This paper takes issue with a suggestion by Eissler that because Japan's reaction to Western aggression was influenced by defense mechanism of phobia and identification with the aggressor, the country met with a disaster of a kind that might be prevented by psychoanalytically sophisticated statesmen.

It is my thesis that the neurotic nature of Japan's reaction, her hostile intent, and attempt to rewrite the past are not in principle different from the way all cultures are organized and transformed. The attitudes of the various factions within Japan at the time of her confrontation with the West depended on the several opportunities before them. The same was true of Japan's over-all course.