THE FAR EAST

For the purpose of this discussion the term "Far East" includes the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Communist North Korea.

Republic of the Philippines consists of an archipelago of over 7, 100 islands, with a total land area of 115, 707 square miles. Two-thirds of this area is included in the two large islands of Luzon and Mindanao. The central plain of Luzon is the most important agricultural area of the entire nation. Manila, the largest city, has a metropolitan population of approximately 3 million. The capital, Quezon City, on the outskirts of Manila, has about 500,000 inhabitants. The Republic essentially developed from a society of small divided communities into an organized national entity under the stimulation of Spanish rule and Christianization. It came into being as a republic on July 4, 1946, after a ten year transition period as a commonwealth of the United States. In 1962, independence day was changed to June 12.

The people number an estimated 38 million, and are predominantly of Malayan stock, descended from the Indonesians and Malays, with Chinese being the most important alien ethnic group. Ninety percent of the people are Christians, mostly Roman Catholic. About 5 percent are Moslem. Filipino, English and Spanish are the official languages. It also has one of the highest population growth rates in the world--about 3.2 percent. Recognizing the economic implications, family planning has become an official policy of the administration.

After 400 years of control by Western countries, much of the culture and many of the ways of the west have been adopted. Agriculture, including forestry, and fishing are the largest and most important sectors of the economy, directly employing about 60 percent of the labor force and accounting for 70 percent of total exports. About 38 percent of the total land area is arable farm land. Her deposits of chromite, nickel and copper, among the largest in the world, have yet to be exploited.

Republic of China is located on Taiwan (Formosa), an

island lying 100 miles off the southeast coast of the Chinese mainland. Shaped like a tobacco leaf, Taiwan is nearly 250 miles long and about 85 miles wide. The total area of Taiwan and the Pescadores (a small cluster of islets about 30 miles off the west coast under Taiwan's jurisdiction) is almost 14, 000 square miles.

The Chinese may have first migrated to Taiwan in the sixth century. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch settled in the southern part of the island but were driven out in 1662 by Cheng Ch'eng-Kung (a Ming loyalist known to Westerners as "Koxinga"). In 1683, the Manchus took over Taiwan and ruled it for more than 200 years as the Ch'ing Dynasty. The Ch'ing Dynasty was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan in 1895, as a result of the SinoJapanese war.

Japan's 50-year rule of Taiwan ended at the close of World War II at which time Taiwan and the Pescadores were restored to the Republic of China. By the end of 1949 the Chinese Communists had conquered the mainland of China. The Nationalist Government of the Republic of China and 2 million mainland Chinese took refuge on Taiwan, with Chiang Kai-shek as President and Taipei as temporary capital.

The primitive natives of Taiwan are aborigines. These now number only about 150, 000 among the approximately 14 million people now living on the island. The Taiwanese are descendants of the Chinese from coastal areas of the mainland who migrated to the island within the last 300 years. The predominant religion is a combination of Buddhism and Taoism and there are about 400,000 practicing Christians. Eighty percent of the inhabitants are literate. Mandarin dialect of Chinese is the official language.

The transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy is taking place, with industrial output first surpassing that of agriculture in 1966.

The sovereignty of the people is exercised by the National Assembly, which elects the President and Vice President. There are five branches of government, under the President; the Executive Yuan, which is like our Cabinet, the Legislative Yuan, the Control

Yuan, which checks on the efficiency and honesty of the government, the Examination Yuan, which is similar to our Civic Service Commission, and the Judicial Yuan, which is similar to our Supreme Court.

Japan is a chain of rugged, mountainous islands lying in a 2,000-mile long arc off the east coast of Asia. It is comprised of four main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and the Ryukyu and Bonin island chain plus numerous small islands, all of which lie at approximately the same latitude as the United States.

The Japanese are a Mongoloid people, closely related to the major groups of east Asia. However, there is some evidence of admixture with Malayan and Caucasoid strains. The largest minority group at the present time is the approximately 600, 000 Koreans. There are also much smaller groups of Chinese and Caucasian residents. The population is approximately 104 million.

Buddhism occupies the most important place in the religious life of the nation. Confucian philosophic tradition remains an important strand in Japanese thought, although Confucianism is no longer an important religion in Japan. Shintoism is an indigenous religion which is founded in myths, legends, and ritual practices of the early Japanese people. Christianity has about 750, 000 adherents, which include a high percentage of persons important in educational and public affairs.

