To Count K., Privy Councillor, 10X41

[ The editor of the magazine *Asia* has sent me an advance copy of an article which will appear in its November number. Written by an "Aryan" German, the article seeks to prove by many quotations from Hitler and other Nazis and from writers of the late empire, that their policy has always contemplated the enslavement and an eventual annihilation of the "yellow" race, above all, the Japanese nation specially marked out as the most threatening to the destiny of the Germans, which is the dominance of the Pacific Ocean. ]

(Freely translated)

I venture to send to you the enclosed article, fearing that, if it were addressed to an ordinary person, it might not reach its destination, because of the censorship of letters which seems at last to have been established in Japan.

The article is said to have been written by a German under an assumed name. Its thesis cannot perhaps be said to be novel to those who know something about the past history of the foreign relations of the Germans and are able to compare it with their present conduct. But until 1939, even in western Europe and America, not only the common people, but also statesmen rarely knew the historic habits of the German political mind as regards other nations; even after reading the open statements made by Hitler and others, it was still thought that they were evidently bombastic exaggerations, and that no human being could truly entertain such ideas as at all practicable. Only within the last two years, there has at last dawned upon these persons a realization of the true

2:

aspect of things. Those who have taken the
trouble to examine past records have discovered
that the same traits that are evident today
have always existed ever since the prehistoric
times of the Germanic races. Therefore, I do
not think that the publication of the article
in November will strike the readers as an as-
tounding revelation. But, for the Japanese,
it may seem to contain surprises, and might
even appear as intrinsically incredible, as
it would have done here till recently. At
any rate, it presents what should be pondered
by the Japanese. Hence my daring to forward
it to you.

I, however, do not for a moment believe
that the policy of annihilation could be
literally carried out. It is true that in the
past the Germans have often coldly butchered
many of the people of a conquered region.
But such was possible because the matter was
on a relatively small scale. It would of course
be an impossibility to massacre the millions of
an entire national population, still less the
whole hundreds of millions of a race of the
human species. But that some similar intention
is harbored in many German minds - if one re-
fers to many historic examples of smaller di-
mensions, and to the policy of near-extermina-
tion that has been actually wreaked upon a
part of the conquered Polish nation - can hard-
ly be dismissed as fantastic.

Aside from the question of annihilation,
the article would seem to contain two things
which have been completely proven.

One is the German concept of the mission
in the world of the "Aryan" race and of the
German nation. The idea includes two elements:
the Aryan race in general, and, within it, the

3.

German nation in particular. But what the
German politicians speak about the Aryan race
does not seem to me important. The supremacy
of that race has been preached by men of other
European nations, too, and the Germans are
doing nothing more than echoing them. But the
theory of the mission of the race is of a com-
paratively recent origin, and has already lost
much of its influence. When the Germans re-
peat the racial name, they seem to do so largely
for convenience, for justifying their persecu-
tion of the Jews. Most often, they do not mean
by "Aryan" the entire Caucasian race, but rather
themselves together with the northern Germanic
peoples; the term in this sense is generally
identical with the so-called "Nordic".

On the contrary, as to the idea that the
German nation alone has, not only over the non-
Aryan but also over the other Aryan peoples of
Europe and America, the destiny of ruling as a
master race (Herrenvolk), and that all the
others are fated to be subject races (Diener-
volk), - though the expression of the thought
in this particular form dates from the latter
part of the late empire and, above all, in the
present age of Nazi domination, - its funda-
mental spirit has been constantly present ever
since the Germanic tribes made their first entry
into historical records.

The earliest records are those by Caesar,
Tacitus, Marcellinus, and other Roman writers,
that is, between first century B.C. and the
fourth A.D. Since the conduct of these tribes
demonstrated this very spirit, the words em-
ployed by these authors in describing it can
be literally applied with surprising accuracy
to the German activities of today. I began
to read these records already before the advent
of the Nazis; and then, examining the writings

4.

To Count K., Privy Councillor, LOX41

of Germanic authors themselves about the doings
of their own race through the ages, I have been
even more impressed by the amazingly unbroken
persistence of the same spirit. What I have
called the records of the Germanic writers' own
are, first of all, the saga literature of Nor-
wegians and Icelanders, (these northern Germanic
nations have mixed with other races, and other-
wise have gradually and largely worn off their
ancient characteristics); then, records of the
invasions of these peoples written by Scotch,
English, northern French, and German authors,
(here, the invaders were "Nordic", and the re-
corders were also very largely of Germanic
origins); and, finally, accounts by writers
in Germany of the actions of their nation at
home, in Italy, in the Crusades, and against
the Slavs. Throughout all these records, the
stories evidencing the same ruthless spirit as
described by the early Latin authors are re-
iterated without end, often in strikingly simi-
lar phrases.

It is, of course, true that the delusion
of an exclusive mission of a race has never
been peculiar to the Teutons alone. One can
find parallels in certain nomadic peoples of
medieval Asia, who several times overran large
parts of that continent and of Europe, seeking
in the thirteenth century even to conquer the
Japanese islands; in those men of Aryan nations
who exploited American, African, and Oriental
natives in early modern times; and also in the
historic Chinese concept of the "Middle Empire"
civilization. There is also a mild example
nearer home: one can recall what Hirata Atsutane
and other scholars in the Japanese revival of
classicism made of the mythology of Ame-no-
Minakanushi and the "Central Land" of toyo
ashi-wara, and how the present exponents of the
kwō-dō have coined and are interpreting that

5.

high-sounding word. But these have been, some
non-military in character, others sedate and
harmless phrases of self-gratification, and all
of them of short duration when they were trans-
lated into action. And in more than one in-
stance, the assertions in words and even in acts
have largely been unconscious attempts to for-
get one's own "inferiority complex" by demon-
strating to oneself at the expense of other
people that one really possessed superior power.
None of these example can be compared with the
Germanic spirit, whose expression in word and
action has been uninterrupted through history,
and which has reached its greatest violence in
this late day of enlightenment. What is omi-
nous in this particular spirit is its latent
qualities. Its manifestations throughout the
ages point to the presence in it of something
unbelievably non-human, primitive, and elemen-
tal: a surfeit of spitefulness and hatred alert
in search of a person upon whom it may be poured;
an extreme lack of human pity, and delight in
the suffering inflicted upon the enemy; a dia-
bolical cunning that can be thorough and re-
fined in its application, but is essentially
physical and mechanical in conception, and re-
fuses to discern the imponderable elements
present in every human being, especially those
in men of another tradition. This strange lack
of susceptibility to moral influences alien to
those of Germanic heritage seems to be true as
regards, not only the spiritual qualities and
trends of other peoples, but also the civiliz-
ing forces under whose impact the Germans have
lived for centuries. For it is difficult not
to conclude, from their habitual conduct, as
exemplified even by that of modern Prussians
and Nazis, that neither Christianity nor chiv-
alry has been able to soften, not to speak of
altering, their innate spirit in any essential
aspect. As an abiding political spirit that

6.

can admit no idealism or philosophy, except the
engrossing devotion to an image of magnified
ego, and asserts itself at the cost of every
stranger and by means of sheer brute force, the
Germanic is, as far as I know, an absolutely
unique phenomenon in human record.

It must be said, in justice, that the
Germanic stock has ramified into many nations;
that, not only in northern and central Europe,
but also in England, France, Italy, Spain,
Portugal, the Oriental States of the Crusaders,
and in the modern American continents, a great
many nations share the Germanic blood in some
degree; that, - although the same Germanic
spirit was obviously active in the early his-
of some of these nations, - all of them have
lived in their particular habitats, and, while
sharing a common religion and culture of non-
Germanic origins, have made their separate
histories and formed their individual characters;
and that, during that long process, what origi-
nal Germanic traits they bore at the beginning,
have, in all instances save one, been blended
and neutralized by other influences, and so
have been almost completely outlived. It has
been the tragic lot of Germany alone, tragic
even more for herself than for the world, that
she has had, not only to continue to be held
in the vice of the pristine habit, that the
others have discarded long since, but also,
during the past decades, greatly to intensify
and aggravate them. The more I reflect upon
the fact, the more overwhelmed I feel by the
mysterious significance of it all. Surely
here is a tremendous problem, as well for
statesmen of all nations, as for historians
of philosophic insight.

Of the historical genesis and the practi-
cal implications for the future, of this great

7.

fact, I have neither the ability nor the leisure
to enlarge upon a single point. But I should
like to express a little of the sympathy I can-
not help feeling for the unfortunate bondage
that thus enslaves the German political mind
from causes, many of which seem to have been
beyond its control. I cannot forget how long
and how repeatedly the nation had to defend
its very life against the assaults of the
northern Teutons, the Slavic tribes, and the
marauding nomads from the steppes of Asia; nor
can it be ignored that, in this, the Germans
were acting virtually in the capacity of the
bulwark of the entire western Europe. Remember
also what prolonged and arduous struggles the
colonists in north-eastern Germany had to wage,
in addition to their perpetual Slavic foes,
against an extremely harsh Nature (soil and
climate). The worst by far is the very fate of
Germany as a political organism, which has been
an unremitting succession of travail ever since
its birth. Who will not recall under what ex-
cessively difficult conditions and in what an
unhappy form of organization the nation had to
begin its career in the ninth century; and then,
through the ages down to the nineteenth, how
it has had to strive to keep a bare resemblance
of State life, amid the perennial quarrels
rending the country into shreds of autonomous
territories? External perils seldom evoked
even momentarily a united front; and, when they
had passed, the State appeared each time to be
internally more hopelessly torn than before.
If the outside foes were intermittant, the
inside division was continuous and generally
worsened with time, until Napoleon's invasions
cancelled innumerable petty municipalities, and
finally unification was achieved by the iron
hand of Prussia. To all this unparalleled
political misfortune must be added the disas-
trous effects that have been wrought upon the
German political consciousness, as it observed
with chagrin the trend of the historic currents
in some other countries, which were tending in

8.

an exactly opposite direction to those at home. France, England, and Russia had been tending, though in vastly different ways from one another, toward unity and centralization, and even toward expansion outward. If Providence had condemned the Germans to an undeserved fate - *Schicksal*, a favorite word of theirs, could they not hack their way out of it? If they had been decreed to be an inferior nation, how might they prove to others, even more to themselves, that they were really superior to all? Can it be said to be altogether strange that, in the course of unending calamities, their political mind - I am not speaking of any other aspect of the German character - should have been deeply scarred and woefully warped, bent inward and made spiteful and defiant toward others? Foreign nations are bounden enemies, forever denying to Germany her legitimate right and honor, and ready at any instant to unite their forces in a move to "encircle" and strangle her; the Germans can depend upon nothing but themselves and their own prowess; they would intensify mutual loyalty among themselves; but, as against the others, every deceit and aggression is a mark of their devotion to their own community, and is the only self-demonstration of their innate mission and capacity to dominate, which they have come to attribute supremely to themselves. The characteristic international conduct of the Germans in modern times since Frederick the Great has been an inevitable application of this very mind to the successive events, as also a cause of its further confirmation. That any other people thrown in the same historical situation would have reacted in a like manner and been imbued with the same psychoses, seems to me, for one, most doubtful. However, that may be, it is difficult for a student not to feel a measure of compassion for a nation that has been a victim to so unbroken a series of tragic experiences.

