[Illustration: In the nineteenth month of the war, the emblem of the
Rising Sun was hoisted over Manila.]

Now if the low birth rate that had resulted when the examinations
for parenthood were first enforced had continued, Japan would not
have been so crowded, but after the first generation of marriage
restriction the percentage of those who reached the legal standard
of fitness was naturally increased. The scientists and officials had
from time to time considered the advisability of increasing the
restrictions--and yet why should they? The Japanese people had
submitted to the prohibition of the marriage of the unfit, but they
loved children; and, with their virile outdoor life, the instinct of
procreation was strong within them. True, the assignable lands in
Japan continued to grow smaller, but what reason was there for
stifling the reproductive instincts of a vigorous people in a great
unused world half populated by a degenerate humanity?

So Japan was land hungry--not for lands to conquer, as of old, nor
yet for lands to exploit commercially, but for food and soil and
breathing space for her children.

Among opponents of Japanese racial expansion, the United States was
the greatest offender. Japanese immigration had long since been
forbidden by the United States, and American diplomats had more
recently been instrumental in bringing about an agreement among the
powers of Europe by which all outlets were locked against the
overflowing stream of Asiatic population.

Indeed, America called Japan the yellow peril; and with her own
prejudices to maintain, her institutions of graft and exploitation