Evening star., 1942-01-02
Jupon's Colonial Empire

Jopon's Colonial Empire
Not long after Mussolini entered the
war on Hitler's side by his treacher-
Gus stab in the back of hard-pressed
France, Winston Churchill uttered
his solemn warning to Italy with the
ominous words: I'VE are tearing, and
will continue to tear. your colonial
empire to shreds and tatters." That
warning has been largely fulfilled.
Most Of Italy's extensive overseas
empire Is gone. Defeat will take the
rest, and it is unlikely that the
eventual peace settlement will leave
her anything beyond her historic
boundaries. This will leave Italy
unable to make further trouble.
II such drastic treatment is
deemed necessary for so unwarlike
and incompetent a nation as Italy
has shown herself to be, all the more
needful is it that similar treatment
be meted out to Japan, which has
been shown, not merely today but
also in the past. to be a warlike,
ambitious, and predatory power. All
OF Japan'S strategic outposts must
therefore be stripped away and the
japanese confined to their home
islands as strictly as they were when
Commodore Perry sailed into their
secluded waters nearly ninety years
ago.
1t goes without saying that all
japanese conquests in the present
war, present and future, will be re-
stored to their rightful owners.
Equally obvious is it that their ag-
gressions against China during the
past decade, including Manchuria,
will be Cancelled. But the process
should 60 further than that. For
mosa, fllched from China as a result
OF Japan's unprovoked aggression
against the then Celestial Empire in
1894, ought likewise to be restored to
Chinese rule. The population and
civilization are still essentially Chi
nese in character. Equally just is it
that Korea, forcibly annexed to
Japan in 1910, should be restored to
Independent nationhood. Despite
brutal repression and persecution,
the Koreans, numbering more than
20,000,0 900, have never been Japan
lied. They would welcome liberation,
and Japan thus would be deprived
Of her vital foothold for any subse-
quent aggression on the Asiatic
mainland.
Even that, however, by no means
completes the necessary task. Japan
possesses outlying island chains ex-
tending from the tip Of Russian
Kamchatka to Formosa which effec-
lively protect her from attack via the
Pacific, and which also blanket both
Siberia and China from normal ac-
cess except with Japan's permission.
Likewise, Japan acquired in the last
war an immense tract of island
studded ocean lying directly across
the route from Hawaii to the Philip
pines. Japan has heavily fortified
this region, in defiance Of her PROM
ises as a mandatory of the League
of Nations.
That the mandate islands will have
to be taken from Japan is certain.
But it is no less desirable that the
island groups nearer home should
likewise be taken from her, since
even small islands may be made
dangerous bases for aircraft and
submarines
The f1rst Of these island chains are
the Kuriles, extending from the
northermost Japanese island of Hok-
kaido to Kamchatka. They were
acquired from Russia as. far back as
1876, in exchange for a remuneration
of Japanese claims to the island of
Sakhalin. Then Japan got the
southern half of sakhalin as part
Va tAlC oPVAc AAOIIl IlcI Wal WlLIl
Russia in 1904-05. The second of
these island chains runs southwark
from Japan proper to Formosa, and
was f1lched from China at various
times. Lastly there is the Bonin
Island group, halfway between Japan
and the inundated islands. This
group must also be taken.
Deprived of all her strategic out
posts, and faced by modernized,
unified China, 1t Is unlikely that
Japan could give further trouble.
The chronic disturber of the Orient
would have been put under lasting
bond to keep the peace.
This country Of ours, to say the,
least, is not lacking in variety. With
Manila bombed and the whole archi-
pelago attacked, we have, on the