WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH JAPAN?
Howard, Harry Paxton
What Shall We Do With Japan? By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of a series of articles by Mr. Howard exploring the problem of our postwar relationship with a defeated Japan....
...Edson of the U. S. Marine Corps, however, on Jan...
...is slightly premature...
...Globaloney is the regular and distinctive dish...
...The re-establishment and strengthening of parliamentary government in Japan, and the weakening of the militarists, make possible the solution of one of the most crushing economic burdens of the Japanese people...
...For there is a well-known English ditty with the same theme: "Brittania rules the waves, for Britons never, never, never shall be slaves...
...Indeed, they include the most hopeful ones...
...Sutherland) announced after the conference: "I do not believe we will ever have to land on the mainland of Japan...
...It was the main reason for the long struggle against expansion of military budgets in Japan...
...One thing, indeed, can already be ruled out...
...But our aims in other ways should proceed along the lines of giving encouragement to the forces of parliamentary and civilian government in Japan—the forces of Japanese democracy...
...Certain aims, therefore, seem to have been j.ban-doned, so far as President Roosevelt, our naval leaders, and our State Department are concerned...
...The record of history is that Asiatic peoples have no rights that Western Powers are prepared willingly to accept...
...Neither does it necessarily mean the demilitarization and disarmament of Japan ; this last "aim"—once so prominent—was conspicuous by its absence in the Cairo communique...
...3 summed up the situation by saying that the Japanese had "lost practically nothing" except some shipping, their casualties had been light in comparison with their total strength, and "they have in their possession at this moment everything that they started this war for...
...It is also a question of how they will affect the British, the Soviet Government, and the Chinese, as well as the Burmese, Indonesians, Malayans, Filipinos, and other Asiatic peoples...
...Certainly, abandonment of the idea of a military occupation of Japan itself is sensible...
...In such circles, rabbit stew is simply beneath consideration...
...For the length and the possibilities of the war depend to a considerable extent upon what our aims really are...
...The political influence of the Japanese militarists rests mainly upon their effective domination and control of a powerful Army and Navy in being...
...In this they have been prudent . . ." It will be a long time before we can hope successfully to challenge the strong inner defenses of Japan...
...It is the militarist mind...
...They should be able to do more of the same...
...Our troops, he declared, would be fighting on the soil of Japan itself...
...But Stalin has supplemented his military methods by political ones—and will probably win...
...At the beginning of 1944, Admiral Halsey was disinclined to make any new prophecies...
...Seely refers to them as "sentry boxes...
...Wars For Democracy...
...Though some of our Global Planners seem to be unaware of it (evidently being unable or unwilling to read the newspapers), the idea of an American military occupation of Japan is already being abandoned by our responsible naval leaders...
...They declare that the only alternative to being enslaved by others is to rule others...
...With this eliminated, the general economic welfare of the Japanese people could be considerably advanced...
...But it is not unknown in the West...
...They have repeatedly tried to resist these forces, but at every time of crisis the American and other foreign governments have quietly aided the authoritarian against the popular forces...
...We must make it clear to them that they do not have to go to war to obtain legitimate markets for legitimate goods...
...Neither does it mean the end of the Imperial absolutism under the God-Emperor...
...But the official communique on the Cairo conference pussy-footed on the question of Korea (to become independent "in due course"), and Gen...
...The 1944 interpretation of "Unconditional Surrender," therefore, does not necessarily mean our landing our forces on Japan itself, nor the immediate relinquishment of Japanese ascendancy in Korea...
...This fear is real and legitimate...
...For the greatest burden is the military one...
...The aims which have been abandoned, however, are not the most evil ones...
...Parliament becomes-—as it showed signs of becoming fifteen years ago—the real center of government in Japan...
...Their native food supplies are inadequate, and the shortage must be made good by imports from abroad...
...For the supply lines in the Pacific will extend not over twenty or thirty miles, but over two or three thousand...
