JAPAN'S HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL

NZ Truth, Issue 1029, 15 August 1925, Page 1

JAPAN'S HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL

And History Has a Way of Repeating 1 Itself I^HE situation m the Far East confronting the AVash- * ington Arms Conference, 1922,. was exceedingly difficult, mainly because of the unprecedented; rapidity of the rise of Japan. The reason was that* within 67 years Japan had shown intelligence, energy, imperialistic ability and commercial ambition to a greater degree than 'any •other nation on the earth. Her way to becoming the Great Britain of the East seemed sure when, m 1898, the Ignited States suddenly * captured the Philippine , Islands. In a moment the whole probable future of Japan was changed for the worse. No longer was Japan the only civilised and commercial nation on the coast of Asia. A competitor had appeared. A highly commercial nation now possessed islands.. nearly as large as Japan herself, covered". with a more fertile soil, and containing better harbors. Those harbors could be used as bases for both commercial and naval operations along the whole shore of Asia. ■ Later, m 1905, Japan had vanquished one of the greatest nations of the carth — Russia— in a war, conducted on both land and sea. Not long after this she acquired the whole of Korea. Since .then she has gradually been extending her influence throughout the whole of Eastern Asia,, including Manchuria, Mongolia, Sakalin, and (most important' of all) China. { So long as Japan was an isolated country she lived m peace. But m forty years after she ceased to be an isolated country she was at war with China. Ten years later she was at war with Russia. Ten years' later she was at war with Germany. And when the time comes she can easily force war with the United States by seizing the more or less defenceless Philippines.. :