ABSTRACT
THE view has been expressed that Japan, in spite of her military superiority over China, will be unable to fight a long war because of her financial weakness and the shallow economic foundations upon which her power is based. In my opinion this is a rash judgment. The capacity of Japan’s industrial system, immature though it may be, is underestimated by those critics who are so mistaken as to imagine that the small size of the technical unit in many industries is necessarily an indication of inefficiency or of inability to provide the equipment needed for war. The remarkable development of the metal and engineering industries during the last decade and the improvement in the quality of the product of those industries must not be neglected. Further, there seems no likelihood that foreign suppliers of raw materials and finished products which Japan cannot produce for herself, will refuse to sell to Japan. In spite of boycotts abroad and rising costs at home there is every probability that Japan will be able to sell a sufficiently large volume of exports to enable her to buy the foreign materials essential for the prosecution of the war, however much she may be forced to economize in her purchases of other things. Her Empire is almost self-sufficient in the staple foodstuffs. Finally, the experience of other countries suggests that financial difficulties alone would not cause Japan to stay her hand before her political ambitions have been satisfied, Countries in far worse financial straits than those in which Japan now finds herself have continued to fight without loss of military efficiency.
