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    "ocrText": "Hellman\n25¢\nEclipse of the\nRISING SUN\nby Richard Hart\nWith a Statement by OWEN LATTIMORE\nHeadline Series\nFOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION\nNUMBER 56 MARCH-APRIL 1946\nHEADLINE SERIES\nMarch-April 1946\nNo. 56\nCONTENTS\nHEADLINE SERIES\n*\nRESTLESS INDIA\nEUROPE'S HOMELESS MILLIONS\nECLIPSE OF THE RISING SUN\n5\nEUROPEAN JIGSAW\nAn Atlas of Boundary Problems\nFOREWORD\n5\nONLY BY UNDERSTANDING\nI. JAPAN COLLAPSES\n9\nEducation and International Organization\nTHE ARCTIC\n2. THE WARLORDS BOW\n15\nIn Fact and Fable\n3. SPRING HOUSECLEANING-GOVERNMENT & POLITICS\n29\nAFTER VICTORY\n...\n4. JAPAN'S ECONOMY-WRECKAGE & SALVAGE\n46\nFRANCE\nCrossroads of a Continent\n5. SHAPING THE MIND OF JAPAN\n65\nSKYWAYS OF TOMORROW\n6. RELIGIOUS JIGSAW\n75\nCANADA\n81\nOur Dominion Neighbor\n7. JAPAN IN A PEACEABLE WORLD\nON THE THRESHOLD OF WORLD ORDER\n88\nWHAT OF JAPAN'S FUTURE?\nTHE AMAZON:\nA New Frontier?\nTHE NEW JAPANESE CONSTITUTION\n91\nLOOK AT AFRICA\nTHE CHANGING FAR EAST\nAMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICIES\nPast and Present\nEAST AND WEST OF SUEZ\nThe Story of the Modern Near East\nRUSSIA AT WAR\nTwenty Key Questions and Answers\nHEADLINE SERIES\nECLIPSE OF THE\nNo. 56\nRISING SUN\nHEADLINE SERIES, NO. 56, MARCH 20, x946. PUBLISHED BIMONTHLY\nRichard Hart\nBY THE FOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED, 22 EAST 38TH\nSTREET, NEW YORK 16, N. Y. FRANK ROSS MCCOY, PRESIDENT;\nWALTER WILGUS, ACTING EDITOR; RITA BEHRMAN, ASSISTANT EDITOR.\nSUBSCRIPTION RATES $2.00 PER 10 ISSUES. SINGLE COPIES THIS ISSUE, 25C.\n145\nForeword\nTen years ago only a few thousand Americans had more than a\npassing curiosity about Japan. The island of Honshu could have\nsunk beneath the waters of the Pacific without causing a ripple\nin the lives of most of us. When the Japanese navy struck at\nPearl Harbor and Hickam Field the American people were psy-\nchologically unprepared for the blow. We were hurt and angry,\nbut we were also puzzled. How could these polite, if sometimes\nsinister little people, with their silkworms, paper houses, cherry\nblossoms, and comic opera Mikado, have done this to us?\nWe know now that we had failed to see the Japanese as they\nreally are. Perhaps a clever propaganda campaign on the part of\nJapan's leaders may have misled some Americans. But lack of in-\nformation was more widesp read than misinformation. For this\nwe can thank our own indifference, and the gulf, deeper than the\nwastes of the Pacific, which divides our attitudes and customs\nENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AUGUST 19, 1943, AT THE POST\nfrom those of the Japanese.\nOFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y., UNDER THE ACT OF MARCH 3, 1879.\nCOPYRIGHT, 1946, BY FOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION, INCORPORATED.\nOne of the roots of our difficulty in understanding Japan is\nPRODUCED UNDER UNION CONDITIONS AND COMPOSED, PRINTED AND\nthe lack of a common historical experience, such as we share with\nBOUND BY UNION LABOR. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES\nOF AMERICA.\nmost Europeans and the peoples of our own hemisphere. Half a\nworld separates Japan from our inheritance of Greek and Roman\nculture and two thousand years' influence of Christianity. Her\n5\npeople were occupied with feudal wars while newborn or re-\nhand, most educated Japanese read and speak some English.\nborn ideals of political and religious freedom were sweeping over\nStandard works in European and American history, literature,\nEurope. For over two hundred years, from 1640 until 1854,\nand science are literally open books to them. One in every five\nJapan's doors were locked against the outside world and her\nmoving pictures shown in Japanese cities came from Hollywood.\npeople were forbidden to travel abroad under pain of death.\nFragmentary and twisted though their knowledge of our culture\nWhen the doors were opened, Japan's leaders set before their\nmay have been, it was extensive compared with our vague notions\nnation the task of achieving modernity in a few decades. The\nabout Japan.\nindustrial revolution came late to the Japanese, and as an accom-\nThe war has taught the American people a long and bitter\nplished fact, not an evolutionary development. Beneath a crust\nlesson in things Japanese. It was to be expected that most of our\nof modern ways, Japan has retained a solid core of ancient tradi-\ncostly knowledge should be distasteful, leading rather to hatred\ntion; and, it must be remembered, the Japanese look back to a\nand indifference than to understanding. Our armed forces, until\npast far removed from our own feudal period.\nthey rounded up the first group of bewildered civilians on Saipan,\nNot only were we ignorant of Japan's history, but also of the\nwere in contact only with tough and fanatical fighting men. One\ntrue nature of her extraordinary development during the past\npoint on which all students of the Far East agree is that the\nhalf-century. Most of our information was filtered through the\nJapanese is at his worst in uniform.\nminds of writers who visited Japan, coming into contact with a\nThe families and friends of American soldiers and civilians who\nsmall minority of the people in large cities or tourist resorts.\nwere tortured or murdered will not be willing to forgive and\nTheir point of view was necessarily as limited as that of a visitor\nforget after a few years of peace. Many businessmen, planters,\nwho writes a book about the United States after a sojourn in\nand engineers in the Far East who saw a lifetime's work go up in\nNew York, Washington, or Miami.\nflames will also have long memories. And yet, there are certain\nBetween the opening of Japan in 1854 and Pearl Harbor, thou-\ngroups in the United States who, because of limited knowledge\nsands of Japanese came to the United States, most of them as\nor uncompromising religious principles, would like to have us\nstudents, businessmen, or diplomatists. Like the Japanese encoun-\nextend the hand of trust and friendship to the defeated enemy\ntered by American visitors to Tokyo, they represented a small\nwithout delay. It is to be hoped that the majority of intelligent\nprivileged class, not the nation as a whole. Their speech and be-\nAmericans will steer a course between unrelenting hatred and\nhavior were carefully disciplined to produce a favorable impres-\ncontempt for all Japanese, and a sentimental pity for the under-\nsion, reinforced by a courtesy which is a part of their heritage\ndog which might lead, as it did with Germany, to our finding\nand training. We did not learn from these smiling visitors what\nthat very same dog again at our throats.\nJapan thought of America.\nThe biggest and most dangerous lie in all Japan's wartime\nAnother, almost insuperable barrier to our understanding of\npropaganda is that this was a racial war, the brown and the\nJapan has been her language. Years of devoted study are required\nyellow against the white. Our 450,000,000 Chinese allies are wit-\nfor a reading knowledge of the Chinese characters. On the other\nnesses to its absurdity. We did not fight the Japanese bccause\n6\n7\ntheir skins are a different color than ours, or because their eyes\n1. Japan Collapses\nslant.\nIt was not a religious war. The Japanese could have wor-\nshipped a moon which they believed to be made of green cheese,\nAfter the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Japan's leaders realized\nor a Mikado as ridiculous as Gilbert and Sullivan's caricature,\nthat unless a miracle intervened, their great gamble was lost. They\nwithout challenge, so long as they remained at peace with their\nfought on in the hope that we would weary of a war of exter-\nneighbors. We went to war with Japan because of acts of military\nmination and agree to a peace which would leave the militarists\naggression prompted by the basic policies of the Japanese gov-\nin control. By July 1945, after crushing defeats by land, at sea,\nernment.\nand in the air, and continuous bombing of their home islands, the\nSince the surrender of Japan, the press and the air have echoed\ntruth could no longer be hidden from the rank and file of the\nwith debates about a \"hard\" or \"soft\" peace. Often readers and\narmed forces and the civilian population. Casualties from all\nlisteners have been confused by arguments which suggest that\nsources were very high; over 400,000 army and navy men were\nthe nature of the peace should be determined either by desire\nreported killed. The navy had been reduced from 377 combat\nfor revenge or pity for the defeated. Our government has one\nships to 55, the merchant marine cut from 7,000,000 tons to about\nmajor objective in regard to Japan which transcends all others—\n1,000,000, the first-line air force practically wiped out. The heavy\nthe continued peace and welfare of the peoples of the Far East\ntoll of dead and injured civilians had reduced the labor force,\nand of the world. Where harshness will contribute to that end,\nalready depleted by the drafting of over 7,000,000 men into the\nas in the punishment of war criminals, we will be harsh. Where\narmed forces. Many key industrial plants were crippled or en-\nleniency will speed the growth of a peaceful and law-abiding\ntirely wrecked, resulting in meager production of war materials\nJapan, we will be lenient.\nand the reduction of consumers' goods to a mere trickle. De-\nAlthough conditions in Japan are still as fluid as quicksilver,\nstruction of housing in already overcrowded cities, the drop in\nit is none the less possible to examine the work in progress and\nagricultural and fishery production, and the breakdown of com-\nestimate whether our efforts have been moving in the direction\nmunications all contributed to the spread of slow starvation and\nof success or failure. Every man, woman, and child in the United\ndisease.\nStates has a stake in Japan. Foreign policy, once the realm of\ndiplomatists and scholars, has become the hour-to-hour concern\nSURRENDER OR SUICIDE\nof all of us. The brief survey that follows has been prepared with\nthe aim of bringing together pertinent facts and opinions about\nOn May 8, 1945, Germany's surrender extinguished the last hope\ntoday's Japan, so that the reader may review them and draw his\nof support from the West. Early in July the Japanese attempted\nown conclusions.\nsecret negotiations for peace by way of Moscow. It has been\nreported that Japan expressed willingness to give up all territory\nacquired since 1904; but her peace feelers were met by a blunt\n8\n9\nRussian request to see the proposals in writing over the Emperor's\nister of Great Britain, representing the hundreds of millions of our\nsignature.\ncountrymen, have conferred and agree that Japan shall be given an\nopportunity to end this war.\nFor many months before the opening of the Potsdam confer-\n2. The prodigious land, sea and air forces of the United States, the\nence on July 17, 1945, spokesmen of the press and radio had\nBritish Empire and of China, many times reinforced by their armies\nbombarded the United States government with demands that\nand air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blows upon\nJapan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determina-\n\"unconditional surrender\" be defined. It was generally agreed\ntion of all the Allied Nations to prosecute the war against Japan until\namong observers who knew the Japanese at firsthand that a\nshe ceases to resist.\nstrong political and psychological offensive should be aimed at\n3. The result of the futile and senseless German resistance to the\ntheir will to resist. By making clear our intentions toward a\nmight of the aroused free peoples of the world stands forth in awful\nclarity as an example to the people of Japan. The might that now\ndefeated Japan, we might achieve the dual purpose of giving\nconverges on Japan is immeasurably greater than that which, when\nsome hope for the future to the war-weary masses, while at the\napplied to the resisting Nazis, necessarily laid waste to the lands, the\nsame time leaving no doubt as to their fate if their overlords\nindustry and the method of life of the whole German people. The full\napplication of our military power, backed by our resolve, will mean\ninsisted on continuing the war.\nthe inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces\nBetween the Cairo communique of December 1943 and the\nand just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland.\nPotsdam declaration, there had been no major statement of policy\n4. The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will con-\nfrom the Allies, with the exception of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-\ntinue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers whose\nunintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the\nshek's New Year's message of January 1944. At this time Chiang\nthreshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of\ndeclared that President Roosevelt had approved his proposal that\nreason.\n\"all Japanese militarists must be wiped out and the Japanese\n5. Following are our terms. We will not deviate from-them. There\nare no alternatives. We shall brook no delay.\npolitical system purged of every vestige of aggressive elements.\n6. There must be eliminated for all time the authority and influence\nIf the Japanese people should rise in revolution to punish\nof those who have deceived and misled the people of Japan into em-\ntheir war-mongers and overthrow their militarists' government\nbarking on world conquest, for we insist that a new order of peace,\nwe should respect their spontaneous will and allow them to choose\nsecurity and justice will be impossible until irresponsible militarism is\ndriven from the world.\ntheir own form of government.\"\n7. Until such a new order is established and until there is convinc-\nThese principles and the terms agreed on at Cairo are embodied\ning proof that Japan's war-making power is destroyed, points in\nin the Potsdam proclamation of July 26, 1945. As this is the basic\nJapanese territory to be designated by the Allies shall be occupied to\nsecure the achievement of the basic objectives we are here setting\nblueprint for our treatment of defeated Japan, it is reprinted\nforth.\nhere in full:\n8. The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and\nJapanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hok-\nkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.\nTHE POTSDAM PROCLAMATION\n9. The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed,\nI. We-the President of the United States, the President of the\nshall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to\nNational Government of the Republic of China, and the Prime Min-\nlead peaceful and productive lives.\nTO\nII\n10. We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race\nTHE BITTER TEA OF SURRENDER\nor destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war\nAt 30 A.M., Washington time, Friday, August 10, 1945, a Domei\ncriminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our pris-\nbroadcast from Tokyo announced the Japanese government's\noners. The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the\nrevival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Jap-\nwillingness to accept the Potsdam ultimatum \"with the under-\nanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well\nstanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand\nas respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established.\nwhich prejudices the prerogatives of his Majesty as a sovereign\n11. Japan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sus-\ntain her economy and permit the exaction of just reparations in kind,\nruler.\" This announcement touched off premature celebrations\nbut not those which would enable her to re-arm for war. To this end,\nin several Allied countries and inaugurated five days of tension,\naccess to, as distinguished from control of, raw materials shall be\nanxiety, and controversy surpassing any episode of the war, ex-\npermitted. Eventual Japanese participation in world trade relations\nshall be permitted.\ncept perhaps the week following Pearl Harbor. Expressions of\n12. The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from\nopinion from members of Congress, specialists on the Far East,\nJapan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there\npress and radio commentators, and the public at large ran the\nhas been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of\nthe Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government.\ngamut from immediate acceptance to unconditional rejection of\n13. We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the\nthe Japanese proposal. Controversy centered about the question\nunconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide\nof the Emperor's keeping his throne.\nproper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The\nalternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.\nAll day and all night Friday the Allied governments conferred,\nand at 10: 30 A.M. Saturday, Washington time, President Truman\nThis declaration is, obviously, not a detailed statement of peace\nreplied for the Allies in a note given to the Swiss Legation in\nterms. If it appeared indefinite, as in points 6, 7, and 10, this was\nWashington for transmission to Tokyo. This note specified that\na purposeful vagueness, allowing considerable elasticity in inter-\nafter surrender the Emperor was to be subject to the Supreme\npretation and application. The Allied leaders had no intention of\nAllied Commander, that the Emperor must ensure Japan's sign-\nso tying their hands that later developments might force them\ning of the surrender terms and the capitulation of her armed\ninto a dangerous course of action or a betrayal of their promises.\nforces, and that the ultimate form of the Japanese government\nThat the Potsdam declaration is a masterpiece of diplomacy\nshould be determined by the people themselves at some future\nwas proved by its favorable reception in all the Allied capitals.\ntime.\nIn Japan the document provoked sharp divisions of opinion\namong government and military leaders, ending in its official\nV-J DAY\nrejection. Ten days later the first of a series of crushing blows\nOver the week end the world waited in an agony of suspense\nfell on Japan. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb burst\nand anxiety. At 7 P.M., E.W.T., Monday, President Truman an-\nupon Hiroshima and the world. Two days later, Russia declared\nnounced to the nation that Japan had agreed to the Allied\nwar. On August 9 the second bomb wrecked the industrial city\ncounterproposal. This historic broadcast also announced the ap-\nof Nagasaki.\npointment of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur as\n12\n13\nSupreme Allied Commander, stating that he would rule Japan\n2. The Warlords Bow\nthrough the Emperor. The two weeks which followed were\ndevoted to the tedious and involved negotiations preceding the\nformal signing of the surrender terms.