Nationalism, the most important single cause of World War 1, became even more potent and poisonous in the 1920s and 1930s, leading to a second world war many times more costly and horrifying than the struggle of 1914 to 1918. In Italy and Germany extreme nationalism was the driving force behind rightwing, antidemocratic movements personified by Benito Mussolini, whose Fascists seized power in Italy in 1922, and Adolf Hitler, whose Nazis took over Germany in 1933. In Japan ultranationalists never subverted the limited dmocracy established by the 1890 constitution, but in the 1930s their views inspired millions and became dogma within the Japanese military. 

These three nations in which nationalism ran wild were similar in several respects. All three were recent creations: Italy gained national unity between 1859 and 1870, Germany achieved the same in 1871, and Japan emerged from its feudal past only after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. All three had weak parliamentary governments and lacked experience in democratic politics. All three resented their treatment after World War I: the Germans were humiliated by the Versailles Treaty, while the Italians and Japanese were insulted by the refusal of Great Britain and France to recognize all their territorial claims. Finally, all three faced severe economic problems after World War I that extreme nationalists claimed could be solved by expansion and conquest. 

Although ultranationalism in each state differed in certain respects, it had the same tragic result: it led all three nations into catastrophic wars. After conquering Manchuria in 1931, invading China in 1937, attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941, and expanding into Southeast Asia, Japan conceded defeat only when atomic bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Germany launched World War II in Europe with its attack on Poland in September 1939, but after conquering much of western Europe and invading the Soviet Union in 1941, its armies were steadily pushed back until the leaders of a devastated land surrendered in May 1945. Italy entered World War II on the side of Germany in 1940, but its armies performed poorly, and only massive support from Nazi Germany prevented its rapid collapse. Anti-Fascists captured Mussolini and shot him without trial on April 28, 1945, just a few days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker under the rubble of what had been Berlin. 
  

After becoming leader of the National Socialists, Hitler staged an abortive coup d'etat against the government of the German state of Bavaria in 1923. For this he was sentenced to a five-year prison term (serving only nine months), during which he wrote the first volume of his major political work, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). It centers on his theories concerning the superiority of the Aryan race, most "purely" represented in modern history by Germans and other Nordic peoples. To a remarkable degree this work, completed in 1925, provided the basic ideas that inspired his millions of followers and guided the National Socialists until their destruction in 1945. 

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS 

1. What broad purpose does Hitler see in human existence?
2. How is progress to be attained for humanity, according to Hitler?
3. What in Hitler's view are the basic dissimilarities between Aryans and Jews?
4. What does Hitler fear most from the Jews?
5. What is Hitler's view of political leadership?
6. What role do parliaments play in a "folkish" state, according to Hitler?
7. How does Hitler plan to reorient German foreign policy? What goals does he set for German), and how are they to be achieved?
8. How have Hitler's ideas been influenced by his understanding of the theories of Charles Darwin? (See Chapter 8, source 65.)
9. Based on what Hitler says in these excerpts, what can you guess about his objections to the ideologies of democracy, liberalism, and socialism?

There are some truths that are so plain and obvious that for this very reason the everyday world does not see them or at least does not apprehend them. People pass by these truths as if they were blind and are highly astonished when they Suddenly discover what everyone Should know. . . . 

So humans invariably wander about the garden of nature, convinced that they know and understand everything, yet with few exceptions are blind to one of the fundamental principles Nature uses in her work: the intrinsic segregation of the species of every living thing on the earth. . . . Each beast mates with only one of its own species: the titmouse with titmouse, finch with finch, stork with stork, field mouse with field mouse, house mouse with house mouse, wolf with wolf. . . . This is only natural. 

Any cross-breeding between two not completely equal beings will result in a product that is in between the level of the two parents. That means that the offspring will be superior to the parent who is at a biologically lower level of being but Inferior to the parent at a higher level. This means the offspring will be overcome in the struggle for existence against those at tile higher level. Such matings go against the will of' Nature for the higher breeding of life. 

A precondition for this lies not in the blending of beings of a higher and lower order, but rather the absolute victory of the stronger. The stronger must dominate and must not blend with the weaker orders and sacrifice their powers. Only born ,weaklings can find this cruel, but after all, they are only weaker and more narrow-minded types of men; unless this law dominated, then any conceivable higher evolution of, living organisms would be unthinkable. . . . 

