Taking into account the Chinese troops in the provinces of Szechuan and Yunnan, Gen. Itagaki estimated the total strength of the Chinese at about 1,000,000 men with 210 divisions of which 85 divisions belonged to the Chinese Central Army.
"Gen. Itagaki declared that he believed the western and northern provinces of China, through continuously increasing support from Moscow would gradually come under Communist influence, He emphasised that the chief forces of the Japanese Expeditionary Army would remain in China for a certain time, "not only io remove the anti-Japanese Chiang Kai-shek regime but also to establish at the same time a state of peace and order,"
Both the War Minister, Gen. Itagaki, ənd, the Navy' Migister Admiral Masümasa Yondi who spoke after Gen. Itagaki, emphasised that the. war against China must be carried out not only by the Army and Navy but by the Japanese nation. In this time when the. future of Japan and of Eastern Asia was being decided, the whole nation had to stand together steadfastly in the ultimate arms, they "One of our most important aims is to realize a speedy increase of our total national power, especially national defences, and the strengthening and expansion of economic resources, which include Japan, Manchoukuo &nd China.
"The Government believes that i! is urgently necessary to reinforce the system of national mobilization and to invoke the most important provi sions of the national Mobilization Act.
"To those enlightened Chinese who are prepared to assist in the construction of a new China in a spirit of ce-operation Japan ought gladly to extend help so that the Chinese people may be saved from their misery and distress, freed from their old prejudices, and enabled to take part in the historic enterprise of building up a new order in East Asia.
"It is indeed a source of satistaction that there is evident throughout China today a definite trend toward rebirth and reconstruction, which is due not only to the policies of the Provisional, Reformed and Mongolian Governments but to the fact that the Chinese masses are beginning to realize the principles governing the new situation in East Asia.
"For the sake of justice we should use every means to eradicate Communism which is pervading the Chinese continent to such a degree that the Nationalist regime is a slave to it."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.