson made the first attack, meeting the Japanese force head on and opening fire, while sending seven of his ships to pursue the top portion of Heihachiro's fork. The seas were aflame as American and Japanese ships exchanged fire, with three Japanese ships being sunk quickly by Sampson’s attack.The American fleet saw losses quickly, but the attack was judged as successful and Sampson, in the open ocean with practically nothing to fall back upon, had his main fleet turn sharply north to join the smaller portion in engaging the Northern half of the Japanese fork, with the early loss of two American ships outweighed as Dewey's fleet destroyed a Japanese battleship and several cruisers, with the Japanese fleet in the North retreating West, Sampson pressed the attack, yet Heihachiro sharply cut back, turning his fleet to attack Sampson from behind. Heihachiro’s main fleet was nearly routed, but his attack from behind caught Sampson between two Japanese forces, with Heichachiro’s main fleet swerving East to prevent him from escaping. American ships were surrounded, with Japan’s fleet to the North, East, and South, and the Hawaiian islands elsewhere. On the land that day, Japanese troops began the attack upon Dole Plantation, with Gentaro advancing through the entire plantation despite taking heavy losses. While Japanese troops advanced through much of the plantation, Dole and his final contingent barricaded themselves inside of his home.Sampson attempted to escape north, but Admiral Togo was expecting the move and sent several ships to attack his escaping column from the side, leaving only a small fleet to pursue as the main Japanese force worked to cut the routes of escape for the American fleet ensure they continued to surround it, bolstering Togo’s force in the North. Sampson intended to put all he could into breaking the encirclement and opening an escape route. Togo’s report to his superiors by telegraph that day may provide one insight into his state of mind, ”The Combined Fleet will immediately commence action and attempt to attack and destroy them. Weather today fine but high waves.” Sampson expected to have to break a wall, instead he found a constrictor of ships, with the Japanese fleet cutting his forces off and quickly going for the attack, trapping him in the bay. Hundreds of sailors, Japanese and American, died in the coming hours, with Sampson himself being aboard the U.S.S. New York as it was struck by a battery from the Shinano Maru. Admiral Sampson would go down with his ship into the fiery waters, as American ships began to surrender or flee for the coastline, sailors hoping for mercy in Japanese Prisoner of War camps as the terror on the waves turned the minutes to hours.

As the Battle of Hawaii, labelled "the greatest naval battle since Trafalgar" by some observers, closed, it was undeniably a resounding Japanese success. The American fleet was devastated, with only the remnant under Dewey in the South Pacific remaining intact. Russia and Spain, both considering joining the war on the side of the United States, declined to do so for the time being, with Russian Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky declaring “the Americans must claim responsibility for their defeat.”

Dewey's Campaign In The South Pacific
George Dewey reacted to the news of the American defeat at Hawaii with a mixture of surprise and regret, for he had opposed the order from the Department of War to break from the main fleet to attack Polynesia, and had feared that Sampson would meet such a fate. Japan was unaware of Dewey's orders to attack the South Pacific, and the Japanese High Command was unsure as to his whereabouts or those of the rest of the American Pacific fleet. Dewey intended to keep it that way. Japanese Vice Admiral Tsuboi Kōzō commanded their forces in the region, and Dewey would have to overcome his forces to either capture the region or travel to Australia or the Dutch East Indies for temporary refuge. While Dewey's fleet outnumbered Kozo's, he was far from American shores and had but two options to seek land: Chile and Australia, both quite far, and the latter of which was a part of neutral Britain, which might deny the United States port.The first guess as to the whereabouts of Dewey would come to Japan in February of 1896, when Japanese ships spotted the fleet off the coast of the island of Papaalete.

The conflict was swift, with the U.S.S. Iowa, among the most modern battleships within the American fleet, attacking the Japanese ships in pursuit, causing them to pivot their path directly into the way of the rest of Dewey's fleet, lying in wait. Dewey then assaulted the island itself, landing American sailors on as he bombarded the port of Mahina. The week long battle for the island was anticlimactic, as a small American contingent was left nearly alone to defend the island and Dewey's fleet departed East to Chile. Recently departed President Jorge Montt, a naval leader who came to power following the overthrow of President Balmaceda as part of the 1891 Civil War, had declared support for the United States in the Pacific War and Dewey's fleet was granted the ability to rest at Puerto Montt, refueling and contacting the American Ambassador to Chile, former priest and minor Federal Republican Indiana politician Benjamin Harrison, with Dewey providing Harrison with a secret plan of attack, requesting him to send it to President Houston for approval.

The Southeast Asian Front
5,000 Vietnamese rebels, along with 3,000 under the aegis of the Black Flag Army, fell under the de facto command Hoang Ha Tham, nicknamed the “Tiger of Yen The” for his role in leading a years long guerrilla campaign against Japanese colonial authorities. Tham launched a heightened campaign quickly upon hearing the news of the Siamese invasion of Vietnam, aiming to disrupt Japanese supply lines and eventually join with Siamese and Lao troops, yet was disappointed as the main Siamese force, with Khmer troops, under Field Marshal Chaophraya Surasakmontri instead attacked South. Nonetheless, Tham’s campaign was able to gain territory in Northern Vietnam, with a smaller force of Siamese and Lao troops connecting with them and defeating Japanese forces at the Battle of Tay Trang on the border of Siamese Laos and Japanese Vietnam.Surasakmontri was less successful in the South, yet mass protests were organized in Saigon against colonial rule, stymying Japanese organization and allowing a 12,000 strong Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese force to seize large areas of inland Cochinchina throughout the winter of 1896-1897. With Tham successfully connecting rebel held territory in Tonkin with Siamese Laos. America’s Minister to Siam, Sempronius H. Boyd, was able to convince Washington to approve a shipment of weapons to Siam, yet the shipping proved arduous, as American ships were forced to travel near the Antarctic to Australia, then up through the Dutch East Indies. The voyage nonetheless set a precedent for a means to set American troops and material to the Pacific without encountering Japan.By May of 1897, the combined force of Siamese, Khmer, Laotian, and Vietnamese rebel troops was nearing Hue.

Surasakmontri would request support from the leader of the Vietnamese rebels themselves, the exiled former King of the Nyugen Dynasty, Ham Nghi. Ruling as a teenager, he had been the "Boy King," and as his supporters approached what had once been the seat of the Nyugen Crown, Ham Nghi returned from exile to lead them to independence. On May 15th, the Battle of Saigon commenced, where Japanese troops under General Oyama Iwao decisively defeated a Khmer-Siamese force under the command of Cambodian Prince Sisowath after a three day battle that would end the Siamese advance through Cochinchina. Thus, as Siamese, Khmer, Lao, and Vietnamese forces reached Hue, they saw it as a make or break for their war effort. If Hue could be captured, Japanese Vietnam could be split in two, alienating Cochinchina while allowing the larger rebel force in Tonkin to advance.With Ham Nghi leading the Vietnamese rebels in person and General Surasakmontri commanding Siamese, Khmer, and Lao forces, the Siege of Hue began on May 21st, 1897. Though the coalition held the upper hand militarily, Japan maintained a strong enough Naval presence to continually resupply Hue, rendering the siege largely moot. On June 30th, the Siamese Navy was dispatched, under the command of a man born as Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu. Yet the Danish businessman had travelled to Asia years ago to trade in Siam, and had come to play a part in the modernization efforts of King Chulalongkorn following the Japanese conquering of Vietnam, presiding over a partially successful modernization and expansion of the Siamese Navy, leading him to be granted the name Phraya Chonlayutthayothin. Prince Bhanurangsi Savangwongse, erstwhile commander of the Siamese Naval Department, would meet with Richelieu regularly to determine a plan of siege, and soon realized the naval superiority of the Japanese. It became clear that what was needed was an attack, not a continuance of the siege, and the two Siamese commanders would take a risk upon the issue, recruiting nearly the entirety of the Siamese Navy for an assault upon Hue.Upon land, the Battle of Hue would see the first major use of an American weapon recently shipped to Siam: the electric cannon, nicknamed the "battery battery." Working upon a proposal by inventor Nikola Tesla harnessed by Tesla ally George Westinghouse, the experimental weapon utilizes "Tesla coils" to produce a large, though uncontrollable, flash of bolts of electricity. Thus, on July 11th, the Siamese Navy would surround Hue, attacking the city with all its measly strength as thousands of the combined coalition forces launched an assault upon the city from the outside. With a young soldier named Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena at his side, Crown Prince Vajiravudh would fire the first shot of an electric cannon in battle, shocking the young aid seriously and nearly shocking the Prince, but nonetheless devastating the Japanese column approaching, throwing it into disarray as Siamese troops shot them down. As the Siamese and Vietnamese force made its way through Hue, they encountered the charges Americans in the Aleutian Islands had nicknamed "Banzai charges," with Japanese troops engaging in suicide charges rather than surrendering.After a nearly two week battle, Hue had fallen. Ham Nghi was escorted to his former Palace and crowned Emperor of Viet Nam. Amidst the dead soldiers, men who had joined their armies to fight for their nation and would never again see it, the civilians, caught in the crossfire of a war that was not theirs, and the burned remnants of the once glorious city of Hue, thronged crowds of nationalistic Vietnamese cheering for their Boy King, now their liberating emperor.

