Mega Forces Page 15

  The New Europe and Asia. As World War II ended, a ravaged Europe was in tatters. A defeated, bomb-torn Germany was divided between East and West, and Italy was exhausted from its torturous existence under Mussolini. France’s military had been battered by the Nazis and its economy weakened. The once great British Empire was in decline, and other European nations were undergoing reconstruction. Across the globe in Asia, China, ravaged by Japan, was in the early throes of all-out civil war between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao’s leadership. Meanwhile, a defeated Japan was being reorganized as American soldiers and sailors occupied the shores of that faraway land.

  Now, four decades later, the nations of Europe bustle with economic activity. Gleaming new skyscrapers dot the skies of Rome, Frankfurt, and Munich. West Germany has become the world’s fourth-largest industrial power, and German-built Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW autos race along the wide freeways that crisscross Europe. The leaders of the miraculously revived European states do not hesitate to criticize the United States, nor are they reluctant to defiantly assert their independence.

  In Asia, we find Japan so economically powerful it rivals America in many areas of high technology. We also find that China can threaten Russia with a small but lethal nuclear-tipped missile force. This is a united China so influential that American presidents find it necessary to travel to Peking to keep diplomatic ties cordial and cohesive.

  China is unafraid of either its neighboring colossus, the USSR, or its longtime capitalist adversary, the United States. Neither does Japan consider itself the inferior of the two superpowers. Indeed, Russia has charged Tokyo with reviving its pre-World War II militancy, while American leaders complain that the Japanese take unfair advantages in the world’s trade markets.

  A UNITED STATES OF EUROPE

  Although there have been bitter past rivalries between the European nations, many Europeans, especially the political leaders, believe that the continent’s destiny is to be united once again under the mantle of a single head of government. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to unshackle Eastern Europe from the chains imposed by the Soviet Union and cut the ties of Western Europe to the United States. These steps are, in fact, being taken. German and French leaders have established rapport with Moscow and seek bridges with East Germany, Poland, and other Communist Eastern European countries.

  The European nations have taken several important steps toward political and economic unification. A joint European parliament has been formed. Though its powers are limited, there are plans to increase its authority over time. Financially and economically, the nations of Western Europe have both their European Economic Community (called Common Market) and a new common currency, used so far only by the banking and investment sectors of the economy.

  In late 1985 eighteen European nations, led by France, Britain, and West Germany, formed a consortium called “Eureka.” Eureka is a program in which the Europeans jointly undertake a number of research and development projects in such high-tech fields as robotics, lasers, and supercomputers. Its purpose: to keep the United States and Japan from outpacing Western Europe in high technology.

  A UNITED EUROPEAN MILITARY

  European leaders are taking the first steps to independence in the crucial area of defense. For over forty years Europe has joined with the U.S. and Canada in the collective military organization called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Now, signs indicate NATO may eventually break up. Franz Josef Strauss, one of Germany’s most prominent politicians and head of its Christian Social Union Party, has said that “it is time that Germany be given a second key to the nuclear weapons stationed on our soil.” This would, added Strauss, “make Germany independent of the United States.” British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, complaining about the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983, commented, “Europe needs an independent voice.” And in a November 13, 1983, editorial in the conservative Sunday Telegram of London, commentator Peregruine Wostehorne argued for a “divorce” of European defense interests from those of America, claiming that Europeans should not place themselves at risk in a future nuclear war. Wostehorne was echoing the sentiment of France’s Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson, who reportedly stated in 1982 that he was witnessing a “gradual divorce between Europe and America.”

  Meanwhile, the Associated Press in June 1983 reported that Western European defense ministers had denounced American domination of NATO’s arms trade and warned that their countries would start buying less from U.S. manufacturers. This warning came about primarily because there is a resurgence of the European armaments industry. German and French arms and aerospace corporations are among the world’s largest.

  Few of the European leaders really have much confidence that, in the event of nuclear war, Washington, D.C., will sacrifice New York City or Dallas for, say, Paris or Brussels. Therefore, Europe has already begun to “go it alone” in many areas of defense. France pulled out of the NATO defense establishment years ago and today boasts of its own powerful nuclear strike force. France has five missile-carrying submarines, its own neutron bomb, and has developed a system of ground-based missiles capable of striking Soviet targets. Furthermore, Paris has pointedly stated that only Frenchmen will decide when and where this nuclear force is to be applied. 1

  FROM THE EAST

  Incredible events are stirring in Asia, and the rest of the world had best keep its eyes on this vital region. The People’s Republic of China—also called Red China or Communist China—has for over a decade made revolutionary changes in its economy and politics, tilting markedly toward capitalism and seeking ties with the United States. Meanwhile, China’s neighbor, Japan, has become a mighty economic power whose high-tech prowess has caused envy—and alarm—in corporate boardrooms around the globe.

