THE NOVELTY OF DEMOCRACY

...THE LEGACY of the militarist era, the mentality that permits one to follow the orders of one's superiors blindly and uncritically, is an extremely valuable weapon in the hands of the Communist Party...

...They are no different in nomenclature, organization, or spirit from tire suicide squadrons and Special Attack Squadrons of the war-time period...

...Democracy in Japan has been imposed from without...

...When the votes were counted, it turned out that in the country as a whole 58.7 percent of the population had failed to vote...

...of this figure 51.4 percent were women...

...To this indifference, before anything could be done to combat it, has been added distrust...

...In the headquarters of the various labor unions, in times of Industrial peace as well as industrial strife, there is a "Central Struggle Committee," organically separate and distinct from the union executive, which issues "instructions" on every occasion...

...This is a great threat to Japanese democracy, which has only just taken its first step...

...HoW is one to explain the fact that whereas in Tokyo no more than 12 percent of the voters understood the functions of the Board of Education, in the rural areas the vote was comparatively high...

...At the time of the abortive General Strike of February 1, 1947, a "Youth Action Corps," composed of young me* in their late 'teens and early twenties, was organized to stampede the plants at which negotiations were being carried on, high-pressure the representatives of both labor and management, and terrorize all responsible trade unionists...

...Structurally as well, the left labor unions are organized on a military basis...

...No more than 12 percent of the public had a clear conception of the Board's functions...

...The social position of women has also improved...

...According to a public opinion survey conducted in Tokyo by the Tokyo News three weeks earlier, 62.5 percent of the public was aware that an election was to be held...

...An example of such action occurred early last August among some young railroad workers in Hokkaido in opposition to General MacArthur's letter to the Prime Minister...

...At the time of the major strike offensive in February, 1947, Kyuichi Tokuda, Secretary General of the Communist Party, was one of them...

...Since the-trade union members are indifferent to union elections, Communists capture key posts far out of proportion to their actual strength...

...REPORT FROM JAPAN: THE NOVELTY OF DEMOCRACY By Takeo Naoi New Leader Tokyo Correspondent LORD AND VASSAL, master and servant, superior and inferior, official and subject, senior and junior, parent and child, husband and wife—Japanese history is full of beautiful tales about this relation between the upper and lower elements in society...

...IT WOULD BE no exaggeration to say that the majority of Communist successes have been won with the weapons left behind by General Tojo...

...The result of the elections was an overwhelming victory for conservative forces...

...It is most accurately characterized by.the tendency not to rely upon one's own judgment, but rather to seek an external source of authority, and, having found it, to follow it...

...The desire and opportunity to express one's, own will have increased...

...The weapon now is sabotage instead of the aeroplanes and bamboo spears of the War., but they fight the same enemy, America, with the same fanaticism as possessed them then...

...All effort must be bent toward developing a feeling for it from within, and this cannot be done merely by changing the system...

...For example, two of the three labor representatives on the Central Labor Relations Board are Communist Party members...

...The absence of individual initiative, the extinction of the spirit of criticism, and an undeveloped social consciousness are the natural outcomes of this spirit...

...In other words, the citizens, while quite taken up with the business of living, have heard that there Is same tote or other going on, and they meekly participate, thereby discharging their duties as subjects...

...Communists are especially numerous among the labor representatives on the Labor Committees which arbitrate in labor disputes...

...It has induced a strong sense of blind obedience, an unquestioning acceptance of authority, in the Japanese population...

...The patronage of the superior and the homage of the inferior constitute the powerful tradition of which feudal Japan was born, a tradition which has left an indelible impression on, the national character...

...In present-day Japan, the concept of "voting" takes its place among the other dirties of the citizen...

...In Tokyo the figure was actually 76.1 percent...

...Democracy, on the other hand, regards the individual as the source of authority^and is predicated on the dignity or each human being...

...It is a task in the performance of which the Army of Occupation and we, the democrats of Japan, must share for a long time to come...

...Not Only that, but the ancient legacy which democratic forces are working so hard to eliminate is being used by newforces to the detriment of social progress...

