Syngman Lee
목차
• 10. FOREWORD
• 2Ⅰ. JAPAN'S "DIVINE MISSION" AND WAR PSYCHOLOGY
• 3Ⅱ. TANAKA MEMORIAL
• 4Ⅲ. JAPAN READY TO UNMASK HERSELF
• 5Ⅳ. THE BEGINNING OF THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR
• 6Ⅴ. FOREIGN NEWSPAPERMEN MUST GO
• 7Ⅵ. FOREIGN MISSIONARIES
• 8Ⅶ. THE LADYBIRD AND THE PANAY INCIDENTS
• 9Ⅷ. U. S. NATIONALS AND THEIR INTERESTS
• 10Ⅸ. NINE-POWER PARLEY
• 11Ⅹ. JAPAN'S MARCH OF CONQUEST AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS
• 12ⅩI. THE UNITED STATES NAVAL INCREASE
• 13ⅩⅡ. JAPANESE PROPAGANDA SHOULD BE CHECKED
• 14ⅩⅢ. PACIFISTS IN AMERICA
• 15ⅩⅣ. PACIFISTS ARE LIKE FIFTH COLUMNISTS
• 16ⅩⅤ. DEMOCRACY VERSUS TOTALITARIANISM
• 17ⅩVI. CONCLUSION
• 18REFERENCE
===
Ⅷ. U. S. NATIONALS AND THEIR INTERESTS
8:1 Those who have never been abroad may not fully realize the meaning of Patrick Henry's ringing words, "Give me liberty or give me death." In many lands, life without liberty is worse than death. There is no other land where people enjoy so much freedom as in this country. The Stars and Stripes stand for the protection of this land of the noble free. What price the early Americans paid for the enjoyment of this blessing should be remembered by every living American whose privilege it is to be a citizen under that flag.
8:2 Not to mention the supreme sacrifice made by the early founders of this republic and by all the patriotic men and women who followed their noble example in order to make this land free indeed, it will be worth our while to recall how many Americans gladly laid down their lives in the battlefields of Europe during the last World War, with the hope and determination that "the world would be made safe for democracy." That war failed to achieve its objective, it may be said; but it was not because "war never ends war," nor because the cause of democracy was not worth fighting for. That war failed because the Allies did not go far enough. They did not go far enough to convince the world that no outlawry, perpetrated either by a man or by a nation, should ever be allowed to go unpunished. So when Germany needed a breathing spell to regain her strength and indicated her willingness to stop fighting, the Allies, too eager for peace, consented and the war ended. Germany, perforce, accepted the humiliating situation, but soon began rearming. She used the period of peace to prepare for war, such a war as, in its quick successes, has staggered both imagination and prophecy. Some of the blame attaches to the democracies. As soon as peace was declared, they began to be jealous and suspicious of one another. They forgot their common aim-to make the world safe for democracy. The peace they had patched together was a makeshift. The Germans, on the other hand, made use of necessity, and never lost sight of their national aim. The Weimar republic hardly survived its birth pangs. It was the Allies, then, who were defeated at Versailles. The brave men whose supreme sacrifice had made it possible to restore a temporary peace had died in vain, and the world was not made safe for democracy.
8:3 The Allies completely forgot that a gangster left unpunished would come back if he could. Instead of standing together in defense of their common cause, and watching the Germans, they busied themselves watching one another. The debt situation aggravated matters, and among Americans there was a rising tide of opinion that the United States never should have entered the war.
8:4 This was exactly the situation the gangster nations wanted. The Axis powers planned to divide the world among themselves, and the democracies were not prepared for defense. Japan, as one of the Axis group, was to control all of Asia and wipe out all communistic and democratic elements alike.
8:5 We have already seen how the Japanese treated the newspapermen and foreign missionaries. Under ordinary circumstances, these reports of outrages would have stirred the indignation of liberty-loving Americans to such an extent that nothing could have quieted the rising temper of the nation. But anti-war sentiment, as a reaction to the last World War, combined with much pro-Japanese sympathy, was strong enough to stem the rising antagonism against Japan. The result was that Japan was left free to destroy freedom of the press and freedom of religion.
8:6 China has been the home and scene of labor of many Americans who have loved it as their own country. There they lived with their families, conducted their business, and enjoyed the fruits of their labor, all under the protection of the American government, just as all other foreigners were doing under the protection of their respective governments. Are there not the Open-Door treaties, the commercial treaties, and many other international agreements, guaranteeing them all equal privileges? Having no idea that Japan was preparing for another foray of brigandage while their own government was unprepared even for defense, the Americans thought their government was still capable of protecting their interests and safety.
8:7 But suddenly the island people appeared with bayonets, bombs and bullets, showering death and ruin from the sea, land, and air on cities, towns, and villages, creating an inferno of destruction wherever they went. This war on the Chinese is also a war on the white race. The Japanese slapped, kicked, and bombed, not only American men, but American women as well. With their renewed Pan-Asia cry for an "Asiatic Monroe Doctrine," they were determined to drive all Occidentals from that part of the world.
8:8 The most natural thing for Americans to do under such circumstances was to demand protection from their government. "What is our government doing for us?" This and similar questions were raised everywhere. As a matter of fact, the government in Washington did not know what to do, any more than did the people on the spot. Following the usual diplomatic procedure, repeated protests were lodged with the Tokyo government, demanding apologies, reparation, etc., but they were soon found to be worse than useless. It was humiliating to repeat these protests without obtaining proper response. There was a time when the Nipponese government would have left no stone unturned until they had satisfied any demand made upon them by the State Department in Washington.
8:9 Now all this is changed. The haughty militarists, or their foreign office tools, merely pigeonholed them and said calmly, "We will answer them when we have investigated." Arita, the Foreign Minister, said on February 15, 1940, that the Japanese government was investigating at that time 232 cases involving damage done to American nationals. The State Department in Washington was reported to have more than six hundred cases awaiting settlement by the Japanese government. This phase of the problem will be dwelt upon more fully as a separate topic. Suffice it to say here that the President and the Secretary of State did everything they could diplomatically. When they came to realize that nothing short of outspoken protest could bring results, they publicly voiced their sentiments against this international outlawry. What was the result? While many people were greatly encouraged and expressed their support of the stand taken by their government, many opposition quarters declared that the President and the Secretary of State were trying to drag the country into war. This being the situation, the one thing still left for them to do was to take economic action of some sort, and Mr. Hull's announcement of the abrogation of the United States-Japanese commercial treaty, effective on January 26, 1940, was the first economic weapon the United States used against Japan.
8:10 The Japanese may be excused for some of the incidents on their plea that war measures, unlike those of peace time, cannot be kept strictly under control. It may be true, although all available evidence proves the contrary, that some of these things were done unintentionally and some of them intentionally but out of military necessity. At any rate, they may be given the benefit of the doubt concerning some of the cases charged against them, but not for the flagrant outrages repeatedly and deliberately perpetrated against official representatives, as well as properties of the governments of nations with which they were at peace. Civilized nations respect and protect diplomatic and naval authorities of foreign powers at all times. The Japanese, as the people of a so-called civilized nation, must remember that they owe to these foreign officials certain due courtesies and immunities in accordance with the code of international ethics, if not of international law. If the powers failed to keep strictly and impartially within the bounds of law as neutrals, Japan could have declared war on them and dealt with them accordingly. Instead of doing that, Japan purposely withheld a declaration of war even against China, upon whom she was waging a piratical total war. The Japanese knew that they were violating all the established usages of international warfare by so doing, but they did it because it was convenient for them to demand from the Western powers, on the one hand, all peace-time privileges, while, on the other hand, they employed all the unfair, underhanded methods they knew, in order to crush every vestige of the white man's influence and thus to establish their own supremacy on its ruins. If either of the two leading powers, Britain or America, had decided on positive action, or the people of the United States had united in a determination to stop this aggression, the Japanese could never have succeeded as they have. The keen-sighted Japanese saw that such resistance was unlikely. It was the opportune time for them to kick out the white man at the point of their boot. If the Chinese had forgiven and forgotten Britain's crime of the Opium War, and aggressions of the Europeans, the Japanese took upon themselves the "divine mission" of avenging these wrongs. When they undertook to carry out their long-cherished policy of crushing, once and for all, the prestige of the Western powers, they actually surprised themselves by discovering that it was not half so difficult as they had expected. As they marched on, the foreign economical and political structures, that is, foreign concessions, international settlements, the privileges of extraterritoriality, spheres of influence, and the like, hitherto respected as sacred and inviolable, fell like overripe fruit. Was it not the sun god, their ancestor, who so willed that Hitler and Mussolini would do in the West the very thing which would help Japan at the psychological moment with her plans in the Far East?
8:11 Next to the Panay bombing the slapping of John Allison was the most serious incident, because, as third secretary, he was in charge of the United States Embassy at Nanking after Ambassador Johnson had moved his headquarters to Hankow, temporary seat of the Chinese government. In this position, Mr. Allison was entitled to certain diplomatic courtesies and immunities at the hands of both belligerents. All the diplomatic circles in the East, as well as in the West, were taken aback by the startling news on January 27, 1938, that he had been slapped by a Japanese sentry.
8:12 Mr. Allison's official report to the State Department revealed that he
"went with two other Americans, Professor M. S. Bates and Charles Riggs, to interview a woman who could identify a former priest's residence, then occupied by Japanese soldiers, and where she had been taken. While following Japanese investigators, a Japanese soldier rushed toward them, shouting in English, 'Back! Back!' Before we had time to get out, he slapped both of us across the face. A gendarme advised the soldiers that we were Americans. The soldier, livid with rage, attempted to attack Riggs, but the gendarme prevented him. However, he tore Riggs' collar and several buttons from Riggs' shirt. I reported the incident to the Japanese Embassy and obtained the impression that officials there believed the Americans outside their rights in entering the compound, and since the soldier ordered them to leave, he was seemingly within his rights in slapping us."
8:13 Mr. Allison was not mistaken when he reported that the Japanese Embassy was supporting the soldier's action. If the diplomatic representatives of that country took sides with the soldier, the militarist did so even more. A Japanese military spokesman in Tokyo said:
8:14
"The sentry who slapped the face of John Allison was only doing his duty, and would not be punished. Anyone disobeying the orders of a Japanese sentry could be shot.... An apology was tendered to Allison merely as a gesture of courtesy. Previously Japanese authorities were taking a serious view of his actions.... Last Tuesday a military policeman attempted to ride on the running board of Mr. Allison's automobile and Mr. Allison tried to push him off and called him an imbecile."
8:15 It is interesting to note here that, in the meantime, Japanese aliens resident in the United States have been free to move about and conduct their business without let or hindrance and that there has not been a single instance of retaliation. And let it be remembered to the everlasting credit of the American people that on his visit to the United States this spring Toyohiko Kagawa was received with a warmth and acclaim that testified to the Christian character of his hosts.
8:16 To return to the Allison incident, after it was reported to him, the Secretary of State held a two-hour conference with the President, which was attended also by Norman Davis, United States Ambassador at Large, and under Secretary of State Sumner Welles. As a result, a strong protest was sent to Japan. The exact text of the protest was not available but it was generally understood that in this representation the United States rejected the Japanese version of the incident and indicated that unless the question was settled properly and promptly, the issue of the Panay bombing would be reopened. This was a diplomatic master stroke. Those in Tokyo knew what that would mean. If the State Department reopened the issue and made public the inside stories connected with it, the American public would be thoroughly aroused. The Japanese could not afford to take this risk.
