THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JAPAN

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 85, 4 January 1935, Page 8

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JAPAN

“Nationalism,” observed Mr. Aldous Huxley in p. recent broadcast talk on “The Psychological Causes of War,” “justifies the individual in giving expression to those anti-social impulses and emotions 'which he has always been taught to repress.' fl he patriot is allowed to indulge with a good conscience in vanity and hatred—vanity in regard to his own group, and hatred in regard to all other groups. Admitting for the moment this statement to be true, let us see how it fits into the somewhat flamboyant declaration by the Japanese General Araki in a broadcast from Tokio, published to-day. “I do not see peace anywhere in a world which envies our trade success/ he says. “Japan can still benefit from the West’s materialism, but the East is supreme spiritually, and Japan alone knows the true civilisation. Japan’s duty is to save the world.” Here is a manifestation of national vanity enough to satisfy Mr. Huxley, and certainly sufficient in the intensity of its emphasis to engender intolerance and hatred of people who may beg to differ Does it really represent the public sentiment of. Japan? General Araki is one of the leaders of the Japanese militarists, and well known for the bellicosity of his public utterances. '.rhe ex-Kaiser Wilhelm 11, now sojourning quietly in Holland in the role of a country gentleman, used to express himself similarly on many public occasions before the War. German “kultur,” he frequently declared, was what an effete world sadly needed, and in large doses. There we had an instance of how national vanity can create a provocative situation. Other nations may feel convinced of the need for reforms and salvation, but these problems they prefer to work out themselves. They certainly would object to having the world remade on the Japanese plan as strenuously as they objected to the German plan. But though wc may accord remarks of the kind uttered by General Araki a chilling reception, it would be a mistake to discount the importance of their implications, of the trend which they reveal of Japanese thinking. Japan is very plainly and quite candidly dissatisfied with her relative position in the international scene . Captain Sekine, of the Japanese War Department’s Branch of Naval Operations and Intelligence, was recently invited by an American journal to state the case from his country’s point of ,view, and he did so, in courteous but unequivocal terms. “The feeling is strong among the Japanese people to-day,” he 'said, “that in order to maintain their prestige and sense of security they must be freed as soon as possible from the humiliating shackles of existing naval treaties.” Later in his statement, he said very much the same thing as does General Araki, but with more precision. “We have come to believe seriously, and with all sincerity, that, to take the initiative in fostering harmony and co-operation among the races of the Orient is the national destiny and mission of Japan,” and he added that if an armaments race should be forced upon bis country through the refusal of the other Powers to listen to her contentions, “the Japanese people would be prepared to take up the challenge. Neither the threat of an armaments race nor the thought of its dire consequences to the nation could possibly, shake them.”

The problem for the Western nations is how to deal with this psychology. It is based on economic pressure, and on a perfectly justifiable national pride of achievement. “Trade follows the Flag” was a well-known slogan in the era of Britain’s Imperial expansion. If somebody interfered with the Flag, or with the trade that followed it, there was trouble for that somebody. Honesty should compel the admission that Japanese thinking in the same direction is by no means original. Once the Western nations grasp this, and study the Far Eastern situation from the Japanese point of view, the way should be clearer for a satisfactory settlement of the issues that have arisen between East and West. By every possible means the present drift, which is widening the gap, should be checked.