But owing to the successive collapses of her
rivals, she now found herself not only forced to attack as the
safest course of action, but driven to the view that the Power
that exerts the maximum pressure constantly and unremittedly is
inevitably the most successful. This conclusion had great
importance. For just as the first article of faith for England in
Asia has been the doctrine that no Power can be permitted to seize
strategic harbours which menace her sea-communications, so did it
now become equally true of Japan that her dominant policy became
not an Eastern Monroe doctrine, as shallow men have supposed, but
simply the Doctrine of Maximum Pressure. To press with all her
strength on China was henceforth considered vital by every
Japanese; and it's in this spirit that every diplomatic pattern
has been woven since the die was cast in 1905. Until this signal
fact has been grasped no useful analysis can be made of the
evolution of present conditions. Standing behind this policy, and
constantly reinforcing it, are the serried ranks of the new
democracy which education and the great increase in material
prosperity have been so rapidly creating. The soaring ambition
which springs from the sea lends to the attacks developed by such
a people the aspect of piracies; and it is but natural in such
circumstances that for Chinese Japan should not only have the
aspect of a sea-monster but that their country should appear as
hapless Andromeda bound to a rock, always awaiting a Perseus who
never comes.
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