News

Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber

News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard

News

‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative

News

Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter

News

LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard

CALLS U. S. BLIND TO AFFAIRS OF ORIENT

Yusuke Tsurumi Compares Indifference of This Country to East With His Country's Passionate Interest in U. S.

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

"Why don't American students turn their faces to they future?" asked Mr. Yusuke Tsurumi, one of the Japanese delegates to the recent Institute of Politics held at Williamstown, in an interview with a CRIMSON reporter yesterday.

"The apparent disregard of Americans for Asiatic foreign affairs in general, and Japanese problems specifically, is most astounding," he declared. "They seem to devour the speeches and troubles of Europe with great avidity, but how often does one see the speech of a Japanese statesman or a study of current Japanese internal conditions printed in an American newspaper? You cannot deny that we Japanese are considered of very little news value, can you?

Pacific to Be World Center

"My message to American students is a plea that they look ahead into the future and attempt to comprehend the indisputable fact that the Pacific is the center of activities to be. Affairs are already on the move from the Atlantic. Japan and America will play the leading roles in these Pacific problems that will present themselves. Japan has the strategic position of the East. The West cannot deny it. Today in Japan there is taking place a tremendous conflict or social forces which should be studied with great care by Americans. If your nation and mine are to play the lead in international affairs, in years to come, we must make an effort to understand each other, to thrash out our common problems. The Japanese are passionately desirous of becoming acquainted with America and Americans. Witness the number of students we are sending to

your universities. Witness the amount of space which your American statesmen, your political parties, and your economic conditions receive in our daily newspapers. You Americans are the ones who must awaken to this new status of world affairs, you must accord us some understanding, some sympathy and goodwill.

Trade Draws U. S. to Orient

There are two reasons why America and Japan are drawing closer and closer together. Geographically speaking, we are not further apart than New York and Chicago. It is only 700 miles from your Aleutian Islands to the first of our Japanese islands. On a clear day you can look across from your Philippines and see the snow-capped peaks of our Formosa. In the second place our trade relations are becoming greater and greater. Japan will be the force which will awaken the Orient to a new era of economic prosperity. China is out of the picture for at least 50 years to come. It will be we who will touch the latent energy of China.

Immigration Act Humiliating

"In relation to the recent Immigration act which your Congress passed last summer let me say that it was not the contents of this act which griped Japan but the spirit which prompted it, and the abruptness and lack of sympathy with which the whole affair was handled. Its passage does not change conditions at all. Everything that it provides for had already been agreed upon in treaties or Internal acts by the Japanese government, but the American government by embodying these provisions in a law, broadcasted throughout the world its lack of confidence in the honor and integrity of the Japanese government. The whole affair has been a terrible humiliation.

"We never thought the greatness of real America lay in her material wealth nor her physical strength. There were many rich and powerful countries in ancient times, but they are all gone. They were as transitory as the great clouds that traverse their sepulchres. A permanent greatness is only seen in sublimity of spirit manifested in enduring forms of beauty and power, Japan's ambition has always been to attain a height of spiritual serenity. Japan looked and still looks to America as the torchbearer of Western civilization, of the emancipation of humanity and the brotherhood of man. Will Japan's hopes he fulfilled?

"With wistfulness and yearning Japan is watching the future developments in American politics. We have not lost our faith. We are awaiting with breathless interest, the manifestation of American spirit, the traditional spirit of fair play and serene justice.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags