THE MICHIGAN DAILY Edited and managed by students or the Univrsity of Michigan under the althority or the Boardl In Contro of Student Pub)lications, Published every morning except Mondtay duriul a University year and Summer Sessio u Member c)f the Associated Pres T'he Associated Press isL;ex:clusively entitled to the use for republication or all news dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited in tlls newspaper. All rights of republication of all other matters herein also reserved. eEntered at the Post Office at Ann Arbor. Michlgan, a s second class mail matter. -Ubscrlptions during the regular school ye ar by carrie, $4.00, by mall $5.0. NF.PRE9ENTE POR NATIOHNL ADVFRThNG ,& National Advertising Service, Inc. .Colfege Publisbers Representative 420 MADIsON AVE. NEW YORK. N. Y. # CiicAfO , OltQn 'Lz A .Le SAn rrIAnCilQ &ember, Assocaled Collegiate Press, 1941.42 Interventionist, Non-Interventionist Emits AlvinI Dvld Daniel James EdIori;al Staff Cei6 . . . Managing Editor Dann . . . . . . 1klorial Director Lacheubruci . . . .usnCity Editor R. Hiet. . A c. Business Manager B. Collins Associate Business Manager NIGHT EDKORS: SAPP & BAKER The editorials published in The Michigan Daily are written by members of The Daily staff and represent the views of the writers only,. -U.Jap Break Began In 1931. (Continued from Page 1) 'ways? The United States wants Japan to aban- don her expansion program, which, at least in its southward extension toward the East Indies, en- dangers the safety of the Philippines and threat- ens the sources of materials vital to the defense and well-being of the United States and the routes by which they reach America. She wants Japan to withdraw her troops from Indo-China and Ciina, where American interests and citizens have suffered hurt for nearly a decade at Japan- ese hands. She wants Japan to give pledges and sureties against further aggression. She wants the markets of the East kept open. FROM JAPAN'S point of view the United States obstructs the fulfillment of what many Japan- ese consider their country's rightful destiny, to be the dominant power of all the East, to control farflung sources of the materials needed for her industries and dominate the hundreds of millions of 'Orientals who make up perhaps the greatest potential markets in the world. Control in East Aia, the Japanese say, is a matter of life and death to them, while to Americans it can be only a matter of national prestige or minor economic interest. More specifically in the later phases of this crisis the Japanese have 'demanded an end to the economic strangulation and military-encircle- ment which they say the United States and her associates have invoked against Japan and non- interference with the settlement she hopes to impose on China. Washington has held that the economic and military measurestaken to curb Japan can not be lifted until Japan mends her ways and has said that there can be no compromise which would leave China at Japan's mercy. And in the existing crisis, with the United States pledged to the defeat of the Hitler world order, Americans have held there could be no real accord with Japan as long as she remained a member of the Axis. THUS EVENTS MOVED TO A POINT where a break could be avoided only if one party changed utterly its fundamental pdlicies. Two opposed conceptions of what should constitute the basis of international relations, of the #,vorld order, were at stake. Racial pride and national prestige are elements not to be ignored. The Japanese are a proud people, jealous of their dignity, quick to resent racial slurs, holding to an ancient code which rated death in battle or by suicide preferable to dishonor. Men experienced in Far Eastern matters say that a realization that they can not win a war with the United States is not enough to keep the Japanese from going to war. It will not stop them to point out that this course would be na- tional suicide. They, or at least the stiff-necked soldiers who seem -to dominate their national courses, are quite capable of facing that. The Japanese belief that their national pres- tige and pride of race has received affronts from America is indisputedly a factor in this crisis. They resent bitterly our exclusion laws, which they say class them with other races they consider their inferiors. Many Japanese contend that the whole course of history since the World War might have been different had the white nations admitted them a full equals. HERE IS THE ROAD Japan and America have traveled to their present collision: In 1853 Japan, by her own choice, had been shut off from the world for two and a half cen- turies. Her seclusion was ended then by a flo- tilla of warships from the young and growing United States, which, having spanned the conti- nent, was looking out from her new-won Pacific coast for new markets in the Orient. Commodore Matthew Perry, U.S.N., reopened Japan to the world. Japan subscribed in 1899 to the doctrine of the open door in China, enunciated by John Hay, United States Secretary of State. A year later Japanese and American troops (along with Brit- ish, German, Russian and others) fought side by side in the rescue of the legations at Peking, be- sieged by the Chinese Boxers. The great major- ity of Americans gave their sympathy to Japan when in 1904 she challenged the Russian colos- sus. anneewa oa; ee flo-ated in th Views n U. S.