The new allies were seeking control over three continents. Germany
and Italy were bidding for domination over Europe, Africa and the
Near East, creating new and urgent problems for us. Tokyo’s bid for
supremacy in “Greater East Asia” raised problems which were just as
great. To many of us these problems seemed far away--much more remote
than those of Europe, to which we are bound by so many close ties. Yet
we know now that we should be making a mistake if we tried to close our
eyes to them.
More than one billion people, or half the earth’s population, live in
the area embraced by “Greater East Asia.” It is thus one of the most
populous regions of the globe. Its territorial spread is equally large.
Its outside limits range from northern Japan to Australia, and from
China and India to New Zealand. The whole North and South American
continents, excluding Canada, could be fitted comfortably into this
vast territory.
It is, besides, an area of great contrasts--greater, probably, than
in any other region of the world. In a score of different localities
conditions vary widely--climate, people, language, religion, economic
life, government. Coolies working in Korean rice fields are a far
cry from English-speaking Australian sheep ranchers, peasants in the
remote interior of China from Malayan tin miners or East Indian rubber
planters, Indian bazaars under a burning sun from Manchurian cities
deep in their winter snows.