The Meaning of the Cabinet Crisis

...Tojo was compelled to resign himself...

...The statement gave as the cause of Tojo's resignation the whole bankruptcy of the government in organising the home front...

...We should not exaggerate the statements of Admiral Yonai to Mr...

...ToJO thus combined the foreign line of liberating Asia, with an internal line of regimenting the economy 1 to the State...

...He undoubtedly was not against the essence of Tojo's foreign policy, but against the "adventurism" and recklessness, against the idea of slaking Japan's whole future oa the one card of war against America...

...it sheds imporUnt light on the The criaii undoubtedly was a product of the aeriea of Japanese defeats in the Pacific...

...The analysis of the material on thia earlier crisis shows thst the core of the opposition to this complete State mobilisation csme from the rapresentstives of the old generation, the high command of the Army, who probably had the support of the Mikado's court, and perhaps even of the Mikado himself...

...The Meaning of the Cabinet Crisis Japs Prepare for Negotiated Peace By Boris Nicolaevsky The dramatic areata ia Germany have obscured for the moment the governmental criaia in Japan...

...This explains, therefore, the very strong statement of the new government thst it is not prepared in any way to quarrel with Russia...

...Japan knows how much is at stake in this war, so that these events have given this country, long serf i-tivs to aesmic disturbances, a forewarning of the political earthquakes ahead...

...The Japsnese ruling class as a whole wants expansion, they differ as to which areas and In'the organisation of the economy...

...It ia also clear that the military-strategic plan, for which this total mobilization was called, included an invaaion of India and an intensification of the war against Chiang Kai-shek...

...ThK composition of the new cabinet is in entire accord with this interpretation of the crisis...

...Admiral Mitsumassa Yonia...

...As chief of staff of tha Kwantung army, he was the organiser in August, 1938, of the attacks on the Soviet army outposts in Siberia...

...At that time, in the fall of 1943, the Tojo government decided not to tie its fate with the fate of Hitler, and so sought to better its relations with Moscow...

...Tho hittory of the latt years ehoue skat it it just at tkio point where tho tplit in the Jopmnooe ruling class ttarted which precipiated thit resent crisis...

...At that time Umexu occupied two important posts as commander of the Kwantung army and as Ambassador to the quialing Chinese government of Wang (hing-wei in Nanking...

...engineers, politicians, writers...

...The longer the war lasted and the more demands that Ware made upon the different classes, the farther the Tojo government went on the road towards state control of the private economy...

...It is important to note that by thia time there were left only two men besides Tojo who were in the first war cabinet of October, 1941...

...Reports from Tokyo show that Tojo sought to resolve the crisis by ordinary methods...

...There ia little doubt that the minor political crisis which occurred in the early months of this year can be explained by the struggle arising out of this call for total mobilisation...

...Thia will also mean an abandonment of the big program of the organization of Asia—and a retreat to defense...

...The creation of such a title probably indicates a desire to emphasize to the world ' the union of the old leadership of the army and the fleet, and also the role which this union played in ousting the government of young state capitalist generals...

...The one who combined the two successfully for a while —was HideU Tojo, who in 194.1 created the war government against the western democracies...

...Grew...

...Up to now, Japan never had the post of vice-premier...

...On the othy side, the old political **rti*» (mora exactly the remnants), the old industrial tM bank trusts (who were the strongest because of 0,8 h>ghly centralised and controlled financial aystem), jheold feudal class, whom foreign observers had often but who, in decisive 'moments of Japanese his-tory Appear on the scene...

...But the maneuver failed...

...For the right to become the "liberators" 'of Asm, the Japanese landowners, industrialists and merchants, without mentioning the peasants and work-am, paid a high price, not only in the form of high taxes, but also in losing step by step their rights as owner managers...

...It is very likely that Japan is going on this tack...

...Strong armies were sent against the Chungking forces, hut partial successes in China are equal to complete failure...

...It was in this setting—the American victories, the Chinese failues—that the crisis occurred...

...And this has its own logic.' In abandoning the aggression in China, Japan has to look for...

...The fleet needs the concentration of efforts in the atruggle against the American fleet...

...Jspsn is fighting its own wsr snd not dovetailing its political and military strategy with Hitler...

...The ideological peculiarity that history allowed the Japanese totalitarian* was the peculiarity of a "Pan Asiatic Program": the liberation of Asia from the exploitation by Anglo-Saxon imperialists...

...When Yonai was in the cabinet in spring of 1940 he opposed the union of Germany and Japan...

...Tojo took a leaf from them...

...The whole internal political struggle in Japan in the laat 16-20 years proceeded along two lines, one foreign policy, the other social issues, in different periods, first one, then the other played the more important role...

...This type of general was quite common in Germany and played ainister roles in its history...

...Admiral Yonai is an extreme nationalist...

...Never-tbeieaa, the sagnht caaea ettho recent cabinet shift can-¦at be undereetimatad...

...All factions in Japaneae politics, including Tojo, accepted the deal with Russis as necessary for its other operslions...

