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215 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. ix (1941)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0215 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD MUST the tension in American-Japanese relations culminate in open warfare? Periodically over the course of the past third of a century the temper of politics in the Pacific has been such as to raise that question in a serious form. Issues over the open door, the integrity of China, naval armaments and bases, immigration restrictions, racial equality, the Manchurian incident, and commercial competition have followed one another to plague the diplomats and the citizens of both countries who have worked for peaceable adjustments. In one way or another, their efforts have met with measured success. Today, however, the clouds of controversy hanging over the Pacific have again evoked the question, and more sharply than ever before. The way of resolving the riddle is far from assured. The energy-lines of contemporary Japanese foreign policy range from war-torn China to the South Seas to the scene of European conflict and back again, crossing and recrossing the sphere of vital American concern. The truth is that which has often been dimly perceived but never more clearly than now -that the politics of the Far East are not an isolated segment of activity, but a phase of world politics. With Japan a partner of Germany and Italy, and the United States engaged in defending itself through aiding Britain, the problem of maintaining amicable relations in the Pacific is intertwined with the tissues of battle and diplomacy in Europe. As these lines are written (April 15, 1941), new cause for anxiety comes from the announcement of the signing of the five-year neutrality pact between the Soviet Union and Japan. Although the decision of the Soviet may have been motivated by a concern over the war in the Balkans, the implications of the pact for the Orient are such as to free Japan for a more positive policy. Whether her rulers will choose now to embark upon an energetic and dangerous course in the Indies and Malaysia section of the Pacific, and whether the United States would rise to meet such action, are questions leaving the issue of peace in a tenuous balance. They may be decided within the next few months. The papers contained in this volume explore a number of the conditions and fac- tors which bear on the relationship of the United States and Japan with particular reference to the present stages of controversy. Whatever may have been the Special Editor's conception of the significance of the various elements, no attempt has been made to impose upon the several contributors an integrating thesis. Within their respective provinces, they have been free to develop their own interpretations and opinions. For that reason, divergent evaluations were almost certain to appear and they are presented with the conviction that though they may confuse the unwary, they will challenge the critical faculties of the more careful reader. The Special Editor was particularly glad to receive the cordial co-operation of four distinguished Japanese publicists and authors, who present an uncensored version of their own approach to Japanese policy and its bearing on America. Incidentally, since most of the articles in the volume were received prior to March 1, the authors should not be held responsible for changing events since that date. It is a tragic commentary on the present state of American-Japanese disagree- ment that the volume concludes on such a gloomy note. Neither Mr. Takagaki nor Professor Griswold, whose task it was to suggest possible modes of adjustment and bases of compromise for resolving the diplomatic deadlock which each describes, was able to do so convincingly. Pessimism, of course, need not generate fatalism, since ix

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