8:17 The American note was delivered on January 29, 1938. The next day, the Tokyo government hurriedly changed its attitude and bowed. The Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs made a formal statement, saying that "under whatever circumstances the incident might have taken place, the slapping by a Japanese soldier of the American consul was an extremely unfortunate occurrence. Major Hongo, staff officer of Japanese forces at Nanking, went to the United States Embassy and tendered, in the name of the high command in Nanking, expressions of regret and apologies. It was said also that the Japanese government expressed profound regret and gave "assurance that upon completion of a strict investigation steps will be taken to adequately punish those responsible." On January 31, the State Department publicly declared the acceptance of the apologies and assurances of the Japanese Foreign Office, and the Allison case was declared closed.
8:18 Looking back, one wonders now whether it would not have served the purpose better if the Panay incident had been reopened and the American people fully informed of the increasing strain on Japanese-American relations. The writer has no doubt that many of the "incidents" have been manufactured deliberately in order to test American patience and American unity. If Japan comes to believe that the United States will demand no more than diplomatic redress for gratuitous insult and injury, she may well decide that the hour has struck for a direct challenge to the American will. And we know that she is prepared for this step by her voluntary association with Germany and Italy and her treaty with Soviet Russia.
8:19 Flag Incidents
8:20 It is well known that the flag follows the missionaries and the merchant follows the flag. Indeed, it was the missionaries who went into all the forbidden lands to preach the gospel of salvation at the risk of their lives. Then the governments of their respective nations followed. Wherever the flag goes, merchants go to open trade under its protection. Therefore, the missionaries are, in fact, the pioneers in the opening of international intercourse, and their national flags stand for their personal safety. Yet, in many cases, missionaries prefer to risk their lives without the protection of their flag, because they are frequently regarded by the natives as tools of predatory governments.
8:21 The Chinese in Kiaochau had some trouble with German missionaries and killed two of them in November, 1897. The German seizure of Kiaochau followed a month later, and it became a German possession.
8:22 Many cases have been reported in which the Stars and Stripes served not as a sign of safety but as a mark of anathema. The larger and more conspicuously the emblem was displayed, the more frequent and terrific were the Japanese attacks. For instance, when the American Board of Missions in Fenchow, Shansi Province, was being raided, eight Americans and a thousand Chinese survived the four-hour bombardment unscathed in a bomb proof shelter prepared a month before. A Chinese gateman who felt safe under the protection of the large American flag was killed by a Japanese bullet.
8:23 While the Japanese have been deliberately and ruthlessly trampling under foot the law of the inviolability of foreign flags, they have been seeking every opportunity to force all nations to respect and bow to their flag. This is how they inspire the resisting people of Asia with fear and awe, until they are "willing and obedient subjects of the Mikado."
8:24 "Who can resist the power of Dai Nippon, which even America and Great Britain cannot withstand?" the Japanese say. "Have we not bombed and destroyed lives and property protected by the flags of the Western powers time and time again and yet encountered no more than diplomatic protests, most of which we proudly ignored? We have hauled down, torn in pieces, and even trampled under foot the national emblems, the sacred symbols of the United States and Great Britain, to which two great peoples of the West pay their homage and pledge their allegiance. Yet only a word of Komenasai[Japanese word of apology] said by any of our petty officers in the army, navy, or foreign office has been sufficient reparation. Who can refuse to bow to our all-conquering flag? Have we not made white men salute it?" This is the way they feel about it.
8:25 It is well-nigh inconceivable and incredible that any modern nation, however powerful, should ignore, haul down, or even trample upon, the flag of another nation more or less unfriendly to her, while forcing other people to salute and bow to its own flag. Yet that is exactly what Japan has been doing and continues to do. Out of numerous such incidents, a few are related here.
8:26 The State Department made public on November 30, 1937, the report of Clarence Gauss, United States Consul General at Shanghai, regarding Japanese disrespect for the Stars and Stripes at Shanghai. According to his report, a nameless Japanese tug, loaded with naval men, seized the American-owned tug Feiting while it was moored at the French Bund. The American flag was flying from it at the time of the seizure. The Japanese pulled down the sign of the ship's ownership, lowered the flag and threw it into the Whangpoo river. They made no effort to recover it, and hoisted a Japanese flag in its place.
8:27 Another incident occurred the day after the Panay bombing. Japanese soldiers seized a boat owned by an American hospital, pulled down the American flag and threw it into the Yangtze. Hospital authorities salvaged the flag and brought the matter to the attention of the Japanese commander. The United States government made a strong representation to the Japanese on December 24.
8:28 On August 15, 1938, the British tugboat Victoria was boarded by Japanese sailors, who trussed up its captain with rope and unceremoniously replaced the tug's Union Jack with the Rising Sun flag. A British gunboat was hurriedly ordered to the scene to investigate the occurrence.
8:29 When the Japanese freighter Yamura Maru was slowly pulling into New York harbor on April 30, 1938, the Japanese flag was hoisted above the American flag at the vessel's forepeak. Internationally established usage, as well as United States harbor laws, require all foreign ships entering the harbor to fly the American flag at the forepeak and not to place any other flag higher than the Stars and Stripes. Coast Guard officers boarded the Yamura and ordered the flags to be changed.
8:30 All these and other incidents are a part of concerted and systematized efforts to gain recognition of Japanese superiority in every way possible. They try to make them appear as individual, sporadic, and isolated occurrences. However, they are all connected with and directed by the proper authorities in Tokyo. Every point they win or every foot of soil they gain, by fair means or foul, adds that much to their national self-esteem. One who wins such a victory, either by peaceful means or by force of arms, is rewarded with a military decoration or a promotion in rank. For that reason, everyone tries to do something that will promote his racial status or enrich the national wealth. Every captain of Japanese boats knows the harbor laws and has to act accordingly. The action of the Yamura Maru was a violation of established rules and distinctly a slight to the honor of a great nation. Was it an oversight, unintentional, inadvertent-a mistake by one of the subordinates? The Japanese are too punctilious, too meticulous in matters of decorum, to make mistakes of that kind.
8:31 So far, we have seen how the Japanese are treating the flag of the United States in China as well as how they have treated it in New York harbor. Now we shall see how they demand that Americans treat their flag in America.
8:32 While the Japanese were deliberately insulting the American flag in China and elsewhere, they tried to force Americans to bow to their flag in American territory. It happened during the winter of 1939, when three Japanese naval vessels were "visiting" Hawaii. Every now and then these naval vessels make "official" and "unofficial" calls on these isles. Each time they arrive in Honolulu harbor, the piers and water front are thronged with hundreds of Nipponese, most of them American "citizens," who go out to welcome their visiting compatriots. The sailors and marines are received in the midst of the waving of their flag, and shouts of Banzai (flag waving and Banzai shouting now have been discontinued) by the enthusiastic crowd, which decks them with flowers and paper leis to demonstrate their warm and cordial welcome. The Territorial government, including the mayor of Honolulu, generally joins with the Japanese in extending a welcome. The Japanese consulate is the center of an official reception in honor of the visiting officers and men. The large lawns, beautified with tall palms and tropical flowers, are decorated with colorful lanterns and bunting for the great occasion. Invited guests are from the Federal and Territorial governments, United States Army and Navy Headquarters, as well as leading citizens representing the Chamber of Commerce and other business and civic organizations. They mingle with the visiting, as well as local, Japanese in expressing their good will and friendship. I remember some Americans refused to go on this particular occasion. They said they could not express good will to the Japanese while those in China bombed and sank a United States vessel and were destroying the Chinese civilian population by the thousands.
8:33 How many of the Americans in the territory have the same sentiment I could not ascertain, as they keep their sentiments under the surface. Sometimes after, and sometimes before, these entertainments at the consulate, comes the announcement by the Japanese entertainment committee that on a certain day they will take the visitors on an automobile tour around the island of Oahu, on which the city of Honolulu is located. The public is asked to help by lending automobiles for the day. American and Japanese private families, individuals, and organizations, wishing to show their friendly spirit, send their cars, with or without chauffeurs. During these visits, the city streets are crowded with white uniformed Japanese carrying kodaks and cameras. Of course, it is nothing but an unofficial call by naval units of a friendly nation. There is no reason to doubt, and every reason to believe, that it is only a sincere expression of friendly feelings between two great Pacific powers. However, that is not all. Every Japanese is an empire builder. He is part and parcel of the great scheme of world conquest. The flag incident, for instance, is a part of their organized scheme and cannot be regarded as an isolated case, wherever it may occur. The latest of these incidents took place in Hawaii during one of these frequent visits of Japanese naval vessels to the island.
8:34 David Kamai, United States citizen of Hawaiian ancestry, representative of the Honolulu Board of Waterworks, started aboard the Japanese navy vessel Yakumo to collect the water bill on October 22, 1939. The Japanese sentry, standing with fixed bayonet at the gangplank, stopped and reprimanded him, in good English, for not wearing a coat. Then he told Kamai to bow to the Japanese flag if he wanted to go aboard. Kamai refused, saying, "I do not bow to anyone." As he was turning away, he saw that several Japanese without coats had been permitted aboard. Because of the tropical climate, many people go about their business in shirt sleeves. Meanwhile, a local Japanese talked to the sentry, who then called him back and told him to go aboard and attend to his business.
8:35 The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, of October 24, editorially discussed the episode in a calm, dignified tone, and concluded by saying:
8:36
"It would be easy to manufacture an international incident out of the fact that a Japanese sentry on a Japanese warship ordered an American citizen, going aboard on official business, to salute the Japanese flag... If it was only a misunderstanding, the ship's officers can adequately take care of that. If it was an illustration of arrogance, the relatively brief but adequate publicity given to the story will carry its lesson to the appropriate quarters."
8:37 This was followed by a statement issued by the Japanese Consul General firmly and almost indignantly denying the Star-Bulletin report that the sentry demanded that David Kamai bow to the Nipponese flag. According to the statement, it was entirely a false report. "Of course, no one would believe a word of this report," said the Consul General, "because the Japanese never did it."
8:38 The following week, however, the visiting squadron left Honolulu and made a similar visit to the city of Hilo, the capital of the island of Hawaii, largest of the islands. While there, the whole incident was repeated. This time some one was clever enough to get ahead of the Japanese by quietly taking a snapshot of the sentry standing by an improvised gate with a sign on it in both English and Japanese. The picture was printed in Honolulu Advertiser on October 30, 1939, and it is reproduced here just as it appeared in the Honolulu paper, with the following editorial:
8:39
"Austere, aloof stands this sailor HIJM Yakumo, a silent, solemn emissary of the Son of Heaven, Japan's Emperor Hirohito. Traditional military and naval etiquette demands all Japanese show respect to the emperor by either bowing, tipping the hat or saluting sentries. To Japanese in Japan this is known. To others it has no meaning. Twice within the past week, in two American ports, Honolulu and Hilo, Americans boarding the HIJM Yakumo have been met with demands to salute the sentry and bow to the Rising Sun flag. Both were refused. In the above photo taken at Hilo, the instructions to salute the sentry are seen in both English and Japanese characters. A few moments after this picture was taken, however, the sentry turned the sign around so that it couldn't be photographed."
8:40 The State Department awaits reports on the Japanese "incident" at Hilo,
8:41 The Hilo trouble started when a United States customs inspector, Mr. H. Stanley Wilson (white) boarded the Yakumo at Hilo to present to the Japanese commander the courtesies of the port. As he started to go aboard, a sailor at the foot of the gangplank gripped him by the arm and gruffly demanded who he was. When he said he was a customs officer, the Japanese pointed to an armed sentry and told Mr. Wilson to bow to the sentry. He refused. The sailor said indignantly, "This is a Japanese boat." Finally, a Japanese officer was called, and he descended the gangplank. Wilson handed the letters to him and left.