Nature looks on this calmly and approvingly. The struggle for daily bread allows all those who are weak, sick, and indecisive to be defeated, while the struggle of the males for females gives to the strongest alone the right or at least the possibility to reproduce. Always this struggle is a means of advancing the health and power of resistance of the species, and thus a means to its higher evolution. 

As little as nature approves the mating of higher and lower individuals, she approves even less the blending of higher races with lower ones; for indeed otherwise her previous work toward higher development perhaps over hundreds of thousands of years might be rendered useless with one blow. If this were nor the case, progressive development would stop and even deterioration might set in. . . . 

All the great civilizations of tile past died out because contamination of their blood caused them to become decadent . . . . in other words, in order to protect a certain culture, tile type of human who created the culture must be preserved. But such preservation is tied to tile inalterable law of the necessity and the right of victory of the best and the strongest. 

Whoever would live must fight. Whoever will not fight in this world of endless competition does not deserve to live. Whoever ignores or despises these laws of race kills the good fortune that he believes he can attain. He interferes with the victory path of the best race and with it, the precondition for all human progress. As a result, his human sensitivity consigns him to the level of pitiful beasts. . . 

It is an idle undertaking to argue about which race or races were the original standard bearers of human culture and were therefore the true founders of everything we conceive by the word humanity. It is much simpler to deal with the question as it pertains to the present, and here the answer is simple and clear. What we see before us today as human culture, all the yields of art, science, and technology, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryans.1 Indeed this fact alone leads to the not unfounded conclusion that the Aryan alone is the founder of the higher type of humanity, and further that lie represents the prototype of what we understand by the word: MAN. He is the Prometheus2 from whose brow, the bright spark of genius has forever burst forth, time and again rekindling the fire, which as knowledge has illuminated the night full of silent mysteries, and has permitted humans to ascend the path of mastery over the other beings of the earth. Eliminate him and deep darkness will again descend on the earth after a few thousand years human civilization will die out and the earth will become a desert. 

If we were to divide mankind into three categories - the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, and the destroyers of culture, only the Aryans can be considered to be in the first category. From them are built the foundations and walls of all human creations, and only the outward form and colors of these are to be attributed to varying characteristics of the other individual peoples. He provides the mightiest building stones and designs for all human progress; only how these designs have been carried out can be attributed to the shifting characteristics of other peoples. . 

The Jew provides the greatest contrast to the Aryan. With no other people of the world has the instinct for self-preservation been so developed as by the so-called chosen race.' The best proof of this statement rests it, the fact that this race still exists. Where can another people be found in the past 2,000 years that has undergone so few changes in its Inner qualities, character, etc. as the Jews? What people has undergone upheavals as great as this one - and nonetheless have emerged unchanged from the greatest catastrophes of humanity, What an infinitely tenacious will to live and to preserve one's kind is revealed in this fact. . . . 

Since the Jew --- for reasons I will deal with shortly - never had a civilization of his own, others have always provided the foundations of his intellectual labors. His intellect has always developed by the use of those cultural achievements he has found ready at hand around him. Never has it happened the other way around. 

For though their drive for self- preservation is not smaller, but larger than that of other people, and though their mental capabilities may easily give the impression that their intellectual powers are equal to those of other races, the Jews lack the most basic characteristic of a truly cultured people, namely an idealistic spirit. 

It is a remarkable fact that the herd instinct brings people together for mutual protection only so long as there is a common danger that makes mutual assistance necessary or unavoidable. The same pack of wolves that an instant ago combined to overcome their pre), will soon after satisfying their hunger again become individual beasts. . . . It goes the same way with the Jews. His sense of self sacrifice is only apparent. It lasts only so long as it is strictly necessary. As soon as the common enemy departs, however, as soon as the danger is gone and the booty secured, the superficial harmony among the Jews ends, and original conditions return. Jews act together only when a common danger threatens them or a common prey attracts them. When these two things are lacking, then their characteristic of the crassest egoism returns as it force, and out of this once unified people emerges in it flash a swarm of rats fighting bloodily against one another. 

