sions away from the past to prepare
for the future control of the Pacific. When in return for the
prohibition of Chinese immigration to the United States, China boycotted
our goods, and the ensuing panic in Wall Street forced the government
in Washington to grant large concessions, Japan did not attempt to make
use of this sharp weapon, for one of their most extensive industries,
namely the silk industry, depended upon the export to the United States.
Japan continued to place orders in America and treated the American
importers with special politeness, even when she saw that the beginning
of the boycott gave the gentlemen in Washington a terrible scare,
prompting them to collect funds to relieve the famine in China and even
renouncing all claim to the war indemnity of 1901 to smooth matters
over. But Japan apparently took no notice of all this and continued to
be deferential and polite, even when the growing heaps of unsold goods
in the warehouses at Shanghai made the Americans ready to sacrifice some
of their national pride. Since Japan wished to take the enemy by
surprise, she had to be very careful not to arouse suspicions
beforehand.

"Never speak of it, but think of it always," was the watchword given out
by the little Jewish lawyer in the president's chair of France, when the
longing for revenge filled the soul of every Frenchman during the slow
retreat of the German army after its victorious campaign; "never speak
of it, but think of it always," that was the watchword of the Japanese
people also, although never expressed in words. It was nine years before
the bill of exchange issued at Shimonoseki was presented on that
February night in the roads of Port Arthur; for nine years the Japanese
had kept silence and thought about it, had drilled and armed their
soldiers, built ships and instructed their crews. The world had seen all
this going on, but had no idea of the real reason for these warlike
preparations on a tremendous scale. It was not Japan who had deceived
the world, for everything went on quite openly, it being impossible to
hide an army of over a million men under a bushel basket; but the world
had deceived itself. When ships are built and cannon cast in other parts
of the world, everyone knows for whom they are intended, and should
anyone be ignorant, he will soon be enlightened by the after-dinner
speeches of diplomats or indiscreet newspaper articles. The military and
naval plans of the old world are c