ESPECIALLY IN RELATION TO AUTHOR OF "THE REAL JAPANESE QUESTION," 0)16 25-223 4. PREFACE JAPAN has gone home from the Washington Conference on probation. Although she made a fairly good impression at the Conference, that impression is, as I see it, neither profound nor durable. What America and Europe will really think of her will depend upon what she does in China and Siberia in the coming few years. If Japan withdraws her troops from Siberia without delay-if she conforms to the spirit of the policy adopted by the Conference with regard to China-if she proves herself more far-sighted and generous in dealing with her neighbors, the good impression she has made at Washington will not only endure but will grow better. Let her, in addition, reduce her army and curb the power of her militarists without awaiting an international agreement on land armament, and the world's estimate of her statesmanship and good sense will become immeasurably higher. If, on the other hand, Japan clings to old ideas and practices in dealing with Siberia and China, what success she has achieved at Washington will be immediately set at naught. In saying this, I am advancing no opinion that Japan is the sole, or even chief, sinner among the Powers. So far from it, I am prepared to assert that her diplomatic history is bright enough when compared with the dark leaves recording the international dealings of some Western Powers. Indeed, Japan could have made herself an enfant terrible at the Washington 409528 Conference, had the Occidental Powers shown proclivities to make sport of her foreign policy and attempted to pursue her relentlessly in Siberia or China. Would it not have been somewhat embarrassing to the United States, had Japan proposed, for instance, that an international conference be convened at Tokyo to discuss Near Western and Caribbean Problems, the agenda of which might include such matters as foreign troops in Haiti and Porto Rico, the territorial and administrative integrity of the West Indies, and the open door and equal opportunity in Mexico? As for the European Powers, their books of diplomacy are replete with stories in the face of which Japan's acts on the Asian continent need no apology. And what of China? It may be safely said that the Washington Conference has definitely put an end to an age of international freebooting in that country, and that she need no longer be haunted with fear of dismemberment. Nevertheless, she faces a new dangerthe danger of an international concert for the supervision of her administration and finances. Some of the utterances made and the resolutions adopted at the Conference furnish an unmistakable warning, which China must heed if she is to avoid the approaching danger. In the chapters on China, I have tried to describe some of the grave internal problems which she must, in justice to herself as well as to the Powers, make honest efforts to solve. I have pointed out that the real menace to China lies within rather than without. Many of the following chapters were originally written for the New York Herald Syndicate, while some were published in the Baltimore Sun. Acknowledgment is due to the publishers and editors of the Herald and of the Sun for permission to use them in this book. Of course, those articles have been thoroughly revised, and in some cases almost rewritten, so as not only to bring them up to date, but also to make them suitable to the scope and nature of the present volume. It is a great pleasure for me to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. D. S. Richardson, loyal friend and honest critic, who has read the manuscript and criticised it from what I believe to be the real American point of view. New York, April, 1922. K. K. KAWAKAMI. |