 This is the story of the Pacific and its people. Of the peaceful sea and the lands and lives it touches, and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company as a public service, and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific Basin. This broadcast series comes to you as another feature of the NBC Inter-American University of the Air, with drama of the past and present, and commentary by Owen Lattermore, authority on the Pacific, and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. World War I in the Pacific. World War I gave Japan its great opportunity. While Britain and France were engaged with Germany and Europe, Japan seized the opportunity to expand its empire. For nearly a month after the assassination at Salahevo, Tokyo and London debated the terms on which Japan should join the allies. Then, late in August 1914, Japanese forces landed 100 miles north of Singdao in Shandong Province, China, in a move to occupy this Germany's territory. Although China has declared its neutrality, the Japanese are taking a reason far more extensive than the German lethal. Japanese troops are swinging around to the rear of Singdao, and Japanese Admiral Kato Tomasaburo is weaving up mines and maintaining a tight blockade of the fortified harbor of Singdao. With overpowering might, the Japanese broke through the defenses of the stronghold, and in November, after two months of campaigning, triumphantly paraded into the city of Singdao. Quite a surreal Japanese amazement of this, Admiral Tomasaburo. It is a great victory for the allies. I don't know about the allies, Admiral. We have driven the Germans out of Singdao and saved you, British, from coming out here to the Far East to do it. We have to celebrate. Yeah. It is the first stroke for the allies in the Pacific. For the allies? Yes. Japan sent an ultimatum to Germany, you know, to turn over this lethal in Shandong with view of its eventual restoration to China. And the Germany ignored it. Does the Japan plan to restore Shandong to China? We are at war now, as you, Britishers, should know. Germany was negotiating with China to restore Shandong to China. Germany was willing to evacuate Shandong, give it back to China, when Japan attacked. Japan came into the war in compliance with our treaty with you. We have done, Briton, a great service. Didn't London urge Tokyo not to offer to generous a hand in the Pacific? Japan acted to fulfill her obligations. So Japan came into the war on her own terms. Our count Okuma clarified our position in his cable to the United States. You mean about Japan having no territorial ambition and hoping to stand as protector of peace in the Orient? That is our policy. Here, you see, look at this. This contingent of your colonials carrying the British corolles, marching in with our troops, that symbolizes the alliance of Japan and the Allies. Yes, Admiral Thomas de Bureau. We'll probably remember this triumphal march into Fingdao for a long time. It is an important day. This day will remind us that Japan came into the war in spite of Britain, rather than because of us. Based in the harbor of Fingdao, with the strong German squadrons on device admirals on speed. The Japanese made no effort to watch it during the tenth month of July 1914, when she under the Anglo-Japanese Treaty was on a verge of coming into the war as an ally of Britain. Weeks before the Japanese clamped their blockade on Fingdao, the German squadrons slipped out and disappeared in the broad Pacific. The Japanese had permitted speed squadrons to slip through their fingers. The Japanese are not interested in German ships. While speed was escaping, the Japanese were moving in on Fingdao and the Germans south the island. You realize what this means? We had been better off as Japan had not come into the war at all. It means that speed squadron is now free to raid our ships all over the Pacific. Vice-admove on speed-strong German squadron has been joined by two light cruisers and is now harvesting our lines of communication. Speed squadron has moved down on another allied outpost in the Pacific to cut cables and smash shore installations. Squadron has captured two more allied merchantmen. Squadron has destroyed the squadron of the admiral's clinic at Coronel off the coast of Chile. There is only one cause open to us, gentlemen. We must find and destroy speed squadrons. We can count on no help from the Japanese, sir. As our allies, they should help in the hunt. So far, they have been indifferent to all our efforts to run down speed squadrons. Japan is making little more than gestures, sir. Japan has sent some ships. Oh, they might as well have sent wind jammers. He's right, sir. They've sent some old hoaxes and Kamamura squadron and a captured Russian battleship that was torpedoed at Port Arthur. He's keeping our feet close to home waters, sir. If we must do it alone, gentlemen, we must still do it. Speed has detached the Emden, which is now raiding alone throughout the South Atlantic and deep into the Indian Ocean. Between the Emden and the rest of speed squadron, the Pacific stands in dread of the Germans. They will detach three battle cruisers from the European war zone and send them to run down speed. But, sir, whereas he's sorely in need of every kind of speed, he must be destroyed. Order the following battle cruisers to proceed at once to the South Pacific. Oh, yes, sir. They'll buy the file, but he's still trying to look. He'll never get out. He's here in the paper. I caught up with him down by the Falklands, eh? Yes. Down in the South Atlantic off Argentina. Were there any Japanese battle wagons in on the keel? Not within 10,000 miles, there wasn't. What is it he gets at doing in this blasted war? We asked him to send an expeditionary force to France, and