\nOn Tuesday, August 28, 1945, the first airborne units of the Amer-\nican forces landed at Atsugi airfield and were courteously received\nby Japanese officials. They were followed on August 30 by the\nmain landing of airborne troops at Atsugi; General MacArthur\nand his staff landed at Atsugi and established headquarters at the\nNew Grand Hotel in Yokohama that same day. On September I\nthe main forces of the U.S. Eighth Army began landing at Yoko-\nhama, and American control spread rapidly throughout the\nTokyo Bay area.\nOn Sunday, September 2, Tokyo time, the war with Japan\nofficially ended with the signing of surrender terms on board the\nU.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Foreign Minister Shige-\nmitsu signed for the Emperor; General Douglas MacArthur, as\nSupreme Commander, for the Allies. The terms included the\nacceptance and carrying out, in good faith, of the requirements\nof the Potsdam declaration; the unconditional surrender of all\narmed forces; the enforcement of all orders of the Supreme Com-\nmander by Japanese civil officials and armed forces; liberation of\nall Allied war prisoners and interned civilians; and acknowledg-\nment that the Emperor and his government are subject to the\nwill of the Allied Command.\nThe Emperor immediately issued a proclamation announcing\nthat the surrender terms had been signed in his behalf and order-\ning his forces everywhere to lay down their arms.\nIt is not easy to appreciate at a distance of five thousand miles\nthe difficulties which confronted the Allied Commander. This\nwas the first landing of enemy forces in Japan on a major scale\nin recorded history. Never before had so small an occupying\n14\n15\nforce moved into a defeated nation in the face of millions of\nskilled workers retained temporarily in Korea, China, and else-\nunbeaten enemy troops. The American forces were three thou-\nwhere have been stripped of authority and are being used to\nsand miles from their bases in the Philippines and were outnum-\nrestore or maintain vital industries and public services.\nbered thirty to one. It is to the never-to-be-forgotten credit of\nOn November 9 the Japanese Cabinet cancelled the law pro-\nthe American policy makers, of the Commander, and of the\nviding for universal military service. By the end of December\ntroops themselves, that the operation was carried out without\narmed forces in the home islands, estimated at more than 3,000,000\nserious disorder or the loss of a single life.\nmen, had been entirely demobilized; the Imperial General Head-\nAs soon as the first relief and satisfaction at the bloodless inva-\nquarters had been abolished by imperial rescript, and the War\nsion had faded, the eagerness of Japanese officials to cooperate\nand Navy Ministries transformed into ministries for demobili-\nand the docility of the people aroused further questions as to\nzation.\ntheir good faith. It was argued, perhaps with justification, that\nA few surviving cruisers and battleships will be scrapped.\nthe Japanese leaders were cooperating in order to allay American\nThirty-eight destroyers and some smaller ships have been divided\ndistrust, thus shortening the period of occupation. Sincere or\namong the Allies. The Japanese army and navy, after half a\ninsincere, the docile behavior of Japanese of all ranks was wel-\ncentury of victories and three years of disastrous defeats, no\ncomed by the Allied Commander and his staff, who were respon-\nlonger exist.\nsible for the security of our troops and the establishment of\nThe work of repatriation, carried out by the Japanese them-\ncontrol over a numerous and still powerful defeated enemy. Gen-\nselves under American supervision, is proceeding as fast as the\neral MacArthur's plan was to move with caution until he had\navailable shipping permits. By the first of January, 1946, the\nbuilt up sufficient force in the areas marked for occupation to\nPhilippines and the Ryukyu Islands were practically cleared, and\ndeal with any resistance which might arise. As soon as this objec-\nthe entire Pacific may be emptied of Japanese troops by April I.\ntive had been realized, he proceeded with the destruction of\nRemoval of those in China, Manchuria, Southwest Asia, Java, and\nJapanese military power and the elimination of the leaders\nAustralia may require several years.\nwho had guided the nation along the path of aggression and\nPUNISHMENT TO FIT THE CRIMES\nwar.\nThe indictment and trial of war criminals requires an entirely\nTHE END OF THE SAMURAI\nnew legal procedure. International law provides that offenders\nThe first job of the victors was to accept the surrender of Japa-\nagainst the laws of war may be tried and punished by the nations\nnese armed forces throughout the Pacific and Asiatic theaters\nholding jurisdiction over the territory in which the crime is com-\nof war. Without important exceptions, the surrender of enemy\nmitted. But the punishment of members of the Japanese armed\nforces to American, British, Chinese, and Russian commanders\nforces for specific acts of violence against individuals would leave\nwas carried out in an orderly manner. All these troops, plus enemy\nuntouched both the political leaders and government officials\ncivilians, were marked for repatriation. Technicians and other\nwho launched the war, and the high-ranking officers who gave\nI6\n17\nthe orders for the rape of Nanking and the death march of\nfrom public life before Pearl Harbor. No section of the ruling\nBataan.\nclass has been spared: members of the Imperial family, generals\nThe experience gained in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders\nand admirals, industrialists, statesmen, party politicians, journal-\nand other German war criminals is useful in setting up a pro-\nists, and educators. The arrest of Field Marshal Prince Morimasa\ngram for the prosecution of Japanese offenders. But war-crime\nNashimoto, kinsman of the Emperor, and Marquis Koicho Kido,\nproceedings in the Far East have their special problems. Docu-\nHirohito's closest wartime adviser, went as near to the throne as\nmentary evidence was plentiful in Germany, where collapse and\nwas possible without touching the Emperor.\nsurrender came suddenly. Chief Prosecutor Joseph B. Keenan, of\nPrince Fumimaro Konoye, often called the \"front man\" for\nGeneral MacArthur's staff, has pointed out that the Japanese had\nthe militarists, did not choose to stay and face the music. His\ntime between August 10 and August 28, when our troops landed,\nsuicide on December 16, 1945, was a blow to all his fellow-coun-\nto alter, destroy, or secrete documents which might establish\ntrymen who hoped to see Japan's imperialist ambitions justified\nguilt of important personages.\nin an international court. Rather than surrender and enter prison\nJapanese war criminals will be considered in two major cate-\nas a war-crimes suspect, Konoye took the easiest way out with\ngories: first, those guilty of promoting a war of aggression; and\nan overdose of a sedative instead of traditional hara-kiri.\nsecond, violators of the laws and customs of war. This second\nJapan's number one war criminal, General Hideki Tojo, shot\ngroup may be further subdivided into military leaders, such as\nhimself on September II, but was nursed back to health by the\nYamashita and Homma, who gave orders for mass killings of\noccupation authorities. Other top-ranking prisoners are Yosuke\ncivilians or refused quarter to our troops, and the underlings\nMatsuoka, who lined up his country with the Axis; Kiichiro\nwho committed individual crimes against Allied prisoners and\nHiranuma, former President of the Privy Council; Kuniaki Koiso,\ncivilians.\nwartime Premier; and fire-eating General Sadao Araki, spokes-\nOne of the first tasks undertaken by the Allied Command in\nman for the military extremists. These and about 250 other top\nSeptember 1945 was the rounding up and imprisonment of war\nsuspects will go on trial this spring. An international court,\ncrimes suspects in the home islands. Arrests have been made by\nmade up of representatives of the Allies in the Pacific war, will\nthe Japanese authorities, thus placing the responsibility for deliv-\nhear their cases, following the precedent of the Nuremberg trials.\nering the wanted men upon the Japanese themselves and discour-\nLike the Nazis, they will be tried in groups. Chief Prosecutor\naging attempts at flight or concealment of suspects. Five lists,\nKeenan has stated that the accused will be presumed innocent\ntotaling 363 names, were released by Allied Headquarters in\nuntil proved guilty, and that in many cases the death penalty will\n1945. Most of the wanted men have surrendered and are awaiting\nbe asked.\ntrial in Sugamo prison.\nOn the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, General Tomoyuki Yama-\nThe list of men now in custody reads like a roster of Japan's\nshita, Japanese army commander in the Philippines, was pro-\nwartime leadership and includes militarists whose activities date\nnounced guilty by a U. S. military court at Manila and con-\nas far back as the seizure of Manchuria in 1931. Some had retired\ndemned to death by hanging. The chief charge against Yamashita\n18\n19\nwas his responsibility for the murder of thousands of civilians in\ntered by the United Nations Organization under the trusteeship\nManila.\nsystem, with certain islands important as naval and air bases to\nNext on the list of Manila trials is that of Lieutenant General\nbe held in trust by the United States. UNO control will, however,\nMasaharu Homma, who pleaded \"not guilty\" to various charges,\nface considerable opposition in the Senate. Whatever arrange-\nincluding responsibility for the death of 67,000 American and\nment is agreed upon, it is important that certain islands be held\nFilipino prisoners and refusal to grant quarter to General Wain-\nas insurance against future violations of the peace.\nwright's forces on Corregidor, May 6, 1942.¹ Other trials are in\nRussia has taken the southern half of Sakhalin Island, which\nprogress, or are slated, at various points throughout the Pacific\nwas part of Japan's spoils in the Russo-Japanese War, and the\nwar theater.\nKurile Islands, occupied by Japan in the middle of the last cen-\nIn Japan the first of about 400 \"small-fry\" war criminals was\ntury. By agreement with China, Russia is to have joint control of\nconvicted at Yokohama, December 27, 1945. Tatsuo Tsuchiya, a\nPort Arthur as a naval base, use of the port of Dairen, and her\nprison-camp guard, was sentenced to hard labor for life for killing\nformer share in the Manchurian railroads.\nan American prisoner. The Yokohama trials are expected to last\nKorea, annexed by Japan in 1910, is to become a free and inde-\nwell into 1946.\npendent nation. At present Korea is divided into two zones of\noccupation, a Russian, north of the 38th parallel, and an Amer-\nBREAKING UP JAPAN'S EMPIRE\nican, south of that line. The Russian zone has been developed\nAt the peak of her conquests Japan controlled three million square\nindustrially by the Japanese and contains most of Korea's coal\nmiles and half a billion people. Defeat has reduced her to 148,000\nand other sources of industrial power, but it is poor in food. The\nsquare miles and a population of 75,000,000. The territorial pro-\nAmerican zone is a rich agricultural region. Obviously the two\nvisions of the Cairo communique, reaffirmed in the Potsdam sur-\nareas complement each other economically; but, during 1945,\nrender proclamation, are being faithfully carried out. Reoccu-\ncooperation between the two zones has been unsatisfactory. This\npation of Manchuria by Chinese troops is in progress; Formosa\ncircumstance, together with the people's long subjection to\nand the Pescadores Islands have been restored to China. The fate\nJapanese tyranny and the inexperience of their political leaders,\nof the Ryukyu Islands, formally acknowledged as Japanese terri-\nhas hampered efforts to prepare Korea for self-government.\ntory by China in 1881, is as yet undecided. They may be inte-\nAt the Moscow meeting of the Foreign Ministers in December\ngrated in whatever program is set up to take care of the former\n1945, it was decided that a four-power trusteeship for Korea,\nJapanese mandated islands (Marshall, Caroline, and Marianas\nconsisting of the United States, Britain, China, and Russia, will\ngroups), most of which are still held by the United States navy.\nestablish a provisional democratic government. The period of\nPresident Truman has proposed that these islands be adminis-\ntrusteeship is to last not more than five years, after which Korea\n1 Homma was condemned to death February II, 1946. Appeals by both\nis to be independent.\nYamashita and Homma were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court and Gen-\nIt is understood that the territories which Japan seized after\neral MacArthur. Yamashita was hanged February 23, 1946.\nPearl Harbor will revert to their pre-war owners. These include\n20\n21\nthe Philippine Republic (under American protection); Thailand\nBy the close of 1945, U. S. occupation forces in Japan and\n(independent); Indo-China (French); Hong Kong, Malaya and\nKorea were considerably reduced from the peak figure of about\nBurma (British); and the Netherlands East Indies.\n460,000. By February 1946 they will number only the 200,000\noriginally specified by General MacArthur. Such calculations\nA LONG OR SHORT OCCUPATION?\nare, of course, subject to revision in the light of developments.\nFor several years before the first American set foot on Atsugi\nThe number of Americans required depends to some extent upon\nairfield, the length of the occupation and the number of troops\nthe size of forces provided by our Allies. If Russia, the British\nrequired were subjects for heated debate in Britain, China, and\nEmpire, and China together send in 100,000 men, that number\nof U. S. soldiers now facing garrison duty in Japan might be\nour own country. While the nature of the occupation remained\nreturned home.¹\nundecided these debates were of more interest than they are\ntoday. Now there is agreement among the Allies that the defeat\nHOW POLICY FOR JAPAN IS MADE\nand disarming of Japan would not assure continued security\nwithout drastic reforms in Japanese government, economy, and\nThe Supreme Allied Commander is the chief executive officer\neducation.\nresponsible for carrying out occupation policies, but he does not\nDuring the early weeks of the occupation Lieutenant General\noriginate them. After the surrender the United States, as the\nRobert L. Eichelberger predicted that we might be able to with-\nchief contributor to Japan's defeat, took the initiative in formu-\ndraw from Japan in a year's time, but it soon became apparent\nlating policy for the occupation. In Washington the Far Eastern\nthat the accomplishment of our objectives would require a much\nSubcommittee of the State, War, and Navy Coordinating Com-\nlonger period. Early estimates of the number of troops needed\nmittee (SWNCC) drafted proposals for policy, which were in\nstartled many observers by their modesty. General MacArthur's\nturn submitted to SWNCC for consideration. On questions in-\nstatement that only 200,000 men would be required by the spring\nvolving military matters, the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff\nof 1946 provoked a storm of protest from critics who feared that\nhave been considered. The directives thus formulated have been\na brief and ineffectual occupation was indicated. The Comman-\nsubmitted to the President and, when approved, have been trans-\nder, however, was better acquainted with the detailed blueprint\nmitted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to General MacArthur.\nof the military operations than were his critics. It is now widely\nAbout a week after Japan surrendered, the Secretary of State\nunderstood that our policy does not propose covering the four\ninvited China, Britain, and the Soviet Union to join in creating\nmain islands with a web of garrisons, but rather the occupation\nan advisory body to help formulate policy for the occupation.\nof certain key points and the control of government at its source.\nAlthough not on the agenda, the problem was discussed outside\nHaving the spider under his thumb, General MacArthur does not\nregular sessions at the London meeting of the Foreign Ministers.\nhave to do too much worrying about the web. If major disorders\nOn September 25, 1945, Foreign Commissar Molotov asked for\nshould occur, naval and air support are immediately available\n1 On February 1, 1946, the first units of 45,000 British Commonwealth\nfrom nearby bases.\ntroops scheduled for occupation duty landed in Japan.\n23\n22\nOCCUPATION POLICY AND HOW IMPLEMENTED\nthe establishment of a control commission for Japan. At the time\nthis proposal ran counter to American plans; and, on Britain's\nacceptance of the project for an advisory body, on September\n29, the United States proceeded with the creation of the Far\nPRESIDENT\nEastern Advisory Commission. Australia, Britain, Canada, China,\nFrance, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, and\nPOLICY MAKING COMMISSION\nRussia were invited to participate. Major General Frank Ross\nMcCoy, U.S.A. (retired), President of the Foreign Policy Asso-\nSWNCC\nSEC.OF STATE\nciation, was named U.S. Delegate and, later, Permanent Chair-\n(II-POWER FAR EASTERN COMM)\nman. All the nations invited, except Russia, accepted and named\ndelegates; and the first session of the Commission was held Octo-\nFAR EASTERN\nSUBCOMMITTEE\nber 30 in Washington. Acting in the hope and expectation that\nJOINT CHIEFS\nRussia's nonparticipation was only temporary, the FEAC pro-\nOF STAFF\nceeded to survey the entire field of Japanese disarmament and\nrehabilitation.\nThe deadlock over Russia's share in the occupation was broken\nSUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER\nat the Moscow meeting of the Foreign Ministers, December 17-\n(MacARTHUR)\n27, 1945. The compromise arrived at by the Big Three, and\n4 POWER ALLIED COUNCIL\naccepted by the other Allies, is marked by concessions on the\n(CONSULTATIVE)\npart of both the United States and Russia.\nAccording to the terms of the Moscow agreement Russia will\njoin an eleven-power Far Eastern Commission which will be the\nauthoritative policy-making body for Japan. General MacArthur\nEMPEROR\nJAPANESE\nis to remain \"sole executive authority for the Allied powers in\nGOVERNMENT\nJapan\" and will serve as chairman of the four-power control\ncouncil, consisting of representatives of the United States, China,\nCABINET\nBritain, and Russia. The Supreme Commander will consult and\nadvise with his Chinese, British, and Russian colleagues, but will\nDEPARTMENTS\nhave the deciding voice in all matters except those involving\nchanges in the control machinery, fundamental changes in Jap-\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\nanese constitutional structure, or changes in the Japanese govern-\nment \"as a whole.