THE NEW JAPAN: PROGRESSIVE OR AGGRESSIVE?
Smythe, Hugh H.
The New Japan Progressive or Aggressive? By Hugh H. Smythe NOW that Japan's signature to ' the peace treaty has made her a sovereign nation once again, the important question is this: Will she...
...In addition the Government has decided to abolish the Women's and Minors' Bureau in the Ministry of Labor...
...If America ceases vigilance, if democratic beginnings are trampled upon by resurgent nationalism, we are in danger of losing Japan to a reactionary regime, which may well be the shortest road to Communism...
...While women make up a large proportion of the agricultural workers, only 88 were elected...
...On Sept...
...Kikue Yamakawa, was named to a high government post, that of chief of the Women's and Minors' Bureau in the Ministry of Labor, although she has since resigned and the agency is slated to be abolished...
...The nucleus of the new armed forces, set up during the tenure of Gen...
...Through the Pharmaceutical Affairs and Eugenics Protection laws the Diet has legalized abortion and provided lor the establishment of contraceptive services as a regular function of government...
...This agency was established in 1947 to fill an urgent need to assure benefits of democratic living to women and children...
...Who controls these committees...
...Some feel that the vigor with which the government is trying to root out Communists has made the people less alert than they should be to other dangers...
...Reforms were introduced affecting the land, business, politics, religion, education, labor, and other aspects of her national life...
...III Today Japan is a nation assiduously working to attain a respectful place among the free nations of the world...
...On Aug...
...And immediately after returning from the San Francisco peace treaty conference Secretary-General Keneshichi Masuda of the Liberal Party, on behalf of Prime Minister Yoshida, hastened on Sept...
...It is still too early to say definitely just what Japan will do now that she is once more an autonomous state, but an examination of some trends in current Japanese affairs should help in formulating a basis for judgment...
...In the first elections July 20 to pick the membership of these local units, Conservatives took 146,391 seats out of a total of 162,390...
...The United States poured out billions during the six years of Occupation in an effort to revive the Japanese economy, give courage to a defeated people, and help them work for a future of human betterment and freedom...
...Keikichi Masuhara...
...These agencies were made part of the government because the Occupation authorities saw a real need for them...
...We have to assess and understand them to determine which way Japan will go—whether she will take the road towards progress and take her place in the family of free nations as a vital force earnest in the search for ultimate world amity and peace, or take the road back to militarism, the police state, and aggression...
...Many Japanese are worried about other trends toward authoritarianism...
...In addition, a nation shrunken geographically, with a paucity of resources, backward technologies, and limited markets, but having a dense and ever-increasing population, confronts Japanese leadership with a most crucial problem...
...On Jan...
...The factors outlined here are indicative of the many currents and cross-currents in the complex stream of Japanese national life...
...Further, many cultural groups, especially those of an international character which had to cease functioning during the war, are again active, such as the Japan American Society, the Japan-Brazilian Society, the Japan-British Society, the Philippine Friendship Society, Japan-Australian Trade Society, and several others...
...and all others 23 members...
...Today vast numbers are again returning to the shrines and temples...
...What about the other...
...15, 1945, was a directive "to separate religion from the state," in order "to prevent misuse of religion for political ends...
...II Since almost half the people of Japan derive part or all of their living from the land, the agrarian population is a significant segment...
...1, 1951 more than 700,000 visited the Grand Shrines at Ise, the center of the cult of the Japanese Sun Goddess...
...For the first time in the history of Japan a woman, Mrs...
...The key units of this group are local, prefecture, and central Agricultural Land Committees...
...Of parmount interest now both in and outside of Japan is militarism...
...today they still are...
...There is the beginning of a strong youth movement in the Japan Council of Youth Organizations representing more than 4,000,-000 young people...
...10 it celebrated its first anniversary as the new Japanese army...
...They now have the vote and hold political office, but as yet their influence in government affairs is inconsequential...
...Religious tolerance is now real and Christians or others no longer need fear or contend with a state religion...
...It wants the world to believe that it is honestly aspiring to further the cause of world peace...
...Before the war Japan's political fortunes were in the hands of conservatives...
...The Nihon Keizai pointed out that "excessive control might lead to revival of a fascistic or ultra-nationalistic trend...
...But in addition, the power of the former landlords has been enhanced by the government itself...
...Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, is the National Police Reserve...
...Last year the government abolished the official price of farmland and permitted its free sale, thus reviving the danger of the old system of large land holdings controlled by a few individuals...
...Women's organizations now take part in public affairs more fearlessly and make vigorous protest over attempts to curtail the gains they have achieved...
...The local committees, however, are most important, for they prepare all plans governing the purchase and sale of land, and have the responsibility to decide all questions and put into effect all types of reforms in villages, towns, and cities...
...On Aug...
...This is an entirely new and non-centralized organization, and is at present the direct opposite of the prewar and wartime Dai-Nippon Seishonen-dan, the mammoth youth organization highly centralized and completely under the bureaucratic control of the Education and Home Ministries which used it to further the purposes of nationalism and war mobilization...
...Japan must have a defense force, but the significant question is what kind...
...It knows that the latter have given warning against the resurgence of a militaristic Japan...