The Aleutian Islands Campaign
On the night of April 13th, 1897, the dark waves of the Bering Sea against the shore of Attu Island, the westernmost point in the United States, located only miles from Russia, would gleam with the approaching hull of the Tatsuta, with the dozen or so inhabitants of the island putting up little fight as it fell under Japanese control. The uninhabited island of Agattu would be occupied by Japanese forces a half hour later. With that whimper would begin the roar that has been the Aleutian Islands campaign.Japanese ships under the command of Ito Sukeyeki soon captured the entirety of the largely uninhabited Near Islands, in the coming days the similarly uninhabited Rat Islands would see the coming of Japanese ships, yet the Admiral's hopes of a quick Japanese conquering of Alaska's western islands would be shattered as Russian ships reported the campaign to the United States, leading Admiral Winfield Scott Schley and his small yet resourceful "Flying Squadron" to be deployed to the far north of the globe to protect Alaska.

With the United States Army hungering for a land campaign, American troops would be deployed en masse to Alaska, including the so-called "Rough Riders" under the command of former Speaker of the House Theodore Roosevelt. The journey through Vancouver and mainland Alaska to the islands was far, with Schley's fleet having to journey all the way from South America, leaving the islands open to Japanese expansion until American forces could be mustered to defend them. What followed was an embarrassment to many leading American commanders, as Japanese forces captured the Rat and Andreanof Islands, establishing a naval base on Adak Island and summoning reinforcements. By the time American troops arrived, Japanese forces had advanced past Kagamil Island, near the large and much more populated Fox Islands, and into Aleutians West and Unalaska, the first of the Fox Islands.Under the command of General Nelson A. Miles, thousands of Americans congregated in the freezing conditions of Northern summer, with 14,000 upon Unimak Island, the next in Japan's wake, another 3,000 upon Akutan, and 20,000 more on the Alaskan mainland. Meanwhile, Japanese General Nogi Maresuke prepared a 16,000 strong force for amphibious assault upon Unimak Island, with reinforcements on the way aiming to boost the total Japanese strength in Alaska to 40,000 men. As June began, General Maresuke and Admiral Sukeyeki realized that, with Schley approaching, if they acted quickly and attacked, they could assault Kodiak Island and even the Alaskan mainland before the United States could summon enough naval strength to counter an amphibious assault. 30,000 American troops, including Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were quickly moved to Kodiak Island as the nearly as large Japanese force prepared for an amphibious assault and Admiral Schley braved the weather in an attempt to reach Alaska quickly.As Japanese boats left Unalaska and American defenders on Kodiak dug in, along with a small naval contingent to move troops yet wholly unequipped to fight a war upon the sea, Theodore Roosevelt attempted to rally his men. "Believe you can and you're halfway there," he began "we know what's right, but knowing what's right doesn't mean much unless you do what's right." Gesturing to the Alaskan wilderness surrounding them, he reminded the troops "you fight for your country, and this is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance." "Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering...and gentlemen, you will be remembered!" Fleeting cheers broke the icy fear in their hearts, as equally fearful young Japanese men crowded into boats to attack them. The boats made landfall minutes past 7 AM on the 3rd of June, 1897, and thus the Battle of Kodiak Island began.Gunfire echoed across the landscape, as bears hid from the orgy of violence unleashed by beings with concerns unfathomable to the natural world. Japanese troops were able to secure the coastline and begin to expand into the interior of the island, as American defenders dug into positions with machine guns, a deadly cacophony from their pits. General Nozu Michitsura led Japanese troops to capture Sitkalidak Island, touching Kodiak. From there, Japanese cannons bombarded American defenders in the Old Harbor under the command of Arthur MacArthur Jr. The Rough Riders among them, Ahkhiok's American contingent was able to hold off the American advance with the aid of several "potato diggers," as Japanese troops surrounded Karluk. The fighting raged throughout the day, with Americans slowly losing ground, yet holding most of their positions.

For two more days the fighting continued at a stalemate, with Japanese ships successfully preventing the arrival of American reinforcements, even as American troops began to gain ground on the island. After a week of fighting, Admiral Schley and the Flying Squadron were within range.Theodore Roosevelt would inspire the troops once more, or at least those with him, with a stirring speech concluding with “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.” American troops in Larsen Bay and Karluk attacked the Japanese fortifications in between at once. Many a history book shall document the "Banzai charges" of Japanese forces during the Pacific War and beyond, yet, on Kodiak Island it was the Americans whose charges were filled with a near suicidal enthusiasm. The troops were victories and Larsen and Karluk were connected, as Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders joined others in marching inland to connect with them, engaging directly with General Michitsura's troops. With the American victories in the South, the Americans remaining in their pits, those freezing themselves in the night, saw a glimmer of hope. Through the next week of fighting, American troops recovered almost all of Kodiak Island, as Admiral Schley finally arrived, breaking the Japanese blockade following the two day long Battle of the Alaskan Gulf. After thousands of deaths and the suffering of thousands more upon the cold soil that would forever house the bodies of their comrades, the decision was made: Kodiak Island would remain American soil.

Following the Japanese success in the Russo-Japanese War of the early 1890s, General Nogi Maresuke had requested permission from Emperor Meiji to commit suicide, not for defeat but for inadequate success, as Maresuke blamed himself for the heavy Japanese losses at the Battle of Harbin. Meiji had declined the request, holding Maresuke in high esteem. Knowing that his Emperor would decline once more, Maresuke did not file a request this time. In his command in Unalaska he committed harikari, ending his own life in response to his inability to capture Kodiak Island. His body was found by 19 year old soldier Shigeru Yoshida, and General Nozu Michitsura appointed as his replacement.

The tables would soon turn as Generals Miles and MacArthur collaborated with Admiral Schley to plan amphibious assaults upon the rest of the Aleutians. Beginning with the battle of Unalaska, American troops, with the aid of the electric cannon and machine gun, would recapture the Aleutian Islands one by one in a grueling six month campaign. With the Houston Administration pouring vast amounts into naval expansion, the new additions to the fleet to replace those lost in the Battle of Hawaii would face a baptism in freezing fire in the Aleutians, as deaths from hypothermia outnumbered all else on both sides. Yet, after the national defeat at the Battle of Hawaii, the campaign in the Aleutians proved a significant reinvigoration for the American war effort while injuring Japanese morale. The tables would soon turn further throughout the stalemate that was the Kuril Islands Campaign of January to April of 1898, as American and Japanese ships battled throughout the waters east of the Aleutians, with American commanders hoping for an opening to land an amphibious assault upon the Kuril Islands, an opportunity never presented.

Dewey in the Solomon Sea
As Winfield Scott Schley and Arthur MacArthur commanded American troops in the Far North, George Dewey's fleet nearly touched the Antarctic as it moved South to evade Japanese ships, before travelling through the Indian Ocean to the island of Papua, split three ways between Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, while the Solomon Islands directly to the North were a Japanese colony. Knowing that he lacked the support to defeat the Japanese, Dewey made a deal with a nation he was known to be suspicious of: the German Empire. Yet, war makes for strange bedfellows, and Germany agreed to let Dewey retreat to German waters after raids upon Japanese holdings in the Solomon Islands, allowing the aging Admiral to launch dozens of raids upon Japanese colonies throughout 1897 and early 1898, while the Houston Administration contemplated his proposal for an attack much closer to Japan itself. As Vietnamese and Siamese troops reached the coast of Cochinchina in February of 1898, the Houston Administration approved of the plan, placing all new ships under the command of Dewey and reducing Schley's strength to a barebones crew.

