by Emily Hahn
We refuse to believe that militarist Japan can defy the overwhelming force of the world’s conscience and pressure. In fact, after the exhibition that has been going on for the past eleven weeks right here at Shanghai we know she cannot. Do you realize that we ill-armed and unready Chinese held up the most modern machine of murder and massacre all these weeks mostly with our flesh and blood and manual weapons? We did not move till flesh and blood could endure it no longer. Can you not realize then how easy it will be, if they wish, for the Powers to compel the Japanese to abandon their predatory policies?
As you all know, the nations of the world are soon meeting at Brussels to seek a peaceful settlement of the Sino-Japanese situation on the basis of the Nine-Power Treaty. It is therefore timely to ask what will be America’s attitude at that conference, and what concrete steps will she be prepared to take in concert with other Powers to back up the Nine-Power Treaty? Japan bluffed the world before, and is trying to do so again. She claimed among other things that time has revealed as false, that she wanted no territory when she invaded Manchuria. She claims it again now that she is invading China Proper. But she controls Manchuria through a puppet regime, and she is already busy making puppet states in North China and Inner Mongolia to control those regions. Her armed forces and her advisers exercise supreme power in the puppet states despite the pretense that popular “independent” movements created them. Will America and the Powers refuse to have their intelligence insulted once again, and tell Japan so in plain and unmistakable terms?
America has so vital a place in determining what the future of the world is going to be that we in China are anxious about her attitude at this conference. Is it going to be an assertive one in support of a determined move to have treaties honored? Or will it be negative for the sake of salving conscience and avoiding trouble? We are anxious because we saw the League of Nations become impotent before the fait accompli of a seized Manchuria. Since then much has gone wrong in the world, and we fear lest China will once again be victimized, and betrayal come to the hopes of all weak nations. The eyes of these countries are fixed upon America because they sadly need leadership; because they are waiting to see if the days of treaties and international law are dead. And all law-abiding peoples are watching because they are wondering if peace on earth is passing.
It is difficult to visualize America in any other role than that of the champion of the weak and the oppressed. It will be a stimulating thing to see her, as expected, standing up fearlessly for the sanctity of treaties and justice, and refusing to be bluffed and bullied by a nation that can perpetrate such horrors as those for which Japan is responsible in China today.
Treaties will stand or fall upon what happens at Brussels, and peace in the world will correspondingly be blessed or be damned. The great Powers have great responsibilities. They are the ones who are to determine whether civilization is to be sacrificed, and whether the inhumanities that are spreading bloodshed and ruin broadcast over China today are to become the lot of other countries tomorrow.
We cannot believe that America will do other than resolutely act to mobilize the other responsible Powers in a move to take the simple steps required to stop for all time what otherwise would become the recognition of a violent era of undeclared war and brutality.
We cannot believe that America will do other than stand firm for the restoration of confidence among nations, and the revival of respect for treaties. Concrete, courageous leadership and action are all that are required now to right the ghastly wrongs that have been done in China. This is no time for quibbling, or, as you would put it, “passing the buck.” This is a time for stark realism. We must not fool ourselves or others, wittingly or unwittingly. Let us be courageous, and, above all, be honest. Unless America and all the Powers are ready to take a bold and forthright attitude at the Brussels Conference, that conference will go down in history as one of the most futile and meaningless gatherings of world’s statesmen that has yet to be seen, and will seal the eternal doom of the cause of humanity, democracy and world peace. Good-by.
II
On behalf of the Chinese women of Shanghai I extend to you, our foreign friends, a cordial welcome. I need not tell you how much we appreciate your presence here this afternoon, because, in spite of the advice of your governments to return to your own countries you chose to remain and endure with us the dangers involved in the close proximity of warfare.
Whatever bonds of friendship have united us as women in times of peace have been now further strengthened by a more fundamental tie which has been forged through sharing a vital common experience. I am referring to the Japanese invasion in the very heart of Shanghai. We have all seen with our own eyes the wanton ruthlessness and callous waste of life and properly and businesses in this great city and in our peaceful countryside, and you have shared and are sharing with us the deep indignation against this madness on the part of Japanese militarists in defiance of all sense of human decency. You have also worked with us side by side to alleviate the sufferings of our innocent people — helpless victims of this ruthless undeclared war to the accompaniment of the thundering cannonade the echoes of which, at this moment even, have not yet died down, and which with each reverberation is bringing about us more death and destruction and havoc.
From time immemorial women have assumed the role of comforters to mankind. Which one of us, as mothers, do not remember, that when our toddling babies fell, and we kissed the little bruised knee or head, it was ready sympathy as well as anything else which assuaged the hurt and comforted the little ones. Truly sympathy was and is a great factor bringing balm to the human heart. At the present moment, however, we women in order to insure world peace must go a step further. We should strive to influence the upholding of justice — international justice as well as social justice. And if we women of the world would unite and work for this ideal, which is not at all Utopian, but really a practical commonsense ideal, then surely we can put an end to the miseries around us which are being augmented as each day goes on.
