Evening star., 1940-07-07

three years ago the Japanese public
was assured by the army that it would
be over in three months. AS armies
equipped with all the costly mechanical
weapons of modern warfare have pushed
deeper into the vastness of China, the
drain on Japan has been more and more
obvious. Rising prices, serious imitation
scarcely concealed by official juggling Of
figures, gold reserve dwindling to moth
ing, all this has meant that every man,
woman and child in the island empire
has suffered.
And in this respect the contrast with
China is interesting. While from so to
go million Chinese have felt the cruel
force of war, the other $50, 900 900 have
been untouched. A sprawling, loosely
knit people. with no strongly centralized
government or financial system, the bulk
Of the Chinese people have gone about
their business little disturbed by the war.
Then there is the problem the Jap
anese face in policing this great Asiatic
expanse. They have succeeded every
where in creating deep and lasting
hatreds. Conspicuously poor administra-
tors. except over slave populations as
In Formosa and Manchoukuo, the Jap
anese have succeeded chiefly in stirring
Chinese patriotism. It has been more
and more difficult for the Japs to find
Chinese of sufficient importance and
docility to head the puppet governments
fhay havo eny1otof "a la
est, Wang Ching-w wei, is q shadowy fig-
ure whose regime at Peking is wholly
dependent on Japanese machine guns
and planes.
Guerrillas Harry japanese.
Besides the regular army in the field,
there are perhaps a million guerrillas
engaged In making the Japanese oc-
cupation as painful as possible The day
that Japanese garrison leaves an out
post behind, the guerrillas move in AL
this costs enormously. Another drain
on the japanese economy has been the
huge graft taken by Japanese Army Of
f1cers who have come to regard the Chi
nese war as their own private and
Finally, there is the part that the
United States has played in the Chinese
war. Repeatedly from the Government
and from private individuals have come
expressions of sympathy for the Chinese.
The mass of opinion has been strongly
opposed to Japan. But this has not
meant any very material aid for China.
The Roosevelt administration has bought
Chinese silver and made two or three
comparatively small loans. But at the
same time American industrialists were
supplying Japan with the sinews of war.
American exports to Japan for. 1887,
1888 and 1889 totalled $3.50 ,638 900, of
which s257,740000 was in metals, includ-
ing scrap iron, and $140,2l4,0O0 in pc
troleum products.
From time to time there was active
and widespread agitation to embargo
the shipment of war materials essential
to prosecution of the war. Those in the
State Department who took realistic"
line were convinced that an embargo
would bring retaliation from Japan,
either directed openly against the United
States, perhaps in the Philippines, or
aimed at the Dutch East Indies or Indo-
China. Now it Is considered too late to
close the door, particularly since the
Japanese have accumulated substantial
reserves Of scrap and other materials.
Those in the best position to guess sug-
gest that the japanese war may end not
in any single dramatic event, but by the
gradual liquidation of hostilities with
possibly final face-saving settlement
for Chang Kai-shek. They do not, how
ever, rule out the possibility that Japan
may finally overreach herself. For exam
pie, if resistance, however feeble, were en-
countered in Indo-C China, more money.
more resources would have to 60 into an
enlarged theater Of war And Japan's
economic system is now straining at tne
seams.