Japan’s Case for Sea Power

*This article has been written in response to a request addressed by the editor to the Japanese government for an official presentation of Japanese naval policy. It was preceded by Hector C. Bywater’s article, “The Coming Struggle for Sea Power,” in October Current History, which gave a British view of the issues of the 1935 naval conference, and will be followed next month with a discussion of the subject from the American standpoint.

Captain Sekine has been an officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy for twentyfour years. While holding the rank of Commander, to which he was promoted in 1925, he became naval attache to the Japanese Embassy in Brazil. After two years at that post he was assigned to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations and is at present in the Intelligence Bureau of the Navy Department in Tokyo.