JAPAN AND THE "IRREPRESSIBLE EXPANSION" DOCTRINE
"But a curious, though logical, outcome of Japan's efforts to colonize in Korea and Manchuria and in other parts of China is that, notwithstanding the unjust preferential conditions maintained for them by their government in comparison with Koreans and Chinese, Japanese immigration to the continent of Asia comparatively is a failure. The reason is simple. In going to Korea and China, Japanese find they have moved into an even lower standard of living than obtains in Japan; that is, into a more cramped economic field, not a wider one. Japanese even with preferential facilities cannot compete in large numbers with their neighbor Orientals. Chinese and Koreans are able to, and do undercut Japanese in business economies and standards of living. Preferential exactions in their behalf by the Japanese Government enables some Japanese to improve their state by pursuing commercial and other occupations in China, but to the millions of Japan's peasantry China offers no lure and little opportunity for betterment. The application of this situation to Japan's contacts with America is easily deduced. It is not toward the East with its lower economic level that Japan's millions yearn; but toward the West with its higher economic standards, under which Japanese of all classes can cut and still find room for an immense improvement of their condition. …
"In an address made in 1914 Professor Kichisaburo Endo of the Imperial University, Tokio, said: 'It is impossible for our people, who from elementary school-days have been bred with teachings of loyalty and patriotism, to lose their characters and adopt those of the country to which they emigrated. The suggestion that they can completely ignores the history of our country. There are some Japanese who try to refute the contention of the American people that the Japanese are utterly unassimilable. It
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