Evening star., 1944-03-05
arMayP Provide
Lesson for Axis
By w. II. Harrison.

~ooOAA - OA AAAAo
By w. II. Harrison.
It is one thing to inflict q military
defeat upon an enemy and quite another
thing to make him change his mind
to convince him that all his old beliefs
are wrong, to convert him to a new po-
ntical philosophy, to transform his
whole pattern of intellectual behavior.
Sooner or later, Germany and Japan
are going to be forced to lay down their
arms, but. in doing that they will not
thinking that has set them apart from
the rest of the world as states uniquely
fond Of blood and iron and queerly dis
posed to regard themselves as communi-
ties Of supermen.
Some time ago. in recognition Of this
phase Of the coming peace problem, Vice
President Wallace declared that the
United Nations would have to subject
Germany and Japan to q program Of
psychological disarmament" designed to
get the poison out Of their educational
systems and to teach them that chronic
pugnacity, the love Of might for nights
sake and the master-race complex do
not pay. Similarly, at q recent confer
ence Of the American Association OF
School Administrators DR.. Alexander J.
Stoddard of Philadelphia called for the
strictest international control over all
education in both countries, asserting
that every Axis pedagogue should be re-
moved and forever barred from teach
ing again" and that the schools them
selves should be closed, If necessary, I'M
til trustworthy new teachers can be
found. The main objective, in his opin-
ION, Is to see to 1t that German and
japanese children do not have their
minds twisted once more as in the years
before and during the present war.
What Mr.. Wallace and Dr. Stoddard
propose. however. is much more easily
said than DONE For although great
numbers of Germans and japanese have
been unaffected by 1t directly, the poison
runs very deep among the most literate
and influential groups in both countries.
Moreover, it is not something that began
flowing only with the advent of Hitler
and the rise of the Toxic warlords. In
the case Of Japan, the mind-twisting
had its inception centuries ago, growing
out Of religious concepts establishing the
Land Of the Rising Sun as a land Of
gods and demigods destined to rule the
earth. In the case Of Germany, the
basic Nazi viewpoints were articulated
generations before the coming of the
Fuehrer by philosophers of great but
perverted genius-the German nihilists
who rebelled against Christian princi-
Piles, scoffed at abstract standards Of
justice and apotheosized naked power as
the sole measure Of what Is good or
right.
AS one who is well acquainted with
this subject, c. J. Hambro. head Of the
last Norwegian Parliament and former
president Of the League Of Nations As
sembly, has written that German
thought and German action since 1870
have been largely motivated by "the
Fichte- -Hegel- Nietzsche concept Of the
German mission, OF a state with divine
right to demand everything from tndi-
viduals, Of the blond German superman
who has been called upon to rule the
world" Decades before the ascendancy
Of Hitler this concept was being ham,
mered into young. impressionable heads
by thousands Of schoolmasters through
out Germany; the idea, the evil seed,
thus already was sown by the time the
Nazis came along. They had merely to
cultivate 1t to make it blossom grue-
somely into aggression and war.
Fichte, for instance, died in 1914, but
long before then he had precursed the
Fueher, Promise peace" he said, that
thou mayest begin war with advantage.
- The people metaphysically pre-
destined have the moral right to fulfill
their destiny by means of cunning and
force. - = Between states there is nei-
ther law nor right unless it be the right
of the strongest" And Nietzsche, who
thought of christianity as something
seductive, intoxicating, defiling and
corrupting" and who preached a way of
life beyond good or evil, left behind him
this counsel for Hitler: "Ye have heard
men say, Blessed be the peacemakers';
but say unto you: Blessed are the war;
makers, for they shall be called, If not
the children Of Jahwe, the children Of
Odin, who is greater than Jahwe."
Later, echoing his masters, Bernhard
wrote: War is biological necessity
- moral obligation = an indis-
pensable factor in civilization.
World power or downfall will be our
rallying cry. = We Germans have a
duty to perform . - We, like the Jap
anese, can only fulfill it by the sword"
And from other sources, before and since
Hitler's rise to power, the youth of Ger
many has been indoctrinated with such
thoughts as this: People must learn
to realize that he who cannot be a Ger
man is pariah." And this: Must
civilization build its temples upon noun
tains Of dead, oceans Of tears, the death
rattles Of the dying? Yes, it must! If
people has the right to domination, its
power Of conquest constitutes the high
est law" And so on, ad nauseam.
Blood-and-iron thinking of much the
same sort-but without the touch of
warped genius characterizing such Ger
man philosophy as that of Nietzsche-
has likewise exercised a profound in
fluence in Japan, and it has done so for
a much longer time than in Germany.
so that to re-educate the Nipponese, to