9c

Sympathetic or not, however, the world must
for long years to come be constantly prepared
to deal wisely and safely whatever should ema-
nate, from this well of explosive poison that has
been dug deep in the heart of Europe. Will there
be sufficient wisdom and determination for this
task? Must we resign ourselves to an expecta-
tion of seeing recurrences of appeasements and
consequent wars?

Pardon my repeating that the Teutonic spirit
that has been preserved by the Germans is in character
primitive. It is not a fault into which one happens
to have fallen on the way, nor even a habit which
has been bred under some untoward circumstances and
which would not long survive them, but an immemorial
heritage kept alive and nurtured through the ages,
and deeply embodied in the national temper through
repeated practices on large scales. What, I ask,
can be more primitive and untamed than the German
attitude that mine is all forever mine, and all thine
will be mine; that I must prove to myself my power
to destroy thy personality and thy life; than the
Germans' blindness to the moral forces animating
their neighbors' lives, coupled with their implicit
faith in the supposed omnipotence of sheer brute
force; than their refusal, on the one hand, either
to recognize the existence of others' rights and
honor or to tolerate the restraints of any civili-
zation, and, on the other, their slavish obedience
to their leader's behest to sacrifice themselves
and others to the glory of their own universal domi-
nation; and than their ardor, in the exclusive in-
terest of this elemental aim, to develop an invinc-
ingly strong arm, and to devote to that end every
material and intellectual resource they acn command
in themselves and in the conquered? Aside from the
sacrifice of parts to the whole and the harnessing of
resources to a single purpose, the enumerated charac-
teristics are simply the ways a child of utmost way-
wardness who fancies himself to be the center of the

To Count K., Pricy Councillor, 10X41

world and would break everything standing in his way. The sole aim conceived and the sole means employed are of extreme simplicity. They are rooted in a blind urge to bloat oneself and in a bitter hatred of every one else. Of themselves an indefinite inflation, and for others a total nihilism, the German "need" (NOT) can admit no possibilities of elevation, or of any manner of justification that might seem intelligible to another person. Whatever may be said of any other aspect of the Germans' Kultur, such traits as I have sketched are without the least exaggeration what has been clearly demonstrated of their political spirit reduced to its simplest terms.

Another point that has been proven beyond a doubt is that the racial theory of the Germans, from its very nature, can provide no room for allies of equal footing to ourselves. For the nation that has conquered Norway, Denmark, and Holland, more Germanic than itself, the Latins and the Slavs can only be less its peers. Italy was for hundreds of years after Y storied over by the Teutons, since Charlemagne and Otto. As for the Slavs, they are traditionally deemed incompatible with the Germans and are marked out for a final subjugation. In the present war with Russia, this thought is thinly disguised under the mask of an anti-communism so freely taken off and put on. If allies are created with these alien nations, they can be naught else than a temporary tools employed in the Germans' own work of conquest. That it is intended, during even the period of actual alliance, gradually to bind their limbs and finally to enslave them altogether, can hardly be doubted, if one recalls the freely expressed German contempt and hatred of them. Witness how in the past few weeks, the Balkan allies - Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Jugoslavia - have already been reduced to a position of servitors, and how their resentment has been steadily rising. Italy, as a strong Power and as an elder brother in the totalitarian movement, would still seem to be enjoying an equal treatment, but the reality is far from the appearance; hence the

10.

mounting discontentment of Mussolini and his people. One or two illustrations should suffice. The reasons for the presence of German troops in the peninsula are not only that it is a convenient jumping ground for African ventures, but much rather that any uprising may be suppressed, and that Italy should little by little forfeit her freedom of action. There probably is no Italian who is so obtuse as not to realize this fact. The Italian soldiers and marines, reluctantly, are doing obsequious service at their peril for Germany in parts of the Balkans and in Russia, regions where Italy has little political interest of her own. Even more shameful is the fact that between three and five hundred thousand peninsular laborers are employed in Germany, providing their own food. These facts attest that the treatment accorded the southern ally is, in nature, little different from that of the conquered nations of Greece and of northern and western Europe. That the poor Mussolini is still supporting Hitler is not that he is unaware of his precarious state, but that any resistance would cost him his position, and that his nation, disgruntled as it is, lacks the tradition and the will to assert its own rights. As its poverty and humiliation grow, how it will eventually comfort itself, is an interesting problem.

(The enclosed article was obviously written too early to note the predicament of Italy which has since become painfully evident.)

Japan, being far away, has as yet escaped servitude in any gross form. But it can hardly be doubted that, remote as it is, the Pacific Ocean is ear-marked as within the sphere of German exploitation in a later stage, just as much as is South America, and quite likely as a region much more important for German "power-politics" than the latter. One

11.

can hardly think that Germany reports her former acquisition of a nearly quarter-million square miles of islands in the South Seas, her Manila Bay venture, her seizure of Kiao-Chow, and the grandiose scheme of a trans-Asiatic movement that she build upon the possession of that strategic Chinese port. Those were all lost in the first world war, and Japan has fallen heir to some of them; but from the German standpoint, Japan may well be regarded as a temporary custodian. As to when the Germans may again be ready to stretch their arms to the Pacific, that may well be a question which they themselves cannot answer for the moment. But, inasmuch as the attempt must wait for some time, at any event, Germany would no doubt welcome a temporary success of her present ally in that sphere, as a convenient stake for her future harvest. From the German viewpoint, an immediate expansion of Japan in that valuable field would be a great service rendered by her despite her own intention. The fact that Japan is regarded by men of knowledge as having been scrupulous in the observance of agreements, except the nine-Power treaty, must be a source for the Germans of no little cynical pleasure. If, on the contrary, the Japanese army, on its part, perhaps regards the alliance as a liaison of convenience pending the accomplishment of its private plans of aggrandisement, with which it would confront the world, an eventual German success or failure in Europe notwithstanding, - if so, it may be taken for granted that Germany, from her own practices, perfectly understands the secret motive of her Eastern servant and knows how to turn it to the master's account at the right moment.

Nor can Japan well hope to counter German cunning with her own of a cleverer sort. For while she appears to stand for a time beyond

12.

the scope of an immediate German endeavor,
and so to command a sufficient leisure in
which she may proceed to consolidate her posi-
tion according to her desire, she may do well
to remember that, in one important respect,
she is at a decided disadvantage in comparison
with her fellow allies in Europe. This is over
and above the German intelligence mentioned
above. I mean that Japan is the chief object
of German hatred among the non-Aryan, "yellow"
Mongolian race stigmatized by Hitler as sub-
human and bestial, even as fated for extermi-
nation. Extermination, as I have said, may
be an arrant nonsense. Economically, however,
a slow process of stifling may not be so far
beyond the range of possibility. Germany,
intending, as she has already avowed, to close
Europe and starve out England and America, no
doubt means, after shutting Europe, the Americas,
the South Seas, and a large part of the Asiatic
continent, to freeze Japan commercially. That
such is the picture already formed in the German
imagination is a cogent inference from German
assertions repeated for many years. One would
even venture to think that, during that process,
the Germans would probably not consider it be-
neath their sense of honor to exploit China's
hatred of Japan at the latter's expense.

The enclosed article and my letter are for
the object of demonstrating that such conclusion
is inescapable, and of calling to it the atten-
tion of Japanese statesmen.

My own belief is that such Oriental policy
of Germany, even if executed in small part, is
destined to fail; and, moreover, that it is high-
ly probable that, before the time can arrive for
Germany to make an attempt of this character,
her work of conquest in Europe itself will

13.

collapse. The reason that I, despite this
belief, presume to warn Japan at this time
is as follows.

Whatever the conviction of the Japanese
army, that Germany will sooner or later fail
in Europe; I have never doubted from the outset;
it is today believed by vast majorities of
people in America and Europe, including those
of the conquered nations. It would not make
the least difference in this respect if the
Russian government should fall, and German vic-
tory should advance to the Mediterranean and
Near East, for every step in the progress sows
another crop of the final disaster for the
victor. But whether this will come late or
soon must depend upon the gradual unfolding of
the problems that are still unsolved. If late,
then there may well lie the danger of Japan
being involved in a great struggle literally
fatal to her, and Germany's nefarious hand
being stretched to the Orient. That is the
heart of my fear. Therefore, it behooves Japan
as quickly as possible to grasp the true spirit
of Germany, and without losing a moment to
build an appropriate policy.

I pray that there be not a particle of meanness
in the national policy so established. But a policy
that aims only negatively not to be dishonorable, but
lacks positive elements, would leave the main difficulty
unsolved and allow it to remain as the cause of untold
calamities in the future. Tiny differences in today's
policy might widen into a great divergence of destiny
in years to come. That is, if merely negative, the
basic policy would be but a conservation of the principles
held hitherto as "immutable"; and only vain, casual
compromises, as heretofore, would be made between
these principles and the newly gained knowledge.

Compromise, indeed, is the inherited political
habit of the Japanese people. Compromise has, it is
true, served them well most of the time in the past.
It is no doubt, like the same virtue of the English,
a valuable heritage of the nation that should be
preserved with solicitude. A provident guide at
ordinary times, however, compromise is a curse at a
national crisis. A crisis would often seem to be a
test given by Heaven to train its favorite child: by
conquering sloth and leaping over the hurdle, he would
win a new lease of life; by erecting a screen of in-
ertia and self-justification, and following the line
of least resistance, he would allow the crisis to
mount to its height of menace. Is it not a crisis of
first order that confronts Japan at this moment? Is
it a time for her to compel her political parties to
efface themselves and for the latter to give up their
important mission in the national organism, so that
she might become a "one-minded" automaton; or for her
to counsel foreign Powers to be "sincere" and to cease
to "misunderstand" her, so that they would mend their
policies in conformity with the cherished habits she
has indulged herself these late years? One would re-
call the obstinate fisherman who with a solemn face
spread his net in the open air in order to catch birds
fish-wise, and saw all feathered creatures fly above
and around the net! Fortunately, history proves that
Japan is gifted with an unusual measure of the power
of self-reflection at extraordinary times. Then she

knew how to discard her wonted compromise, and, by
way of self-conquest, to extricate herself from an
impasse. Again and again, as in 645 and in 1868, she
displayed admirable candor and perspicacity: she
spurned all makeshifts, and, clearly perceiving the
evils of her accustomed ways, made a complete *volte*
*face*, and boldly and successfully took a leap into
the unknown. She is in the same need of a thorough
reconstruction of policy, for the peril that faces
her is not a whit smaller, is perhaps of greater di-
mensions in some respects. She cannot have lost that
power of reflection and of action that has served
alone and so well to preserve her life through re-
peated crises. Bare ten years of the inuring of the

To Count K., Privy Councillor, 10X41¹⁴.

people to an obtuse policy, driven as they have been to be of "one mind" in its support, can hardly have sufficed to stifle their historic capacity for sane self-reflection. If unfortunately that were the case, then would one not have to face the dreadful thought that any searching reflection by the nation must await its prostration under a tragedy the like of which it has never dreamed during the entire course of its long history? Who can dare say that it might not then be too late for any attempt at resurgence?

