Evening star., 1932-03-08
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. C.. NJ.

THE GREAT PACIFIC WAR: A His
tory of the American Japanese
Campaign of 1878. BY Hector
Bywater. author of Sea Power in
the Pacific" Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co.
Away back in ages when revelation
with its content of admonition. was ac-
cepted as light and leading among
peoples, such word as The Great pa
cific War" might, without overpres-
sure. have been received as lesson
stripped from the day-book of proph-
ecy itself.
Written but 7 years ago. however
this disclosure merely slipped out into
that negligible area where theories of
academic brand make only faint call
upon a period whose spirit is purely
practical, absorbed in definite demands
and immediate returns.
Ahead Of the times" as a rule
provides for its issue. either promnt
burial, decent or otherwise. ON the nne
hand, indifference or contumelv unon
the other.
Therefore, since 1t appeared 7 wears
ago. THE Great Pacific War" stood
at that moment as hardly more than a
practice sheet in the hands of military
research. Upon it, out of the basic
principles and theories of naval war
fare, was drawn the hypothetical and
highly illusive program OF war between
America and Japan. Zone of this
mighty combat, the Pacific itself.
NOW, IN 1928, less than a decade ago.
the world, sick of war. had turned reso-
lutely against it as means of interna-
tlonal adjustments and settlements.
Such recoll from the ancient "arbitra-
ment OF war took shape in conclaves
OF altruistic intent and endless discus
sion. AS 1t turns out the prime end of
such measure and method, up to the
present. being that there is no essen
tial altruism among men.
Hector Bywater, sensing beforehand
that the substance of his book and the
time OF Its advent would be defeatingly
out OF joint for its best effect, may have
said to himself, probably did: "All right
But shall not bulge an inch from the
truth-truth reached by science, sus-
tained by the technic of naval combat
and supported by history. The work
finished, I'll call it fiction, a story"
And that Is what he did.
First, like the good romancer, he
spread the background Of action. The
Pacific Ocean, a vast battle zone be-
tween two contending powers, America
and Japan. touch of absurdity in
that choice. Or so it seemed to the
| reader seven years ago. America, young
and virile and huge Japan, tiny state
OF ancient lineage, like China and In
Ola. To be sure. Japan, unlike these
other two, gave up the self-engroSsment
of contemplating her own navel, as the
saying names this Oriental preoccupa-
tion in individual soul study. Japan
stretched herself pretty sharply as,
looking outward, she caught glimpses of
horizon.
A fecund people, making a speciality
OF population, Japan felt push for
more room than a mere Shoestring of
islands along the coast offered, felt the
need of raw materials to satisfy the in
creasing call for food. shelter, new oc-
cupationS, trade. In the same climatic
zone as the United States, across the
big ocean, with lusty blood infiltrations
from the ASiatic mainland to the north,
Japan in initiative and virility and dar-
ing carries sharp likeness to the
United States itself.
But nations do not go to war upon
their likenesses and agreements. Yet,
out of kinshlp itself do keenest rivalrieS
come. These ferment to jealousy dislike,
hatred, occasion for open disagreement.
That stage reached, any trifle serves. An
act from the larger state, excluding
immigration from the smaller one An
irritant, at first, hurt to self-pride,
wound to national achievement There
the book rests-that is, rests in respect
n l1a 1hGf re in hi Nor in I7a
Pacific"
The scene of battle comes in, along
the way, for an expert accounting OF
the great sea fight between America
and Japan. The story takes account of
the shrinkage of that vast expanse, once
the greatest of all peace warrants.
Science has shrunk the Pacific by speed
by fighting from the air and by fighting
from below surface, by instantaneous
communications of foreMarning, chang
| ing formations and modes of attack
Battleships, newly armed and fortified
| magicianS of automatic military eff
| cheney, these also are contributing to
reduce the greatest body of water on
earth to a measurable area of fighting
of the 'hand-tohand" significance
! And there the STORY" waits. A story
whose true content is an expert and
| waywise analysis of the purely hypo-
thetical case of war between these two
countries. were war between them
| imaginable even. But, as story, it is
all over, save for a disconcerting obtru-
sion of subsequent fact into the SUBJ
stance of this invention.
Time marches on" as the radio man
grandiloQuently declares. Since the
close of Mr.. Bywater's work of fiction
| time has marched through continuous
international movements toward a per-
manence of peace. Marched straight
into the war between China and Japan
While the peace emiSsarieS at Geneva
talk and talk, demonstrating with Japan
against its clear belligerency. Japan
bows in suave diplomatic agreement
and then turns off its battle a day with
the enemy on the Eastern front.
A new psychology has in the later
years developed among the Nipponese
Through the ancient smooth orientalism
are thrusting initiative, confidence
adaptability. positive forecast toward
progress Of the modern sort, an emula-
tive activity toward expansion. trade
the full materialistic content of mod
erniSm itself. Ambitious, in the current
sense. Japan
And now, as If Hector Bywaters story
had waited long enough for events and
readers to catch up with it. the war it
self between these two powers is on and
the reader goes back to a plausible
study OF that war. Goes back to a thor
oughly competent analysis of the Pacific
as future area of the great economic
struggle which. superseding religion,
patriotism and other outmoded pretexts
OF conflict, is emerging into the open as
supreme and common cause of national
rivalrieS and their sequence in war.
BY virtue of the competent and
plainly revealing character of The
Great War in the Pacific" its publish
ers have reissued the book to meet the
march of events since 1925 to meet the
most useful reading moment for this
expert unsensational, plain dealing
with the future Of the West and the
East, meeting somewhere in the Pa
cific.