...The main purpose<of the Occupation was not to humiliate Japan, but to show her the advantages of a democratic way of life...
...The local police in more than 76% of all communities in the nation have been brought under control of the National Rural Police...
...from Northwestern University in sociology and anthropology, subsequently engaged in special Japanese studies at Columbia University's East Asian Institute...
...The Occupation has served to raise the status of women, although this improvement is confined largely to the cities...
...Educational reform has made it possible for more young people to acquire a few more years of education although some influential groups are pressing for a return to the old system...
...The whole purpose of the land reform program was to eliminate the position of special privilege of the large landowners and alleviate the condition of the tenant farmers (50% of all farmers) who lived in a state of near-serfdom and labored under a powerful feudalis-tic control with high rentals in kind and no hope of improving their condition...
...This represents one side of the Japanese scene...
...But under the pretense that these agencies are not suited to Japanese conditions, the Government's Ordinance Review Committee has recommended that the National Public Safety Commission, the Public Utilities Commission, and the National Personnel Authority be eliminated...
...This is the sort of atmosphere in which fanatics and demagogues thrive...
...During its first anniversary celebration it was announced that the NPR would appoint 250 officers, graduates of the old Army and Navy colleges, to the 36 corps as a measure of strengthening the organization...
...And since their release from "purge-dom" for wartime activity, many former prominent politicians have returned to the fold of the Liberals...
...In the upper house of Councillors the line-up is Liberals 81, Socialists 61, Syokufukai 54, HUGH H. SMYTHE, who received his Ph.D...
...Democratic, labor, or social movements and any opposition to the Government are liable to be suppressed in the name of control of the Communists...
...The Ministry of Welfare also ranks high among the units deemed unnecessary...
...In the Lower House of Representatives the Liberals have 285 members, Democrats 66, Socialists 45, Communists 22, and all other parties 24...
...To prevent the abolition of the Women's and Minors' Bureau they have carried on a strenuous protest movement through newly-organized and such non-traditional Japanese women's organizations as the Japan League of Women Voters, the women's divisions of labor unions, the Japan Teachers Union, and similar sections of the Liberal, Socialist, and Democratic parties...
...24 the Ministry of Finance reported it had asked the Diet for 12,000,000,000 more yen to supplement the 16,000,000,000 yen already allocated for the present fiscal year...
...His articles have appeared in Social Forces, The American Sociological Review, The Nation, The New Republic, and The American Mercury...
...14 the government announced that 800 recently depurged professional Army and Navy officers of the old wartime military machine are to be inducted into the NPR during this fall...
...Great effort was made to show the Japanese the value of civil liberties, and to give them a sense of individual worth and dignity of person...
...It is conscious of the feeling of mistrust which still prevails among many people, especially those living in Asiatic and Pacific countries...
...The Japanese are conscious the eyes of the world are upon them...
...The government's Ordinance Review Committee has recommended the amalgamation of all autonomous police into a newly-established system to be called the Ministry of Public Security...
...By Hugh H. Smythe NOW that Japan's signature to ' the peace treaty has made her a sovereign nation once again, the important question is this: Will she join us and other free nations of the world, or will she turn her back on democracy and again seek her destiny in totalitarianism, militarism, and aggression...
...All of this represents but a few of the constructive things that were accomplished under the Occupation and are being pushed forward in Japan...
...The centralization of the police is again becoming a reality...
...15 to Ise to "report" to the goddess on the conference...
...But it is not the financial assistance that we consider important...
...He is presently on a two-year lectureship in social sciences at the National University of Yamaguchi...
...Democrats 26...
...On Sept...
...The Emperor, who has renounced all claims to divinity and is said now to stand merely as the "symbol of state," religiously makes regular state visits to Ise to pay homage to this supreme goddess, Amaterasu, from whom he formerly claimed descendance...
...But the overwhelming dominance of the Liberals is seen in the fact that, other than the Socialists, every party in Japan is either conservative or ultra-conservative, barring the Communists, of course...
...Consisting of 85,000 men divided into 36 corps, it operates as a full military organization under the command of Gen...
...A recent survey of the former large landowners, made by the Agriculture-Forestry Ministry, showed that those landowners still maintain a position of considerable influence in the farming communities...
...What are the prospects...
...Honest effort is now being made to deal with the population problem, with the government taking a position favorable to the extension of population control...
...It was principally under our sponsorship that Japan regained her independence...
...Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's Liberal Party has a firm grip on the country...
...Since the allied occupation officials were quite conscious of the powerful part Shintoism played as a state religion in prewar and wartime Japan as an arm of the government to control the people, one of the first Occupation orders, issued Dec...
...23, Keiichi Yoshitake, chairman of the Liberal Party's Political Affairs Research Committee, announced that the sum had been raised to 15,000,-000.000 yen...
...Along with this, it should be kept in mind that Japan is still a nation largely underfed and underhoused, with millions wearing rags and facing an economic problem whose solution is not in sight...
...The significance of this overwhelming conservatism in government is found in the fact that now the nation is again practically independent and the government structure is to be overhauled, the present Liberal Party is anxious to eliminate most of the agencies established under the Occupation dealing with social security...
Vol. 15 • November 1951 • No. 11
