Increasing Militarization
The Washington Naval Treaty had restricted the size of the Japanese Navy, and had also stipulated that new military bases and fortifications could not be established in overseas territories or colonies. However, by the 1920s, Japan had already begun the secret construction of fortifications in Palau, Tinian and Saipan.
In order to evade monitoring by the western powers, they were camouflaged as places to dry fishing nets or coconut, rice or sugar cane farms and Nan'yo Kohatsu Kaisha (South Seas Development Company) in cooperation with the Navy assumed responsibility for construction.
This construction increased after the even more restrictive London Naval Treaty of 1930, and the growing importance of military aviation led Japan to view Micronesia to be of strategic importance as a chain of “unsinkable aircraft carriers”, protecting Japan, and as a base of operations for operations in south-west Pacific.
The Navy also began examining the strategic importance of Papua and New Guinea to Australia, aware that Australian annexation of those territories was motivated in large part in the attempted to secure an important defense line.
Read more about this topic: "Strike South" Group
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