AMERICA 
 
 and 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 by 
 
 Colonel 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt 
 
 Reprinted With Permission From 
 
 The New York Times 
 
 Compliments of 
 
 Wm. D. Wheelwright 
 
 Portland, Oregon 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 When, in the latter part of July, 1918, 
 Colonel Roosevelt’s attention was drawn to 
 the persistent attacks on the Japanese in the 
 press and in magazine articles, signed in 
 some cases by men known to be in the pay of 
 China and persona non grata in Japan or 
 by authors who wished to pose as prophets 
 in predicting war with Japan, he instantly 
 saw the importance of putting a stop to it. 
 For that reason he wrote the accompanying 
 article. 
 
 From the moment the matter was men- 
 tioned to him he seized upon it with his usual 
 energy and urged haste in securing the quo- 
 tations and other material which he needed. 
 Several times, in the interviews at Oyster 
 Bay which followed, he rose from his desk 
 and walked the floor, saying, “This is of 
 international importance,” or “We must at- 
 tack this wherever we see it,” or “Doesn’t 
 any sane man know that Japan’s friendship 
 is the best asset we can have in the Orient?” 
 
 The “message,” as he called it, was writ- 
 ten in those sad, trying days when he was 
 receiving cable confirmation of Quentin’s 
 death, and I saw by his manner, as well as 
 by his kindly words to me, when I suggested 
 that our interviews be postponed, that it was 
 a relief for him to have a subject before him 
 to which he could give his whole heart. The 
 manuscript came in ten days, on the date set 
 by himself, together with a letter to me in- 
 structing me to show the article to Viscount 
 Ishii, and, if it met with his approval, I was 
 then permitted to publish it wherever and 
 whenever I chose. 
 
 Accordingly, I went to Washington and 
 submitted the original manuscript to Vis- 
 count Ishii, explaining that Colonel Roose- 
 velt had written it in order to help counter- 
 act the antagonism toward Japan; also that 
 he had not been asked to write it by any 
 Japanese or by anyone representing or con- 
 nected with the Japanese or any other gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 A few days later Viscount Ishii expressed 
 his approval and his thanks in a brief note 
 to me, requesting that it be shown to Colonel 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 J. B. MILLET. 
 
Note by the Editor of the New York Times 
 
 J. B. Millet, traveler and writer, had 
 long been a friend of Colonel Roosevelt. 
 Having spent much of his time in Japan, 
 Mr. Millet was specially interested in pre- 
 senting to the American public the truth 
 about that country’s war record and ideals. 
 So he went to the ex-President and asked 
 him to write the article printed herewith. 
 
America and Japan 
 
 By Colonel Theodore Roosevelt 
 
 JAPAN ’S CAREER during the past fifty 
 years has been without parallel in world his- 
 tory. Japan has played a part of extraordi- 
 nary iisefulness to the allied cause in this 
 war for ciA'ilization. Japan’s friendship 
 should be peculiarly dear to the United 
 States, and every far-sighted public man in 
 the United States shoidd do his utmost to 
 keep a cordial working agreement of sympa- 
 thy between the two nations. These three 
 facts should be continually in the minds of 
 every good American ; and especially at this 
 precise moment. Japan’s sudden rise into a 
 foremost position among the occidental 
 civilized powers has been an extraordinary 
 phenomenon. There has been nothing in the 
 past in any way approaching it. No other 
 nation in history has ever so quickly entered 
 the circle of civilized powers. 
 
 It took the yellow-haired barbarians of the 
 north who overthrew Rome six or eight cen- 
 turies, before the civilization they built up 
 even began to approach the civilization they 
 had torn down; whereas Japan tore down 
 nothing and yet reached the level of her 
 western neighbors in half a century. More- 
 over, she entered the circle of the higher 
 civilization bearing gifts in both hands. Her 
 appreciation of art and nature, her refine- 
 ment of life, and many of her social conven- 
 tions, together Avith her extraordinary and 
 ennobling patriotism, convey lessons to us 
 of America and Europe Avhieh we shall do 
 well to learn. Every thoughtful American 
 who dwells on the relations between Japan 
 and the United States must realize that each 
 has something to learn from the other. 
 
