Read Pearl Harbour - A novel of December 8th for Free Online Page B

gentlemen having done the right thing in spreading our civilization.”
    “You could say we did in a way, but still, it was a grab and we made the most of it.”
    “You Yankees did the same, though to a lesser degree. They were too polite in there tonight to ask the question, but just what the bloody hell was America doing in the Philippines anyhow?”
    “We got stuck with it,” James replied a bit weakly, “after beating the Spanish.”
    “And made sure of supplies of rubber, manila, even your busboys for your navy.”
    “So these chaps see it as the same. Remember, they are the only, the only non-European nation to have successfully resisted European encroachment. Remember, they thrashed the old czar good and proper back in ‘05, and frankly we all cheered them on when they did it. So now they want, as the Kaiser used to say, ‘their place in the sun.’ “
    “Manchuria,” James said.
    “Oh please, stand corrected, dear friend. Remember, it is Manchukuo now.”
    “Still it was a grab.”
    “Who would you rather see have it? Them, that insane Chinese warlord who was terrorizing the place, or the Soviets who were just itching to grab it?”
    James nodded slowly in agreement.
    “You have to remember that there is a big, deep argument underway in this country. The army sees itself as a continental force and is focused on defeating the Soviet Union and conquering China. The navy sees itself as a Pacific power and has focused on defeating you Americans ever since the end of the World War.”
    “They don’t let me sit in the courses where they discuss strategy and planning, but it is clear from conversations with both students and faculty that they have been consistently thinking about war with America here at Etajima for over a decade. They think objective reality about resources will force a conflict sooner or later, and they are determined not to be dictated to and dominated by you Americans.”
    “England had its advantages when this new age started. We had mountainsides of coal, plenty of iron, the building blocks of empire. But by God if ever there was a spot on this earth not to start an Empire from, it’s Japan. Smaller than Britain, not counting that frozen northern island of theirs, and yet half again the population, barely 20 percent of the land worth trying to farm, no coal, precious little iron, and yet in sixty years they’ve tried with success to leap onto the global stage.”
    “So let them have Manchukuo, if that’s what they want to call it,” James said.
    “Ah, but there’s the rub. Did you Yanks stop at the Mississippi? What about all that land you took from Mexico and then Spain back in ‘98? You called it Manifest Destiny and maybe it was. Well, these folks think they have a Manifest Destiny as well.”
    “And that is, in your opinion?”
    “A unified Asia.”
    “Under their dominance of course.”
    Cecil smiled.
    “If it was us, would we want it any other way?”
    James shook his head.
    “And there is the race question. They do ask the logical question, why is Southeast Asia run by the French, the East Indies by the Dutch, you in the Philippines?”
    “So that will lead to war? Damn all, it would be suicide in the end,” James replied.
    “There are far bigger worries for all of us. They might have Manchuria, or whatever they call it, but I dare say the Soviets would love payback for 1905. This little corporal in Germany is getting downright bothersome. Why not play on our side?”
    He said it with passion because there was a personal reason behind this as well. His wife was a Nisei, half-Japanese, a wonderful racial mix so typical of Hawaii, where they had met when he was stationed there in the early twenties. Her father was Portuguese, her mother Japanese, and Margaret had inherited the best of both in terms of intellect, beauty, charm. He had to say, as well, that he was one of the lucky few, truly blessed with a mother-in-law whom he outright adored. His own mother had