ABSTRACT
HISTORY consisting so largely of a record of the crimes and follies of mankind, no explanation is necessary for devoting so large a part of this chronicle to Japan’s continental doings. The bombing of towns, the desolation of countrysides, and the overriding of civil authority by military invaders were regarded rather academically in the West as tests of the efficacy of the League of Nations, the Nine Power Treaty of Washington, and the Treaty of Paris known as the Kellogg Pact. A long course of propaganda had accustomed the Japanese mind to the idea of energetic action in Manchuria. Baron Shidehara had tried to avoid it, but he took up the thankless task of counsel for the defence.