\" On these questions unanimous agreement of\n25\nthe four major powers must be reached in the Far Eastern Com-\nvidual liberties and respect for fundamental human rights, par-\nmission. The existence of this veto power in the policy-making\nticularly the freedoms of religion, assembly, speech, and the press;\nbody puts the United States in a very strong position. Most of the\n(4) the Japanese people shall be afforded opportunity to develop\nbasic policies of the occupation have already been announced and\nfor themselves an economy which shall permit the peacetime\nput into operation. Since an American veto can block any impor-\nrequirements of the population to be met. The balance of this\ntant change, it is probable that rebuilding of Japan will proceed\ndocument, under the headings Allied Authority, Political, and\nalong the lines already formulated in Washington. In case of a\nEconomic, treats at length the steps by which the objectives and\ndeadlock in the Commission, the United States can issue interim\nmeasures listed above are to be carried out.\ndirectives on all matters except the three fundamental issues\nnamed above.\nHEADQUARTERS-SCAP\nThe day-to-day job of carrying out Allied policy in Japan is the\nBLUEPRINT FOR RECONSTRUCTION\nresponsibility of the Supreme Commander Allied Powers, Gen-\nThe Potsdam declaration provided a statement of basic principles\neral of the Army Douglas MacArthur, and his staff. Our purpose\nfor the treatment of Japan; but more detailed orders were needed\nis to make the Japanese themselves rehabilitate their country and\nas soon as the occupation got under way. On September 6 the\nreform their institutions, prodded when necessary by the Allied\nPresident approved a detailed statement of policy prepared ac-\nauthorities. From the earliest days of the occupation General\ncording to the procedure outlined on page 23. The substance of\nMacArthur's method has been to give the Japanese government\nthis document was radioed to General MacArthur on August 29,\na fair chance to carry out his instructions before applying further\nand was conveyed officially by messenger September 6. Sixteen\ncompulsion.\ndays later, after continued clamor in this country for clarification\nSuch a task naturally requires a complex and extensive organi-\nof our purposes in Japan, the directive was made public.\nzation, both military and civil. General MacArthur's headquarters\nBriefly summarized, the ultimate objectives stated are: (a) to\n(usually referred to as SCAP) is located in the Dai-Ichi Building,\nensure that Japan will not again become a menace to the United\na large modern business structure in downtown Tokyo. Public\nStates or to the peace and security of the world; (b) to bring\ninterest in the headquarters is very lively. Crowds gather twice\nabout the establishment of a peaceable and responsible govern-\ndaily to watch the Supreme Commander arrive and depart. A\nment which shall reflect the will of the Japanese people. These\nflood of mail from Japanese of all classes is received at the Dai-\nobjectives are to be realized by the following principal means:\nIchi Building. Many letters, with varying motives, praise the con-\n(1) Japan's sovereignty will be limited to the four main islands;\nduct of the occupation and express discontent with the old regime\n(2) Japan will be completely disarmed and demilitarized, and\nand the present Japanese government.\nthe authority and influence of the militarists will be totally elim-\nTo systematize the work of promoting reforms and to speed it\ninated from her political, economic, and social life; (3) the\nup, General MacArthur and his Chief of Staff, Lieutenant Gen-\nJapanese people shall be encouraged to develop a desire for indi-\neral Richard K. Sutherland, have created a number of special\n26\n27\nbureaus. Among the most important of these is the economic\nand scientific section. The information and education section is\n3. Spring Housecleaning-Government & Politics\ncharged with carrying out educational and ideological reforms.\nCritical conditions arising from shortages of fuel, food, and med-\nical supplies fall in the province of the natural resources, public\nhealth, and welfare sections.\nThe raising of the American flag over the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo\nAttached to SCAP is a large staff of civilian advisers, many of\non September 8, 1945, marked the end of an era in Japan. The\nthem outstanding authorities on Japan and the Far East. The\ngall of defeat and material privation will give the years ahead\nnations allied with us in the Pacific war maintain representatives\na bitter flavor for most Japanese. But if the United States and\nat SCAP, who consult with General MacArthur and report to\nits Allies stick to their declared objectives, there is not much\ntheir governments.\ndanger that Japan will return to her former pattern of despotism.\nSpecial commissions, such as the reparations group headed by\nOnce the masses of the people have had a taste of freedom, it is\nEdwin W. Pauley, have visited Tokyo to survey and make rec-\nnot probable that they will voluntarily resume their bonds. But\nommendations on individual problems. The Far Eastern Com-\nto prepare the foundation for genuine representative government\nmission visited Tokyo in January, 1946, to examine conditions\nthe present system must be completely overhauled. Compared\nat firsthand and consult with General MacArthur.\nwith other modern states, Japan is half a century or more behind\nThe departure from SCAP of servicemen eligible for discharge\nthe times.\nhas created a serious shortage of skilled personnel. A special sec-\nFor many centuries, control had been in the hands of powerful\ntion under Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence G. Alexander is re-\nnobles and generals who kept the Emperor under their thumbs\nemploying hundreds of men and women discharged from the\nand ruled in his name. In 1868, a group of gifted and determined\narmed forces in the Pacific area, and is recruiting civilians in the\nyoung aristocrats overthrew the Tokugawa family, which had\nUnited States for employment in Japan and Korea. It is estimated\ndominated the Emperor and the nation for over 250 years. The\nthat by March 1946 there will be 3500 government employees\nnew \"strong men\" were convinced that the time was ripe for a\nworking for SCAP, 60 per cent of whom will be women. A\nchange of masters, and that some remodeling of the government\nnumber of American citizens of Japanese ancestry from Hawaii\nand the country must be done if Japan was to resist the imperial-\nhave rendered valuable service at headquarters as interpreters\nism of the Western powers.\nand clerks.\nAn important adjunct of SCAP is the Japanese government's\nJAPAN'S CONSTITUTION-\"MADE IN GERMANY\"\nCentral Liaison Office, composed of men who are fluent in the\nThe constitution, a \"gift of the Emperor\" in 1889, was based upon\nEnglish language and have some knowledge of American atti-\nthat of the Prussian monarchy. At first glance, it seems to pro-\ntudes and procedures.\nvide a rather conservative type of modern representative govern-\nment. At the head of the state is the Emperor, surrounded by his\nministers. There is a Cabinet, headed by the Premier, and a par-\n28\n29\nliament or Diet, consisting of a House of Peers and a House of\ndecision of August 11, 1945, to effect peace through the agency\nRepresentatives. The makers of this system did not plan for or\nof the Emperor, postponed the settlement of the problem but\nwant government by the people. But they did feel the need for\ndid not guarantee Hirohito his throne.\ncatching up with the West, and one important step was modern-\nThe present Emperor's reputed desire for peace and his personal\nizing the machinery of the state. From outside Japan it looked\ngood character are not very significant factors in the question\nlike a sweeping political reform; on the inside the old order of\nof preserving or abolishing the Imperial system. In spite of the\ngovernment from the top down still persisted.\nunique position which he occupied among the world's crowned\nAlmost all important powers, civil and military, were vested\nheads he was unable or unwilling to make a stand for peace\nin the Emperor by the makers of Japan's constitution. His sanc-\nagainst the army in 1941. In his memoirs Prince Konoye, a loyal\ntion was required for all laws; only he could declare war, make\nsupporter of the throne, goes so far as to apply the phrase \"too\npeace, or conclude treaties. But these powers were exercised on\nhesitant\" to the Son of Heaven.\nthe advice of his ministers; he was not expected to act on his\nHirohito's hold upon his people's loyalty seems to have weak-\nown authority. Willard Price has compared the Emperor to the\nened since the days following surrender, when public sentiment\nsails of the ship of state. The ship can't progress without them;\ncredited him with having saved Japan from destruction through\nbut they are useless without a wind. The question is: who raises\nan \"honorable peace.\" Since then the humiliation of defeat and\nthe wind?\neconomic crisis appear to have aroused widespread discontent\nFor the past seventy years the motive power has been provided\nwith the old order. Discussion of the Emperor's responsibility\nby nonpopular agencies of government expressing the will of\nfor the war consumed several hours in the December Diet session,\naristocrats, big business, and the leaders of the armed forces.\na breach of tradition that would have been unthinkable in pre-\nTheir use of the people's traditional reverence for the Emperor\nsurrender Japan. Equally unheard-of was the recent strike of a\nto unify the nation behind him is discussed in connection with\npart of the Imperial Palace Guard. The abolition of State Shinto\nthe cult of Emperor worship in Chapter 6.\n(the official cult of Emperor worship) is a major blow at Imperial\nprestige.\nWHAT ABOUT THE SON OF HEAVEN?\nA rumor persists that Hirohito may abdicate in favor of his\nSince peace terms for Japan first became a bone of contention,\nyoung son Akihito. Even though no legal procedure for a Jap-\nanese Emperor's abdication exists, some pretext such as illness\nargument has centered about the position of the Emperor. Some\ncould be offered, which would lead to a regency; or Hirohito\nstudents of the Far East have seen in him the best available instru-\nment for building a peaceable and law-abiding Japan. Others have\nmight order the revision of the Imperial Household laws to make\ncontended that he is the core and spirit of the system which\nabdication possible. Such a move would, Japanese sources sug-\nengendered militarism, fanatical nationalism, and aggression. In\ngest, appease the United States by removing the \"Pearl Harbor\nEmperor\" and at the same time permit Hirohito to expiate the\nthe United States proposals have ranged from his summary execu-\nshame of surrender.\ntion as a war criminal to his retention as a sovereign ruler. The\n31\n30\nHowever, under our declared policy, the decision as to Japan's\nTHE DOUBLE-JOINTED CABINET\nremaining a monarchy does not rest with the United States and\nThe Cabinet, which has been officially responsible for formulating\nour Allies but rather with the Japanese people themselves. We\npolicy, consists of the heads of the various government depart-\nare pledged to let them determine their own future form of gov-\nments and a few Ministers without Portfolio. Its head, the Pre-\nernment, with SCAP standing by to see that their \"free choice\"\nmier, is appointed by the Emperor on the advice of his Ministers.\ndoes not take the same road which led them into aggression and\nMost laws originate with the Cabinet and are submitted to the\nwar. No matter how much the Imperial system may be weakened\nDiet; but the Cabinet has absolute veto power. It can also issue\nby constitutional changes or the separation of Shinto from the\nImperial ordinances, which have the force of law, over the head\nstate, the possibility remains, if the dynasty is preserved, of its be-\nof the Diet.\ning used in the future by reactionary forces as an instrument for\nThe organization of the Cabinet had several features peculiarly\noppression at home and renewed attempts at aggression abroad.\nJapanese, which were used by the militarists in their rise to\npower. The posts of War and Navy Minister could be held only\nPROPS OF THE THRONE\nby a General and an Admiral on the active list. By refusing to\nSurrounding the Emperor as advisers and go-betweens were the\nname men to these posts, or by ordering their ministers to resign,\nImperial Household Ministers, appointed for life or until resig-\nthe armed forces could wreck any Cabinet which was not accept-\nnation. These venerable statesmen have had great influence and\nable to them. Another dangerous feature was the dual control of\nhave often made or unmade Premiers. The most important office,\ncivil and military affairs. As the Emperor was titular Comman-\nLord Keeper of the Privy Seal, was abolished in December; Mar-\nder-in-Chief, and received advice on military affairs only from\nquis Koicho Kido was the last holder of the title.\nhigh-ranking officers, the War and Navy Ministers had the\nThe Emperor's Privy Council consists of a President, a Vice-\nprivilege of reporting to him direct, over the Premier's head. As\nPresident and twenty-four councillors, appointed by the Em-\nthere is now no Japanese army or navy, this division of authority\nperor for life. Cabinet ministers serve as ex-officio members of the\nno longer exists.\nPrivy Council. When its wartime President, Kiichiro Hiranuma,\nwas arrested recently and added to the collection of celebrities\nTHE TALK CLUB\nawaiting trial at Sugamo, the Emperor appointed Baron Kantaro\nIn the past, the Japanese Diet has merited its name of Gikai or\nSuzuki to the position.\n\"talk club.\" In the words of Count Ito, maker of the Constitution,\nThe Privy Council advises on such matters as treaties and con-\nthe Diet \"takes part in legislation but has no sovereign power; it\nstitutional amendments and passes on a number of important laws\nhas power to deliberate upon laws, but none to determine them.\"\nsupplementary to the Constitution, called Imperial ordinances.\nAlmost all statutes were introduced into the Diet by some minis-\nBecause of the advanced age, wealth, and high rank of its mem-\nter of state. The Diet votes upon the national budget but cannot\nbers, the Privy Council, like the Household Ministry, has been\ncontrol expenditures. If appropriations are not approved, the\na decidedly nondemocratic influence in government.\nbudget of the preceding year remains in force.\n32\n33\nHOW JAPAN'S GOVERNMENT WORKED\nequal those of the House of Representatives; and it cannot, like\nthe lower house, be dissolved by the Emperor.\nThe lower house of the Diet, sole body elected by the people\nPOWER BEHIND THE SCENES\n(that is, males over twenty-five years of age), has been a poor\nshadow of representative government during its half-century of\nactivity. Its 45° members have at times included men of strong\nwill and social and political conscience, like the venerable liberal,\nYukio Ozaki, who openly opposed Japan's acts of aggression. But\nEMPEROR\nin the main the House has rubber-stamped the decisions of the\nwarlords and has acquired an unsavory reputation for corrupt\nparty politics.\nCABINET\nARMY & NAVY\nELDER\nREWRITING THE CONSTITUTION\nSTATESMEN\nThese examples of control from the top down are evidence\nenough that there must be drastic revision of the constitution if\nJapan is ever to have genuinely representative government.\nHOUSE OF PEERS\nIn October 1945 the Emperor asked Prince Konoye, then\nHOUSE OF\nREPRESENTATIVES\ndeputy Premier in the Higashi-Kuni Cabinet, to draft proposals\nDIET\nARISTOCRATS\nINDUSTRIALISTS\nfor constitutional reform. Konoye's record as three times Pre-\nmier during Japan's career of aggression and head of the wartime\nPEOPLE\ntotalitarian party aroused sharp criticism in the American, and\neven in the Japanese, press. On November I, Allied Headquarters\nGOVERNMENT AS IT APPEARED\nstated that, since the fall of the Higashi-Kuni Cabinet, Konoye\nhad no connection with constitutional revision in so far as the\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\noccupation authorities were concerned, and further stated that he\nhad not been selected for the task by General MacArthur. On\nNovember 22 Konoye made his report to the Emperor. His pro-\nThe upper body, or House of Peers, has about 400 members\nposals, which were very conservative, included lessening of the\ndrawn from the nobility, distinguished citizens and men of great\nEmperor's powers and increasing those of the Diet. It is now\nwealth. Some are elected for seven-year terms by the peerage\ngenerally recognized that Konoye was not the right man to draft\nand the highest taxpayers; about one-fourth are appointed by the\na democratic constitution for Japan.\nEmperor. The powers of the House of Peers, while not extensive,\nA second plan for revision is being drafted by Juji Matsumoto,\n34\n35\nMinister without Portfolio in the Shidehara Cabinet. Late in\noffice and influence persons who \"deceived and misled the people\nNovember 1945 he told the House of Peers that no constitutional\nof Japan into embarking on world conquest.\" This order will\namendments were needed, and that Japan's acceptance of the\naffect hundreds of high-ranking government officials and may be\nPotsdam terms did not obligate her to change her constitution.\napplied to most of the members of the present Diet, preventing\nThis is evidence enough that Matsumoto, like Konoye, favors\ntheir re-election in 1946.\nlimiting revisions to the minimum demanded by the Allies.\nAs the Allied Command has broken off all Japanese diplomatic\nProposals for the most extensive changes in the constitution\nties with neutral countries, it seems probable that the Foreign\nhitherto recommended by any Japanese group, except the Com-\nMinistry will be abolished. The War and Navy Ministries were\nmunists, were brought forward on December 28 by a nonofficial\nabolished on December 1, their remaining duties being taken\ncommittee of educators and jurists. Their revision would strip\nover by \"Demobilization Ministries\" to be staffed entirely by\nthe Emperor of all political power and limit his activities to\ncivilians.\n\"ceremonial functions of the state.\" His prerogatives would be\ntransferred to the Diet, and final responsibility for administrative\nfunctions would rest with the Cabinet. In summary, the effect of\n\"THOUGHT CONTROL\"\nthe proposed reforms would be the transfer of sovereignty from\nthe Emperor to the people, through their elected representatives.\nThese recommendations, while without authority, are a step\nin the right direction. It is to be hoped that some democratic\nmeans, such as a constitutional convention, will be found to carry\nout the task on behalf of the Japanese people, with the guidance\nand supervision of Allied authorities on constitutional law.