Thrown overboard should be the so-called "immutable" policies of the past ten years. They are what has led Japan astray in the maze of the "sacred" war in China, and of the various methods of inflicting "co-prosperity" upon nations who detest it. Those immutable, sacred

15.

policies are, in the eyes of every foreign
friend of Japan, fundamentally irrational,
short-sighted, mean, and most arrogant.
What is far worse, they are violently con-
trary to the spirit of her history, and to the
ever-broadening movement of the whole world.
It should, at least, be evident to Japan, that,
if she were in the place of the victims of
these policies, she would not for an instant
submit to such shameful impositions. No less
ignoble and dangerous are they for her own
immediate future. For thereby she had made
herself disloyal to the ancestral heritage
of the nation and to her revered sovereign;
has tied her destiny with that of the des-
perate robbers who are plunging headlong to
their deaths; and has earned a despised iso-
lation among the hiterto admiring nations.
Now she can look forward to nothing but
en-
mity of everyone, including and above all
the neighbor possessing enormous possibilities
for future strength; possibly a gruelling war
with one or more Powers far stronger than her-
self in material resources and in moral con-
viction; and, precisely at that juncture,
the treachery, at best the desertion, of
her infamous partners. For me, it is the
cause of profound regrets to reflect how
bright would have been Japan's future, if she
had, on the contrary, cooperated with other
Powers in aiding China in her valiant struggle
for emancipation and enlightenment; and thrown
in her lot with that of those who are fight-
ing for the preservation of the broad path
of human civilization against the worst enemy
it has ever encountered. Regrets are futile,
but there is still time for Japan to retrieve
herself. Now is high time to make the supreme
effort. The sooner the better. Nay, as I
have ventured to suggest, soon it might be
too late. But retrieve she cannot, save by
a drastic reversal of her policies of the past
decade.

16.

If the "immutable" policies were tenaciously adhered to, no matter what petty concessions and adjustments be made, and no matter what partial arrangements be patched up with America and England, no nation on earth, even the present allies, could help continuing to suspect Japan's intentions; and the root of the disease that has made her an outcast of the world and is bound to lead her to worse calamities would persist. If she would truly be noble, and would radiately cure her cancer, the only path open is positively and resolutely to reflect upon her true self, as she did in 645 and in 1867, again to open her mind's eye, and to resume the same "open, catholic, and sincere" (ko-mei sei-dai) attitude that once inspired the ex-Shogun, the enlightened barons and many of their vassals.

Surely the conditions are different from those of 1868, and the shape of the policy must be accordingly different, even as that of that year was from the one of 645. But the spirit must ever be the same. The larger aspects of the application of this spirit to the present needs should include, among others, the following: - withdraw the armies from the continent, and restore the conquered territories at appropriate times and in a suitable manner; denounce and repudiate the alliance with Germany and Italy, and openly and clearly declare to them and to the world the reasons why this apparent breach of faith was necessary for the greater faith to which she had been a misguided traitor; radically alter the organic law, so as to separate clearly and definitively the administration of the political and the military affairs; liberate the people and their education from the absurd shackles recently inflicted upon them, and restore them to the

17.

open exchange of ideas and commodities with other nations; and, if possible, render the utmost aid within her capacity to those who are contending with the common enemy of humanity.

Since such a complete reversal of policy affects all aspects of national life, large and small, it is obvious that the concrete measures to be taken must observe the difference in magnitude, importance, and difficulty, between affairs to be dealt with. But, apart from the precedence of measures, the turnabout should not be partial but complete. Any partial policy would be certain to leave openings for reaction and so to invite defeat. Moreover, a partial repentance is bound to be much more difficult to make than a clean breast. Aside from the opportunities the former would create for the return of evil forces, it would only mean a weak will behind it, which could not help entailing one's own petty regrets on the morrow about this matter or that, and possible reversion to another path of unreason. On the other hand, nothing could be more gratifying to oneself than a bold, whole-hearted transcendence over the past sin, and nothing truly easier. Therefore, even if the procedure be gradual, the principles and the direction of the entire policy should, as in 1868 or in 645, be completely established in advance, and openly announced to the nation and the world. The declaration should leave nothing fundamental in obscurity, for an important omission, whether intentional or by chance, would cause among the populace uncertainties and anxious guesses, and probably also creates pretexts for a revolt of reactionaries and self-seekers. Then, a sincere and deep trust should be reposed in the hearts of the people, and the

18.

measures be step by step carried out with
their willing cooperation. It should be
needless to fear harmful effects of this
sudden change of policies and loyalties upon
the moral consciousness of the nation; for
nothing is more convincing than a true repen-
tance, and every person would be inspired by
the sincere initiative so courageously taken
by the leaders. There is not the slightest
doubt that the beautiful soul of the nation
would loyally respond; and that the sympathy
and friendship of foreign nations, near and
far, would also be won, and their erst-
while suspicion and fear would vanish, as
by a miracle. In fact, the whole action, in
spite of the contemporary form it would
assume as a matter of course, would be exactly
identical, in spirit, with the pronouncement of
the Five-Article Oath and the promulgation of
the Constitution, and, indeed, with the Re-
forms of Taikwa and Taikō, and the founding
of the empire by Jimmō.

The so-called "super-extraordinary
time" and "encirclement" have for the greater
part been of Japan's own creation. The world
crisis is indeed the common calamity of man-
kind, but Japan's special crisis, grave as
it is, is almost wholly her handiwork. She
alone can break the fetters with which she has
tied her limbs, and bring herself back to the
common movement of the world. It is within her
power, and is her duty to herself. To do so, The
true difficulty, so far as Japan alone is con-
cerned, lies, not so much in the character of
the times, as in being caught in the little
considerations of "face", and in failing to
muster the courage to free herself from the
servitude of self-made, unnatural, and hollow
slogans of the day. But once enlightened,
nothing would be simpler and more natural than
to emerge from darkness into the sun.
return to the native sanity. And nothing more inspiring
than to
[handwritten] could be

19.

Militaristic, anti-historical obtuseness
has created something of a second baku-fu, a
medieval obscurantism. If the military lacked
the moral courage of Keiki and Kaisaku, to
efface themselves from the political scene,
then it would be necessary for others to in-
voke the imperial sanction for the initiative.
A sanction, I entertain no doubt, would be
most graciously granted. And it would be
necessary in any event. If, on the contrary,
the present-day statesmen shirked the duty
that is upon them, and again failed to make
anything more than trite compromises, how
would they face the charge of having be-
trayed the illustrious history of the nation
and the hopes of its future?

To Count K., Prior Councillor, —

10X41

> [The editor of the magazine *Asia* has sent me an advance copy of an article which will appear in its November number. Written by an "Aryan" German, the article seeks to prove by many quotations from Hitler and other Nazis and from writers of the late empire, that their policy has always contemplated the enslavement and an eventual annihilation of the "yellow" race, above all, the Japanese nation specially marked out as the most threatening to the destiny of the Germans, which is the dominance of the Pacific Ocean.]

(Freely translated)

-2-

relations of the Germans and are able to compare
it with their present conduct. But until 1939,
even in western Europe and America, not only the
common people, but also statesmen rarely knew the
historic habits of the German political mind as
regards other nations; even after reading the
open statements made by Hitler and others, it was
still thought that they were evidently bombastic
exaggerations, and that no human being could truly
entertain such ideas as at all practicable. Only
within the last two years, there has at last dawned
upon these persons a realization of the true aspect
of things. Those who have taken the trouble to
examine past records have discovered that the same
traits that are evident today have always existed
ever since the prehistoric times of the Germanic
races. Therefore, I do not think that the publica-
tion of the article in November will strike the
readers as an astounding revelation. But, for the
Japanese, it may seem to contain surprises, and
might even appear as intrinsically incredible, as
it would have done here till recently. At any rate,

-3-

I, however, do not for a moment believe that
the policy of annihilation could be literally car-
ried out. It is true that in the past the Germans
have often coldly butchered many of the people of
a conquered region. But such was possible because
the matter was on a relatively small scale. It
would of course be an impossibility to massacre
the millions of an entire national population,
still less the whole hundreds of millions of a
race of the human species. But that some similar
intention is harbored in many German minds - if
one refers to many historic examples of smaller
dimensions, and to the policy of near-extermination
that has been actually wreaked upon a part of the
conquered Polish nation - can hardly be dismissed
as fantastic.

-4-

nation. The idea includes two elements: the Aryan race in general, and, within it, the German nation in particular. But what the German politicians speak about the Aryan race does not seem to me important. The supremacy of that race has been preached by men of other European nations, too, and the Germans are doing nothing more than echoing them. But the theory of the mission of the race is of a comparatively recent origin, and has already lost much of its influence. When the Germans repeat the racial name, they seem to do so largely for convenience, for justifying their persecution of the Jews. Most often, they do not mean by "Aryan" the entire Caucasian race, but rather themselves together with the northern Germanic peoples; the term in this sense is generally identical with the so-called "Nordic".

On the contrary, as to the idea that the German nation alone has, not only over the non-Aryan but also over the other Aryan peoples of Europe and America, the destiny of ruling as a master race (Herrenvolk), and that all the others are fated to be subject races (Dienervolk), - though the

-5-

expression of the thought in this particular form
dates from the latter part of the late empire and,
above all, in the present age of Nazi domination, -
its fundamental spirit has been constantly present
ever since the Germanic tribes made their first
entry into historical records.

The earliest records are those by Caesar,
Tacitus, Marcellinus, and other Roman writers, that
is, between first century B.C. and the fourth A.D.
Since the conduct of these tribes demonstrated this
very spirit, the words employed by these authors in
describing it can be literally applied with sur-
prising accuracy to the Germanic activities of today.
I began to read these records before the advent of
the Nazis; and then, examining the writings of
Germanic authors themselves about the doings of
their own race through the ages, I have been even
more impressed by the amazingly unbroken persistence
of the same spirit. What I have called the records
of the Germanic writers' own are, first of all, the
saga literature of Norwegians and Icelanders, (these
northern Germanic nations have mixed with other

-6-

races, and otherwise have gradually and largely
worn off their ancient characteristics); then,
records of the invasions of these peoples written
by Scotch, English, northern French, and German
authors, (here, the invaders were "Nordic", and
the recorders were also very largely of Germanic
origins); and, finally, accounts by writers in
Germany of the actions of their nation at home,
in Italy, in the Crusades, and against the Slavs.
Throughout all these records, the stories evidenc-
ing the same ruthless spirit as described by the
early Latin authors are reiterated without end,
often in strikingly similar phrases.

