DS ^34 9 .U(o W '3 -? CAN WE ESCAPE WAR WITH JAPAN? BY GUY MORRISON WALKER J UN 1 1921 O/z November 22nd, 1920, a letter from the Editor of The Forum, who had just published an article, entitled: ''Have We Lost the Friendship of Japan?" asked me to write for The Forum on the subject of American Relations with Japan and China, and particularly, to explain why our people were so hostile to Japan when our trade with Japan was more than twice as great as our trade with China. I replied "no'* because any article that I should write would be an attempt to explain to the American people why war with Japan was impending and how the Japanese were preparing for it, and that he would not print such an article as I would write. He immediately replied that my letter had been shown to General Wood, that the General agreed with me that the time for pussyfooting was past, and for me to hurry the article to him by Dec. 10th, that he would print it in his January Number and ''play it big." I wrote the article and sent .it .to him on December 8th. On the 2^th of December, he wrote, stating that it was about one[ thousand words too long and would I trust him to shorten it or would I do it myself. I sent for the manuscript, shortened it as requested, and returned it to him on December 30th. The February Number appeared without the article, and I wrote him a short note saying that his action satisfied me that I was correct in saying that he would not print an article hostile to Japan and to please return the manuscript to me without delay as I intended to make other use of it. He declared that I was wrong. The February Number had a Japanese article which they wanted to answer with mine in the March Number. I replied that unless I had his positive assurance that the article would be printed in the March Number, as stated, that he should return me the manu- script at once. He replied stating that the article would posi- tively be published in the March Number. \ The March Number was published without the article. His failure to publish It and his refusal to return the manuscript have satisfied me that he Is deliberately attempting to suppress the publication of the facts It contains. I am, therefore, printing it in this manner, because the people of our country need to know what It tells. It explains why American soldiers have been flogged by Japanese In Siberia, how It happened that an American Naval Officer was shot In cold blood by a Japanese sentry In Vladi- vostok, and why similar experiences may be expected by other Americans In the Far East. GUY M. WALKER, 61 Broadway, New York. March 12, 1921. CAN WE ESCAPE WAR WITH JAPAN? By Guy Morrison Walker. Why should we Americans show so much interest in and friendship for. China and so much feeling against Japan when we do only about half as much business with China as we do with Japan ? The answer to this question involves the whole Eastern problem. Japan apparently has a much larger trade with us than China because Japan has, by force of arms, crowded herself between us and our Chinese customers. Japan is compelling us to do business with China through her and has compelled China to do business with us through her. Both the United States and China have been and are compelled to pay an enormous profit to the Japanese middleman for no service. Over a year ago I asked the Department of Commerce to fur- nish me a statement of the amount of bean oil imported into the United States and from where it came. The Government report showed that nine-tenths of the bean oil imported into the United States had its origin in what our Department of Commerce desig- nated as "Japanese-China." I then asked what part of China was officially known as "Japanese-China." The Department rephed that it was Manchuria and the Province of Kwantung, which is tributary to Port Arthur. One of the largest importers of bean oil in America did not even know that it w^as a Chinese product. He bought it from Japanese dealers and supposed, of course, it originated in Japan. The truth is, the Japanese do not even raise the beans from which bean oil is made. Every bit of this bean oil that is bought by Americans from Japanese dealers is produced in China. The Chinese pro- ducers have been compelled by Japanese armed forces, by Japanese control of Chinese railways through the territory in which the X bean oil is produced and b}^ Japanese control of steamship trans- portation in the Pacific, to sell their products to Japanese dealers, who double and triple the price and then sell to our American consumers. What is true in the matter of bean oil is also true in the matter of silk. A very large part of the silk that is shipped into this country from Japan and supposed to be Japanese silk is, in fact, Chinese silk. The chief silk producing province of China is Shan- tung, now completely controlled and dominated by the Japanese. It is impossible for the Chinese producer to ship his silk out except by means of transportation controlled by the Japanese. They have compelled the Chinese producer to sell his silk to the Japanese middleman at whatever price was offered. The silk has been taken to Japan, re-wound, the price doubled or tripled, and then sold to the American spinner and weaver. The so-called "La Follette Bill," controlling American shipping, produced a most astonishing situation on the Pacific, It drove everyl American steamship out of business and left the carrying trade between the United States and China in the hands of the Japanese. In our attempt to dehver goods to Chinese purchasers we were compelled to use Japanese ships. The goods were accepted by the Japanese steamship companies at San Francisco, or Seattle, carried to Kobe, Japan, and there unloaded and left on the docks to rust, rot and to spoil, while Japanese agents were busy attempt- ing to sell some Japanese substitute to the Chinese merchants who were waiting for the