1 See Footnote 9 from Chapter 8, source 70 for a brief discussion of the term Aryan. 
2 In Greek mythology Prometheus was the titan (titans were offspring of Uranus, heaven, and Gaea, earth), who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans, along with all other arts and civilization. He was also variously regarded as the creator of man (from clay), the first mortal man along with his brother Epimetheus), and humanity's preserver when Zeus threatened to kill all human beings. 
3 A reference to the Jewish conviction developed in the Hebrew scriptures that God had chosen the Jews to enter into a special relationship or covenant in which God promised to be the God of the Hebrew's and favor them in return for true worship, and obedience. 

If the Jews existed in the world by themselves, they Would wallow in their fifth and disasters; the), would try to get the best of the other in a hate-filled struggle, and even exterminate one another, that is, if their absolute lack of a sense of self sacrifice, which is expressed in their venality, did not turn this drama into comedy also. . . . 

That is why the Jewish state - which should be the living organism for the maintenance and improvement of' the race - has absolutely no borders. For the territorial definition of a state always demands a certain Idealism of spirit oil the part of the race which forms the state arid especially an acceptance of the idea of work. . . . If this attitude is lacking then the prerequisite for civilization is lacking. 

> [Hitler describes the process by which the European Jews in concert with the communists have come close to subverting and controlling other people and nations in Europe] 

Here he stops at nothing, and his vileness becomes so monstrous that no one Should be surprised if among Our people the hateful figure of the Jew is taken as the personification of the devil and the symbol of evil . . . . 

How close they see their approaching victory can be seen in the frightful way that their dealings with members of other races develop. 

The black-haired Jewish youth, with satanic joy on his face, lurks in wait for hours for the innocent girls he plans to defi1e with his blood, and steal the young girl from her people. With every means at hand he seeks to undermine the racial foundations of the people they would subjugate. . . . For a people which is racially pure and is conscious of its blood, will never be able to be subjugated by the Jews. The Jew in this world will forever only be the masters of bastardized people. . . . 

Around those nations which have offered sturdy resistance to their internal attacks, they Surround them with a web of enemies; thanks to their international influence, they incite them to war, and when necessary, will plant the flag of revolution, even on the battlefield. 

In economics he shakes the foundations of the state long enough so that unprofitable business enterprises are shut down and come under his financial control. In politics he denies the state its means of self-preservation, destroys its means of self-maintenance and defense, annihilates faith in state leadership, insults its history and traditions, arid drags everything that is truly great into the gutter. 

Culturally, he pollutes art, literature arid theater, makes a mockery of natural sensibilities, destroys every concept of beauty and nobility, the worthy and the good, and instead drags other men down to the sphere of its own lowly type of existence. 

Religion is made an object of mockery, morality and ethics are described as old-fashioned, until finally the last props of a people for maintaining their existence in this world are destroyed. 

PERSONALITY AND THE IDEAL OF THE FOLKISH STATE 

The folkish world view differs from the Marxist world view fundamentally in that it not only recognizes the value of race, but also that of the Individual, and makes these the pillars of its very structure. These are the sustaining factors in its view of the world. 

The folkish state must care for the well-being of its citizens by recognizing in everything the worth of the person, and by doing so direct it to the highest level of its productive capability, thus guaranteeing for each the highest level of participation. 

Accordingly, the folkish state must free the entire leadership, especially those in political leadership, from the parliamentary principle of majority rule by the multitude, so that the right of personality is guaranteed without any limitation. From this is derived the following realization. The best state constitution and form is that which with unquestioned certainty raises the best minds from the national community to positions of, leading authority and influence. . . .  

Beginning with its smallest component and including the highest direction of the Reich, the state must be anchored to the principle of personality. 

There are no majority decisions, rather only responsible individuals, and the word "advice" will once again have its original meaning. Each man will have advisers at his side, but the decision will be made by one man. 

The principle that made the Prussian army in its time the most splendid instrument of the German people will have to become someday the foundation for the construction of our completed state: authority of every leader downward and responsibility upward. . . . . 

This principle of binding absolute responsibility with absolute authority will gradually bring forth an elite group of leaders which today in an era of irresponsible parliamentarianism is hardly thinkable. 