-7-

modern times; and also in the historic Chinese
concept of the "Middle Empire" civilization. There
is also a mild example nearer home: one can recall
what Hirata Atsutane and other scholars in the
Japanese revival of classicism made of the myth-
ology of Ame-no-Minakanushi and the "Central Land"
of toyo ashi-wara, and how the present exponents of
the kwō-dō have coined and are interpreting that
high-sounding word. But these have been, some non-
military in character, others sedate and harmless
phrases of self-gratification, and all of them of
short duration when they were translated into action.
And in more than one instance, the assertions in
words and even in deeds have largely been unconscious
attempts to forget one's own "inferiority complex"
by demonstrating to oneself at the expense of other
people that one really possessed superior power.
None of these examples can be compared with the
Germanic spirit, whose expression in word and action
has been uninterrupted through history, and which has
reached its greatest violence in this late day of
enlightenment. What is ominous in this particular

-8-

spirit is its latent qualities. Its manifestations
throughout the ages point to the presence in it of
something unbelievably non-human, primitive, and
elemental: a surfeit of spitefulness and hatred alert
in search of a person upon whom it may be poured;
an extreme lack of human pity, and delight in the
suffering inflicted upon the enemy; a diabolical
cunning that can be thorough and refined in its ap-
plication, but is essentially physical and mechanical
in conception, and refuses to discern the imponderable
elements present in every human being, especially
those in men of another tradition. This strange lack
of susceptibility to moral influences alien to those
of Germanic heritage seems to be true as regards, not
only the spiritual qualities and trends of other
peoples, but also the civilizing forces under whose
impact the Germans have lived for centuries. For
it is difficult not to conclude, from their habitual
conduct, as exemplified even by that of modern
Prussians and Nazis, that neither Christianity nor
chivalry has been able to soften, not to speak of
altering, their innate spirit in any essential aspect.

-9-

As an abiding political spirit that can admit no idealism or philosophy, except the engrossing devotion to an image of magnified ego, and asserts itself at the cost of every stranger and by means of sheer brute force, the Germanic is, as far as I know, an absolutely unique phenomenon in human record.

It must be said, in justice, that the Germanic stock has ramified into many nations; that, not only in northern and central Europe, but also in England, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Oriental States of the Crusaders, and in the modern American continents, a great many nations share the Germanic blood in some degree; that, - although the same Germanic spirit was obviously active in the early history of some of these nations, - all of them have lived in their particular habitats, and, while sharing a common religion and culture of non-Germanic origins, have made their separate histories and formed their individual characters; and that, during that long process, what original Germanic traits they bore at the beginning, have, in all instances save one, been blended and neutralized by other influences, and so

-10-

have been almost completely outlived. It has been
the tragic lot of Germany alone, tragic even more
for herself than for the world, that she has had,
not only to continue to be held in the vice of the
pristine habits that the others have discarded long
since, but also, during the past decades, greatly to
intensify and aggravate them. The more I reflect
upon the fact, the more overwhelmed I feel by the
mysterious significance of it all. Surely here is
a tremendous problem, as well for statesmen of all
nations, as for historians of philosophic insight.

Of the historical genesis and the practical
implications for the future, of this great fact, I
have neither the ability nor the leisure to enlarge
upon a single point. But I should like to express a
little of the sympathy I cannot help feeling for the
unfortunate bondage that thus enslaves the German
political mind from causes many of which seem to
have been beyond its control. I cannot forget how
long and how repeatedly the nation had to defend its
very life against the assaults of the northern Teutons,
the Slavic tribes, and the marauding nomads from the

-11-

steppes of Asia; nor can it be ignored that, in this,
the Germans were acting virtually in the capacity of
the bulwark of the entire western Europe. Remember
also what prolonged and arduous struggles the
colonists in north-eastern Germany had to wage, in
addition to their perpetual Slavic foes, against an
extremely harsh Nature (soil and climate). The worst
by far is the very fate of Germany as a political
organism, which has been an unremitting succession
of travail ever since its birth. Who will not recall
under what excessively difficult conditions and in
what an unhappy form of organization the nation had to
begin its career in the ninth century; and then,
through the ages down to the nineteenth, how it has
had to strive to keep a bare resemblance of State
life, amid the perennial quarrels rending the country
into shreds of autonomous territories? External
perils seldom evoked even momentarily a united front;
and, when they had passed, the State appeared each
time to be internally more hopelessly torn than before.
If the outside foes were intermittent, the inside
division was continuous and generally worsened with

-12-

time, until Napoleon's invasions cancelled innumerable
petty principalities, and finally unification was
achieved by the iron hand of Prussia. To all this
unparalleled political misfortune must be added the
disastrous effects that have been wrought upon the
German political consciousness, as it observed with
chagrin the trend of the historic currents in some
other countries, which were tending in an exactly
opposite direction to those at home. France, England,
and Russia had been tending, though in vastly different
ways from one another, toward unity and centralization,
and even expanding outward. If Providence had con-
demned the Germans to an undeserved fate—*Schicksal*,
a favorite word of theirs, could they not hack their
way out of it? If they had been decreed to be an in-
ferior nation, how might they prove to others, even
more to themselves, that they were really superior
to all? Can it be said to be altogether strange that,
in the course of unending calamities, their political
mind - I am not speaking of any other aspect of the
German character - should have been deeply scarred
and woefully warped, bent inward and made spiteful

-13-

and defiant toward others? Foreign nations are
bounden enemies, forever denying to Germany her
legitimate right and honor, and ready at any instant
to unite their forces in a move to "encircle" and
strangle her; the Germans can depend upon nothing
but themselves and their own prowess; they would
intensify mutual loyalty among themselves; but, as
against the others, every deceit and aggression is
a mark of their devotion to their own community, and
is the only self-demonstration of their innate mission
and capacity to dominate, which they have come to
attribute supremely to themselves. The characteristic
international conduct of the Germans in modern times
since Frederick the Great has been an inevitable ap-
plication of this very mind to the successive events,
as also a cause of its further confirmation. That
any other people thrown in the same historical situa-
tion would have reacted in a like manner and been
imbued with the same psychoses, seems to me, for one,
most doubtful. However that may be, it is difficult
for a student not to feel a measure of compassion for
a nation that has been a victim to so unbroken a

-14-

series of tragic experiences.

Sympathetic or not, however, the world must for
long years to come be constantly prepared to deal
wisely and safely whatever should emanate from this
well of explosive poison that has been dug deep in the
heart of Europe. Will there be sufficient wisdom and
determination for this task? Must we resign our-
selves to an expectation of seeing recurrences of
appeasements and consequent wars?

Pardon my repeating that the Teutonic spirit
that has been preserved by the Germans is in charac-
ter **primitive**. It is not a fault into which one
happens to have fallen on the way, not even a habit
which has been bred under some untoward circumstances
and which would not long survive them, but an im-
memorial heritage kept alive and nurtured through
the ages, and deeply embodied in the national temper
through repeated practices on large scales. What,
I ask, can be more primitive and untamed than the
German attitude that mine is all forever mine, and
all thine will be mine; that I must prove myself to
myself my power to destroy thy personality and thy
life; than the Germans' blindness to the moral forces

-15-

animating their neighbors' lives, coupled with
their implicit faith in the supposed omnipotence
of sheer brute force; than their refusal, on the
one hand, either to recognize the existence of
others' rights and honor or to tolerate the re-
straints of any civilization, and, on the other,
their slavish obedience to their leader's behest
to sacrifice themselves and others to the glory of
their own universal domination; and than their ardor,
in the exclusive interest of this elemental aim, to
develop an invincingly strong arm, and to devote to
that end every material and intellectual resource
they can command in themselves and in the conquered?
Aside from the sacrifice of parts to the whole and
the harnessing of resources to a single purpose, the
enumerated characteristics are simply the ways of a
child of utmost waywardness who fancies himself to be
the center of the world and would break everything
standing in his way. The sole aim conceived and the
sole means employed are of extreme simplicity. They
are rooted in a blind urge to bloat oneself and in a
bitter hatred of every one else. Of themselves an

-17-

naught else than temporary tools employed in the
Germans' own work of conquest. That it is intended,
during even the period of actual alliance, gradually
to bind their limbs and finally to enslave them al-
together, can hardly be doubted, if one recalls the
freely expressed German contempt and hatred of them.
Witness how in the past few weeks the Balkan allies -
Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Jugoslavia - have
already been reduced to a position of servitors,
and how their resentment has been steadily rising.
Italy, as a strong Power and as an elder brother in
the totalitarian movement, would still seem to be
enjoying an equal treatment, but the reality is far
from the appearance; hence the mounting discontent-
ment of Mussolini and his people. One or two il-
lustrations should suffice. The reasons for the
presence of German troops in the peninsula are not
only that it is a convenient jumping ground for
African ventures, but much rather that any uprising
may be suppressed, and that Italy should little by
little forfeit her freedom of action. There probably
is no Italian who is so obtuse as not to realize this

-18-

fact. The Italian soldiers and marines, reluctantly, are doing obsequious service at their peril for Germany in parts of the Balkans and in Russia, regions where Italy has little political interest of her own. Even more shameful is the fact that between three and five hundred thousand peninsular laborers are employed in Germany, providing their own food. These facts attest that the treatment accorded the southern ally is, in nature, little different from that of the conquered nations of Greece and of northern and western Europe. That the poor Mussolini is still supporting Hitler is not that he is unaware of his precarious state, but that any resistance would cost him his position, and that his nation, disgruntled as it is, lacks the tradition and the will to assert its own rights. As its poverty and humiliation grow, how it will eventually comport itself, is an interesting problem.

-19-

doubted that, remote as it is, the Pacific Ocean is
ear-marked as within the sphere of German exploita-
tion in a later stage, just as much as is South America,
and quite likely as a region much more important for
German "power-politics" than the latter. One can
hardly think that Germany repents her former acquisi-
tion of a nearly quarter-million square miles of
islands in the South Seas, her Manila Bay venture,
her seizure of Kiao-Chow, and the grandiose scheme
of a trans-Asian movement that she built upon the
possession of that strategic Chinese port. Those
were all lost in the first world war, and Japan has
fallen heir to some of them; but from the German
standpoint, Japan may well be regarded as a temporary
custodian. As to when the Germans may again be ready
to stretch their arms to the Pacific, that may well
be the question which they themselves cannot answer
for the moment. But, inasmuch as the attempt must
wait for some time, at any event, Germany would no
doubt welcome a temporary success of her present
ally in that sphere, as a convenient stake for her
future harvest. From the German viewpoint, an

-20-

Nor can Japan well hope to counter German
cunning with her own of a cleverer sort. For while
she appears to stand for a time beyond the scope of
an immediate German endeavor, and so to command a
sufficient leisure in which she may proceed to
consolidate her position according to her desire,

-21-

she may do well to remember that, in one important
respect, she is at a decided disadvantage in compar-
ison with her fellow allies in Europe. This is over
and above the German intelligence mentioned above.
I mean that Japan is the chief object of German ha-
tred among the non-Aryan, "yellow" Mongolian race
stigmatized by Hitler as sub-human and bestial, even
as fated for extermination. Extermination, as I have
said, may be an arrant nonsense. Economically, how-
ever, a slow process of stifling may not be so far
beyond the range of possibility. Germany, intending,
as she has already avowed, to close Europe and starve
out England and America, no doubt means, after shutting
Europe, the Americas, the South Seas, and a large
part of the Asiatic continent, to freeze Japan commer-
cially. That such is the picture already formed in
the German imagination is a cogent inference from
German assertions repeated for many years. One would
even venture to think that, during that process, the
Germans would probably not consider it beneath their
sense of honor to exploit China's hatred of Japan at
the latter's expense.

-22-

The enclosed article and my letter are for the object of demonstrating that such conclusion is inescapable, and of calling to it the attention of Japanese statesmen.

