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It seems certain that Japan must in its own right be a leading power in East Asia. The Japanese are the most highly educated people in Asia, much better educated than many Western peoples. They are skilled in science and technology, organization and management. Unlike many Asian nations they are remarkably homogeneous in race, religion, language and culture. But on the political and military fronts the story is different. Prime Minister Eisaku Sato has expressed his government's sympathy with U.S. objectives in Vietnam. In the last few years the Japanese leaders have gained the confidence to make it clear, however politely, that they want to make their assessments of what is happening in Asia, and to decide for themselves the role they want to play.

Focuses on policies of the U.S. towards South-East Asia. Effects of assassinations in Tokyo to paralyze Japanese military action in Asia; Comment on crisis in Japan's relations with China, the Soviet Union and the Western Powers; Requirement of base in Manila for the U.S. navy; Information that American fortifications west of Hawaii are forbidden by the Washington and London treaties; Comment on the future relations of Japan with the U.S.; Dependency of Japan upon the manufacture of cotton and rayon textiles.

The Japanese have long since surpassed the Nazis in the science of manipulating Quislings. They have established some form of collaborationist government. In sections of Asia occupied since 1937 the Japanese puppets are having more trouble. In November, six of the leading puppets or their representatives were summoned to Tokyo for a Greater East Asia Conference. But despite all Japan's efforts, its prestige has been steadily declining as a result of official arrogance, economic chaos in occupied Asia and Allied victories in the Pacific. The whole puppet show in eastern Asia, cleverly conceived as it was, is being disrupted by Japan's military defeats and its unkept promises.

The author says that Japanese have always insisted that the Western nations do not understand the peculiar ways of the East, and that a system of world organization which might keep the peace in Europe and America would not work in the Orient. All Oriental peoples have suffered sufficiently from the white man's imperialism to distrust a system of world organization that appears to give white men continued domination. Fortunately Japan can be destroyed militarily without imposing fresh burdens on Japanese people.

The present phase of the Far Eastern war is marked by the incompatibility of two principles-- the Open Door and the New Order in Asia. In this conflict Japan does not have to face the armed resistance of Chinese soldiers. It has to turn around to face the violent reaction of Western powers, chiefly the U.S. and Great Britain, rallying in an eleventh-hour effort to save what is left of their positions in China. Despite Japanese assertions that the principle of a New Order does not necessarily conflict with foreign vested rights and privileges in China, the ideas behind this principle preclude a compromise.