the crisis too far. They ain't got the transportation facilities. They let speed give them the slip, and when we asked him to hunt with us, why the... Oh, I asked, sir, what kind of a war is it these Japanese are fighting? Japan firmly incensed herself in Singdao, in Shantung province, around it, and in the Mariana, the Carolin, and the Marshall Island. Then she began to waver in her allegiance to the Allies. Japan seized the opportunity in 1916 to extract from Britain, France, and Italy a promise to support her claims at the peace table to Shantung and the island. Secret treaties were entered into between all. When the United States met at World War I in 1917, the United States was the only Allied nation that had not agreed to Japanese hegemony in Asia. The Japanese were soon to create a crisis on this store. To consult on joint efforts in the prosecution of World War I, America's allies sent missions to the United States in 1917. From Japan came Viscount Ishii. All interests in Asia, Mr. Secretary, might be called a Japanese Monroe Doctrine. I see. Your worthy predecessor, William Gening Bryant himself, met two years ago in the 1915 that Japan had a special interest in China. The purpose of your visit, Viscount Ishii, is to discuss our joint efforts in the war, is it not? By all means, Mr. Secretary, and also an understanding on problems in which we are mutually interested in the Far East. We wish only to clarify our understanding. Mr. Bryant meant in speaking of your special interest in China that there were particular conditions rising from your nearness to China. Japan is sure that America sees eye to eye with us. Germany is our common enemy. Of course, of course. Then would it not be best in order to end the rumors of differences between America and Japan that we show our singleness of policy and interest by exchanging notes? The United States is most eager to do that. Since Mr. Bryant declared that Japan had special interest in China, might it not be helpful both to the United States and Japan to clarify our understanding by setting this forth in these of notes? Mr. Bryant's meaning, Viscount Ishii, was perhaps less definite than the words imply. He meant it merely as a pleasantry. The United States is a great nation, Mr. Secretary. I have seen your battle-feet in Long Island sound. I have seen your preparations to maintain an ever-increasing army in France. You are strong because you understand other nations. We have no other nations staked out for seizure by Count Ishii. You have nothing to fear, nor has Japan. Thus, you see, we have only to gain mutual confidence by clarifying the understanding between us relative to China. But there are other points on which we are in complete agreement. We have no disagreement, Mr. Secretary. Japan wishes only to state in our agreements the policy which was set forth by your William Jennings Bryant Secretary of State Robert Lansing was unwilling or unable to repudiate the words of his predecessor, and the Lansing Ishii agreement was signed in 1917. Before the ink was dry and prior to the date the agreement was to be announced, the Japanese informed the Chinese, the United States has admitted that Japan has special interest in China. This amount to an abandonment of the American policy over friendship for China. China was stunned, and Japan was quick to take advantage of the situation. While the Allies sought the help of the remaining neutral nations against Germany, Japanese agents went to China, and working with Germans there sought to keep China out of the war. But China won her way into the Allied camp. At the Beside Peace Conference at the close of the war, the Lansing Ishii agreement clearly states that the United States recognizes that Japan has special interest in China. It must not be some school, Baron Montino, to mean that the United States accepts the Lansing Ishii notes as a commitment to give Japan permanent accession to the German rights in China, and in the North Pacific. Japan was in possession of Shandong, and the German islands when the Lansing Ishii agreement was signed. A clear confirmation of Japan's rights in these places. Yes, Baron Montino is trying this peace conference in the North. Yeah, for the benefit of Japan. My paper's been buzzing me for a lead on the Shandong question, but with this guy, Montino, putting on an act that the United States is giving Japan a run-around while Japan is actually giving the rest of the nations the run-around. Well, there ought to be a break somewhere along here soon. They can't keep on ranting over this Shandong question forever. They can, as far as China is concerned. That guy, Montino, is not going to break down. Well, I've told my paper they're giving China the works here. Well, I don't know. I'll tell you. Well, he's in cruise at the whole conference on its ear with that plea of his for Shandong as China's sacred province. Well, for my doubt, there's going to be some horse trading here, and China's coming out on the short ends. Japan has got a hook on Shandong and those German islands. Japan had Shandong. Her troops were holding it. Her troops were also holding the Carolin Islands, the Marianas, and the Marshalls. To support her claims at Versailles, she brought out the secret treaties extracted from the allies before the entrance of the United States into the war. The big four of Versailles peace conference have surrendered Shandong to Japan. China is indignant and invited, and the Chinese delegation has been deluded with telegrams not to accept this decision. Well, what did I tell you? They've sold China down the river. They just let that guy, Montino, make a monkey out of him on the Shandong question. Not only Shandong, the League of Nations have mandated the Carolinas, the Marshalls, and the Marianas to