My own belief is that such Oriental policy of Germany, even if executed in small part, is destined to fail; and, moreover, that it is highly probable that, before the time can arrive for Germany to make an attempt of this character, her work of conquest in Europe itself will collapse. The reason that I, despite this belief, presume to warn Japan at this time is as follows.

Whatever the conviction of the Japanese army, that Germany will sooner or later fail in Europe; I have never doubted from the outset; it is, today believed by vast majorities of people in America and Europe, including those of the conquered nations. It would not make the least difference in this respect if the Russian government should fall, and German victory should advance to the Mediterranean and Near East, for every step in the progress sows another crop of the final disaster for the victor. But whether this will come late or soon must depend upon the gradual

-23-

unfolding of the problems that are still unsolved. If late, then there may well lie the danger of Japan being involved in a great sturggle literally fatal to her, and Germany's nefarious hand being stretched to the Orient. That is the heart of my fear. Therefore, it behooves Japan as quickly as possible to grasp the true spirit of Germany, and without losing a moment to build an appropriate policy.

-24-

past. It is no doubt, like the same virtue of the
English, a valuable heritage of the nation that should
be preserved with solicitude. A provident guide at
ordinary times, however, compromise is a curse at a
national crisis. A crisis would often seem to be a
test given by Heaven to train its favorite child: by
conquering sloth and leaping over the hurdle, he would
win a new lease of life; by erecting a screen of in-
ertia and self-justification, and following the line
of least resistance, he would allow the crisis to
mount to its height of menace. Is it not a crisis of
first order that confronts Japan at this moment? Is
it a time for her to compel her political parties to
efface themselves and for the latter to give up their
important mission in the national organism, so that
she might become a "one-minded" automaton; or for her
to counsel foreign powers to be "sincere" and to cease
to "misunderstand" her, so that they would mend their
policies in conformity with the cherished habits she
has indulged herself these late years? One would re-
call the obstinate fisherman who with a solemn face
spread his net in the open air in order to catch birds

-25-

fish-wise, and saw all feathered creatures fly above
and around the net! Fortunately, history proves that
Japan is gifted with an unusual measure of the power
of self-reflection at extraordinary times. Then she
knew how to discard her wonted compromise, and, by
way of self-conquest, to extricate herself from an
impasse. Again and again, as in 645 and in 1868, she
displayed admirable candor and perspicacity: she
spurned all makeshifts, and, clearly perceiving the
evils of her accustomed ways, made a complete *volte*
*face*, and boldly and successfully took a leap into
the unknown. She is in the same need of a thorough
reconstruction of policy, for the peril that faces
her is not a whit smaller, is perhaps of greater di-
mensions in some respects. She cannot have lost that
power of reflection and of action that has served
alone and so well to preserve her life through re-
peated crises. Bare ten years of the inuring of the
people to an obtuse policy, driven as they have been
to be of "one mind" in its support, can hardly have
sufficed to stifle their historic capacity for sane
self-reflection. If unfortunately that were the

-26-

thrown overboard should be the so-called "immutable"
policies of the past ten years. They are what has led
Japan astray in the maze of the "sacred" war in China,
and of the devious methods of inflicting "co-prosperity"
upon nations who detest it. These immutable, sacred
policies are, in the eyes of every foreign friend of
Japan, unnatural and hypocritical, irrational and
short-sighted, mean, and most arrogant. What is far
worse, they are violently contrary to the spirit of
her history, and to the ever-broadening movement of
the whole world. It should, at least, be evident to
Japan, that, if she were in the place of the victims
of these policies, she would not for an instant submit
to such shameful impositions. No less ignoble and
dangerous are they for her own immediate future. For
thereby she had made herself disloyal to the ancestral

-27-

heritage of the nation and to her revered sovereign; has tied her destiny with that of the desperate robbers who are plunging headlong to their deaths; and has earned a despised isolation among the hitherto admiring nations. Now she can look forward to nothing but *her* enmity of everyone, including and above all the neighbor possessing enormous possibilities for future strength; possibly a gruelling war with one or more Powers far stronger than herself in material resources and in moral conviction; and, precisely at that juncture, the treachery, at best the desertion, of her infamous partners. For me, it is the cause of profound regrets to reflect how bright would have been Japan's future, if she had, on the contrary, cooperated with other Powers in aiding China in her valiant struggle for emancipation and enlightenment; and thrown in her lot with that of those who are fighting for the preservation of the broad path of human civilization against the worst enemy it has ever encountered.

-28-

If the "immutable" policies were tenaciously
adhered to, no matter what petty concessions and ad-
justments be made, and no matter what partial arrange-
ments be patched up with America and England, no nation
on earth, not even the present allies, could help
continuing to suspect Japan's intentions; and the root
of the disease that has made her an outcast of the
world and is bound to lead her to worse calamities
would persist. If she would truly be noble, and would
radically cure her cancer, the only path open is
positively and resolutely to reflect upon her true
self, as she did in 645 and 1867,--again to open her
mind's eye, and to resume the same "open, catholic,
and sincere" (kō-mei sei-dai) attitude that once
inspired the ex-Shogun, the enlightened barons and
meny of their vassals.

Surely the conditions are different from those
of 1868, and the shape of the policy must be according-
ly different, even as that of that year was from the
one of 645. But the spirit must ever be the same.

-29-

The larger aspects of the application of this spirit
to the present needs should include, among others, the
following:- withdraw the armies from the continent,
and restore the conquered territories at appropriate
times and in a suitable manner; denounce and repudiate
the alliance with Germany and Italy, and openly and
clearly declare to them and to the world the reasons
why this apparent breach of faith was necessary for
the greater faith to which she had been a misguided
traitor; radically alter the organic law, so as to
separate clearly and definitively the administration
of the political and the military affairs; liberate
the people and their education from the absurd shackles
recently inflicted upon them, and restore the open
exchange of ideas and commodities with other nations;
and, if possible, render the utmost aid within her
capacity to those who are contending with the common
enemy of humanity.

-30-

difficulty, between affairs to be dealt with. But, apart from the precedence of measures, the turnabout should not be partial but complete. Any partial policy would be certain to leave openings for reaction and so to invite defeat. Moreover, a partial repentance is bound to be much more difficult to make than a clean breast. Aside from the opportunities the former would create for the return of evil forces, it would only mean a weak will behind it, which could not help entailing one's own petty regrets on the morrow about this matter or that, and possible reversion to another path of unreason. On the other hand, nothing could be more gratifying to a nation with a high capacity for frank reflection than a bold, whole-hearted transcendence over its past sin, and nothing truly easier. Therefore, even if the procedure be gradual, the principles and the direction of the entire policy should, as in 1868 or in 645, be completely established in advance, and openly announced to the nation and the world. The declaration should leave nothing fundamental in obscurity; for an important omission, whether intentional or by chance, would cause among the populace

-31-

uncertainties and anxious guesses, and probably also
provide pretexts for a revolt of reactionaries and
self-seekers. Then, a sincere and deep trust should
be reposed in the hearts of the people, and the measures
be step by step carried out with their willing coopera-
tion. It should be needless to fear harmful effects
of this sudden change of policies and loyalties upon
the moral consciousness of the nation; for nothing is
more convincing than a true repentance, and every per-
son would be inspired by the sincere initiative so
courageously taken by the leaders. There is not the
slightest doubt that the beautiful soul of the nation
would loyally respond; and that the sympathy and
friendship of foreign nations, near and far, would
also be won, and their erstwhile suspicion and fear
would vanish, as by a miracle. In fact, the whole
action, in spite of the contemporary form it would
assume as a matter of course, would be exactly identi-
cal, in spirit, with the pronouncement of the Five-
Article Oath and the promulgation of the Constitution,
and, indeed, with the Reforms of Taikwa and Taihō, and
the founding of the empire by Jimmu.

-32-

The so-called "super-extraordinary time" and "encirclement" have for the greater part been of Japan's own creation. The world crisis is indeed the common calamity of mankind, but Japan's special crisis, grave as it is, is almost wholly her handiwork. She alone can break the fetters with which she has tied her limbs, and bring herself back to the common movement of the world. To do so is within her power, and is her duty to herself. The true difficulty, so far as Japan alone is concerned, lies, not so much in the character of the times, as in being caught in the little considerations of "face", and in failing to muster the courage to free herself from the servitude of self-made, unnatural, and hollow slogans of the day. But once enlightened, nothing would be simpler and more natural than to return to the native sanity. And nothing could be more inspiring than to emerge from darkness to the sun.

Militaristic, anti-historical obtuseness has created something of a second Baku-fu, a medieval obscurantism. If the military lacked the moral courage of Keiki and Kaishu, to efface themselves

-33-

from the political scene, then it would be necessary
for others to invoke an imperial sanction for the
initiative. A sanction, I entertain no doubt, would
be most graciously granted. And it would be necessary
in any event. If, on the contrary, the present-day
statesmen shirked the duty that is upon them, and
again failed to make anything more than trite compo-
mises, how would they face the charge of having betrayed
the illustrious history of the nation and the hopes of
its future?

[This is a COPY]

[The editor of the magazine Asia has sent me an advance copy of an article which will appear in its November number. Written by an "Aryan" German, the article seeks to prove by many quotations from Hitler and other Nazis and from writers of the late empire, that their policy has always contemplated the enslavement and an eventual annihilation of the "yellow" race, above all, the Japanese nation specially marked out as the most threatening to the destiny of the Germans, which is the dominance of the Pacific Ocean.]

(Freely translated)

...I venture to send to you the enclosed article, fearing that, if it were addressed to an ordinary person, it might not reach its destination, because of the censorship of letters which seems at last to have been established in Japan.

The article is said to have been written by a German under an assumed name. Its thesis cannot perhaps be said to be novel to those who know something about the past history of the foreign relations of the Germans and are able to compare it with their present conduct. But until 1939, even in western Europe and America, not only the common people, but also statesmen rarely knew the historic habits of the German political mind as regards other nations; even after reading the open statements made by Hitler and others, it was still thought that they were evidently bombastic exaggerations, and that no human being could truly entertain such ideas as at all practicable. Only within the last two years, there has at last dawned upon these persons a realization of the true aspect of things. Those who have taken the trouble to examine past records have discovered that the same traits that are evident today have always existed ever since the prehistoric times of the Germanic races. Therefore, I do not think that the publication of the article in November will strike the readers as an astounding revelation. But, for the Japanese, it may seem to contain surprises, and might even appear as trinsically incredible, as it would have done here till recently. At any rate,

2.

I, however, do not for a moment believe that the policy of annihilation
could be literally carried out. It is true that in the past the Germans have
often coldly butchered many of the people of a conquered region. But such was
possible because the matter was on a relatively small scale. It would of course
be an impossibility to massacre the millions of an entire national population,
still less the whole hundreds of millions of a race of the human species. But
that some similar intention is harbored in many German minds - if one refers to
many historic examples of smaller dimensions, and to the policy of near-extermina-
tion that has been actually wreaked upon a part of the conquered Polish nation
- can hardly be dismissed as fantastic.

