Viewing page 3 of 24

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[blank page]]



Introduction

TODAY the "Good Earth" of China is drenched with the blood and tears of millions of its women and children. Age-old monuments and institutions, representing five thousand years' contribution to world culture, face destruction. Once flourishing towns and villages lie in ruins. This is the scene behind the lines of the advancing armies of Japanese conquest.

Peace-loving humanity the world over stands aghast at this, the latest crime of the Japanese war lords against a peaceful nation. But the deepest disillusionment is felt by the millions of colored peoples in America, Africa and Asia who once regarded seriously Japan's claim to leadership of the colored world. Among these peoples, the ruthless violation of the independence and integrity of another colored nation by Japan has caused a sharp revulsion of feeling.

The change of feeling among colored peoples is aptly expressed by the great Indian poet-philosopher, Rabindranath Tagore:

"...All Asia once admired Japan and cherished great hopes that Asia had at last found in Japan the answer to the West; that the new power of Japan would be devoted to safeguarding the civilization of the East against foreign interests. But it was not long before Japan betrayed the awakening hope, and turned its back on everything that was wonderful and significant in its symbolic rise. Japan itself now represents an even worse menace to the defenseless people of the East. And worse than its economic exploitation, worse than its territorial aggression, are the massacres which it perpetrates day after day, and its shameless defense of this inhumanity."

5