America and Japan 
 
 o 
 
 Japan’s Part Praised. 
 
 In this war Japan has played a great and 
 useful part. That she had her special and 
 peculiar grievances against Germany goes 
 ■without saying. So had we. She took these 
 grievances into account precisely as we took 
 our grievances into account. But she 
 ranged herself on the side of humanity and 
 freedom and justice exactly as we did. Her 
 duty has been, first of all, to drive Germany 
 from the Pacific and to police and protect the 
 Orient. If she had not done this it is prob- 
 able that at the present moment a British 
 and American force would be besieging Kiao- 
 Chau and that our commerce would be suf- 
 fering from German raids in the Pacific. 
 Great Britain and the United States are able 
 to keep their fleets out of the Pacific at this 
 moment because the Japanese fleet is there. 
 
 But she has done much more than this. 
 Gradually, as the war has grown, she has 
 extended her assistance all over the globe. 
 Her volunteers have appeared in that most 
 hazardous of all military branches, the air 
 service, at the extreme fighting front. She 
 has sent her destroyers to protect English 
 and American troop ships and cargo ships 
 in the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the 
 Mediterranean. Japan’s part has been 
 great; far greater than anything that she 
 was called upon to do by her alliance with 
 Great Britain. She first captured Kiao- 
 Chau and sank all the Austrian and German 
 ships there. She then drove the German 
 ships out of the Pacific. Soon thereafter she 
 lent three of her cruisers to Russia to 
 strengthen her fleet in the Baltic.* At pres- 
 ent her destroyers are working together with 
 the British and American destroyers in the 
 Mediterranean Sea and off the coasts of Eng- 
 land, Spain and France. Her submarines 
 
 *The names of the three Japanese cruisers that 
 were given back to Eussia after the outbreak of the 
 war, together with their original Eussian names, are : 
 Sagami (Peresviet), 12,674 tons; Tango (Poltava), 
 10,960 tons, and Soya (Faryag), 6500 tons. 
 
6 
 
 America and Japan 
 
 have been working in company with the 
 Italians. 
 
 The transports from Australia and New 
 Zealand have been convoyed safely by Japa- 
 nese warships. Our own war vessels are free 
 for convoying our troops across the Atlantic 
 largely because of what Japan has done in 
 the Pacific. She supplied enormous quan- 
 tities of arms and munitions to Russia. She 
 lent Russia heavy guns and loaned her mil- 
 lions of dollars. She has given to the allies 
 quantities of copper. She has sent medical 
 units to England, France, Russia, Serbia and 
 Rumania. She has offset the German in- 
 trigue in India. One in twenty-eight of the 
 people of Japan belong to the Japanese Red 
 Cross ; one in four of the Japanese in this 
 country are in the American Red Cross. Two 
 thousand Japanese are fighting in the Can- 
 adian army. ** Japan has done everything 
 she has been asked to do or permitted to do 
 in this war, and this statement will be ques- 
 tioned by no human being who is both honest 
 and acquainted with the actual facts. 
 
 Trouble-Makers Scored. 
 
 Yet, at this very time, when Japan’s sons 
 are fighting beside ours in the waters of the 
 ^Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay and 
 the North Sea and in the air over the western 
 front, there are blatant Americans who have 
 served Germany against America, who have 
 played the German game to the limit, by 
 striving to make trouble between Japan and 
 the United States; by seeking every way to 
 rouse suspicion and distrust of Japan in the 
 United States ; and by doing all that ma- 
 levolent and unscrupulous baseness can do 
 to taunt Japan into hostility to our country. 
 There are in this country certain demagogic 
 politicians, certain agitators seeking notori- 
 ety, and certain conscienceless and sensation- 
 mongering newspaper owmers and Avriters 
 
 ** Japan has financed her own part in the war with- 
 out borrowing, and has lent more than $590,000,000 to 
 England, France and Eussia. 
 