Revolt In The Philippines
War had broken out in the Philippines in 1894, several years after Japan captured the Spanish colony following the Spanish-Japanese War and end of the Spanish Empire in the Pacific. The transfer of power had destabilized the region and led to questions surrounding the status of the Sulu and Maguindanao Sultanates, states in the Islamic Moro region of the islands turned into semi-independent Spanish vassals, yet considered independent enough to not be able to be legally transferred to Japan as part of the Treaty of Athens that had concluded the War. At first it seemed as if Maguindanao Sultan Mohammad Jalal Ud-din Pablu would pursue full independence rather than maintaining the Moro's status of suzerainty, yet a Japanese delegation was able to convince the two Moro states to remain within the Japanese Empire. Secondly, the transfer of power led to the formation of the Katipunan, officially the Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, and abbreviated as the KKK.

A Filipino nationalist organization, the Katipunan organized formerly anti-Spanish activists for the fight against Japan, and Katipunan leader Roman Basa was successful in maintaining the organization underground, known to the ultra-nationalist Genyosha but not the regular Japanese Army. Between 1889 and 1893, the Katipunan and the Genyosha had clashed underground in a cat-and-mouse game of espionage.With the elevation of Toyama Mitsuru to the Prime Ministership in 1893 and the subsequent legitimization of Japanese far-right societies such as the Genyosha, the Katipunan was targeted by Japanese authorities. Rather than hide themselves, rising Katipunan leader Andres Bonifacio was able to convince the organization to further its efforts for organization, targeting areas where the hand of Japanese authorities was less oppressive. In January of 1894 the tensions came to a head with the Tejeros Incident, as fighting began between the Katipunan and Japanese troops. The Katipunan acted quickly, capturing vast swaths of the islands, yet the 40,000 Filipino revolutionaries found themselves against an Empire that spanned the seas. With Japan deploying tens of thousands of troops and blockading all rebel held areas, the Katipunan only lost ground, even as the Congresses of Imus and Tejeros led to the declaration of the Sovereign Tagalog Nation, an independent Filipino Republic. As the revolt began to formalize further, Mitsuru's government took drastic action, and thus began the darkest chapters of the Filipino people's struggle for self-determination.Mitsuru's government took inspiration from another government's response to an insurgency for independence on a jungle island for their tactics, The United States Government's tactics in Cuba during the Cuban Crisis, with several high ranking members of the Genyosha praising the Bragg Administration's tactics as a historic example for anti-insurgency tactics. The concentration camps, the burnings, and the massacres seen by the people of Cuba would begin to appear in the Philippines in 1895. Thousands of Filipino civilians would be moved to concentration camps to clear areas controlled by the Katipunan, while captured Katipunan members-or anyone suspected to be members, regardless of the level of evidence-were moved to brutal prisoner-of-war camps. Prisoners were commonly starved, tortured, or marched until death. In certain areas all men over 10 were massacred, under the pretense that they could join the Katipunan. The Moro Sultanates declared support for the Japanese Empire, yet acted independently and harbored Katipunan members, leading to members of the Mitsuru Cabinet desiring to invade them and place the Moro directly under Japanese rule. As the tactics, labelled "crimes against humanity,' as American policies in Cuba had once been, proceeded, the Katipunan lost territory quickly, controlling very little of the Philippines despite their vast popular appeal, with revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio executed in September of 1896 after being convicted of treason by a Japanese military tribunal. Against this backdrop began the Pacific War, breathing life into the movement for Filipino independence, with General Emilio Aguinaldo declaring "The great North American Nation, the cradle of genuine liberty and therefore the friend of our people oppressed and enslaved by the tyranny and despotism of its rulers, has come to us."The execution of Bonifacio brought him to a status of martyrdom, yet Aguinaldo and his supporters were able to capture control of the Katipunan, declaring for a national assembly to form a new Revolutionary Government. Following a month long debate and the proposition of several constitutions, the Philippine Republic was declared on January 1st, 1897, with 33 year old Arsenio Cruz-Herrera declared the First President of the Philippine Republic in a compromise between supporters of Aguinaldo and those of the late Bonifacio, with the United States' support for Herrerra playing a role. The Republic was quickly recognized as an independent state by the United States, and soon after by Russia, Spain, Egypt, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Chile, Germany, and Siam. With money and some limited supplies smuggled into the islands, the revolt grew anew as Japan found itself occupied on several other fronts.

The Philippine Republican Army would grow to 100,000 strong, and the Philippine front was labelled the greatest threat to the Japanese war effort by Secretary of War Matsutaka Masayoshi in the summer of 1897 following the Filipino victory at the Battle of Kakarong de Sili.The United States, acting through agents on the islands led by Pedro Paterno, would present to the Moro Sultanates the product of a crucial diplomatic victory in August. Progressive Houston ally Oscar Straus had been selected in 1897 to serve as the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, being chosen for what was once considered to be largely a patronage post for the crucial mission of convincing Sultan Abdul Hamid to author letters to the Muslims of the Philippines in support of the Republic, which the Sultan agreed to after a year old campaign of diplomacy, as part of which the United States agreed to grant the Ottoman Empire a series of special trade benefits. Yet, the letters were successful, and both Moro Sultanates caved in, agreeing to join the Republican forces in return for maintaining near independence. This was the final straw for Japanese control, as much of the islands fell in the ensuing "Campaign of Liberation," leaving only several large ports in Japanese hands. Among them was Manila, the island's largest city, and the setting for the most ambitious attack of the war, what some labelled the moment the tide turned.

The Capture of Manila
The decisive victories against Japan in the Philippines and the recapture of the Aleutian Islands came alongside the news of a Japanese counterattack in Tonkin, pushing Siamese and Vietnamese forces from Hanoi in a quick assault, even as Cochinchina remained indecisive. A year after he submitted it, George Dewey's ambitious plan of attack was approved, in part due to the secret assurance of the Netherlands that American ships would be ensured safe passage through the Dutch East Indies, with Dutch Prime Minister Nicolaas Pierson fearing Mitsuru and the Genyosha viewed their colonies as the next target for Japanese expansion. With the Houston Administration raising American spending, and deficits with it, to the highest point in American history, surpassing even the Civil War, the additional funds have gone largely to expansion of the Navy, both buying ships from other nations, particularly Russia and Germany, and hurrying the building of others. These additional ships and all that could be mustered were moved to Dewey, with his fleet in hiding, alternating between ports in the Dutch East Indies and German Papua. His plan had the potential to sink the anti-Japanese war effort as much as the Battle of Hawaii, yet if it succeeded, it would be a windfall, a shift in the trajectory of the Pacific War.Filipino troops were to siege Manila, while Dewey would attempt to sneak his fleet into Manila Bay and engage with the Japanese fleet there as the Philippine Republican Army assaulted the city.

If Manila could be captured, the Philippines could be considered to have fallen, and American forces would have a foothold in the Western Pacific, while Japanese forces in Vietnam could be cut off from supplies. Siamese Admirals Chonlayutthayothin and Savangwongse would play a key role in the planning, placing their neck upon the guillotine by offering to divert Japanese attention in the prelude to the attack by attacking Japanese ships in areas near the Philippines away from Dewey's fleet, risking the Siamese Navy itself in the process. On August 27th of 1898, the Philippine Republican Army began the March to Manila, reaching the city on September 19th, as Dewey's fleet began its stealthy approach and the small yet dedicated Siamese fleet launched a surprise attack upon Japanese ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, leading several ships usually stationed in Manila to be set to sail for Vietnam.In Manila, Admiral Dewa Shigetō and General Haraguchi Kensai commanded the 20,000 strong Japanese force, with 30,000 Philippine revolutionaries, commanded by Generals Emilio Aguinaldo and Santiago Alvarez, at the gates. The 38 ship strong fleet of Shigeto, largely torpedo boats, lay largely unused and was unprepared when the news of the approaching American fleet arrived. Worse for the Japanese, Filipino forces began attacking Manila with all they had. As men and women, civilians and soldiers, Japanese and Filipino, died for empire and independence on the outskirts of the city, George Dewey's fleet entered Manila Bay. His assault was quick, aiming to use his surprise edge to the best of his ability. With the U.S.S. Texas and U.S.S. Iowa, modern battleships considered the finest among the American fleet, leading the assault, Dewey moved in loops across the Bay. Attacking and then circling back to retreat, the Japanese response was swift. The ensuing battle would be barely above an hour total, with the early Japanese losses being replaced in the memory of American sailors with the somber reminder of the possibility of defeat as a Japanese ship shelled an American Cruiser. Yet, as Japanese ships descended in bursts of flame. Shigeto made a fateful decision and surrendered his fleet to Dewey. With the news of the defeat at sea, Japanese defenders of Manila began to surrender as well, as Aguinaldo raised the flag of the Philippines over its new capital.