8:42 The following day Jonah Birch, collector of the Hilo Waterworks Department, was refined permission to board the Yakumo to collect a water bill when he declined to bow to the Japanese flag on the ship. He was ordered by the sentry to keep out if he would not bow. Later, Emil Osorio, chief clerk of the Hilo Waterworks Department, went to the ship with a Japanese and was admitted without ceremony. The Japanese Acting Consul in Honolulu and the United States customs officer had a consultation and smoothed it over.
8:43 As a face-saving measure, Tomoji Matsumura, chairman of the Hilo reception committee, issued a statement on November 10, 1939, assuming the entire responsibility for putting up the Japanese sign. He said he ordered the Japanese signs written, but not the English. It said that those going aboard the ship must Kei-rei (bow) to the sentry. To use a common phrase, Matsumura made himself the scapegoat for the Japanese Consul General. The one who really started the trouble was the photographer who took the picture of the Japanese sentry; otherwise, the Consul General easily could have dismissed the difficulties by simply issuing another official denial.
16
ⅩⅢ. PACIFISTS IN AMERICA
13:1 It was in 1934, when I was living in a downtown hotel in New York City, that I found my good friend Dr. S. S. stopping at the same hotel. For several days, he had been asking me to go with him to call on a couple of friends, peace-loving people, who had asked him to bring me along to one of their afternoon teas. One afternoon I went with him to a beautiful residence on Park Avenue. As we were ushered in, I noticed the elegant and tasteful arrangement of the furniture and ornamental art pieces which reflected the refinement and culture of the occupants. It was a pleasure to find myself in such quiet serenity in the heart of that hustling and bustling metropolis. I was introduced to the lady, who was full of gentle grace and charm, and then to her husband, who was a perfect gentleman. They were perhaps a little beyond middle age. Both were very cordial to me and made me feel really at home. If I remember correctly, he was editing a peace magazine of this own. As we were being seated, the gentleman surprised me by asking me the following question: "Dr. Rhee, if your enemies were to invade your country, would you take up arms and go out to fight them?"
13:2 "Yes, I would," I replied, without a second thought. Then he bent down to look me full in the face, as if to watch my reaction, and said, "You are a militarist." I blushed, but managed, with some effort, to restrain myself. After a little while I excused myself and left. From that time to this, I have never learned what sort of an impression I left on those good people, but I know they left me with a poor opinion of the fanatical pacifists in this country.
13:3 I used to have, and I still have, a high respect for the peace advocates who, like the Confucian philosophers of the Orient, condemn war as an evil which every civilized man should shun and spurn. I hold in high esteem the "conscientious objectors" who, for the sake of religious convictions or humanitarian principles, refuse to take up arms against their fellow men. But those militant pacifists who are opposed to any and every kind of war, whether for national defense, national honor, or national independence, are, to my mind, just as dangerous and subversive as any "fifth columnist." Their motives may be different, but the results will be the same. They are, though unconsciously, courting disaster for their nation. While they make no effort to keep war-making nations from waging aggressive wars, they try to keep their own nonaggressive nation from preparing even for defense. If Americans are to condemn all the wars their country has ever fought, they should destroy the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and do away with all the liberty and justice, the fruit of the wars, which are their priceless heritage. Therefore, any man who refuses to fight for his country because he believes in peace has no claim on my sympathy.
13:4 As I have said before, I was, and still am, a man of peace, but to be called by an American a "militarist" was an intolerable insult. The good people who called me such did not know of my experiences in Korea, or, perhaps, it was just their usual way of preaching their peace ideas to everyone they met. To tell the truth, if I had been a militarist thirty-five years ago and if the rest of the world had not stood idly by while militaristic Japan destroyed nonmilitaristic Korea, I would not have become "a man without a country," as I now am. A brief account of how the peace-loving Kingdom of Korea lost its independence and how the 23,000,000 Koreans have become slaves of their hereditary enemies, the Japanese, may serve a useful purpose.
13:5 The Koreans had managed to maintain their independence for nearly forty-five centuries, despite all the wars of invasion by their warlike neighbors, including that of Hideyoshi, "the Napoleon of Japan," which was more devastating and more inhuman than the recent Nazi invasions of Norway, Denmark, Holland, and France. The Koreans were satisfied with their own rulers and were determined to defend at any cost the peaceful life of their ancient kingdom. They were enjoying a standard of Oriental civilization which was claimed to be even higher than that of China, especially since the Manchu conquest of China in the early part of the seventeenth century. At that time, the Chinese were forced to forego the early influence of the Tang civilization, the golden age of the Confucian world, and to adopt in its place the Manchu culture, of which the wearing of the queue, instead of the topknot, and heavy robes of the North are examples. Meanwhile, the Koreans were left unmolested to retain the old customs of the Tang dynasty, among which was the wearing of large round hats and loose white garments, which some of the ignorant Western tourists find so much fun in ridiculing, in spite of the fact that they are to Koreans the very badges of their bygone glories. At any rate, the Koreans made no trouble for others and wanted none from the rest of the world. However, the Korean isolationists were not left alone to enjoy their peace after 1882, when the Western powers, led by the United States, began to make commercial treaties with Korea. Will the American isolationists of today be left alone to enjoy their peace? Probabilities are overwhelming that they will not.
13:6 During the latter part of the nineteenth century, America was casting about to find new markets for its products. Following the footsteps of Commodore Perry, who succeeded in forcing Japan to open her doors to intercourse with Western powers, Admiral Shufelt knocked at the door of the Hermit Kingdom and asked its government to open treaty relations with the United States. The Korean government declined the offer on the ground that they "had had too much trouble with their neighbors, especially Japan; and chose to remain detached." America promised its assistance in case of trouble. With that understanding, Korea made the treaty of 1882, containing the "amity clause" (see page 29), which was destined to make a lot of mischief and misunderstanding later. That treaty was, however, welcomed in America because it proved to be advantageous to American commercial interests.
13:7 When Japan began to "deal unjustly and oppressively" with Korea, the Korean Emperor asked the American government to "use its good offices," as had been promised. But nothing came of the request, and Japan had her own way. The American failure to take some action was excused on the ground that the Emperor was weak, the government officials animated by corruption and intrigue, and the Korean people ignorant and supine. But all this does not alter fact. The truth remains the same; the more attempt was made to change it, the more it remained the same.
13:8 Willard Straight's diary covering that period of history is regarded as an authentic and authoritative version of the death of Korea as a nation. Herbert Croly, author of Willard Straight, revealed many important facts in his ninth chapter, under the heading, "The Murder of a Nation." based on that diary. Straight was in Korea at that time as a reporter and observer with the new United States Minister, E. V. Morgan. He was not in complete sympathy with the Korean policy adopted by the Administration, but he had to follow the crowd.
13:9 By briefly quoting from his book, I will try to prove how unsound and void were some of the arguments made in defense of the American policy of that time. At one place he says:
"In their foolish agony the Korean rulers appealed to the American diplomats in Seoul as the representatives of the only power which might come to their assistance. Doubtless it was a foolish promise."
13:10 If it was really foolish, the Koreans were not alone responsible for it. The United States Senate and the President of the United States, as well as the State Department, all gave their approval and affixed their signatures to the treaty, thus making it a law of the United States. President Chester A. Arthur proclaimed of the Korean Treaty, that "every clause and article must be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof." No one then seemed to have noticed the "foolishness" of it. When the Korean Emperor and the Korean government were granting special privileges and concessions to citizens of the United States, such as the franchise for the first railway lines in Korea, the first trolley car lines, and the richest gold mines in Korea, no American saw Korean unwisdom in any of these. But now that Americans were asked to do something in the way of keeping their promise, they saw nothing but the ignorance and idiocy of the Korean people. This did not absolve them from their treaty obligations, but they acted as thought it did.
13:11 "They were advised to make an open protest, but the Koreans did not do it," said Straight in the diary.
13:12 What was meant by an "open protest"? The Koreans did not make a secret of their attitude. With the exception of one or two traitors in the Cabinet, as in the French government under Nazi control in 1940, all the ministers were absolutely against the Japanese occupation, and Prince Min's suicide as a protest was evidence of it. Senator Newlands' advice to the Emperor, to "engage the service of an international lawyer and to make a dignified protest," was not acceptable, because the lawyer might join hands with the Japanese, and it would only make a bad situation worse. The reason the Americans insisted on open resistance was because they knew that the faint-hearted Emperor, who was constantly in fear of being assassinated by the Japanese, as had been the Queen, did not have the courage to make a bold stand against the Japanese. The ministers and the Korean people did all they could to resist, but the Americans were not in a position to know it. Let us grant that Koreans failed to make a successful resistance. Does this alter the fact that America failed to act? Not in the least. There is no provision of any nature in the treaty which required Korea to resist successfully before they could ask America to take action. All that the treaty required was that "...upon being informed of the case, the other shall exert its good offices to bring about an amicable settlement." Straight said in his diary, "The Emperor sent word that he had a letter that he wanted sent to the President. Morgan refused to have anything to do with it." How could he, as the United States Minister Plenipotentiary to Korea, refuse to convey a formal letter which the Korean Sovereign requested him to send to his President? But he knew that the Emperor's letter would, if presented, place the President in an embarrassing position, and, therefore, he "refused to have anything to do with it."
13:13 The Emperor entrusted Professor Homer B. Hulbert[14] with a letter to be delivered to the President. Mr. Hulbert was one of the three well-known American, educators in Korea, having been recommended by the State Department at the request of the Korean government soon after the opening of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He informed Mr. Morgan of his secret mission. When he arrived in Washington, he found difficulties in presenting the letter, and the delivery was very much delayed.
13:14 "The American Minister had no authority to translate this promise into substantial assistance," said Straight. Who asked the American Minister or anyone else to interpret the treaty? It was written in plain English that the United States was to use its "good offices"-and that was all that America was asked to do, as it had promised. No one asked for "substantial assistance." All that Korea asked America to do was simply what the "good offices" implied. I challenge any American to say that the United States lived up to its obligations.
13:15 The argument that the Koreans could not help themselves, and, therefore, it was useless for the United States to do anything for them, has no logic in it. If they were completely able to help themselves, why should they ask the United States or any other nation on earth to help them? When does one need friendly help the most? Does he need it when he is stronger than his enemy?
13:16 "McLeavy Brown was willing to publish many facts which he knows with regard to them [the Japanese]," said Straight in his diary. "There is one thing I want to do, that is, to give people some idea of what the Japanese occupation of Korea really means. The thing that must be done is to unbluff the world," he said further on.
13:17 Why the promise was not kept the book does not reveal. It was not kept because it would have spoiled the Administration's plan to help further Japan's program in Korea. President Theodore Roosevelt had an understanding with Japan by which the United States was to recognize the Japanese occupation of Korea and Japan was to recognize the American possession of the Philippines[15]. Morgan had been sent out with instructions not to let any of these things happen before the success of the plan had become a fait accompli. Brown was adviser to the Korean Treasury Department, and also in charge of the Customs House, a very influential man. Straight, with all his connections in China and the United States, was also a man of considerable influence, even though he was young and at the beginning of a great career. Either of these men could have done a great deal in the way of disclosing to the world how the Japanese were bluffing in Korea. That might have opened the eyes of the President and changed his policy entirely. Morgan was fearful and opposed the disclosure. He succeeded, and what was done was to the full satisfaction of the Administration.
13:18 The truth is that Korea's fate had been definitely fixed in Washington long before Morgan's appointment as the United States Minister to Korea.
13:19 The heroism of the Japanese soldiers in the battlefields of Manchuria and also the Japanese diplomatic finesse had a fascinating influence upon the President of the United States. Through Baron Kaneko, the President's personal friend and Japan's liaison man in America, the White House was in constant touch with Tokyo and gave the Japanese government friendly aid and advice. It was the American policy not to allow any Western power or powers to deprive Japan of the fruit of victory, as France, Germany, and Russia had done ten years before in the case of the Liaotung Peninsula. Japan should get what she deserves, was the American point of view.