4 The word Hitler uses, volkisch, is an adjective derived from Volk, meaning "people" or "nation,'' which Hitler defined in a racial sense; thus a "folkish" state is one that expresses the characteristics of and furthers the interests of a particular race, in this case, the Aryans. 
5 German for empire. Later, Hitler's Germany would be known as the Third Reich or third German-centered empire in central Europe. The first two were the Holy Roman Empire, which began in the tenth century and was formerly ended by Napoleon in 1806. The second was the government of the newly united Germany from 1871 to 1918. 

THE DIRECTION AND POLITICS OF EASTERN EUROPE 

The foreign policy of the folkish state has as its purpose to guarantee the existence on this planet of the race that it gathers within its borders. With this in mind it must create a natural and healthy, ratio between the number and growth of the population and the extent and quality of the land and soil. The balance must be such that it accords with the vital needs of the people. What I call a healthy ratio is one in which the support of the people is assured by its own land and soil. Any other condition, even if it lasts centuries or a thousand years, is nevertheless an unhealthy one and will lead sooner or later to damage, if not the total destruction of the affected people. Only a sufficiently large space on the earth can assure the independent existence of a people. . . . 

If the National Socialist Movement really is to be consecrated in history as fulfilling a great mission for the people, it must, spurred by knowledge and filled with pain over its true situation on this earth, boldly and with a clear sense of direction, take up the battle against the aimlessness and incompetence of our foreign policy. It must, without consideration of "traditions" or preconceived notions, find the courage to gather our people and their forces and advance them on the path from their present restricted living space to new land and soil. This will free the people from the dangers of disappearing from the earth altogether or becoming a slave people in the service of another. 

The National Socialist movement must seek to eliminate the disproportion between our People's Population and our territory - viewing this as a source of food as well as a basis for national power - and between our historical past and our present hopeless impotence. While doing so it must remain conscious of the fact that we as protectors of the highest humanity on earth are bound also by the highest duty that will be fulfilled only if we inspire the German people with the racial ideal, so that they will Occupy themselves not just with the breeding of good dogs, horses, and cats but also show concern about the purity of their own blood. 

Against everything else we National Socialists must hold unflinchingly to Our goal of foreign policy, namely, to secure for the German people the land on this earth to which they are entitled. . . . 

State boundaries are made by man and can be changed by man. 

The fact that a nation has acquired a large amount of land is no mandate that this should be recognized forever. This only goes to prove the strength of the conqueror and the weakness of the conquered. And only in force lies the right of possession. If today the German people are imprisoned within an impossible territorial area and for that reason are face to face with a miserable future, this is not the commandment of face, any more than a revolt against Such a situation would be a violation of the laws of fate; . . . . the soil on which we now live was not bestowed upon our ancestors by Heaven; rather, they had to conquer it by risking their lives, so with us, in the future we will win soil and with it the means of existence of the people not through some sort of folkish grace but only through the power of the triumphant Sword. 

But we National Socialists must go further: The right to land and soil will become an obligation if without further territorial expansion a great people is threatened with its destruction. And that is particularly true when the people in question is not some little nigger people, but the German mother of life, which has given cultural shape to the modern world. Germany will either become a world power or will no longer exist. To achieve world power an expansion in size is needed, which will give the state meaning in today's world and will give life to its citizens. . . 

And so the National Socialists consciously draw a line below the direction of our foreign policy before the war. We take up where we broke off six hundred years ago. We put a stop to the eternal pull of the Germans toward the south and western Europe and turn our gaze to the land of the east. We put an end to the colonial and commercial policy of the Prewarperiod and shift to the land-oriented policy of the future. 

When today we speak of new territory and soil in Europe, we think primarily of Russia and her subservient border states. 
 

In the summer of 1941, only a few months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Ministry of Education issued "The Way of Subjects," a pamphlet that became required reading for high school and university students. It reflects the basic principles of Japanese ultranationalism, a growing force in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Racial and Cultural pride had characterized the Japanese for centuries and was a major reason for their unified and wholehearted Support of modernization 

during tile Meiji period. In the 1930s and 1940s nationalism intensified and, as in Germany and Italy, became identified with reactionary antidemocratic and antisocialist movements. It grew in response to several developments, including resentment of the West for Its treatment of Japan after World War 1, fears of a reunified China under Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists, concerns about economic fluctuations and social tensions caused by the Great Depression, opposition to "dangerous" ideologies such as socialism and communism, and anxieties about Western influence on Japan. 

