Japanese, Chinese Students Clash on Cause for Unrest

Representing the Japanese and Chinese viewpoint respectively Takaiso Matsumoto 1G.B., and Robert Dunn Wu '87, 1G., debated informally on the present situation in China last night in Phillips Brooks House under the auspices of the Student Union.

Matsumoto, sent here by the Japanese Ministry of Education, emphasized that he was not a propagandist and said that he hoped some day to speak on the same platform as his opponent for the cause of peace. He described the Chinese policy as "a dangerous policy of playing one nation against another," and blamed conditions in China for the war rather than Japanese aggression.

China Speaks

Disagreeing that China is responsible for hostilities, Wu placed the blame with the Japanese militarists and said that Japan was an obstacle to world peace. He quoted from the well known Tanaka Memorial to prove that Japanese imperialistic ambition was not limited to China alone but extended through the whole world, and declared that it was the duty of every citizen of the world "to stop Japan in her aggressiveness."

He predicted that if the United States allowed her to continue Japan would eventually menace American interests in the Far East, and said that this is another instance of the democratic ideal being in danger throughout the world.

Matsumoto rebutting, disclaimed the validity of the Tanaka Memorial, as representing a vicious minority group, and ridiculed the reports of Japanese power, comparing the Chinese people to a green bamboo which can be bent but not broken. A half-hour of questioning from the audience of 75 followed the speaking. The meeting broke up at about 10 o'clock.