13:20 What Japan needed was, of course, "an outlet for her surplus population," That was her repeated plea, and Americans thought it well founded. Also, to win the loyal friendship of a modernized and progressive Japan would be a permanent safeguard for American interests in the Far East, they thought. What territory should be given to Japan as a fruit of her victory was the question in the minds of American statesmen. It appeared that she needed Korea more than any other territory. The United States, sponsor of the Open-Door policy for China, could not afford to let Japan occupy any part of Manchuria. If the Japanese were let alone to take Korea, they would be satisfied and would have no further territorial ambitions. It would solve the Japanese emigration problem, which was beginning to cause a lot of trouble in California. This whole scheme appeared to the United States as the best solution. Of course, there might be some Americans who would object to making a pawn of the ancient Kingdom of Korea. That could easily be taken care of by publicity in the United States through the press and particularly through The Outlook, which was one of the most influential magazines of that day. The United States went so far as to suggest to Kaneko the idea of an Asiatic Monroe Doctrine. This was published in The Outlook more than once. The independence of Korea was to be sacrificed.
13:21 However, things did not turn out as expected. The Administration soon discovered that it had made a mistake. The Japanese, taking advantage of the pro-Japanese sentiment in America, sent shipload after shipload of emigrants, who descended on the California coast like swarms of locusts. Californians undertook to check this influx by a series of anti-Japanese laws. The Tokyo government demanded that Washington protect the treaty rights of Japanese subjects in this country. California, insisting on its state's rights, refused to let the Federal government interfere. By way of answering Japanese demands, Washington explained the constitutional conflict between federal and state authorities. The Japanese boldly threatened to deal directly with the State of California, as with an independent nation. This, of course, was a direct insult to the United States. It came as a great shock to American statesmen and brought them to the realization that they had made a mistake by helping Japan to such an extent, and that Japan could never be counted on for loyal friendship. This is the inside story, and comparatively few people knew about it. It was during this time that President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the United States navy to cruise the Pacific ocean as a sort of warning to Japan. Japan invited the fleet to her shores and entertained the American sailors royally in an effort to win back the President's good will.
13:22 Now, to go back to the Korean question: E. V. Morgan was appointed as United States Minister to Korea to replace Dr. Horace Allen. Dr. Allen was one of those who believed in the fulfillment of treaty obligations. He was decidedly an obstacle to the Japanese conquest of Korea.
13:23 Before he left for Korea, Morgan was in Washington for his credentials, etc. I called on him at his suite in the Arlington Hotel. He wore a varicolored kimono over his business suit and was attended by a Japanese valet. His appearance and a few words from him were sufficient to convince me that in Korea he would not be in harmony with the influence which such good Americans as Drs. Allen, Underwood, Appenzeller, Avison, and other leading pioneer missionaries, had taken years to build up.
13:24 Dr. Allen, pioneer medical missionary, became one of the most highly respected foreigners in Seoul. Tall and dignified, he was a perfect gentleman in every respect. He, with a number of other Americans, was most influential in palace circles, as the Emperor often called him in for friendly advice and medical service. After the murder of the Queen by the Japanese in 1895, all the foreigners in Korea, with the exception of the Japanese, were overwhelmingly in sympathy with the Emperor. Since he was a weak-minded person, the Japanese had thought they could make a puppet out of him through fear. They decided to do away with the Queen, highly intelligent and strong-willed, known to be the power behind the throne. To consummate the plan, the Japanese Minister, Viscount Miura, brought from Japan a group of professional assassins, who penetrated the palace gates, dragged the Queen away from the Emperor, chopped her to pieces, wrapped the body in tarpaulin, and burnt it to ashes. Meanwhile, another group of murderers went to the Emperor, brandishing their weapons and uttering threats. The Minister of the Household Department, who fled to the presence of the Emperor, was stabbed before his eyes[16].
13:25 This most hideous international crime was committed for the purpose of winning the Emperor to the Japanese side. But it did not work out that way. Instead of throwing himself on the mercy of the Japanese, as they had expected him to do, the Emperor, thinking that they might assassinate him as they had his wife, tried to get away from the Japanese and their hirelings. He became so frantic and nervous that he could neither eat nor sleep. He could not trust even his own Cabinet Ministers. The Americans were the only friends he had faith in. He sent for Dr. Allen, then the American Minister to Korea, for in his presence he could relax and rest. Every little noise frightened him, and he begged the Americans not to leave him. Some of the missionaries arranged to take food to him, with their personal assurance that it had not been poisoned, and to stay with him at night. During these quiet hours, he asked the American Minister, "If I come to your Legation, can you not give me a room where I can rest in safety?" Allen, sympathetic and willing to do anything within his power to help the unfortunate man, could not accommodate him to that extent. Then he asked, "What should I do to protect myself and my kingdom against these treacherous Japanese?"
13:26 Of course, every American in Korea knew about the United States-Korean treaty, and none of them could believe that their government would not live up to it. By way of comforting the unhappy man, he was told that he need not worry about his personal safety and the independence of this kingdom, because, if the Japanese went too far, the United States would surely keep its promise. In his agony and fear, these words were a great strength and comfort. He believed them implicitly.
13:27 One dark night the Emperor and the Crown Prince quietly slipped out of the palace gate in closed chairs used by court ladies, and went to the Russian Legation, as previously had been arranged. Safe under Russian protection, he at once issued an Imperial edict ordering the arrest of all his Cabinet Ministers as traitors. Once again Japanese ascendancy in Korea collapsed, while Russian political influence dominated the Korean court[17].
13:28 Meanwhile, the Japanese in America used this episode to their great advantage. Press reports criticized the Koreans for taking sides with the Russians. The President and the general public all believed that the Koreans had made a mistake in joining the Russians, who would ultimately destroy their independence, instead of joining hands with the Japanese, who were represented as fighting for the protection of their independence. This was a crowning success for the Japanese diplomatic and propaganda activities. In fact, the Korean people were for neither the Russians nor the Japanese. The Independent Society, representing Korean nationalist sentiment, demanded the Emperor to return to the old palace immediately, even at the risk of his life. It insisted that he make the Imperial Privy Council, of which I was a member at the time, a national parliament, and let it organize a government, subject to his approval, which would stamp out all the corruption of the old conservative officials, safeguard the Imperial family, and protect the independence of the nation. But the Emperor, suspicious of everyone, did not dare stand up and speak out his mind. The more the people tried to bring him back under their own protection, the further away he got. A revolution would only have made conditions worse. The Japanese and Russians, in turn, kept the Emperor in subjection, and the Emperor kept the people in subjection. Therefore, the people had no chance to do anything, and so deserved none of the criticism. However, the tension was somewhat lessened when the Emperor finally returned to his temporary palace, which was a makeshift arrangement in the Foreign Legation centre. Straight ironically remarked in his diary, "It's rather attractive, you know, to have a really truly Emperor as near neighbor, where you can look over and see."
13:29 When Morgan arrived, Allen left. The new Minister and his official staff were all new to the situation. They needed no information and they sought none. The American statesmen were persuaded to believe that by sacrificing Korea they were saving China. Yet, during all the past centuries, Korea had been a very bulwark of peace standing between these two nations, and to destroy that bulwark in order to protect the adjacent people proved to be the height of folly. Everyone who knows what has happened in Manchuria and China since that time, knows now that the destruction of Korea was but a prelude to all the later developments in that part of the world.
13:30 The path of duty for the United States at that time was clear. America, with all its influence over the Japanese, should have said that the United States was under treaty obligation to help Korea and that Japan also should act in accordance with her treaties with Korea by respecting her political independence and territorial integrity. Instead of following the straight line of duty, they disregarded the American treaty with Korea and thus also assisted Japan to destroy her treaties. By so doing, they unconsciously introduced an era of treaty violation, one of the direct causes of the chaos and disorder in Europe and Asia today.
13:31 This is, indeed, a blemish on the glorious pages of American history. Korea paid heavily for being a peace-loving nation and putting her trust in the sanctity of international treaties. Now she is ridiculed by the very people who betrayed her. If any one dubs me a "militarist" because I would take up arms and fight for my country, I must confess I lose my self-restraint.
13:32 To wind up a gloomy story with a ray of sunshine, I wish to quote here a few words from the President's recent speech in reference to Italy's declaration of war on France. The President declared in that speech: "The hand that held the dagger stabbed France in the back." This did not save France, to be sure, nor was it meant to do so. But it did put on record that the government and the people of the United States have handed down their verdict, condemning a criminal nation as a criminal nation. If all good men and good women, the world over, have courage to follow that example by treating any and every law-breaking nation as they would treat any and every law-breaking individual, there would be hope that some day courts of justice, not military might, would be the final arbiter in all human relations.
ⅩⅣ. PACIFISTS ARE LIKE FIFTH COLUMNISTS
14:1 When I say that pacifists who are opposed to war regardless of purpose are as dangerous and subversive as fifth columnists, I have my reasons. Here are some of them:
14:2 The Nazis, Fascists, Communists, and other subversive elements are here, as I understand it, for the purpose of overthrowing the American form of government, and to establish in its place whatever system the strongest of these groups stands for. This is not the purpose of the pacifists, of course. They all stand loyally, let us say, by the Republic of the United States. In that respect, the latter should not be compared with the Nazis, Fascists, and Communists the one is for America, the others are against America.
14:3 But when they come to the question of war, they all agree. They are all one in demanding that the United States shall not prepare for war. They say, in effect, "We do not want war; we want peace, and peace at any price." Suppose Americans should follow the demands of these organizations and drop their defense program. What would happen? The enemies of America would take advantage of her unpreparedness and attempt any means to subvert the American system of government. What would be done then? One thing Americans might do is what the little kingdom of Rho[18], in Oriental history, did nearly 3,000 years ago. When a large army of Chin Moon Kong[19], armed with swords, spears, bows and arrows, and many other instruments of war, poured into the capital city, they were surprised to find all the city gates opened wide without a soldier to be seen. The invaders roamed the highways and byways in search of soldiers to fight with, but in vain. Then they went from house to house to investigate. Men, women, and children were busy with their routine duties, as usual. Students were learning their lessons, scholars were studying the classics, poets were chanting their poems, and musicians were playing their instruments, as if nothing had happened. The invaders got together and said among themselves, "This is certainly a Confucian kingdom, the most highly civilized spot in the world. We must not harm these people."
14:4 So they packed up their weapons and went away, leaving the little Confucian Utopia unmolested. The difficulty in this is that nowadays modern mechanized troops do not roam about in the city streets to find out whether the people whom they have come to conquer are Confucian, Democratic, Nazi or Mikadoist, before they attack. In fact, they are generally too high in the air even to see pacifists below them before they have destroyed half of the city and half of its population. Modern "civilized" barbarians are infinitely more bloodthirsty and savage than those in the time of Confucius, and their habit is to burn and kill, and then make the entire nation their captives and slaves. In such case, although the motives of the pacifist and the fifth columnist are vastly different, the ultimate result is practically the same.
14:5 There is another thought. If the anti-war apostles are so earnest and sincere in their belief that war should be ruled out of human life and that peace should be maintained at any price, why do they not go to the war-making nations to preach peace, as early Christian missionaries went to heathen lands to preach their religion? No one can justly call America a militaristic power. Instead of spending millions of dollars to preach the gospel of peace in this non-militaristic country, they should spend the money in sending and maintaining peace missionaries in Berlin, Rome, and Tokyo, because those are the places where wars are made. Germs should be destroyed at the source, not at the tributary. The pacifists who try to tie the hands of peace-loving America are just as destructive of the cause of peace and democracy as are the active anti-American elements.