...The demilitarization of Japan, therefore, is far more than an "internal" problem of Japan...
...I think we can beat them without it...
...For a demilitarized Japan can know no security unless its neighbors are also demilitarized, and unless great Western Powers abandon their colonial aims and ambitions in the Far East...
...And the attack on strongly fortified coast lines there will be far more difficult even than that now being contemplated—with serious misgivings—across what is still termed the English Channel...
...And the power of civilian and representative elements of the Japanese people rises...
...26: "The Japanese have not felt strong enough to risk their fleets in general engagements for the sake of their outer defense lines...
...AT THE beginning of 1943, Admiral Halsey announced with due jubilation that by the end of that year both Japan and Germany would be utterly defeated...
...Hirohito," he roared in blood-curdling tones, "your time is short...
...Aims Are Important In the circumstances, some cautious souls are inclined to think that the problem of "What Shall We Do With Japan after Unconditional Surrender...
...MacArthur's Chief of Staff (Maj...
...If this armed force is taken away from them, their power declines...
...And they have every reason to fear that the only alternative to being a military power is to be a subject colony of Western Powers...
...And this is the only hope of a secure and peaceful future for the Japanese people...
...If the war in that area is to advance the cause of democracy, and lay the foundation for a lasting peace, it must be willing to "compromise" not the matters referred to, but wholly different ones...
...Are they such as to divide the Japanese internally, by questions as to what they are really fighting for...
...Comdr...
...If Imperial absolutism, militarism, and the subjection of Korea are to continue, nothing is left except conflicts over colonies and Imperial spheres in eastern Asia...
...They did it by their military prowess, their diplomatic shrewdness, their capacity for Organization...
...The Japanese were the only Asiatic people to escape fully from colonial status, and to force Western Powers to deal with them on a basis of proximate equality...
...Since that time, our overwhelmingly powerful naval and air forces have taken some tiny islands, and strips of larger islands, from the Japanese...
...Indeed, it might be regarded as evidence of the influence of English thought in Japan...
...These are the real alternatives to Imperial absolutism and militarism...
...The State Department releases following the Cairo conference, picturing the Emperor as a "friend of peace," made this clear...
...Japanese economists and intelligent civilians are well aware of this...
...The real crux of the matter lies in the demilitarization of Japan—regarding which the Cairo communique was so significantly silent...
...The sec-cond will appear in an early issue...
...There is, indeed, an old recipe for rabbit stew which puts as the first requirement the catching of the rabbit...
...This, however, is not a reason for failing to state our aims with regard to Japan...
...But this is merely the capture of far outposts...
...But there is still another thing involved: Japan's fear of becoming a colony of other powers...
...Beyond this, however, the Japanese are industrialized to an extent which means a continuing requirement of overseas markets...
...Japanese militarists have harped shrewdly upon this theme...
...Or are they such as to unite all Japan, by the conviction that defeat will mean their reduction to the status of an American colony, with an American military dictatorship replacing the Japanese military dictatorship at Tokyo...
...But such homespun maxims are frowned upon in high-minded circles in our Time for Greatness...
...All that is required is that we should not prevent their finding markets for themselves, by ordinary commercial means...
...We must be prepared to admit an "Open Door" for Japanese goods into Asiatic markets, even if we do it without the "moral" enthusiasm with which we insisted upon an "Open Door" for our own products in those markets...
...It concerns the whole situation in- eastern Asia...
...And it is not only a question of how our war aims will affect the Japanese and Japanese morale...
...For the disarmament, and demilitarization of Japan, the undermining of the Imperial regime, and the freeing of Korea are necessary parts of any claim that the war against Japan is in any sense a war for democracy...
...It supplies, in fact, a most important reason...
...It has already been demonstrated in Europe that the attempt to win victory by purely military methods means trying to win by the hardest possible way...
...Premier Churchill put it accurately in his speech of Mar...
...We do not have to "assist" the Japanese to find markets...
...It is a most vicious doctrine...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 15
