Having only visualized the world
in international terms during two short decades, there has been no
time for a proper tradition to be created by the civil government
of Japan; and because there is no such tradition, the island
empire of the East has no true foreign policy and is at the mercy
of manufactured crises, being too often committed to petty
adventures which really range her on the side of those in Europe
the Allies have set themselves to destroy. It is for this reason
that the Chinese are consistently treated as though they were
hewers of wood and drawers of water, helots who are occasionally
flattered in the columns of the daily press and yet are secretly
looked upon as men who have been born merely to be cuffed and
conquered. The Moukden Governor, General Chang Tso-ling,
discussing the Chengchiatun affair with the writer, put the matter
in a nutshell. Striking the table he exclaimed: "After all we are
not made of wood like this, we too are flesh and blood and must
defend our own people. A dozen times I have said, 'Let them come
and take Manchuria openly if they dare, but let them cease their
childish intrigues.' Why do they not do so? Because they are not
sure they can swallow us--not at all sure. Do you understand? We
are weak, we are stupid, we are divided, but we are innumerable,
and in the end, if they persist, China will burst the Japanese
stomach.
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