NEW JAPAN AND OLD.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 January 1927, Page 6

NEW JAPAN AND OLD.

In one way the death of the Emperor of Japan can have little more significance to the average Now Zealander than the passing of a ship in the night along the American shore has to the average New Yorker. We arc too far away and too little in touch with that wonderful Nation of the land of cherry blossom to realise the meaning of the sentiments which arise in the heart of the Nipponese on. the demise of their Mikado. In another way, however, we may have reason to remember the succession of the new Emperor Hirohito. The Pacific is undoubtedly the stage whereon will be played the drama of the future. Part of the dramatic personae will be undoubtedly Japan and New Zealand. At the present time Japan is poor, but is rapidly regaining her lost ground. Her statesmen arc keenly interested in countries like New Zealand, which are thinly populated, and which contain unlimited possibilities for the exploitation of the natural resources of the land. Japan needs colonics, and although to the outward and visible eye peace is her purpose, and peaceful protestations periodically emanate from the powers that govern, yet certain fundamental characteristics and facts there be which should make everyone interested in the future of our race have grave misgivings as to the ultimate result of Japan’s imperialism. Japan is the last country in the world when the "right divine of kings” is still in undisputed possession of the mind and temper of the populace. The crowds which throng the streets of Tokio to-day will have a sense of mourning for their departed Emperor which will bo really and deeply felt. This sense of loyalty and deep patriotism is what makes Japan have such potential danger as a world power. Add to this her great fighting instincts and ability, her Oriental trielessnessj energy and cunning, and her teeming population and you have all the ingredients of a lirst-class menace to the peace of the world. What she is going to dc up against, however, is’Bolshevik Influence. Japan will have her labour troubles and her internal disturbances traceable to Sovietism just as Britain and her colonies have felt and will continue to feel Moscovian agitation. What the effect will be of this influence, combined with the modernising in-: fluence of western education and western ideas which her younger men are gradually absorbing, it is difficult to surmise. Perhaps the overthrow of the divine right of kings in general and of emperors in particular. The wonder of Japan’s casting aside of her antiquity and of her donning of western clothes, her rise from primitive mediaevalism to rank among the world powers—all within two reigns must not be forgotten. The nation that was capable of such rapid transformation; is capable of equally other great changes. Her adaptability is chameleonic. A great deal will depend on the influence a young man of -25 years of age, now sitting in the highest place in the land, will have on his present wonderfully loyal and abject subjects.