One is the German concept of the mission in the world of the "Aryan" race
and of the German nation. The idea includes two elements; the Aryan race in
general, and, within it, the German nation in particular. But what the German
politicians speak about the Aryan race does not seem to me important. The suprem-
acy of that race has been preached by men of other European nations, too, and
the Germans are doing nothing more than echoing them. But the theory of the
mission of the race is of a comparatively recent origin, and has already lost
much of its influence. When the Germans repeat the racial name, they seem to
do so largely for convenience, for justifying their persecution of the Jews.
Most often, they do not mean by "Aryan" the entire Caucasian race, but rather
themselves together with the northern Germanic peoples; the term in this sense
is generally identical with the so-called "Nordic".

3.

On the contrary, as to the idea that the German nation alone has, not only over the non-Aryan but also over the other Aryan peoples of Europe and America, the destiny of ruling as a master race (Herrenvolk) and that all the others are fated to be subject races (Dienervolk), - though the expression of the thought in this particular form dates from the latter part of the late empire and, above all, in the present age of Nazi domination, - its fundamental spirit has been constantly present ever since the Germanic tribes made their first entry into historical records.

The earliest records are those by Caesar, Tacitus, Marcellinus, and other Roman writers, that is, between first century B.C. and the fourth A.D. Since the conduct of these tribes demonstrated this very spirit, the words employed by these authors in describing it can be literally applied with surprising accuracy to the German activities of today. I began to read these records already before the advent of the Nazis; and then, examining the writings of Germanic authors themselves about the doings of their own race through the ages, I have been even more impressed by the amazingly unbroken persistence of the same spirit. What I have called the records of the Germanic writers' own are, first of all, the saga literature of Norwegians and Icelanders, (these northern Germanic nations have mixed with other races, and otherwise have gradually and largely worn off their ancient characteristics); then, records of the invasions of these peoples written by Scotch, English, northern French, and German authors, (here, the invaders were "Nordic", and the recorders were also very largely of Germanic origins); and, finally, accounts by writers in Germany of the actions of their nation at home, in Italy, in the Crusades, and against the Slavs. Throughout all these records, the stories evidencing the same ruthless spirit as described by the early Latin authors are reiterated without end, often in strikingly similar phrases.

To Count K., Privy Councillor, 10X41.

4.

It is, of course, true that the delusion of an exclusive mission of a race
has never been peculiar to the Teutons alone. One can find parallels in certain
nomadic peoples of medieval Asia, who several times overran large parts of that
continent and of Europe, seeking in the thirteenth century even to conquer the
Japanese islands; in those men of Aryan nations who exploited American, African,
and Oriental natives in early modern times; and also in the historic Chinese con-
cept of the "Middle Empire" civilization. There is also a mild example nearer
home; one can recall what Hirata Atsutane and other scholars in the Japanese re-
vival of classicism made of the mythology of Ame-no-Minakanushi and the "Central
Land" of toyo ashi-wara, and how the present exponents of the kwō-dō have coined
and are interpreting that high-sounding word. But these have been, some non-
military in character, others sedate and harmless phrases of self-gratification,
and all of them of short duration when they were translated into action. And in
more than one instance, the assertions in words and even in acts have largely
been unconscious attempts to forget one's own "inferiority complex" by demonstrat-
ing to oneself at the expense of other people that one really possessed superior
power. None of these example can be compared with the Germanic spirit, whose ex-
pression in word and action has been uninterrupted through history, and which has
reached its greatest violence in this late day of enlightenment. What is ominous
in this particular spirit is its latent qualities. Its manifestations throughout
the ages point to the presence in it of something unbelievably non-human, primi-
tive, and elemental; a surfeit of spitefulness and hatred alert in search of a
person upon whom it may be poured; an extreme lack of human pity, and delight in
the suffering inflicted upon the enemy; a diabolical cunning that can be thorough
and refined in its application, but is essentially physical and mechanical in con-
ception, and refuses to discern the imponderable elements present in every human
being, especially those in men of another tradition. This strange lack of sus-

5.

ceptibility to moral influences alien to those of Germanic heritage seems to be
true as regards, not only the spiritual qualities and trends of other peoples,
but also the civilizing forces under whose impact the Germans have lived for cen-
turies. For it is difficult not to conclude, from their habitual conduct, as ex-
emplified even by that of modern Prussians and Nazis, that neither Christianity
nor chivalry has been able to soften, not to speak of altering, their innate
spirit in any essential aspect. As an abiding political spirit that can admit
no idealism or philosophy, except the engrossing devotion to an image of magni-
fied ego, and asserts itself at the cost of every stranger and by means of sheer
brute force, the Germanic is, as far as I know, an absolutely unique phenomenon
in human record.

It must be said, in justice, that the Germanic stock has ramified into many
nations; that, not only in northern and central Europe, but also in England,
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Oriental States of the Crusaders, and in the
modern American continents, a great many nations share the Germanic blood in some
degree; that, - although the same Germanic spirit was obviously active in the early
history of some of these nations, - all of them have lived in their particular
habitats, and, while sharing a common religion and culture of non-Germanic origins,
have made their separate histories and formed their individual characters; and
that, during that long process, what original Germanic traits they bore at the
beginning, have, in all instances save one, been blended and neutralized by other
influences, and so have been almost completely outlived. It has been the tragic
lot of Germany alone, tragic even more for herself than for the world, that she
has had, not only to continue to be held in the vice of the pristine habits that
the others have discarded long since, but also, during the past decades, greatly
to intensify and aggravate them. The more I reflect upon the fact, the more over-
whelmed I feel by the mysterious significance of it all. Surely here is a tremen-
dous problem, as well for statesmen of all nations, as for historians of philo-

6.

sophic insight.

Of the historical genesis and the practical implications for the future, of this great fact, I have neither the ability nor the leisure to enlarge upon a single point. But I should like to express a little of the sympathy I cannot help feeling for the unfortunate bondage that thus enslaves the German political mind from causes many of which seem to have been beyond its control. I cannot forget how long and how repeatedly the nation had to defend its very life against the assaults of the northern Teutons, the Slavic tribes, and the marauding nomads from the steppes of Asia; nor can it be ignored that, in this, the Germans were acting virtually in the capacity of the bulwark of the entire western Europe. Remember also what prolonged and arduous struggles the colonists in north-eastern Germany had to wage, in addition to their perpetual Slavic foes, against an extremely harsh Nature (soil and climate). The worst by far is the very fate of Germany as a political organism, which has been an unremitting succession of travail ever since its birth. Who will not recall under what excessively difficult conditions and in what an unhappy form of organization the nation had to begin its career in the ninth century; and then, through the ages down to the nineteenth, how it has had to strive to keep a bare resemblance of State life, amid the perennial quarrels rending the country into shreds of autonomous territories? External perils seldom evoked even momentarily a united front; and, when they had passed, the State appeared each time to be internally more hopelessly torn than before. If the outside foes were intermittent, the inside division was continuous and generally worsened with time, until Napoleon's invasions cancelled innumerable petty principalities, and finally unification was achieved by the iron hand of Prussia. To all this unparalleled political misfortune must be added the disastrous effects that have been wrought upon the German political consciousness, as it observed with chagrin the trend of the historic currents in some other countries, which were tending in an exactly opposite direction to those at home.

7.

France, England, and Russia had been tending, though in vastly different ways from one another, toward unity and centralization, and even toward expansion outward. If Providence had condemned the Germans to an undeserved fate - *Schicksal*, a favorite word of theirs, could they not hack their way out of it? If they had been decreed to be an inferior nation, how might they prove to others, even more to themselves, that they were really superior to all? Can it be said to be altogether strange that, in the course of unending calamities, their political mind - I am not speaking of any other aspect of the German character - should have been deeply scarred and woefully warped, bent inward and made spiteful and defiant toward others? Foreign nations are bounden enemies, forever denying to Germany her legitimate right and honor, and ready at any instant to unite their forces in a move to "encircle" and strangle her; the Germans can depend upon nothing but themselves and their own prowess; they would intensify mutual loyalty among themselves; but, as against the others, every deceit and aggression is a mark of their devotion to their own community, and is the only self-demonstration of their innate mission and capacity to dominate, which they have come to attribute supremely to themselves. The characteristic international conduct of the Germans in modern times since Frederick the Great has been an inevitable application of this very mind to the successive events, as also a cause of its further confirmation. That any other people thrown in the same historical situation would have reacted in a like manner and been imbued with the same psychoses, seems to me, for one, most doubtful. However that may be, it is difficult for a student not to feel a measure of compassion for a nation that has been a victim to so unbroken a series of tragic experiences.

Sympathetic or not, however, the world must for long years to come be constantly prepared to deal wisely and safely whatever should emanate from this well of explosive poison that has been dug deep in the heart of Europe. Will there be sufficient wisdom and determination for this task? Must we resign ourselves to an

To Count K., Privy Councillor, 10 X 41

8.

Pardon my repeating that the Teutonic spirit that has been preserved by
the Germans is in character <u>primitive</u>. It is not a fault into which one hap-
pens to have fallen on the way, nor even a habit which has been bred under
some untoward circumstances and which would not long survive them, but an im-
memorial heritage kept alive and nurtured through the ages, and deeply embod-
ied in the national temper through repeated practices on large scales. What,
I ask, can be more primitive and untamed than the German attitude that mine
is all forever mine, and all thine will be mine; that I must prove to myself
my power to destroy thy personality and thy life; than the Germans' blindness
to the moral forces animating their neighbors' lives, coupled with their im-
plicit faith in the supposed omnipotence of sheer brute force; than their re-
fusal, on the one hand, either to recognize the existence of others' rights
and honor or to tolerate the restraints of any civilization, and, on the
other, their slavish obedience to their leader's behest to sacrifice them-
selves and others to the glory of their own universal domination; and than
their ardor, in the exclusive interest of this elemental aim, to develop an
invincingly strong arm, and to devote to that end every material and intel-
lectual resource they can command in themselves and in the conquered? Aside
from the sacrifice of parts to the whole and the harnessing of resources to a
single purpose, the enumerated characteristics are simply the ways of a child
of utmost waywardness who fancies himself to be the center of the world and
would break everything standing in his way. The sole aim conceived and the
sole means employed are of extreme simplicity. They are rooted in a blind urge
to bloat oneself and in a bitter hatred of every one else. Of themselves an
indefinite inflation, and for others a total nihilism, the German "need" (NOT)
can admit no possibilities of elevation, or of any manner of justification
that might seem intelligible to another person. Whatever may be said of any

9.

other aspect of the Germans' *Kultur*, such traits as I have sketched are without the least exaggeration what has been clearly demonstrated of their political spirit reduced to its simplest terms.

