Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-09-15
AFTERMATH OF JAPANESE
DISASTER is DESCRIBED

sept. lb.-When,
two years ago, Japan came to the
Washington conference on limita-
ton of armament and signed the
Four Power Treaty, she little
thought that she would be the first
beneficiary of that document. The
disaster which practically swept her
greatest commercial cities off the
map and destroyed her capital, also
played such havoc with her naval
and military powers that the Wash
ington treaty now proves an unex-
pected blessing.
The Japanese authorities natur-
ally have taken every precaution to
prevent the worlds learning just
how badly her fighting arms have
been wounded, but it has not been
possible to disguise the fact that
many of her ships of war have been
sunk. What is as vital is that many
of her s%hipyards and supply depots,
and the ways on which repairs are
made, have been swept away by
earthquake, tidal wave and fire.
Even were her whole navy aloat.
unchanged, her sea power would be
seriously crippled by the lack of
background of mechanical equip
ment t. keep it in operation. Huge
reserve stores of materials also have
been destroyed.
Relatively few men of the japanese
army were killed or injured in the
disaster, but the great Tokyo arse
nal, the greatest land force depot
in the Orient. has been reduced to
ruins. with its stores of arms and
ammunition.
Had it not been for the four pow
-. A-,aFaF .4,az 90 HAa T-natnl% - thn
Washington conference which the
late President Harding called, Japan
now would be in a peculiarly vul-
rerable position. She would stand
practically disarmed, her sword
snatched from her hand by the force
of nature.
But the four power treaty pro-
vides that the United States, Great
Britain and France shall at all times
stand ready to preserve the integ-
rity of Japan in the Pacific. Though
her fleet is damaged and her land
forces are impaired, her three great
allies, commanding a vast prepon-
derance of the worlds naval power,
stand guard over her Pacific inter-
ests while her navy is rebuilding and
her army restoring itself. In all
probability, the three other signator-
les will send fleets into the Pacific
to take up the police duty which the
Japanese feet ordinarily would as
sumo.
Japan Feared the Conference
Close students of the Far Eastern
situation look with a great deal OF
interest on this development of the
Japanese disaster. When the ma
tons were called to the arms con-
ference, Japan vas fearful that some
trick was involved and that the rest
of the world was preparing to dis
arm her and force its own control
on Pacific affairs. Japanese news
papers before the conference char
acterized the Washington confer
ence as the greatest menace to jap
an since the threatened invasion Oh
Kublai Kahn centuries ago. When
It was discovered that the nations OF
the western world planned no trick,
but actually and sincerely intended
to sign a treaty for the good OF
japan as we'll as for themselves. the
Japanese people were greatly re-
lieved.
The enthusiasm with which the
American people have extended
prompt, ungrudging and unstlnteo
financial relief to the sufferers OF
the disaster has confirmed the ef-
feet Of the treaty and students OF
affairs in the Orient say that tnt
treaty and the humanitarian attl'
tude of America in the present dis
aster have done more to improve
characterization relations ant
good feeling than a whole colieg'
Of diplomats could possibly do.
Japan will rise again from I
ashes of her devastated area, prop
= ably in a surprisingly short time l
does not take very long for a CIT!
| 70 revive even from so great a dis
=. aster as that which has visited
} Japan. When Alaric sacked Rome
his ~barbarians carried away every
thing portable and destroyed ant
, burned practically everything ina
could not be stolen. Gibbon say
; that when a few years later, a travel
: Ter went to Rome he searched II
3 vain to find. some yestige. some sou
> venir OF the famous sack. In TN
/, interim the entire city had been re
: built. That was about fifteen cen
turtles ago when there were no raii
roads to transport materials ana M
machinery for erection. Builoinl
was a slow and tedious undertaking
a In these days of rapid steel and con
crete construction 1t GEMS who'll
probable that the Japanese cities VII
rise, anew within a year.