\nCHERRY BLOSSOM THEATER\nSHAKING UP THE BUREAUCRATS\nWhile the all-important job of constitutional revision still hangs\nSHINTO\nMOVIE\nfire, changes and reforms in the executive departments are being\nINIPPON\nSCHOOL\nplanned by the Japanese government. Widespread dissatisfaction\nwith \"bureaucratic\" administration has been expressed in the\nJapanese press. Among other charges the existing organization\nhas been called unresponsive to present conditions, and hidebound\nFAILURE\nWENS\nby tradition and routine. On January 4, 1946, General MacArthur\nordered the Japanese government to dissolve all ultranationalist,\nb:\nterrorist, and militarist groups or societies and to oust from public\nJAPAN'S JOHN DOE\n36\n37\nThe dreaded \"thought police,\" whose prying censorship and\nscarcely be overemphasized. But putting up the structure pictured\nfrequent brutal handling of suspects penetrated all classes of\nin the blueprint is work for the Japanese people and their lead-\nJapanese society and all departments of the nation's life, have\ners. For some years to come the development of democratic\nbeen abolished. The national police force is being reduced in\npolitical institutions will depend upon two important factors. The\nsize; over 5,000 men have been disarmed and retired. Brigadier\nfirst of these is the leadership and public support of the various\nGeneral Elliot R. Thorpe, Chief of Allied Counter-Intelligence,\nparties now arising to grasp at power. The second is the attitude\nhas issued a sharp warning to the effect that police must act as\nof Allied occupation authorities toward these factions-which\nservants of the people and must be trained \"to keep order by\nwill be encouraged, discouraged, ignored, or suppressed?\nwisdom and example, rather than by force, intimidation, and in-\nhuman prison conditions.\"\nTHE OLD ORDER\nIn reviewing the current contenders for political leadership, it is\nAT THE GRASS ROOTS\nhelpful to consider first who were the rulers of Japan before the\nJapanese government at the community level has been little dis-\nsurrender. The men making up the groups which led the nation\ncussed; but, because it touches all the people directly, its reform\nalong the road of aggression and war have many qualities which\nis as necessary as dramatic changes in Tokyo. In the past, local\nequip them for survival, not the least of which are adaptability\npolitics have presented interesting contrasts. A rude approxima-\nand resourcefulness.\ntion of democracy in village government, with elected mayors\nThe four most important elements in Japan's ruling class were:\nand local councils, was overshadowed by the authority of prefec-\n(1) high ranking officers in the army and navy, (2) financiers\ntural and regional officials appointed by the all-powerful Home\nand industrialists, (3) the court nobility and aristocratic land-\nMinistry of the central government. The town, village, and rural\nowners, and (4) politicians and career bureaucrats. Naturally,\ngendarmerie, like all Japanese police, were under the same Min-\nthese divisions were not clear-cut but overlapped somewhat, as\nistry. When differences occurred between representatives of the\nthey did in Germany. One man could be a Prince of the Imperial\nEmperor and the local functionaries chosen by the people, the\nblood, a Field Marshal and a large investor. The titled nobility\nvillage officials bowed to authority.\nis composed of aristocrats descended from Japan's feudal clan\nA bill which is to be introduced to the new Diet to be elected\nleaders and counts or barons of more recent vintage, who won\nin 1946, would make prefectural and regional offices elective in-\ntheir titles through wealth and political influence.\nstead of appointive. If it becomes law, an important step will have\nThe history of the past twenty years demonstrates that these\nbeen taken toward introducing democracy into Japan.\nfour groups have not consistently presented a united front. After\nthe First World War, the big businessmen gained in power and\nTHE NEED FOR LEADERSHIP\nprestige. With the coming of the depression of 1929 the mili-\nThe importance of replacing Japan's undemocratic constitution\ntarists used popular unrest, especially in the armed forces, as an\nwith a new or drastically revised blueprint for government can\ninstrument for securing increased control over the government.\n38\n39\nBoth parties disbanded in 1940 and were replaced by the Imperial\nIn the past, many American writers and diplomatists have rep-\nRule Assistance Association, Japan's wartime totalitarian party.\nresented Japan's fire-eating generals and great capitalists as oppo-\nIn the wake of the surrender new parties sprang up like weeds.\nnents. In a sense, this is correct; but it must be remembered that\nAlthough they number nearly a hundred, only half a dozen are\nthey disagreed on means rather than on ends. Both factions\nstrong enough in numbers or influence to merit consideration in\nwanted to make Japan the dominant power in the Far East; but\nthis brief survey. Remnants of the Seiyukai and Minseito have\nthe businessmen and other \"moderates\" would have preferred\nunited to form the so-called Progressive Party (Shimpoto) which\nto get what they wanted by economic and political penetration\nin December was still the strongest faction numerically in the\nif possible, with war as a last resort.\nDiet. Its leadership, made up of old-line professional politicans,\nWAR IS GOOD BUSINESS\nhas suffered more severely than any other group from the blows\naimed by the occupation authorities at the militarists. It is prob-\nWhen the militarists had their way and forced the nation into\nable that most of the \"Progressives\" now holding Diet seats will\nwar with China in 1937 and with the Allies in 1941, their initial\nbe disqualified in the coming election; and several prominent\nsuccesses convinced many industrialists, titled aristocrats, and\nmembers of the party have been arrested as war criminals. In\ngovernment officials that war did pay big dividends. Some of the\nspite of lip-service to the aims of the Allied authorities, this party\n\"moderates\" climbed willingly aboard the army band wagon, won\nis known to represent a die-hard conservative attitude toward\nby the reality of vast wartime profits and the promise of the loot\nsocial and economic reforms, and its platform calls for an \"un-\nof Asia and the Pacific. Others followed because their necks and\nqualified defense of Tenno\" (the Imperial system).\ntheir fortunes depended on their compliance.\nWe can expect that even in defeat the strongly entrenched\nMODERATES AND SOCIALISTS\nmembers of Japan's ruling class will fight with all the resources\nThe Liberal Party (Jiyuto) draws its strength from the personal\nat their command to maintain their dominant position. The mili-\nleadership of Ichiro Hatoyama, a political opportunist and one\ntarists, such as survive the roundup of suspected war criminals,\nof the more moderate former leaders of the Seiyukai Party. The\nwill have to go underground, at least for the duration of Allied\nJiyuto may be regarded as an attempt to revive the Seiyukai\ncontrol.\nunder a new name, and with a platform acceptable to the occu-\nBut the anti-democratic forces, while cautious in most of their\npation authorities. The \"Liberals\" have declared for conforming\npublic statements, have shown their hands quite plainly in the\nclosely with the Potsdam terms, a system of representative gov-\npolitical field.\nernment under the Emperor, Japan's early admission to the United\nOLD PARTIES-NEW NAMES\nNations, woman's suffrage, increased power for the lower house\nThe two chief pre-war parties, Seiyukai and Minseito, have been\nof the Diet, and the integrity of private property.\ngenerally identified with the great business monopolies, the first\nOne of the chief causes of the fog that obscures current poli-\nwith the firm of Mitsui, the second with the Mitsubishi interests.\ntics in Japan is the absence of clearly defined policies on the part\n41\n40\nof most of the new-born parties. Such factions as the Liberals\naimed at meeting acute current problems, such as unemployment,\nand the Central Party (Chuoto) raise the banner of \"democratic\nlabor's low wages and bad working conditions, shortages in food\nprinciples\"; but their leadership of pre-war political hacks and\nand housing, the rising cost of living, and high taxes imposed\nopportunists suggests that their democracy is of recent and doubt-\non industrial workers and farmers. The Communists, who are\nful vintage.\nwell aware of the conservatism of the Japanese masses, are call-\nEven though the Social Democrats (Shakaito) are split into a\ning for constitutional reform and correction of social and eco-\nleft and a right wing, they show some promise of rivaling the\nnomic abuses by legal means, rather than by revolutionary action.\nProgressives as the strongest faction in the next Diet. The present\nWILL THE ALLIED COMMAND TAKE SIDES?\nSocialist Party has its roots in the pre-war Proletarian and Social\nMass parties, both of which had a fairly creditable record of anti-\nIn approaching the problem of which party or parties will have\nmilitarism. Leaders of the conservative wing are the Christian\nAllied support, we have a guide in definite official statements, such\nsocialist Toyohiko Kagawa, and the elderly Isoo Abe and Bunji\nas the basic policy quoted on pages 26-27. Liberal tendencies and\nSuzuki. The left wing of the Social Democrats is headed by\nall democratic parties are to be encouraged. The Japanese govern-\nKanju Kato, anti-militarist editor and labor leader. This faction\nment has been ordered to remove all barriers to freedom of reli-\nis moderate in its socialist program, which calls for popular self-\ngion, speech, and the press. Any attempt on the part of reaction-\ngovernment in line with the Potsdam declaration, government\nary groups to interfere with liberal movements will be suppressed.\ncontrol of big business, the nationalization of certain key indus-\nOne of the directives guiding General MacArthur states that\ntries and utilities, unemployment compensation, and fundamental\n\"changes in the direction of modifying authoritarian tendencies\nagrarian reforms.\nof the government are to be permitted and favored.\"\nOur intention, as announced by the State Department, is \"to\nTHE COMMUNISTS-NIPPON STYLE\nuse the existing form of government in Japan, not to support it.\"\nThe Japanese Communist Party, like the Social Democrats, has\nThis obviously leaves a wide latitude of interpretation to General\nbeen quick to take advantage of the political void created by the\nMacArthur on the question of how he will act if violence de-\nweakening of the Progressives. The Communists and some left-\nvelops between the present government and revolutionary groups,\nwing Social Democrats favor the formation of a popular front;\nor between factions.\nbut the more cautious elements among the Socialists are afraid\nA TRIAL OF DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES\nto commit their party to such an alliance.\nThe Communists are fortunate in having such youthful and\nThe men at Allied Headquarters and all Japanese political fac-\nvigorous leaders as Sanzo Nosaka, who has been working with\ntions are looking forward, with hope or misgivings, to the com-\nthe Chinese Communists under the \"party name\" of Susumu\ning election. The election was originally scheduled for January\nOkano. Starting with about two hundred members, the party\nbut has been postponed to April 10, 1946, to give all parties,\nhas grown in numbers and influence. Its announced program is\nand especially the newly formed parties professing democratic\n43\n42\nprinciples, a chance to develop their campaigns. Even a few\nmasters and at the same time to avoid offending the Japanese\nweeks' postponement will provide valuable opportunities for the\nupper and middle classes. But both his physical and his political\noccupation authorities and the more democratic-minded Japa-\nstrength are limited. The result has been a lukewarm response to\nnese to acquaint the people with the issues to be decided and\nGeneral MacArthur's reform orders and failure to deal effectively\ntheir responsibilities as voters in what may be Japan's first free\nwith Japan's post-war economic crisis.\nelection. A national election early in 1946 might have the unde-\nsirable outcome of a sweeping victory for old-line politicians\nrepresenting the same ultraconservative forces which dominated\nJapan's pre-surrender government. Postponement to later in the\nyear will probably increase the chances of the new and weak\ndemocratic parties.\nPerhaps the most important measure passed by the eighty-\nninth Diet session of November 26-December 19, 1945, is the elec-\ntoral reform law, which provides that all men and women twenty\nyears of age and over may vote. Forty-two million will have the\nright to cast a ballot, as opposed to about twelve million men vot-\ning in past elections. Reform of the House of Peers, promised by\nthe present government, will have to wait until after the election\nof the new Diet. Proposals for changing the highly restrictive\nselection of members of the upper house will be introduced at this\ntime.\nMany observers in Tokyo who have long-term experience in\nJapanese politics do not expect the government of Premier Shide-\nhara to survive the coming election. Considerable surprise was\nexpressed in both Japanese and Allied circles that the present\nCabinet should have been able to weather the storm of the\nNovember-December 1945 Diet session. The Premier, a venerable\n\"moderate\" statesman who replaced Prince Higashi-Kuni on\nOctober 5, 1945, was chosen as a safe pilot for the difficult early\nmonths of the occupation. He was supposed by the Japanese to be\nacceptable to the Allied authorities.\nShidehara has tried conscientiously to get along with his new\n45\n44\n4. Japan's Economy-Wreckage & Salvage\ncondition unimproved. Droughts, taxation, and manipulated\nprices nibbled away at the farmers' small holdings, until as early\nas 1892 nearly 40 per cent of the usable farm land was worked\nby tenants. Japanese agriculture is intensive, in that almost every\nWe have two major economic objectives which to some extent\nsquare foot of arable land is under cultivation. But it was and is\nconflict with each other. First, we propose to transform Japan's\nlacking in the modern scientific techniques and cooperative organ-\nindustry and trade so that the launching of another war will be\nizations found in more advanced countries. As population in-\nimpossible. Second, we plan to give the Japanese the opportunity\ncreased, the farming areas became overcrowded, making a large\nto rebuild their economy so that the peacetime requirements of\nsupply of cheap labor available to industry.\nthe population may be met.\nMuch of Japan's amazing industrial development was a hard\nBefore discussing these aims and the means of achieving them,\nand shining crust covering primitive conditions. Great factories\nit may be well to look briefly at Japan's economic pattern as it\nequipped with the latest machine tools stood side by side with\nwas before it began to crack under the stress of total war.\ncottage industries employing from two to a dozen workers. Rela-\nThroughout her recent history Japan's lack of raw materials has\ntionships between employer and employee were still on a paternal-\nbeen her outstanding weakness. And yet, with limited natural\nistic basis in many modern plants. Wages were strikingly low\nresources and starting from almost medieval conditions in the\ncompared with other industrial countries, though higher than\nseventies and eighties, the Japanese developed in a few decades\nelsewhere in the Far East. Much of Japan's rapid development and\ninto the strongest nation, industrially and financially, in the Far\nexpansion can be attributed to the combination of Western stand-\nEast, a formidable competitor in shipping and world commerce\nards of efficiency with an Oriental standard of living.\nwith the Western powers. It is one of the major tragedies of our\nBut peasants who were barely able to feed their families, and\ncentury that Japan should have squandered all this intelligence,\nworkers earning a few cents a day, were not able to buy much of\nenergy and talent in an attempt to conquer and enslave her neigh-\nthe flood of goods turned out by the factories. Of necessity,\nbors.\nJapan came to depend more and more upon foreign trade.\nFrom the Meiji Restoration in 1868 down to the present, the\nAt first, capital was lacking for large-scale development. But\neconomic control of the nation has been in the hands of a small\nhere the Imperial government, which could command such\nnumber of aristocrats and big businessmen. Just as the political\nwealth as there was, stepped in and nursed along the infant indus-\n\"reforms\" of the Emperor Meiji clothed the old despotic prin-\ntries until they were able to stand alone. The First World War,\nciples of government in new forms and new titles, so were the\nin which Japan sold heavily to the Allies and suffered no losses,\ngreat nobles transformed almost overnight from feudal lords into\nbrought a flood tide of prosperity.\nlarge-scale landlords and financiers. Their vassals, it is true, became\nBy 1920 the big business combines had grown beyond the need\nsmall landowners; but the newfound freedom left their actual\nof subsidies and were no longer dependent upon the good will of\n46\npoliticians and bureaucrats. Indeed, as their control of the two\n47\nJAPANESE EMPIRE\nALASKA\nPOPULATION\nSOVIET\nUNION\n0..00°\nIN\nSAKHALIN\nALEUTIANS\nMILLIONS\nMANCHURIA\n1942\n400\nKOREA\n350\nCHINA\n1914\n1914\n1880\n300\nBONIN.\nORYUKYU\nINDIA\nIS.\nIS.\nP A\nCIFIC\n250\nBURMA\nFORMOSA\nHongKong\nMARIANAS\nINDO-CHINA\nIS.\nWake\nTHAI-\n200\nPHILIPPINES\n1942\nLAND\nManila.\nO C E A N\nCHINA\nGuam'\n150\nMARSHALL\nIS.\nCAROLINE IS.\nMALAYA\n100\nSingapore\nCELEBES\nGILBERT\nBORNEO\nIS.\n090\nRA\n50\nNETHERLANDS EAST INDIES\nJAVA\nSOLOMON\no\n1880 1914 1930 1942 1945\nOCEAN\nBlack = JAPAN PROPER\nShaded = OCCUPIED TERRITORIES\nAUSTRALIA\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\nWith the growing militarism of the thirties, Japan's financial\nand industrial structure underwent transformation into a war\nmajor parties showed, they could purchase politicians by the\nscore. The close tie-up between government and big business had\neconomy. Emphasis shifted from silk, textiles, and other con-\nenabled the most powerful firms to become monopolies, often\nsumers' goods to iron, steel, and machinery. This change meant\nmore guns and even less rice for Japan's farmers and factory\nuniting, under one board of directors, the functions of banking,\nworkers. From Pearl Harbor to the surrender, the war is esti-\nmanufacturing, and commerce.\nmated to have cost Japan $13,000,000,000, a staggering sum for\nBlood ties in Japan are very strong; large families, or rather\nclans, comprising hundreds of individuals, acted cooperatively\na country whose total budget is only about $900,000,000 per year.\nPolitical rivalry between capitalists and militarists should not be\nunder elders who were their recognized leaders. Half a dozen\npowerful families dominated vast business enterprises: the Mitsui,\ninterpreted as irreconcilable enmity. Large profits from war con-\nYasuda, and Sumitomo families controlled the firms known by\ntracts and the promise of greatly extended markets, free of West-\nthose names; the Iwasaki family, the Mitsubishi interests, and so\nern competition, looked very enticing to the Zaibatsu. After the\non. These are the much discussed Zaibatsu, whose strangle hold\nspectacular army victories of 1941 and early 1942, most of the\nbusinessmen who had been reluctant to support the war effort\non Japan's economic life we are pledged to break. The Mitsui\ncombine was closely associated with the army; the Mitsubishi\nput aside their doubts and took what they could in profits and loot.