With the capture of Manila, Japan lost control of one of its most important possessions, and one near to the Empire's heart. Dewey may not have won a victory to the extent of Togo Heihachiro's at Hawaii, but it was enough to convince the world that the United States may yet win this war. Regarding Japanese Emperor Meiji, most suspected an increasing skepticism of Toyama Mitsuru. With the capture of the Philippines, some have suggested Taiwan as the next target for American forces, yet Dewey seems poised to be ordered to the site of the war's beginning, to the sight of the greatest military defeat in American history: Hawaii. Yet, all recall what happened the last time American and Japanese ships clashed in Hawaii. Thus, as Togo Heihachiro received orders to prepare, he was confident. The next day, he knew, Americans would go to the polls to elect their congress, and for a moment he wondered if the war might end there, with an antiwar victory in those contests. As he walked out of his cabin, his mind wandered to his life, his years in the service of the Emperor, and to the whereabouts of his rival across the sea. Reaching the end of the ship's deck, he stared into the oblivion waters of the Pacific at night, appreciating the beauty of the sea he had served long upon. From wreckages leagues below, the dead stared back.

Revolt and Retreat
Korea was the first major overseas colony of the Japanese Empire, with the Rising Sun shining upon the Hermit Kingdom for nearly 15 years prior to the beginning of the Pacific War, with the Japanese annexation of Korea following the Sino-Japanese War. It had been Korea where the fuse for the Russo-Japanese War was lit, and it had been Korea where Japan first succeeded in suppressing an independence movement. Korea’s movement for independence would grow throughout the Pacific War, yet the heavy-handed Japanese tactics in preventing revolt would remain successful early on, even as the exiled House of Joseon began to gather followers. The claimant to the Korean throne, “King” Gojong was not incredibly popular by any means, yet his complete lack of power led to him becoming a point of unity for Korean nationalists, with liberals such as Yun Chi-Ho and Syngman Rhee, who had once led opposition to Gojong, now supporting a constitutional monarchy with him at its head while the Donghak religious sect Gojong had violently suppressed now considered him an ally.

The exiled King and his allies planned throughout 1898, but remained in watched exile in China. In mid-November Gojong would disappear from the watch of Japan and the world, before apparently resurfacing weeks later in Russian-backed Turkestan. This warned Japanese forces of the possibility of planning for an insurrection in Korea, yet with the Empire focusing on continuing its advance in Tonkin, the calls from Governor of Japanese Korea Kawakami Soroku for reinforcements of troops unheeded. In December, followers of the Donghak religion, largely in Northern Korea, began to organize. Japanese troops responded quickly and fighting broke out. Though officially classified by Japanese authorities as nothing more than a revolt by a cult, up to 250,000 Koreans would participate in the revolt, with over 30,000 Chinese and Russian subjects being sent over the border with their government’s implicit approval to aid in the Korean revolt, as the Russian and Chinese governments would smuggle Chinese, Russian, American, and German weapons into Korea and Manchuria.

The Japanese force in Korea numbered only 8,000 when the revolt began and was quickly overwhelmed. The thousands of well-armed Korean rebels quickly captured most of the territory south of the Yalu River, as revolt broke out in Manchuria. King Aitang, the former Prince Shanqi of the deposed Qing Dynasty, had ruled Manchuria as a Japanese puppet state named Manchukuo since the end of the Russo-Japanese War, with 4,000 Japanese troops and tens of thousands of pro-Japan Chinese troops at his service, Manchuria would be a more difficult area to capture than Korea despite bordering both Li Hongzhang’s China and the Russian Empire. On February 21st, the Empire of Korea was declared in Pyongyang, with Gojong as Emperor, even as Japan evacuated troops from Vietnam to reinvade Korea and captured the city of Pusan in the South. With the mass of rebels sent South to besiege Pusan, formal troops invaded Manchuria, failing to advance.

In Southeast Asia, Japan was forced to remove tens of thousands of troops to fight on the Korean front. Commander of Siamese forces General Surasakmontri and Vietnamese Emperor Ham Nghi would co-lead an attack on Cochinchina with the aim of capturing Saigon and would surround the city as Japan recaptured Pusan. In Tonkin, Vietnamese rebels who had once been forced into Laos by a sudden Japanese advance in mid and late 1898 were able to advance to Hanoi as the thinning Japanese contingents proved unable to stymie the Siamese and Vietnamese advance. French and Austro-Hungarian troops in Saigon would join the Japanese ranks despite the support of their governments for Japan not including actual intervention in the war, which would cause a minor international incident as the nations debates whether to order their forces to stand down.

Japanese troops would win several battles on the Korean coast, but fail to advance into the interior of the nation. Emperor Gojong would receive the recognition of Germany, the United States, Russia, China, Siam, and Spain by the end of March, while Siamese and Vietnamese troops captured Saigon on the 30th. Hanoi was surrounded on all sides, with a valiant Japanese garrison going down in their nation’s history for their refusal to surrender. Upon all fronts, Japan was on the retreat.

Spain Joins the War
The Russian Army began mobilization in March, with Tsar Nicholas openly aiding the Korean Empire and rebels in Manchuria. The efforts of Richard F. Pettigrew on behalf of Vladimir Lenin were nonetheless displaying some level of success, as many commoners in Russia resented what they viewed as their government’s reckless entry into yet another conflict. Russia would decline to formally declare war nonetheless, but it seemed a foregone conclusion. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany and the Netherlands had aided the anti-Japanese nations, while France and Austria-Hungary, both reliant upon Japan for special interest in shares of the Pacific market, aided in the Japanese war effort.

One European Empire-former Empire, to many-stood out. In the aftermath of Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American War in the 1850s and Spanish-Japanese War thirty years later, what had once been the largest colonizer in the world found itself reduced to three colonies in Africa. Yet, Spain had progressed economically and domestically under the rule of King Amadeo I and the initial disapproval of the House of Savoy had given way to support, with active movements on behalf of the deposed Queen Isabel or her grandson Alfonso XIII both largely dormant and the Carlists long defeated. Young King Emmanuel I had come to power in 1890 and played a controversial political role, intervening in elections on behalf of the Constitutionalist Party of Praxedes Mateo Sagasta against the Radicals of Emilio Castelar.

The now 74 year old Sagasta has been a stringent opponent of Spanish intervention in the Pacific War, dividing his coalition of moderate liberals and conservatives as many in the Constitutionalist Party’s more nationalistic wing desired vengeance against Japan. The assassination of conservative leader Antonio Canovas del Castillo by an anarchist in 1897 temporarily weakened the conservative wing of the alliance, but leaders would rise to take his place. With conservatives under Carlos Manuel O’Donell, the 2nd Duke of Tetuan walking out of the Constitutionalist Party in the summer of 1898, a snap election was called. The election pitted the Radicals under Emilio Castelar, the Tetuanistas of O’Donnell, and the Constitutionalists of Sagasta in a three way contest.

An ill Castelar, with an unclear position on the war, would prove to be less than a boon for his party as the Tetuanistas began to form the more formal Liberal Conservative Party. As one observer put it: “the Constitutionalists campaign upon stability, the Radicals campaign upon reform, and the Conservatives campaign upon revenge.” If that be the case, retribution would carry the day on the November 1st elections as O’Donnell became the first outright Conservative Prime Minister of Spain since the Glorious Revolution of 1868. With Sagasta and the Constitutionalists ousted, Spain declared war upon Japan on December 3rd of 1898, ordering an all-volunteer force under the command of Admiral Patricio Montojo to the Pacific.

