assimilate the Koreans, to destroy their national ideals, to root out their
ancient ways, to make them over again as Japanese, but Japanese of an
inferior brand, subject to disabilities from which their overlords were
free. Assimilation with equality is difficult, save in the case of small,
weak peoples, lacking tradition and national ideals. But assimilation with
inferiority, attempted on a nation with a historic existence going back
four thousand years is an absolutely impossible task. Or, to be more exact,
it would only be possible by assimilating a few, the weaklings of the
nation, and destroying the strong majority by persecution, direct killing
and a steady course of active corruption, with drugs and vice.

The Japanese overestimated their own capacity and underestimated the
Korean. They had carefully organized their claque in Europe and America,
especially in America. They engaged the services of a group of paid
agents--some of them holding highly responsible positions--to sing their
praises and advocate their cause. They enlisted others by more subtle
means, delicate flattery and social ambition. They taught diplomats and
consular officials, especially of Great Britain and America, that it was a
bad thing to become a _persona non grata_ to Tokyo. They were backed by a
number of people, who were sincerely won over by the finer sides of the
Japanese character. In diplomatic and social intrigue, the Japanese make
the rest of the world look as children. They used their forces not merely
to laud themselves, but to promote the belief that the Koreans were an
exhausted and good-for-nothing race.

In the end, they made the fatal mistake of believing what their sycophants
and flatterers told them. Japanese civilization was the highest in the
world; Japan was to be the future leader, not alone of Asia, but of all
nations. The Korean was fit for nothing but to act as hewer of wood and
drawer of water for his overlord.

Had Japan been wise and long-sighted enough to treat the Koreans as America
treated the Cubans or England the people of the Straits Settlements, there
would have been a real amalgamation--although not an assimilation--of the
two peoples. The Koreans were wearied of the extravagances, abuses and
follies of their old administration. But Japan in place of putting Korean
interests first ruled the land for the benefit of Japan. The Japanese
exploiter, the Japanese settler were the main men to be studied.

Then