Japan Debates Defense Pact
NAOI, TAKEO
Left -wing opposition groups agitate against revision Japan Debates Defense Pact By Takeo Naoi TOKYO APOLITICAL STORM is brewing around the issue of revising the Japan-United States Security...
...Despite the heat of the opposition campaign, the nation as a whole seems largely uninformed or indifferent...
...bases...
...Since then, more than 300 "democratic" organizations are said to have affiliated with it...
...Similarly, 13 per cent favor complete abrogation of the treaty, and only 6.4 per cent favor it immediately...
...And of this group, 54.1 per cent said they knew the opposition's reasons for opposing the treaty revision...
...Ironically, this was precisely the original position advocated by the Socialists before they came out for their present policy of abrogation...
...On the other hand, 68 per cent of those queried knew of the opposition movement by the Socialists and SOHYO...
...This was revealed by the results of a public opinion survey conducted last month by the Mainichi chain of newspapers...
...These elements are led by the Socialist party and SOHYO, the General Council of Japanese Trade Unions...
...Earlier, SOHYO Chairman Kaora Ota had revealed that his organization would strengthen its ties with the Communist party in this fight, and the convention itself gave trade union members a free hand in cooperating with the Communists on this issue...
...The powerful elements opposed to the treaty revision are now in the midst of a violent propaganda campaign on this issue...
...Left -wing opposition groups agitate against revision Japan Debates Defense Pact By Takeo Naoi TOKYO APOLITICAL STORM is brewing around the issue of revising the Japan-United States Security Pact, a storm that will probably come to a head at the extraordinary session of the Diet scheduled for late October or early November...
...Of this 13 per cent group in favor of abrogation...
...would undertake to defend Japan, while Japan would pledge itself to cooperate in the defense of U.S...
...The Congress' budget for the three-month period of July-September alone was $1.2 million, most of which has been spent on the printing and distribution of posters and pamphlets...
...SOHYO, the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, and the Congress for Restoration of Normal Relations with Communist China...
...And of the 71.2 per cent who were aware of the Government's intention, only 38 per cent said they knew the contents of the planned revision...
...These results would seem to indicate that the opposition is doing a better "selling" job than the Government...
...And as the Mainichi poll indicated, the opposition propaganda campaign is leaving a large segment of the public apathetic...
...It seems pretty clear that the Socialists and SOHYO have made treaty revision their big talking point because they have no other concrete issue to press against either the Government or management...
...The public opinion survey revealed that 28.6 per cent favor the revision, but 40.7 per cent oppose it, for fear that it will involve Japan in war...
...Four per cent were unaware of the very existence of the treaty...
...Both of these groups are using this issue as the cutting edge of their opposition to Premier Nobusuke Kishi's Government...
...The main point of the planned revision is to make the treaty bilateral: The U.S...
...All this pressure, however, may backfire...
...Those who want revision sooner or later amount to 28 per cent, of whom only 7.2 per cent favor immediate revision...
...Earlier this year, a "National Congress to Block the Security Pact Revision" was created with the sponsorship of the Socialist party...
...Nevertheless, people at the grass roots appear to be considerably more apathetic to this question than either side believes...
...Of the random sample of 3,240 voters queried throughout the country, 24.8 per cent were unaware that the Government is planning to revise the pact...
...At its annual convention late last month, SOHYO pledged itself to a fight against the treaty revision by all means, including a general strike...
...The Government has evidently done little to assuage this widespread fear, while the opposition forces have capitalized on it...
...And all the opposition groups are planning a series of protest rallies this fall, in an effort to pressure the Diet into bucking the Government plan...
...28.5 per cent insist on a collective security pact between Japan, Communist China, the Soviet Union and the U.S., and 29 per cent of this group insist on complete neutralism to replace the present security system...
...44.6 per cent said they had "some" knowledge of it, and the rest had none...
...The Socialist party itself recently printed 400,000 copies of a special anti-treaty-revision number of its official organ...
...The opposition makes its arguments emotionally and very simply: The planned revision will lead to Japan's nuclear rearmament, thus involving the nation in an atomic war in the service of the U.S...
...Though the Communist party has refrained from planting its members in the Congress' central machinery in Tokyo, the secretariats of the Congress' local branches have, with few exceptions, been infiltrated by Communists...
...The Mainichi poll suggests that 40 per cent of the population has no opinion at all about the security treaty...
Vol. 42 • September 1959 • No. 35
