To the Editor of the "Nopru-Cuva Dany News"
Sm—In my opinion, it is just as simple to ask as to answer the question whether there is any ground between Japan and China for cultivating the growth of mutual self-respect on which some approach to peace may be attempted.
There is a large clear ground in view on which the two countries gould, and should walk together. That ground is the will to believe in coexistence and cooperation on the basis of equality and according to different as well as common philosophy or ideology. On the Chinese side there hag been and still is such will and it has not been vague although it is weak now. In spite of the humiliation and loss which China suffered as a result of the War over Korea in 1894, the Chinese rising generations forgave the Japanese although they could not forget that episode of their own history. During and after the Russo-Japanese War their enthusiasm and admiration for the Japanese were quite remarkable.
Chinese heart against Japan has been intensified by the Japanese aggression against China in so many ways, especially after the Mukden Incident of 1931. Japanese military party does not believe in coexistence and cooperation in the Far East, insisting upon a ruthless policy of exclusive domination, Unless that party change its policy, there can be no peace. Yet a change of policy is necessary, for peace is desirable even from the Japanese own national point of view as you already discerned. Even a radical modification of that policy is urgent, for the development of events mutually beneficial must not be delay.
As soon as the Japanese military forces are withdrawn from China with a declaration of good will and the promise that all disputes between China and Japan, including the Manchurian problem, will be settled through any or all peaceful means as defined in international law, the Chinese will to believe in cooperation with Japan, must assert itself and a new era of Sino-Japanese friendship can begin at once.
This is not fanciful or merely theoretical; it is practical. In the light of history, a policy of magnanimity works and pays well. For instance, England has been benefited by recognizing the American independence; the United States of America has been benefited by helping Canada to grow on the one side and on the other, by protecting the Philippine freedom; France brought the German Republic into the League of Nations by withdrawing her troops from the Rhineland; America generated her interests in China by returning a large portion of the so-called Boxer Indemnity; both Germany and Italy are better off by preserving the Austrian integrity. As generally admitted through all the ages, a bitter heart is harmful, a good will, on the contrary, is ever so beneficial. Strong independent and free China above all can be the best ally of Japan. Besides, Japan may as well remember and consider that the Chinese as a whole are peace-loving and therefore the most desirable as a good neighbouring nation like Canada to the United States of America. There is no good reason why the Japanese should make the Chinese bitterness worsen against themselves. It is the most practical as well as the most economic way for them to conquer the Chinese heart, but not their territory or government. For and by Japan, magnanimity is the basis of peace.
Shanghai, Sept, 12.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.