\nOccupied China and the areas seized in Japan's drive to the\nwith the navy and the merchant marine.\nsouth offered vast opportunities for industrial and commercial\nBy 1925, leading industrialists and financiers held important\nexpansion. Hundreds of thousands of slave laborers, forcibly re-\nposts in the government. The very limited parliamentary system\ncruited in Korea and China by representatives of the Zaibatsu,\nprovided by the Japanese Constitution suited their needs, and the\nwere rented to mine operators and other employers in Japan.\nDiet's gains in influence from 1920 to 1931 reflected the growing\nThe government-sponsored drug traffic on the Asiatic mainland\npower of the Zaibatsu rather than the development of real democ-\nserved the double purpose of corrupting the Chinese and lining\nracy in Japan. Big business favored a moderate foreign policy,\nchiefly because they feared war with the great powers and desired\nthe pockets of profiteers. In October 1945, it was estimated that\neconomic, rather than military, conquest of East Asia and the\nthe stamping out of Japan's drug traffic had cut off 90 per cent of\nthe world's supply of illegal opium.\nPacific islands.\nWhen the time came for fixing the responsibility for Japanese\nThe depression of 1930 hit Japan hard, especially in her foreign\ncommerce. In two years her export-import trade was cut almost\naggression, the names of some of Japan's business leaders stood\nin half. Unemployment and suffering among workers and peasants\nhigh on the lists of suspected war criminals.\nled to widespread discontent with the leadership of the \"moder-\nLIQUIDATING THE ZAIBATSU\nates.\" Their rivals for control of the government, fascists of the\nstamp of Tojo and Araki, saw their opportunity. Their first major\nStep by step the Allied Command has moved to break up the\nstroke was the seizure of Manchuria in 1931; their second, the\neconomic empire of the Zaibatsu. The first move was to enforce\nwar with China, launched in 1937.\n51\n5°\nthe provision of the policy statement of September 6, 1945, which\nforbids the producing, developing, or maintaining of all forms\nThe government was ordered to dissolve the four largest firms\nof arms, ammunition or implements of war, naval vessels, and air-\nand to eliminate their controls of finance and industry. General\ncraft. This program involves the reduction or elimination of in-\nMacArthur further instructed the government to set up a hold-\ning company liquidation commission to direct the dissolution,\ndustries keyed to a war economy, such as iron and steel, certain\nchemicals, machine tools, and electrical or automotive equipment.\nunder Allied supervision, and warned that all policies and per-\nThis work is well under way, but its completion will take many\nsonnel must have his approval. All securities owned by holding\nmonths. Naturally, no implements of war have been turned out\ncompanies or other \"evidences of ownership or control\" must be\nsince the surrender; and Japanese aviation, including all civil\ntransferred to the new commission, after which all holding com-\npanies' directors and officials must resign. All members of the\naviation, was wiped out by the end of 1945. Such merchant ships\nas remain are under Allied control. Larger ocean-going vessels are\nfamilies which control the four leading monopolies must give up\nbeing used for the repatriation of Japanese troops and displaced\ntheir offices in the firms and must cease to exercise any influence\nin their management. This is the first step in the Allied Com-\ncivilians, or to transport vital food and fuel supplies.\nmand's plan for dissolving these great concentrations of wealth.\nAnother important move in closing out this economic empire\nwas the lopping off of the tentacles of Japanese financial activities\nTo prevent the rise of any similar combines, the Japanese gov-\nernment must repeal laws which have encouraged them and enact\nabroad. Allied directives have forbidden import and export of\nforeign exchange; forbidden foreign exchange transactions within\nnew legislation to prevent monopoly and foster business oppor-\nJapan; closed banks controlled by the economic imperialists and\ntunities on a competitive basis. If these orders are faithfully car-\nried out, there may be hope for what the Allied Commander\nordered seizure of their assets; forbidden commercial communica-\ntions from Japan to the outside world; ordered seizure of govern-\ndefines as \"wider distribution of income and ownership of the\nmeans of production and trade in Japan.\"\nment hoards of precious metals; directed the government to report\nThe same sweeping order called for steps to \"terminate and\nwithin 90 days all foreign exchange assets, including private hold-\nprohibit Japanese participation in private international carteis or\nings and foreign properties of the Imperial household. The Em-\nperor's large holdings in twenty-nine firms make him one of the\nother restrictive private international contracts or arrangements.\"\nZaibatsu's major investors.\nLate in November 1945, all subsidy payments by the govern-\nment to private industry, and the payment of war indemnities\nLate in October the leading Zaibatsu, seeing the writing on the\nwall, made gestures toward voluntary dissolution. These pro-\nwere stopped. The blocking of subsidies, which have supported\nposals, the sincerity of which was open to question, were coun-\nindustries geared for war production, will save the government\nover $469,000,000 annually.\ntered by General MacArthur when, on November 6, he an-\nnounced that all the great family combines would be broken up\nORDER OUT OF FINANCIAL CHAOS\nto \"aid Japanese economic development along peaceful, demo-\ncratic lines.\" Twenty-one major banks and development com-\nEarly in December, a survey of production, equipment, assets,\npanies are slated for permanent liquidation.\nownership, and transactions in twenty-three major industries was\ncompleted at the direction of Ambassador Pauley, reparations\n52\n53\nBREAKING UP OF THE \"ZAIBATSU\"\nat a time when it desperately needs money to meet the costs of\noccupation, civilian relief, and, perhaps, reparation payments.\nAnother move to strengthen the government financially was the\nabolition of military pensions, which would have absorbed 15 per\ncent of the national revenues in 1946. In place of these payments\nBANK &\nTRUST\nto ex-soldiers and their families, Allied Headquarters proposes a\nCOMPANIES\ngeneral social security system to meet the needs of all who merit\nDEPARTMENT\nMANUFACTUR\nSTORES\nING\naid, regardless of military service. An exception is made in favor\nof demobilized men receiving disability pensions.\nSHIPPING\nENGINEERING\nHOUSE OF\nREVIVING ORGANIZED LABOR\nMITSUI\nThe birth of the labor movement in Japan coincides with the rise\nof industry during the 1890's. The record of Japanese trade\nunionism is a depressing but heroic story of the struggles of a\nTRADING\nCOMPANIES\nhandful of courageous men and women, often crushed between a\nMINING &\nPOWER\ndespotic government and grasping employers above, and the\nCOS\nPAPER& NEWSPAPER\napathy of the tradition-bound masses below. The picture of the\nCOMPANIES\nJapanese often presented to Americans, a docile people 100 per\ncent loyal to the Emperor and accepting privation without ques-\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\ntion, is a misleading oversimplification. Japan has known strikes,\npeasant revolts, hunger marchers, and anti-government demon-\nchief. This inventory was needed as a basis for further action in\nstrations by workers and students. Because of the suppression of\ndisentangling Japan's wrecked economy.\nlabor unions which actually dared to demand better wages,\nA number of other significant steps have been taken, or are\nshorter hours, and improved working conditions, militant labor\nprojected, to weaken the Zaibatsu further and put the country's\nwas forced to turn to politics as the only field in which it could\nfinances in a healthier condition: (1) a war-profits tax of 100 per\nput up a fight. Police interference, and the abundant supply of\ncent, which will really take the profit out of war for the firms\ncheap labor from rural areas kept even the surviving unions from\nwhich grew fat on government contracts; (2) a tax on capital\ngaining numerical strength. No more than 8 per cent of all\namounting in some instances to as much as 70 per cent; and (3)\nworkers in industry were organized before the war.\na new currency issue sometime in the spring, which would force\nBetter days lie ahead. In December 1945 the Diet passed legis-\nall hoardings out of hiding when the present inflated yen cur-\nlation removing restrictions on the organization of labor and the\nrency is retired, and assure the government of full tax collection\nfree assertion of their rights by workers. Even though the labor\n54\n55\nHOW WORKERS EARN THEIR LIVING\nsoldiers and colonists for Greater East Asia. The revival of birth\ncontrol has been proposed to meet the problems created by\nshrunken territory and food shortages. But the Japanese have a\nhigh birth rate, and the population, which has doubled since\n1875, will probably go on growing, although more slowly than in\nFARMERS\nINDUSTRY\n-TRADE-OTHERS\nprosperous years.\nTRANSPORTATION\nThe problem of how these increasing millions will live falls into\nEACH FIGURE REPRESENTS 5% OF ALL WORKERS\ntwo phases: plans for the future, and immediate necessities in\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\nfood, fuel, and housing for the months ahead. Viewed in terms of\nyears, the prospect is far from hopeless.\nBetween 4° and 50 per cent of the population is employed in\nleaders now emerging from jail or exile are of the political left,\nagriculture; perhaps a larger proportion can be if schemes for\ntheir demands are modest, judged by American standards: an\nincreasing the amount of arable land are realized. Only about 20\neight-hour day, a six-day week, improved working conditions and\nper cent of the country's total area can be cultivated at present.\npay, freedom of the press, speech, and organization, and freedom\nA proposed five-year reclamation program would provide 3,900,-\nto picket and strike.\n000 additional acres and is aimed at making the home islands self-\nReports from Tokyo picture the labor movement spreading\nsustaining, or nearly so, in food. Allied Headquarters will see to it\nand gaining power, with its chief objective the formation of a\nthat this added acreage will go to landless peasants and demobil-\nnational federation of labor. Strikes are. not only possible in\nized soldiers, rather than to the \"tenth of one per cent\" of the\npresent-day Japan-they are actually occurring and several have\nlandowners who already hold more than one hundred acres each.\nended in the achievement of the workers' demands.\nThe small farmer has carried more than his share of the burden\nof Japan's wars. His sons make up the bulk of the conscript\nWILL THE JAPANESE STARVE?\narmy; his daughters have tended machines in wartime industry\nThere are between five and six million Japanese still to be repatri-\nfor a few cents a day and their keep. High taxes, a crushing\nated from East Asia and the Pacific area. Most of the 2,400,000\nweight of debt accumulated in bad years, and the government's\nKoreans now in Japan, about half of whom were brought in\nfixed-price purchase of his crop have left the peasant barely\nduring the war as slave labor, will probably want to return to\nenough to eat and a thatched roof in exchange for his dawn-to-\ntheir homeland. It is estimated that, when the reshuffling of dis-\ndusk labor. As a first step in rebuilding Japan's rural economy\nplaced persons is over, Japan's population will be about 75,000,-\nthe Allied Command instructed the government to prepare a com-\n000. In the past birth control was actively discouraged by the\nplete report on \"farm tenancy, farm indebtedness, farm credit and\nmilitarists and super-patriots, who favored intensive breeding of\ninterest rates, farm loans, rentals, taxes, and the cost of farm\nsupplies.\"\n56\n57\nAN AVERAGE JAPANESE FARMER\nOn December 10, 1945, an Allied directive abolished absentee\nlandlordship, affecting about 10,000 landowners, and provided\nHE HAS A FAMILY OF SIX\nthat millions of small farmers should be permitted to buy land at\nlow, long-term rates. The proposed capital levy tax may force\nthe sale of many large estates and thus bring thousands of acres\nof good land, now merely ornamental park, under productive cul-\ntivation.\nAND 2 ACRES TO CULTIVATE (ONLY HALF OF WHICH HE OWNS)\nBUT WHAT ABOUT TODAY?\nHIS LAND\nRENTED\nPromising though these plans may be, they will not put rice in\nempty stomachs or heat icy homes before spring. Even the prob-\n2 ACRES\nlem of food is less pressing than that of coal. Railroads, which dis-\nFROM THIS LAND HE AND HIS FAMILY RAISE 70 BUSHELS OF\ntribute vital supplies, must be kept running and essential public\nRICE, SOME WHEAT, POTATOES AND OTHER VEGETABLES. FOR\nutilities must operate. At present less than half enough coal to\nTHESE HE RECEIVES ¥ 750 00\nmeet the nation's minimum needs is being mined, and small stock-\n50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50\npiles are vanishing. Schedules of coal production set by the Shide-\nhara government are considerably below the amounts considered\nBUT\nRENT\nTAX\nEXPENSES\nINTERESTS\nfeasible by the occupation authorities. Allied officers of the\n(mostly for fertilizer) (on ¥1000 debts)\nnatural resources section have done their best to restore produc-\nHE HAS ONLY ¥100 LEFT TO SPEND(50) 50\ntion, but the problem of labor is yet to be solved. Korean miners\nwho, quite understandably, refuse to mine coal for the Japanese,\nBUT HE NEEDS ¥300 TO FEED HIS FAMILY 50 50 50 50 50 50\nmust be repatriated before they can be replaced with native labor.\nDEFICIT * 200\nCharcoal (Japan's chief household fuel) is equally scarce. Un-\nAi\nheated homes, and the lack of clothing and fuel, are contributing\nto the spread of sickness, especially pulmonary diseases.\nAND HE MEETS THE DEFICIT BY\nBORROWING\nDOING\nSELLING POSSESSIONS\nEstimates of the 1945 rice crop vary from 8 to 23 per cent\nODD JOBS\n-EVEN HIS CHILDREN\nbelow normal. In recent years, Japan has depended upon im-\nporting about a quarter of her rice. Opinions differ as to just how\nBASED ON 1938 FIGURES / YEN = 294 IN 1938\nbad the food shortage is. A great deal depends upon whether the\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\npresent state of the country is compared with its own past or with\nthe present condition of China or the Philippines. Japan's stand-\nard of living has always been low compared with ours, but it was\n59\nRICE - ITS PRODUCTION AND IMPORT\n4,000,000 tons of food, for which the Japanese claim they are will-\ning to pay cash. Allied authorities, however, have pointed out that\nDOMESTIC PRODUCTION\nIMPORTED\nthe Japanese are probably averaging better than the 1500 calories\n1929-\n309\n53\nper day on which some European countries must exist. Japan will\n1933\nAVERAGE\nhave to wait her turn while Allied officials plan to meet the needs\nof a hungry world.\n1934-\n1939\n318\n80\nAVERAGE\nRECONVERSION OF INDUSTRY\nHard though the lot of Japan's farmers may be, it is the people\n1946\n266\ncrowded into industrial areas who face the worst immediate prob-\n(ESTIMATE)\nlems. Seven million men are being demobilized and agriculture\nFIGURES IN MILLION BUSHELS\ncan absorb only a part of them. The Japanese middle class is\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\nsmall; competition for white-collar jobs and in the professions\nwas bitterly keen even before the war. Emigration or employ-\nthe highest in the Orient. A sharp drop in any nation's consump-\nment in foreign trade are, for the time being, out of the question.\ntion means suffering, and suffering means social unrest.\nPractically all the nonagricultural population must be employed\nThe present government under Premier Shidehara has been\nin industry or receive relief if they are to live.\nvacillating and ineffectual in dealing with the crisis. A badly\nFor a time a job shortage is inevitable. On December I, 1945,\norganized distribution and price control system is partly to blame.\nthere were 3,337,000 unemployed, as compared with 744,000 on\nOfficial reports on available supplies have been conflicting and\nMay I, 1945. The Japanese government is opposed to any form of\nunsatisfactory. The government complains that the peasants are\ndole for the unemployed and prefers a program of public works.\nhoarding their crops; but the farmers of the Kyoto district reply\nHowever, in compliance with General MacArthur's directive of\nthat they cannot deliver more foodstuffs because the warehouses\nDecember 13, to care for the needy, the Welfare Minister has out-\nare already full of thousands of bushels of rice which the govern-\nlined a $13,300,000 relief program for the unemployed war suf-\nment has failed to distribute. General MacArthur has warned the\nferers and repatriates.\nJapanese that if they cannot devise a workable system for handling\nBut such measures are subsidiary to the main goal-revived\nfood the occupation forces will do it for them. Allied pressure has\nproduction of peacetime goods. The lack of domestic markets has\nalso been applied to increase production in the important fisheries\nin the past been one of Japan's chief drives toward economic im-\nindustry, which has been somewhat apathetic in making the best\nperialism. A remedy for this situation may lie in encouraging her\nof its present fishing grounds, manpower, and equipment.\nto develop full production of consumers' goods and to build a\nBoth the government and crowds of hunger marchers have peti-\nhome market by distributing a larger proportion of the national\ntioned Allied Headquarters to permit the importation of about\nincome to workers and peasants.\n60\n61\nBut hundreds of bombed plants must be completely rebuilt and\ncupy the economic heart of a continent and possess important raw\nthousands of others must be repaired before the minimum needs\nmaterials. But Japan, without Korea, Formosa, and Manchuria, is\nof the population can be met. Shortly after the surrender an\npermanently weakened, as Britain would be without her empire.\naverage estimate of production in five major industries showed it\nHOW WILL JAPAN PAY DAMAGES?\nto be only 31 per cent of normal. As early as October, recon-\nverted plants were beginning to turn out a trickle of badly\nWhile there is no question in Allied circles about Japan's moral\nneeded goods, such as inexpensive clothing, kitchen utensils, and\nduty to pay the costs of her aggression, it is clear that she will\nelectrical fixtures. During the war, orders were issued to convert\nnot be able to. Early in November President Truman sent Am-\nmuch of the nation's mulberry acreage (supporting silkworms) to\nbassador Edwin W. Pauley to the Far East to develop a program\nhuman food crops, crippling the once-rich silk industry. This was\nfor exacting reparations from Japan. Guided by his experience in\nstopped by U.S. authorities before it became serious.