The Washington times., 1921-11-19
RECOGN|T|ON0F
JAPAN, SESAME
TOWORLOPEACE


Hard to Acknowledge, Says Mrs.
Rinshart. But Room Must Be
Made for Brown Men.
BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART.
Noted Authorsss.
| Copyright. 1891. by Universal Service. Ino.
It Is increasingly apparent that the
mine set off by Mr.. Hughes last
Saturday was located directly under
meath certain Japanese ambitions
and that q number Of considerably
mutilated plans are just now in hos
pital at the Shoreham Hotel.
Japan-Foundling.
Nevertheless. there Is certain
ironic humor and some pathos in the
situation Of Japan at this time. For.
to change the figure, modern japan
is the child of old European meth.
ods married to young yellow wife.
and is today an orphan.
Worse than that. her former
friends and relatives Of the Quai
d'Orsay, Downing street, and the
Wilhelmstrasse have educated her
and then abandoned her, to adopt Q
strange new. white child called
peace"
Nevertheless, II Japan, too, has a
sense Of humor, she must occasion
ally smile Just now at the virtuous
air with which her teacher-nations
of the past are bidding her forget
what they taught her. She has been
the star pupil of militaristic Europe.
and because she has moved toward
the head of the class, the teachers
see that they have taught her too
well.
For, whatever her past, Japan's
modern militarism Is purely ac-
quired. She has initiated European
war methods as she initiates Swed-
ish matches. only rather better, for
her matches are poor. And she Is.
like prewar Europe, militaristtc not
because she loves to fight. but for
what she can get out Of fighting.
1t is an unfortunate fact for the
rest of the world that. while Eu.
rope has learned that no spoils OF
victory can pay the cost of war.
Japan has paid comparatively little
and has stood to win q great deal.
Taught to Arm.
But long before the great war
Japan could truthfully sing te
Europe, You made me what ! am
today Her first contacts with
western civilization were the Black
Ships, as she called them, European
battleships. From the beginning OF
Japan's intercourse the japanese
people themselves were given
INSTALLATION of the armed power oi
the rest Of the world.
| Battleships came to her harbors
and their guns shone against the sky
line. Nations made parade OF theiI
power, and sent flotillas Of dread
naughts., 1t was clear to japan tha
unless one had q navy and an army
one was nobody-like a family own
| ing a piano. That II could not affort
the piano nor pay the installments or
II, for the eight-eight program was to<
laxpensive, was a subsidiary matter.
4 But she saw. - q matter OF TACT
| that there were other methods n,
which Europe obtained some Of thu
things 1t wanted. She saw that, hav
ing the piano and the prosperity Il
lawn-mower and other things. and
that con siderable rather profitable
borrowing was being done.
She saw that between 1912 and 1911
the Russians. French, Belgians, ant
British had obtained railway conces
sions in China; the American Stand
ard Oil had secured oil concessioni
there, and an American corporation
had acquired a great railway building
privilege. Also that England wal
claiming a sphere OF influence II
China Of 362 900 square miles.
i And Japan did not see particular,
why China should lend around th'
corner, when her next-door neighboi
needed many things.
But Japan was new to the game
and the slow and devious methods o.
Europe were too like the Eastern In
direction which she was eager tt
throw off. The possibilities openet
up to her in her world she had JUS
discovered went to her head. and she
became drunk with power. The samt
cupidity which today places China or
sale to the highest bidder drove hei
to over-reaching. She armed too oovi
ously. and took too little trouble tt
conceal her designs.
| Things worked for her at first. The
opening of the long-closed door OF thu
East had destroyed the old patriarcha
government in China and given moth
ing in it's place. China was thus left
/
Japanese, more adaptable and more
willing for contact with the West and
for change, had developed a working
system which compromised the old
regime with the new, and which, al
though not entirely satisfactory, salts
fled tho requirements of the moment
| A Lesson In Morals.
! Playing into their hands, as II hat
played into the hands Of other nations
before them. was the fact that the
| Chinese, while individually honest
were politically corrupt, and also the
belief that, given a sufficient state OF
turmoil In a country, that country's
nearest neighbor acquires the moral
right to step in and stabilize 1t, for 6
consideration.
Just how much Of the disorder In
| China may be traced to Japan Is ar
open question. 1t is claimed, behind
closed doors. that Japan has financed
at least one Of the contending generals
whose armies are now looting and
pillaging their own country. Whether
| this Is true or not, Japan had learn ed