- THOSE OF US who call ourselves intervention- ists,who have been asking for war have now obtained at least part of what we wanted. And yet it is difficult to be entirely happy. For one does not accept with wholehearted glee what may be his own death warrant, the death warrant of his friends, even though one knows that what has happened, what is to happen, is necessary if freedom and liberty and democracy are to sur- vive in the world. We realize that this is no time for flag- waving, for band-playing, for emotionalism of any kind. It is a serious time. It is a time when every American must finally come to the realization that we are at war with fascism, not only in Japan, but everywhere in the world. More than that, it is a time when every American must stand ready to give everything he has-even his life-so that this generation and future generations may live in peace and security free from the fear of dictatorship. WE ARE TOLD that this is a defensive war, that it is an isolated struggle which concerns only the United States and Japan. Such asser- tions are based upon the false premise that any war between first class powers today can be isolated. It is wishful thinking to say that we can not or that we should not extend the field of our operations to include Nazi Germany and her friends. Far from a complete situation in itself, the war with Japan is inextricably entangled in the entire international scene. The island people declared war, not only upon us, but also upon Great Brit- ain--thus making actual allies of the two English speaking nations. At the same time, Germany and Japan are and have long been allies. It is scarcely logical, then, to say that we are an ally of England when she fights Japan but not when she fights Germany; that the Nazis are allies of the Japanese against Britain but'not against the United States. FOR THESE REASONS it is important that we do not let our own involvement in war in the Pacific blind us to the continued need of Britain and Russia for arms and materials. We must realize that every battlefront in this world-wide fight against fascism is of equal importance to us. Yesterday's events in no way lessen the need for a Russian victory on the Eastern front and an English victory in Africa. We must not deny vital materials to those na- tions who are fighting with us. For the moment, at least, they are our friends, they are our allies, they are fighting our fight. We must help them in any way possible-even, if necessary, by send- ing men. When we say these things, when we speak of war and bloodshed and death we wave no flag, we shout no patriotic catch-phrases. We speak, rather, with a quiet, firm determination and pray that democracy will prevail, that tyranny will disappear. ,And it is a quietness, a determination which grows out of a love for peace, but a greater love forfreedom. -Homer Swander Japanese agitation and legislation in the western states. In 1911 a gentlemen's agreement whereby Japan undertook to halt the tide of migration provided a temporary remedy. The World War brought new frictions, al- though at the end the United States and Japan were associated together against the Central Powers. But Europe's preoccupations encouraged Japanese efforts to tighten her control on China. Her famous twenty-one demands of May, 1915, brought sharp condemnation from Washington. In 1918 Japan and tle United States (with Brit- ain and France) sent expeditions into Siberia but Japan went farther than her allies approved and more trouble arose. One ,resujt of the World War was to embark the United States on a vast warship building pro- gram. Japan sought to match it. A naval race followed which endangered the peace of the Pacific. The Harding Administration summoned the naval powers tp Washington and a truce was effected in 192 in the Treaties of Washington which restricted capital ship construction and pledged the powers to keep hands off China. HIS was the high water mark of Japan's co- operation with the United States and with the Western Powers' efforts to establish collective security. But only two years later, the United States Congress passed, over the veto of President Coolidge and the protest of Secretary of State Hughes, a law barring the immigration of Jap- anese as aliens ineligible for citizenship. This ended the "gentlemen's agreement." The Jap- anese were bitterly resentful. But this came midway in a decade of liberal government in Japan and as late as 1930 the Japanese still were ready