HIROHITO, 'LOVER OF PEACE'
Howard, Harry Paxton
Hirohito, 'Lover Of Peace' By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD ON DEC. 4, 1943, just three days after the "joint communique" of Cairo was given out, the State Department at Washington released a quite...
...Every informed Korean knows the shameful role the British and American governments played at that time...
...The Japanese are fighting to make the war so expensive to the Allies that they will not press it through...
...Emperor Hirohito, when the present Japanese government of General Hideki Tojo took office on Oct...
...It is a far cry from that to the kind of racial revolution the Japanese are now promoting in Asia, under the slogan of "Asia for the Asiatics," threatening the whole structure of British imperialism—of white imperialism—in that vast continent...
...It would appear that something happened at Cairo—and perhaps Teheran—altering the likelihood of this appointment being kept...
...And it was as allies of Britain, and with a secret agreement with President Theodore Roosevelt, that the Japanese conquered Korea 28 years ago...
...But the Washington story goes on, somewhat lamely: "This action did not prevent war, but it forced Premier Tojo to stand ostensibly during the final weeks of the fateful Washington diplomatic conversations for a policy of attempting to conclude the conversations successfully...
...It is likely that Churchill refused to sign such a statement—and there are other reasons as well...
...This figure could only be obtained by adding the 25,000,000 Koreans to the 75,000,000 people of the Japanese islands...
...MacArthur's representative at the Cairo conference (subsequently identified as Maj.-Gen...
...The discipline of their troops is excellent...
...What Is 'Winning...
...4, as it appeared in the New York Times on Dec...
...The story given out in Washington Dec...
...Tojo...
...5, was that: Hirohito vs...
...But the conference at Cairo was not between "Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders...
...We have already seen the willingness of the British and American governments to deal with King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, patron of Fascism, and his brutal militarists...
...The Koreans themselves were not parties to the Cairo Declaration...
...Our "appointment in Tokyo" is being indefinitely postponed...
...The material in the propaganda volume itself was evidently written some months ago, and supports the thesis of the "progressive" and "peace-loving" Emperor of Japan...
...The grandiose promises of the Atlantic Charter are not for them...
...So trW'e's really nothing wrong with Imperial absolutism in Japan, or the God-Emperor—if the Washington story is true...
...Their primary interest just now is in securing their position in the West, where they have been forced to give ground to Moscow's demands in eastern Europe but are determined to counter the "Russian colossus"— as Gen...
...18, 1941, had taken the unprecedented step of directing the government heads to avoid war with the United States...
...Such is, undoubtedly, the signifi-tamce of the Washington statements concerning the Emperor Hirohito...
...The phrase "in due course" is in fact a weasel-worded statement which informed Koreans know by experience can hardly be worth the paper it is written on...
...Statements" are made for them, not by them...
...Drew Pearson is responsible for the statement that there was specific disagreement over the matter of an "all-out" offensive into Burma, utilizing land, sea, and air forces...
...Smuts termed it—by securing a firm foothold for themselves in western Europe, incorporating Belgian, Holland, and if possible other countries in the British system...
...But the nature and timing of the press release of Dec...
...We take very few live prisoners...
...Koreans Not Fooled The Washington statement regarding Hirohito is a significant supplement to the Cairo "communique" issued Dec...
...They fight to the end still...
...Hirohito is following the same "progressive policy" as his grandfather, the Emperor Meiji, during whose reign the Japanese invaded China, participated (we begged them) in the Allied invasion of Tientsin and Peking in 1900, drove the Russians from South Manchuria and conquered little Korea in 1904-'05—the latter moves as signed allies of Great Britain, and with full financial and diplomatic support from the United States as well as Great Britain...
...If the deal is made with the Japanese sovereign, he will not have to sneak out of his capital at night and become the puppet of foreign troops on Japanese territory...
...And there is little reason to doubt the story that Premier Churchill definitely disagreed with President Roosevelt (and Generalissimo Chiang) over the question of "action" in the Far East...
...Though one of the most civilized and educated peoples of the Far East, who possessed self-government for centuries (they were a self-governing dominion of the Manchu-Chin-ese Empire down to 1894, and became fully independent for some years before the Japanese conquered them), they were not even asked to discuss their own fate...
...That was the policy of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, a policy of joint "security" for various empires in Asia...
...5, following the Cairo and Teheran conferences: "I do not believe we will ever have to land on the mainland of Japan...
