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Show H . JAPAN,$ WAR STRENGTH M Prince Tokugawa is, without doubt, M i sincere in stating that Japan does not M want war with the United States, j u t No nation in its right mind wants war H I with anybody. ,., . .-v u- j - H j At the same time, it would be folly f or H ( us to underrate Nippon as a possible, and M I h formidable foe. H ' ' Roughly speaking, Japan has a navy a-' H bout half the size of ours, but our sup- H eriority is heavily offset by strategic con- iWI ditions which favor her. n ' According to the figures of Hector By- r ' i .water, the English naval critic, Japan has H now the most powerful ship of war in the M J .world the Nagato which is 1200 tons hea- H ' ' ' yier and three knots faster than our fin- H , est war ship the Maryland. The Mutsu, M -v the sister ship of the Nagato, is almost iVsH 0i ready for sea. H ' ,-.&: The Nagato displaces, 38,800 tons. Next pfffl gk'" Year the Japanese will add the Kaga and IB 5 & Tofla displacing 40,000 tons, with twelve H & sixteen-inch guns 1 fe, Before the end of 1924 she is to have M HKfy the fast battle cruisers, Amagi, Agagi, H ,t" Atago and Tatao, of the same size and H " arhiament of six battle cruisers we are H ;, j building. H i j Her Eight-Eight program contemplat- H ; " es the building of fifteen more dread- M '' naughts, five of which are under con- H structiori.' iH 'l The United States has approximately H , twenty dreadnaughtd as against Japan's B I ten, and fifteen capital ships are build- iH,1 hig. it We have heaw superiority in destroyers destroy-ers and flving boats. Mr. Bywater points out that whereas we have 154 submarines as against forty-five Japanese subs, the M latter nation is at work on a vast submar- M me program which contemplates the M . building of 150 undersea boats, each, with f a crusing radius of 11000 knots. Onlv H j sixty-three of out undersea boats are off M cially classed as sea-going, the remainder H J being designed for coast defense; hence j useless in a Japanese war. M , Mr. Bywater also seems to think we M I' are lacking in swift scout cruisers. H In other words, while the Japanese Hhi navy is pronouncedly inferior in appar- H' ent strength, they have built their ships with the definite purpose of a war with the United States. We have built with H only general utility in mind ?! The Japanese, of course, in facing the H possibility of a naval war with the Unit- H' ed States, are bought up by the memory H; of the battle of Tsushima Straits, when H; they destroyed the Russian navy, which Hj had sailed from the Baltic to give .them ' combat as we would have to make the Hi long Voyage from this coast H'f ','The Japanese themselves," says Mr. Bywater in th Atlantic Monthly, "have H never disguised their confidence inthe HI impreganability of their 'position vis-a- Hg vis the United States. , HE j "Japan having seized the Philippines Hi : (according to their predictions) "VQuld HI ,, revert to the defensive and calmly awjiit Hi developments. HI r "If her opponent (the United States) HI f so far flouted the rudiments of strategy Hi i as to dispatch a fleet to the war zone. HI relying on a 5000-mile line of communi- Hl cation with Hawaii, the Japanese would HI '. resort to a war of attrition by means of HI submarines and minelayers working from Hi numeous bases in the South Sea Islands H ! and off the coast of Japan. HI 1 "Then, when at length the American HI fleet, harassed and weakened by inces- H J3ant submarine attacks and vnth its HI stock of foiel reduced 'to a low ebb, pro- Hl posed to return home, the Japanese battle Hi fleet in full strength .would sally forth I at the psycliological moment and repeat H " 'l HLji"J the triumph of Tsushima on a magnificent magnifi-cent scale." In the actual event ofwar, however, the Japanese might discover, as did the Germans, Ger-mans, that it is usually the -unexpected which happens in war. In the long run it would seem that the United States would be bound to win a war against a country as .limited in resources re-sources as Japan. A consideration of the physical facts, however, indicates that we have a very practical reason for doing all in our power to smooth out the difficulties between be-tween the two countries. .. In some quarters there seems to be a disposition to regard such a possible war as a slight fracas with an obstreperous child. Th-8 facts, stated above seem to indicate in-dicate that it would be a long and terrible terri-ble struggle. Los Angeles Times |