to cooperate in keeping the peace. They signed the new Naval Treaty of London, although not without a bitter struggle at home. It was their last act of support for the post-Versailles peace structure. The agitation in Japan against cooperation with the Western World took on the proportions of a revolution in which the army fired the first shot the night of Sept. 18, 1931, at Mukden. THE MILITARY CAMPAIGN that followed ended Chinese rule in Manchuria but it also ended liberal, civilian rule in Japan. It was a Military-Fascist rising against the existing order not only in Japan but in the entire world. The United States government, especially Henry i. Stimson, Secretary of State, was quick to grasp its significance. Other powersowere not. Ameri- can efforts to stem the tide then set in flow came to nothing more substantial than the Stimson doctrine of non-recognition of Japan's military gains. Japanese Cbnflict SUDDENLY, in spite of preparations for hypo- thetical military situations and violent de- bates on various diplomatic expediencies, we have been slapped in the face by a fact as hard as battle-forged steel and gruesome as shed blood-WE ARE AT WAR.-. Japan has committed herself to an incredible project which is not only disastrous to her plans of expansion, but leaves no alternative for the United States but a concerted use of its entire Pacific resources for the defeat of the Nipponese military force and the reduction of Japan to a minor world power. ISOLATIONISTS and even some non-inter- ventionists in this country did not favor in- volving the whole United States in the defense of the Philippines alone, or the supposedly vital Dutch East Indies. A slow penetration or even a direct attack on one or both of these areas may have aroused considerable controversy in this country over the necessity and expediency of undertaking a task so costly in materials and lives. But an e'normous assault on the Philip- pines and Hawaii, and ships between the United States and Hawaii, solidifies American senti- ment toward the Japanese government and uni- fies American determination to clean from the Pacific a menace that is no longer an idelogicat threat but an active military enemy. Immediately. however, arises the question of whether differences between the intervention and non-intervention line of thought have been abolished by the shocking change of events and the answer is NO. Speaking as an individual and unaffiliated non-interventionist, I deny that the war between the United States and Japan is necessarily the first step of a world wide American battle against fascism. If Germany announces the intention of materially sup- porting Japan, or, if Germany actually attacks American ships or bases, we will be forced to extend our hostilities; but Japan's membership in the Axis and our material support of the Bri- tish and the Dutch in no way necessitate a de- clared or shooting war with Germany. W E ARE AT WAR with Japan. This is a fact that must be fully comprehended for effec- tive material and intellectual behaviour during the immediate crisis. -But we must comprehend another fact equally important-we are not and have no reason to be at war with Germany. In- terventionists will attempt to use the Japan- ese war as a torch to ignite our participation in a world conflagration of "democracies" versus dictatorships. They will say we should cling closer to Britain now that we are both at war with our respective fascist enemies. This view is not necessarily true. Aid to Britain should continue for the same reasons it went on before the Japanese war; but it must now be placed on a secondary plane, for we have a war of our own to fight. If we can double or treble our production, our shipments to Britain can re-, main the same. Otherwise, America comes first and Britain second. We not only can, but must conduct the war with Japan as a struggle between Japan and those nations on which she declares war, not as a world battle between ideologies. If the other Axis Powers choose to attack us, we will deal with them as with Japan, but only by actual defense of our possessions and people can we justify the tremendous price we are about to pay and cannot yet conceive. -Emile Gele churia, moved into North China, launched a real war against China proper in 1937 and overran nearly all her eastern provinces, joined the Axis, took advantage of Hitler's triumphs to march into Indo-China and reach out for the Dutch East Indies. In the course of all this she harmed American citizens and their interests in hundreds of instances, most spectacular of which was the sinking of the gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River above Nanking Dec. 13, 1937. SHE ALLIED HERSELF with Germany and Italy in the Treaty of Berlin, Sept. 27, 1940, especially aimed at the United States., She re- affirmed this tie by renewing her signature of the Anti-Comintern pact at Berlin Nov. 25, 1941. The American