Japan. Well, I don't know. But they've only mandated the islands to Japan. They haven't given them to her. Now Japan's got them, and Japan's going to keep them. And that means Japan now has strongholds south of Manila and east of Guam. And you can figure out what that means to the United States for yourself. Two days after the peace conference decided the Shandong question in favor of Japan in April 1919, China flared in protest. On May 3rd, the United States group of Chinese students at the National University of Beijing met to protest the Versailles decision. The Shandong question is the result of corruption and injustice. And we as students must fight to show the world that might should never be right. There can be only one conclusion. A greater world war is coming sooner or later. And this great war will be fought here in the east. But we cannot wait for the next world war. We must drive Japan out of China now. We must drive out the Chinese traders who have sold our Versailles to Japan. We students with no access to grind can carry out protest against the award of Shandong to the British and American ministers in the Legation Quarter. We can march in their bodies. We will march, all of us. Tomorrow, all of us. We must expect opposition. Some of us may die. But we can do no less than the student who bumped his head against a stone pillar that can't seem to show how easily a student can die for his country. We can do no less than the student who have openly defied the bayonet to the Japanese or the willingness of the orphans to be imprisoned in places of students and to die for them if necessary. I pledge that I will march in protest and for death. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, look. Mr. Sia here has deliberately broken his finger and written in blood on the wall. Return our sing-dow. We need your courage, Sia. I shall march in the vanguard tomorrow. We shall all march in a mass parade to the British and American Legations tomorrow. We will assemble in groups according to our schools and we will have... Next day, May 4th, 10,000 Chinese students march through the streets of Peking, carrying flags, bearing inscriptions. Health determinations. International justice. Down with the payers. Return our sing-dow. The students fired the imagination of the public, marching mile after mile to the Legation Quarter to see the allied ministers. That's where you are. We have come to see the British and American ministers. The guards have been reinforced. Yes. Only a delegation of us wish to enter. If we cannot see the British and American ministers, perhaps we can see Sao Ru Lin. Sao Ru Lin is greater. Yes, just Sao Ru Lin is greater. Yes, just Sao Ru Lin is greater. We can go to Sao Ru Lin's house. Yes, we can go to Sao Ru Lin's house. Off to Sao Ru Lin's... On to Chang'ang Street, the 1,000th march to the home of Sao Ru Lin. The three pro-Japanese-Chinese officials link with the surrender of Shandong to Japan. We wish to see Sao Ru Lin. You cannot see Sao Ru Lin. No one is permitted to enter here. They have thrown extra guards and policemen around the soldiers. Sao Ru Lin to come out. Stand back. Stand back. Continue your march. We wish to speak with Sao Ru Lin. Stand back. Sao Ru Lin has determined not to speak. No, everyone is open. The students are going in after Sao Ru Lin. Yes, let us go in and talk with Mr. Sao. Sao, I'm right with you. Let us force our way through who we have found. Come on. Who is it? Come on, you look up. Our Chinese minister to Tokyo equally guilty with Sao Ru Lin in the surrender of Shandong. He is pro-Japanese. Yes, another one of the hated pro-Japanese officials. Who is that? I have been looking for you too, Mr. Chang. Students of other cities joined. Merchants, newspapers, scholars joined. On June 6, the guards were removed from the doors of the prison, and the 32 students were ordered to go home. But before they would depart, they made four demands upon the government. We demand that the three pro-Japanese traitors identified with the surrender of Shandong be dismissed. Certainly, we demand that students be allowed freedom of speech. Thirdly, that we be allowed to parade the streets of Peking, unmolested, and forcibly that the government make a public apology to the students. We demand that these... The students had fired the will and the imagination of China. The people of China had taken up the torch. The three traitors were dismissed. The government of its own accord sent an apology to the students. The police apologized and sent automobiles to the prison doors. And when the students marched triumphantly out... The removal of the three pro-Japanese officials from the Peking government has been reflected at the side. The Chinese delegation not being permitted to sign without reservations as to the Shandong question have refused to sign the peace treaty, unquote. At the close of World War I, the seeds of World War II had already been sown. Even at the start of World War I, China had foreseen the catastrophe to come. Before Japan had seized Shandong and the German islands, President Yuan Shikai said, Japan is going to take advantage of this war to get control of China. These are the facts. And here to tell the meaning behind them is Owen Lattermore, authority on the Pacific and director of the School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Lattermore. What is the biggest difference between the World War of a quarter of a century ago and the war we are fighting now? In my opinion, the difference is in the importance of Asia. In that other war, nobody in Asia was fighting for any particular cause, good or bad. Japan just hung around the edges of the war like a jackal, hung really snapping up any good bits that came her way. China was hardly in the war at