THE MEANING OF VICTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25924, 16 August 1945, Page 6

THE MEANING OF VICTORY

The war that has been brought to a victorious conclusion against Japan has been thought of as an extension of that which ended in May with the defeat of Germany. But although it was fought and won to uphold the same principles of freedom, and by the same champions of man’s rights, it had its especial significance. Although Nazi-ism and Japanese totalitarianism might be difficult to recognise apart, their roots were nurtured in different spiritual soil. The ambitions of Japan became coordinated with those of the Germans, but they are of individual' growth, and entirely Nipponese in origin and scope. Their beginnings are older than the history of the German nation. It was in 1638 that there .was issued in Japan, and published throughout that land, an Edict which ran: “So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan; and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christians’ God, or the great God of all, if he dare violate this command, shall pay for it with his head.” During three centuries the belief of the Japanese in the peculiar sanctity of the bony, "congested islands that are their country, and in their unique place among the world’s peoples, as a race apart, of supermen having divine origin, has changed little—except to the extent that it has been revised by violent methods in the past twelve months by the enemies singled out by Japan for destruction. When, after a successful career as adventurers, traders, and corsairs in the sixteenth century these strange people withdrew within their island fortress, they were imbued still with the dream of a great destiny as masters of the Asiatic world. They had decided that the time was not yet ripe for the pursuit of their ultimate mystical ambitions. They saw the Western nations, strong and. power-hungry, bent upon exploiting the riches of the East, and engaged in destructive wars; and they decided to await in feudal isolation the day when they could move to conquest. When in the midnineteenth century Japan began gradually to open her doors to the world, discarding feudalism for a new form of caste-leadership, based still, on authoritarian principles, the vast concept of Asiatic domination remained, but it moved to an active phase. Japan’s revolution, which admitted intercourse with the Western world, and led to the swift, superficial modernisation of the State, was never defensive. The purpose remained constant as the securing of an empire bathed in the blinding rays of the rising sun. It was recognised, however, that the methods must be altered. The resources of the West were seen as necessary to the objective—wealth and authority as a great Power, and an economy grounded in the techniques of the industrial era. The peace of 1918, when Japan sided with the victors, provided her with the stepping-stones to wider territories and with the strength to venture. The spearheads of the Japanese aggressors have been aimed not only at the Asiatic mainland but also into the Southwest Pacific. There has been no reason to suppose that the underpopulated and rich British dominions farther south were excluded from the expansionist policy. By the people of Australia and New Zealand the consequences of this victory are scarcely realised as yet. In the years between the world wars they preferred to disregard the menace to themselves implicit first of all in the tortuous diplomacy and then in the brutal and ruthless military measures of the Japanese in Manchuria and China proper. Now, through suffering and conflict which for the most part have not been borne by them, they have been granted a reprieve—an opportunity to reorientate themselves in a changing and narrowing Pacific world. With the immediate aggressor silenced, they must accept new responsibilities. Their goodwill and co-operation must be given to the rebuilding of the disrupted oceanic territory that is their heritage.