Japan, Past and Future

I. REVIEWS 437 _the sand, who "seemed _ a Venus Anadyomene risen from the waves.'t Per-haps we can conclude with the sentence which is his entire entry for: -June 20, _1871: "A_ n angel satyr walks these hitls." JAPAN, PAST AND FUTURE* H. L. KEE~L£YSID£ Ever since the visit of the Black Ships of Commopore Perry, the p~oblem . of the Far East has been the problem of Japan. The Wes-tern world is still faced with the .dilemmas released when the United States pried open the Pandor~~s· box embossed with the rising sun. Military victory has by no means solved the problem. That Japan will again play· a leading role in oriental politics, and-that the revival which will mak~ this possible will not be long delayed, is obvious tci anyone who studies current reports from Tokyo,,including the official statements releas~d from _General MacArthur's headquarters. Whether that revival results from the·strategic requirements. of United States poli.cy in world aff~irs; from the econ~fhic necessities o( the western Pacific, from the character of Japanese society, or from a combination of these factors is something that ·can be established more clearly in retrospect-than ·in forecast. That it will happen and that it will be a development of major importancein in-ternational affairs is both manifest and inevitable. . . With the revival of Nippon will come a ren.ewal of many of the social and economic difficulties that i.ncreasi.ngly marked Japan's relationship with occidental countri~s during the inter-war years. Among· these difficulties was the co,ntroversy aroused by the immigration policies of the exclu~ionist states. While it may be some time before Japan will be in.a position to argue vigorously against such poljcies as those embodied in the United States Exclusion Act of 19241 the problem will eventuaUy rise again. When it does," tHe material brought together in Professor· Li.nd's little book on Hawaii wiU· be of significant interesL Here is a collectio~ of :firsthand source material on the behaviour .of Japanese immigrants and thei~ descendants in an alien land. As a professional sociologist, Dr. Lind ex·a~­ ines with a rather sardonic .eye the triumph of conviction over evidence, of prejudice over facts, in the popular beliefs that grew up about the action· of the Japanese residents of Hawaii at the time of Pearl Harbor..'Although ever:yone· who was in a position to know affirmed and reaffirmed that "the Japanese did not engage in sabotage on December 7, 1941, or on the days that -followed, the. wild stories that were then developed ('of road blocks, enormous arrows cut in the sugar-ean·e to paint the way to the Japanese "Hawaii'J ]a._panese: dn E.....periment j,J Dttnncro.ty. By ANDREW W. Lnm. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pre.ss ["foronro: Saunders}. 1946. Pp. viii, 264.' ($3.75) · ' Tlu History of ]apnn. By K-ENNETH ScOTT L~TOUR.ETTE. New York : Macmillan Co. [Toronto:' Macmillan Co. of Canada.]. 191-7. Pp.-vi, 290. ($4.00) ' · A SJ.rrrl History of the Far East. By lC:ENNETH ScOTT L.ATOUl1.ETTE. N!!w York: Macmillan Co. [Toronto: Macm illan Co. o( Canada]. 1947. Pp. xiv, 66j. ($6.00) I ~·· 1 ,, . ' 438 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY. I objectives, poisoning of food supplies, etc., etc.) were still, bei~g used on the ; mairilat_ld months, and in some cases years, 1~ter by supposedly responsible individuals and magazines. :.. Iri general Dr. Lind has presented a clear and ilh1minating picture of the Ja·p~nese element (40 per cent) in. the complex soci.ety of the ;sland melting-pot. On, the whole it is an encouraging St0rY of' tolerance and inter.: racial co-operation. While the peculiar posjtion of Hawaii is unlikely to be duplicated ·in any other America·n terri tory) the .~xperience of the isla'nds . should hearte~ those who hope to find a decent solution for the int.rinsica·]Jy much less difficult problems facing the person~ of Japanese racial origin and ' their occidental neighbours in the continental United States, in Australia> and in Canada. . Dr. Latourette, the .author...