John M. Maki

Book Reviews : Japan's New Order in East Asia : Its Rise and Fall 1937-45. By F. C. JONES. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1954. Pp. x, 498.

east Asia, the Philippines, China, and Japan; but he is far more concerned to show how Asians actually responded under the Western impact. The book offers a strong indictment of Western conduct in Asia, with countless illustrations of the viciousness, arrogance, blindness, ignorance, and inhumanity of the many Westerners who serenely left unquestioned the assumption of their own political, cultural (religious), and social superiority. In the main, the Westerners remained totally oblivious to the fact that their conduct was always being critically judged by the victims who seemed so lethargic and helpless, that the politics of the different Asian peoples were often dominated by an animosity toward the blandly superior Westerner and a desire to protect indigenous institutions against their alien subversion, and that a long accumulation of well-remembered grievances motivated Asians at the close of the epoch. As an example, Mr. Panikkar cites the belief of Chinese Communists that Britain has yet

6.10.)

cause so many of the men to whom Japan would nor? mally have looked for leadership have been eliminated from public life. There was no reservoir of military and naval leaders, diplomats, politicians, business leaders, career government officials, or public-minded professors to draw on. Japans former leaders or po? tential leaders had risen to prominence during the period when Japan was engaged in military aggression abroad and suppression of popular movements at home. Nearly all of them, therefore, were unacceptable to the occupation forces under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, as applied in the January purge directives, and equally unacceptable to the Japanese public. When the ruling class of a country is eliminated almost over night there is no quick and ready substi? tute at hand. This is particularly true in Japan, where the dethronement of the former leadership was brought about largely by external forces, namely de? feat in war and the policies of the military occupation. Had the Japanese people risen against their old rulers, there would presumably have been a body of trained leadership which had led the fight against the old order. But this was not the case.