Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-08-15
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JAPAN TO BE SUPREME.
Island Kingdom Plans New Empire on
Asiatic Mainland.


There is to be Japanese empire on
the mainland of Asia, declares Walter
Wellman, the Washington correspond
ent. 1t is to embrace Korea and
Manchuria and probably a part of 81
IBERIA. The Japan of the present is
a mere island kingdom. The Japan
of the future is TO rule the littoral Of
the northern Asiatic continent, reach
ing far into the interior, comprising
vast, fertile and populous provinces
The new Japan is to be thrice as great
in area and twice as great in popula-
ton as the Japan of the present The
Sea of Japan is to be the center, the
heart, of this new empire. That sea
is to become Japanese lake. Japan
is to dominate it and all the lands
lying about it. This dominance of the
Japanese Sea and its coast country on
all sides, the japanese hold, is abso-
lutely essential to their national
safety.
The pretensiOn the Japanese put
forth as to the Sea of Japan is not I'M
like the Monroe doctrine which the
United States applies to the Caribbean
Sea. Japan has Il Monroe doctrine of
her own. And the meaning of it is
that Japan will view as an unfriendly
act any effort on the part of European
powers to establish their sovereignty
or to plant their systems on or near
the shores of the Sea of Japan. This
japanese Monroe doctrine applies not
only to Russia, but to all European
powers. Inasmuch, however, as Russia
is the only European power which has
established itself ON the coast of the
Japanese Sea, it is Russia alone whose
possession and known ambitions are
to be narrowed or delimited by the
national aspirations of the victorious
Japanese.
Thus, with one mighty leap, Japan
springs from a scattered island king
dom off the Asiatic coast, a mere ocean
principality half lost in the maritime
fogs, to empireship covering islands
and huge strip of the mainland and
the sea which lies between them.
From rank as twelfth or fifteenth
among the powers of the earth Japan
rises at a bound to fifth or sixth place,
and with still greater possibilities
lying before her in Chinese political
hegemOny and commercial leadership.
These are the aspirations of the Jap
anese people at this moment This
empire-building ambition of theirs
forms the basis of the peace terms
which they will endeavor to impose
upon Russia.
The United States and Great Britain
are we'll aware of the intention of the
Japanese to spread their empire to the
Asiatic mainland, and neither Great
Britain nor the United States has any
objection thereto. If the need should
arise under attempts to exert interna-
tional pressure favorable to Russia.
Great Britain would be a positive
force in support of the contentious of
Japan, while the attitude of the United
States would be negatively friendly to
the Japanese in that our government
would decline to take any action what
sOever. Japan has Russia to deal with,
and Russia alone.
Japanese arms have won series of
victories unprecedented in the history
of modern wars Japanese statesman
ship now seeks to fix for all time the
fruits of those military and national
triumphs. The terms which Japan is
about to submit 70 Russia may en-
brace this or that item designed to Sc
cure the results aimed at. When those
demands are presented it is more thin
likely certain features may be mini
mixed or receded from as the friction
of negotiation and of give and take
becomes acute. But when the irreduc-
ible minimum is reached it will virtu-
ally wipe out Russia as a power along
the Asiatic littoral bordering the Sea
of Japan and place that sea in the very
heart Of the future empire Of Nippon.