Present-day Conditions
in the Far East
and Their Bearing on
the Washington
Conference
New Republic Pamphlet No. 1
Published by the
REPUBLIC PUBLISHING CO., INC.
421 West Twenty-first Street
New York City
1921
CHINA, JAPAN and the U. S. A.
Introductory Note
The articles following are reprinted as they werewritten in spite of the fact that any picture of contemporaryevents is modified by subsequent increaseof knowledge and by later events. In themain, however, the writer would still stand bywhat was said at the time. A few foot noteshave been inserted where the text is likely togive rise to misapprehensions. The date ofwriting has been retained as a guide to the reader.
It is three days’ easy journey from Japan to China. It isdoubtful whether anywhere in the world another journeyof the same length brings with it such a complete changeof political temper and belief. Certainly it is greater than thealteration perceived in journeying directly from San Franciscoto Shanghai. The difference is not one in customs and modesof life; that goes without saying. It concerns the ideas, beliefsand alleged information current about one and the same fact:the status of Japan in the international world and especiallyits attitude toward China. One finds everywhere in Japan afeeling of uncertainty, hesitation, even of weakness. Thereis a subtle nervous tension in the atmosphere as of a countryon the verge of change but not knowing where the change willtake it. Liberalism is in the air, but genuine liberals are encompassedwith all sorts of difficulties especially in combiningtheir liberalism with the devotion to theocratic robes whichthe imperialist militarists who rule Japan have so skilfullythrown about the Throne and the Government. But what onesenses in China from the first moment is the feeling of the all-pervadingpower of Japan which is working as surely as fateto its unhesitating conclusion—the domination of Chinese politicsand industry by Japan with a view to its final absorption.It is not my object to analyze the realities of the situation or to inquire whether the universal feeling in China is a collectivehallucination or is grounded in fact. The phenom