J. O. P. Bland Quotes
Everything possible should be done to bring about more cordial relations between the United States and Japan. Goodwill is not likely to come into play so long as a powerful section of the Press in both countries panders to the Jingo element by fomenting jealous suspicions and exciting popular passion. Neither America nor Japan wants war, … but in both countries there are elements at work whose active propaganda tends to produce increasing irritation, and to create in the public mind a belief that sooner or later war is inevitable.
Bland was an expert in Asia and spent most of his time writing about Asian Politics. This quote shows that there was hostility and bad feeling between American and Japan long before WWII. This statement was written in 1921. The reality was that Japan was getting stronger as a militaristic expansionist nation which wanted to subjugate most of Asia. Ironically, they were using England and the European powers as models and sought to take Korea, Manchuria and much of Asia as Colonies, but this clashed with American values and even then there was animosity of the two systems.
J. O. P. Bland, 1863-1945, (John Otway Percy Bland), English Journalist, Historian, and Foreign Intelligence Operative, Description of China in 1919, China, Japan and Korea, 1921
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was the veteran newspaper editor’s last column before retirement and he chose to write it about the role of the press in the Japanese imperialist and militaristic nation in the period before and during WWII. He was then a young journalist. While most Japanese see that period as disastrous where the nation lost its way, the ultra conservatives blame the insufficient attention and support of the military and in retrospect do not see that the Japanese have anything to apologize for. Most of Asia disagrees profoundly.
The final decision regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor and war with America had to be made. The Emperor Hirohito, Prime Minister Tojo, the full cabinet and leading elder statesmen were invited. Hara attended as one of the latter class. America had instituted an embargo of critical raw material whose end was contingent of Japan withdrawing from the territory that they had invaded and stop their territorial aggression in Asia, an aggression which some Japanese leaders—notably the military—was absolutely necessary to provide for the growing Japanese population and its increasing standard of living. At the time, an embargo was a powerfully effective weapon, which left Japan only two choices: Withdrawal or War. In modern times nations have chosen to endure and evade embargoes rather than be forced into undesirable positions.
This was the week after he returned from his meeting with Hitler in Munich where he appeased the German Dictator. See {585941} for his famous naive statement.
After the signing of the Munich Pact:
See {633152} for more of the reasoning for this point. “Neocon” is a shortened form of “neoconservative”. At the time the neoconservatives were advocating use of military intervention in the Middle East. Munich was the German city in which British Prime Minister notoriously tried to appease Hitler and the Nazis. This led to WWII and has become the historical icon for appeasement of a powerful tyrant and the cost of such.
Despite the fact that there were no formal political polls at the time, public opinion was very influential in curtailing what might be a tendency to use of the American military. Starting with the Cold War later, Presidents tended to use American military force regardless of public opinion or would exaggerate or lie (Vietnam and Iraq wars for example) to temporally gain some public support.
John Otway Percy Bland, who wrote as J. O. P. Bland, was a British writer and journalist, best known as the author of a number of books on Chinese politics and history. He lived in China for most of the period 1883–1910.
