Vision of Empire

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 156, 19 June 1942, Page 3

Vision of Empire

[t is a fundamental point in Sir John Pratt’s examination of Japanese policy that for a much longer period than we usually recognise, the interests of Japan and of Great Britain and the U.S. have been diametrically opposedfor the last 35 years in fact. The signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902 he considers one of the great turning points in history, though it passed with little notice being paid to it. We can deplore the failure of the Western world to see the significance of it, in opening up’a new conception in Japan of the destiny that a virile nation might consider within its reach, but that is probably a more idle exercise than pondering upon the flight principle of angels, The Alliance was signed, to the immediate advantage of both Japan and Great Britain, and one of its first results was the Japanese defeat of Russia in 1904-5, which removed a danger to the interests not only of Japan but of Great Britain also, of interference in the Far Eastern set-up, But beyond this point the interests of Great Britain and Japan were soon divided. The Japanese, inspired, as we have seen, with the vision of Empire, returned to their old dream of hegemony in East Asia.-("Japan And the Modern World," reviewed by John Moffett, 4YA, June 3).