  China and Japan are the two greatest nations in Asia today. China, with its huge 1 billion population, is the only nation on earth that could actually field an army of 200 million (see Rev. 9:15-16; 16:12). And Japan is the one country with the potential to build a technological fighting force anywhere near equal to that of the superpowers.

  Both China and Japan have records of belligerency. In the past few decades, the Communists of Peking have had clashes with neighbors Vietnam, India, and Russia. They have swallowed up adjacent nations such as Tibet and Inner Mongolia, shelled Taiwanese islands, and fought a long, hard war with the Americans and United Nations forces in Korea.

  Japan has been on a peaceful course since 1945, but it is not hard to imagine a future scenario in which, once again, the Empire of the Rising Sun will see fit to strike out in search of power and territory.

  MUTUAL DISTRUST AND FEAR OF RUSSIA

  Some ten years ago Gen. Edwin Starry, then commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, predicted that someday the United States and China would fight side-by-side against Soviet Russia. China and Russia have been bitter enemies for ages. Unfriendly as neighbors today, both claim lands in Siberia now occupied by the Soviets. In 1969, this territorial dispute turned into bloody warfare along the Usseri River, and hundreds of Chinese and Soviet troops were slain. The continuing dispute between China and Russia is one reason why Peking tilts toward the United States.

  Japan also has its differences with Russia. While the U.S. ceded back to Japan Okinawa and other islands seized in World War II, Russia refuses to return the Japanese islands of Sakhalin and the Kuriles, which it also seized in the closing days of the war. Today, the Soviets have military bases on those islands, a festering sore for Tokyo. Those bases include a huge naval complex with missile-carrying submarines. From there, the new Soviet Typhoon operates; this tremendous 25,000-ton submarine carries nuclear warheads, and U.S. Intelligence says that twelve of those subs will soon operate in the seas off Japan and China.

  China and Japan know also that over two thousand Soviet combat aircraft and ten army divisions have been stationed in the regions in Russia nearest their countries’ borders and that Soviet nuclear missiles are targeted in
their direction. On occasion, the Soviets verbally threaten their Asian neighbors with destruction. Upset that Japan is now building up its defenses, Tass, the official Moscow news agency, released this hawkish threat to Japan in 1983:

  The authors of Tokyo’s military plans make Japan a likely target for retaliation... For such a densely populated island as Japan, this could spell a national disaster more serious than the one that befell it thirty-seven years ago [at Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

  THE ORIENTAL ARMED FORCES

  To counter the Soviet threat China has a large, standing military force which can be readily augmented by a trained people’s militia. The Chinese also have a growing inventory of nuclear weapons and a limited number of missiles—the newest with multiple nuclear warheads—capable of hitting Soviet targets. Meanwhile, as one of the world’s greatest technological powers, Japan has the capability of building an armed force second to none in its employment of high-tech weaponry.

  Ominously, the Japanese have begun to devote more monies and attention to their defense. The defense budget has increased from a miniscule $2 billion in 1971 to over $12 billion in 1985. More is planned in the future. Premier Yasuhiro Nakasone has urged the Japanese Diet (Parliament) to spend an increasing amount for military needs. His nation’s goal, declared the Japanese leader, is to make the islands of Japan into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” Recent opinion polls show that the Japanese people strongly favor the rearmament plans of the government—in 1981 the figure was 82 percent of the people in favor of increased military spending.

  Consequently, the Japanese are bringing more people into the armed services and are building modern fighter-bomber aircraft and advanced combat ships. Most experts believe that if a crash program were initiated, within five to seven years the Japanese could have one of the most formidable fighting forces in the world, second only to that of Russia and America.

  JAPAN AND CHINA AS ALLIES

  The Japanese and Chinese were enemies in World War II. But today Japan looks to China as a great trading partner. China reciprocates and hosts a growing number of Japanese businessmen and political leaders in Peking. In 1983 China became the top customer of Japan’s large steel industries, and recently it was announced that Japan would construct a nuclear power plant in mainland China. Also, the Chinese buy computers, electronic equipment, and other technical supplies from Tokyo. These mutually beneficial ties will grow stronger in the coming years and will likely be the foundation upon which a military alliance will be founded.

  THE SPIRIT OF WAR

  Since the takeover of China by the Communists in 1949, China has consistently taken a militant stance in world affairs. Fearing both the Soviets and the Americans, Chairman Mao preached that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun.” The Communists transformed China into a powerful military machine and made it a world nuclear power. In recent years the Chinese have mellowed in their attitude toward the United States, their goal being to acquire economic gain and military technology from the U.S. But China’s leaders have let it be known to all that their country is willing and able to protect its interests in the world, by military force if necessary.

