Evening star., 1928-10-07
MANCHURIA A MENACE
TO JAPAN'S INTEREST
Statesmen of Toxic Oppose Harsh Tao
tics, However, in Bringing About Future.
! Security-WouId Be China's Friend.


practically all cases, the laborers ended
by becoming masters.
The Japanese wanted quick profits
the Chinese we're content to earn q
livelihood The japanese wanted bright
attractive dwellings; the Chinese lived
huddled on top of one another, in
shanties. The Japanese clung to their
daily baths; above all, they chung to
the love of appearances, that great
strength and weakness of their national
character.
On the other hand, the Chinese con-
tinued to live like animals, their only
hope to dim and distant future. More
over. great numbers of japanese were
overcome by nostalgia, in the dreary,
yellow plains of Manchuria: and home
sickness for their cheerful island life
soon became physical illness.
Say 1t Lacks Soul.
Even Dairen, the spotless town which,
technically and commercially, is the
pride of Japan in Manchuria, Is not
liked by japanese hearts. They are
proud of it. as of an American achieve
ment. But, they will say with sigh, it
lacks tamashi.
Tamashi is, like kokoro, an untrans-
latable and delightful japanese word
1
might a modern town with no temples,
with no centennial trees, have a
! tamashi?
Last August-to give an American ex-
ample of their feeling-I was in Char
lottesville, Va, where I had been
| invited by the Institute of Public
| Affairs. Among its members was a
| japanese gentleman.
very frequently used to walk under
| the exquisite colonnade of the univer-
sity-one of the jewels of the world
and there one evening met my jap
anese. He bowed slightly to me, prob
ably because I was one OF the speakers
at the institute. I answered and added,
| with gesture toward the Jeffersonlan
buildings:
us it not beautiful here? 1t is so
| rich in tamaShi. ."
My passing interlocutor was probably
as far from the feeling as from the
| word. But when he heard it, all his
cold composure melted; he looked, re-
| fiected and then said, with tone of
deep sincerity, and bowling much more
than his Americanized style would have
admitted:
"Oh, yes, you are right. Such a
| tamaShi ."
But even my Virginia Japanese, who
admitted tamashi in America, would be
unable to feel any in dismal Man
churia.
Manchuria is not sentimental ques-
| ton in Japan It is more or less an
economic necessity for all, political
instrument for some.
Japan's Great Problem.
The terrible problem of Japan is the
increase Of her population. According
to the most recent figures published by
the imperial Office of statistics, the
population of Japan proper is 59,736, ,704
inhabitants. Japan proper has den-
sity of 386.72 inhabitants per square
mile, which shows an increase of 245
on the 1922 shown by the great census
of 1920. When considering the area of
the land under cultivation as basis,
Japan takes first place among densely
populated countries. She comes before
Belgium and Italy. A dangerous priv
ilege.
The difficulty of the situation is in
creased by the fact that agriculture is
no longer the happy basis of the en-
pire. The agricultural crisis all over
| Japan is very grave. The fertility of
the soil is decreased, and farmers are
experiencing difficulty in procuring
tools and the necessary material for
working the land. Though no work.
man in the town lacks his bowl of rice
the great majority of the peasants must
content themselves with diet half rice
half barley. The main thing is to fill
ones self-it is no avail to think about
vitamins.
Danger in Situation.
Discomfort among the peasants,
should it coincide with a labor crisis,
might well happen to bring about a
great revulSion similar to those which
the japanese have experienced in the
past, and which the founders Of modern
Japan perhaps were wrong TO ignore,
carried, as they were, by|a beautiful
wave of loyalty and patriotism.
In order to deal with the national in
crease of population. several methods
| have been discussed in Japarl-birth
control, extension of national territory
emigration and, lastly, development of
| industry.
The problem of birth control is con-
| fronted in Japan with difficulties a mill
lion times graver than in our countries
In Europe, for instance, the opposition
originates in a jealous safeguarding of
the national vitality a gripping love of
the race and of the races historical
| heritage.
In Japan more is involved-the in
| Stlnctlve revolt Of an entire people
| whose chief moral and social ideas are
oaSed upon f1lial piety To imagine the
possibility of birth control in Japan or
CHINA is like speaking of a Japan and
CHINA which may possibly exist one
day, in times to come, but which will
no longer be Japan or China as we
know them.
| No doubt the vision of an extension
OF territory, practicable only If it were
TO follow war, haunts the older ma
tionalistic spirit in Japan. But-this
being the main point which I wish to
make perfectly clear in the present
artlcle-the clouds of diplomatic COM
peared recently on the Far Eastern
horizon do not come from the old
popular vision of territorial extension.
as happened in 1904 with the war for
Korea, against Russia.
ParadOxicaI Situation.
We are confronted now in Japan with
a paradoXical situation Public opinion
at large is unanimous for a steady de-
fense of the old economic privileges
| gained in Manchuria with so many
sacrifices during the war with Czarist
Russia
At the same time they are for peace
and for friendly development of their
/ relations with China. The lessons of the
sterility of wars seem to have been
learned by the masses In Japan even
better than in Europe. On the other
side, wrongly or rightly-but appear
ances are facts in diplomatic Situa-
tions-the present militaristic Japanese
government gives the impression OF
dreaming of some military adventures
pressed, as it is, not so much by the
rise of the nationalistic tide in China
as by the general awakening of liberal
ism in Japan.
We have already seen that the jap
anese after their victories over Russia
hoped for while to change Manchuria
L i,,tl RIir,rAn,n An,nntn dn,