America and Japan 
 
 7 
 
 who are willing to make money or obtain 
 preferment for themselves by any appeal to 
 distrust and suspicion, no matter what in- 
 finite harm it does to this country. These 
 sordid creatures have worked hand in glove 
 with the scarcely more sordid creatures who 
 are paid by Germany in downright cash to 
 advance Germany’s aims, whether by striv- 
 ing to provoke an ill-will that might even- 
 tually produce war between the United States 
 and Japan or in any other fashion. They 
 have been guilty of conduct so shameful that 
 it can not be too strongly condemned. 
 
 Japan has a real admiration for America, 
 dating back for sixty years to the time of 
 Perry. The two nations have been in rela- 
 tions of close friendship. The Japanese have 
 patiently borne misrepresentation, insults 
 and false accusations from various authors, 
 writers and public speakers of this country. 
 They are a proud nation. They have suf- 
 fered under this villification. They have 
 believed that our people would themselves 
 realize the injustice of these attacks. Their 
 belief is justified. Our people are beginning 
 to understand that of recent years the most 
 flagrant of these attacks have been made by 
 German agents who worked diligently and 
 secretly with ample government money to 
 create distrust between the two countries. 
 The time has come for us Americans to show 
 our trust and confidence in Japan as a great, 
 loyal, modern people, whose seat at the 
 table of the family of nations is next to ours, 
 and who sit there on a full equality with all 
 other civilized peoples. The rights and 
 duties of the United States and Japan 
 toward each other must be treated on a basis 
 of exact reciprocal equality. Each must 
 have full control of all things vitally affect- 
 ing its own well-being; each must treat the 
 other with frank and loyal courtesy and con- 
 sideration. 
 
8 
 
 America and Japan 
 
 Germans Back of Effort. 
 
 The origin and persistence of German 
 propaganda for the purpose of embroiling 
 Japan and the United States is now fairly 
 well recognized. Yet until Viscount Ishii 
 openly and publicly accused Germany of be- 
 ing the agent of this nefarious work, the 
 people of our country knew practically 
 nothing about it. At a reception given by 
 the National Press Club in Washington to 
 Viscount Ishii as the head of the commission 
 from Japan, September, 1917, he made an 
 address which was for the most part devoted 
 to exposing these insidious efforts of Ger- 
 many. He said, in part : 
 
 “For more than ten years a propaganda 
 has been carried on in this country, in Japan, 
 and, in fact, throughout the world, for the 
 one and sole purpose of keeping nations of 
 the Far East and Far AVest as far apart as 
 possible; to break up existing treaties and 
 understandings; to create distrust, suspicion 
 and unkindly feeling between neighbors in 
 the Far East and in the West, and all in 
 order that Germany might secure advan- 
 tages in the confusion. I do not think that 
 you, gentlemen, in your busy lives here dur- 
 ing the last ten years have given more than 
 passing attention to developments in the Far 
 East. The well-equipped agent of your 
 enemy and mine has taken advantage of your 
 preoccupation or of your kindly credulity. 
 For many years his work was easy. The 
 world was flooded with talks of Japan’s mil- 
 itary aspirations and Japan’s duplicity. 
 Have these been borne out by history? Even 
 now the German publicity agent whispers 
 first in your ear and then in mine. His 
 story is specious, and is told in dim light 
 which falls upon sympathetic pictures 
 cleverly painted by himself and presented to 
 you and to me in the past. To the accom- 
 paniment of appeals to the human heart he 
 tells to me other stories of your duplicity 
 and to you of mine. 
 
America and Japan 
 
 9 
 
 Blunder Gives Clew. 
 
