Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1915 — Panama Canal Will Aid In Promoting Harmony Between America and Japan [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Panama Canal Will Aid In Promoting Harmony Between America and Japan

By Admiral BARON DEWA,

Head of Japanese Dele-

gation to Panama Exposition

TIIE friendly relations and intercourse between the United States and Japan may be said to have begun with the visit of Commodore Biddle in the bay of Yeddo in 3S4G. It was a small beginning, indeed, Jjut with the coming of Commodore Perry and Mr. Townsend Harris, a New Yorker, as the first minister of the United States our relations rapidiv ripened into close intimacy and mutual friendship. FROM THOSE DAYS THE VALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS •MADE BY THE UNITED STATES TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OP MODERN JAPAN ALONG THE LINES BOTH OF MATERIAL CIVILIZATION AND OF MENTAL AND MORAL LIFE WILL LONG BE REMEMBERED BY SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS OF MY PEOPLE. . Today we are privileged the completion of what may well be consider d the greatest engineering achievement on record—namely, the Panama canal. The great new highway between the orient and the Occident has been opened to the world. From these shores of North America one may sail a ship westward to the shores of Japan, whose constant aim is the promotion of friendship, now happily existing between these two countries. I AM CONVINCED THAT BY THE OPENING OF THE MIGHTY CANAL THE RELATIONS BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES WILL DEVELOP GLORIOUSLY ON THE SOLID FOUNDATION OF MUTUAL COOPERATION AND SELF RESPECTING INTERDEPENDENCE.

Photo by American Press Association.