I thank you again for your loyalty, for devotion to your adopted country, for the many expressions of practical help you have given our people, as well as for your moral support.
III
Radio audience of America and friends:
I appreciate this opportunity of speaking to America for two reasons. First, America is my second home. I spent the formative years of my life in your land. I received my modern knowledge and training from your fountainhead of learning. I derived my ideals of freedom and democracy from your institutions and traditions, and these have become an essential part of my being. Even as I talk to you now over the radio thousands of miles away, I know many of my friends are listening in. America is China’s traditional friend, and before my mental eyes I can see in this audience well-wishers of my country all over your land. To you all I take this delightful opportunity to extend my warm greetings.
I appreciate this opportunity also because I am going to speak to you on a subject which concerns not only the life and death of the Chinese people but also the vital interests and honor of the American people. I refer to Japan’s armed aggression in China, the dangers and horrors of which are shocking with revulsion anyone who has human instincts. Day and night, a terrible though undeclared war is raging between two of your next-door neighbors. Peace of the Pacific is seriously disturbed. The whole future of democracy, humanity and world peace is at stake. How this war in China affects your own country must be a question burning in the heart of every alert American.
You all remember that, not long ago, your country and others went through immense sacrifices and untold sufferings to fight against militarism, in order to make the world safe for democracy and to restore the peace and security of the human race. Following the World War, the League of Nations was conceived by your great statesman, President Wilson, as an instrument to insure world peace. Farsighted statesmen of the world, however, early realized the dangers in the Far Eastern situation. They saw how, w
hen they were busy fighting in Europe, Japan had taken advantage of weak China, forced upon her the infamous “Twenty-one Demands,” sought to establish domination over her, threatened to close the Open Door in China, and sown the seed for another world conflict. Under the leadership of your Government, therefore, the Washington Conference was convened in 1922 which, among other things, sealed the Nine-Power Treaty. In that treaty, the contracting Powers solemnly and unequivocably pledged to respect China’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial and administrative integrity and to uphold the Open Door principle with respect to China. Japan was one of the signatories. Subsequently, as a further effort to insure world peace, the Anti-War Pact, which customarily bears the name of another American statesman. Secretary Kellogg, was signed by a number of Powers. Japan was again one of them. Thanks to these painstaking efforts in the interest of a better world order and achieved under the leadership of America, the human race enjoyed a short respite of comparative peace. The world rejoiced and China was particularly thankful.
Unfortunately, the world was soon disillusioned. For, no sooner had Japan solemnly signed these treaties than she began unscrupulously to scrap them. In an even more reckless and intensive way, she renewed her aggression in China and in 1931 she startled and defied the whole world by marching her troops into Manchuria, the throat of China. Having thus successfully bluffed the world, she proceeded to carry out persistently a series of further encroachments on. China, in utter disregard of the sanctity of international law and morality. Her undeclared war in Shanghai in 1932, her invasion into Jehol along the Great Wall in 1933, her armed aggression in Hopei, Charhar and Suiyuan Provinces in 1935–36, her official connivance at the scandalous orgy of wholesale smuggling in North China, her illegal stationing of troops in the same region, her intrigue in creating the so-called “East Hopei Autonomous State,” her numerous other acts of murder, bully, intrigue and interference throughout China, and finally her latest aggression which has thrust war upon the whole of China, are well known to the world. All these acts of aggression, I must point to you, friends, have been due to the fact that when Japan grabbed Manchuria from China, the Powers of the world conveniently looked aside and allowed themselves to be bluffed and flouted through their attitude of inaction and impotence. Had the Powers in 1931 firmly and courageously brought home to the Japanese militarists that international treaties could not be violated with impunity, subsequent history in the Far East and even in Europe would have been different and the world crisis today avoided.
Now, my American friends, I need hardly tell you that we Chinese people are pacifists like you. We are by nature peace loving. We are taught by our sages to worship peace and to abhor war. In our moral conviction, we cherish the Christian principle of “world brotherhood.” In our political belief, we uphold President Roosevelt’s policy of “good neighborhood.” Our people have, consequently, been extremely patient with Japan’s militarists, while our Government has persistently endeavored to maintain peace and friendship with Japan. In fact, we want to live in peace with all nations so that we may devote ourselves to our spiritual and material reconstruction, for the benefit of the world as well as of ourselves.
