The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Blaðsíða 11

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
7
later awaken all nations to ithe cosmic
truth that their respective national lives
issued forth from the one absolute life-
centre embodied by the emporor.”
The Japanese keep apace with their
brother-tyrants in their treatment of
conquered peoples. The Japanese, in
fact, have an advantage — they have
been in the game longer. Korea was
captured by Japan in 1910. What are
the results after thirty years of Jap-
anese domination? Conditions in Korea
disclose the thoroughness of the Jap-
anese enslavement of this once proud
people. The story can best be told in
the words of an international writer,
George Kent, in an article published in
the April, 1942, issue of Asia, a leading
periodical on the Orient.
“The wealth of the country has been
pumped across the sea to Nippon
(Japan), with an icy disregard'for the
welfare of the people. If you walk along
the streets of Seoul, the Korean capital,
you will see only Japanese shops filled
with Japanese goods. The store clerks
are Japanese and so are the well-
dressed individuals on the sidewalks.
The Koreans are hawking vegetables,
pulling rickshaws, carrying heavy loads.
“To the farmers, who comprise eighty-
five per cent of the population, the con-
quest has meant a systematic house-to-
house looting. . . . Today close to
18,000,000 men, women and children—
out of a total population of 23,000,000—-
have become tenants and squatters. . . .
“Their state of mind, as described by
a Japanese economist, has become one
of ‘utter desperation and barren stolid-
ity’. A home-loving people, they are
obliged to shift their quarters each year
because the Japanese owners will not
make arrangements with the Korean
tenants for more than a twelve-month
period. A tenant’s share of the crop,
when all deductions are made, comes
to about seventeen per cent, or enough
to give him an annual income of about
ten dollars. . . .
“Each spring, millions of farmers and
their families are obliged to roam the
barren hillsides, scratching up roots and
bark and weeds in order to keep from
dying of hunger. ‘It is the land of the
spring starvation,’ the Governor--Gen-
eral (Japanese) writes in his annual
report.”
How would the Western Canadian
farmer like it if, after he had put in his
crop, he were compelled to roam the hill-
sides of the Riding Mountains in
Manitoba or the slopes of the Rockies
for sustenance during the summer and
then return to harvest the crop for the
Hun and Japanese masters?
We have the blueprint before us. The
story of conquered Korea reveals the
fate that awaits us if the tyrant nations
win.
We Want to be in It
The Icelandic Canadians want to be
in this war. We are determined to do our
share, no matter how small it may
relatively be, in helping the United
Nations to crush the enemies of free
man. We recall with pride how many
of our group volunteered in the World
War—the first act of one global drama.
Those of our people who are at the post
of duty in Canada or who by reason of
age or infirmity must content them-
selves with the more humble service
at home, watch with even greater pride
the enlistments of our sons and daugh-
ters, and the excellent account they
give of themselves wherever duty calls
them. Some have been wounded; others
have given their all. We, no less than
other Canadians, know that many more
will go—many other casualty lists wii1
be published. We try to enter into the
heroic spirit of Madame Chiang Kai-
shek, who reached the very soul of
re-born China with these inspiring
words:
“When our men go to the battlefield
they are prepared to die. They feel that
they have a sacred mission entrusted to
them and they are determined to fulfill