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83. TO
EVERY JAPANESE
I must confess at the
outset that, though I have no ill-will against you, I
intensely dislike your
attack upon
descended to imperial
ambition. You will fail to realize that ambition and may
become the authors
of the dismemberment of
world federation
and brotherhood without which there can be no hope for
humanity.
Ever since I was a lad
of eighteen studying in
learnt, through the
writings of the late Sir Edwin Arnold, to prize the many
excellent qualities of
your nation. I was thrilled when in
your brilliant
victory over Russian arms. After my return to
members of our
Ashram from time to time. One of them became a valuable
member of the
Ashram in Sevagram, and his application to duty, his
dignified
bearing, his
unfailing devotion to daily worship, affability, unruffledness
under
varying
circumstances, and his natural smile which was positive evidence of his
inner peace had
endeared him to all of us. And now that owing to your
declaration of war
against
miss him as a
dear coworker. He has left behind him as a memory his daily
prayer and his
little drum, to the accompaniment of which we open our
morning and evening
prayers.
In the background of
these pleasant recollections I grieve deeply as I
contemplate what appears
to me to be your unprovoked attack against
and, if reports
are to be believed, your merciless devastation of that great and
ancient land.
It was a worthy ambition
of yours to take equal rank with the Great Powers of
the world. Your
aggression against
was surely an
unwarranted excess of that ambition.
I should have thought
that you would be proud of the fact that that great and
ancient people,
whose old classical literature you have adopted as your own,
are your neighbours. Your understanding of one another's history,
tradition,
literature should bind
you as friends rather than make you the enemies you are
today.
If I was a free man, and
if you allowed me to come to your country, frail though
I am, I would not mind
risking my health, may be my life, to come to your
country to plead
with you to desist from the wrong you are doing to
the world and
therefore to yourself.
But I enjoy no such
freedom. And we are in the unique position of having to
resist imperialism
that we detest no less than yours and Nazism. Our resistance
to it does not
mean harm to the British people. We seek to convert them. Ours
is an unarmed
revolt against British rule. An important party in the country is
engaged in a deadly
but friendly quarrel with the foreign rulers.
But in this they need no
aid from foreign Powers. You have been gravely
misinformed, as I know
you are, that we have chosen this particular moment to
embarrass the Allies
when your attack against
to turn
as the war
broke out nearly three years ago.
Our movement demanding
the withdrawal of the British Power from
should in no way be
misunderstood. In fact, if we are to believe your
reported
anxiety for the
independence of
reported profession
sorts ill with your ruthless aggression against
I would ask you to make
no mistake about the fact that you will be sadly
disillusioned if you
believe that you will receive a willing welcome from
The end and aim of the
movement for British withdrawal is to prepare
making her free for
resisting all militarist and imperialist ambition, whether it
is called
British Imperialism, German Nazism, or your pattern. If we do not, we
shall have been
ignoble spectators of the militarization of the world in spite of
your belief that
in non-violence we have the only solvent of the militarist spirit
and ambition.
Personally I fear that without declaring the independence of
raised violence to
the dignity of a religion. The Allies cannot beat you and your
partners unless they
beat you in your ruthless and skilled warfare. If they copy
it their
declaration that they will save the world for democracy and individual
freedom must come to
naught. I feel that they can only gain strength to avoid
copying your
ruthlessness by declaring and recognizing now the freedom of
co-operation.
To
their professions,
and in their own self-interest. To you I appeal in the name of
humanity. It is a
marvel to me that you do not see that ruthless warfare is
nobody's monopoly. If
not the Allies some other Power will certainly improve
upon your method
and beat you with your own weapon. Even if you win you will
leave no legacy to
your people of which they would feel proud. They cannot
take pride in a
recital of cruel deeds however skillfully achieved.
Even if you win it will
not prove that you were in the right, it will only prove
that your power
of destruction was greater. This applies obviously to the Allies
too, unless they
perform now the just and righteous act of freeing
earnest and promise
of similarly freeing all other subject peoples in
Our appeal to
the Allies
retain their troops in
we do not in
any way mean to harm the Allied cause, and in order to prevent
you from being
misled into feeling that you have but to step into the country
that
and will carry
it out, we will not fail in resisting you with all the might that our
country can muster.
I address this appeal to you in the hope that our movement
may even
influence you and your partners in the right direction and deflect you
and them from
the course which is bound to end in your moral ruin and the
reduction of human
beings to robots.
The hope of your
response to my appeal is much fainter than that of response
from
they know me. I
do not know you enough to be able to judge. All I have read
tells me that you
listen to no appeal but to the sword. How I wish that you are
cruelly misrepresented
and that I shall touch the right chord in your heart! Any
way I have an
undying faith in the responsiveness of human nature. On the
strength of that
faith I have conceived the impending movement in
is that faith
which has prompted this appeal to you.
