Japan in the Future
Every now and then something happens—the most recent occurrence was, seasonably enough, a wave of strikes, partly Com- munist-inspired—to remind all responsible people that Japan as a world-problem cannot remain much longer in the " Pending " tray. The reminder is unwelcome, for we like to think of the most barbarous of our ex-enemies as having been put conveniently and indefinitely into Coventry under the uncompromising tutelage of General MacArthur. But the tit,000,000 inhabitants of Japan arc an explosive force whose power—as with all explosives—gains rather than loses by being tightly tamped down in a confined space. Even if economics did not preclude the possibility of so vast a nation being pent up for ever within so small and unfertile an island, the Japanese character can be relied on to assert itself vigorously as soon as the American occupation comes to an end. No amount of " democratisation," even if it goes more than skin-deep, will alter the fact that the Japanese are the most aggressive, the best disciplined and the most fearless of the Asiatic nations. For this reason the future of japan is of far greater import both to her neighbours and to the rest of the world than anything else in Asia. It may take a generation for her to get on her feet again, but it would be folly to suppose that when she does she will be a better neighbour than she was before. Meanwhile nobody seems to know whether the Allies want to conclude a peace treaty with her in the near, the middle or the distant future. It is to be hoped that when it is con- cluded it will include provision for American and other bases on the Japanese mainland. They may well eventually become hostages to fortune ; but at least their existence will exercise a delaying effect upon the slow but sure redeployment of Japan's unqUendtable ambitions.
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