...Catching Up TASS, official Soviet news agency, reports that there is a Los Angeles law prohibiting the wearing of sideburns...

...Besides,-the oold winds blowing in from China and Korea are certain to have an effect on the tender bud of Japanese democracy...

...The reign of militarism in Japan, the Pacific war, and political absolutism were all made possible by this spirit of obedience...

...Ignorance of and indifference to democratic methods still characterize the reactions of the average citizen...

...Witness, for example, the abolition of imperial rule, the scrapping of medievaljegislation, the reform of the police system, and the enactment of labor legislation...

...The people who are making the greatest use of democratic procedures are not democrats but totalitarians...

...In the field of trade-unionism it is always the radicals who triumph...

...In the first place, it is an indisputable fact that the novelty of the post-war political system has aroused some interest...

...They organized "National Independent Action Corps" and "National Independent Blood-and-Iron Units," both of which were military in nature, and went about inciting workers to leave their jobs...

...The Communists are the self-appointed leaders of the Special Attack Squadrons of national independence, consciously making use of the spiritual legacy of militarism...

...The Japanese have been traditionally indifferent to politics...

...In short, it made possible the more than ten years of Japanese aggression, the history ot which has been exposed to public viewthrough the indictments of the Tokyo tribunal...

...THIS SPIRITUAL LEGACY antedates both the Renaissance and the Reformation...

...In particular, the improvement in the treatment of ordinary citizens in the courts, police stations, and prisons has been astounding...

...By taking clever advantage of it, the militarists had an easy time putting over the idea of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, in which Japan was to play the role of head of the house, with China, the Philippines, and the South Sea Islands playing the role of sons and daughters in one big family...

...Therefore the democratization of Japan consists in eradicating the authoritarian vestiges and creating the conditions which will encourage the development >f individual initiative...

...5 percent of this figure were women...

...city folk are apathetic but have a somewhat more sophisticated attitude...

...Of course there is no denying that the attitude of government officials toward the citizenry has improved...

...First and foremost it is necessary to restore the economic life of the nation to normal...

...But all this merely means that socially incongruous institutions have been so thoroughly integrated into the pattern of daily life that they are now routine...

...In all of the big cities over 50 percent of the voters failed to go to the polls, while in rural areas the figure was somewhat lower...

...The assertion «f individual initiative, the spirit of criticism, and the development of social consciousness are the products of this point of view...

...From the abstract, constitutional standpoint Japan is already a highly democratic country...

...In the last three years the work of destruction and construction in the political, economic, and social fields has proceeded apace...

...it has not developed from within...

...We learn from the Soviet press that in the State of Virginia it is forbidden to have a bathtub in your home...

...In the elections of the Boards of Education the reactionaries won out...

...The Committee is a sort of military command post which directs the actions of the union members...

...As scandal after scandal is exposed, the people's distrust of politics grows...

...The aim of these people, of course, is not successful arbitration but its exact opposite...

...How is the new-born Japanese democracy, still woefully weak, dealing with this legacy, if at all...

...In, the second place, many persons went to the poplls not kno>ung anything about the nature of the election, simply because they had been told, "Vote...

...The low vote in Tokyo was a comparatively frank expression of the popular apathy...

...The spirit in which their "instructions" are given and received is no different from the militarist spirit of the Tojo era...

...ON OCTOBER 5 the first elections were held for Boards of Education of the type found in America...

...One thinks, acts, and justifies one's actions all in accordance with the will of this external authority...

...Therefore innumerable instances could be cited of how, .thanks to the efforts of the Communists, disputes, both national and local, have dragged on interminably...

...However the essential features are unchanged...

...The two classic forms in which it has expressed itself are Japanese emperoiy worship (in the past) and Soviet dicta torsldp (in the present...

...The extremists of left and right have been doing their utmost to turn this distrust of politics into a distrust of democracy...

...The high vote in the country was not due to the political awareness of the people there, but rather to the fact that the habit of blind obedience still prevails among them...

...Rural folk are apathetic but obedient...

...Acts of terror and violence against individuals are by no means rare...

...Popular apathy to democratic procedures provides the background for the flourishing of radicals and reactionaries...