ABSTRACT

Such was the political constellation when I reached Japan in September, 1937.

CHAPTER VI

NO DESCRIPTION OF THE JAPAN OF 1937 WOULD BE ADEQ.UATE WITHOUT some mention of the causes of the Sino-Japanese struggle which had been raging since July of that year and which now dominated the entire situation. Since the occupation Of Manchuria in 1932, the Japanese Army had, on one pretext or another, been pressing steadily southwards until it stood before the Great Wall of China. Would the Japanese stop at this ancient Chinese barrier or would the mad ambition and rapacity of their militarists carry them forward into China proper and into that ancient capital and centre of Chinese civilization, Peking? Before I left for Japan I remember having received very explicit assurances from an influential Japanese-assurances which I believe to have been given in good faith-that the Japanese forces would not in any event cross into China proper. But while there were powerful influences at work in Japan endeavouring to arrest the forward sweep of the Army, there could be no doubt that the latter intended to use every pretext to attain its ends and to extend Japanese domination over Eastern Asia.