The Washington herald., 1921-09-07
By Western Standards.

hcult to guess why she hesitated to agree to
join the Washington conference. 1t would
--esdiy be credited to what is known bad con-
science. But Japan is OF the East. The two do
not have the rules Of conscience nor the
same distinctions of right and wrong in human re-
= ations. Japan may copy the West without the
:-sWest's motives methods detectives.
-But Japan has felt that she of the East was asked
10 come before a court of the West under Western
rules processes and standards, and that she alone
would be trial. 1t probably this feeling
which led that leader of the elder statesmen and
= uncompromising champion of aggressive policies.
~0kuma, to say:
The most probable fact is that, having failed
- to put much restriction on the Japanese posi-
ton and activity in the Far East she desired
at the Versailles conference, the United States
has sought different opportunity in the form!
of the Pacific conference. The future center OF
the worlds markets and wealth lies in China
and Siberia. 1t is only too natural for America,
therefore, to want to restrict the activity OF the
Japanese, who possess intimate relations with
the above quarters and who occupy superior
positions there. The Japanese must be pre-
pared to reject whatever proposals may be
made at the conference in disregard of the -
rights and interests OF the people OF the Orient.
II Japan's protests or laims should be ignored
she should quit the conference.
i is supposed that Okuma may head Japans
delegation. He is not bothered by Western con-
Science with Western discrimination. He may
see no difference between the absorption of Korea
and the American possession of the Philippines and
Hawaii. He may parallel Shantung with the Brit
ish and French spheres in China. He may liken
Japan in Siberia Britain in India, and France %
Algeria, Italy in Tripoli. He may interpret the
open door" as closed by the Monroe doctrine in
South America He may be hard to convince that
national promise as to aggression in other
tries is not like party platform, merely something
by which gain power and control
Lno hat me Monroe doctrine is he
open door" in operation. They also know that
Japan has repeatedly pledged to uphold the open
door" in China and the maintenance Of Chinas po-
tics independence and territorial integrity She,
with others, accepted the John Hay policy with his
Interpretation, recently repeated by Secretary
;zHughcs In the first Anglo Japanese treaty this
: same pledge was made to Korea. But only eight
years later the Hermit Empire integral part
-of Japan
During the Japan refused to permit China
to retake Shantung from Germany, or join with her
in doing So or to become an ally of the Allies She
took it upon herself to wrest this province from the
Germans, but with the usual promise to return it
to China. If that was her purpose, why not let
China recover her own territory? A little later she
served on China the ultmatum OF the twenty-one
points, which would have made all that empire but
what Korea in 1902 Before she would help
protect the Eastern from submarines she made
the bargain by secret treaty, which gave her the
North Pacific German islands.
She entered Siberia with the other allies but
sent more than double the troops that were her
quota and has stayed, while trade followed her
armies 1t during the that the Ishii- Lansing
agreement was made which she tried to have give
to her paramount interests in China, and claims it
docs So To all appearances, judged by Western
standards, Japan has long record OF bad faith, Of
promises not kept and OF attempt to absorb
where Others at most, have but sought advantage
without closing the door back of them. Moreover,
this is the twentieth not nineteenth, century, and
this conference will meet under different standard
OF international responsibility.