Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR EDEN AND IKE I was interested in G. L. Arnold's "Is Eden Through?" [NL, January 23] because of a parallel with President Eisenhower. This parallel has been carefully obscured by polls...
...To cradicate this confusion is a supremely important and urgent task...
...As regards CP membership, recent estimates vary, especially after the inauguration of the new party line last July...
...Some private polls, checks with reporters who have been in the field, and off-the-record talks with GOP officials reveal a sense of disillusionment-not sharp or specific, because voters probably did not know exactly what they wanted when they voted for Eisenhower as the leader who could solve all problems in 1952...
...The Great Seduction, p. 378) All these sometimes contradictory facts concerning Sohyo and other labor organizations are rooted in the ominous confusion which has become an element of the Asiatic political scene...
...But an analysis of social and political trends would be guilty of a gross mistake if it overlooked the fact that Communist slogans are accepted by many Japanese unions only if presented by non-Communists...
...Wolin replies: An appraisal of Communist strength in Japan must take into account the various, sometimes conflicting trends developing in that nation, particularly in the trade-union movement...
...Although Communist elements undoubtedly exist in the unions, almost no leader, except in Sanbetsu, has identified himself with the Communists in the last three years, and most declare their opposition to Communism in Japan...
...But, like Sir Anthony's distress in England, the attack is coming primarily from the right wing of his own party, with the Democrats very timidly making a few general adverse comments...
...The trend is indicated by the fact that "Sanbetsu, which in 1950 had over a million members, has shrunk [in 1954] to mere 13,500, with less than 200 locals...
...In addition, one of the best nightly newscasts in Japan is Radio Free Japan (from Peking), which has a minimum of 500,000 regular listeners...
...Is it necessary to add that the above-cited facts do not warrant the least degree of complacency...
...Thus Communist trade unions can now boast of a membership amounting to less than one-fifth of 1 per cent of the total trade-union strength...
...That is, the party had 30,000 paid employes throughout the country...
...In 1953, the Seamen's Union with 100,000 members and the Textile Workers Union with 360,-000 withdrew from Sohyo because of its leftist tendencies...
...At a poll recently taken in West Bengal, India, 31 per cent considered the U. S. an aggressor, 98 per cent denied Soviet aggressiveness, but only 7 per cent supported their own Indian CP...
...B. Levine, University of Illinois Bulletin, September 1955) The rank and file are much less infested with Communism than the leaders, but are not yet articulate enough to oppose them...
...Garden City, L. I. Richard Deverall Mr...
...Zengakuren, the major student organization in the country, is affiliated with the Women's International Democratic Federation and the International Union of Students-both Communist organizations...
...To turn their present retreat into a rout, a realistic appraisal is necessary...
...Sohyo, a labor federation that follows the CP line, has over 3,000,000 members and has just concluded a mutual assistance pact with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions...
...To my knowledge, outside of Japan there is as yet no reliable material on these latest developments...
...The Japanese police report stating that the party now has 30,000 paid agents and a total of 100,000 members may be correct, but the unusual proportion between paid agents and members should be checked...
...Its Vienna Peace Appeal was the most widely supported effort of early '55...
...He fails to mention that the party went underground in May-June 1950 and remained there until January 1955...
...piled up additional strength in 378 of 435 Congressional districts in '54, while winning nine Governors and 500 state legislators...
...The Communist party is weaker in Japan today than it was several years ago, but the situation is more explosive, and the Communists have more than once shown their ability to win other people's battles...
...A Sohyo convention held in July 1954 declared that "the Federation will support all parties of the Left except the Communists...
...In daily political combat, a subtle distinction between the Communists and their helpers is not always necessary...
...According to official police reports, however, as of June '55 the party had a paid working membership of 30,000 and a total membership of over 100,000...
...Furthermore, while the party could have polled more votes than it did in the '55 election, it withdrew dozens of candidates before the election and ordered its followers to vote for Left Socialist candidates...
...The Wolin section on Japan should have been accompanied by a note that his statistics and views on the Communists in Japan are based on conditions in 1953, at the latest...
...Therefore, I gave no figures beyond 1953...
...Washington, D. C. Tris Coffin JAPAN'S CP I was surprised to find that the section on Japan in The New Leader's special supplement of December 19, "Communism's Postwar Decade" by Simon Wolin, was out of date and completely misinterpreted the situation in that country...
...As a result of rifts, secessions and mergers, several national federations have emerged within the Japanese labor movement...
...My hunch is that they voted for Eisenhower as a kind of middle-of-the-road Roosevelt, who would clearly and courageously brush aside the shadows of war, Communist gains, economic insecurity, and corruption...
...B. Levine, Prospects of Japanese Labor) It is true that Sohyo, founded in 1950 as an anti-Communist organization, has fallen under the domination of fellow-travelers who are "not to the left but to the East...
...As a reporter, this phenomenon aroused my curiosity: Why, in an era of peace and prosperity, was the Administration party losing strength steadily...
...They certainly do not reflect the party's recent and most remarkable growth...
...In Japan, too, admiration for various reasons of Soviet and especially Chinese Communism is often mixed with a clear stand against its Japanese variety...
...None of us will know, unless Eisenhower is himself candidate this fall, how deep and widespread the disillusionment is...
...Yet, the statistician will find a contradictory trend, growing in strength, in every election since 1952: Democrats won 7 of 8 special Congressional elections in 1953...
...Nor should it disregard the fact that fellow-traveling leaders are not quite safe in Sohyo...
...Wolin cites a Communist party membership of 30,000 in Japan in 1953...
...The only date beyond 1950-51 which Wolin cites refers to the elections...
...Seki, the choral leader, just won the $25,000 Stalin Peace Prize...
...The Communist labor federation, Sanbetsu, according to the 1955 Directory of the World Federation of Trade Unions, has 12,870 members...
...The fact that these shadows remain and that Eisenhower has been the gentle, soothing father rather than the firm leader may be back of the disillusionment...
...This parallel has been carefully obscured by polls and eulogies by those who wish to convince themselves and others that he is more popular than ever...
...In 1955, the arch-fellow-traveler Minoru Takamo had to quit as its General Secretary...
...It is not achieved by lumping together all the disgruntled elements and by exaggerating the Communists' influence, which enhances their prestige and puts us on the defensive...
...Deverall himself pointed out in 1953 that "many local leaders refer to Sohyo as the red-headed crane, by which they mean that the head of the crane is somewhat red but underneath and well separated by a long and thin neck is a wide body...
...In the long run, this fact may assume great practical importance...
...Admiration for Chinese Communism, pro-Soviet anti-imperialism, and anti-Americanism are swaying the minds of millions, from Nehru to the humble Japanese unionist...
...Moreover, Radio Free Japan's choral groups have penetrated the labor movement to such an extent that it has 2,000 paid cultural workers, and a cadre of 40,000 worker singers...
...I don't think there is a country in Asia-outside the Iron Curtain-that is as thoroughly termited by Cominform organizations and fronts as Japan...
...won a landslide in the '55 Indiana municipal elections (usually regarded as a bellwether), and a few days ago piled up a 3-to-1-plus victory in the 30th Pennsylvania Congressional District, where registration is 2 to 1 Democratic...
...Its total strength, according to Japan Report (November 30, 1955), now amounts to about 7 million members, of which 3 million are affiliated with Sohyo, dominated by Left Socialists until their recent merger with the Right Socialists, and 670,000 with Zenro, led by Right Socialists...
Vol. 39 • February 1956 • No. 6