delivery of our American goods. American and Chinese merchants attempting to ship goods from China to the United States were unable to get space in the Japanese steam- ships. They were compelled to sell the goods to Japanese mer- chants and let them make the profit on the transaction. The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai passed a series of resolutions not long ago calhng attention to the fact that, although they offered the Japanese steamship companies high pre- miums over the quoted rates, they were unable to get any space in the Japanese ships. Our trade with China appears much smaller than it really is, because American manufacturers have found it was impossible to get their stuff delivered in China except by using Japanese firms as distributors. Much of what appears to be sold by the United States to Japan is really taken to Japanese firms only for re-sale in China, because they are the ones able to get shipping faciUties and to deliver the goods. If the American and Chinese merchants were in direct contact and had shipping facilities so that this vast volume of trade which now appears on the books as Japanese, showed its real origin and destination, Japanese commerce would be but a pitiful fraction of what it now appears on paper to be. When our people learn of the enormous profits that the Japanese have been able to squeeze out of us and out of China merely for the privilege of doing business with each other through her, I am sure that the hot flame of American indignation and resentment will demand such a complete change in the methods of doing business with the Far East as will cause the complete collapse of Japanese shipping, commerce and finance. The Japanese have been able to accomplish this by the use of their military force to dominate the sources of production of the East while their propaganda has deceived and kept quiet the rest of the world. You must first understand that the Japanese are not producers. Japanese civihzation is based on the feudal idea that the nobility and the military castes are to govern the world and that the rest of the population exists for the purpose of supporting the nobihty and the mihtarists. The Japanese are quite certain of their mission; just as certain as were the Germans. In a recent address, Baron Inouj^e declared: "The mission of Japan is to unify the world. By the unification of the world I mean Japan's conquest of other peoples by means of her culture." This sounds almost as if it had been uttered by the German Kaiser ! 6 ^ The Tokyo "Mainichi" recently said: "Japan is confident mat she is superior to any country on the face of the globe. She must go forward, influence, convert and conquer the world." The "Niroku" recently said editorially: "The world war has brought about a change in the world's thought, but it is unthinkable that the nationahsm of Japan fostered during the last thirty cen- turies, should be affected. Japanese nationalism will assimilate the new and build up a still stronger nationalism. GONFUGINISM HAS BEEN IMPROVED UPON AT THE HANDS OF qS JAP- ANESE AND WE ARE NOW ALSO REFINING GHRISTIANITY!" It is necessary to get this opinion, that the Japanese hold of themselves, their culture and their nationalism, to understand that their clamor for admission to white countries, their insistence upon the right of land ownership, their cry against discrimination on account of their color, is all because the present discrimination and anti-Japanese legislation in Australia, Ganada and Galifornia pre- vents them from carrying out their scheme of spreading Japanese culture throughout the world. Among themselves they do not attempt to conceal the method by which this culture is to be spread. One of their ministers re- cently said: "While British and American diplomacy is backed by capital, Japanese diplomacy is backed by arms." The seizure of Formosa, the annexation of Korea, the attempted colonization of Gahfornia, the miUtary penetration of Manchuria in violation of Japan's treaty obligations to our United States, the seizure of Shantung, and now the invasion of Siberia, are all part of a definite plan for the conquest of the world for Japanese culture. The only real obstacle that has stood and still stands in the way of Japan's plans is the attitude of the United States, which over twenty years ago demanded and secured a pledge, not only of the territorial integrity of Ghina but of an "Open Door" to Ghina's commerce, from the Powers of Europe and from Japan. When the World War was at its bitterest point for the Allies, Japan thought she saw an opportunity to still further extend Jap- anese culture over Ghina, and presented the now infamous "Twenty- one Demands" to the Chinese Government demanding that they be kept secret from all other foreign Powers. But the demands leaked out and our Government served notice on Japan that she would recognize no pledges secured by Japan from China under the then existing conditions and w^ould not countenance or permit anything that tended to close the '*Open Door" which Japan herseli has pledged to us. At this time the Japanese Ambassador to our United States was one Sato. Mr. Sato was educated in America. He graduated from the same Middle-West college of which I am, myself, an alumnus. Suddenly Sato was recalled and Baron Ishii was sent to the United States to negotiate what has since been known as the "Lansing- Ishii Agreement." A Japanese friend, close to the Premier, told me that Sato had been recalled because his work at Washington had been unsatis- factory to the Japanese Government. Sato had been instructed by his Government to make representations to our State Department that he knew to be untrue. He rephed that he was ready to do all that a diplomat should do but that he refused to make false rep- resentations. "On account of Sato's attitude," my Japanese friend said, "it became necessary to recall