Japan's Feet of Clay by FREDA UTLEYReview by: Emil LedererSocial Research, Vol. 4, No. 4 (NOVEMBER 1937), pp. 531-533Published by: The New SchoolStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40981584 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 09:08

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

The New School is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Research.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.96.21 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:08:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOOK REVIEWS 531 To be sure, the Marxists make no distinction between right-wing

and left-wing liberals. Whoever does not declare himself an uncom- promising foe to all kinds of private property as far as means of production and distribution are concerned, is a conservative, a reac- tionary, a bourgeois, nay even a "petit bourgeois," which is the great- est insult that can be launched by a Marxist against a man. The left-wing liberals may find consolation for their misfortune in the thought that "on est toujours le réactionnaire de quelqu'un." Even the Marxian socialists today are branded by the Marxian commu- nists of the strict observance as social-fascist, white guards of capitalism, and what not. As a matter of fact, when one witnesses the lamentable show that is being staged these days by the British Labour Party in connection with Spanish affairs, one feels a certain nostalgia for the old-fashioned "petit bourgeois" liberalism of Mr. Gladstone and asks oneself what humanity has gained by the passing of the scepter from a "petit bourgeois" liberal like Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman to a Marxian socialist like Major Atlee.

Harvard University Gaetano Salvemini

UTLEY, FREDA. Japan's Feet of Clay. New York: Norton. 1937. 39* pp. $3.75.

This book, based on tremendous material and giving more infor- mation than any other volume on present conditions in Japan, con- tains no factual statement that is not correct and still offers a dis- torted picture, painted in the colors of inimical criticism, lacking entirely that sympathetic understanding of cultural values without which it is impossible to give an "objective" representation of such a complex problem as a people in crisis.

The main thesis of the book is that the remnants of feudalism, in combination with industrial monopolies and aggressive militarism, keep the Japanese peasantry under an iron heel and the workers un- der a system of wage slavery, while these enforced efforts of the whole working population produce scarcely the bare necessities for the masses. This is due to the poverty in raw materials, the heavy burden of taxation and the lack of capital for farming and small scale industry. This poverty again is the consequence of ruthless exploitation: a small group of industrial millionaires, the landlords and the army extort whatever they can. Though everything that is said about the income of the farmers and the workers is correct, and is in fact drawn from

This content downloaded from 188.72.96.21 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:08:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

532 SOCIAL RESEARCH official Japanese sources, some of the implications and interpretations do not hold true. I shall content myself with discussing two main points: the agricultural situation and the question of Japan's spiritual inheritance.

The author believes that the scanty returns per capita of the agri- cultural working population are due to the lack of fertilizers and

capital investments; furthermore she believes that with more capital available for reclamation of land and for ways of transportation the area of fertile land could easily be increased. This opinion is hardly justified, in view of the considerable reclamation of land between 1890 and 1930, which probably included a good deal of submarginal land. The density of the agrarian population is after all a fact which cannot be denied. The comparison (p. 113), which declares the crop per acre to be 50 per cent higher in Italy and 90 per cent higher in Spain, is misleading unless one knows how the average quality of the soil cultivated in rice compares in these countries: whereas in Spain only 40,000 hectares and in Italy about 140,000 are under rice culti- vation, the area in Japan is 3,165,000 hectares, which indicates that in southern Europe only the very fertile soil is used for rice crops -

probably to a greater extent level fields, with excellent irrigation (Po valley) . And the production per acre in Japan, according to figures which Dr. Utley herself gives, is 100 per cent higher than the returns in Siam and the Dutch Indies. It may well be that agriculture is not at present in an optimum state in Japan, but to apply the "eco- nomic principle" would probably entail an increase in the average size of the farms and the abandonment of submarginal land, with the result of creating an agricultural surplus population. Even abolishing the rents paid to the landowners and reducing taxes on land would probably not increase the food supply but would rather make for higher expenditures of the farmers, whose income would be some- what increased. In other words, though changing the distribution of national income, it would hardly be likely to increase the national dividend.

Dr. Utley's discussion of agricultural problems shows that without hesitation she applies western standards in criticizing the economic and social fabric of Japan. The comparison with western institutions and standards is indispensable for understanding Japan, if one is a westerner, but this comparison should not lead to a wholesale judg- ment of Japan on the basis of our concepts. This book is full of indignation because the Japanese did not establish a democratic sys- tem. Certainly the world situation would then be less gloomy than

This content downloaded from 188.72.96.21 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:08:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOOK REVIEWS 533 it is today; but the fact that so many elements of the feudal system were retained, and that the power of the military and even of the great rich families is so overwhelmingly great, only proves that the ideas of the "celestial empire" have a greater appeal to the Japanese people than the author wants us to believe. Though there are socially radical movements there are on the other hand large masses of the population which are easily aroused by any nationalistic move; that the "moderates," as the author herself states, have the same goal as a military dictatorship would have, proves again how widely the im- perialistic political aspirations are snared, and, we may add, no less by the farmers than by the urban middle class. To a great extent even the socially radical movements are not opposed to this imperialism, though they might revolt against the regime if the army were de- feated. Thus, it seems to me, the author underestimates the strength and the psychological influence of myth and tradition on the average Japanese mind, and does not see that a destruction of this old world - outdated and flimsy as it may look to western eyes- would not wes- ternize Japan but would reduce it, culturally, to a shambles. Probably it has never occurred to Dr. Utley that the aggressive character of Japanese policy may be due to a mental situation in which an obsolete position must be defended desperately, even if there is no hope of holding it.

After having read Dr. Utley's book one is struck by the pessimism which it suggests. She believes that "perhaps Japan may one day forge for herself feet of iron instead of feet of clay"- if she is allowed to tighten her grip on northern China and to get there under control the natural resources which she lacks at home. This prophecy over- looks the fact that even then the Japanese economic system would re- main weak, unable to resist first-rate powers in a major war, and that China, once industrialized, is bound to develop a national movement which in the long run would not stand the domination of the coun- try by a foreign power. That is, I think, the inherent weakness of Japan's position. On the other hand there is, in the abstract, no reason why Japan, even with the handicaps of scanty natural re- sources and a large population, should not build up, under a peaceful regime which would abandon plans for conquest, an industrial sys- tem that could with increasing efficiency gradually improve the eco- nomic situation and integrate Japan economically with China and Siberia, which are her "natural" complements for a prosperous Far East.

Emil Lederer

This content downloaded from 188.72.96.21 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 09:08:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions