Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation homepage > Notebooks of Paul Brunton



If we consider the recent history of the Far East, we shall see the same inexorable force of karma at work. It is known in certain circles that following the historic events of the l850s' when the Japanese were forced by foreign warships to open their ports to foreign commerce, a secret council of the most powerful noble families decided to revenge themselves on the Westerners as soon as they were in a position to do so. To bring this about they resolved on a twofold program. The first part was economic, the second was military. It was at this council too that the plan of sending capable young men to the West to master its industrial commercial military and naval secrets was first formulated and at once implemented. The economic part of this program eventually was completed, and an amazed world witnessed Japan's industrial and commercial triumph in successfully placing goods--which a century ago she had not even heard of--at ridiculously low prices in markets and bazaars throughout the five continents. The second part of this superlatively ambitious program which came to a climax with the war sought first to drive the whites out of their Asiatic possessions and then to place all Asia including Siberia, China, and India within a mammoth Japanese empire. The Japanese war lords bear the onus of having brilliantly conceived and patiently executed this master plan for domination of the nations. The "Tanaka Memorial," with its infamous doctrine of conquest through "blood and iron," is evidence of such a blueprint for conquest when each succeeding stage of the plan was brought to a successful conclusion. What is the inner meaning of the spirit which actuated this secret council and the successes which followed it? The obvious reply to this question is that Japan was hysterically driven by a subconscious intellectual and physical inferiority-complex to seek revenge. This is correct but it lies upon the surface of history and does not touch the depths. For still more was Japan raised up in Asia by the same karmic forces which raised up Hitler in Europe.

-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 3 : Their Presence in The World > # 192