The ultranationalists denounced democracy, socialism. and the influence of big business on Japanese life. They praised Japanese virtues of harmony and duty, idealized the past, demanded absolute obedience to the emperor, and called for the revival of warrior values. They also clamored for Japanese imperialist expansion, claiming that only this could save Japan from overpopulation and economic isolation. 

With widespread support in the rural Population and army, ultranationalism peaked between 1931 and 1936, when its disciples assassinated business leaders and government officials, including a prime minister, and plotted to overthrow the government. The most serious coup attempt took place in February 1936, when officers and troops of the Fifteenth Division attacked and held downtown Tokyo for three days before authorities suppressed their rebellion. The government survived, but to satisfy the extremists it cracked down on leftist politicians and acceded to the army's demands. The balance of Japanese politics had shifted to right-wing militarists, setting the stage for the invasion of China in 1937 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. 

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS 

1. What is the stated purpose of "The Way of Subjects"?
2. According to the authors, what are the distinguishing characteristics of Western nations?
3. In what ways are Western attitudes and ideologies threatening Japan, according to the authors? 
4. According to the authors, how do the Japanese differ from other people? What do they see as Japan's special mission? 
5. What is the purpose of the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere?
6. What, according to the authors, is the role of individual Japanese in fulfilling the nation's mission?
7. To what extent do the authors' views of Japan's future resemble Hitler's dreams for Germany (Chapter 11, Source 97)?
8. If Giuseppe Mazzini (Chapter 8, source 69) had been given an opportunity to critique ... "The Way of the Subjects," what might he have said?

Tile way of the subjects of the Emperor issues from the polity of the Emporer, and is to guard and maintain the Imperial Throne coexistent with the Heavens and tile Earth. This is not an abstract principle, but a way of daily practices based on history. Tile life and activities of tile nation are all attuned to the task of strengthening tile foundation of the Empire. 

Looking to the past, this country has been widely seeking knowledge in the world since the Meiji Restoration, thereby fostering and maintaining the prosperity of the state. With the influx of European and American Culture into this country, however, Individualism, liberalisin, utilitarianism, and materialism began to assert themselves, so that tile traditional character of the Country was much impaired and the virtuous habits and customs becqueathed by our ancestors were affected unfavorably. 

With the outbreak of tile Manchurian Affair1 and further occurrence of the China Affair,2 the national spirit started to be elevated gradually, but there is still much to be desired in point of the people's understanding the fundamental principle of polity its it whole and their consciousness as Subjects of the Emperor. It is deeply regrettable that, well knowing the dignity of the Empire's polity, people are likely to be satisfied with making it a mere conception, and fall to let it be expressed in their daily lives. 

If this situation is left unremedied, it will be difficult to eradicate the evils of European and American thought that are deeply penetrating various strata of Japan's national life, and to achieve the unprecedentedly great tasks by establishing a structure of national solidarity of guarding and maintaining the prosperity of the Imperial Throne. Herein lies an urgent need to discard tile self-centered and utilitarian ideas and to elevate and practice the way of the Emperor's subjects based on state service as the primary requisite. 

PART I 

The thoughts that have formed the foundation of Western civilization since the early period of the modern age are individualism, liberalism, materialism, and so on. These thoughts regard the strong preying on tile weak as reasonable, unstintedly promote the pursuit of luxury anti pleasure, encourage materialism, and stimulate competition for acquiring colonies and securing trade, thereby leading the world to a veritable hell of fighting and bloodshed . . . . The self-destruction in the shape of the World War finally followed. It was only natural that cries were raised even among men of those countries after the war that western civilization was crumbling. A vigorous movement was started by Britain, France, and the United States to maintain the status quo by any means. Simultaneously, a movement aiming at social revolution through class conflict on the basis of thoroughgoing materialism like Communism also vigorously developed. On the other hand, Nazism and Fascism arose with great force. The basic principles of the totalitarianism in Germany and Italy are to remove the evils of individualism and liberalism. 