14:6 Good Christians, like the disciples of the Prince of peace, are true peace advocates. They are not lip-service pacifists, but devoted, conscientious followers of Christ, who came to this world to teach the principles of peace on earth and good will toward men. If these enlightened and consecrated men and women were only to lead in the right direction, this confused world of ours would be greatly benefited. Unfortunately the peace structure they have been building all these years has been on a weak foundation. Instead of pursuing justice and righteousness, at whatever cost, many sought a solution in the worldly wisdom of appeasement, and in the time-serving policies of men, considered as "realistic," "expedient," and "practical." Their idea, however, is to compromise principles in order to meet halfway the popular demands of the times. The result is that, while they should guide the world to the light, they follow it into darkness. This does not mean to imply that all Christian leaders are blind leaders. But no one can deny that it is true of some in reference to the Japanese situation.
14:7 When the Japanese militarists were tightening their grip on Korea, Dr. L., one of the most beloved and influential leaders of the Methodist Church, and editor-in-chief of a well-known church weekly, spoke in the great Methodist auditorium in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, one Sunday morning, in July 1905, to an audience of 11,000 people about his recent tour of the Far East. The tour had been arranged for him by the Japanese, who were afraid at that time that public sentiment in America might rise against the destruction of Korea. In the course of his address, Dr. L. declaimed, with all his energy, "May Korea be under Japanese rule forever and ever, Amen." The next day, I happened to be in Ocean Grove, and a friend of mine said to me, "I am glad you were not here yesterday, for I know you would have felt badly." Then she produced a copy of the Asbury Park Press, from which I am quoting the above. I wrote a long letter to the speaker, asking him why he, as a missionary, who was supposed not to talk politics, should have spoken as he did; why he was so ardent in defense of Japan's violation of treaty agreements, contrary to the American idea of justice, liberty, and humanity; contrary to the spirit of American independence, American love for freedom and equal rights, and contrary to all Christian ideas and ideals. A copy of my letter was published on the front page of the same newspaper the following morning. Later I received letters from many parts of the country, expressing their appreciation, but not a word from Dr. L. He simply ignored my letter and went on delivering the same address all over the country.
14:8 When the Koreans inaugurated the peaceful, non-violent revolution of March, 1919, the first passive revolution known in history, even antedating that of the more well-known Gandhi movement in India, the overwhelming sympathy of Christendom was with them. Harrowing stories of barbarous atrocities committed against Korean Christians and their churches stirred up indignation among the civilized peoples of the world. How was the revolution started? Thirty-three men representing the whole nation quietly gathered together in one of the hotels in Seoul, the capital of Korea, signed a memorable document known ever since as the Declaration of independence of Korea, demanding that the Japanese withdraw from their county, and declared Korea to be an independent republic. They then telephoned the Japanese police to come and get them and sat down to await arrest.[20] As previously arranged, people assembled in public squares in orderly manner, read the Declaration of Independence, and waved the Korean flag, the possession of which was a crime, and shouted Mansei, meaning "Long Life for Korea." They were armed with nothing but their national emblem and were strictly ordered in the printed proclamation, which had been distributed secretly all over the country, not to commit acts of violence or disorder. Three hundred cities throughout the country simultaneously held similar gatherings in the same orderly manner. The heroism and patriotism demonstrated by Korean men and women, boys and girls, during this time was equalled in degree only by the barbarism and bestiality of the Japanese soldiers, gendarmes, and police in their efforts to suppress the peaceful uprising of an unarmed nation.
14:9 Public sentiment in America was deeply stirred against the ruthless military suppression of the uprising and particularly against the wholesale massacre of Christians and the burning of their homes and churches, in many cases with the congregations inside the churches. The United States Senate repeatedly took up the Korean question and the Congressional Record during that time is full of reports on speeches made and bills introduced in Congress in support of the Korean national movement. For example, a resolution introduced by Senator Selden P. Spencer on June 30, 1919, and referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs reads as follows:
"Resolved, That the Secretary of State be, and he is hereby, requested, if not inconsistent with the public service, to inform the Senate as to whether the situation in Korea at the present time is such in connection with its relation to other nations as to indicate the necessity and wisdom of the United States exerting its offices in behalf of Korea under the provision of the treaty between the United States and Korea, etc." (quoting the amity clause of the treaty of 1882).
14:10 And again, on March 18, 1920, Senator Charles S. Thomas offered as an amendment the following reservation:
"And the United States, also adhering to the principle of self-determination, declares its sympathy with the grievances and aspirations of the people of Korea for the restoration of their ancient kingdom and its emancipation from the tyranny of Japan, and it further declares that when so consummated, it should be promptly admitted as a member of the League of Nations"
14:11 Many churches in the United States also passed resolutions expressing sympathy for the Korean people and denouncing Japan's brutal measures of repression and oppression.
14:12 It was during these stirring days that the Korean students in America organized the League of the Friends of Korea for the purpose of expressing their sympathy for the struggling patriots, to protest against the Japanese atrocities, and to raise funds to alleviate the suffering following the independence movement. In this connection, they approached some of the outstanding leaders of various foreign mission boards in New York and elsewhere and asked them to speak in their public meetings and to give their support to the Korean independence movement, morally and otherwise, through their organizations in this country. One and all declined to have anything to do with it, because, they said, it might have political implications. They said they had to be careful not to furnish grounds for accusations that the mission boards were getting involved in politics. A well-known Philadelphia clergyman, Dr. Floyd Tomkins, said in an address given in behalf of the League of the Friends of Korea, "Where there is brutality, there can be no neutrality. I am not the kind of Christian who, if he saw his sister attacked by a thug, would go to his closet and pray God to protect her. I would knock down the thug, save my sister, and then go to my closet to pray." Would to God that there were many more Christians of this kind.
14:13 It is true that missionaries must stay out of politics, and they do keep out, as a rule. The Korean students were, at first, disappointed when the mission boards declined to speak for the suffering Christians in Korea on the ground that it might give color to political implications. But the students soon understood their position. So long as the missionaries kept strictly neutral there would have been no complaint. But how could they keep neutral? They have to keep in the good grace of the ruling power. The Japanese constantly brought pressure to bear on them until they felt forced to commit themselves one way or another. Christians are taught by the Bible to obey them that have the rule over them, and to submit themselves. Although their sympathy was with the Korean Christians, they could not afford to be openly antagonistic to the Japanese rulers of the country. Now and then, some missionaries were found to speak openly for Japan on purely political questions. Non-Christian Koreans charged the missionaries with being inconsistent and pro-Japanese, and the missionaries had no way to disprove it.
14:14 It is, of course, repulsive to the democratic idea even to think of such things as a big navy and a big army, the largest battleships in the world for the United states, compulsory military training, national conscription laws, and all that. Americans have been in the habit of criticizing militarism, imperialism, warmongers and war-makers. Often we have heard it said, "Everyone must refuse to fight"; "I shall not risk my life for the profits of munition manufacturers"; “I will go to jail before I will go to the front"; "We will insist that the President lead the army in the march"; "We will not pay war taxes," etc.
14:15 On April 7, 1940, anniversary of the day following America’s entry into the first World War, a California minister said in a sermon delivered at a church in Washington, D.C.: "Do not add to the list of the war deaths.... I am thinking as a father of my children...." This does not sound quite so bad as some others. At least, he was thinking of his children and the children of other Americans. There are some people in America, as in all other countries, who would not think even that far ahead. Here is a story told by Montaville Flowers in his book, "Japanese Conquest of American Opinion", George H. Doran Co., page 54:
"One day an old gentleman attended a lecture at a Chautauqua where this problem [Japanese] was presented. After the lecture, the speaker was walking up the street behind this old gentleman, who was talking to two fine ladies. This is what he said, and it fairly represents a great body of Americans: ‘Well,well,ladies, I did not get much out of that lecture. No, I didn’t; no, I didn't.... Anyway, the Japanese will never give me any trouble in my day and generation, and I'll just let the next generation take care of itself.’ That man and all of his like should have appeared on this earth in a form to permit them to be in pasture eating green grass and tin cans."
14:16 Another story, from an entirely different point of view, concerns a Japanese mother. She was carrying her child in her arms, watching the military procession in which the ashes of the "Unknown Soldier" were being brought home from the battle front. "Look, my son," she said, "your father died gloriously like that for the Empire; you too, when you grow big, should die in glory like your father." This Japanese story is not an isolated instance, but represents the general ideology of the entire nation. In comparing this with the other two, we are not discussing the moral side of these cases. We are interested rather in their results. The Japanese story sounds to the American ear just as strange as the American stories sound selfish and unpatriotic to the Japanese. By these, the Japanese militarists judge America as an empty shell so far as self-defense is concerned. To their military scientists, American preparations for national defense mean little, because they know that Americans, having been raised and educated in a pacifist atmosphere, are not war-minded. This apparently inherent weakness appears to the Japanese on the one side and to the Germans on the other as a great temptation. Those who are raised on the idea of war find themselves at home in the atmosphere, while those who have been raised on the idea of peace are hampered by their subconscious unwillingness to engage in war unless they are driven to it as a last resort.
14:17 Of all this mental and moral confusion the Japanese have taken full advantage. The continued declarations of the totalitarian powers that they have no designs against either of the American continents and that all will be peace and harmony after they have established their "new order" on the European and Asiatic continents are echoed by American pacifist and isolationist organizations, and the echo sounds pleasantly in totalitarian ears. Through their mouthpieces, Charles A. Lindbergh, Senators Wheeler, Tobey, Clark, and others, the isolationists insist that there can be a negotiated peace, and that the lion and the lamb can lie down together in a Fascist Zion. The pacifists insist that "war never settles anything," and that it is against Christian doctrine. They identify pacifism with Christianity, which is like identifying the policy of laissez-faire with the principle of action. Does the command that one should love his enemies mean that he must condone his enemies’ crimes and supinely submit to wrong?
14:18 Christians should realize that pacifism is but an escape from reality, that the conscientious objector, however sincere he may be, evades the issue between right and wrong and but encourages the aggressor with his compliance. As a policeman must subdue a ruffian bent on murder before attempting to reason with him, so Christians must take a stand against the gangster nations and draw the sword in defense of those things which God has given into their possession. It is true that many noble Christian leaders have undergone an emotional revulsion since the World War, when they advocated hanging the Kaiser and exacting every penny of penalty from Germany for having brought on the conflict. Now they have gone to the other extreme and proclaim that all wars are evil and of the devil’s making. Yet the issue is more sharply drawn today than it was in 1917, and civilization and Christianity itself are more imperiled than they were when the Kaiser hurled his helmeted legions into France and Belgium in the summer of 1914.
14:19These attitudes represent dangers from within. Another example is the action of the Oxford Group Movement, which adopted "Moral Rearmament" as its most recent slogan. That noble idea was preached up and down the length and breadth of the land at the very time that Hitler and Mussolini were preaching that war is the proper state of mankind and while Japan was venting all her savagery on the prostrate cities of China. Now the voice of the Oxford Group Movement is drowned in the din of battle on three continents. The struggle for life and right is not limited to a mere mental struggle between ideas. It requires physical fortitude, blood and sweat, toil and tears.
14:20The present European conflict has clearly and unmistakably demonstrated this. Therefore, if Americans mean business in preparing for national security, the national spirit should be awakened, the educational system be revised, and a uniform defense policy adopted and supported by every citizen and all parties.
14:21Patriotism must transcend partisanship. When a uniform national foreign policy is adopted, every citizen should be willing to sacrifice his individual freedom, his wealth, and even his life, if necessary, for the nation's good, since a divided nation cannot stand. If the nation falls, what is there left?