him and to send Ishii to the United States for the purpose of making to the American State Depart- ment the false representations that Sato refused to make." At the very time that Baron Ishii was making these false rep- resentations to our State Department, Mr. Yamoto was telling the Japanese people that England and America must allow Japan to pursue her economic and commercial policy in China. While Ishii was agreeing to Secretary Lansing's demand that Japan claim no position in China ahead of any others, Mr. Yamoto was telling the Japanese people that the United States and Great Britain should not be permitted to secure concessions from China because the Japanese "must be supreme in China." The action of our Government in sending a note to China in regard to her internal conditions in the summer of 1917 wrought 8 up the Japanese Government and the Japanese people to a degree of indignation that exceeded that which followed Secretary Knox's suggestion of the neutralization of Chinese railways. Japanese officials and Japanese papers vied with each other in proclaiming Japanese sovereignty over China and condemning the United States Government for communicating with the Chinese Government di- rectly and not through the medium of Japan. Dr. Torn, a prominent official, insisted that Japan should compel the Allies to allow her to deal alone with every Oriental affair in the future. At the time of the Armistice the Japanese Government first insisted on its right to represent China at the Peace Conference, and then when Chinese delegates had been appointed at the request of President Wilson, the Japanese Government de- manded of the Chinese Government that its delegates be in- structed to communicate with the Peace Conference only through the Japanese delegation. Prince Kinouye, the spokesman for the Imperial Family and the chief Japanese delegate to the Peace Conference, declared that: "Japan will not stand for an Anglo-American Peace. The British and American programme" he claimed "was for the maintenance of the present condition, but that Japan, like Ger- many, had found that England and France had already seized most of the world for their Colonies, and that Japan like Ger- many found this a menace to her right of expansion." He said that: "Germany was right in attempting to destroy the present status and that in spite of the fact that Germany had failed that Japan is in the same position that Germany was and proposes the destruction of the present status." This statement was made since Peace and shows the purpose on the part of the military clan of Japan to attempt in the East what Germany failed to accomplish in Europe. While propagandists have been assuring our people of Japan's friendship for the United States, Japanese statesmen have filled 9 the native press with the bitterest denunciations of America and Americans. Doctor Honda, a product of Methodist Mission Schools in Japan, has for years denounced Missions and Missionaries, and has insisted that the safety of Japan demands the exclusion of all Christian missionaries and the suppression of all Christian or Missionary activities. The uprising in Korea has given a fresh impetus to the anti- Christian, anti-Missionary, anti-American propaganda through- out Japan. Count Okuma recently denounced the American mis- sionaries in Japan and Korea as political agents and spies and declared that, "Japan should deport them out of her boundaries." The Japanese press has even denounced the Young Men's Chris- tian Association buildings and the plants of the Young Women's Christian Association as houses of assignation, claiming that the American women engaged in this Christian work had been seduc- ing the Japanese and Cliinese youth for political purposes. The Osaka "Mainichi," which is said to have the largest circu- lation of any paper in Japan, recently declared that the Inde- pendence Movement in Korea was, and the anti-Japanese boycott in China had been, instigated by Americans, and said that the Japanese Government must adopt more stringent measures in dealing with Americans in Korea and must restrict and exclude Americans and American activities in Manchuria, Mongolia and China. , Please pause a moment and appreciate what this proposition means. Not only does Japan propose to restrict and exclude Americans from Japanese territory but Japan claims the right to exclude Americans and to restrict American activities every- where within the boundaries of the Chinese Republic, including its dependencies of Manchuria and Mongolia!!! Twenty years ago, almost two-thirds of all the cotton goods from the United States to China went into Manchuria through the Port of Newxhwang, today the port of Newchwang is closed and hardly a dollar's worth of American goods gets into 10 I Manchuria. In Manchuria and in Shantung the Japanese have seized control not only of the Chinese railways, but of the Chinese custom houses and custom service. Through this control they admit Japanese goods into this territory free of duty while imposing all sorts of duties and penalties on American and other foreign goods. They ship Japanese goods to their destination promptly while refusing to forward American goods, which even if loaded are 'usually dumped off at some little way station and thus lost. In this territory at least Japan has closed the "Open Door" and nailed it shut. The Japanese Government has driven out every American merchant, closed the American Missions and Schools, and even compelled our Government to recall our Amer- ican Consul General, who reported the Japanese breach of faith. The Japanese officials control American passports and are even demanding Japanese income taxes from American citizens doing business in this Chinese territory. They are also exercis- ing similar claims in Siberia (Russian terrtory). On September 5th, last, the American Congressional Party touring the East was addressed