That these principles show great similarity to Eastern culture and spirit is it noteworthy fact that suggests the future of Western civilization and the creation of a new culture. Thus, the orientation of world history has made the collapse of the old world order a certainty. Japan has hereby initiated the construction of a new world order based on moral principles. 

The Manchurian Affair was a violent out burst of Japanese national life long suppressed. Taking advantage of this, Japan in the glare of all the Powers made a step toward the creation of a world based on moral principles and the construction of a new order. This was it manifestation of the spirit, profound and lofty, embodied in the founding of Empire, and an unavoidable action for its national life and world mission. Japan's position was raised suddenly to the world's forefront as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 . . . . 

The general tendency of world domination by Europe and America has begun to show signs of a change since then. Japan's victory attracted the attention of the entire world, and this caused a reawakening of Asiatic countries, which had been forced to lie prostrate under British and American influence, with the result that an independence movement was started. 

Hopes to be free of the shackles and bondage of Europe and America were ablaze among the nations of India, Turkey, Arabia, Thailand, Vietnam, and others. This also inspired a new national movement in China . Amid this stormy atmosphere of Asia's reawakening, Japan has come to be keenly conscious of the fact that the stabilization of East Asia is her mission, and that the emancipation of East Asian nations rests solely on her efforts. . 

1 The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. 
2 The invasion of China in 1937. 

PART III 

Viewed from the standpoint of world history, the China Affair is a step toward the construction of a world of moral principles by Japan. The building tip of a new order for securing lasting world peace will be attained by the completion of the China Affair as a steppingstone. In this regard the China Affair would not and should not end with the mere downfall of the Chiang Kai-shek regime. Until the evils of European and American influences in East Asia that have led China astray are eliminated, until Japan's cooperation with New China as one of the links in the chain of the Greater East Asian Coprosperity Sphere4 yields satisfactory results, and East Asia and the rest of the world are united as one on the basis of moral principles, Japan's indefatigable efforts are sorely needed . . . . 

Japan has a political mission to help various regions in the Greater East Asian Coprosperity Sphere, which are reduced to a state of quasicolony by Europe and America, and rescue them from their control. Economically, this country will have to eradicate the evils of their exploitation and then set up an economic structure for coexistence and coprosperity. Culturally, Japan must strive to fashion East Asian nations to abandon their following of European and American culture and to develop Eastern culture for the purpose of contributing to the creation of a just world. The East has been left to destruction for the past several hundred years. Its rehabilitation is not an easy task. It is natural that unusual difficulties attend the establishment of a new order and the creation of a new culture. Overcoming these difficulties will do much to help in establishing a world dominated by morality, in which all nations can co-operate and all people can secure their proper positions. . . . 

It is urgent for Japan to achieve the establishment of a structure of national unanimity in politics, economy, culture, education, and all other realms of national life. Defense is absolutely necessary for national existence. A nation without defense is one that belongs to a dream world. Whether defense is perfected or not is the scale that measures the nation's existence or ruin. National growth and development can hardly be expected without perfection of defense. . . . 

With the change of war from a simple military matter to a complicated total affair, the distinction between ,A,artime and peacetime has been clouded. When the world was singing peace, a furious economic and cultural war was staged behind the scenes, among nations. Unless a Country is organized even in time of peace, so that the total struggle of the state and the people is constantly concentrated on the objective of the country, and the highest capacity is displayed, the country is predestined to be defeated before taking to arms. . . . 

3 Chiang Kai-shek (1887 -1975), Successor to Sun Yat-sen as head of the Nationalist party, was the recognized leader of wartime China, even though the communists under Mao Zedong controlled large parts of the country. 
4 The Japanese term for their Asian empire. 

PART IV 

The cardinal objective of strengthening the total war organism is solely to help the Imperial Throne, and this can be attained by all the people fulfilling their duty as Subjects through their respective positions in society. The Soviet Union has world domination through Communism as its objective, and for this that country follows the policy of using force through class dictatorship. 