14:22The fire is closing in. Americans can no longer ignore it. Some of the public utterances of certain persons in America sound so utterly un-American, or anti-American, that it is strange that these people still call themselves Americans. It seems never to have occurred to them that the United States, like all other nations, has its enemies both within and without, that it needs protection against these enemies, that it is the first duty of every citizen to protect the country, its system of government, its safety, and its honor; and that if they fail to do their duty, the nation cannot survive. Even in the life of animals the first instinct is to protect their homes, their young ones, and their own groups. But some human beings do not seem to possess even this basic instinct. While their fellow citizens are slapped and spat upon, kicked about and killed, their homes and institutions destroyed, their naval vessels bombed and sunk, and their national flag hauled down and trampled upon, they show no concern. Instead of showing any sign of indignation against the ruthless destruction of civilization and humanity, they openly reprimand their own government for "public castigation of foreign nations." If the verbal attacks on Japan by the United States in retaliation for the physical attacks on Americans by the Japanese soldiers are considered to be too much, it is evident that defense of the United States and its nationals is not in their program. The general public will no longer be influenced by men of this type.
ⅩⅤ. DEMOCRACY VERSUS TOTALITARIANISM
15:1 One who believes in the democratic principles of government is essentially an individualist. The power of the government is derived from his citizenship. Therefore, his personal rights and personal freedom are the fundamental basis upon which the structure of the nation is built. Different from totalitarian ideology, which holds that the people should obey the government, a democracy, on the other hand, insists that the people's rights should be protected against any possibility of the government's usurpation.
15:2 According to this principle, the American government, federal or state, must not be allowed to exercise too much power, which may lead to encroachment upon the constitutional rights of the citizen. The executive, legislative, and judiciary branches are to check and counter-check one another in the exercise of their authorities. Congress itself, with its upper and lower houses, was organized on that same basis- to watch and check each other. The political parties, working against each other, also are based on the same theory. In short, they are not to work together in harmony, with a common objective for the good of all. Instead, they are to work at cross purposes in order to weaken the collective power, or the power of the state, else the result might be the overthrow of democracy and the establishment of a dictatorship in its place.
15:3 Side by side with the development of this extreme individualism, a strong undercurrent of sectionalism has come gradually into existence, which tends to divide rather than unify public opinion. Some citizens insist on their own liberty and rights, even at the expense of their government, without stopping to think that without a government there would be no democracy and that without democracy there would be no freedom. Too much freedom is like too much of any good thing. People do not appreciate it and often abuse it. They do not realize that America is one of the few nations that still have the blessings of freedom, that it must be paid for dearly, and that unless the people make constant and concerted efforts to uphold it, this heritage will no longer be theirs. But most of the people are too busy with their own affairs to think of these things. Consequently, national defense has been neglected to an incredible degree, and patriotism and nationalism are condemned in certain quarters as a cause of international conflict and war.
15:4 Meanwhile, foreign powers find a fertile field in America for the propagation of their totalitarian ideas. The Soviets, the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Fascists have their organizations in this country; according to recent reports most of the subversive activities are due to these groups. Some of them are alleged to have declared their intention to overthrow the government of the United States in order to establish a new government similar to their own. There is no question but that this is a direct challenge to American democracy. These "isms" which attempt to undermine the United States government are connected with the bandit powers of the old world and are threatening the very foundation of democracy, both from within and without. Abraham Lincoln's famous statement that "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people must not perish," etc., and Woodrow Wilson's phrase that "we are fighting to make the world safe for democracy," seem to have been forgotten by many Americans. Many people would not allow any of these things to disturb their tranquility. They are perfectly satisfied that the United States is the richest, and most powerful nation in the world and that nobody would dare attack it. "Uncle Sam will take care of everything," they say. They little realize that Uncle Sam would be helpless without their united support and that this great republic would be another China, France, or Greece in the face of mechanized armies and navies of bandit nations. Far-sighted and patriotic leaders must redouble their efforts to waken those care-free Americans who still believe that the United States could maintain its political and economic independence in a world dominated by the totalitarian nations.
15:5 When the government of the United States becomes at loggerheads with a foreign government, it frequently happens that certain citizens sufficiently influential to be heard speak forth in favor of the foreign government, thus weakening the position of their own. When they do this, they have no thought of being unpatriotic; they think rather of being democratic. Their idea is that democratic people should not be so narrowly patriotic as the totalitarians, who, however, have no regard for right in pushing their claims. From their standpoint, the United States is not a coherent nation, solidly unified for its defense. Thus this weakness of American democracy in the eyes of nations that are seeking territorial expansion by military conquest is potentially disastrous.
15:6 If all the nations of the world become democratized, it will be a different world. Since Japan, Russia, Germany, and Italy are virtually in control of nearly all but the Western hemisphere, American democracy is but an island in a sea of totalitarianism. All the isms are seeking every possible chance to establish themselves in this continent by the familiar means of peaceful penetration, if possible, or by violent aggression, if necessary. After this great republic was established, the hope of the American people was that the "Spirit of '76" might be awakened among all oppressed peoples of the world. They were sympathetic toward any subject race struggling for freedom. Many statesmen expressed their sincere hope that some day the world would rid itself of the shackles of tyrants and oppressors.
15:7 This spirit prevailed down through the period of the Spanish-American war. As a result of that war, the United States took over most of the Spanish possessions, including the Philippine Islands, in order to liberate them. This was no mere gesture, for the American government undertook the task of educating and training the peoples of these territories and setting them up as free, independent states so that they, too, might enjoy the blessings of freedom. The Philippines would have become an independent state long ago, had not the Japanese problem altered the entire situation. It was sincerely hoped that the noble example set by the United States would be followed by all the nations, so that the medieval practice of exploiting weak nations would be ended, and all races would be able to look forward to the day of emancipation.
15:8 However, this idea soon lost its force. The development of the vast material resources of the new world and the opening of new markets for mass production gradually took the place of humanitarianism, and "dollar diplomacy" supplanted altruism. The individualistic view of life was expressed in such phrases as, "Let other people take care of themselves; we are not our brother's keeper." This narrow view soon developed into a national policy of isolationism, which can be expressed in the oft-repeated admonition, "Mind your own business and keep your nose out of other people's affairs:' Democracy has lost ground because the United States failed to play its rôle of leader in international relations.
15:9 The present chaotic and anarchistic state of affair in Asia and Europe is almost entirely due to lack of wise leadership. Human society requires leadership for peace and order. No totalitarian organization is possible without a dictator. No democratic society can function without an executive head. The family of nations is but the family unit extended. If leadership is essential for the well-being of a nation, small or large, democratic or totalitarian, it is equally essential for the well-being of a combination of nations. It is clear, then, that the society of nations, as well as the society of men, is bound to suffer when it has no leadership to direct its affairs for the general welfare of all its members.
15:10 The world has been in need of leadership, especially since the East and West came together, and has been constantly looking for this leadership. The Far East and some of the small nations of Europe looked to the United States, but were disappointed. They knew that the United States was the only power that had no territorial ambition. Its ideas of liberty, equality, and justice for all were the source of great inspiration to all mankind. With its material wealth, its unhampered development of mentality and genius, and its unlimited influence among men, America easily could have introduced a new order into the old world. Through the processes of revolution or evolution, the United States could have gradually brought an end to the old practices of predatory nations, and in the course of time would have succeeded in emancipating shackled humanity from its oppressors.
15:11 Cuba and the Philippines are shining examples of the new era inaugurated under the sponsorship of the United States of America. In the Far East, the Open-Door policy for China, the application of the Boxer indemnity funds to the education of Chinese, and a number of other equally generous acts proved to Asiatic peoples that the United States alone was capable of making large sacrifices for the uplift of mankind. And in the Western hemisphere all the Central and South American states naturally turned toward the United States for assistance and guidance, since they were under the protection of the Monroe Doctrine. In those days and under those circumstances, the United States ran no risk of war in introducing a new order. All that was necessary for the United States to do was to fix a definite policy and to follow it up by encouraging in legitimate ways the practice of the democratic principles of "liberty and justice for all." The liberty-loving peoples of the world would have done the rest.
15:12 But the Americans became more concerned with trade increase and declined to assume more international obligation. Immediate and practical commercial profit, rather than the realization of an idea, came to be their main interest. This American mentality could not grasp the idea that American leadership would mean world markets for American products. Central and South American republics were disappointed and gradually lost confidence in the United States. The Germans saw their opportunity and established financial footholds in various strategic South American centres. The strong pro-German and anti-American feeling in some of these states was due largely to German propaganda. Later, the Japanese also saw the opening and quietly built up colonies side by side with the Germans. The time came when the United States found these problems difficult of solution.
15:13 Great Britain never enjoyed the whole-hearted confidence of the Orient, but for many years she had been looked up to as a leading power among the nations. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was regarded by Asiatics as the beginning of the decline of the British Empire as a world power. Unfortunately for the democracies, Great Britain, instead of co-operating with the United States in maintaining the joint supremacy of the two democracies, competed with it for world trade. For years many Americans did not know it, but the Chinese treated the British as pro-Japanese and anti-American. Then came the first World War. The Allies did all they could to draw the United States into the war as a last means of saving themselves. Woodrow Wilson went into it with the slogan "Make the world safe for democracy." If the Americans had done nothing but declare war on Germany, it would have had a moral effect on all the belligerent powers. But the Americans did more than that. Financial and material supplies poured into the allied nations, and American troops fought in France. At the close of the war, the world looked to the American President, instead of a British or French Premier, for leadership in the peace conference. But opposition at home, coupled with poor statesmanship on the part of European leaders, spoiled America's great opportunity.
15:14 Then sentiment in most of the European nations after the war became unfriendly to the Americans. There was dissension over payment of the war debts to the United States. European nations did not realize what a misfortune they were bringing upon themselves. No doubt this has a great deal of influence in America today against American intervention in behalf of the democracies of the old world.
15:15 While the people of the totalitarian countries, either because of political training or military compulsion, seem to be willing to fight, and even die, for their respective governments, those of democratic nations generally maintained an attitude of indifference toward the welfare and safety of each other until all were imperiled.
15:16 It was during the Japanese diplomatic aggression in China, which culminated in the Twenty-one Demands, that Dr. Sun Yat-sen made personal appeals to the United States for moral support in China's struggle for democratic principles in the Far East. Generally speaking, the people of the United States were in sympathy with the Republic of China, but the influence of Japanese propaganda was much stronger and nothing was done in response to Sun Yat- sen's request. China, like a drowning man, grasped the helping hand held out by Soviet Russia. This was the beginning of the movement toward Communism in China. Dr. Sun has been constantly criticized for this, and the Japanese used it as a trump card in their propaganda. Had he lived a little longer, Sun Yat-sen would have made clear to all his followers his renunciation of the Marxian principle. While lecturing on his "Three Principles" he came into possession of a copy of The Social Interpretation of History by Dr. Maurice William. This influenced him so profoundly that he retracted his advocacy of Communism. Carl Crow has said in an article in Dynamic America, that "the United States holds unique ties to China," that "truly some beneficent fate has linked the Chinese and the American people through the personalities of Sun Yat-sen and Maurice William. Abandoning Russian Communism in favor of American Democracy, the Chinese are today shedding their blood in defense of the American form of government..." This fact has not been sufficiently known to the mass of people in China, and many of them still hold to the Soviet system as a means of economic salvation, thus furnishing the ground for Japan's propaganda agitation. The Foreign Office spokesman in Tokyo has repeatedly declared that should China's teeming millions turn Red, it would create the gravest menace to the United States, and that Japan was fighting in defense of America. This story produced in America the effect desired by Japan.