Sevagram, I am,
18-7-1942 Your friend and well-wisher,
M. K. GANDHI
Harijan, 26-7-1942
Selected Letters of
Mahatma Gandhi
83. TO
EVERY JAPANESE
I must confess at the
outset that, though I have no ill-will against you, I
intensely dislike your
attack upon
descended to imperial
ambition. You will fail to realize that ambition and may
become the authors
of the dismemberment of
world federation
and brotherhood without which there can be no hope for
humanity.
Ever since I was a lad
of eighteen studying in
learnt, through the
writings of the late Sir Edwin Arnold, to prize the many
excellent qualities of
your nation. I was thrilled when in
your brilliant
victory over Russian arms. After my return to
members of our
Ashram from time to time. One of them became a valuable
member of the
Ashram in Sevagram, and his application to duty, his
dignified
bearing, his
unfailing devotion to daily worship, affability, unruffledness
under
varying
circumstances, and his natural smile which was positive evidence of his
inner peace had endeared
him to all of us. And now that owing to your
declaration of war
against
miss him as a
dear coworker. He has left behind him as a memory his daily
prayer and his
little drum, to the accompaniment of which we open our
morning and evening
prayers.
In the background of
these pleasant recollections I grieve deeply as I
contemplate what appears
to me to be your unprovoked attack against
and, if reports
are to be believed, your merciless devastation of that great and
ancient land.
It was a worthy ambition
of yours to take equal rank with the Great Powers of
the world. Your
aggression against
was surely an
unwarranted excess of that ambition.
I should have thought
that you would be proud of the fact that that great and
ancient people,
whose old classical literature you have adopted as your own,
are your neighbours. Your understanding of one another's history,
tradition,
literature should bind
you as friends rather than make you the enemies you are
today.
If I was a free man, and
if you allowed me to come to your country, frail though
I am, I would not mind
risking my health, may be my life, to come to your
country to plead
with you to desist from the wrong you are doing to
the world and
therefore to yourself.
But I enjoy no such
freedom. And we are in the unique position of having to
resist imperialism
that we detest no less than yours and Nazism. Our resistance
to it does not
mean harm to the British people. We seek to convert them. Ours
is an unarmed
revolt against British rule. An important party in the country is
engaged in a deadly
but friendly quarrel with the foreign rulers.
But in this they need no
aid from foreign Powers. You have been gravely
misinformed, as I know
you are, that we have chosen this particular moment to
embarrass the Allies
when your attack against
to turn
as the war
broke out nearly three years ago.
Our movement demanding
the withdrawal of the British Power from
should in no way be
misunderstood. In fact, if we are to believe your
reported
anxiety for the
independence of
reported profession
sorts ill with your ruthless aggression against
I would ask you to make
no mistake about the fact that you will be sadly
disillusioned if you
believe that you will receive a willing welcome from
The end and aim of the
movement for British withdrawal is to prepare
making her free for
resisting all militarist and imperialist ambition, whether it
is called
British Imperialism, German Nazism, or your pattern. If we do not, we
shall have been
ignoble spectators of the militarization of the world in spite of
your belief that
in non-violence we have the only solvent of the militarist spirit
and ambition.
Personally I fear that without declaring the independence of
raised violence to
the dignity of a religion. The Allies cannot beat you and your
partners unless they
beat you in your ruthless and skilled warfare. If they copy
it their
declaration that they will save the world for democracy and individual
freedom must come to
naught. I feel that they can only gain strength to avoid
copying your
ruthlessness by declaring and recognizing now the freedom of
co-operation.
To
their professions,
and in their own self-interest. To you I appeal in the name of
humanity. It is a
marvel to me that you do not see that ruthless warfare is
nobody's monopoly. If
not the Allies some other Power will certainly improve
upon your method
and beat you with your own weapon. Even if you win you will
leave no legacy to
your people of which they would feel proud. They cannot
take pride in a
recital of cruel deeds however skillfully achieved.
Even if you win it will
not prove that you were in the right, it will only prove
that your power
of destruction was greater. This applies obviously to the Allies
too, unless they
perform now the just and righteous act of freeing
earnest and promise
of similarly freeing all other subject peoples in
Our appeal to
the Allies
retain their troops in
we do not in
any way mean to harm the Allied cause, and in order to prevent
you from being
misled into feeling that you have but to step into the country
that
and will carry
it out, we will not fail in resisting you with all the might that our
country can muster.
I address this appeal to you in the hope that our movement
may even
influence you and your partners in the right direction and deflect you
and them from
the course which is bound to end in your moral ruin and the
reduction of human
beings to robots.
The hope of your
response to my appeal is much fainter than that of response
from
they know me. I
do not know you enough to be able to judge. All I have read
tells me that you
listen to no appeal but to the sword. How I wish that you are
cruelly
misrepresented and that I shall touch the right chord in your heart! Any
way I have an
undying faith in the responsiveness of human nature. On the
strength of that
faith I have conceived the impending movement in
is that faith
which has prompted this appeal to you.
Sevagram, I am,
18-7-1942 Your friend and well-wisher,
M. K. GANDHI
Harijan, 26-7-1942