that any considerable section of the American people cherishes sentiments hostile to the Japanese would be greeted with derision anywhere in the United States, save perhaps in a few local communities on the Pacific Coast, whose sentiments are in no wise indicative of the attitude of the country as a whole.

I do not believe that the majority of fair-minded Americans object to Japanese commercial expansion on the Asian mainland-so long as that expansion is legitimately conducted. But we do object to expansion by intrigue or force. We can sympathize with Japan's undeniable need for more elbow-room, but we cannot countenance the plans of the Tokio militarists for extending Japanese dominion by the sword. Though we conceded, through the Lansing-Ishii Agreement, that Japan possesses "special interests" on the Asian mainland, we cannot see those interests multiplied until they block the Open Door. For sentimental, political, and economic reasons we are averse to the expansion of Japan at the expense of China and Russia, but we have no thought of actively opposing such expansion so long as it takes the form of peaceful penetration of thinly peopled, undeveloped, and misgoverned regions, particularly as we believe that those regions will be improved by scientific development and their peoples benefited by decent government. I am myself of

1 One of the first acts of Mr. Hughes, upon becoming Secretary of State, was to make it amply clear to the Japanese Government that the United States no longer recognizes these "special interests."

the opinion that the future policy of Japan will tend rather in the direction of economic penetration than of territorial expansion. Several recent events have contributed to bring about this change in policy. To begin with, the sudden collapse of Prussian militarism was a staggering blow to the Japanese militarists. It brought them to an abrupt realization of the fact that the world was heartily sick of militarism and imperialism, and that their dreams of building up a PanAsian empire by conquest could never be fulfilled. They realized that America, now the greatest military-naval-financial power on earth, would never consent to the Japanese making themselves masters of the Pacific or overlords of Asia. Again, they recognized the growing strength of public opinion in Japan itself a public opinion which is beginning to make itself heard and which demands peace and friendship with the rest of the world. And lastly, but by far the most important, came the Washington Conference, with its full, frank, and friendly discussions of all pending questions, its clarification of Japan's and America's position, and the corresponding enlightenment of public opinion in both countries.

From talks that I have recently had with many of the leading men of Japan, including the premier, several members of his cabinet, and the president of the House of Peers, I am convinced that there is not a single question pending between the two countries on which an understanding cannot be reached, pro

vided we go about it in a courteous manner and a sympathetic frame of mind. My conversations with the Japanese leaders showed me that they have a much clearer understanding of our difficulties and perplexities than I had supposed. It might be well for us to remember that the Japanese Government is itself in an extremely trying position, and that its leaders are extremely apprehensive of the effect on public opinion of any settlement of the questions at issue which might be interpreted as an affront to Japanese national dignity or racial pride. But of this I can assure you: Japan is genuinely, almost pathetically, anxious for American confidence and good-will, and, in order to obtain them, her responsible statesmen are prepared to make almost every concession that self-respect will permit and that a fairminded American can demand.

PART II

KOREA

1. THE PENINSULA AND ITS PEOPLE

K

I

OREA is the Ireland of the East. The more

I consider the comparison the better I like it, for between the two countries, one on the eastern edge of the Old World, the other on the western, there is a most singular and striking analogy. Ireland is separated from the nation which is its suzerain by a narrow, landlocked sea. So is Korea. Ireland is a land of surpassing beauty. So is Korea. The Irish are an agricultural people, as are the Koreans, the national industries of both being connected with the tilling of the soil. The peasantry of both countries are ignorant, simple, patient, industrious, goodnatured. Both are prone to use intoxicants to excess on occasion. Both are extremely superstitious, with a terrified belief in the existence of spirits, goblins, and demons. Both are desperately poor, dwelling in wretched hovels amid filth and squalor. The Irish are turbulent and fond of intrigue. The same characteristics are found in the Koreans. The histories of both

nations are punctuated by invasions, rebellions, and internecine wars. Both have been the victims of cruelty, injustice, and oppression. Cromwell's invasion of Ireland in 1649, with its accompanying massacres and systematic devastation, had its counterpart in the shocking scenes which marked Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in the preceding century. The Irish have been held in subjection by a people of alien race and religion. The Koreans still are. Irish distrust and detestation of England is equalled only by Korean distrust and detestation of Japan. Heretofore the Irish have failed to give convincing proof of their ability to maintain a just and stable government. This is likewise true of the Koreans. Most Englishmen are convinced that an independent Ireland would prove a menace to the safety of the British Empire. Most Japanese are equally convinced that an independent Korea would threaten the safety of the Empire of Japan.

Korea, or, to give it its official Japanese name, Chosen, "Land of the Morning Calm," though scarcely larger than the state of Kansas, has a population equal to that of Spain. Its immense importance to Japan will be better realized when I add that it comprises one third of the total land area of the empire and that its seventeen millions of inhabitants form one fourth of the empire's total population. One of the oldest nations in the world, its early history