 “For twelve years, gentlemen, up to the 
 present time, those agents have worked 
 among us and elsewhere persistently and 
 cleverly. They have been supplied with un- 
 limited resources. No wonder we have been 
 deceived. A short time ago a bad blunder 
 gave us a clew. The Zimmermann note to 
 ^Mexico involving Japan was a blunder. It 
 made such a noise that we were disturbed in 
 our slumbers and so were you. This gave a 
 cheek for a time, but since, the agents have 
 been hard at work. They were at work yes- 
 terday, and they are at work today. Every 
 prejudice, every sympathy, every available 
 argument has been appealed to and used to 
 show to your people and to ours what a low, 
 cunning enemy we have each in the other, 
 and how much dependent we are upon the 
 future friendship, support and good-will of 
 Germany. ’ ’ 
 
 The Zimmermann note was an official in- 
 vitation from Germany to Japan and Mexico 
 to join in dismembering the United States ; 
 for Germany has with cynically impartial 
 bad faith striven to draw her own profit 
 from the ill-will she has endeavored to ex- 
 cite in each of the two nations, Japan and 
 America. Every American public man, 
 newspaper editor, speaker or writer who 
 since the publication of the Zimmermann 
 note has striven to excite America against 
 Japan has been deliberately playing Ger- 
 many’s game against this country. Such 
 action amounts to moral treason to the 
 United States. 
 
 If any person thinks this too strong a 
 statement, I call his attention to the recent 
 deliberate utterance of Secretary of State 
 Lansing, ex-Secretary of State Root and ex- 
 Ambassador Gerard. 
 
 Suspicion Is Discerned. 
 
 Mr. Lansing says; “There had unques- 
 tionably been growing up between the 
 peoples of the two countries (Japan and the 
 
10 
 
 America and Japan 
 
 United States) a feeling of suspicion as to 
 the motives inducing the activities of the 
 other in the Far East, a feeling which, if 
 unchecked, promised to develop a serious 
 situation. Humors and reports of improper 
 intentions were increasing and were more 
 and more believed. Legitimate commercial 
 and industrial enterprises without ulterior 
 motives were presumed to have political sig- 
 nificance, with the result that opposition to 
 those enterprises was aroused in the other 
 country. The attitude of constraint and 
 doubt thus created was fostered and encour- 
 aged by the campaign of falsehood which for 
 a long time had been adroitly and secretly 
 carried on by Germans whose government, 
 as part of its foreign policy, desired espe- 
 cially so to alienate this country and Japan 
 that it would be at the chosen time no dif- 
 ficult task to cause a rupture of their good 
 relations. Unfortunately there were people 
 in both countries, many of whom were en- 
 tirely honest in their beliefs, who accepted 
 every false rumor as true, and aided the Ger- 
 man propaganda by declaring that their 
 government should prepare for the conflict 
 which they asserted was inevitable, that the 
 interests of the two nations in the Far East 
 were hostile, and that every activity of the 
 other country in the Pacific had a sinister 
 purpose. ” 
 
 Root Scores Propaganda. 
 
 Mr. Root says: “There never has been in 
 this country, so far as my observation and 
 reading go, any more dangerous and per- 
 sistent misrepresentation regarding the rela- 
 tions, the purposes, the character of another 
 country with which we have relations than 
 in the case of the relations between the 
 Lfiiited States and Japan. I haven’t the 
 slightest doubt that the misrepresentations 
 and the attempts to create a feeling among 
 the people Avho have it all in their hands now. 
 the attempts to create bad feeling between 
 the United States and Japan, have been very 
 
America and Japan 
 
 11 
 
 largely the result of a fixed and settled pur- 
 pose, and that purpose, it seems to me, grow- 
 ing day by day more clear, was the pur- 
 pose that formed a part of the policy of the 
 great ruling caste of Germany, which is at- 
 tempting to subjugate the world today. 
 
 “For many years I was very familiar with 
 our department of foreign affairs, and for 
 some years I was especially concerned in its 
 operation. During that time there were 
 many difficult, perplexing and doubtful ques- 
 tions to be discussed and settled between the 
 United States and Japan. During that time 
 the thoughtless or malicious section of the 
 press was doing its worst. During that time 
 the demagogue seeking cheap reputation by 
 stirring up the passions of the penplp t.n 
 whom it appealed was doing its worst. There 
 were many incidents out of which quarrels 
 and conflicts might have arisen, and I hope 
 you will remember what I say. I say that 
 during all that period, there never was a 
 moment when the government of Japan was 
 not frank, sincere, friendly, and most solici- 
 tous not to enlarge, but to minimize and do 
 away with all causes of controversy. No one 
 who has any familiarity at all with life can 
 be mistaken in a negotiation as to whether 
 the one Avith whom he is negotiating is try- 
 ing to be frank or trying to bring on a 
 quarrel. 
 
