Flashback, Sept 18, 1931

On September 18, 1931 (70 years before the Sept. 11 attacks), the opening salvoes of World War II werefired in Manchuria. As I have been reading Bush's comments comparing Saddam to Hitler, and German justiceminister Herta Daübler-Gmelin's remarks comparing Bush to Hitler, in this season of tortured analogies, thefollowing comes to mind.

Manchuria as of 1931 was internationally regarded as part of China, a sovereign country, although like mostof China it was governed by a warlord rather than an effective central government. Japan's incipiently fascistgovernment had acquired treaty rights to station forces in Manchuria, protecting its railroad, port and otherinterests.

Japan was a major imperialist power, having wrenched Taiwan from China in 1895, established its rule overKorea in 1905, and acquired a slough of Pacific islands during World War I. (The "internationalcommunity" had endorsed such colonizing activity, the U.S. exchanging its nod for Japan's acceptance ofits imperial dominion over the Philippines and Guam, the French trading their recognition for Japan'sacceptance of French colonialism in Indochina, etc.)

From Sept. 18 Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchuria, having provoked an "incident" with localmilitary forces, fanned out from Mukden and in short order conquered the whole Chinese province. The actionwas not authorized by the Prime Minister, Diet, or even the High Command in Tokyo, but undertaken aftercareful conspiratorial planning by a small cabal of field-rank officers who had a vision of a Greater EastAsian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Tokyo had to go along with it, insisting, on the global diplomatic stage, that itsforces had been provoked.

But this attack of the regional superpower on the weak nation of China met with international indignation,particularly as Japan established an imaginary state called Manchukuo. The Japanese sought League of Nationsapproval for the fait accompli, but the Lytton commission, in a carefully balanced statement (preparedby a British lord not at all disposed to oppose imperialism in principle), condemned it. So the Japanesedelegation walked out, helping seal the fate of the League.

What did Japan need, after all, from a body inherently suspicious of it, unsympathetic to its nationalsecurity interests, unable to comprehend its racial destiny? Why should the League's condemnation preventJapan from bringing its superior way of life to the benighted Manchurian people, and from taking advantage ofits mineral resources and the Lebensraum it could provide Japan's expanding population? Japan's act ofwar was in fact an act intended to secure the peace in a troubled region.

One thing let to another, and six years later Japanese forces got into a full-scale war with China whichresulted in such unpleasantries as the Rape of Nanking. To prosecute the war effectively, Japan required oilthat the U.S. refused to supply, which meant Japan needed to attack and conquer the Dutch Indies, which meanthaving to take out Pearl Harbor, bases in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong.

All hell broke loose, and ultimately, the Japanese people paid the price in the form of Nagasaki,Hiroshima, and conventional bombing of Tokyo and other cities that was equally destructive.

Just goes to show: stage an unprovoked attack; lie about it; ignore the world's sentiments; let policy beset by a cabal of fanatics with visions of grandeur; encourage racist, condescending views of other peoples;and things can spin out of control. The world today is a far cry from the world of Herbert Hoover, Chiang Kai-shek,and Wakatsuki Reijirô, men at the helm in their nations as of Sept. 1931; there is only one superpower whoseleaders' provocations, ignorance, fanaticism and racist condescension can trigger another world war.

Not a war between evenly-matched blocs, this time, but one nation's war against the world, defined at theoutset as endless.

Gary Leupp is an an associate professor, Department of History, TuftsUniversity and coordinator, Asian Studies Program.