Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXI, Number 39, 2 Pepeluali 1938 — War's Awful Toll [ARTICLE]

War's Awful Toll

As »the result of three wars within the past two years. more than one million men, women and chlldren are dead and ten millions are refugecs. Several of the great cent<ers of civilizatidn ha- " been destroyed. Three continente have been ravaged' by wars that-ltave accomplished these colossal casualties gnd the rest of the world is asking: "When will the great war oome?"

tO one internationally famous writer on the subject, _a gi-eat waf is already upon us. Ethiopia, whieh was quite recēntly sub(faeā by Ita|y but not entirely conquered, Spain and now Chma are battleflelds for the inijcial skirmishes of growing disaster, this authority claims.

In Ethiopia,, ziow almost forgotten, Jaths have reached into hundreds of ousands among the natives. At least ,lf a million have died in China durthe past six months, thousands of them innocent civilians. It is the civilian population that has suffered mostly in all three of these countries. It is estimated that not less than ten millions axe homeless and suffering while ' the remainder of the world looks om and declares it is at peaee. Within an area of aboilt 25,000 square miles threefourths of the world's population are shuddering under the terrible catastrophe of war with all its modern methods of destruction.

Japan, with a population of 80.000.000 slowly subjugating China's 450,000,000 by a superiority of armament that gives the Japanese army a three to one advantage. Shanghai is an awful example of war's destruction. Those who wOUld like to know what to expect when the present "skirmish" extends into a world war only need to take a look at thts unfortunate Chinese city to fiad out.

Por the past four or five months the shrieks of diving war planes, the scream of passing shells, the terriflr earth-shaking detonaUons of high explosive air bombs, the boom of naval eannon, the chatter and bark of maehine guns and pom-pom eannon wore ah almost eontinuous meiody in Shangh*i.

Around this badly battered city is a strip 0f utter desolation, one to four miles deep, accupiod by corpse& starving animals and a fo\v insano and withered oid poople. \vhero thoro onoo lived mUlions of i^ooplo

ln ShiuighAt alono no ]ojss than thirf aUHloa refugoes havo becn ro;mi(\l iw*te Uian was t'vcr known to soofc refuye ln any ono otty dvirlng a tr r .r An &veragc of 200 vtottms prr day hns been CoUntfHl by pōlieo nnd fh:ir;tahU lflStituUotisi, wut wrrc J\sll«n mon» women and i hiUhon whi 1 nvr dy i|tf d»tly frwn starv» tlon r.nd rxiv»urc, In tiie InUnnalk.nal Srttlcmrnt <knd. Uk; Pr«nch CoiK'e.ssk v durtnp !hc ārst iWQ uwiUh.o of thc M, u\ m.oir> peo ple w«rc killea by !ii) boinlv. th,ir, \u <t U> U>ftdon t (ho «-nUro World Ww by Ocitn.it alr tuMcr<, Chl»®se rctngtvs hn\c Wn ,wn on Sh(Mtghai*s. tiusKi up fcr rt in- of " rict from thc &trt:vb <mu! thnn

raw, with the dirt and all, Others resort to garbage cans and try to live In the wreckage of their former homes. The madness of battle has j passed now into the interior of Chii na, where in a territory half the size |of the United States and containing j a population as large as ours is living lin aa eternal nightmare gf fear under 1 a rain of explosives and flames. i In Madrid, the-once gay eapiLal of ' Spain, a half a million families have - been undergoing a steady pounding i Xrom heavy artillery and air bombs for } a year or more. They were recently j ordered to leave so that further ea- , sualties among them coyld', he averted. I These three wars have followed one | another in a crescendo of organized murder until the present wave of eon-' |flict threaten.s to enguT,f another sec- | tion' of 4 the world *so that n'o man ean ' predict where its ravages will end. ( ' Tlie world is asking these questions: ] How will the China-Japan war end? j What ehanee has Chiang Kai-shek? What does the conquest of China mean to the other nations? Will Russia intervene in behalf of China? What will Great !Britain do What are Japan's int«nsions? Does she want to flght Russia, Great Britain and America? How strong is she? What could sh# dd in a war against a great Western power? Will Germany and Italy flght Russia when Spain is exhausted? A.nd, ftnally, what should America do lo keep the peaee? !