Evening star., 1943-06-26
Grew Believes laps
Erred by Attacking
United States Too Late
Former Ambassador
Says War With China
Slowed Enemy Machine
BY the Associated Press.


BUFFALO, N. Y, June 26--Japan
attacked the United States and
Britain too late, former Ambassador
Joseph c. Grew said here last night,
and the reason for this fatal error
In timing was the unexpectedly stiff
resistance of China.
In an address under the auspices
of the Offlce of Civilian Defense, Mr..
Grew recalled that Americans for a
while were so impressed by this
Chinese resistance to Japanese ag-
gression that they overestimated its
effectiveness and imagined Japan
begged down and bled white in a
futile struggle to conquer 400, ,000.-
600 people.
After the attacks on Pearl Harbor
and Singapore, opinion swung to the
opposite extreme and there was a
tendency to assume that "China's
efforts had been in vain, and that
Japan was stronger than ever"
Chinese War Toughened Japs.
Actually. Mr.. Grew asserted, what
happened was that China S stubborn
defense weakened the momentum of
Japan's military machine to an ex-
tent that "the Japanese started their
wider aggression too late for it to
have even the slightest hope of ulti-
mate success"
At the same time, however, this
resistance had the effect of accel-
Grating the full mobilization Of
Japan and of hardening Japan's
troops in the furnace of actual war,
with the result that it was a veteran
army which lunged out at the Phil
ippines, the Netherlands East Indies
and Malaga.
Japan also utilized this period of
long -drawn-out campaigning in
China to build up it's stockpiles of
strategic materials through heavy
imports of Oil, cotton, chemicals,
scrap iron and other war-vital prod
ucts offered on the world market by
future enemies.
Preparedness Is Jap Obsession.
Such systematic preparation for
war and anything which war might
bring came natural to the japanese,
Mr.. Grew pointed out, for prepared
ness has always been an obsession
with them-even during periods of
determined isolationism and peace.
After more than 200 years of iso-
lation and peace, when Commodore
Perry knocked at the door and
Japan awoke to the possibilities of
modern trade and civilization, the
first thing the japanese tried to
modernize was their capacity to
make war. Their war against China
in 1895 proved the efficacy of mod
ernization, their attack on Russia
in 1904 put them in the company
OF the great powers, the first World
War gave them new bases in the
Pacific and added prestige, and by
1881 they were ready to go places.
Thus history shows, Mr.. Grew
warned, that merely defeating Japan
Will not end the Japanese menace.
Must Stamp Out Militarism.
They know" he said, that we
can take their navy, demobilize their
army, control their industry, limit
their trade, strip their Notifications
and even occupy part of their coun-
try without disturbing their war
making capacity if we fail to stamp
out the tradition of militarism.
THE lnnermost heart of japanese
aggression is the Japanese militarist
cult, and japanese claims to racial
superiority. Unless that cult Is de-
stroyed, another war will be inevita-
BILE, and the Japanese will begin
preparing their next military empire
at the very moment that they raise
the white flag over the smoking ruins
of this one"