 Peace Always Championed. 
 
 “That is a fundamental thing that you 
 can not be mistaken about. And there was 
 never a more consistent and noble advocacy 
 of peace, of international friendship and of 
 real, good understanding in the diplomacy 
 of this Avorld than Avas exhibited by the rep- 
 resentatives of Japan, both here and in 
 Japan, during all these years in their rela- 
 tions to the United States. I wish for no 
 better, no more frank and friendly inter- 
 course by which Japan in those years illus- 
 trated the best qualities of the new diplo- 
 macy as between rulers.’’ 
 
12 
 
 America and Japan 
 
 Mr. Gerard says: “All during the winter 
 of 1914 in Berlin, Germans from the highest 
 down tried to impress me with the great 
 danger which they said threatened America 
 from Japan. The military and naval at- 
 taches of the United States embassy and I 
 were told that the German information sys- 
 tem sent news that Mexico was full of Japa- 
 nese colonies and America of Japanese spies. 
 Possibly much of the prejudice in America 
 against the Japanese was cooked up by Ger- 
 man propagandists, which we later learned 
 to know so well.” 
 
 Japan’s friendliness and good faith were 
 strikingly shown in the early days of the 
 war, when the question arose whether, in 
 case of war between the United States and 
 Japan, Great Britain Avould be obliged to 
 assist Japan. This was excitedly discussed 
 here and in England. The proposed treaty 
 of arbitration between Great Britain and the 
 United States came up about this time, and 
 it was found that such a treaty was pre- 
 cluded by the terms of the alliance between 
 Great Britain and Japan. It was at Japan’s 
 request that the terms of her treaty with 
 Great Britain be revised so as to remove the 
 obstacle to the arbitration treaty, to which 
 Great Britain consented. This was Japan’s 
 contribution to universal peace. 
 
 Regarding this. Viscount Ishii said in his 
 address in the National Press Club in Wash- 
 ington, “Now if Japan had the remotest in- 
 tention of appealing to arms against America 
 how could she thus voluntarily have re- 
 nounced the all-important cooperation of 
 Great Britain? It would have been widely 
 fluixotic. Treaties are not ‘scraps of paper’ 
 to Great Britain. Japan knew she could 
 rely on Great Britain religiously to carry 
 out her promise. It was my good fortune to 
 be in the foreign office at Tokio at the time of 
 the revision of the treaty of alliance with 
 Great Britain, and, modest as was the part 
 I took therein, I can give you the personal 
 
America and Japan 
 
 13 
 
 and emphatic assurance that there was at 
 that time no one in the government or 
 among the public of Japan opposed to the 
 terms of that revision. There is, one may 
 surely he safe in saying, only one way to in- 
 terpret this attitude of Japan. It is the 
 most signal proof — if, indeed, any proofs are 
 needed — that to the Japanese government 
 and nation anything like armed conflict with 
 America is simply unthinkable.” 
 
 Nothing Lent Japan. 
 
 Japan, alone among the allies, has bor- 
 rowed no money from the United States ; and 
 she has lent hundreds of millions to the other 
 allied nations. The Japanese have made a 
 record in war charities during the last four 
 years which is of really extraordinary fine- 
 ness and disinterestedriess. The women of 
 Japan used the same methods for raising 
 money to be sent to Belgium and Serbia and 
 elsewhere that our own women did. They had 
 their “Japan Belgian Relief Society,” their 
 “Japan Serbian Relief Society,” etc. They 
 sent $150,000 to the Italian refugees who 
 lost their homes when the Teutonic armies in- 
 vaded Italy. Stimulated by these smaller 
 but very active organizations, a movement 
 Avas started which spread from end to end 
 of the empire and then across to Korea. Its 
 title is “The Japanese Association for Aid- 
 ing the Sick and Wounded Soldiers and 
 Others Suffering from the War with Allied 
 Countries.” Its president is Prince lyesato 
 Tokugawa, president of the house of peers. 
 The vice president is Baron Shibusawa, the 
 financier so Avell known in this country. The 
 fund collected amounted to $1,000,000 and 
 was distributed as follows : 
 
 To Great Britain $184,000 
 
 France 184,000 
 
 Russia 184,000 
 
 Italy 184,000 
 
 Belgium 184,000 
 
 Serbia 60,000 
 
 Rumania 60,000 
 
M 
 
 America and Japan 
 
 People United for War. 
 