The Micronesia Campaign
The Flying Squadron under Admiral Winfield Scott Schley was destined to fall under the command of Admiral George Dewey prior to the assault on Hawaii, yet the Houston Administration ordered the Flying Squadron to travel South to attack the South Pacific while the Department of the Navy spent millions on expanding Dewey’s fleet further. There, Schley would link up with Admiral Patricio Montojo of the Spanish fleet to lead a series of attacks upon Japanese holdings in the South Pacific. Schley and Montojo would first engage Japan in what has become known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, near the Japanese holdings in the Solomon Sea that George Dewey had nearly captured a year earlier. Expanding on Dewey’s several victories, Schley and Montojo were able to defeat the Japanese fleet under Nashiba Tokioki after a day long naval battle, before Spanish and American marines landed upon the Solomon Islands to engage the Imperial Japanese Army. Guadancanal, occurring in December of 1898, would be the largest battle of the campaign, as Montojo and Schley soon moved to the islands of Micronesia to harass Japanese ships throughout the early months of 1899. By the end of March, the Japanese Navy had been defeated in a dozen minor altercations in the region.

The Second Battle of Hawaii
In early April, George Dewey’s fleet and the Marines and soldiers under Theodore Roosevelt, would approach Hawaii from the Southeast, having circled to the South Pacific and stopped in Porto Monte in Chile before joining with Winfield Scott Schley’s Flying Squadron near Kiribati, with Montojo remaining in the South Pacific to continue the minor yet nonetheless significant campaign of small battles there. Waiting for them was Togo Heihachiro, his fleet depleted by those ordered to Korea but still numbering equal to that of Dewey. Unlike in the First Battle of Hawaii, Heihachiro and Dewey’s sailors were now of equal experience; Heihachiro’s men having been alongside him as they burned the wings of the eagle when it flew too close to the rising sun in Hawaii two years prior; yet, Dewey’s sailors had served under him at Manila Bay or under Schley in the Aleutians, having flown upon the eagle’s back and seen for themselves as the rising sun set.

Both had won victories against the other nation that had turned the tide of the war, and both were now given the opportunity to do so once more. If the Japanese fleet could prevail, the war might yet be won, and the American Navy would be dealt a defeat from which recovery was not possible. If Dewey could defeat Heihachiro, the war would be over, Japan’s greatest victory undone and the final nail in Toyama Mitsuru’s political coffin firmly in place. Heihachiro split his fleet in two on the 2nd of April, with Dewey fast approaching. Dewey would keep his fleet one, and cause controversy by removing much of Admiral Schley’s power over the Flying Squadron, centralizing his own command.

Admiral Togo would gather the entirety of the Japanese fleet in the Hawaiian Islands an attack, aiming to counter Dewey prior to his attack. The rays of the rising sun visible from a distance upon the high flying Japanese naval standard, the Japanese fleet departed at 11:15 PM on the 7th of April, the obsidian seas belying the wreckages below, two years old yet vivid in every mind across the Pacific as a memory. His fleet quickly darted South, intending to take Dewey’s flank by surprise. Near the dawn of April 8th, a 16 year old American sailor named William Halsey spotted a Japanese ship, alerting his comrades as Togo quickly attacked, destroying the U.S.S. Henry Foote minutes in and sending the second portion of his fleet to cut across the seas to attack from the other side.

Dewey acted quickly, pivoting away. With the U.S.S. Texas and U.S.S. Charles Pinckney leading the move, the American fleet circled away, yet moved in a loop to cut the Japanese fleet into two vulnerable halves; if unsuccessful, the move would result in certain defeat. American casualties were heavy, but the maneuver proved a signal triumph. The American ships were able to evade the second branch of the Japanese assault and attack from the rear flank of the Japanese fleet, encircling them as they attempted to escape. Admiral Togo quickly came to the aid of his surrounded compatriots, and was able to sink one of the premiere ships of the American fleet, the U.S.S. Iowa, but Dewey was able to evade once more, before turning back and attacking Admiral Togo’s fleet with his own as it moved from the encirclement of the breakaway from Togo.

Dewey needed to cut off the route between the two halves of the Japanese fleet, for even the once-encircled portion in chaos could devastate him if it could unite with the main fleet. Dewey cut south, followed by Heihachiro, and proceeded to move in a sudden circle, with the Japanese fleet’s route finally sealed. Ships from the damaged portion fled the scene, heading for Pearl Harbor and leaving Heihachiro with a weakened and nearly encircled fleet. Ships flitted through the water, the stars and stripes or rising sun upon them, with the glare of flames from struck vessels shining off the hulls of those spared for then. Thick smoke hung in the air, as ships released volleys of fire at one another. Sailors who had never played a role in the international intrigue surrounding Hawaii, some of whom who had never even voted, found their final resting place in a watery grave. Dewey’s voice would forever enter the history books after a sailor warned him to slow his ship over concerns regarding the possibility of Japanese torpedo boats ahead, with the Admiral shouting ''“damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Fire when you are ready!”'' Even the most skilled chess master of them all must be defeated at least once, and both Togo Heihachiro and George Dewey are nothing if not grandmasters in the art of naval warfare. Having won one o the most most spectacular victories in the history of the seas only two years prior, Heihachiro now found defeat. In an almost antiquated scene, certainly one of the final moments of the kind in history, Admiral Heihachiro and the Japanese fleet would surrender upon the seas. Aboard the Shikishima, a Japanese sailor would lower the standard of the Rising Sun and hand it to his Admiral, who looked into the eyes of his adversary, George Dewey having boarded the ship minutes before after the notice of surrender was transmitted to him. Heihachiro would go to his knees and surrender the flag to Admiral Dewey.

Dewey’s fleet would sail to Pearl Harbor the next day, quickly dispatching the few Japanese ships who refused to surrender and landing troops on the island. American sailors captured Honolulu quickly and slowly advanced through the island in the following weeks, gradually landing more troops upon other islands as their advance sped up. Togo Heihachiro’s surrender upon the open ocean to George Dewey may not have been the formal moment of Japanese acquiescence, but it was there that the American victory in the Pacific War was reached.

The Fall of Toyama Mitsuru
Since the Japanese elections of 1892, three men had wielded power beneath Emperor Meiji: far right political leader Toyama Mitsuru, elected Prime Minister in 1893; General Yamagata Aritomo, appointed Minister of War following the outset of the Pacific War; and Foreign Affairs Minister Matsutaka Masayoshi. Though lacking vast powers, secretive yet assertive Emperor Meiji remained in the wings and kept a close pulse on Japanese politics. Mitsuru had suspended elections in 1896 following the declaration of war upon the United States and Siam, with Meiji approving of the action. In opposition have been the mainstream liberals of Itagaki Taisuke and the Eastern Liberal Party of Oi Kentaro.

It is safe to say that Kentaro has regretted his role in the rise of the Japanese far-right, with Kentaro having agreed to an alliance between his hawkish left and Toyama’s ultranationalists in 1885 in a deal that guaranteed ultranationalist support for universal suffrage and worker’s rights protections in return for the left supporting the Spanish-Japanese and later Russo-Japanese Wars. Mitsuru had nonetheless quickly moved past these alliances and questioned Oi’s patriotism publicly soon after ascending to office as Prime Minister in 1893. Kentaro urged restraint in Hawaii and warned of military control of the government, epitomized by the rising influence of Yamagata Aritomo. He was arrested in 1897 on suspicions of plotting against the war effort despite his statements in favor of a swift Japanese victory in the conflict.

With the exceptions of General Aritomo and Minister Masayoshi, the ultranationalists in power in Japan have tended to be quite young, with Mitsuru only 38 when he came to power in 1893, Finance Minister Saiko Matoto only 35 in 1893, and paramilitary leader Uchida Ryohei appointed Governor of Hawaii following the outset of the Pacific War having been only 23 at the time. The older and more moderate Genro would find themselves highly critical of the Mitsuru Government, with many criticizing his handling of the Pacific War as overly driven by ideological fervor, while others noted the Genyosha’s ties to organized crime and accused Mitsuru of corruption. Emperor Meiji would make his first interventions in Japanese politics during the Pacific War to prevent the arrest of Okuma Shigenobu and several other conservative supporters of the war who nonetheless criticized Mitsuru heavily. It was from here that it became clear that Mitsuru and the Genyosha’s devotion to the Emperor was not mutual. Meiji was no democrat and was by no means an opponent of expanding his domain, but he would quickly come to consider Mitsuru unfit to govern in a time as pivotal as the Pacific War, preferring to appoint Katsura Taro or even more pragmatic Mitsuru allies such as Miura Goro or Yamagata Aritomo. As the Japanese military folded across Asia, facing a coalition dividing it between countless fronts, Meiji increasingly blocked Mitsuru from exercising his power and attempted to utilize that of the Emperor, causing disputes between the two. With the resounding defeat at the Second Battle of Hawaii, many suspected that Meiji would recall Mitsuru and dismiss parliament to appoint a new Prime Minister, allegations seemingly proven when Genro Saionji Kinmochi, a noted Mitsuru opponent, was summoned to the Imperial Palace.