15:17 When the World War ended, Germany, Japan, and Italy began busily to engage themselves in preparing for the next war. France, overconfident in the impregnability of her Maginot Line, and England, secure in the preponderancy of her armada, paid no attention to what the others were doing. Instead of getting every citizen lined up, organized, and equipped for the defense of their home lands, they were busy with petty bickering and hair-splitting parliamentary debates. When their enemy was ready to launch total war, they were so completely ignorant of what was coming that they were still trying to avert the clash by resorting to all sorts of appeasement policies. When the German steam roller started to roll, one nation after another disappeared, and more than half of France was occupied by the enemy. Marshal Petain, the French commander-in-chief, said in a radio speech, "We have too few men, too few allies, and too few munitions to keep up further resistance."
15:18 Why too few men? What became of all the men of France? They are there, but they are individualists. They are human, like the rest of us. Everyone likes to enjoy liberty, but few are willing to fight for it with their lives. Why too few allies? Where are the European nations that were standing against Hitlerism? They, too, are there, but they are also individualists. They want peace -with or without honor- but no war. In time of peace they were all allies. Just like a great fire, consuming one house after another, the German steam roller started in Central Europe, turned north, swept westward along the coast line, and came swiftly south through the heart of France, destroying every nation in its path. In this sudden onslaught, each nation had to fight its own battle single-handed, because others thought they could save themselves by keeping out.
15:19 This explains why the allied nations were easy prey for the Nazis. France's turn came, and she found "too few allies" to fight for her. Yes, it is a cold world. In 1910, the Koreans went through it all. It was hard for them. Where were the powers which had promised to help them? They were all there as spectators, but, instead of showing a sign of sympathy, they turned away and made jokes at the expense of the "cowardly and degenerate Koreans." Yes, it was hard for them. The treaty powers, the United States and most of the leading European nations, thought that Korea was the last victim offered as a sacrifice on the altar of world peace. Unfortunately, this was not so.
15:20 While Japan is seeking every possible chance to expand her empire in the Pacific, and Germany and Italy are pushing their line of conquest toward America on the Atlantic side, certain leading citizens in America are still opposing active help for Britain. They refuse to support anything beyond a purely defensive program, in spite of overwhelming public sentiment in favor of active assistance. They still stand pat, demanding that it should be known to the world that these preparations are for defensive purposes only. That is, Americans are to do nothing until the enemy is within their gates and war is upon them. It seems strange that the democratic nations hold to the defensive idea until it is too late. During the campaigns waged between the Allies and the Nazis in Belgium and France, as well as in the northern countries of Europe, the Allied troops found they were not equipped to meet the assault. It was reported that the Maginot Line was helpless because it was built only for defensive, and not for offensive purposes. If potential enemies know that the United States will not attack them until they land in its territory and declare war, they will not fear America, even if America has enough battleships to cover half of the Atlantic and the Pacific, and bombing planes enough to darken the sky. The biggest guns mean nothing so long as the enemies know that the United States is either unwilling or unable to make use of them.
15:21 With the co-operation of Great Britain, free France, and other liberty-loving nations, the United States should take the lead, not in the way of an imperialistic overlord or dictator, but as a big brother, and use its great influence in bringing about peace and good will among nations on the basis of international justice and equality for all. The efforts made by the United States in recent years have already produced the desired effect of welding together the twenty-one American nations in the common cause of collective security. In the light of such success in this hemisphere, it is apparent that timely effort might have secured co-operation among all the democracies of the world and have stayed the totalitarian program.
15:22 However, the democracies failed to take the leadership, and German, Italy, and Japan have already demanded that the world be divided into three spheres -Europe to be under the Axis control; Asia, including the Pacific up to the California coast, to be controlled by Japan, and the United States to content itself with the two American continents, all under the principle of the Monroe Doctrine. Whether we agree to it or not, they are determined to carry out this program as a first step toward the ultimate conquest of the entire world.
15:23 To a casual observer, this may sound fair and reasonable. If the totalitarian powers agree to let the Western hemisphere alone, why should they not be let alone in their own spheres? But a further study of the subject will reveal that it is not quite so simple as that. It is only another propaganda snare for the American public.
15:24 Following are three reasons why this suggestion should be refused:
15:25 1. Actually, it would be the beginning of the end of the Monroe Doctrine. The totalitarian powers would observe it only until such time as they were prepared to destroy it. Their present promises would have no more sanctity than their past pledges. Can they logically now withdraw their recognition of the Monroe Doctrine because Americans refuse to recognize their claims to close the markets of Europe and Asia against American products in violation of commercial treaties and the Open-Door agreements? Can they offer to the United States what is already its own as their price for consent to their exclusive authority over the rest of the globe, as if the security of the Western hemisphere depends upon their words?
15:26 2. It would be a death blow to the cause of democracy and a grave injustice to the cause of humanity. To surrender Europe and Asia to the domination of the dictators would mean putting all liberty-loving peoples under the bondage of slavery. There would be no end to bloodshed under the Nazi regime. The proposed Japanese hegemony in the East is no less tragic to half of the world's population. Japan holds Korea, Manchuria, and the conquered portion of China at the bayonet's point. What the Japanese fondly call "the New Order in East Asia" is nothing but a reign of horror and terror. Her thirty-five years' rule in Korea is a record of a gigantic policy of extinction, which she tried to achieve by an economic stranglehold on the 23,000,000 disarmed and prostrated Koreans, even to the extent of wholesale starvation. The Japanese know too well that they can never win their fallen foes by a show of mercy or magnanimity and that, therefore, they have to depend on other means -that is, brutal military force. The moment Japan withdraws her troops from the mainland of Asia, the Koreans, Manchurians, and Chinese will wipe out every remaining Japanese. Their cry of "Asia for the Asiatics" means nothing more nor less than "Asia for the Japanese." It would be the greatest of international crimes to let her extend her medieval barbarism to the entire continent of Asia.
15:27 3. It would be a great mistake on the part of the United States to let bandit nations divide the rest of the world among themselves on the promise that they would never invade the Western hemisphere. Who can believe what they say, except those who are blinded by fear? The Japanese will promise anything, so long as a promise will bring them what they want -legalized ownership of their stolen goods. With all the material resources and man power Japan and Germany are now capturing, they will soon be far stronger than the United States, and will say, "The Monroe Doctrine also is a dead letter."
15:28 The best way to deal with them is to make no promises and to take none from them. If the United States cannot invoke economic sanctions, embargoes, or a nation-wide boycott against them until they disgorge everything they have taken from their neighbors by force, the United States should at least treat them as it treats those who are known to be public enemies. Let the United States act -and act now.
ⅩVI. CONCLUSION
16:1 In conclusion, I wish I could leave the reader with a feeling of hope and encouragement over the outlook in the Far East. But, frankly, I see no possibility that the United States and Japan can avoid conflict, or even long postpone it.
16:2 When I started to work on this volume in the winter of 1939, it still seemed possible that the United States could act in time to destroy once and for all Japan's military ambition. That was the only way for the United States to avoid war with the Japanese. With that conviction, I have repeatedly stated in the foregoing pages that the United States should employ all her power, economical, moral, and military now to check Japan in order to prevent an ultimate conflict with her.
16:3 However, to the American way of thinking, the suggestion of resorting to force in order to avert a clash sounds paradoxical or self-contradictory. The American people have been led to believe that their peace policy in the Pacific required friendship with Japan, and not force against her. This has been the guiding principle of America's peace policy during all the past years. Now I am advocating in this volume an idea entirely contrary to this conception. No doubt it is just as hard for Americans to understand me as it is for me to understand them.
16:4 I have been consistently and persistently advocating an about face in this policy. I cannot persuade myself to see how you can escape clashing with a bully by making him stronger all the time. Is it not clear that when he becomes powerful enough to tackle you, he will surely attack you as he has already attacked and robbed every one of his weaker neighbor? Is it not equally clear, then, that your true policy should be to act quickly and keep him down by force before he grows too big, so that he can never get out of hand? This is what I meant by saying that the United States can keep out of war with Japan by using force against her while she is not in a position to impose war on America. It was made perfectly clear that should the United States fail to do this, the result would be an inevitable war.
16:5 Up to the time when the manuscript of Japan Inside Out was finished, no forcible action was taken by the United States, while the Japanese military expansion was steadily and irresistibly spreading out in every direction by leaps and bounds, until their menacing position had drawn closer than ever to the United States and its possessions. The Japanese are digging down and entrenching themselves deeper and stronger every day in and around the Pacific, ranging the points of their guns towards the defence lines of the United States.
16:6 What do you suppose they are doing all this for? They say they are doing it in order to maintain peace in the Pacific. Do they mean to say that the United States will make war on them, unless they strongly fortify themselves? They know well enough that the United States will never start a military aggression against Japan. What the Japanese mean to say is that they must make themselves so preponderantly superior that when they start an open clash with the United States, the Americans will find themselves too weak to make any successful resistance. This being the situation, what chances are there now for a peaceful solution of the Pacific problem?
16:7 Japan is engaged in a long-term program to establish hegemony over Asia, and, eventually, to dominate the world. To this end, she has ordered her whole national life, from the cradle to the grave. She has cultivated a spirit of militarism among her people and indoctrinated them with the belief that they are especially endowed of the Creator and that unremitting allegiance to the Emperor, who is of divine descent, is rewarded with a seat among the gods. It is impossible, then, from their point of view, for the Japanese to brook interference with their heaven-directed program. Every form of opposition, however innocent in intent, must be viewed with suspicion, and nations whose shadows lie athwart their path must be destroyed. He who challenges Japan insults heaven. And it is one of the great ironies of history that Japanese animosity is now directed particularly against the very nation which broke the shell of her insularity and introduced Japan to modern civilization. When, in 1854, Commodore Matthew C. Perry negotiated the treaty which marked the first step in opening Japan to foreign commerce and residence, he helped, all unwittingly to set the people of the Rising Sun into a path which later was to bring them full tilt against the American people.
16:8 The remorseless subjugation of Korea was but the beginning of Japan's invasion and conquest of the Asiatic mainland, which she euphemistically designated as a policy of "peaceful penetration." While the League of Nations was trying to make up its mind what to do to prevent it, Japan seized Manchuria and set up a puppet regime in what it was now pleased to name the State of Manchukuo. This conquest has never been recognized by the United States government.
16:9 It would require much space to narrate the successive steps of Japan's policy of "peaceful penetration." The world is thoroughly familiar with the undeclared war on China and, with the merciless barbarities, the Japanese armies have practiced on China's open cities and on her defenseless citizens. The world is familiar, too, with Japan's intervention in Indo-China and Thailand, with her pact with the Axis powers, her agreement with Soviet Russia, her steady campaign of intimidation against the Netherlands East Indies, and with her calculated mistreatment of British and American citizens. All this is of a piece with the Japanese design, now too clearly outlined to admit of doubt.
16:10 Here, then, is Japan's challenge, direct and defiant. It has shocked the American people into a realization of their danger. Faith in Japan's word has changed into open distrust. We know now that she will never be moved by any consideration of justice or rights, that she will recognize no argument save that which she has used so effectively herself -the argument of force. Yosuke Matsuoka is a convincing Machiavelli.
16:11 Only short time ago, the signing of the so-called Matsuoka pact with Russia was hailed as a new tie tightening the Tokyo-Moscow-Berlin-Rome Axis. But, in fact, neither of the governments intends to honor its signature once it becomes persuaded that a breach of the pact will serve its purpose better. All that each party hopes to accomplish by the agreement is to make the other keep the ring for the time being. This was apparent from the beginning, for despite the provisions of the instrument, the Soviets continued to give China war supplies as usual, and Japan, on her part, continued to maintain her army on the Siberian frontier. Therefore, the practical value of the pact is absolutely nil, beyond the scope of propaganda.