Another point that has been proven beyond a doubt is that the racial theory of the Germans, from its very nature, can provide no room for allies of equal footing to ourselves. For the nation that has conquered Norway, Denmark, and Holland, more Germanic than itself, the Latins and the Slavs can only be less its peers. Italy was for hundreds of years lured over by the Teutons since Charlemagne and Otto. As for the Slavs, they are traditionally deemed incompatible with the Germans and are marked out for a final subjugation. In the present war with Russia, this thought is thinly disguised under the mask of an anti-communism so freely taken off and on. If allies are created with these alien nations, they can be naught else than temporary tools employed in the Germans' own work of conquest. That it is intended, during even the period of actual alliance, gradually to bind their limbs and finally to enslave them altogether, can hardly be doubted, if one recalls the freely expressed German contempt and hatred of them. Witness how in the past few weeks, the Balkan allies - Roumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Jugoslavia - have already been reduced to a position of servitors, and how their resentment has been steadily rising. Italy, as a strong Power and as an elder brother in the totalitarian movement, would still seem to be enjoying an equal treatment, but the reality is far from the appearance; hence the mounting discontentment of Mussolini and his people. One or two illustrations should suffice. The reasons for the presence of German troops in the peninsula are not only that it is a convenient jumping ground for African ventures, but much rather that any upris- ing may be suppressed, and that Italy should little by little forfeit her freedom

10.

of action. There probably is no Italian who is so obtuse as not to realize this fact. The Italian soldiers and marines, reluctantly, are doing obsequious service at their peril for Germany in parts of the Balkans and in Russia, regions where Italy has little political interest of her own. Even more shameful is the fact that between three and five hundred thousand peninsular laborers are employed in Germany, providing their own food. These facts attest that the treatment accorded the southern ally is, in nature, little different from that of the conquered nations of Greece and of northern and western Europe. That the poor Mussolini is still supporting Hitler is not that he is unaware of his precarious state, but that any resistance would cost him his position, and that his nation, disgruntled as it is, lacks the tradition and the will to assert its own rights. As its poverty and humiliation grow, how it will eventually comport itself, is an interesting problem.

Japan, being far away, has as yet escaped servitude in any gross form. But it can hardly be doubted that, remote as it is, the Pacific Ocean is ear-marked as within the sphere of German exploitation in a later stage, just as much as is South America, and quite likely as a region much more important for German "power-politics" than the latter. One can hardly think that Germany repents her former acquisition of a nearly quarter-million square miles of islands in the South Seas, her Manila Bay venture, her seizure of Kiao-Chow, and the grandiose scheme of a trans-Asiatic movement that she built upon the possession of that strategic Chinese port. Those were all lost in the first world war, and Japan has fallen heir to some of them, but from the German standpoint, Japan may well be regarded as a temporary custodian. As to when the Germans may again be

11.

ready to stretch their arms to the Pacific, that may well be a question which
they themselves cannot answer for the moment. But, inasmuch as the attempt
must wait for some time at any event, Germany would no doubt welcome a temporary
success of her present ally in that sphere, as a convenient stake for her
future harvest. From the German viewpoint, an immediate expansion of Japan in
that valuable field would be a great service rendered by her despite her own
intention. The fact that Japan is regarded by men of knowledge as having been
scrupulous in the observance of agreements, except the nine-Power treaty,
must be a source for the Germans of no little cynical pleasure. If, on the
contrary, the Japanese army, on its part, perhaps regards the alliance as a
liaison of convenience pending the accomplishment of its private plans of ag-
grandissement, with which it would confront the world, an eventual German suc-
cess or failure in Europe notwithstanding, - if so, it may be taken for granted
that Germany, from her own practices, perfectly understands the secret motive
of her Eastern servant and knows how to turn it to the master's account at the
right moment.

Nor can Japan well hope to counter German cunning with her own of a cleverer
sort. For while she appears to stand for a time beyond the scope of an immedi-
ate German endeavor, and so to command a sufficient leisure in which she may
proceed to consolidate her position according to her desire, she may do well
to remember that, in one important respect, she is at a decided disadvantage
in comparison with her fellow allies in Europe. This is over and above the
German intelligence mentioned above. I mean that Japan is the chief object
of German hatred among the non-Aryan, "yellow" Mongolian race stigmatized by
Hitler as sub-human and bestial, even as fated for extermination. Extermination,
as I have said, may be an arrant nonsense. Economically, however, a slow process

To Count K., Privy Councillor, 10 X 41.

12.

of stifling may not be so far beyond the range of possibility. Germany, intending, as she has already avowed, to close Europe and starve out England and America, no doubt means, after shutting Europe, the Americas, the South Seas, and a large part of the Asiatic continent, to freeze Japan commercially. That such is the picture already formed in the German imagination is a cogent inference from German assertions repeated for many years. One would even venture to think that, during that process, the Germans would probably not consider it beneath their sense of honor to exploit China's hatred of Japan at the latter's expense.

Whatever the conviction of the Japanese army, that Germany will sooner or later fail in Europe, I have never doubted from the outset; it is today believed by vast majorities of people in America and Europe, including those of the conquered nations. It would not make the least difference in this respect if the Russian government should fall, and German victory should advance to the Mediterranean and Near East, for every step in the progress sows another crop of the final disaster for the victor. But whether this will come late or soon must depend upon the gradual unfolding of the problems that are still unsolved. If late, then there may well lie the danger of Japan being involved in a great struggle literally fatal to her, and Germany's nefarious hand being stretched to the Orient. That is the heart of my fear. Therefore, it behooves Japan as quickly as possible

13.

Compromise, indeed, is the inherited political habit of the Japanese people.
Compromise has, it is true, served them well most of the time in the past.
It is no doubt, like the same virtue of the English, a valuable heritage of
the nation that should be preserved with solicitude. A provident guide at ordin-
ary times, however, compromise is a curse at a national crisis. A crisis would
often seem to be a test given by Heaven to train its favorite child; by conquer-
ing sloth and leaping over the hurdle, he would win a new lease of life; by
erecting a screen of inertia and self-justification, and following the line of
least resistance, he would allow the crisis to mount to its height of menace.
Is it not a crisis of first order that confronts Japan at this moment? Is it
a time for her to compel her political parties to efface themselves and for
the latter to give up their important mission in the national organism, so that
she might become a "one-minded" automaton; or for her to counsel foreign Powers
to be "sincere" and to cease to "misunderstand" her, so that they would mend
their policies in conformity with the cherished habits she has indulged herself
these late years? One would recall the obstinate fisherman who with a solemn face
spread his net in the open air in order to catch birds fish-wise, and saw all

14.

feathered creatures fly above and around the net! Fortunately, history proves that Japan is gifted with an unusual measure of the power of self-reflection at extraordinary times. Then she knew how to discard her wonted compromise, and, by way of self-conquest, to extricate herself from an impasse. Again and again, as in 645 and in 1868, she displayed admirable candor and perspicacity: she spurned all makeshifts, and, clearly perceiving the evils of her accustomed ways, made a complete *volte face*, and boldly and successfully took a leap into the unknown. She is in the same need of a thorough reconstruction of policy, for the peril that faces her is not a whit smaller, is perhaps of greater dimensions in some respects. She cannot have lost that power of reflection and of action that has served alone and so well to preserve her life through repeated crises. Bare ten years of the inuring of the people to an obtuse policy, driven as they have been to be of "one mind" in its support, can hardly have sufficed to stifle their historic capacity for sane self-reflection. If unfortunately that were the case, then would one not have to face the dreadful thought that any searching reflection by the nation must await its prostration under a tragedy the like of which it has never dreamed during the entire course of its long history? Who can dare say that it might not then be too late for any attempt at resurgence?

thrown overboard should be the so-called "immutable" policies of the past ten years. They are what has led Japan astray in the maze of the "sacred" war in China, and of the devious methods of inflicting "co-prosperity" upon nations who detest it. Those immutable, sacred policies are, in the eyes of every foreign friend of Japan, fundamentally irrational, short-sighted, mean, and most arrogant. What is far worse, they are violently contrary to the spirit of her history, and to the ever-broadening movement of the whole world. It should, at least, be evident to Japan, that, if she were in the place of the victims of

15.

these policies, she would not for an instant submit to such shameful imposi-
tions. No less ignoble and dangerous are they for her own immediate future.
For thereby she had made herself disloyal to the ancestral heritage of the
nation and to her revered sovereign; has tied her destiny with that of the
desperate robbers who are plunging headlong to their deaths; and has earned
a despised isolation among the hitherto admiring nations. Now she can look
forward to nothing but enmity of everyone, including and above all the neigh-
bor possessing enormous possibilities for future strength; possibly a gruelling
war with one or more Powers far stronger than herself in material resources
and in moral conviction; and, precisely at that juncture, the treachery, at
best the desertion, of her infamous partners. For me, it is the cause of pro-
found regrets to reflect how bright would have been Japan's future, if she
had, on the contrary, cooperated with other Powers in aiding China in her
valiant struggle for emancipation and enlightenment; and thrown in her lot
with that of those who are fighting for the preservation of the broad path
of human civilization against the worst enemy it has ever encountered. Regrets
are futile, but there is still time for Japan to retrieve herself. Now is high
time to make the supreme effort. The sooner the better. Nay, as I have ventured
to suggest, soon it might be too late. But retrieve she cannot, save by a
drastic reversal of her policies of the past decade.

If the "immutable" policies were tenaciously adhered to, no matter what
petty concessions and adjustments be made, and no matter what partial arrange-
ments be patched up with America and England, no nation on earth, not even the
present allies, could help continuing to suspect Japan's intentions; and the
root of the disease that has made her an outcast of the world and is bound to
lead her to worse calamities would persist. If she would truly be noble, and

16.

would radically cure her cancer, the only path open is positively and resolute-
ly to reflect upon her true self, as she did in 645 and in 1867, - again to
open her mind's eye, and to resume the same "open, catholic, and sincere" (<u>kō-mei</u>
<u>sei-dai</u>) attitude that once inspired the ex-Shogun, the enlightened barons and
many of their vassals.

Surely the conditions are different from those of 1868, and the shape of the
policy must be accordingly different, even as that of that year was from the
one of 645. But the spirit must ever be the same. The larger aspects of the ap-
plication of this spirit to the present needs should include, among others, the
following: - withdraw the armies from the continent, and restore the conquered
territories at appropriate times and in a suitable manner; denounce and repudi-
ate the alliance with Germany and Italy, and openly and clearly declare to them
and to the world the reasons why this apparent breach of faith was necessary
for the greater faith to which she had been a misguided traitor; radically
alter the organic law, so as to separate clearly and definitely the administra-
tion of the political and the military affairs; liberate the people and their
education from the absurd shackles recently inflicted upon them, and restore the
open exchange of ideas and commodities with other nations; and, if possible,
render the utmost aid within her capacity to those who are contending with the
common enemy of humanity.