In crisis, the ultranationalists’ most devoted leaders met, with Prime Minister Mitsuru and titular Hawaiian Governor Ryohei Uchida reluctantly and finally coming to the conclusion that such desperate times called for drastic measures. On April 27th, Mitsuru was summoned by Meiji, along with Aritomo and the rest of the cabinet, with Uchida following along. Before they would even arrive they would discover that parliament was dismissed and Kinmochi had been appointed the new Prime Minister. As Meiji informed Mitsuru of the dismissal, Uchida knew the time for his plan’s execution had arrived-the time the Emperor’s execution and, to many, the execution of an incarnation of the divine. Uchida pulled a pistol and fired, the Emperor grasping his side and stumbling as a flurry of shots from Meiji’s guards brought Uchida to the ground.

Meiji would be seriously injured but survive despite it, with Kinmochi taking the reins of government for the time being. With the news of the fall of the final Japanese garrison in the Philippines reaching his desk on his first day, every military leader reporting defeat, and Russia and China preparing for war, he would come to a fateful conclusion. To maintain control over some vestiges of Empire, Japan must accept defeat. On May 4th, 1899, Kinmochi proposed a ceasefire to the Houston Administration, which accepted on the 7th. And thus, as one leader sought to save an empire and another sought to build one, would negotiations commence.

The Treaty of Hong Kong
With most major powers having taken sides, the primary options for Treaty negotiation were Brazil, the British Empire, Egypt, or Belgium, with the British colony of Hong Kong being chosen after some debate, and negotiations would begin on the 5th of May, 1899.

The Japanese diplomatic delegation consisted of former Education Minister Ryuichi; former Foreign Minister Aoki Shuzo; Foreign Minister Komura Jutaro; former Ambassador to the United States Takahira Kogoro; Parliamentarian Inukai Tsuyoshi; former Prime Minister Itagaki Taisuke; former Foreign Minister Kuroda Kiyotaka; and former Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi, as well as a handful of minor diplomatic aids. Though not ultranationalistic, the Japanese negotiators were all supporters of expansion, yet chosen for their mix of pragmatic realism and support for further modernizations.The Siamese delegation was led by Foreign Minister and Prince Devawongse Varoprakar, Interior Minister Damrong Rajanubhab, and General Surasakmontri himself, while Black Flag Army leaders Tang Jingsong and Liu Hongfu were permitted to attend alongside declared Vietnamese Emperor Ham Nghi, while not being granted full recognition as a combatant; similar rules were imposed upon Russian observer Nikolai Golitsyn, German observer Theodor von Holleben, and the Korean delegation led by King Gojong himself. General Emilio Aguinaldo, Foreign Minister Pedro Paterno, Speaker of the Assembly Felipe Buencamino, and President Arsenio Cruz-Herrerra. The delegation was highly controversial, among the other delegations due to Japan's initial refusal to negotiate with the Philippines, and among Filipinos for the role the United States played in the selection of Houston allies Paterno and Buencamino, with many fearing that the annexation of the Philippines might be pressed at the negotiation table. The Spanish delegation was small, including Conservative Party Parliamentarians Antonio Maura and Fransisco Silvela, as well as Radical leader Nicolas Sameron and former Prime Minister Emilio Castelar, who died several weeks into the talks. Finally came the American delegation. Led by Secretary of State Shelby M. Cullom, it included former Colorado Senator Henry Teller, a pro-Houston Farmer-Laborite; former Nevada Senator William M. Stewart, the son-in-law of former President Henry Foote and a perennial party switcher; former Alabama Representative John Tyler Morgan, a notorious race baiter; former New York Senator Elihu Root, a conservative Houston opponent who nonetheless accepted the choice due to his support for expansion; and former President Edward S. Bragg, chosen despite being 72 years of age. The delegation was expansionist to the core despite its multi-partisan representation, quickly indicating beyond any doubt the goal of the Houston Administration. The proceedings of the treaty negotiations were officially kept under wraps, yet snippets that have escaped may paint for us a picture of the discussions that led to what many consider to be the most controversial treaty in American history.

First came the least controversial issue, Hawaii. With the United States Congress having long approved the annexation of the islands and the Japanese defeat at the Second Battle of Hawaii sealing their fate, all parties agreed quickly to recognize the American annexation of Hawaii. All parties were next able to agree upon recognition of Siamese control over Cambodia and Laos, yet Vietnamese independence would prove the first point of contention, as the Siamese delegation argued that Vietnam should be recognized by the Treaty to be a protectorate of Siam.Emperor Ham Nghi and the Vietnamese disagreed sharply, noting that Vietnamese rebels had taken the bulk of casualties on the Southeast Asian front. Senator Stewart and Ito Hirobumi would propose the eventual compromise proposal, wherein Japan relinquished all control over Vietnam as per the treaty, while permitting further negotiations between the Vietnamese and Siamese governments in the coming three years to settle the question once and for all. John Tyler Morgan would attempt to move for the annexation of Formosa by the United States, yet despite winning some support among American negotiators, the plan would be defeated quickly due to the lack of any American military presence on the island. Manchuria and Korea would prove the greatest debate within the walls of the negotiating rooms themselves, with the Kinmochi Government demanding that Japanese sovereignty over both be recognized. The American and Siamese delegations, neither of which cared for the Korean situation much, might have agreed to the demands if not for the efforts of Dr. Soh Jaipil, a Korean-American whose efforts to promote the cause of Korean independence in American newspapers as a part of the Pacific War effort found their way into the New York Tribune and the papers of William Randolph Hearst, leading many Americans to support the struggle for Korean independence. Hirobumi would reiterate the demands of the Japanese government, but Secretary Cullom would demand otherwise, while stating his willingness to allow Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula to remain in Japanese hands. The meetings would remain at an impasse for eight days, with harsh words exchanged and voices often raised, until the sheer number of rebels in Korea compared to the strength of the Japanese military led Hirobumi to digress and request Prime Minister Kinmochi and Emperor Meiji for the right to grant Korea independence on the condition that it not interfere with Japanese routes to Manchuria through the Liaodong Peninsula, which was reluctantly granted, and that Japan would be granted sovereignty over the coastal city of Pusan and the portion of Korea bordering Russia, ensuring that the Korean Empire would border only Japan.

The debate over the Philippines and American sovereignty over many of the smaller Pacific islands now under the banner of Japan would be the most contentious issue domestically, yet the former issue would hardly be one at the Hong Kong summit itself, as the Japanese delegation consented to the American annexation of the Philippines. Filipino negotiator Emilio Aguinaldo would be enraged, calling it betrayal as he found that the American allied Filipino delegates and the entire American delegation had met to formulate the annexation plan. He would wire his allies in the Philippines in a leaked telegram to prepare militarily for a "second war of independence, if need be." With the Japanese economy severely weakened, the Houston Administration's agreement to paying $20,000,000 to the Japanese government in return for recognition of American sovereignty over the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Gilbert Islands, Guam, Marshall Islands, and Wake Island would lead Hirobumi to agree to the concessions. With that, the treaty departed from the realm of diplomats and entered the realm of politicians, as the governments of Siam, Vietnam, and the United States debated on the sufficiency of terms of acceptance.

Battle in the Senate
The Treaty of Hong Kong, released on July 13th of 1899, ignited a firestorm of debate across the United States. Whitelaw Reid and William Randolph Hearst would see their papers unite in a surprising editorial coalition in favor of the Treaty, while the Anti-Imperialist League would bring its efforts to an apogee in opposition to the Treaty. As per the constitution, the treaty would need 64 votes in the United States Senate for ratification, inspiring what has been called the greatest Senate debate since free silver as ideology, patronage, and rhetoric abounded in a contest over the nature of American foreign policy. Four Federal Republican Senators were definite opponents: Thomas B. Reed and Eugene Hale, both anti-imperialist conservatives of Maine, Charles Sumner protege George Frisbie Hoar, and progressive Georgist Hazen S. Pingree. The longest serving member of Congress in history, Vermont's Justin F. Morrill was expected to lead opposition to the treaty despite his age, but died during negotiations. Counterbalanced by them were pro-Treaty Liberal Senators Henry C. Warmoth of Cuba, Tyre York of North Carolina, and James E. O'Hara, also of North Carolina. William Jennings Bryan and Richard F. Pettigrew joined hands to form a united anti-imperialist front, with every Senate Farmer-Laborite except for pro-Houston James H. Kyle of South Dakota joining them in opposition to the Treaty. This left 64 votes in favor, yet all it would take would be a single Federal Republican defection to defeat the Treaty.