...It is important to note the difference between the statement concerning Chinese territories, which are to be "restored to the Republic of China" (this does not refer to Hong Kong, Tibet, Indo-China, or Outer Mongolia, of course), and the reference to Korea, which simply says that the three Powers "are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent...
...1. For this Cairo statement proclaimed no end of the Japanese Imperial regime...
...Since Cairo, "winning" has evidently a different meaning...
...We should note the response of Korean nationalists to this...
...Grew reported, the Emperor, in a conference with the leading members of the Privy Council and of the armed forces, inquired 'if they were prepared to pursue a policy which would guarantee that there would be no war with the United States.' "The Army and Navy representatives did not reply to the question, so the Emperor, 'with a reference to the progressive policy pursued by the Emperor Meiji, his grandfather, in an unprecedented action ordered the armed forces to obey his wishes.' " Though there is exaggeration of the Emperor's personal role in this decision, there is no reason to doubt the essential facts of the case...
...It was between Americans, British, and Chinese...
...Sutherland, MacArthur's Chief of Staff) declared on Dec...
...Were Washington to issue a volume and a press release choosing its facts and distorting their relations to show that Hitler was a "friend of peace" the roar would be heard from coast to coast...
...This is, of course, making the best of an extremely difficult situation, since it would take many years—at the present rate of progress—before American forces could even hope to approach the mainland of Japan...
...For also lacking was any repetition about "occupying Japan," and not making peace until American troops are in possession of Tokyo...
...If King Victor and his militarists, why not Emperor Hirohito and his militarists...
...Kim's attitude is wholly understandable...
...It would be immediately recognized that a background was being laid for a "deal...
...Joseph C. Grew, United States Ambassador to Japan, reported this as reliable information from an unidentified informant on Oct...
...We must also note, in the Cairo statement, the lack of any call for the "demilitarization" and "absolute disarmament" of Japan—which for two years has been a central part of President Roosevelt's propaganda stock in trade...
...Just before the fall of the preceding cabinet, Mr...
...This release accompanied the publication of the second volume of the State Department's books dealing with Washington's diplomatic information during the past 10 years, and ostensibly dealing with Washington's policies...
...4 are most significant...
...For Koreans know the meaning of such expressions...
...Japan is to be "stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the first World War in 1914...
...If we take out their shipping and cut off their oil supply, they will be drastically weakened and we may well avoid a possibly costly landing against a defended shore...
...In other words, responsible American commanders are prepared to regard Japan as "defeated" without any actual invasion of the mainland of Japan...
...25, 1941...
...Kim Ku, President of the Korean Provisional Government (a "government-in-exile" with headquarters at Chungking), bitterly denounced the Cairo statement, referred to it as "absurd" and declared defiantly that Koreans would continue their historic fight against Japanese domination unless they got "independence the moment the Japanese collapse...
...In fact, Gen...
...But the discussions at the Cairo conference undoubtedly helped to "clarify" the situation, as Admiral Hal-sey, Commander of the South Pacific area, in an article written some weeks before the Cairo discussions had declared emphatically that new offensives would not stop with the recapture of territory taken by the Japanese, but that "each of us has an appointment in Tokyo...
...No Occupation Promised They are now one of the "colonial" peoples—like the Burmese, Malayans, Indo-Chinese, Indonesians, Indians, Hong Kong Chinese, etc.,—doomed to be a football of power politics...
...4, 1943, just three days after the "joint communique" of Cairo was given out, the State Department at Washington released a quite remarkable statement, referring to the Emperor Hirohito as a friend of peace...
...The Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902 formally and specifically guaranteed the independence and sovereignty of Korea...
...So Emperor Hirohito, the State Department's "friend of peace", will continue to rule his empire— though the Koreans may "in due course" become "free and independent...
...So Premier Tojo, while "ostensibly" standing for the Emperor's policy, really double-crossed him...
...In other words, a return to the 1913 position, except for "territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese"—a statement which simply repeats previous appeals made by the Chinese...
...But the British—and American—governments can "deal" with Emperor Hirohito, following the "progressive" policy of his grandfather—the policy of partnership with Western Empires in joint aggressions against other Asiatic peoples...
...I think we can beat them without it...
...But there is a difference...
...The British are not enthusiastic about this...
...He said that "more than a thousand free Koreans in Free China are furious about the expression 'in due course.'" Mr...
...Harry Hopkins, indeed, in his article in the American Magazine four months ago, evidently included them in "Japan proper," to which he referred specifically as possessing a population of 100,000,000...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 1
