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PARTISAN REVIEW
Japanese army is not by a long shot whatEurope thinks it is. You
no doubt believe that it is analogous to what the German army
was in 1913; but actually the Japanese army is the army of a sec–
ondary European nation. It is an army which has not yet been
tested, an army which has never fought against a real occidental
army.
AM:
I understand quite well that for Russia, the Russo-Japanese
war was a colonial war, while for Japan it was a nationalist war.
But the Transiberian is nothing but a one-track railway even to–
day. Doubtlessly Russia will try to place Japan in the same situa–
tion in which she is, not fighting in Manchuria.
L
T:
I think we shall fight in Baikal.
For the first time, he had said, "We." His glance became more
intense as if his attention had suddenly concentrated. He had just
eliminated that minimum of distraction which is part of even the
most attentive conversation. I did not altogether trust this Kremlin,
this Red Army which burst into the open room, over the shadowy
pines and burning trees, pushed forward only by the power of that
influence which a historic life may exercise, even at a time when it
itself is complaining. I was thinking of Dupleix dying in his tiny
alcove, ruined and humiliated, reduced to beggary, but dying on the
pillow stuffed with his letters of the Indies.
"For that reason," Trotsky continued, "it would be dangerous
for a government so authoritarian (referring to the Russian) to
withdraw so far."
AM:
Bessedovsky, in his
Memoirs,
which obviously inspire in me only
a relative confidence, asserts that Stalin would draw back as far as
Irkutsk only to have a free hand in the Chinese revolution.
L
T:
I do not believe that. To the discussion of Bessedovsky, the
other (Stalin), exasperated, has been able to answer thus; but all
that is only a manner of speaking. On the other hand, it is not a
question of making war in Siberia with the Red Army alone. Fur–
thermore, the principal enemy of Japan is not the U.S.S.R.
Whether Roosevelt wins or perishes, the U.S. will have to find
new markets.
AM:
They already have Latin America. That's done, and it is not
sufficient. Each day more energetically, the Americans are re–
nouncing the open door in China. They will find themselves
obliged, purely and simply, to take China. They will say, "All the
other nations have colonies; the greatest economic nation of the
world must also have colonies." Who will stop them? Europe will