by Marquis Okuma in Tokyo. The Marquis told the American Congressmen that Japan must be given a free hand in Korea and China. He claimed this as a Japanese right because Japan had acquiesced in our annexatfon of Hawaii and our occupation of the Philippines. These are a few of the things that the Imperial Japanese Gov- ernment assumes a right to do and is attempting to do. The Japanese government has filled the Japanese people with a belief that these are their rights and that this is their destiny. It is only by realizing that the Japanese government has con- vinced the Japanese people of their right to do these impossible things, like the restriction of American activities and the ex- clusion of Americans from China, Manchuria, Mongolia and Siberia, that you can see that the Imperial Japanese Govern- ment has placed itself in a position where it must fight to pul 11 these preposterous proposals into force and effect or else face repudiation and revolution at home. The Professor of International Law at the Imperial University at Tokyo, recently delivered a lecture on the rights of aliens in foreign countries, among other things he said: "The United States Government has been guilty of a violation of its treaty agreements with Japan in failing to prevent the passage of the alien land law of California. Japan does not intend long to en- dure this violation of her international rights. Unless the alien land law is repealed by California and unless the United States Government apologizes to the Japanese Government for its dis- crimination against Japanese subjects, the Imperial Governmenl will in the near future descend upon the California coast which is practically unfortified; within ten days the Imperial Govern- ment will land 500,000 Japanese troops and take possession of the State of California; having captured California the Imperial Japanese Armies will proceed to conquer the rest of the United States at their leisure. The Americans are a decadent people, without spirit, unmilitary and unwilling to resent insults. The American Armies are insignificant in size and the American Navy is made up of amateur seamen. The Americans are powerless to prevent the Imperial Japanese Government from asserting its rights whenever it is ready to assert them." In the election just held California voted overwhelmingly to extend her anti-Japanese legislation. The result has been that the Japanese Government has ordered the English language newspapers not to translate or print any articles from the native Japanese press on the subject of America, under pain of con- fiscation and complete suppression. This can only mean that the Japanese Government is now engaged in a violent anti-American propaganda in the native press and is attempting to suppress that fact from American knowledge by forbidding any translations being made or pub- lished in the English language. But there is another thing even more significant. You wdll all remember how on the eve of 12 war, Germany recalled her men from all over the world. Since the election in California, 10,000 Japanese who were working on California farms have already left California and returned to Japan, and every particle of steerage space on e\ery steamship sailing from Pacific Ports for weeks to come is taken by Japanese men attempting to return to Japan from the United States. In addition to this, the force of the Japanese Embassy at Washing- ton has been cut down to the lowest possible number by the recall of every surplus officer. Just before the beginning of the World War I had a long in- terview with Marquis Okuma. A Japanese friend who was inti- mate with the Marquis and who was assisting me in the investi- gation I was then making, reported to the Marquis much of our conversation with the result that Okuma sent for me to discuss the matters first-hand. The interview was significant because Marquis Okuma frankly admitted not only that war between the United States and Japan was inevitable but that Japan was even then preparing for the war. Our discussion, based as it was on the assumption that war was imminent, resolved itself chiefly into weighing the relative wealth, power and fighting capacities of the two nations as they would affect or determine the outcome. He defended the Japanese aggressions on China because Japan's ability even to defend herself in case of war depended upon Japanese control of the iron ore and coal fields of China, which Japan lacked. This was the reason for the money and intrigue used by the Japanese Government for the control of the Hanyang Iron Works in the heart of China, and of the main- tenance of a great Japanese military garrison adjacent to the iron works with one of the most powerful wireless stations in the world. He admitted that this action on the part of the Japafiese Government was in violation of all treaty rights, but declared that without control of this plant Japan would be powerless to wage war against any nation. I called his attention to the fact that Japanese reliance on China for coal and iron was extremely hazardous. For in case 13 of war transportation would become difficult, if not impossible, and that even if transportation was unhampered, that in order to get production of iron and coal from these Chinese fields, the Japanese Government would have to depend upon the friendly attitude of the Chinese people, a thing which he knew they did not have. "Besides," I said, "does, Your Excellency, realize that the United States leads the world with the production of iron and steel? We have a single company in the iron business in America that has a greater capital than all the industries and businesses of the Japanese Empire combined." "Is that possible!" he ex- claimed. "Not only possible, but true," I replied. "And Excel- lency, please realize that the annual income of the American people is three or four times the entire wealth of the