The Power Elite Playbook, Burn All, Steal All, Kill All!

The reason Japan fared so well in the Treaty of Portsmouth is that an agreement (Taft-Katsura Agreement) was made on July 27, 1905 in a confidential meeting held in Tokyo between Japanese Prime Minister Katsura and U.S. Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. The U.S. agreed that Japan could colonize Korea if Japan relinquished the resource-rich Philippines to U.S. dominance. This secret agreement with Japan violated our friendship agreement with Korea signed in Incheon on May 22, 1882, negotiated after our assault on Korea on June 10, 1871, known as Shinmiyangyo (Western Disturbance of the Year Sinmi year), during which about 350 Koreans and three Americans died.6