JAPAN'S AIMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24084, 1 October 1941, Page 3

JAPAN'S AIMS

DEEAM AND REALITY RELATIONS WITH AXIS "NEW ORDER" IN EAST ASIA Japanese foreign policy during the past year is reviewed in the following article by the lokio correspondent of the Times. Mr. Matsuoka, whose views on Japan's "mission" are quoted, was recently -replaced in the Japanese Cabinet. With Prince Fumimaro Konoye as Prime Minister and Mr. Yosuke Matsuoka as Foreign Minister a new Japanese Cabinet was called to power a year ago to cope with the world situation resulting from the seemingly irresistible sweep of Hitler's legions, which had already engulfed the Lowlands and France and which, in the minds of most Japanese at the time, spelled the doom of the British Empire as well. To Japan, and especially to the new Cabinet, this situation presented a potential danger and a "God-sent opportunity." The potential danger was that a permanent Gorman conquest of the Netherlands, France and Great Britain would set adrift vast territories in the Pacific which Germany might claim by ■ right of conquest, and thus spread her pfiwer to the Far East. The "God-sent opportunity" was to collect all these territories under the rapidly spreading wings of Japan and thereby realise at one grand sweep all the dreams her statesmen have dreamed through the centuries—namely, Japanese dominion of all Eastern Asia. Share of the Spoils Acting on such an estimate of the world situation the second Konoye Cabinet decided to join those whom it regarded as prospective victors, in order to obtain their consent in advance to Japan's sharing in the spoils and to use them to eliminate the remaining obstacles in the Japanese path. For" that purpose it did two things:— 1. It concluded a military alliance with Germany and Italy which formally recognised ''the leadership of Japan in the establishment of a new order in Greater East Asia," in return for which Japan not only recognised German and Italian leadership in Europe, but pledged herself to assist her allies with all political, economic and military means if they should be attacked by a "Power not at present involved in the European war," meaning America. 2. It proclaimed a "new structure" at home for the creation of a "highdegree defence State" along the totalitarian lines adopted by the prospective victors, which appeared to be the outlines of the "wave of the future." The alliance and the "new structure" have since been the pivots for Japanese foreign and domestic policies, which seemed in perfect accord with the fundamental traditions and convictions of the country. "To Save Humanity" Proud of her "peerless polity" based on Shinto fundamentalism, which predicates the lineal descent of the TennoEmperor from the Sun Goddess and conceives a world order based on hierarchal and patriarchal principles supported by the might of the Warrior, Japan believes in power politics and her own world mission, and her concept of the two has just been formulated by Mr. Matsuoka himself in a new book in which he writes:— "I firmly believe that the great mission _ which heaven has imposed on Japan is to save humanity. In conformity with the great spirit in which P]mperor Jimmu founded the empire, Japan should take over the management of the continent on a large scale, propagate Hakko Ichiu (literally translated, 'eight corners under one roof,' meaning that all the world is one household) and the W'ay of the Emperor, and then "extend it all over the world." The resemblance to the Nazi ideology_ is evident. It is also evident that during the past year these policies have made considerable progress and scored some substantial successes. Yet it was soon seen that they had very definite limitations, set in foreign policy by the refusal of the British Empire to collapse and American indifference to intimidation, and in domestic policy by the nature of the Japanese polity itself. They proved to be as serious a miscalculation as the "China incident." Wide Scope of Ambitions The Triple Alliance, made sacrosanct by an Imperial Rescript which put it beyond challenge within Japan, -was used to launch the "Greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere" under the slogan of "liberation of Greater East Asia from the shackles of white capitalism and imperialism," Mr. Matsuoka himself declared that "the outlines will be made clear in perhaps 30 years, and it will begin to bear fruit in about 50 years." . " According to unofficial but authoritative pronouncements the "co-prosper- - ity sphere" includes everything between the dateline of the ISOth meridian and the Arabian Sea, which would embrace India, Malaya, Australia and half the world's population. The future form is indicated in the structure of Manchukuo as a nominally independent empire under Japanese control, and in the "victor's peace terms" outlined in the Japan Times and Advertiser, a Foreign Office organ, demanding the demilitarisation of all British and American strongholds from Gibraltar to Hawaii, the 'independence and self-government" • of all European possessions in the Pacific, and the appointment of Japanese advisers to their governments "to rationalise their forms of co-operation within the sphere of co-prosperity." The Konoye Cabinet fully subscribed to the Nazi proposition that the world should be divided into four or five blocs: the German-Italian embracing all continental Europe and Africa, the Soviet embracing presumably additional parts of eastern and cental Asia, the American embracing North and South America, a British Empire bloc if the British consent to a compromise peace, and the Greater East Asia bloc under Japanese leadership. Unexpected Difficulties In pursuit of this aim Japan has put new vigour into her war against General Chiang Kai-shek, and is likewise trying to strengthen the Nanking regime of Wang Ching-wei in a "peace movement" designed to win over the Chinese masses, district by district. by improving their livelihood. To the same end she marched her troops into French Indo-China, forced mediation of the territorial dispute with Thailand, and concluded a trade agreement which paves the way for Japanese exploitation of French Indo-China resources. Beyond that, however, the policy struck two snagS: the continued resistance of Chiang Kai-shek and the attitude of the Netherlands Fast Indies. Japan rightly suspects that behind both stand Great Britain and the United States. According to Mr. Kumataro Honda, Ambassador to Nanking, American help has blasted all efforts to reach a compromise peace with Chiang Kai-shek. undertaken by "peace brokers" at Shanghai, and the .JapanI ese press is vehement in denouncing the Dutch Government as a mere "puppet" lof the Anglo-American camp. Japan thus faces the necessity of reaching a settlement with Great Britain and the United States before she can proceed with her plans, or even'extricate herself from the imbroglio in China. Numerous suggestions have been advanced with that object, but all efforts have so far failed. • >u a In holding fast to its policies the Konove Cabinet has had to hold fast to the theorv of ultimate British and American defeat. Though the Japanese press is loud in declaring that such defeat is inevitable, to must 1 these assertions have acquired a hollow jg ring, and many begin to suspe if|| Japan has jumped into the wron o 'jljH