Japanese Empire. The United States by only spending one-third of its annual income can compel you to spend the entire wealth of the Japanese Empire to equal our expenditure. This should enable you to appreciate the hopelessness of Japanese success in any issue with the United -States." "Ah!" he said, "You forget that it does not cost us so much to produce in Japan because our wage scale is so much lower than is yours in the United States." "Admitted" I said, "But wage scales are immaterial in the iron and steel industry in re- lation to war. For you of Japan are hopelessly outclassed re- gardless of costs and wage scales. The output of the iron and steel business in the United States alone is about three times the total productive capacity of the whole Japanese Empire in all lines combined. Only the ignorant undertake contests which disclose to the world their lack of knowledge of the conditions under which they are compelled to fight. Peace is not induced by deceiving a nation into a belief that they can defeat another nation which hopelessly outclasses them. Ignorant of the wealth and power of the United States, yau of Japan propose to under- take a war to save face, but those of us who know the facts realize that such a war would not only result in Japan losing 14 face, but would end in the utter and complete exhaustion of the Japanese Empire financially and industrially." Our interview had lasted two hours and a half, and as I arose to leave in spite of his request that I stay longer, he said : '"Mr. Walker, in my years of public life a thousand foreigners have called on me to go away and boast that they had talked with Okuma but you are the first foreigner who has talked to me like a man." Japan hopes not only to live but to become rich by enslaving the Chinese people as she has enslaved the Koreans. She has seized the Province of Shantungs — ^first — ^because the Province of Shantung is filled with the finest men physically that there are in China. Shantung men have always been the backbone of any armies organized in China. It has been Japan's desire particu- larly to get control over this Province and to organize these Shantung men into Japanese armies and to use them not only in the further conquest of 'China and Asia, but particularly in their attack upon the United States because we stand in the way of their conquest of Asia. A Senator of the United States, who supports the present Wilson Administration, called to discuss the Chinese question. Among other things he said: "I am sick and tired of hearing the Chinese whine and play the baby. Why, under the sun, should they ask for American help ? Why don't they arm them- selves and go give the Japanese a licking?" "Senator," I replied, "The reason that China does not arm herself and protect herself against Japanese aggression is be- cause the Administration at Washington, that you are support- ing, foolishly, ignorantly and apparently without the slightest comprehension of its effect, agreed, at the request of Japan, to embargo any and all imports into China of arms or munitions of war. Japan requested this under the pretense that the im- portation of arms was facilitating civil war between the North and the South. But the truth was and is that Japan's request for the embargo was for the purpose of preventing the Chinese 15 from arming for national defense and to enable the Japanese to push their seizure of Chinese territory, their massacre ana assassination of Chinese people without fear, because they would know that the Chinese were without arms and munitions with which to defend themselves." The Chinese Government has repeatedly applied to the State Department at Washington to have the embargo on arms lifted so that they could arm Chinese troops for self-defense; pleading particularly the danger of invasion from the Soviet troops in Siberia. But the Japanese Government has protested against any lifting of the embargo and because of the Japanese protest the Administration has refused to comply with the Chinese requests. Practically the only troops in China that have arms and muni- tions now are those that have been organized by and are com- manded by Japanese officers. Either we must defend China against Japanese aggression or we must lift the embargo on arms and munitions and enable the Chinese to arm and defend themselves ! In preparation for war the Japanese have put so many soldiers into the Philippines during the past two years that tne Census Bureau has suppressed the census figures because of their alarming significance, and for the past year the stores and sup- plies for the Japanese Campaign in the Philippines have been gathered and are now in warehouse in Hongkong waiting for the hour to strike. Japan expects to be able to choose her own time to attack us because she is firm in her belief that we will not resent her in- sults. Why then wait until additional and continual insult shall have humiliated us before the world and robbed us of our self- respect? Why wait until control of Siberia furnishes her with food supply and control of the Shantung Province of China enables her to command a man power of over 100,000,000, instead of 50,000,000 as she has now? 16 What America should do is to announce that the "Open Door" in China which Japan, herself, has agreed to respect and main- tain is as definite a part of American policy as is the Monroe Doc- trine, and that we, as a nation are as ready to fight for the '"Open Door" as we are to prevent the spread of monarchial government in this hemisphere. When the world appreciates that we will fight as quickly to maintain the "Open Door" in China as we will to prevent the extension of European influence in this hemis- phere there will be an end of trouble in China and peace in the world. GUY MORRISON WALKER. December 8th, 1920. Appeal Printing Company, 22 Thames Street, New York City LIBRARY OF CgGR||| I 029 974 177 1