it is a pity that many Japanese of the same opinion as Mr. Ryozo Asano, vice president of the Japan Steel Tubing Ca., are not more articulate than they are at present. In a round-table conference sponsored by the "Chugai Shogyo Shimpo" he declared that, while preparing for any emergency, Japan should seek to cooperate with both the United States and Great Britain, though that suggestion is conditioned by a later sentence "If Japan has fixed its national policy in one way or another, the policy must be followed." The real question is whether the extremist-dominated Japan has in fact adopted a policy which has unanimous national support. To that question there must be a definite negative. It is a well-known fact that large influential circles in Japan are opposed to the actions of the extremist military clique which is at present in the governmental saddle, and regard what has already been done, and what may occur in the future with no little dismay.
What has happened in Japan is perfectly clear. By the same methods of penetration which Hitler has employed elsewhere Japan through the extremists has been brought into a most unholy alliance. Thus a country whose national genius is dominated by principles based on the highest conception of honour, whose actions in the past have been marked by a scrupulous regard for honesty, is now tricked into a combination founded on dishonour, treachery and lying. The Japanese Emperor, whose spiritual position is even superior to his temporal, is brought into shady relations with the gang of criminals who have thrust Europe into a wholly unnecessary war, and who are striving might and main to persuade the Japanese to follow their evil example in the Far East. And the result is that a small section of Japanese, whose outlook is limited to the boundaries of their military schooling, has forced upon the country a policy which. is unacceptable to those circles which realize that it is a ruinous one and calculated to involve the pen in even greater distress than at present.
To carry that policy through, the extremists have adopted the Hitlerian practice of suppressing all information unfavourable to them, and restricting freedom of expression. It is a notorious fact that the Japanese nation as a whole is being kept without information of British and Allied successes. They are being persuaded that Germany and Italy are having what might be termed almost a walkover. It is a strange picture indeed that the world should see the government of a proud independent nation dominated by a gang of aliens, who by their fifth column technique have permeatéd'every.strata.; of Japanese society and have succeeded even in placing one of their members in a government office. Yet, that is what has happened, and it is these men who strive to withhold that information from the Japanese masses which. if they had the knowledge of the truth, would be disinclined to follow a policy of a small group of militarists whose cupidity has been aroused by the dazzling promises which their German coadjutors have made them.
One important fact has to be borne in mind. At or about the commencement of this war, Hitler in one of his tirades declared that Germany would win, or would drag the world down to destruction in a mass of flames. The great Nazi activity which has been noticed since the collapse of France in various parts of the world, and most notably in Japan, directed towards spreading the Europ-can conflagration until it becomes a world war, is the best possible proof of Hitler's intentions, and of his realization that he is in fact already losing the struggle. Nothing would suit Hitler better than that war should break out in the Pacific and that the whole world should be reduced to chaos, But does that suit the best interests of Japan? As a trading nation Japan must desire to see the world emerge from this fight in some sort of condition to resume business, for it.is obvious that if the whole international economic system is brought to ruin, Japan will suffer equally with the other nations. The great essential for the future is that peace shall continue in the Pacific, that there shall remain at least one sane spot, from which the work of rehabilitation through ce-operation may be furthered. The Germans through the military: extremists are seeking to betray Japan, they will have succeeded if they manage to plunge that country into further warfare.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.