The enemies with whom hostilities so recently ceased were among the most literate, scientific and artistic peoples of the world. No European people could better meet a general education test than the Germans, and no Orientals were more proficient in the Western arts and sciences that the Japanese. Barbarians no longer menace civilization, for modern war is a complicated enterprise that only a generally educated nation can manage. Hence the paradox that a people is to be feared in direct proportion to its education.