UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Convocation - 1942 Winter-Spring [PAGE 48]

Caption: Convocation - 1942 Winter-Spring
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/ mctpal

the War in tl, I at last

doctrine is thai the) believe whoever resists them to he a traitor and n infidel, desen ing onlj d ith. A more insistent argument, to which too many ] opl< hav< ithoul sufficient thought agreed, is that the Japanese have a rapidly growing

population for which they must have more land. This is similar to

the German demand for Lei nsraum, or living spa . It is tru that the Japanese have about 75.000,()()() people in 147.000 squar mil f homeland, a density al ut eleven times that of the United Stat . and that this number has been increasing by about one million per year. Ai the present rate of increase their number will reach 200 million before the year 2000. But growth of population do< not giv< a right

to lake other people's land; in essence, that is the claim of the robber. The Japanese are not h ical in their application of this claim; the} want first of all to dominate China, much of which is more densely populated than Japan. If the Japanese claim he granted, they are ntitled t Australia, which has a population only one two-hundredths lense as that of J a p a n ; or indeed, to the territory of the United States. But in fact, the Japan, e do not wish to leave home except temp rarily. They prefer to live in the temperate climate of their own b tutiful islands; they wish to require other peoples to pay them tribute, and -end them food and raw materials, so that they can crowd the Japanese islands further. The true answer to this demand is that the Japanese must restrict their own population, as indeed they did. too often by the cruel method of infanticide, until a few decades ago. Again, the Japanese justify their brutal advance by the very contradictory claim that they have a mission of peace and order in the world. They talked of a "new order" in East Asia before Hitler spoke of a new o r d e r " in E u r o p e and Africa. They then described a copr speril " sphere in "Greater East Asia." Their mission they con iv 1 i be to set up forcible a political and economic system to W

-

dominated by themselvei but for the good of all. The Japanese will

have the cream, but the other peoples will have S(^ much skimmed milk hat all should be eager to join; they will have better order, belter lucation, 1 tter health, belter transportation and communication, bet-

er food, clothing, and general well-being.

This iim may be illustrated by some brief quotations. Eiji Amar.

pol

tjon in

nan of the Japanese F reign Office, said in a famous declara <

of Japan in he Japan is called mission and in . lo keep peace Ued:

April IS. 1 1; "< >wing to the Spe< lal position tion with China . . . . it must be realized that Upon to , rrt the utmost effort in carrying OUt her ulfilling her Special responsibility in 1 isl Wia . . .

md i ler in I tst \sia

\ ,] ument Of the Japanese \ a v v ministrx in 193

I,, ,,

v

oj [apan aphi > position, the powers should leave th 1 ,,, • pcao in the Orient in the hands i Japan, who is now