  Japan adopted a pacifist policy after World War II, but in the past few years observers, have noted a move back to militancy on the part of the Japanese. One expert, writing in 1983 for the magazine Asia Week, likened the current attitude to “Shogun Fever,” pointing out that the ruthless spirit of the ancient Samurai warrior is being revived in modern Japan. 2

  Korea and the Philippines registered complaints last year after Japanese authorities rewrote school textbooks to delete references to Japanese militarism and atrocities in World War II. Protesters also were incensed when a Japanese movie, The Empire of Greater Japan, became a big hit. The movie glorifies wartime Prime Minister Tojo and blames the United States for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

  Throughout the world, a growing column of experts shake their heads over the renewed militaristic spirit of the Japanese. In his best-selling book The Japanese Mind: The Goliath Explained, 3 Robert Christopher, an authority on Japan, states that behind their excruciatingly patient, polite exteriors the Japanese are intense, highly emotional people capable of violent explosions. In another equally important book, just released, Australian author Russell Braddon comes to much the same conclusion. The title of his book is self-explanatory: Japan against the World, 1941-2041: The Hundred Year War for Supremacy.

  For his book, Braddon interviewed leaders of such Japanese industries as Honda, Matsushita Electric, and Sony. His alarming discovery was that behind the Japanese economic miracle lies the same spirit that brought Japan its stunning victories in the early years of World War ll. (Braddon notes that in Hirohito’s 1945 message to the nation, the emperor did not use the term surrender. The Japanese, said the emperor, had merely decided to “stop fighting.”) 4

  In Japanese Militarism: Past and Present, 5 a book published in America and based partly on unpublished sources from Japan, author Harold Hakwon Sunoo confirms the findings of Braddon, Christopher, and others. He explains the hazards of allowing a new wave of Japanese militarism and pleads with the West to monitor Japan’s military activities.

  Another scary sign of a Japanese revival of military spirit is the belief now taking hold among many Japanese that they are a superior race. Such a notion reminds us of the worst traits of human nature devoid of God’s instincts for humanity and kindness. The Wall Street Journal reported one instance of the growing racial sentiment on November 19, 1982. Toshio Soejima, head of Japan’s largest telecommunications firm, Nippon T&T Public Corporation, was quoted as saying:

  The Japanese are a people that can manufacture a product of uniformity and superior quality because the Japanese are a race of completely pure blood, not a mongrelized race as in the United States.

  This comment from one of Japan’s leading industrialists shocked many Western observers. To Japan’s credit, it also dismayed some Japanese as well. In 1983, Kenchi Takemura, one of that country’s most famous television commentators, criticized this attitude so prevalent among his countrymen. “The Japanese do not consider others human beings,” he stated. “We tend to be insensitive to things not Japanese.”

  It is sad to read and hear that warlike, bigoted attitudes may be spreading in Japan. It is also sad, but true, that these attitudes are not confined to Japan. These attitudes can develop in any nation where God is not honored and where human pride takes precedence over divine law.

  CONCLUSION

  A book such as this is difficult to end. We have frankly discussed the ominous prospect of a World War III and the dangerous trend toward an immoral world that venerates science and technology but respects neither the holiness of God nor the rights of men. However, it would be inappropriate to conclude with a word of despair, for despair has no real place in the Christian life.

  Perhaps it is best to pose some questions for the reader. First, why is man so determined to reshape his material world into a technological image? Second, will we be able to face the suffering that may come about as a result of man’s misuse of technology and science? Finally, what can you and I, as Christians, do about the abuses of science and technology?

  Perhaps it is best to pose some questions for the reader. First, why is man so determined to reshape his material world into a technological image? Second, will we be able to face the suffering that may come about as a result of man’s misuse of technology and science? Finally, what can you and I, as Christians, do about the abuses of science and technology?

  Science and technology provide the tools for man to realize his drive for self-power and control. As we master our environment and supply ourselves with sophisticated technological ornaments and devices, God seems to shrink in size and our own gait seems to stretch out over larger terrain. Science and technology make man self-contained. Perceiving himself to be master of his own, self-created universe, man need rely on no one but himself. No longer subject to physical limitations i
mposed on him by nature, man can finally succeed in becoming his own God.

  Man sought conquest of the material world around him. Now he is achieving mastery of biological processes through genetic engineering. All that’s left is the supernatural realm—the spiritual aspect of the universe. Conquest of the supernatural would be man’s greatest achievement because it is the last obstacle to his seizing God status. But the Bible tells us that man’s secular quest for dominance over the spiritual realm will end disastrously, for Satan has powers unimaginable to the human mind which, by comparison, is puny and hopeless. Ultimately, God is the final arbiter and master of both the spiritual and material realms. And the Bible makes it clear that neither prideful man nor Satan shall prevail.

  Once man’s scientific attitude is placed in perspective, we can better answer the question of whether we, as individuals, will be able to face the suffering that may well come about as a result of man’s inevitable misuse of technology. The answer is a resounding yes, for the Scriptures promise that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God and Christ (Rom. 8:31-39). We may suffer—indeed, Christians are already persecuted in many parts of the world, often with brutal abuse made possible by scientific advancements. But we cannot be torn apart from the loving God who, despite man’s arrogance and technical prowess, still governs the world and ministers to our souls.