CHINA AND JAPAN
“Japan has seized this time, when the European powers are engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle for existence, to begin the work of the consolidation of the yellow races. Japanese statesmen have explained her position as that of mediator between the West and the East. Japan does not desire to be the mediator between the West and the East. She wants to be the East.”
This is the conclusion reached by Samuel G Blythe, in a recent magazine article discussing the demands made by Japan upon China on the 18th of January last. The original demands were somewhat modified before acceptance by China, but in their modified form they virtually give Japan the hegemony of China. China accepted under a tacit threat of war, because China was militarily too weak to resist Japan, and because China knew that she could not look for help at this juncture either from Great Britain or the United States. The British Empire is engaged in a struggle for its own existence: The United States, in a military sense, is almost as weak as China, and faces too many possibilities of complications with some or all of the European powers to make it safe to allow its attention to be diverted by the possibility of war with Japan.
There is no reason to believe that Japan has any aggressive designs upon the United States. In fact, the execution of her design of becoming, as Mr. Blythe expresses it, “The East,” bids fair to occupy her attention to such an extent as to preclude the idea of Japan seeking trouble with this country. But that Japan would stand on the defensive and resist with her full military power any attempt on our part to intervene in behalf of China, goes without saying. If we have war with Japan we shall have to carry the war to Japan, and that, in the present condition of world affairs, is unthinkable.
In the present cynical attitude of the white and so-called Christian nations toward each other, it is not surprising that a heathen nation like Japan should resolve to take advantage of her superior physical strength to push her own interests. She claims to be a civilized nation, and so do Christian nations engaged in the great European war claim to be civilized. But their civilization is not allowed to stand in the way of their ambitions. It is natural that Japan should aspire to be the controlling power of Asia. She is the only Asiatic power that is fit for such a task or that could hope to accomplish such a design.
For Japan to hold her hand now and restrain her ambition when the folly of the great European nations has offered her an opportunity which may never occur again, would be an act of extreme self-abnegation even on the part of a Christian. Can we expect a higher standard of world-ethics from a heathen? Looking the situation squarely in the face, we may expect to see Japan set her foot upon the neck of China and subdue that country politically and economically to her will, for China has no power of organized resistance. We may then expect to see Japan set up a sort of Monroe Doctrine of Asia. She will undoubtedly allow Great Britain to retain India, as Great Britain is already established there, just as we allow Great Britain to retain Canada—but Japan will say to Europe and America, “Hands off!” as to new acquisitions in Asia. She will probably not attempt to interfere with the United States in the Philippines, but if we should make up our minds to abandon the Philippines, Japan might extend her protection over the Filipino Republic to prevent it coming under the influence of any other great power.
As for China, there is reason to believe that Japan’s protectorate over it, or absorption of it, will be beneficial to the people of that country in many ways. The Chinese have shown no capacity for organization or self-government. They have shown no capacity to develop the magnificent resources of their vast territory. Under Japanese efficiency China will be developed, and Japan, occupied in this task of development, will have no time to meddle with American affairs or to seek to push any colonizing enterprise on the American continents. The passing of Asia under the virtual suzerainty of an Asiatic power that has displayed a capacity for civilization and modern progress may be one of the compensations of the great world war. As for American trade in the aggregate, it should be helped rather than injured by the awakening of the sleeping Celestial giant to the touch of Progress.