all, though Japanese fought Germans on Chinese soil for Chinese plunder, and later a number of nations used Chinese territory as a base for intervention against Russia. It was only at the end of the war that China awoke, stung to protest by some of the more outrageous decisions of the Versailles Peace Conference. This war that we are fighting now is very different. In order to understand it properly, we Americans need to repeat to ourselves constantly a number of statistical facts and to arouse our imaginations to the vast historic sweep of the events in which we are taking a decisive part. How could anybody else's part in the war be more vivid and real than America's part? American blood paid for the beach head at Salerno, and American courage and skill has carried the attack on inland into Italy. Americans are fighting in the most remote Pacific jungles, and in the air over China and Burma. There are American prisoners behind Jap and German barbed wire. The advance on almost every fighting front is marked by its quota of American graves. Yet with all this, the war is for us only a recent war and it has not cost us a tithe of what it has cost many of our allies. The Dutch have lost every foot of their territory and their possessions. The British have been in the war more than twice as long as we have and the cost to them in blood, sweat, toil and tears has been far greater than our sacrifices. The Russians are casualties in millions while ours are counted only in thousands. Above all, the Chinese are the veterans of this war and it is the reasons for which the Chinese fought and the way in which they have fought which have shaped the issues of the war as a whole. Just imagine what terrible problems we should face if this war were in fact on top of everything else a racial war, a war of Asia for the Asiatics we owe it to China that the war in the Pacific is not a war of Asia for the Asiatics but a war in which the issues are the same for Asiatics as they are for Europeans and Americans issues of self-defense against aggression of freedom against subjugation. These are things that have become established clearly in men's minds partly because the war has been going on longer in Asia than anywhere else. Yesterday, September 18 was the 12th anniversary of the stealthy and treacherous Japanese attack on Mukden. To China, the cost of that attack was the loss of three of her richest provinces followed by steady encroachment until the whole nation was at war but the whole world also paid a price for Japan's aggression. Failure to control the aggression undermined the League of Nations and opened the way to the rise of Hitler in Europe. What is the essential difference between the passive, lethargic China of the last war and the dynamic, history-making China of today? How sudden was the transformation? That is just the point and it is the whole point. The awakening of China is not due to a sudden transformation and neither is to Japanese aggression the result of a sudden transformation. There is a direct line of development from the Japanese generals who were looking for loot in the last war and the Japanese generals and admirals who were looking for loot when they struck Mukden in 1931 when they struck at Marco Polo Bridge in 1937 and when they struck at Pearl Harbour in 1941. There is also a direct line of development from the passionate students of China who roused their countrymen to protest against the Versailles Treaty in 1919 to the skilled Chinese generals of the nation's Chinese guerrillas of today. In a quarter of a century China has changed from the kind of country whose fate is settled for it in distant councils to the kind of country which determines its own fate and in so doing helps to shape the fortunes of other nations and peoples. 25 years ago China was at the mercy not only of other countries but of its own corrupt politicians and conscience-less warlords. The protest of the Chinese students in 1919 was not only against heartless, fallen statesmen but against traitorous Chinese in high places. In a quarter of a century since then the Chinese have no more become a perfect people and a model nation than America has but they have become less and less a country of civil wars and more and more a country of responsible political standards. They still have great problems to face and to solve but it is not where they actually stand at the moment that counts it is the direction in which they are moving. They are moving forward and because they are moving forward there is hope that the rest of Asia can also move forward. That in itself is enough to open out the horizons of the world and an assurance against the closed horizons of the Versailles Treaty of a quarter of a century ago. Thank you Mr. Lathamore At this same time over most of these stations we will present the Manchurian incident and its consequences with drama of the past and present and commentary by Owen Lathamore authority on the Pacific and director of the School of International Relations Johns Hopkins University who may secure an illuminating handbook of the Pacific story with background information on each program in this series with suggested further reading. This Pacific story manual will be sent to you for 25 cents in coin to cover cost of printing and mailing address the University of California Press Berkeley, California the address again the University of California Press Berkeley, California by Arnold Marquess the score is composed and conducted by Thomas Peluso your narrator, Gane Whitman this program has been presented as a public service and another feature of the Inter-American University of the Air by the National Broadcasting Company and the independent radio stations associated with the NBC network this is the National Broadcasting Company