Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-10-24

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, d. c.
Japan's great catastrophe has served
to turn more than ever the attention
Of the world to this country which,
from position of isolation in the
Asian seas, has emerged to become one
of the dominant factors in the Pacific
and world power overlapping in i'm
portance many of the old powers of
Europe.
This island empire might be termed
the narrower and less compact Britain
of the Far East. Like the British Isles,
the Japanese islands form the fringe
of afgreat continent; both were in the
hands of petty kings and grew into a
centralized nation both looked abroad
for expansion; and both have con-
ceived that their safety and future
prosperity depends largely on sea
power.
But there are differences as we'll as
likenesses between these two island
nations. Since she began to grow into
an empire Great Britain has absolute
far as territorial acquisitions are con-
cerned, and has sent her colonists into
the remote parts of the world. Japan,
on the other hand, has acquired large
blocks Of the neighboring continent,
but has expanded somewhat in other
directions also Great Britain has be-
come the headquarters of scat
tered, distant empire. Japan has re-
NAMED so far the center of her en-
pire with her possessions drawn rela-
lively closely about her.
Though Japan had imperial ambi-
tons even in the early centuries, as
indicated by the fact that she once
conquered Korea, and laid claim in
the Sixteenth century to Formosa and
even the Philippines, the national life,
when Commodore Perry opened com
munications with the West in 1854,
ern islands Of Japan proper and the
small islets near their shores. Not I'M
til the seventies did the government be-
gin development of Yezo, the big island
to the north-the Japanese Scotland.
Both Russia and Japan claimed SAX
halin, the fifth and northernmost of the
large islands of the Japanese group,
and there were similar double claims
to the Kurile group, chain of small
volcanic islands, comparable to the
Aleutians, which stretch from Yezo
nOrtheasJward to the tip Of Kamchat-
ka. In 1875 Russia induced Japan to
take the Kuriles and relinquish all
claims to Sakhalin.
Beginning of Her Expansion.
These expansions to the north were
Of little value, for the cold, bleak
northern lands have never appealed
to japanese colonists Yezo is sparse
ly settled, and the KurileS have only
handful of inhabitants. Japan's next
step was to the south. In 1879 she an
neXed the Lu-Chu archipelago, extend
ing from the southernmost of the large
Japanese islands southwestward for
700 miles to Formosa. China laid
claim to these small but pleasant and
populous islands, as she did to For
mosa, but she finally consented to
JapanS anneXing them.
Japan's victorious war with China
IN 1895 gave her immediate territorial
advantage and in addition greatly
heightened her prestige among the ma
tons. China ceded the island of For
mosa (now officially known as Taiwan)
with its 1900 square miles Of terri
tory and its 100000 inhabitants; and
the Chinese peninsula of Liaotung on
which battle-scarred Port Arthur is
now situated; and acknowledged the
independence of : Korea. Russia,
France and Germany forced Japan to
relinquish the Liaotung peninsula, and
Russia later leased it from China; but
the Russo-Japanese war placed it
again in japanese possession, and the
island empire now holds it under a
99-year lease. BY defeating Russia,
Japan further extended her influence
both on the mainland of Asia and
among the islands. She obtained pro-
rectorate over Korea, sphere of in
1uence" in Manchuria, end the ces-
sion of the southern half of the island
of Sakhalin.
AS a result of the World war, Japan
has made further territorial advances
north, east, south and west. Her
| sphere of influence has included east
ern Siberia. she took over for a time
the German lease on Kiaochow in
China, and by receiving mandate for
the three archipelasoes of former Ger
man islands in the Pacific north of the
equator, she has Jared thousands of
/ miles eastward into the Pacific
The magnitude of Japan's present in