government, for its part, de- 1 nounced on July 26, 1939, its treaty of friendship and commerce with Japan. In the summer of 1941, when Japan was strengthening her grasp on French Indo-China, Washington went a step further. President Roosevelt froze all Japanese credits in this country. Britain and her Dominions and the Dutch Indies followed suit. The result was almost an entire cessation of Japanese foreign trade. The flow of oil and scrap metal from the United States and oil from the Indies which has fed her war machine was shut off. Economically she was isolated, with her Axis allies unable to help. The economic measures were supplemented by mili- tary moves of vast scope which in effect ringed Japan on all sides with hostile forces-in China, Russia, British Malaya, the Dutch Indies and the Philipipines and Hawaii. RUSSIA'S ENTRY into the war presented Tokyo with a new threat. While Hitler was plowing through the Russian armies this looked more like an opportunity than a menace, but as winter closed down with Russia still unbeaten the Japanese hopes which rode on Hitler's banners faded. The economic pinch, the steadily growing power of the military forces gathering in the East, caused her to cry out against "strangula- tion." A civilian government, headed by Prince Fumimaro Konoye; resigned in September, ad- mitting its inability to cope with the vast forces loosed by the world cataclysm. Specifically, it was unable to improve relations with the United States. A military government, headed by Gen- eral Hideki Tojo, took over. FDR's Message To Hirohito, WASHINGTON, Dec. 7--)The White House made public to night the following text of the mes- sage President Roosevelt sent Satur- day to the Emperor of Japan: Almost a century ago the President of the United States addressed to the Emperor of Japan a message extend- ing an offer of friendship of the peo- ple of the United States to the people of Japan. That offer was accepted and in the long period of unbroken peace and friendship which has fol- lowed our respective nations, through the virtues of their peoples and the wisdom of their rulers, have prospered and have substantially helped hu- man ity, Only in situations of extraordinary importance to our two countries need I express to your majesty messages on matters of state. I feel I should now so address you because of the deep and far-reaching emergency which appears to be in formation. DEVELOPMENTS are occuring in the Pacific area which threaten to deprive each of our nations and all humanity of the beneficial influence of the long peace between our two countries. Those developments con- tain tragic possibilities. The people of the United States, believing in peace and the right of nations to live and let live, have eagerly watched the conversatns between our two gov- ernments during these past months. We have hoped for a termination of the present conflict between Japan and China. We have hoped that a peasce of the Pacific could be con- summated in such a way that nation- alities of many diverse peoples could exist side by side without fear of in- vasion; that unbearable burdens of armaments could be lifted for them all; and that all peoples would re- sume commerce without discrimina- I tion against or in favor of any nation. I am certain that it will be clear to your majesty, as it is to me, that in seeking these great objectives both Japan and the United tSates should agree to eliminate any form of mili- tary threat. This seemed essential to the attainment of the high objectives. MORE THAN A YEAR AGO Your Majesty's government concluded an agreement with the Vichy govern- ment by which five or six thousand Japanese troops were permitted to en- ter into Northern French Indo-China for the protection of Japanese troops which were operating against China further north. And this spring anda summer the Vichy government per- mitted further Japanese military forces to enter into French southern Indo-China for the common dfense 'of French Indo-China. I think I am correct in saying that no attack has been made upon Indo-China, nor that any has been contemplated. During the past few weeks it has become clear to the world that the Japanese military, naval and air forces have been sent to southern Indo-China in such large numbers as to create a reasonable doubt on the part of other nations that this con- tinuing concentration in Indo-China is not defensive in its character. KUIBSHEV ussia. Dec. 6 ide- ski declared today tllat Polish soldiers Eayed ' P Qn \\dyslaw Siky_ would be prepared to fight by Jan. 1. Because these continuing concen- trations in Indo-China have reached such large proportions and because they extend now to the southeast and the southwest corners of that penin- sula, it is only reasonable that the peoples of the Philippines, of the hun- dreds of islands of the East Indies, of (Continued on Page 4) --Extra Added Cartoon "TRIAL OF MR. WOLF" )1 NEWS OF THE DAY -71 _ r -4 I