16:12 Japan's diplomatic attempts to remove the danger of Russian attack from the north have thus proved unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the attitude of the United States toward Japanese aggression in China and the South Pacific areas also served to keep Tokyo in a state of disquiet. The presence of the United State fleets in Hawaii and the Philippines to protect United States nationals and their interests there added to the retarding influence on the extremists among the Japanese war lords. The views of the moderates have prevailed and they decided on a policy of watchful waiting, in the belief that something unforeseen would turn up somewhere soon. This accounts for the quiet withdrawal of Kenkichi Yoshizawa from the economic negotiations at Batavia when the Dutch East Indies authorities rebuffed Japan's demands for "the right to share with third powers," which means the United States and Great Britain, in the economic fruits of the Netherlands East Indies. No "drastic measures" or "punitive action" with which Tokyo papers had previously threatened the Netherlands has yet been attempted.
16:13 However, to the complete satisfaction of the Japanese, something did turn up. Like a bolt from the blue, Hitler's sudden declaration of war on Russia on June 22 came as a golden opportunity to the Japanese. The Nazi mechanized troops and panzers were rushed into western Russia, with the Finns and Rumanians, perforce, fighting for them. Which side will ultimately win in this campaign I do not wish to predict. But one thing is certain: Japan will do a lot of fishing in the troubled waters. Hardly twenty-four hours had elapsed after the commencement of the Nazi-Soviet hostilities when the Japanese negotiators in Batavia, who were about to leave for home after the termination of the economic conference, turned round and demanded renewal of the negotiations, and the Netherlands East Indies authorities quietly informed them that they would supply Japan with large amounts of goods "on an informal basis." And if anyone thinks for a moment that this will be the end of Japan's demands, he soon will be disillusioned.
16:14 It is Japan's heaven-given opportunity to attempt another big jump in her territorial expansion. While Russia is preoccupied in her life and death struggle with the Nazi invaders, Japan will start her march of conquest in either of two directions. She may either withdraw her troops from along the Siberian frontier and combine all her forces in a South Pacific push, or march into Siberia and occupy the vast territory east of the Ural ranges. In comparison, the southward move is more tempting because the British, French, and Dutch colonies produce more of the strategic war materials of which Japan is in such need. But it also involves more risk of war with the United States. The northern expedition would be comparatively easy, and all the territories of Asiatic Russia, including Outer Mongolia, Harbin, Vladivostok, Kamchatka, and the northern half of Sakhalin Island could be added to the Mikado's Empire almost with a single blow. The new possessions in the north would include all the western shore of the Bering Sea, upon which the Nipponese militarists have been casting their greedy eyes for strategic reasons. They want to build gigantic aerial bases there for the purpose of defending the Island Empire against aerial attacks from Alaska in case of war with the United States.
16:15 Which of these two courses Japan will choose to take first depends, first, on the development of the German-Russian war, and, secondly, on how far the United States will permit Japan to go in her expansion. Probabilities are that she may first move up to Siberia, because there she would find the least resistance at present. In either case, Japan will draw nearer to the United States and thus increase the danger of war.
16:16 It has been my task to present the case of Korea as an example to show that she is a victim -the first- of Japan's lust for power. Her destiny cannot be separated from that of the free peoples of the world, nor from the lot of those peoples who once knew freedom and have lost it for a while. At long last -perhaps sooner than we dare to hope- the democratic forces of the world will thrust the Japanese back on their islands, and peace will reign again in the Pacific. In that day, Korea will rejoin the ranks of the free and again become known as the Land of the Morning Calm.
REFERENCE
1. 이동↑ 천황(天皇)
2. 이동↑ Admiral Yarnell's report, made on December 11, 1939, agrees with this figure. Chinese soldiers killed in battle numbered 1,218,462. The number of men, women and children who died of starvation and privation is estimated to be between 5,000,000 and 10,000,000.
3. 이동↑ Editor's note: The Japan Chronicle was not a daily newspaper. It was a weekly journal printed in the city of Kobe.
4. 이동↑ Editor's note: Several newspaper articles from the U.S. in the 1930s mention, '...the New Zealand Presbyterian Hospital at Hongchung, 30 miles north of Canton,...' Syngman Rhee must have referred to these articles when writing this book. According to a letter by E. G. (Paddy) Jansen (chief New Zealand official and head of the South China Mission), documents, and historical maps, it is presumed that the bombing occurred on January 14 and 15. According to Myke Tymons (curator of photographs at Presbyterian Archives Research Centre in New Zealand), there is no mention of "Hongchung" in the archives. After looking through maps and land titles, he found only mentions of "Kong Chuen", and the name of the hospital was Kong Chuen Hospital. The hospital was located at Kong Chuen. This is more than likely a misnomer derived from a pronunciation error.
5. 이동↑ Editor's note: 'Yeong Gam Nim' is closer to the proper pronunciation.
6. 이동↑ Editor's note: The spelling 'Sa-nyang Gae' is closer to the exact pronunciation.
7. 이동↑ See Reader's Digest, July, 1938, "The Sack of Nanking"; October, 1938,"We Were in Nanking"
8. 이동↑ Editor's note: The Union Christian College was the English name of Pyongyang Soongsil College, which was founded by Rev. Dr. William M. Baird in 1897. Soongsil College, originally established in Pyongyang (Pyeng Yang), was the first modern university in Korea. It was later closed in 1938 as the American missionaries and professors made a decision to stop running schools in order to protest the Japanese policy of enforcing Japanese Shinto worship, even in Presbyterian educational institutes. In 1954, Soongsil University was reopened in Seoul after the Korean War. Mowry appealed the decision of the Pyongyang District Court and his trials were held at the Gyungsung(Seoul) Court of Review and then the Superior Court in Seoul in 1919. Rev. Mowry, who left Korea in 1941, spent most of his time around Pyongyang serving as a Reverend, professor, and principal while he was in Korea. After examining more than 10 years of historical data, it can be concluded that 'Seoul' in this sentence should be corrected to 'Pyeng Yang.'
9. 이동↑ An Associated Press dispatch of October 7, 1940, from Seoul, Korea, stated:
"Old denominational organizations embracing some 60,000 Korean Christians were dissolved today and a new organization was set up in keeping with Japan's policy of placing religious associations under government supervision and eliminating foreign influence. A new program formulated for the organization, which took the name 'Association of Christian Superintendence,' stipulated that it would be free of foreign influence and would condemn communism, individualism, democracy, and doctrines inconsistent with Japanese national policy. All schools of the dissolved groups will be reorganized. Military drill will be enforced in all these schools and Christians will be encouraged to volunteer services during emergencies and to visit shrines of the Japanese national religion, Shinto."
The Washington Evening Star reported the following:
"Kansas City, October 8, 1940. On the eve of the opening of the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the National Council took preliminary steps today toward reorganization of the church in Japan. The Council adopted resolutions... to approve such reorganization as might seem advisable. The transfer to the Episcopal Church in Japan of $420,000 in endowment funds, now held in New York city banks by the National Council for St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo, would be permitted if the fund was found to belong to the Japanese branch. Under the new Religious Bodies Act adopted by the Japanese government the Episcopal Church is faced with the prospect of being forced to withdraw its sixty American ecclesiastical, missionary, and medical workers and stop its annual support of about $500,000 for various institutions.
"There is no doubt, the Council stated, that a large measure of control over the institutions, including St. Luke's Hospital, will pass to official Japanese hands, but Bishop Tucker and bishops of the Japanese dioceses said they were hopeful that a way might be found to continue some financial aid to enable the eight hundred Japanese who staff the institutions to keep the work going.
"October 17 has been set by the Japanese government as the date when foreign financial support must stop and the church must appoint a liaison officer who is a Japanese."
10. 이동↑ Editor's note: While the ship names of ‘Cricket’ and ‘Scarab’ could be confirmed, there is no record of a ship named Buttefield. These ships were called lnsect-class gunboats, built for patrolling rivers and named after insects. When Syngman Rhee published Japan Inside Out in 1941, ‘Scarat’ was written instead of ‘Scarab’. He could not have known the detailed tradition of the Royal Navy in terms of naming ships. There existed 4 gunboats of the Royal Navy that were under fire in the Yangtze River in 1937. They were the Ladybird, Bee, Cricket, and Scarab. It can be concluded that Scarat is a typo of Scarab. lf Syngman Rhee had intended to mention 4 gunboats, Butterfield should have been written as Bee. However, the name Buttefield is too distinct to be a misinterpretation of Bee. Most importantly, Butterfield is not the name of an Insect-class gunboat. After several years of research, no ship named the Butterfield could be found among those built in the history of the Royal Navy. Only the name of the 'Butterfield and Swire Company', a trading company established in Shanghai, could be found. Syngman Rhee might have misapplied the name of a company in China as the name of a gunboat.
11. 이동↑ Editor's note : The ship names of the ‘Tatung,’ and ‘Tatung’ and ‘Tuckwo’ could be confirmed, but there was no record of the ‘Suiws’. In some materials relating to the attack at the Yangtze River in December 1937, the steamer ‘Suiwo,’ not ‘Suiws,’ was mentioned. It is very likely that ‘Suiws’ was a typo of ‘Suiwo’
12. 이동↑ The Twenty-one Demands made by Japan on January 18, 1915, can be summed up in five groups, at follows;
1. ln Shantung, China was to agree to any transfer of German possessions to Japan that the latter might obtain. China was not to alienate to a third power any territory in the province; she was to declare additional cities to be open ports and was to grant certain railway privileges.
2. In south Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, the lease of Port Arthur, Dairen, and of the railways was to be extended to ninety-nine years, and anywhere in these regions Japanese might lease land and travel or reside. There were, too, demands for mining and railway privileges and for the Japanese control of loans and the employment of Japanese official advisers
3. The Han-yeh-p'ing Company, the largest Chinese iron-mining and smelting concern, was to be made a Sino-Japanese enterprise, and China was not to sell her interest in it without Japan's consent.
4. China was to promise not to cede or lease to any third power any harbor, bay or island along the coast
5. China was to employ Japanese as advisers to the central government, and the police departments in certain districts were to be jointly administered by Japanese and Chinese; China was either to buy fifty per cent or more of her munitions from Japan or to establish a Sino-Japanese arsenal, which was to use Japanese material under the direction of Japanese; Japanese were to be granted the privilege of buying land in the interior for schools, hospitals, and churches; certain railway concessions in the Yangtze valley were to be promised, and Japan was to be allowed to scrutinize all proposed loans of foreign capital for mines and works in Fukien.
13. 이동↑ Editor's note: The exact title of the book written by George Trumbull Ladd is In Korea with Marquis Ito (1908)
14. 이동↑ The Passing of Korea, by Homer B. Hulbert. Doubleday Page and Company.
15. 이동↑ See the text of the argument, dated July 29, 1905, in "President Roosevelt's Secret Pact with Japan," by Tyler Dennett, Current History, October, 1934. See also page 605 of History of the United States, by Ralph Volney Harlow, H. Holt, New York City.
16. 이동↑ See Current History, September, 1919, F. A. McKenzie's Tragedy of Korea.
17. 이동↑ The Passing of Korea, by Homer B. Hulbert.
18. 이동↑ Editor's note: 'Rho' is the Korean pronunciation of Chinese character for 'Lu.'
19. 이동↑ Editor's note: 'Chin Moon Kong' is the Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters for 'Duke Wen of Jin.'
20. 이동↑ Korea's Fight for Freedom, by F. A. McKenzie; The Case of Korea, by Henry Chung; The Rebirth of Korea, by Hugh H. Cynn.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.