Since such a complete reversal of policy affects all aspects of national life,
large and small, it is obvious that the concrete measure to be taken must ob-
serve the difference in magnitude, importance, and difficulty, between affairs
to be dealt with. But, apart from the precedence of measures, the turn-about
should not be partial but complete. Any partial policy would be certain to leave
openings for reaction and so to invite defeat. Moreover, a partial repentance is

17.

bound to be much more difficult to make than a clean breast. Aside from the opportunities the former would create for the return of evil forces, it would only mean a weak will behind it, which could not help entailing one's own petty regrets on the morrow about this matter or that, and possible reversion to another path of unreason. On the other hand, nothing could be more gratifying to oneself than a bold, whole-hearted transcendence over the past sin, and nothing truly easier. Therefore, even if the procedure be gradual, the principles and the direction of the entire policy should, as in 1868 or in 645, be completely established in advance, and openly announced to the nation and the world. The declaration should leave nothing fundamental in obscurity, for an important omission, whether intentional or by chance, would cause among the populace uncertainties and anxious guesses, and probably also create pretexts for a revolt of reactionaries and self-seekers. Then, in a sincere and deep trust should be reposed in the hearts of the people, and the measures be step by step carried out with their willing cooperation. It should be needless to fear harmful effects of this sudden change of policies and loyalties upon the moral consciousness of the nation; for nothing is more convincing than a true repentance, and every person would be inspired by the sincere initiative so courageously taken by the leaders. There is not the slightest doubt that the beautiful soul of the nation would loyally respond; and that the sympathy and friendship of foreign nations, near and far, would also be won, and their erst-while suspicion and fear would vanish, as by a miracle. In fact, the whole action, in spite of the contemporary form it would assume as a matter of course, would be exactly identical, in spirit, with the pronouncement of the Five-Article Oath and the promulgation of the Constitution, and, indeed, with the Reforms of Taikwa and Taihō, and the founding of the empire by Gimmu.

18.

The so-called "super-extraordinary time" and "encirclement" have for the greater part been of Japan's own creation. The world crisis is indeed the common calamity of mankind, but Japan's special crisis, grave as it is, is almost wholly her handiwork. She alone can break the fetters with which she has tied her limbs, and bring herself back to the common movement of the world. To do so is within her power, and is her duty to herself. The true difficulty, so far as Japan alone is concerned, lies, not so much in the character of the times, as in being caught in the little considerations of "face", and in failing to muster the courage to free herself from the service of self-made, unnatural, and hollow slogans of the day. But once enlightened, nothing would be simpler and more natural than to return to the native sanity. And nothing could be more inspiring than to emerge from darkness to the sun.

Militaristic, anti-historical obtuseness has created something of a second baku-fu, a medieval obscurantism. If the military lacked the moral courage of Keiki and Kaishu, to efface themselves from the political scene, then it would be necessary for others to invoke an imperial sanction for the initiative. A sanction, I entertain no doubt, would be most graciously granted. And it would be necessary in any event. If, on the contrary, the present-day statesmen shirked the duty that is upon them, and again failed to make anything more than trite compromises, how would they face the charge of having betrayed the illustrious history of the nation and the hopes of its future?

Letter from a Japanese Historian
to
Count K., Privy Councillor

(The editor of the magazine *Asia* has sent me an advance copy of an article which will appear in its November number. Written by an "Aryan" German, the article seeks to prove by many quotations from Hitler and other Nazis and from writers of the late empire, that their policy has always contemplated the enslavement and an eventual annihilation of the "yellow" race, above all, the Japanese nation specially marked out as the most threatening to the destiny of the Germans, which is the dominance of the Pacific Ocean.)

(Freely translated)

The article is said to have been written by a German under an assumed name. Its thesis cannot perhaps be said to be novel to those who know something about the past history of the foreign relations of the Germans and are able to compare it with their present conduct. But until 1939, even in western Europe and America, not only the common people, but also statesmen rarely know the historic habits of the German political mind as regards other nations; even after reading the open statements made by Hitler and others, it was still thought that they were evidently bombastic exaggerations, and that no human being could truly entertain such ideas as at all practicable. Only within the last two years, there has at last dawned upon these persons a realization of the true aspect of things. Those who have taken the trouble to examine past records have discovered that the same traits that are evident today have always existed ever since the prehistoric times of the Germanic races. Therefore, I do not think that the publication of the article in November will strike the readers as an astounding revelation. But, for the Japanese, it may seem to contain surprises, and might even appear as intrinsically incredible, as it would have done here till recently. At any rate, it presents what should be pondered by the Japanese. Hence my daring to forward it to you.

I, however, do not for a moment believe that the policy of annihilation could be literally carried out. It is true that in the past the Germans have often coldly butchered many of the people of a conquered region. But such was possible because the matter was on a relatively small scale. It would of course be an impossibility to massacre the millions of an entire national population, still less the whole hundreds of millions of a race of the human species. But that some similar intention is harbored in many German minds - if one refers to many historic examples of smaller dimensions, and to the policy of near-extermination that has been actually wreaked upon a part of the conquered Polish nation - can hardly be dismissed as fantastic.

One is the German concept of the mission in the world of the "Aryan" race and of the German nation. The idea includes two elements: the Aryan race in general, and, within it, the German nation in particular. But what the German politicians speak about the Aryan race does not seem to me important. The supremacy of that race has been preached by men of other European nations, too, and the Germans are doing nothing more than echoing them. But the theory of the mission of the race is of a comparatively recent origin, and has already lost much of its influence. When the Germans repeat the racial name, they seem to do so largely for convenience, for

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justifying their persecution of the Jews. Most often, they do not mean by "Aryan"
the entire Caucasion race, but rather themselves together with the northern Germanic
peoples; the term in this sense is generally identical with the so-called "Nordic".

On the contrary, as to the idea that the German nation alone has, not only
over the non-Aryan but also over the other Aryan peoples of Europe and America, the
destiny of ruling as a master race (Herrenvolk), and that all the others are fated to
be subject races (Dienervolk), - though the expression of the thought in this particu-
lar form dates from the latter part of the late empire and, above all, in the present
age of Nazi domination, - its fundamental spirit has been constantly present ever
since the Germanic tribes made their first entry into historical records.

The earliest records are those by Caesar, Tacitus, Marcellinus, and other
Roman writers, that is, between first century B.C. and the fourth A.D. Since the
conduct of these tribes demonstrated this very spirit, the words employed by these
authors in describing it can be literally applied with surprising accuracy to the
Germanic activities of today. I began to read these records before the advent of the
Nazis; and then, examining the writings of Germanic authors thomselves about the do-
ings of their own race through the ages, I have been ever more impressed by the
amazingly unbroken persistence of the same spirit. What I have called the records
of the Germanic writers' own are, first of all, the saga literature of Norwegians and
Icelanders, (these northern Germanic nations have mixed with other races, and other-
wise have gradually and largely worn off their ancient characteristics); then, records
of the invasions of these peoples written by Scotch, English, northern French, and
German authors, (here, the invaders were "Nordic", and the recorders were also very
largely of Germanic origins); and, finally, accounts by writers in Germany of the
actions of their nation at home, in Italy, in the Crusades, and against the Slavs.
Throughout all these records, the stories evidencing the same ruthless spirit as
described by the early Latin authors are reiterated without end, often in strikingly
similar phrases.

It is, of course, true that the delusion of an exclusive mission of a race
has never been peculiar to the Teutons alone. One can find parallels in certain
nomadic peoples of medieval Asia, who several times overran large parts of that conti-
nent and of Europe, seeking in the thirteenth century even to conquer the Japanese
islands; in those men of Aryan nations who exploited American, African, and Oriental
natives in early modern times; and also in the historic Chinese concept of the
"Middle Empire" civilization. There is also a mild example nearer home: one can
recall what Hirata Atsutane and other scholars in the Japanese revival of classicism
made of the mythology of Ame-no-Minakanushi and the "Central Land" of toyo ashikanashi,
and how the present exponents of the kwō-dō have coined and are interpreting that
high-sounding word. But these have been, some non-military in character, others se-
date and harmless phrases of self-gratification, and all of them of short duration
when they were translated into action. And in more than one instance, the assertions
in words and even in deeds have largely been unconscious attempts to forget one's own
"inferiority complex" by demonstrating to oneself at the expense of other people that
one really possessed superior power. None of these examples can be compared with the
Germanic spirit, whose expression in word and action has been uninterrupted through
history, and which has reached its greatest violence in this late day of enlighten-
ment. What is ominous in this particular spirit is its latent qualities. Its nani-
festations throughout the ages point to the presence in it of something unbelievably
non-human, primitive, and elemental; a surfeit of spitefulness and hatred alert in
search of a person upon whom it may be poured; an extreme lack of human pity, and de-
light in the suffering inflicted upon the enemy; a diabolical cunning that can be

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thorough and refined in its application, but is essentially physical and mechanical
in conception, and refuses to discern the imponderable elements present in every
human being, especially those in men of another tradition. This strange lack of sus-
ceptibility to moral influences alien to those of Germanic heritage seems to be true
as regards, not only the spiritual qualities and trends of other peoples, but also
the civilizing forces under whose impact the Germans have lived for centuries. For
it is difficult not to conclude, from their habitual conduct, as exemplified even by
that of modern Prussians and Nazis, that neither Christianity nor chivalry has been
able to soften, not to speak of altering, their innate spirit in any essential aspect.
As an abiding political spirit that can admit no idealism or philosophy, except the
engrossing devotion to an image of magnified ego, and asserts itself at the cost of
every stranger and by means of sheer brute force, the Germanic is, as far as I know,
an absolutely unique phenomenon in human record.

It must be said, in justice, that the Germanic stock has ramified into many
nations; that, not only in northern and central Europe, but also in England, France,
Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Oriental States of the Crusaders, and in the modern
American continents, a great many nations share the Germanic blood in some degree;
that, - although the same Germanic spirit was obviously active in the early history
of some of these nations, - all of them have lived in their particular habitats, and,
while sharing a common religion and culture of non-Germanic origins, have made their
separate histories and formed their individual characters; and that, during that long
process, what original Germanic traits they bore at the beginning, have, in all
instances save one, been blended and neutralized by other influences, and so have
been almost completely outlived. It has been the tragic lot of Germany alone, tragic
even more for herself than for the world, that she has had, not only to continue to
be held in the vice of the pristine habits that the others have discarded long since,
but also, during the past decades, greatly to intensify and aggravate them. The more
I reflect upon the fact, the more overwhelmed I feel by the mysterious significance
of it all. Surely here is a tremendous problem, as well for statesmen of all nations,
as for historians of philosophic insight.

Of the historical genesis and the practical implications for the future, of
this great fact, I have neither the ability nor the leisure to enlarge upon a single
point. But I should like to express a little of the sympathy I cannot help feeling
for the unfortunate bondage that thus onslaves the German political mind from causes
many of which seem to have been beyond its control. I cannot forget how long and how
repeatedly the nation had to defend its very life against the assaults of the northern
Teutons, the Slavic tribes, and the marauding nomads from the steppes of Asia; nor can
it be ignored that, in this, the Germans were acting virtually in the capacity of the
bulwark of the entire western Europe. Remember also what prolonged and arduous
struggles the colonists in north-eastern Germany had to wage, in addition to their
perpetual Slavic foos, against an extremely harsh Nature (soil and climate). The
worst by far is the very fate of Germany as a political organism, which has been an
unremitting succession of travail ever since its birth. Who will not recall under
what excessively difficult conditions and in what an unhappy form of organization the
nation had to begin its career in the ninth century; and then, through the ages down
to the ninetieth, how it has had to strive to keep a bare resemblance of State life,
amid the perennial quarrels rending the country into shreds of autonomous territories?
External perils seldom evoked even momentarily a united front; and, when they had
passed, the State appeared each time to be internally more hopelessly torn than before.
If the outside foes were intemottent, the inside division was continuous and generally
worsened with time, until Napoleon's invasions cancelled innumerable petty principali-
ties, and finally unification was achieved by the iron hand of Prussia. To all this
unparalleled political misfortune must be added the disastrous effects that have been