...It will certainly bring with it important changes in the home front organisation, changes directed by the weakening of the state capitalistic tendencies...

...partial changes in the composition of the cabinet and the services command were made...

...More important even than the resignation itself wss the accompanying official statement that was published...

...The delay in this respect for Japan is disastrous...

...But the farther such intervention went the more decisive became the op-position of the old ruling classes who insisted on retaining at least the essentials of private economic relations...

...On the eve of his resignation, at the crucial moment when his government was toppling, Tojo made a decision al.mil designating Yoshajiro Umexu aa chief of the general staff...

...The removal from the government of almost the whole leadership of the Imperial Rule Assistance Ass'n —the organization which the military fascists sought to organize as a totalitarian party—only underlines the essential meaning of this crisis...

...He fsvors a policy of Japanese extension to the South...

...i S the events tied up with the laat crisis, there wero some allusions to other events which may have bearing on the future direction of Japanese foreign policy...

...in China, the situation showed only minor successes...

...To understand the nature of these political earthquakes, we must understand the lines of force from which they come...

...It needs to concentrate all the military resources of Japan on the naval struggle...

...It is probably there that the meaning of the Japanese crisis lies...

...This change has decisive meaning for the home front, The effect on foreign policy is yet to be determined...

...Former Ambassador Crew in his book underlined many times that the Mikado didn't want the war but was forced to accept it...

...All the data ws have force us to accept these statements at their fare value: Japan certainly does not contemplate a three-front war...

...Kuniaki Koiso, as vice-premier...

...Undoubtedly this government will increase the separation of Japan and Germany, As a matter of fact, the Japaneee-German alliance no longer exists...

...The events on the Russian German front placed in sharp relief the question of Japan's future relations with Germany and Soviet Russia...

...The American fleet offensive, which moved atop by step without mishap *, that Japan proper ia threatened today, not only broke up Jar>sneM strategy bat cracked the composure of the lapantis warlords themselves...

...His ambitions, his milieu, fashioned his social political thinking, and Tojo became s believer in state capitalism In all countries, those who aim at a path of aggression must come to the conclusion that a private economy where a variety of individual decisions Can produce unforeseen and unwanted results mast go, and that a state monopolistic economy, order-ling the life of induatry as well aa the people is necessary...

...The tone of official communiques from Tass in Moscow, snd ths categorical statements of the Japsnese Communist lesder Shus-bumu Okana, who pronounces the Comintern line on Japan, indicates that Moscow appreciates the situation in the same sense...

...General Tojo waa a political general who rose not through military feats but through the Intelligence channels...

...This leads us to believe that in the domsin of militsry policy Tojo fought for a continuation of an attack against Chiang, notwithstanding the Pacific campaign There is some ground to believe that it Is on this iasue thst Tojo met his failure...

...Umexu occupied these two posts for the past several years and pressed for s policy of extending the war against Chiang Kai-shek...

...If this is so, we shall seo in the near future a weakening of the Chinese front and a withdrawal of the Japanese armies in Burma...

...General Koiso, the premier, has long been anti-Soviet...

...The minister of the Navy and the chief of the fleet were dismissed...

...Class relations shaped up as follows: on the one side were the totalitarian army officers, backed by the youth...

...the "organizers of economic life, the younger elements in the bureaucracy who were without root* in the old financial aristocracy...

...At the same time, the Tojo government sought to take Arm control on the home front by a total mobilisation, in order to reorganise the struggle sgainst America and China...

...He was closely connected with the German army caste for he spent the sfter-wsr years in Berlin as military attache...

...The strengthening of the privste economy elements means the strengthening of those who do not fsvor a last-ditch fight Ambassador Grew has told us that the new vice-premier at one time told him he was an opponent of war...

...During the months that followed this crisis, the results of the military plans became obvious: the offensive in India was a failure...

...Because of Koiso's past record, there waa the fear of Ruasian misunderstanding...

...Hence the strong statements...

...The Tojo cabinet was unable to keep up with the intensity of the burning wsr spirit of the people...

...a compromise peace...

...Undoubtedly it was he who created the plan for the last attack on Chang-sha, for which he used parts of the Kwantung army, which had been withdrswn from the Manchurian Army after the talks with Russia...

...The winter of 1943-44 aaw a sharp conflict between these groups...

...The ekein of small ateppiag-stone islands which seemed to the Japaaese impenetrable, has now been split and arena which Japan once considered home waters lie just ahead for tha American Hoot...

...A close friend of General Sadso Araki, who led the Japaneae aggression in Manchuria, undoubtedly he shared the feelings of this general...

...At its head as premier is Genera...

...One must understand she complete eeu tempt which the Japanese militarists tseM far American military and naval might, to understand tan shock occasioned by American victories...

...The auicide, through hara-kiri, of Nagano, the leader of Japanese fascism, who sought to tie Japan's foreign policy with Germany, waa not an accidental coincidence with the opening of economic trade talks between Russia and Japan...