 Ordinarily, funds of this size and character 
 are distributed by a committee, but this as- 
 sociation adopted a less expensive and much 
 more modern method. The money was sent 
 to the Japanese official representatives in the 
 various countries. A pamphlet was pulj- 
 lished in Japanese and in English under the 
 title “Japan to Her Allies,” which stated the 
 purpose of the association and also included 
 articles written by leading men of the 
 country, in which they set forth their sym- 
 pathy with all the sufferers, their opinion of 
 Germany’s responsibility for the war, and 
 her abominable methods of conducting it. 
 and their belief in the ultimate victory of 
 the allies. It is a remarkable publication; 
 nothing quite equal to it has originated in 
 any of the occidental countries. The quality 
 of the pamphlet is shown by the following 
 quotation from the dignified and impressive 
 statement of Count Terauchi, the prime min- 
 ister and official spokesman of the Japanese 
 people : 
 
 “Far removed as the empire of Japan is 
 from the center of action, and little as the 
 people of Japan have suffered in comparison 
 with their European allies, Japan and her 
 people, none the less, know the meaning of 
 war, and are able, therefore, to appreciate 
 the sufferings and sacrifices of their allies 
 as their own. The people of Japan feel them- 
 selves one with the people of the invaded 
 countries, just as the people of the allies do. 
 They are one in sympathy and in the fight 
 for international justice, and stand ready to 
 share the hardships of the struggle to the 
 fullest extent. * * * As the prime min- 
 
 ister of Japan it is my privilege and plea- 
 sure hereby to express the sympathy and 
 good-will of the people of Japan for the 
 allied armies and peoples in this day of trial. 
 
 * * * Though the amount contributed 
 
 may seem no more than a mere trifle in com- 
 parison with the need of the suffering na- 
 
America and Japan 
 
 ir> 
 
 tions. the heartfelt sympathy and admira- 
 tion of a whole nation go with it. Those 
 who receive the gift from Japan may well 
 look upon it as the widow’s mite that means 
 moi’e than all the offerings of the rich.” 
 
 Respect for Japan Demanded. 
 
 There is not time in this message to discuss 
 fully our proper relations to Japan; I have 
 set them forth as I see them — and as I see 
 our proper position as regards all our inter- 
 national relations — in my book ‘‘Fear God 
 and Take Your Oavu Part.” But there is 
 always time to point out the elemental fact 
 that this country shoidd feel for Japan a 
 peculiar admiration and resi)ect. and that 
 one of the cardinal principles of our foreign 
 policy should be to secure and retain her 
 friendship, respect, and good-will. There is 
 not the slightest real or necessary conflict of 
 interest between the United States and 
 Japan in the Pacific ; her interest is in Asia, 
 ours in America ; neither has any desire or 
 excuse for acquiring territory in the other 
 continent. Japan is playing a great part in 
 the civilized world ; a good understanding 
 between her and the United States is essen- 
 tial to international progress, and it is a 
 grave offense against the United States for 
 any man by word or deed to jeopardize this 
 good understanding. 
 
 The case has been put in a nutshell in Vis- 
 count Ishii’s eloquent and appealing address 
 at Fair Haven, Mass., on July 4. which he 
 closed with these Avords : 
 
 ‘‘AVe trust you, Ave love you, and. if you 
 AA’ill let Ais, Ave Avill Avalk at your side in loyal 
 good-felloAA’ship doAAUi all the coming years.” 
 
 All good Americans should act toAvard 
 Japan in precisely the spirit shoAA'n tOAvard 
 America by this able and eloquent Japanese 
 statesman. 
 

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