JAPANESE AIMS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 85, 4 January 1941, Page 5

JAPANESE AIMS

Avoiding War With U.S.A.

WATCH ON PACIFIC LONDON, December 20. “I have returned from a visit to Japan with the rather definite conviction that Japan and the United States are not so close to war as is generally believed,” states the Shanghai correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” “All the old hazards and conflicts are still there, and so is the great problem of whether the United States will fight rather than permit Japan to expand southward. However, Japan’s strength and weaknesses, and her fears and ambitions, stand out in bolder relief than ever before.” Japan’s actions in the Pacific are being closely watched and calculated in authoritative quarters here, and the general reaction to the speech made by the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Matsuoka, is that he intended to warn the United States that Japan would stand by her pact with the Axis, but at the same time to appeal to America to keep out of the European war and avoid a dash with Japan in the Pacific. The correspondent adds that most observers in the Far East agree that, if a conflict occurs between Japan and America, it will be the result of one or both of the following contingencies: First, a bold Japanese thrust into the South Pacific; or, second, America’s entry into the European war. He adds: “Even if Japan’s grandiose programme of Asiatic hegemony and economic self-sufficiency runs according to schedule, it would be at least. 10 years before she could hope to battle with the United States on anything like even terms. Yet, despite these sober facts, the Japanese people are more determined than ever to go through with their programme in the Orient, and find an end in glory or failure. Economic Pressure Effective. “No amount of non-mllitary pressure will deflect the Japanese from their ultimate aims, though it is apparent that American economic and political pressure has already produced positive results. It has greatly slowed up Japan’s productive capacity, and has helped to dislocate her economic system. It also has certainly impeded or delayed her advance southward. “However, so anxious are the Japanese to avoid an armed conflict with the United States at present that they will probably tolerate almost any amount of American economic flagellation without going to war. “There is always the danger that economic pressure might precipitate a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies. This would become a probability should the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya shut off Japan’s supplies of oil and iron ore. “The conviction is growing in Japan that the life or death of Japan depends on a German victory in Europe.”