The Columbia evening Missourian., 1922-06-13
MILITARISM IS
BEINCOPPOSED
BY JAPANESE
Youth of Country Seeks TO Es-
cape From Compulsory
Military Duty as
Never Before.
DRAFTED MEN DEFIANT
New Generation Wants Profes-
sional or Commercial Ca
reer Uninterrupted by
Army Service.

By tHffed Press-
TOXIC, June l3.-Among the masses
Of the people in Japan militarism is be-
coming more unpopular every day.
The militarists leaders still retain their
power-but by a margin more slender
and with a grip more precarious and
uncertain than ever before.
How long they can hold out against
the increasing tide of popular desire rs
matter of conjecture. 1t may be brief.
II NAV be long. But ultimately-uniess
every clear indication Of today is revers-
cd-ihey will lose.
That will mean a reduction in the size
of Japan's standing army, shorter term
Of compulsory military service, great
curtailment in the cost of running the
government. increased money and energy
applied to industry by government and
individuals, and, Of most importance,
government more responsive TO the wish
es of the people.
For months numerous newspapers and
many political leaders have been ham,
mering militarism, demanding Siberian
evacuation and army reduction. This
campaign is stronger now than it has
ever been. is still increasing and bids
fair 10 continue in crcsccndo effect un-
til the object is accomplished-however
long that may take.
The reaction Of the people is distinct
ly apparent This spring thousands OF
Youths throughout Japan are being call
ed 10 the colors, under the universal CON-
pulsory military service system. In every
city and village and hamlet draft boards
are now finding more attempts to evade
service than they have ever experienced,
according TO numerous reports in the
japanese newspapers.
DRAFT Il RESISTED
In some cases drafted men have shown
absolute defiance-a thing not known be-
fore and one of much significance. The
Osaka Mainichi tells of conscript who
declared to the military inspector:
Il am socialist by business. II you
put me in the army | will bolshevize the
whole barracks!"
He wasn't put in the army. He was
put in Jail lie is just out OF college,
had Just secured his first job with big
Osaka mercantile house, and is fairly
representative of that vast army Of young
students abroad in Japan today-virtual-
ly all Of liberal tendencies, Of political
penchant and progressive ambition. They
make up the most vital potential force
in new Japan" And this year few
of them are daring TO do that heretofore
unheard Of thing-hatly refuse to render
compulsory military service.
CHANGE IN VIEWPOINT
One of the best informed and most re-
liable japanese newspaper editors said
to me:
There has been vast change in the
viewpoint and attitude of the young men
of Japan. There was time when in the
past when every boy, almost, wanted to
be a soldier. The height Of ambition
was TO be an officer. Today all that is
changed. The boy, the college student,
wants to be a professional or business
man or a politician or enter public serv-
ice. He wants to avoid the army if he
can possibly do so. He wants TO get
fame, money. to lead peaceful and
successful life in private enterprise. We
are too busy, there are too many things
we want to do, to give at least two
years Of our lives-maybe more-and
spend millions of our money each year
on our army-and perhaps bring about
another war sometime because Of the ex-
istence of that army"
have talked at every opportunity to
as many Japanese men as ! could on
this subject, and have found the senti-
menis expressed by this editor of one
Of Japan's greatest papers to be very
widely shared-indeed. almost universal,
apparently, among the younger men and
the youth of the empire-the men who
within 4 decade may, and who within a
generation certainly will, control Japan
business industry and politics.
The other day the marriage brokers
Of Tokyo announced that military men
are a drug on the marriage market-that
soldiers are less in demand as husbands
than any other class, not even except.
ing the humble 'rickshaw-coolie!
PRESTIGE GOING
Time was when the parents Of maid
en-, casting about for a suitable spouse,
considered an army man first. Now he
comes last-if. indeed. they'll consider
him at all. The first very practical rea-
son is that his income is insufficient to
support wife properly. The second
reason is the departing prestige that
formerly attached to soldering.
A Tokyo newspaper conducted a sur
ycy of all the marriage brokers Of the
city and reported that an average Of
only two clients out of every hundred
will even consider an army man as a
possible husband.
Opposition to military marriage is moi
confined to the civilian population" il
continued. ''Not one Of the daughters
Of either Admiral Togo or General Kur'
oki is married 10 a soldier and the wife
Of Captain Sugi, although herself ar