Asian Current

Japan’s Advance in Asia

Japan’s advance in Asia has been one of the major developments of the present decade. It has greatly affected not only the international relations but also the internal politics and economics of what can no longer be called with strict accuracy the Island Empire.

Japan’s foreign and domestic policies have been inseparably connected since the occupation of Manchuria, and no account of one would be complete or even intelligible without constant reference to the other. This consideration has helped to shape the scheme of the present book. While the first half deals with Japan’s adventures abroad and with their present and probable future consequences, the concluding chapters endeavor to give an outline sketch of Japan at home, and especially of those tendencies which have been most marked during the last few years.

My purpose has been to write neither an indictment nor a vindication of Japan’s expansionism, but to set forth as objectively as possible the main events and causes of the forward drive in Asia, the obstacles which it has encountered, and the favorable and unfavorable auguries for Japan’s imperial career in the future.

At the moment of writing (September 1), the ultimate scope of the Japanese military action in North China which began in July 1937 is still uncertain. So far as it has gone, however, this action, which brought to a violent close a period of deadlock: and uncertainty in the Peiping- Tientsin area, confirms the thesis of this book: that Japan, ever since the occupation of Manchuria in 1931, has experienced an overmastering urge to expansion on the Asiatic mainland. There have been setbacks and periods of lull; but the process has never stopped or been stabilized. Except in the unlikely event of a Japanese military defeat, the probable outcome of the present conflict would seem to be the extension of effective Japanese control (most probably through the well-tried method of puppet Chinese administrative units) over a considerable part of China north of the Yellow River.

For more than two years I have been stationed in Tokyo as Chief Far Eastern Correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. In this capacity I have traveled extensively in China, Manchoukuo, the Philippines, and other countries of East Asia, besides visiting almost every part of the Japanese Empire. I am grateful to the Editorial Board of the Christian Science Monitor for their kind permission to incorporate in the book some material which I have published in the Monitor. A similar acknowledgment is due to the editors of Asia, the Yale Review, Foreign Affairs, and Current History for authorization to make use of excerpts from articles which I have contributed to these publications.

William Henry Chamberlin