The Moral Vision
An Economic Pearl Harbour
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of weapons. But after witnessing the destruction
they caused, it relinquished their use and set about
reconstructing the country along entirely peaceful
lines. Having once adopted this course, the
Japanese showed great versatility resilience and
assiduity and their success has been such that Japan
is now considered the second greatest industrial
power in the entire world today. Its trade surplus is
37 billion dollars, more even than that of the U.S.A.
In the field of industry the victors have been
defeated by the vanquished. Simply by accepting
the fact that aggression could not pay dividends
and then channelizing its potential within the field
of industry, Japan has managed quite miraculously
to supersede all the other nations of the world.
The Americans are greatly upset at this state of
affairs and refer to the present ‘invasion’ of
Japanese goods as an Economic Pearl Harbour. A
book recently published in America, under the title
of “Japan-Number One”, has become a best-seller. It
clearly shows that Japan has far outrun the U.S.A.
in business and will soon supersede Britain. So far
as foreign exchange is concerned, Japan is the
wealthiest country in the world, its foreign