\nGermany, where he prepared the reparations plan adopted at the\nBerlin conference, Mr. Pauley and his staff have worked in close\nWHAT OF THE FUTURE?\ncooperation with Allied Headquarters in Tokyo.\nJapan's war industries are smashed. But what of our permitting\nAfter a survey covering the home islands and areas on the\nJapan to recover at least a part of her non-war production and\nAsiatic mainland, Ambassador Pauley returned to Washington in\ntrade, as promised in Paragraph II of the Potsdam terms?\nmid-December, convinced that of an estimated $100,000,000,000\nEconomists agree that a Japan with industries permanently\nUnited States war expenditure this country would be fortunate to\ncrippled and entirely deprived of overseas commerce might\nrecover $1,000,000,000 in Japanese assets. Indeed, it is doubtful\nseriously retard recovery throughout East Asia. The products of\nthat Japan will be able to pay the full cost of occupation, esti-\nJapan's shops and factories will be needed in the rebuilding of\nmated at $2,200,000 per day. This obligation will take priority\nChina, and the Chinese will receive part of the reparations due\nover reparations, as will also the cost of certain \"necessary im-\nthem in the form of machine tools and manufactured goods. If\nports\" (largely food). When these demands are met, there will\nJapan is permitted to redevelop the harmless part of her peace-\nnot be a great deal left in Japan which the United States would\ntime industry and trade, she will be able not only to feed her own\naccept as reparations.\npopulation, but also to supply the peoples of the Far East with\nBut there are other claimants whose need is greater than ours.\nmerchandise manufactured at a price they can afford to pay.\nMr. Paul V. McNutt, High Commissioner to the Philippines, has\nCommerce Minister Ogasawara has estimated that Japan will\nstated that the United States will claim reparations on behalf of\nrequire five years to restore \"normal\" industrial production. In\nthe Philippine Republic. Mr. Pauley, with whom Mr. McNutt\nview of the loss of her overseas empire, reparations payments,\nconferred, declared that the Islands \"need almost everything.\"\nand continued control of industry by the occupation authorities,\nMany observers feel that China, the greatest sufferer, merits first\nthis sounds like whistling in the graveyard. Japan is not econom-\nconsideration. Extensive Japanese installations in areas which\nically in a class with defeated Germany. The Germans still oc-\nrevert to China under the surrender terms are being taken over\n62\n6₃\nby the Central Chinese government. Japan proper will be stripped\nof almost all of her chemical, steel and shipbuilding capacity, and\n5. Shaping the Mind of Japan\nhalf of her electric power and machine tool industries. Destruc-\ntion of Japan's military potential is not the only object; much of\nthe usable equipment will be shipped to China and the Philippines.\nJapan has had an educational system based on American and\nThis machinery is not needed for Japanese peacetime economy.\nGerman models for about seventy years. The government of the\nIn spite of the war's destruction, there still remains more heavy\nEmperor Meiji, grandfather of Hirohito, placed a high value upon\nindustry than was ever used in making the goods of peace.\npublic education, from primary school through the university.\nMr. Pauley has stated that in his opinion Russia is entitled to\nHis Imperial Rescript on Education, issued in 1890, has been the\nlittle if any indemnity for her brief participation in the Pacific\nbasic code for Japanese educators. The advocates of extreme\nwar. The Russians, needless to say, do not agree. It is alleged that\nnationalism and militarism have found its provisions a help rather\nthey have already removed much industrial equipment from\nthan a hindrance in preparing the youth of the nation for war.\nKorea and Manchuria. It is, of course, understood that the recom-\nThe rescript emphasizes individual morality, intellectual at-\nmendations of Mr. Pauley and his collaborators are subject to re-\ntainments, and public service, but always within limitations im-\nview by the Far Eastern Commission and its participating govern-\nposed by complete submission to the state. \"Offer yourselves\nments.\ncourageously to the State,\" the Emperor commands, \"and thus\nIn the meantime, all Japanese public wealth in the form of gold\nguard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval\nand other precious metals is being held in the San Francisco Mint\nwith heaven and earth. So shall ye not only be Our good and\npending decisions as to its disposal. The total of these and other\nfaithful subjects, but render illustrious the best traditions of your\nassets frozen in Allied countries may appear large, but at the most\nforefathers.\" The Imperial Rescript was designed to check the\nthey would pay for only a year or two of the occupation. For\ngrowth of foreign influence on Japanese education. In spite of\nexample, Hirohito's much-discussed personal fortune, estimated\nsuccessive waves of new ideas and theories from abroad, reac-\nat $100,000,000, would meet the cost of maintaining our troops\ntionary officials were able to combat them with the weapon of the\nin Japan for just 45 days.\nvenerated Emperor Meiji's proclamation.\nONE PICTURE-MANY PRINTS\nThe outstanding organizational feature of the state-controlled\nsystem of education is its centralization. As Mr. Wilfrid Fleisher\nhas very effectively expressed it: \"The government provides an\nofficial negative from which millions of prints are made.\" The\nMinistry of Education in Tokyo has branches in all the major\ndivisions, called prefectures, in Japan, which in turn maintain\n64\n65\nbureaus in all towns and municipalities. The system provides for\nship and discomfort. Sports consisted largely of military drills\nprimary schools, six years of compulsory education for boys and\nand exercises.\ngirls; high schools; and universities and teachers' colleges. This\nPatriotism, Japanese style, permeates all learning. Until recent\nprogram has been supplemented by schools maintained in con-\nreforms were put into effect, the teaching of history, literature,\njunction with the young men's and women's associations; a few\nand social science was closely linked with Japan's \"unique mis-\nfashionable schools for the children of the nobility; and schools\nsion\" and reverence for the throne. Portraits of the Emperor and\nand colleges supported by the Christian churches.\nEmpress are kept in all school buildings, usually in a special fire-\nFemale education beyond elementary school has been neglected\nproof structure. This superior housing was prompted not only\nby the government in conformity with women's subordinate posi-\nby piety, but also by the deaths of zealous teachers who have\ntion in Japan. The girls' high schools, numbering about a thou-\nbeen burned in attempts to rescue the sacred portraits from flimsy\nsand before the war, were largely finishing schools for the daugh-\nschool buildings.\nters of the more prosperous families.\nIn 1939-1940 the entire school system was reorganized and\nJapanese statements considerably overrate the effectiveness of\ntightened up under General Sadao Araki (now under arrest as a\ntheir educational system in claiming that more than 95 per cent of\nwar criminal) in line with a policy of strict training of minds\nthe people are literate. Elementary school graduates are supposed\nand bodies for war. The hold of State Shinto (Emperor-worship)\nto know three thousand of the five to six thousand Chinese char-\nupon education was intensified. In June 1943 the final step was\nacters actually used in writing the Japanese language. As a matter\ntaken which made Japanese students an integral part of the war\nof fact, most Japanese probably know only about a thousand.\nmachine. All high school and college students were made avail-\nNewspapers must use hiragana, a system of simple characters\nable for work in factories, on the farms, on defense installations,\nrepresenting the sounds of syllables, alongside the difficult Chinese\nor for service in the armed forces.\ncharacters in order to make the news intelligible to most of their\nreaders. A recent survey by Japanese and Allied educators indi-\nPLANNING A NEW DEAL\ncates that only about 14 per cent of the people are able to read\nAlthough the Japanese masses probably accept the myths of the\nan entire newspaper with ease.\ndivine origin of Emperor and nation which they have been taught,\nin school and out, there are thousands of educated men and\nEDUCATION FOR DEATH\nwomen who do not. The lot of many Japanese teachers on the\nJapanese schooling is Spartan and highly competitive. Classrooms\nhigher levels has not been easy. Their own and their families'\nare often cold, lunches are meager, and pupils are expected to\nwelfare, perhaps even their survival, depended upon their teach-\nclean up their own buildings and grounds. Discipline is strict, but\ning what they knew to be untrue. Yet some courageous men and\ncorporal punishment is seldom used. Emphasis is placed on \"char-\nwomen, especially college faculty members, went to jail rather\nacter training\" and \"ethics,\" with special attention to cooperation,\nthan prostitute their scholarship by repeating propaganda based\nself-sacrifice, frugality, and uncomplaining acceptance of hard-\non primitive myths.\n66\n67\nhave been censored and extreme nationalist and militarist passages\nNow, in defeat, educators are confronted with problems and\nremoved. Special attention is being given to normal schools and\ndifficulties which might daunt minds more fearless and enlightened\ncolleges which train teachers.\nthan that of the average Japanese. To return to Mr. Fleisher's\nA number of outstanding American educators are already in\nfigure of speech, a new \"negative\" for national education must be\nTokyo, and will be joined by others. They will cooperate with a\nproduced. The direction of the entire system must swing from\ncorresponding council of Japanese educators of known progres-\nnationalism, totalitarianism, and war to international coopera-\nsive views in planning a long-range program for liberalizing the\ntion, democracy, and peace. Teachers must be reindoctrinated\neducational system.\nand textbooks rewritten in line with these objectives.\nThat some Japanese students welcome, and even demand re-\nThe occupation authorities have wisely not attempted reforms\nforms is shown by the strike of pupils at the Ueno girls' high\nso sudden and drastic as to run far ahead of the people's capacity\nschool and the Mito boys' high school in Tokyo, in October 1945,\nto accept and absorb new ideas. In education, as in most other\nin protest against the faculties' failure to discard the militarist\nphases of the occupation, an existing agency of the Japanese\ncurriculum. Naturally, these changes are not being taken on faith\ngovernment-in this instance the Ministry of Education-is being\nby the Allied Command. Inspectors from the information and\nused to carry out Allied policy. Our plan represents two years of\neducation section are making scheduled \"spot checks\" to deter-\nwork on the part of military government personnel who had\nmine if directives are being obeyed.\nlived and studied in Japan.\nThis program of educational reform is being carried out under\nCHRISTIAN EDUCATION\nthe supervision of General MacArthur's information and educa-\nBefore war criminal Sadao Araki extinguished the last embers of\ntion section, headed by Brigadier General Kenneth R. Dyke.\nfree education in Japan, Christian schools and colleges, many of\nOrders issued by Allied Headquarters on October 22 and 31, 1945,\nthem for girls, gave thousands of Japanese young people an op-\noutlined specific steps to be taken in connection with teaching\nportunity to escape the worst of the militarist training designed\npersonnel, textbooks, and the abolition of all military training,\nby the Ministry of Education. In a wartime purge of Christian\ndrills, and militaristic sports from the schools. Nearly half a mil-\nchurches and schools all Catholic institutions were forced into one\nlion teachers in about forty thousand schools are being investi-\norganization under government control, all Episcopalian into\ngated and all those of known militarist tendencies are being\nanother, and all remaining Protestant bodies into a third. Chris-\neliminated. No demobilized soldiers are being appointed to educa-\ntian religious instruction was largely eliminated, although it\ntional positions. The production of new textbooks, a vast enter-\nshould be recognized that the fate of the individual institution\nprise, cannot be accomplished in a few months. General Dyke's\ndepended to some degree on the character of its Japanese admin-\nstaff is now working on a long list of needed new books, one of\nistrators. One of the worst examples was St. Paul's University in\nthe most important of which is a history of Japan without the\nTokyo, an Episcopalian college, whose officials were dismissed\nmyths that have been taught as fact to the nation's youth. In the\nby General MacArthur in October 1945. At the same time he\ninterim, most of the textbooks and teachers' manuals now in use\n69\n68\nordered the government to restore 81 other Christian schools to\nof time in jail. The semi-official Domei news agency was under\ntheir former status.\ndirect government control. As Domei was the source of prac-\nA deputation of Protestant churchmen who visited Japan in\ntically all news, domestic and foreign, the papers printed its\nOctober reported that 500 Protestant institutions were destroyed\nhandouts or nothing.\nin the bombings and that all church properties had greatly deteri-\nUntil they were forced to sell out, prior to the war, several\norated as a result of wartime conditions.\nexcellent English language papers under foreign management\nhelped to keep the free press from being forgotten in Japan. Out-\nBUILDING WORLD CITIZENSHIP\nstanding among them for courage and integrity were the Japan\nOne of the most constructive measures that has been proposed is\nAdvertiser, edited by Wilfrid Fleisher, and the British Japan\nWillard Price's suggestion that thousands of promising young\nChronicle.\nJapanese men and women be sent abroad, chiefly to the United\nStates and Britain, to acquire liberal college training and study\nFREEDOM UNDER COMPULSION\ndemocratic institutions. Scholarships might be provided, as in the\nAllied Headquarters has at no time planned to take over control\ncase of China after the Boxer Rebellion, from war indemnities\nof the Japanese press and radio. Instead, the following program\npaid by the Japanese government.\nhas been given to the Japanese for them to put into effect:\nThe Japanese have in the past proved their ability to learn\nquickly and adapt to changing circumstances. Now that the spirit\nI. Reporting domestic and foreign news fully and truth-\nof old Japan has brought the nation to its present tragic condition,\nfully.\nWestern ideas may again gain in appeal, as they did after the First\n2. Explaining adequately the aims and activities of the occu-\nWorld War.\npation forces.\n3. Permitting and encouraging free discussion of all issues\nA RUBBER-STAMP PRESS\nthat have a bearing on the welfare of the Japanese people.\nLike the public education system, the press of pre-surrender\n4. Providing all segments of responsible public opinion with\nJapan was notable for its centralization and its subservience to\nequal access to the channels of public expression.\ngovernment control. A few large dailies in Tokyo and Osaka, with\nAllied Headquarters has exerted pressure on the press to spread\ncirculations of over a million, cover the country, although there\ninformation on war guilt and the records of suspected war crimi-\nwere about 2000 newspapers in all before paper restrictions and\nnals, and also to promote free discussion of subjects which are\nother wartime factors sharply reduced the number. Strict official\nunpalatable to most ruling-class Japanese, such as the position of\ncensorship, exercised by the police under the Home Ministry, kept\nthe Emperor. The monopolistic Domei news agency has been\nall papers in line with current government policy; but it must be\ndissolved. Leadership in the collection and dissemination of news\nmarked up to the credit of Japanese journalism that many editors\nwithin Japan has been taken over by the Kyodo press association,\n(or their employees designated for the purpose) spent a good deal\na business enterprise free of governmental control.\n70\n71\nIn recent months the press has grown very articulate, and even\nform the broadcasts are much the same as before surrender. It is\nnoisy, in its criticism of the militarists and the Zaibatsu and in\nfortunate that the Japanese listener is hardened to being educated\nits demands for punishment of the men responsible for the war.\nand edified, as the present fifteen-hour broadcast day contains\nFreedom after long restraint has let loose a barrage of criticism at\nonly three and a quarter hours of music and other entertainment.\nthe government of Premier Shidehara, who may be taking the\nThe airing of popular opinion is encouraged in such programs as\nbeatings which some Japanese editors have been longing to give\n\"Voice of the People,\" \"Man in the Street,\" and \"Round Table\nthe government for the past ten years.\nof the Air.\"\nTHE AIR WAS NOT FREE\nMOTION PICTURES\nNewest and most intensively developed among the instruments\nfor \"thought control\" was the radio, with 123 stations in the\nThe Japanese are devoted moviegoers. Before the war, more\nhome islands alone. Four-fifths of the government-sponsored\nfilms were produced in Japan than in Hollywood. Favorite sub-\nJapanese Broadcasting Corporation's programs was devoted to in-\njects were stories of national heroes, sentimental themes of family\nstruction and propaganda. There was no advertising; support was\nloyalty and self-sacrifice, and thrillers not unlike our own \"horse-\nprovided by a monthly tax of one yen on each receiver. Prac-\nopera\" in entertainment quality, featuring the old samurai in dark\ntically all of Japan's 6,000,000 seats were medium-wave. Even\nconspiracies and bloody swordplay.\nbefore the war short-wave equipment which could receive foreign\nAlthough technically inferior to the American product, Japa-\nbroadcasts was forbidden to the public at large.\nnese films often had notable artistic quality. Before the surrender,\nBut powerful short-wave transmitters, beamed at Asia, the\nthe Home Ministry kept tight control over the film industry;\nPacific, and the Western Hemisphere poured out propaganda\nand after 1939 the government took an active part in producing\nbroadcasts in twenty languages. Throughout Japan's wartime em-\nand distributing pictures as a means of stepping up popular en-\npire, one of the first acts of the Imperial forces was to set up\nthusiasm for the war effort.