Building a Strong Nation

wealth drove innumerable people to superhuman efforts. But all this expenditure of time, money and energy was in vain, for death always overtook them before they could achieve anything tangible. It never seemed to occur to any of them that these metals with which they worked had a different and greater potential than anyone could ever have imagined. Iron, for example, was convertible, not into gold, but into machinery, and could be used as a versatile building material of great strength. In the world of today, western nations having learnt these secrets and directed their energies towards building up the most sophisticated technology. Indeed, they have succeeded in acquiring far greater wealth than mere silver and gold. Don’t Harm Yourself Two years after the beginning of World War II, Japan, without having openly declared war, bombarded the huge American military base at Pearl Harbour, destroying it completely. As an immediate major naval victory, it was a matter for Japanese jubilation, but as a piece of military strategy, it was illconceived, because it had the effect of bringing the US directly into the war, whereas the latter's involvement prior to this had been only indirect. America’s earlier contribution had been confined solely to the selling of arms and ammunition to Japan’s enemies. At this point America now formed a united front with Britain and the U.S.S.R., which came to be known as the Allied Powers. Matters came to a head in August 1945, when America dropped the first atom bombs in the history of mankind on the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, completely obliterating both these industrial centres, and bringing to an end the military power of Japan. The bombing of Pearl Harbour was, without doubt, Japan's greatest military blunder: it quite unnecessarily brought the U.S. into the war. But Japan,