The votes considered unsure were George L. Wellington of Maryland, a progressive skeptic of the imperial policy yet one who stated his support for the treaty as a temporary measure and Senate Caucus Chairman David B. Hill of New York, an anti-imperialist in views who nonetheless is notoriously allied with New York political machines and could be held in the pro-treaty camp by promises of patronage. With these two Federal Republicans the target of Farmer-Labor efforts, Bryan and Pettigrew would savvily permit the anti-treaty Federal Republicans to lead the fight in practice while allowing Farmer-Laborites to largely speak for their party's base and to attempt to win the battle of public opinion through the papers. President Houston would kick off the senate debate with a joint address to both houses, declaring "We cannot leave the Philippines to themselves-they are unfit for self-government-and would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Japan's was. There is nothing left for us to do but take them all and educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them."

Congressional debate
William Jennings Bryan, already preparing a second campaign for the presidency, would respond in a fiery senate speech as debate began the next day, responding "Those who would have this nation enter upon a career of empire must consider not only the effect of imperialism on the Filipinos, but they must also calculate its effects upon our own nation. We cannot repudiate the principle of self-government in the Philippines without weakening that principle here." His speech would be reprinted by the Anti-Imperialist League and sent across the nation in pamphlet form, while serving as a controversial starting point for the senate clash. David B. Hill would remain largely silent, weighing his conscience against his machine, and was judged by the New York World on July 27th to be willing to sink the Treaty. The next Monday the 29th, Henry Cabot Lodge and a group of pro-treaty Federal Republicans moved within the party caucus to elect a new Chairman "if current leadership fails to measure up to the platform of our party"; a clear threat aimed for Hill if he was to vote against the treaty. While the motion was rejected, several who opposed it, such as Virginia's Nathan Goff, stated their support for such a move if Hill were to vote against the Treaty.

Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, George Hoar's colleague yet his determined opponent, as well as the 1896 Federal Republican nominee for the Vice Presidency, would deliver among the most famous addresses on behalf of the pro-treaty faction on the 1st of August, 1899. His mellifluous voice carrying over the packed Senate chamber, a gleam in his eyes, he began on a note of patriotism, stating "You may call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was born, an American I have remained all my life [...] I have loved but one flag." Lodge defended the annexations as fruits of a just war, describing the loss of life as "the price which the English-speaking race has paid for being world conquerors. " Beginning then, he would add to his words the touch of a visionary, one attempting to plot a course for his nation and its ideals. "Standing, as I believe the United States stands for humanity and civilization, we should exercise every influence of our great country duty and interest alike, duty of the highest kind and interest of the highest and best kind, impose upon us the retention of the Philippines, the development of the islands, and the expansion of our Eastern commerce." Lodge argued that an imperial power would inevitably conquer the Pacific, asking "Contrast the United States with any country on the face of the earth today and ask yourself whether the situation of the United States is not the best to be found," elaborating on what he meant, he proceeded, "Strong, generous, and confident, she has nobly served mankind." His vision posited, he concluded with a warning, "Beware how you trifle with your marvellous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin! Suppose we reject the Treaty. We continue the state of war. We repudiate the President. We are branded as a people incapable of taking rank as one of the greatest of world powers!" Socialist journalist Charles Edward Russell would confront David B. Hill on the steps of congress later that day, finally coaxing him to state support for the treaty. Russell asked whether Hill thought he would remain Chairman of the Federal Republican caucus, with the New Yorker replying cryptically “Yes, I will be still...very still.” Russell would pore over his writing desk that night on an article entitled “A Senator Betrays His Conscience,” accusing Senator Hill of committing a crime against his conscience by pledging to vote for a treaty against his ideals, which would be spread across New York with the aid of the Anti-Imperialist League.

Backed by the cadre of anti-treaty Senators, George F. Hoar introduced an amendment to the treaty on the 3rd, which would serve as the point of debate for the next section of the ratification battle. The amendment stipulated that the United States ceded any claims to additional territory and voided the payment to Japan. Hoar's opening speech in favor of the amendment was lengthy, yet well summarized in his closing, in which he declared "My proposition, summed up in a nutshell, is this: I admit you have the right to acquire territory for constitutional purposes, and you may hold land and govern men on it for the constitutional purpose of a seat of government or for the constitutional purpose of admitting it as a state. I deny the right to hold land or acquire any property for any purpose not contemplated by the Constitution. The government of foreign people against their will is not a constitutional purpose but a purpose expressly forbidden by the Constitution. Therefore I deny the right to acquire this territory and to hold it by the government for that purpose. Now, I claim that under the Declaration of Independence you cannot govern a foreign territory, a foreign people, another people than your own; that you cannot subjugate them and govern them against their will, because you think it is for their good, when they do not; because you think you are going to give them the blessings of liberty." The final words of Hoar's argument were moral, as the 73 year old looked upon the chamber he had spent decades in "You have no right at the cannon's mouth to impose on an unwilling people your Declaration of Independence and your Constitution and your notions of freedom and notions of what is good." Progressive Michigander Hazen S. Pingree followed Hoar, arguing that "this war was begun in the interest of humanity," and arguing that the treaty's passage would devastate such sentiment. Rebuffing Hoar and Pingree would be a 37 year progressive from Indiana quickly gaining notoriety, Albert J. Beveridge, with his "March of the Flag" speech to the senate. Senator Beveridge began by hailing the United States as the land of god, stating "fellow-Americans, we are God's chosen people", before moving to the past, stating that "it is a glorious history our God has bestowed upon His chosen people; a history whose keynote was struck by the Liberty Bell; a history heroic with faith in our mission and our future; a history of statesmen, who flung the boundaries of the Republic out into unexplored lands and savage wildernesses; a history of soldiers who carried the flag across blazing deserts and through the ranks of hostile mountains, even to the gates of sunset; a history of a multiplying people, who overrun a continent in half a century; a history divinely logical, in the process of whose tremendous reasoning we find ourselves today." The speech's opening was enough to draw the attention of every onlooker intently upon the Indiana Senator as he continued, ''"this question is larger than a party question. It is an American question. It is a world question. Shall the American people continue their resistless march toward the commercial supremacy of the world? Shall free institutions broaden their blessed reign as the children of liberty wax in strength until the empire of our principles is established over the hearts of all mankind? Have we no mission to perform–no duty to discharge to our fellow-man?".''

Beveridge then set forth the lines that would bestow upon the speech its name, his intellectual air and sonorous voice holding his audience*, "The march of the flag! In 1789 the flag of the Republic waved over 4,000,000 souls in thirteen States, and this a savage territory which stretched to the Mississippi, to Canada, to the Floridas. The timid minds of that day said that no new territory was needed, and, for the hour, they were right. But under the lead of Jefferson we the territory which sweeps from the Mississippi to the mountains, from Texas to the British possessions, and the march of the flag began. The infidels to the gospel of liberty raved, but the flag swept on. The title to that noble land out of which Oregon, Washington, Shoshone, and Montana have been carved was uncertain. Jefferson obeyed the Anglo-Saxon impulse within him and another empire was added the Republic and the march of the flag went on. Those who deny the power of free institutions to expand urged every argument, and more, that we hear to-day, but the march of the flag went on. Texas responded to the bugle calls of liberty and the march of the flag went on. And at last we waged war with Mexico and Spain and the flag swept over the Southwest and Caribbean, over peerless California, past the Gate of Gold to Oregon on the north, to the shores of Havana, and from ocean to ocean its folds of glory blazed. And now, obeying the same voice that Jefferson, Johnson, Foote heard and obeyed, Houston and Dix heard and obeyed, Aaron Burr Houston plants the flag over the islands of the sea, and the march of the flag goes on."*

Beveridge continued the speech with praises for the administration of President Houston, before turning to address the anti-treaty Senators directly, his eyes meeting those of Richard F. Pettigrew and Thomas B. Reed for a moment as he spoke, arguing that the people of the Philippines were unprepared for self rule: "The opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I answer, the rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government. We govern the Indians without their consent; we govern our territories without their consent; we govern our children without their consent. I answer, would not the natives of the Philippines prefer the just, humane, civilizing government of this Republic to the savage, bloody rule of pillage and extortion from which we have rescued them?"

