JAPAN S DILEMMA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 169, 17 October 1941, Page 4

JAPAN S DILEMMA

FORTUNE no longer appears to smile indulgently upon the affairs of the peoples of Japan. Long accustomed to playing the role of the bully 'to lethargic and faction-ridden China the Nipponese now find it hard to climb down' in the face of the threat of wa,r with both the U.S.A. and the British Empire. To-day however the issues are: unmistakeable. Exhausted by the endless effort and expense ocqasioned by the 'China incident,' faced with an expectant ring of armed neighbouring states; coerced by Nazi Germany to venture her remaining - bulwark, the Imperial Navy, in a last desperate bid to recover her lost powers, torn by rival factions within her own governing class; and faced with the prospeqt of a world trade embargo, the outlook for the Children of the Sun Goddess are not pleasant to contemplate. Slowly, almost imperceptably, circumstances have arisen in the Far East which have all but removed the possibilities of a Japanese raid in the South Pacific. Any large scale move southward would almost invariably bring the untried Jap* anese Navy into active collision with the naval forces of America. Relations have become too strained between the two countries to allow for any inactivity on America's part. Yet Japan's problem is a great and real one. Beneath the polished exterior of the average Japanese there lurks that curious unassessable complex, known as face which to occidental minds can be carried to lengths little short of ridiculous. Yet so deep-rooted is this jealously guarded sense of personal prestige that it makes it almost impossible for the nation to sacrifice its standing even in the face of national disaster. It is this desperate spirit which is over-riding the 'moderates' in the Japanese Cabinet, and at the same time bolstering up the case of the extreme militarists- Japan, according to the latest cables is preparing for war on a national scale. The whole venture however, unless her aim is to lend active aid in the war with Russia is likely to be limited to a severe test of naval power and in that event, the American fleet is more likely to stand the brunt than are squadrons from the Royal Navy. Japan for the moment remains an enigma, but the: sands are fast running out which spell the approach of the crucial hour of decision, and whatever way it goes the issue will decide her fate as a nation, as a people and as a power in the Asiatic hegemony.