\ntransmitters, or get existing equipment into operation. These\nIn spite of strict censorship and drastic editing, foreign, and\ncarried, on medium wave, the message of Japan's \"Divine Mission\"\nespecially American films had an important place in Japan before\nand the \"Greater East Asia\" co-prosperity sphere to native popu-\nPearl Harbor. The character of most Hollywood products\nlations in their own languages. All this vast network of overseas\nscarcely contributed to Japanese understanding of actual condi-\nactivity died abruptly after the surrender.\ntions in America or the aims and achievements of democracy.\nWhen Japan's domestic radio system came under General\nThis factor deserves serious consideration when the flow of\nDyke's information and education section, Allied policy specified\nAmerican pictures into Japan is restored.\n\"complete news coverage and explanation of all Allied directives,\nIn October 1945, Allied Headquarters directed the government\nand giving voice to sound Japanese political and reconstruction\nto repeal the laws controlling the motion picture industry. Sev-\nthought.\" Although greatly changed in content and spirit, in\neral hundred older films, markedly anti-foreign or militaristic in\n72\n73\ncontent, have been banned. Careful supervision and encourage-\n6. Religious Jigsaw\nment from the occupation authorities should insure the elimina-\ntion of undesirable matter, while making use of the Japanese film's\ntradition of moral and political instruction.\nNo modern nation's daily life is more pervaded by religious in-\nfluences than is Japan's. The two systems that embrace most of\nthe country's religious activities, Shinto and Buddhism, often\nappear side by side in the same household, which is confusing to\nmost Western observers. A further source of difficulty in under-\nstanding Japanese religion is the fact that both Shinto and Bud-\ndhism include a number of diverse sects and practices.\nTHE WAY OF THE GODS\n\"State Shinto,\" or Emperor-worship, has been the storm center of\nmuch discussion of post-war reform. It is necessary to distinguish\nbetween State Shinto and the nonofficial varieties of Shinto, often\nreferred to as \"sectarian\" and \"popular.\" Historically, Shinto is\nJapan's native religion and includes all sacred beliefs and prac-\ntices other than those introduced from abroad. The name \"Shinto\"\nmeans simply \"the way of the gods.\" Its beliefs include many\ncurious myths concerning the creation and ancient heroic age of\nJapan. Both the islands and the race are represented as actual off-\nspring of primitive gods.\nMany of the ancient rituals and customs were concerned with\nfertility, both of the earth and of human beings. The world of\nthe Japanese peasant swarms with spirits, of the dead and of in-\nanimate objects. Mountains, trees, and animals have their evil or\nkindly influences, and even modern department stores in Tokyo\nhave shrines to the fox god on their roofs. These ancient beliefs\nplay an important part in the lives of millions of simple Japanese,\nwho purchase good-luck charms at the village shrine and observe\ntraditional holidays without being formally enrolled in any cult.\n74\n75\nDuring the eighteenth century, enthusiasm for Shinto revived\nthe Japanese Constitution guaranteed religion freedom, State\namong the upper classes, after having been eclipsed for many\nShinto was declared to be \"not a religion.\"\nyears by Buddhism. A number of sects were founded which won\nBlandly ignoring the inconsistency of temples which were\nconsiderable followings among both rich and poor, claiming in\n\"nonreligious,\" the government organized the more important\nrecent years about 17,000,000 adherents. In general, they empha-\nShinto shrines under a Bureau of Shrines in the Home Office. The\nsize spiritual and ethical virtues, ritual purification, or faith heal-\npriests in charge were made dependent on the state for appoint-\ning, and follow somewhat refined versions of the old Shinto be-\nment and support. These shrines, numbering about 50,000, are\nliefs and practices. Sectarian temples are organized as community\nquite distinct from the temples of sectarian Shinto, which are sup-\nchurches and are active in religious education and social welfare.\nported by their communicants.\nParamount among the official shrines are the Grand Imperial\nTHE GOD-EMPEROR\nShrine at Ise, dedicated to the Sun Goddess and the Food God-\nState Shinto, the national cult to which all Japanese, Buddhists,\ndess. The Emperor, as Japan's chief priest, performed rituals at\nChristians and Shintoists, have been forced to subscribe, is an\nIse on important national occasions. Second in importance is\nofficial linking of love of country and the duties of citizenship\nYasukuni Shrine on Kudan Hill in Tokyo, where the spirits of\nwith Emperor-worship and belief in the divine origin and destiny\nsoldiers and sailors who have died for Japan are enshrined.\nof the Japanese people. The nation is represented as one great\nfamily. At its head is the Emperor, descended from the first Em-\nperor Jimmu who, the Japanese child was taught, had the Sun\nJAPAN'S RELIGION\nGoddess as his great-great-grandmother. As the Japanese people\nshare their Emperor-father's divine descent, they are necessarily\nsuperior to the rest of humanity. Their official Bible, the Way of\nthe Subjects, enjoined them to \"bring the eight corners of the\nworld under one roof,\" or, in plain English, to bring all mankind\nBUDDHISTS\n64%\nunder the rule of the Son of Heaven.\nState Shinto was created by nineteenth century politicians who\nwished to unify the nation behind the imperial throne. They did\nSHINTO SECTS\n26%\nnot have to create a new faith or loyalty; instead, they were able\nto mobilize beliefs which the Japanese people had held for cen-\nturies.\nCHRISTIANS\nTo propagate this new state cult, founded in 1872, the govern-\n.5%\nment employed all available means of public information and in-\nBELIEFS OF THE REMAINDER ARE NOT RECORDED\nstruction, most important of which was the school system. As\nGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES\n76\n77\nUNMAKING A GOD\nbe minimized, they do not change overnight the thinking and\nEarly in October 1945 a State Department spokesman announced\nbeliefs of 70,000,000 Japanese. Nor does the New Year's rescript\nthat State Shinto was to be abolished. A thorough survey of its\nnecessarily mean that the Emperor or his advisers have expe-\ndoctrines and practices was made by the Allied Command's in-\nrienced a revolutionary change of heart. Adaptation to polit-\nformation and education section; and, on December 15, General\nical expediency and the ability to bow to the inevitable are char-\nMacArthur handed the Japanese government the long-awaited\nacteristics of Japanese statecraft. One major motive for the re-\norder abolishing Shinto as the state religion. This directive in-\nscript is revealed in the Emperor's statement about the need to\nstructs the government to remove all financial support from the\ndiscourage \"radical tendencies\" and \"confusion of thoughts.\"\nofficial cult, to eradicate the teaching of Shinto in educational\nThis New Year's declaration, together with other recent develop-\ninstitutions, and to free all Japanese from any compulsion to be-\nments, suggests that Hirohito is being built up as a popular leader,\nlieve in, or to profess to believe in Shinto. Specifically the order\nthus filling, at least in part, the vacuum left by his withdrawal as\nforbids the propagation of \"militarist and ultra-nationalist ide-\nreligious head of the people and the state.\nology not only to Shintoists but also to followers of all religious\nsects, creeds or philosophies.\" Such propaganda, according to the\nBUDDHISM-A LIVING FAITH\nterms of the order, includes the myths of divine origin and special\nBehind the mask of State Shinto, which dominated the schools,\nsuperiority of both the Emperor and the Japanese people. That\nthe army, and the government, the majority of the people turn to\nat least one Japanese has accepted the change is revealed in the\nBuddhism in the crises of life and in death. Over 42,000,000\nEmperor's New Year's rescript, which refers to \"the false con-\nJapanese are Buddhists, more or less active and devout. Intro-\nception that the Emperor is divine and the Japanese people are\nduced into Japan from Korea in the sixth century A.D., the new\nsuperior to other races and are fated to rule the world.\"\nreligion was accepted in addition to the native Shinto and did not\nNo Japanese government official, from the Emperor to the\ndisplace it. Buddhism has been a strong cultural and civilizing\nhumblest village councillor, will continue to take part in any\nforce in Japan but, like every other importation from abroad,\nShinto ceremony in his official capacity. All financial support is\nit has become japanized throughout the centuries, losing much\ncut off from the 220 national and about 50,000 prefectural and\nof its essentially pacifist and non-aggressive character.\nlocal shrines; but private support of former official shrines will\nThe six major sects active today claim Japanese founders and\nbe permitted. This restores Shinto to approximately the status it\nare distinct in doctrine and ritual from Chinese and Indian Bud-\nheld before the Meiji Restoration, and at the same time places it\ndhism. The political power of the priesthood is small, as their\non a par with present-day Buddhism and Christianity. Naturally,\nfaith has been overshadowed by the cult of Emperor-worship.\nthe occupation authorities will not interfere with the property,\nobservances, or religious educational activities of the Shinto sects.\nCHRISTIANITY-AN UPHILL ROAD\nWhile the importance of the Emperor's denial of divinity and\nChristianity in Japan dates from the coming of St. Francis Xavier\nthe Allied measures separating Shinto from the State should not\nin 1549. After winning many converts it was suppressed as dan-\n78\n79\ngerous to the state, and was not revived on any considerable scale\n7. Japan in a Peaceable World\nuntil the Japanese Constitution of 1889 promised limited religious\nfreedom. For over half a century both Roman Catholic and\nProtestant missionaries have worked devotedly in Japan, but\ntheir converts never numbered more than 360,000, or less than\nThe earlier parts of this discussion have considered our policies\nhalf of one per cent of the population.\nfor dealing with Japan and the steps taken in 1945 toward putting\nChristian missions, however, have made important contributions\nthem into practice. It is not too soon for us to look ahead, seek-\nin the fields of education, health and public welfare. In 1940 all\ning to estimate our chances of success in building a peaceable,\noverseas ties of Christian institutions were severed by the gov-\ndemocratic Japan.\nernment, which seized many properties owned by American and\nIt is now generally agreed that both military security and ex-\nBritish foundations. Many native Christians found life very diffi-\ntensive reform demand a long occupation. To strip Japan of her\ncult because of the unpopularity of their faith.\nempire and her arms and then abandon the Japanese people to the\nSince the surrender, restrictive laws aimed at Christian institu-\nsurviving Tojos, Arakis, and Matsuokas would be chopping off\ntions have been repealed; and the churches in America and Britain\nthe branches of militarism and leaving its roots untouched.\nare making plans to resume religious, educational and welfare ac-\nThe occupation has made encouraging progress during its first\ntivities in Japan. Their extensive properties throughout the former\nfew months. But it must be remembered that, although the basic\nJapanese empire will, in so far as is possible, be restored.\nissues in Japan's economic and political life have been covered by\nAllied directives, the work of putting these orders into practice\nhas scarcely begun. There is always the danger that overopti-\nmism may result from the American public's confusing plans\nwith accomplishments.\nIS JAPANESE COOPERATION SINCERE?\nMany Americans, reading accounts of the docility and friendli-\nness of the plain people of Japan who are in contact with our\ntroops, interpret their behavior as Oriental guile and subtlety of\nthe darkest hue. The protestations of accused war criminals who\nconfess their errors, or accuse one another of plotting against\nBritain and the United States, arouse very reasonable suspicions\nas to their honesty. Many soldiers and civilians who have suffered\nfrom Japanese cruelty are convinced that the entire nation is so\nimpregnated with racial prejudice, treachery, and fanatical na-\n80\n81\ntionalism that there is little hope of their becoming decent world\ndividual is relatively insignificant, in which the whole (that is,\ncitizens, at least for many years to come. Recent experience has\nthe state) is more important than its parts, in which the end\ntaught us that the Japanese soldier is a brute and a bully. For\nalways justifies the means, is very apt to have many of the quali-\nmany years he has been feared and hated mong subject peoples as\nties which travelers and historians label as \"typically Japanese.\"\na grasping and inhuman taskmaster.\nTotalitarianism, whether it is the Kaiser's or Hitler's Germany,\nObservers who take an extreme pessimistic view of the Japanese\nZululand under King Dingaan, or Hirohito's Japan, is apt to\ncharacter are certainly not lacking in evidence to back their\nproduce industrious, obedient, loyal, law-abiding subjects in time\narguments. The horrors revealed in the trials of war criminals,\nof peace and a brave, fanatical, morally irresponsible soldiery in\nthe shameful record of Japan's campaign to spread the use of\nwar.\ndrugs in China, and the bare-faced dishonesty of many of their\nbusiness dealings with non-Japanese, even before the war, all add\nLITTLE MEN, WHAT NOW?\nup to a depressing total. It is claimed that the Japanese have been\nAll that these four years have taught us about Japan may be un-\nso thoroughly indoctrinated with Emperor-worship and militar-\npalatable, but it constitutes a challenge that our government and\nism that they are unfitted for democracy. The bribery and cor-\nthe Allied occupation authorities have not shrunk from facing.\nruption rampant in the pre-war political parties is cited as evidence\nWhatever may be said in criticism of General Douglas Mac-\nof their failure to make representative government work, even\nArthur, it has never been suggested that he discourages easily.\nbefore the seizure of power by the militarists.\nHe and his fellow-workers are confronted by a nation made\nup largely of small farmers, factory workers, fishermen, and their\nTHE OTHER SIDE OF THE MASK\nfamilies. These plain people of Japan are bewildered by the col-\nTo balance this dark picture we have the observations of Chris-\nlapse of their world about their ears. Everything they have been\ntian missionaries, educators, and scholars who lived for many\ntaught to consider eternal and invincible, except the Emperor, has\nyears in intimate contact with the rank and file of the Japanese\nfallen, and his fate is uncertain. At present the majority of them\npeople. This other face of Japan presents a very different picture\nare incapable of understanding or assimilating liberal reforms,\nof personal and group characteristics: loyalty, honesty, patience,\nexcept for those measures which are directly aimed at improving\nand industry; love of home and children, respect for elders, hos-\ntheir wretched material condition. Their concerns are with food,\npitality, and fine courtesy; a highly developed sense of beauty,\nshelter, and employment, for today and next week. These are\nartistic and literary talent, religious tolerance, and humor.\nreasons for hastening rather than delaying basic reforms.\nThe bewildering truth is that both masks-the gentle and smil-\ning, and the hideous and distorted-are authentic, although per-\nWHAT IS THERE TO BUILD ON?\nhaps somewhat colored by the personal emotion of the lover or\nBut, even in Japan, despotism was never 100 per cent effective.\nhater of the Japanese. Peacetime virtues and wartime evils may\nWe have mentioned workers who struck at the risk of their jobs\nhave the same roots. A society like the Japanese in which the in-\nand their liberty, students herded into jails for \"dangerous\n82\n83\nthoughts,\" professors thrown out of their positions for daring to\nBut some of the most important aspects of America's relationship\nteach history instead of myths, and politicians who defied the\nwith defeated Japan would be ignored if, we were to stop with\nwarlords, even after Pearl Harbor. Though without power, they\nwhat is happening in Tokyo.\nwere articulate. Hirohito's amnesty of October 17, 1945, par-\nAt present Japan is isolated from the rest of Asia and the world,\ndoned 320,000 persons, reduced the jail sentences of 37,000, and\nlike a patient with an infectious disease. But this state of affairs,\nrestored the civil rights of 600,000. There is hope for the future\nno matter how many years it may last, is temporary. The time\nin the fact that one in seventy-five Japanese has been in jail, in a\nmust come when Japan will once again take her place in the\nconcentration camp, or under police surveillance-although many\ninterplay of Asiatic and world relationships. In this broader pat-\nof them had been loyal subjects, imprisoned through police stu-\ntern the fate of the Japanese will depend in part on factors other\npidity or the false accusations of enemies.\nthan their own political, social, and economic rehabilitation.\nModern science maintains that children are not born into the\nIf the United Nations develop into the guiding and controlling\nworld equipped with what we call \"racial traits.\" Japanese youth\npower in world affairs, Japan's destiny will depend upon her\nare not brutal or fanatical by nature, but by training. Home,\nacceptance into the family of nations and the manner in which she\nschool, and conscription set the pattern. Most Japanese-American\nfulfills her obligations. If, however, the second half of our century\nhigh school students in Honolulu or Los Angeles share the faults\nis to be only a continuation of the first, with the world divided\nand the good qualities of their \"white\" classmates. A number of\ninto spheres of influence among the great powers, a weakened but\nthem died on the battlefields of Italy and France. With few excep-\nstill vigorous Japan may become an important pawn in the strug-\ntions, Americans of Japanese ancestry have been good and useful\ngle for economic and political domination.\ncitizens.\nThere is overwhelming evidence that her part will be that of a\nThe answer for millions of Japanese young people who have\nsmall and relatively weak nation, whether world cooperation or\nnot enjoyed the same advantages is education, not only in the\npower politics sets the pattern. Defeat cost Japan not only her\nschoolroom, but through all channels of public information and\n\"great power\" status but also her position of leadership in the Far\nindoctrination. As in Germany, the generation of young men who\nEast. If she had conducted her campaign of \"Asia for the Asiatics\"\nfought this war may have to be marked down as a partial loss.