Beveridge went for the attack against anti-imperialists as he concluded, while hailing the rule of President Houston, accusing opponents of the treaty of fighting on minor matters and declaring ''"There are so many real things to be done–canals to be dug, railways to be laid, forests to be felled, cities to be builded, unviolated fields to be tilled, priceless markets to be won, ships to be launched, peoples to be saved, civilization to be proclaimed and the flag of liberty flung to the eager air of every sea. Is this an hour to waste upon triflers with Nature’s laws? Is this a season to give our destiny over to word mongers and prosperity wreckers? It is an hour to remember your duty to the home. It is a moment to realize the opportunities Fate has opened to this favored people and to you. It is a time to bethink you of the conquering march of the flag. It is a time to bethink you of your Nation and its sovereignty of the seas. It is a time to remember that the God of our fathers is our God and that the gifts and the duties He gave to them, enriched and multiplied, He renews to us, their children. It is a time to sustain that devoted man, servant of the people and of the most high God, who is guiding the Republic out into the ocean of infinite possibility. It is a time to cheer the beloved President of God’s chosen people, till the whole world is vocal with American loyalty to the American government of Aaron Burr Houston, its head and chief." Louisiana Liberal Donelson Caffery's speech in response hardly warrants a mention in comparison, yet it notable for his quotation of an anti-imperialist newspaper in stating "the Republic of George Washington has become a band of corsairs," declaring Filipino Republican Army General Emilio Aguinaldo to be "the George Washington of the Antipodes, as peerless a heart beats in the heart of that young Malay as ever pulsated in the breast of that Great Virginian."'' The Hoar Amendment would be voted down, with 62 votes in opposition to 34 in support. Senator Hill voted in support yet stated that he would support the final treaty nonetheless, leaving the burden upon the shoulders of Senator George Wellington. In a humorous remark as Congress adjourned for the day, Maine Senator Thomas Brackett Reed would quip that Henry Cabot Lodge was "thin soil highly cultivated," and portraying other imperialists as "Emperors of expediency"; referring to their economic arguments, Reed joked that "it is to be expected, the treaty will make a large market for gravestones". Yet, underneath the witty Mainer's demeanor lay a worry, as it seemed that the tides were fully on the side of the imperialists, as George Wellington seemed reluctantly willing to support the treaty.

The debate continued over the next week, with most every Senator entering at one time or another. Minnesota Senator Knute Nelson would declare that "Providence has given the United States the duty of extending Christian civilization. We come as ministering angels, not despots," leading Richard F. Pettigrew to enter the debate on the floor of Congress for the first time, mocking the imperial policy by comparing Houston to the marauding kings of the Bible, "The cry that we have entered upon our imperial course in order to benefit the native populations in the lands that we have conquered is an old one. I have before me Houston's proclamation to the Filipinos, and I have placed it side by side with a proclamation of the King of Assyria, written eighteen hundred years before Christ. A man would think that Houston had plagiarized the idea from Asshurbanipal." Pettigrew, taking his sole opportunity to speak, would go farther, asking ''"By what right are we there? By no right that can be defended before God or man! We are there as conquerers. We are there as armed banditti that would enter your premises and we have no more right to be there than the bandit does in your home."''

Ohio Senator William McKinley would reply by explaining his view of the reasoning behind the annexation, positing four reasons that he stated he had realized in a dream: "(1) That we could not give them back to Japan- that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany, our commercial rivals in the Orient - that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) The we could not leave them to themselves - they were unfit for self-government, and they would soon have anarchy and misrule worse then Japan's was; and (4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educated the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died." Wellington avoided journalists as he left Congress, yet most on both sides conceded that he would likely vote for the Treaty.

John D. White did not enjoy the Supreme Court. He had played a crucial role in federally declaring segregation unconstitutional, as well as enforcement of prohibition, yet the fiery orator and controversial lightning rod of American politics took little joy in a quiet role as a Justice, restrained by the precedent of the Supreme Court. White opposed imperialism strongly and was despondent at the conversion of many of his former progressive allies such as Theodore Roosevelt to the cause. That night, White visited the home of one of his former colleagues in the progressive revolt against Federal Republican orthodoxy. Arriving at 9 PM, he would not leave until nearly 2 in the morning, as the Justice and the Midwestern Senator talked long into the night. The next day, the showdown over the Treaty would come to a head.

The defection
August 23rd, 1899, Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont moved to end debate on the Treaty of Hong Kong and move the senate to a vote. The motion was carried by a vote of 60 to 36, with several imperialist Senators such as California's Lyman Gage voting against to encourage debate. The move took the anti-Treaty forces by surprise, with Pettigrew accusing the Administration of bribery, a charge New Jersey Senator Garret Hobart would label "ridiculous." The vote thus proceeded, as Senators rose to pace to the center of the floor, with imperialists carrying every expected vote, as well as that of eccentric Farmer-Labor Florida Senator Cyrus Teed, making it seem as though the Treaty's passage was guaranteed. Before Wellington or Hill, the roll call came to a recently elected Senator from Wisconsin, formerly the state's Governor and an ally of John D. White as a member of Congress: Robert La Follette. La Follette was considered a sure vote for the Treaty, with the 44 year old progressive's friendship with Senator McKinley and past record of support for President Houston leading him to be largely ignored through the debate.

Audible gasps were heard as La Follette announced his vote: no. Lodge and other pro-treaty Senators exchanged glances, with Senator Pettigrew smiling proudly as he looked on. When David B. Hill was called, he cast his vote against the Treaty, a look of determination upon his face. With that, the Treaty was defeated, with George Wellington's vote in opposition placing the final nail in its coffin. As the Senators left the floor, 81 year old Anti-Imperialist League President George S. Boutwell would leap from his seat with whatever vigor the octogenarian could muster, taking La Follette by the hand. Elsewhere, La Follette was denounced heartily. While not up for re-election until 1905, groups formed already to oppose La Follette and promote a plethora of candidates in his place, former President Edward S. Bragg among them. The Houston Administration had previously thrown its weight behind La Follette in Wisconsin, as well as Wellington in Maryland and Pingree in Michigan. Houston shifted, announcing support for Representative Philips Lee Goldsborough for Senate in 1901 rather than Wellington while granting Administration appointments to the supporters of Michigan's Russell A. Alger rather than Pingree. Robert La Follette's supporters on the Federal Republican national party infrastructure were largely in approval of his policy, yet a similarly progressive while imperialist faction led by Isaac Stephenson was granted the Administration's favor.

Within the Federal Republican Senate caucus, Henry Cabot Lodge quickly came to lead the effort to overthrow Hill. Although Pennsylvania Senator Matthew S. Quay, New York Senator Thomas C. Platt, and other imperialists remained loyal to hill, 63 year old California Senator Lyman J. Gage defeated him for Chairmanship of the Senate Federal Republican Caucus by a vote of 17 to 47, with opponents of Hill led by Theodore Roosevelt organizing within New York to topple the Tammany Hall boss.

The Treaty of Lisbon
With the Treaty of Hong Kong defeated, the Houston Administration opted to negotiate a new Treaty rather than pass the treaty with an anti-imperialist Amendment. With every other nation endorsing the Treaty, the negotiations for a second Treaty for the United States. Meanwhile, the endorsement of Filipino independence by Admiral George Dewey has further damaged supporters of expansion. Yet, Houston had not given up in his scheme for the annexation of the Philippines, and ensured that the American delegation, of the same composition as before, would work to prevent the recognition of an independent Republic of the Philippines in the Treaty. The $20,000,000 payment and all sections relating to Pacific Islands other than the Philippines were removed, but a compromise was come to similar to that on the issue of Siamese control over Vietnam. The Treaty of Lisbon, negotiated between only the United States and Japan in Portugal, has required Japan to cede the Philippines while omitting mention of control of the islands. Accepted by the Senate, the Treaty has set the stage for continued efforts from the Houston Administration to negotiate an end to Philippine independence with the Katipunan, yet all efforts had failed, leaving the issue of expansion at a stalemate.