But, militarist Japan does not wish to see the development of a united, peaceful and progressive China. At last, the repeated aggressions of her militarists, and especially their absolute lawlessness and horrible brutalism, have left our people absolutely no alternative but to take up arms in self-defence. The national existence and independence of China’s 470,000,000 people cannot be sacrificed. The soul of China cries out for salvation. Though regarded as spineless pacifists, we are pitting our brave hearts and flesh and blood against all the odds of Japan’s mighty fleet, her mechanized armies, her warplanes, tanks, shells, machine guns, incendiary bombs, and the most powerful weapons of killing and destruction. And, let me assure you, we are determined to resist our aggressor to the last man and the last inch of territory. The daily horrors of brutal killing and wanton destruction visited upon thousands and thousands of innocent and peace-loving Chinese would shock any human being with revulsion. You who have gone through the horrors, agonies and sufferings in the last World War can surely appreciate the feeling that is beating in every Chinese heart at this moment. The soul of China is indeed pained. But, believe me, the soul is stirred, not depressed. And as long as that soul exists, united China will resist her invader to the bitter end, cost what it may.
My friends, you who are thousands of miles away from China, may ask how this Japanese aggression affects your country. Let me tell you, it affects you in a most vital and dangerous way.
First of all, Japan’s policy of war and aggression aims not only at the conquest and domination of China; it aims also at the exclusion of all foreign interests from any market where the Japanese sword holds sway, and at the eventual expulsion of America and Europe from their territorial possessions in the Pacific and Asia. The experience of foreign interests in Korea and Formosa has given stern warning in the past; in Manchuria and Jehol they have already been kicked out through the “Open Door”; and a foretaste of what they may expect in other Chinese territory under Japanese domination has been clearly indicated in North China today. Driven by unbounded lust for power and supremacy and by frantic belief in a “divine mission,” Japan is ruthlessly seeking the domination of China as a steppingstone to establishing her hegemony in the Pacific and finally world domination. Her former Premier, Tanaka, stated in his well-known memorial to the Emperor that to conquer the world Japan must first conquer China. Read some of the books written by Japan’s responsible leaders today, such as The Pacific Crisis, The Next World War and An American-Japanese War Is Inevitable, and you can readily see for yourselves how they openly advocate war against your own country, preparing for that emergency, and aspiring to grab and smash the Philippines, Hawaii, and your western coast, once they succeed in commanding China’s vast natural resources. Already Japan’s hand of economic penetration has reached the heart of your land in the form of her colonists, cheap labor and price-cutting goods. It is only one step to striking you with her mighty sword.
But the menace of Japan’s aggression is not limited to your material interests. The moral and spiritual aspect of the situation is equally, if not more, significant. If Japan’s flagrant violations of international law and treaties are tolerated, what will become of all the past and present efforts in which your country leads towards building a peaceful world order? If Japan’s aggression and domination are to extend unchecked, where will be the security of all her neighbors? If Japan’s lawlessness and brutalism are to go unchallenged, who can predict the future of humanity and civilization? If Japan’s militarism is allowed to defy the world, what will prevent other aggressive countries from copying her dangerous example in other parts of the world?
Now, let me put myself in your position and be absolutely frank with you. You are a peace-loving nation. You wish to avoid involvement in war in any part of the world. You have built up an “isolationist policy.” You have enacted the “Neutrality Act.” I can fully appreciate your position and aspiration. But have you ever stopped to think that a nation by ignoring the dangers of destructive forces cannot live in peace, any more than an ostrich can bury its head in the sand? As your illustrious President has poignantly pointed out in his epoch-making speech at Chicago, “In the modern conditions of international interdependence, no nation could isolate itself from the upheavals of the rest of the world.” It is not only essential to your ideals of freedom and democracy that the sanctity of international treaties and the maintenance of international morality should be restored; it is vital to your peace and security that the forces of destruction and aggression in the Far East should be checked in time. When your next door neighbors are being attacked by robbers, do you, like frightened children, duck yourselves in your bedclothes, or do you like brave and farsighted men seek to rid the community of the public enemy? Friends, no people is more peace loving than we Chinese, but we have wa
r forced upon us no matter how peace loving we may be. Do not deceive yourself by thinking that mere canting of pacifist aspirations or sole reliance on an attitude of aloofness and isolation will give you immunity from the baneful effects of Japan’s gangsterism. To have peace you must have the courage to work for peace. Otherwise, you may wake up one day and find war brought to your very doors when you are still shouting on your housetops for peace, isolation and neutrality.
How then can you help China to check Japan’s aggression and defend the peace of the Far East? It is our conviction that you need not go to war. We do not ask you to fight our war. But short of going to war, there are many effective ways in which you can help us. Yes, we have your sympathy and moral support and we appreciate them. But we need from you more than that. We need your full material support in the form of money, relief work, arms and ammunitions. At the same time, let no American buy anything from or sell anything to the Japanese. Let no ship leave American shores with arms, ammunitions or any cargo for Japan, which will be used for killing thousands upon thousands of innocent and peace-loving Chinese every day. We refuse to believe that militarist Japan can defy the overwhelming force of the world’s conscience and pressure.