THE AMBITION OF JAPAN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5686, 3 October 1896, Page 7

THE AMBITION OF JAPAN

TO BECOME THE LIGHT OF ASIA Mr Ozaki Yukio, a prominent member of the Opposition in the Japanese Parliament, and the editor of one of the leading papers of Tokio, has lately published in the ; English edition of a well-known Japanese periodical, the Kokuminno Tomo, an interesting article called "Our Ambition," in which he says that the cherished ambition of his country is to become the light of Asia and to spread the beneficent influence of civilization over the nations of the Par East. But, he observes, Japan has always been MISUNDERSTOOD ABROAD. Foreign Governments and peoples have refused to recognise her real rank; they looked on her as a toy country ; they considered her a dependency of China; and even associated her in their minds with Korea. Owing to this misunderstanding they long refused to revise their treaties with Japan, and aroused the indignation of the Japanese people. The results of the war with China induced a fresh misconception, which was that Japan was warlike and desirous of conquest. This, sayß Mr Ozaki, led to the triple alliance against Japan to deprive her of one part of the results of her victory, and was partly due to the suspicion that there was a secret treaty between Japan and Great Britain. At present there is a misapprehension that there is an arrangement between Japan and Russia in regard to Korea. Hence he thinks it desirable to explain what the true position and ambition of Japan are. THE JAPANESE ARE A PEACEFUL AND NOT AN AGGEESSIVE PEOPLE. They find their happiness in a simple life and in the beauties of nature ; they have no antipathy to foreigners, but they intend to stand by the golden rule that the Par East is to be governed by the people of the Far East. The markets of Asia are too vast for Japanese manufactures to monopolize them, and there is no danger of conflict between Japan and nations which desire only to trade with the East ; but nations desirous of subjugating the East cannot avoid Japanese opposition. Thus, no Western" nation must assume a protectorate over Korea, and unle3s Eussia abandons the peninsula to Japan she cannot be a friend to the Japanese people, though she may of the Government. The great aim of Japan is to prevent the ruin of China, and, as to Great Britain, Mr Ozaki warns her that, as her interest is the East is the greatest of all European or American nations, she must alter her present flirting policy and adopt a fixed attitude, for J "flirtation should be prohibited among nations as well as among private persons."