Standing on the national principle of blood and soil, Germany aims at destroying the world domination of the Anglo-Saxon race and the prevailing condition of pressure brought to bear upon Germany. . . . And for this she has succeeded in achieving thoroughgoing popular confidence in, and obedience to, the dictatorship of the Nazis, and is adopting totalitarianism. Italy's ideals are the restoration of the great Roman Empire, and her policy for realizing them is not different from that of Germany This country stands on the dictatorial totalitarianism of the Fascists. . . . 

The ideals of Japan are to manifest to the entire world the spirit of her Empire-founding. . . . There is virtually no country in the world other than Japan having such a superb and lofty mission bearing world significance. So it can be said that the construction of a new structure and an armed state is all so that Japan may revive her proper national standing and return to her original status of supporting the Throne by the myriad subjects. thereby perfecting the workings of national strength and leaving no stone unturned in displaying her total power to the fullest extent. 

The Imperial Family is the fountain source of the Japanese nation, and national and private lives issue from this. In the past, foreign nationals came to this Country only to enjoy the benevolent rule of the Imperial Family, an became Japanese Subjects spiritually and by blood. The Imperial virtues are so great and boundless that all are assimilated into one. 

Here is the reason for the present glorious State, in which the Emperor and his subjects are harmonized into one great unit. That the myriad Subjects with one mind are glad to be unified in their devotion to tile Throne is tile substance of the Imperial subjects. 

The way of the subjects is to be loyal to the Emperor in disregard of self, thereby supporting the Imperial Throne coextensive with the Heavens and with the Earth. All the Rulers of Japan respected their subjects, calling them "honorable treasures." The subjects are conscious of their being the Imperial subjects. . . . The great duty of the Japanese people to guard and maintain the Imperial Throne has lasted to tile present . . . and will last forever and ever. To serve the Emperor is its key point. Our lives will become sincere and true when they are offered to the Emperor and the state. 

Our own private life is fulfillment of the Way of the Subjects: in other Words, it is not private, but public, insofar as it is held by the subjects supporting the Throne. 

"As far as the clouds float and as far as the mountains and valleys expand," the land is Imperial territory and the people living there are Subjects of the Emperor. It is not correct to observe, therefore, that private life has nothing to do with the state and is quite free. Every action has not only a private side, but has more or less connection with the state. All must be unified under the Emperor. Herein lies the significance of national life in Japan. 
  

In the two decades after World War I weapons became more destructive, nationalism more impassioned, and leaders' ambitions more fantastic. As a result, the war that began at the end of those decades, World War II, became the most devastating and destructive war in history. Modern communication and transportation systems evolved so that generals could plan and execute massive complicated campaigns such as the German invasions of the Soviet Union in 1941 and the Allies' Normandy invasion in 1944. The airplane, only a curiosity in World War I, became a major source of destruction in World War II, making possible the German assault on English cities in 1940, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the around-the-clock bombing of Germany by Britain and the United States from 1943 to 1945, and the American fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. 

Only the closing months of the war, however, fully revealed the demonic possibilities of modern technology and large bureaucratic states. As Allied armies liberated Europe in the spring of 1945, they found in the Third Reich's concentration and extermination camps the horrifying results of the Nazi assault on political enemies, dissidents, prisoners of war, gypsies, Slavs, and especially Jews. Then on August 6 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It killed nearly eighty thousand people, seriously injured twice that number and obliterated three-fifths of the city. On August 9 the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, aiming to destroy the Mitsubishi shipyards. It missed its target but destroyed half the city and killed seventy-five thousand people. 

A half century later the names Hiroshima and Nagasaki still evoke nightmares in a world in which thousands of nuclear warheads exist and many nations have the capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons. Similarly, the Holocaust, the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews, continues to haunt the world. Racism is universally condemned, but it shows few signs of abating. Anti-Semitism has resurfaced in central and eastern Europe, the Serbs have bombed and starved Bosnian towns and cities in the name of "ethnic cleansing," state boundaries have been redrawn because of ethnic and religious rivalries, and racial tensions plague the United States, South Africa, and dozens of other societies. The Holocaust was not simply an aberration resulting from the unique prejudices of the Germans or the perverse views of their leaders. Something much more basic in human nature seems also to have been involved.