\nwith greater vision and sincerity, she might have won and retained\nAttention can, perhaps, be more profitably concentrated on older\nsome measure of respect and regard among the subject peoples of\nmen and women who remember happier days after the First\nAsia and the Pacific, even in defeat. Her shortsighted policies of\nWorld War, and on the children who have not yet been deeply\noppression and exploitation, together with the doctrine of racial\nindoctrinated with the myths of divine race and bushido.\nsuperiority, have made her claims to inspired leadership a mock-\nery in every area she invaded.\n\"ASIA FOR THE ASIATICS\"\nJapan may recover some of her economic advantages, but only\nIn its earlier sections this discussion has been concerned chiefly\nthrough an almost superhuman effort. Her overseas resources are\nwith conditions and events within the Japanese home islands.\ngone: her industrial power dismantled or shattered. Her only\n84\n85\nremaining advantages are a skilled labor force and over half a\nOur success in Japan will depend upon the Allies' having the wis-\ncentury's experience in making goods at a price her Western com-\ndom to formulate and enforce measures which the Japanese can\npetitors cannot afford to meet. The growing industrialization of\naccept, and upon the people and their leaders' having wisdom\nChina, India, and other Far Eastern nations may in time rival\nenough to pocket their wounded pride and cooperate sincerely.\nJapan's pre-war development.\nThere are signs of the growth of a new and wholesome kind\nBut Japan's loss of her bid for empire does not mean that the\nof public opinion in Japan. Unless this tendency spreads and\nFar East is quietly returning to a pattern of things as they were\ndevelops into an active force for molding the future of the nation,\nbefore the rape of Manchuria in 1931. It must be recognized that\nthe reforms instituted by the occupation authorities cannot be\nAllied victory and Japan's own blunders will not entirely erase\nexpected to outlast the retirement of our forces, no matter\nthe memory of her spectacular successes and her propaganda\nwhether this takes place in two years' time or in twenty.\nfrom the minds of the one-half billion people she once dominated.\nBut we, the people of America, must bear the final responsi-\nThe Western imperial powers have recovered their lost territories;\nbility. If we become weary of the hard and costly job our men\nbut events of the four months since the surrender leave no doubt\nare doing in Japan and clamor for their withdrawal, the whole\nthat their prestige has suffered. With the passing of white im-\nintricate pattern of rehabilitation for peace and security may\nperialism in Asia, the leadership which Japan let slip through her\ncollapse. This would be tragic for the Japanese and very danger-\nfingers may be taken up by a reborn China, or perhaps by Soviet\nous for us.\nRussia, which (we in America sometimes forget) is a great Asiatic\nIn the conduct of the occupation thus far we have adhered to\nthe principles of justice, firmness, and humanity embodied in the\npower.\nThe solution of these problems vitally concerns the United\nPotsdam declaration. The carrying on of the task by America and\nStates, always more deeply involved in the Far East than in\nour Allies, building upon the foundation laid by General Mac-\nEurope, Africa, or the Near East. Our greatest present need in\nArthur, his colleagues, and the men behind the scenes in Wash-\nforeign relations, after a working basis for partnership with\nington, will pay dividends in good will and security in years to\nBritain and Russia, is a Far Eastern policy which recognizes that\ncome.\nthe day of the \"open door\" and Western rivalry over the wealth\nof East Asia is gone. A billion people are seeking their place in\nthe sun. Their eyes are upon our handling of defeated Japan.\nNo matter how high-minded and intelligent our plans for the\noccupation may be, they will fail in the end if they do not have\nthe support of both the Japanese and the Allied peoples. Measures\nimposed by authority upon a beaten enemy will keep their force\nafter the victor's troops are withdrawn only if they are not\nbasically unsuited to the culture and temperament of the people.\n86\n87\nWHAT OF\nThere is another aspect of Japan's acceptance of defeat by sur-\nJAPAN'S FUTURE?\nrender which is of the highest importance. By the act of surrender\nthe men who had so long inspired and organized Japan's imperial-\nOwen Lattimore\nistic drives abandoned the claim to Japan's version of the fascist\n\"New Order\"-but only beyond the shores of Japan. Within the\nhome islands of Japan, their intention was and still is to preserve as\nmuch as they possibly could of Japan's \"Old Order,\" that complex\nThe problem of defeated Japan differs from that of defeated\nof imperial privilege, cartelized industry, and underprivileged\nGermany in one most important respect. In Germany, defeat went\npeasant agriculture, all regimented under authoritarian social con-\nbeyond the fall of Hitler's military power. The whole Hitlerian\ntrols, which is in fact the root of which fascism, imperialism, and\n\"New Order\" was destroyed, and the armies of the victorious\na \"New Order\" outlook on the world are only the stem and\ncoalition states met each other face to face in the heart of Ger-\nbranches.\nmany, standing on the ruins of what they had destroyed. Because\nAs Mr. Hart points out, \"the men making up the groups which\nthe victor nations differed fundamentally from each other, they\nled the nation along the road of aggression and war have many\nwere bound to have differing points of view on important sub-\nqualities which equip them for survival, not the least of which\njects, and various kinds of friction were bound to occur; but\nare adaptability and resourcefulness.\" An example of their adapta-\nbecause, in spite of their differences, they were bound together by\nbility is their willingness to \"collaborate\" all along the line with\na common cause, and because they were in actual contact with\nthe directives of the Supreme Commander, in the hope that this\neach other, there has been a strong and continuing pressure on\nwill shorten the period of occupation. If they can succeed in hav-\nthem to adjust their differences in realistic ways.\ning the occupation forces withdrawn before changes in the old\nIn Japan, the end was reached by an act of surrender before the\nsocial and economic structure in Japan have hardened into a new\nhome islands had been invaded. The armed forces of the victorious\nstructure, they hope to salvage most of their old power and\ncoalition states thus found themselves facing each other across the\nprivileges. An example of their resourcefulness is their skill in\ngap which had once been filled by the power of Japan. Adjust-\ntaking advantage of friction or divergence of views among the\nment between the victors therefore could not be carried out face\nvictor nations.\nto face and in contact, but has involved an entirely different\nThese dangerous men of Japan's old order cannot be coped\nprocess of filling up the gap. There are accordingly two ways of\nwith simply by orders to dissolve their organizations and divest\nmeasuring the necessary adjustments: by the extent to which\nthemselves of their privileges. There are always alternative ways\nnegotiation and agreement prevail, or by the extent to which\nof organizing and of exerting influence. In the long run, Japan\nindividual states among the victors attempt to get ahead of each\ncannot be changed except from within, by Japanese who are\nother in flowing into and filling up the great-power gap left by\nenemies of the old order and allies, or aspirant allies, of the com-\nthe defeat of Japan.\nmon cause against fascism and imperialism which made it possible\n88\n89\nto win the war. Allied statesmanship in Japan must therefore meet\nTHE NEW JAPANESE\nand answer two needs: the need for a high minimum of harmony\nCONSTITUTION\nand willingness to make adjustments and compromises among the\ngreat victor nations; and the need to recruit, from among the\nJapanese people, new allies for the worldwide cause of renewed\nand continued democratic development.\nIn assessing the American share of this common responsibility,\nText of the Preamble of the proposed Japanese Constitution:\none thing is outstandingly clear. Both the elected representatives\nWe the Japanese, acting through our duly elected representatives\nof the people and the professional exponents of military policy\nin the National Diet, determined that we shall secure for ourselves\nand foreign policy must feel behind them the thrust of a popular\nand our posterity the fruits of peaceful cooperation with all\nwill, for the American way of conducting political life functions\nnations and the blessings of liberty throughout this land, and\nwell only when knowledge of the issues that have to be faced is\nresolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of\nwidely disseminated, and only when there is a vigorous public\nwar through action of the Government, do proclaim the sover-\ninterest in the decisions that have to be made.\neignty of the people's will and do ordain and establish this Con-\nstitution, founded upon the universal principle that the Govern-\nment is a sacred trust, the authority for which is derived from the\npeople, the powers of which are exercised by representatives of\nthe people, and the benefits of which are enjoyed by the people;\nand we reject and revoke all constitutions, laws, ordinances and\nrescripts in conflict herewith.\nDesiring peace for all time and fully conscious of the high ideals\ncontrolling human relationship now stirring mankind we have\ndetermined to rely for our security and survival upon justice and\nthe good faith of the peace loving peoples of the world. We\ndesire to occupy an honored place in an international society de-\nsigned and dedicated to the preservation of peace and the banish-\nment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance for all\ntime from the earth. We recognize and acknowledge that all\npeoples have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.\nWe hold that no people is responsible to itself alone, but that\nlaws of political morality are universal; and that obedience to such\nlaws is incumbent upon all peoples who would sustain their own\n90\n16\nsovereignty and justify their sovereign relationship with other\nis the almost entire lack of a strong continuing executive. Its place\nis apparently to be supplied by changing Prime Ministers, respon-\npeoples.\nTo these high principles and purposes we, the Japanese people,\nsible entirely to the Diet.\nThe advice and approval of the\npledge our national honor, determined will and full resources.\nCabinet shall be required for all acts of the Emperor in matters of\nstate.\nThe Emperor's Rescript:\nThe \"Bill of Rights\" section, which is the longest in the entire\nConsequent upon our acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration that\ndocument, for the first time in the history of Japan sets up \"in-\nthe ultimate form of the Japanese Government is to be determined\nalienable\" privileges for the population-freedom of religion,\nby the freely expressed will of the Japanese people; I am fully\npress, assembly, speech and freedom to dismiss officials. In this\naware of our nation's strong consciousness of justice and its aspira-\nconnection the preamble says \"We the Japanese people,\" using a\ntions to live a peaceful life, promote cultural enlightenment and its\nphrase entirely novel in Japan.\nfirm resolve to renounce war and foster friendship with all coun-\nThe bicameral system established under the parliamentary sec-\ntries of the world.\ntion of the Constitution subordinates the upper house, to which all\nIt is therefore my desire that the Constitution of our empire be\nmembers are to be elected, in contrast to the old appointive and\nrevised drastically upon the basis of the general will of the people\nhereditary peerage, providing that the lower chamber by a two-\nthirds vote can override the \"Councilors.\"\nand the principle of respect for the fundamental human rights.\nI command, hereby, that competent authorities from my Gov-\nA final covering provision says: \"This Constitution shall be the\nernment put forth in conformity with my wish their best efforts\nsupreme law of the state and no imperial rescript contrary to the\ntoward accomplishment of this end.\nprovisions thereof shall have legal force or validity.\"\nPrincipal sections of the new Constitution; from The New York\nThis is the final abolition of the imperial power to legislate.\nTimes, March 7, 1946:\nThe New Bill of Rights (Associated Press):\nThe proposed Constitution\n(contains) five principal sections:\n(1) The redefinition of the powers of the Emperor; (2) The re-\nA long list of new and revolutionary freedoms-based upon\nnunciation of war; (3) The establishment of a \"Bill of Rights\";\nAmerican rights-are specified. They include:\n(4) The abolition of the House of Peers and the substitution of a\nEqual rights for husband and wife and a specification that mar-\n\"House of Councilors\"; (5) Alteration of the antiquated Japanese\nriage \"shall be based only on mutual consent of both sexes.\"\nNo person \"shall be held in bondage of any kind.\" Involuntary\njudicial system.\nThis final section provides for a powerful supreme court, vested\nservitude is prohibited except as punishment for crime.\n\"Freedom of thought and conscience shall be held inviolable\"\nwith \"the whole judicial power.\" It is like the American system,\nexcept that members of this body will be appointed by the Cabinet\nin this country, where thought police existed until the occupation.\nand not named by the executive branch. One of the things, in fact,\n\"Infliction of torture by any public official and cruel punish-\nthat seems to have been borrowed from the pre-war French system\nments are absolutely forbidden.\"\n93\n92\nSUGGESTED READING\nABOUT THE AUTHORS\nBisson, T. A. Shadow Over Asia. Headline Book No. 29. New York.\nRICHARD HART, Head of the Literature and Language Department\nForeign Policy Association, 1941. Brief, vivid summary of the rise\nof the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Program Chairman of the\nof militant Japan, to 1941.\nBaltimore Branch of the Foreign Policy Association, served in the\nEmbree, John F. Japan, A Social Survey. New York. Farrar, 1945. An\nMerchant Marine for several years. During the past five years he\nanthropologist's detailed and objective study of modern Japan's\nhas lectured and broadcast about American-Japanese relations,\npolitical, social, and religious institutions. Technical but readable.\nand was engaged in a project of writing and research about Japan\nFleisher, Wilfrid. What to Do with Japan. Garden City, N. Y. Dou-\nfor the War Department. Mr. Hart has been connected with pub-\nbleday, 1945. Well-documented discussion of disarmament, occu-\nlic libraries since 1929, specializing in informal educational work\npation, and reform by a long-term resident of Japan, incorporating\nwith adults.\nopinions of many authorities.\nMr. Hart is the author of a number of volumes of biography,\nJohnstone, William C. The Future of Japan. London, Oxford, 1945.\ncriticism, and verse, including: Enoch Pratt: The Story of a Plain\nDetailed treatment of disarmament, occupation, economic con-\nMan (1935); Edgar Allan Poe: Letters and Documents (1941), in\ntrols and reparations.\ncollaboration with Arthur Hobson Quinn; and A Winter's Jour-\nLattimore, Owen. Solution in Asia. Boston. Little, 1945. Considers de-\nney (1945). He has contributed to various periodicals and news-\nfeated Japan in relation to a reborn nationalist Asia.\npapers, including the American Historical Review, the Baltimore\nNorman, E. Herbert. Japan's Emergence as a Modern State. New\nEvening Sun, and the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences.\nYork. Institute of Pacific Relations, 1940. The building of modern\nJapan under the Emperor Meiji. Clear and analytical; advanced.\nOWEN LATTIMORE has an extensive background of travel and re-\nsearch in the Far East. His field research for the Social Science Re-\nPrice, Willard. Key to Japan. New York. John Day, 1945. Recent\nsummary of things the occupation soldier or the student should\nsearch Council, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the J. S. Guggen-\nknow about defeated Japan; economic, political, topographical.\nheim Memorial Foundation, and the Institute of Pacific Relations,\nRoth, Andrew. Dilemma in Japan. Boston. Little, 1945. A liberal's\ntook him to Manchuria, Peiping, and Mongolia from 1929 to\nproposals for drastic reforms in post-surrender Japan; emphasizes\n1937. Mr. Lattimore was editor of Pacific Affairs from 1934-1941,\nrole of labor and parties of the Left.\nand served as political adviser to Chiang Kai-shek from 1941 to\nSansom, Sir George B. Japan: A Short Cultural History. New York.\n1942. In 1942 he was appointed Director of Pacific Operations of\nCentury, 1931. The authoritative one-volume history of Japan, to\nthe OWI, and is director of the Walter Hines Page School of\n1868. Advanced but readable.\nInternational Relations at Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Latti-\nWhyte, Sir Frederick. The Rise and Fall of Japan. London. Royal In-\nmore has recently served as a member of President Truman's\nstitute of International Affairs, 1945. Revised from 1941 edition;\nReparations Commission in Japan.\nbrief summary of Japan's rise to great-power status; includes\nAmong his books are: Manchuria, Cradle of Conflict (1932);\nrecent section on defeated Japan.\nThe Mongols of Manchuria (1934); Inner Asian Frontiers of\nSuggested Periodicals: Amerasia; Asia; Department of State Bulletins;\nChina (1940); The Making of Modern China (1944); and Solu-\nFar Eastern Survey; Foreign Policy Bulletin; New York Times;\ntion in Asia (1945). He is a contributor to many leading period-\nPacific Affairs.\nicals, including the Atlantic Monthly and Asia.\n94\n95\nA NOTE ON HEADLINE SERIES\nThe object of the Foreign Policy Association's HEADLINE SERIES is\nto provide sufficient unbiased background information to enable\nreaders to reach intelligent and independent conclusions on the\nimportant international problems of the day. HEADLINE SERIES\narticles are prepared under the supervision of the Department of\nPopular Education of the Foreign Policy Association with the\ncooperation of the Association's Research Staff of experts.\nThe Foreign Policy Association is a non-profit American or-\nganization founded \"to carry on research and educational activ-\nities to aid in the understanding and constructive development of\nAmerican foreign policy.\" It is an impartial research organization\nand does not seek to promote any one point of view toward inter-\nnational affairs. Such views as may be expressed or implied in\nany of its publications are those of the author and not of the\nAssociation.\nFor further information about HEADLINE SERIES and the other\npublications of the Foreign Policy Association, write to the\nDepartment of Popular Education, Foreign Policy Association,\n22 East 38th Street, New York 16, N. Y.\n96\nCOMING IN MAY\nAn Atlas by Samuel Van Valkenburg\nWhose Promised Lands?\nTHE MIDDLE EAST\nTHE NEAR EAST\nINDIA\nFOREIGN POLICY ASSOCIATION"
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