Traditional Japanese records embody the legend that the empire was founded in 660 B. C. by the Emperor Jimmu, a direct descendant of the Sun Goddess and ancestor of the present ruling dynasty. The first contact with the west occurred about 1542 when a Portuguese ship was blown off course and arrived in Japan. It was followed by Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish traders, and by Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries. Growing suspicion that the traders and missionaries were forerunners of military conquest caused the Shogunate, in 1638, to expel all foreigners and sever all relations with the outside world except for limited contacts with Dutch and Chinese merchants at Nagasaki. This isolation persisted until 1854, when Commodore Perry "opened" Japan by the convention of Kanagawa.

Renewed contact with the west brought to Japan a breakdown of feudalism, industrialization, and rapid achievement of the status

of a modern power. A constitutional government, parliamentary in form, was established in 1889. The "Meiji Constitution," promulgated during this period, instituted many needed reforms. The success of the carefully controlled revolution was tremendous, the result being a strong Japan on an equal basis with the leading nations of the west.

Japan's parliamentary government--a constitutional monarchy--operates within the framework of a constitution which became effective on 3 May 1947. Sovereignty, previously embodied in the Emperor, is vested in the Japanese people, and the Emperor is now defined as the symbol of the state. Japan has universal adult suffrage with a secret ballot for all elective offices, national and local.

The post-war pattern has been a dominant conservative party or coalition of parties, commanding the support of a substantial majority of the electorate, and an opposition party or coalition subscribing to socialist ideas. The dominant political parties are the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Socialist Party respectively. While the Liberal Democratic Party pledges Japan's continued alliance with the United States, the Marxist oriented Japan Socialist Party advocates a policy of positive neutralism and sanctions extra parliamentary mass movements in opposing conservative governments and "monopoly capitalism. The Japan Communist Party, legalized in 1945 under the occupation, now has but a few seats in both the upper and lower houses of the Diet. Present Communist Party membership is estimated at about 160, 000. The Communists have wielded their influence primarily through front organizations, student groups, and the labor movement.

After World War II, Japan was completely disarmed by the victorious allies. Article 9 of the Constitution adopted in 1947 provides that "land, sea, and air forces as well as other war potential, will never be maintained." In 1950, during the Korean hostilities, this position was modified by the establishment of the National Police Reserve. Before the end of the occupation in April 1952, the first steps had been taken to expand this force and make it a self-defense force. At the same time, the Japanese government derived from Article 51 of the United Nations Charter the doctrine that each nation has the right of self-defense against armed attack and that this right is not inconsistent with Article 9 of the Constitution. In 1954,

a National Defense Agency was created with the specific mission of defending Japan against external aggression. Ground, maritime, and air self-defense forces were established, with a Joint Chiefs of Staff organization following the U. S. pattern. The Japanese have a strong antipathy toward things military, stemming from their prewar and wartime experience with Japanese militarism.

Republic of Korea, a mountainous peninsula about 600 miles long and 135 miles wide, was a semi-independent state associated with China until annexed by Japan in 1910. After the capitulation of Japan in 1945, the Korean Peninsula was militarily divided between the United States and Soviet forces near the 38th parallel in order to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces stationed in Korea. A U.S. military government was established in the southern part, while the northern part was occupied by the USSR. Negotiations between the United States and the USSR in 1946 and 1947 to unite Korea was unsuccessful. The Republic of Korea was established in the area south of the 38th parallel of 15 August 1948 under U.N. auspices. The Soviets, in turn, established the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" in September of that year.

The Korean population is racially one of the most homogeneous in the world. Its racial origins are obscure, but the primary stock is believed to be Tungusic, related to the Mongols with some Chinese mixture. The Republic of Korea has a population of about 31 million with approximately 800 persons per square mile and ranks behind Japan and Taiwan in density of population. The North Koreans number about 13 million.

The traditional religions of Korea are Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shamanism. Christianity has a larger percentage of adherents in the Republic of Korea than in any other Far Eastern country except the Philippines, with about 500,000 Catholics, some 1,500, 000 Protestants, and a few hundred Russian Orthodox.

Communist North Korea has an area of about 47, 000 square miles and a population of 13.8 million (1970 est.). Only 16 percent of the land is arable. (Republic of Korea's population is 31.2 million, has an area of 38, 000 square miles, and 23 percent of the land is cultivated.) The Soviet Union and Communist China have ready access to North Korea by rail and sea.