WHAT DO WE WANT OF JAPAN?
Howard, Harry Paxton
What Do We Want Of Japan? By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD ACTING Secretary of State Grew, in a formal statement on July 10. mentioned an approach to "an American mission in a neutral country," by a person...
...Instead, it took the amazing step of forbidding any press comment, discussion, or even "speculation" on Moscow's possible moves—with the puerile explanation that such discussion might provoke a "Japanese attack upon Russia," though in April 1945 it was evident that any "attack" would have to be from the other side...
...Japan is facing defeat...
...The Cairo terms could lay the basis for an enduring peace in the Far East...
...They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion...
...It can now be said that some important American leaders have been—and are—in favor of acceptance of Japanese surrender, and are opposed to indefinitely continuing the butchery of American boys in order that Stalin may add Manchuria to his vast domains...
...But it specifically declared that "only by the liberation of our long lost people in the Northeastern provinces (Manchuria), the return of Formosa to its motherland, and the restoration of independence to Korea . . . and the total extermination of the seeds of Japanese aggression may we consider the victory completely won...
...It should reiterate in specific terms the Declaration of Cairo, which would take from the Japanese Imperialists their ill-gotten gains, restore to China the territories taken from her, end Japan as a Power, but would not reduce Japan to the status of an American or international colony or a helpless tool for Communist political intrigue...
...He has not forgotten the storm which descended upon his diplomatic head when he undiplomatically discussed the Japanese people and their institutions as if they were ordinary human beings and not "bestial apes...
...Some may find it difficult to envisage Marshal Stalin as an angel of peace, but there is no doubt that the Soviet Government would be very pleased to be the intermediary between the American and Japanese Governments—with the usual generous compensation for the middleman...
...Manchuria is as great as Germany and France combined...
...The despair and bitterness which would be roused among millions of Chinese by his betrayal would not be directed against the Soviet Union...
...We can have no such peace by betraying Manchuria to Moscow, or by trying to make Japan our India...
...If our Government accepted the surrender of the Nazis, but refused it to the Japanese, we should know it—-and should know why...
...It is American boys—and Chinese—who are to defeat "fascist-militarist Japan...
...It must be noted that the Cairo Declaration specifically pledged the return of Manchuria (and other Chinese territories) to "the Republic of China...
...The most violent attack upon this statement, and its broadcast to Japan by Captain Zacharias (our former Naval Attache in Tokyo), came from the Communists, who wish to see not only the military leaders but industrial and political leaders of Japan exterminated, giving Japanese Communists a chance for leadership...
...China was our ally, and had fought the Japanese for 8 terrible years during which Moscow had remained eannily neutral...
...But f.he application of shrewd statesmanship might save the final enforcement of that policy—and countless U. S. lives...
...Berlin to Okinawa...
...There is no doubt that the "neutral" referred to by Secretary Grew was the Soviet Union...
...With these objects in view, the 3 Allies, in harmony with those of the United Nations at war with Japan, will continue to persevere in the serious and prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan...
...Time Magazine, surveying the scene last week, declared: "A statement of aims beyond 'Kill Japs—Unconditional Surrender' was awaited by Americans from...
...It is only Stalin who is to enjoy—as he has done for the past 20 years— "a compromise peace with the Japanese imperialists and war lords," which the Communists pledge themselves to oppose for the United States...
...The Americans and the Chinese have borne the brunt of the war against Japan...
...Within 20 hours of the formation of the Suzuki Government, the Soviet Government gave formal notice of its desire to terminate the Neutrality Pact, with its pledge regarding Manchuria...
...Perhaps the Georgian dictator expects to get more from Truman and Churchill than he could get from Chiang and Soong—despite his shrewd use of his loyal Chinese and American Communists and fellow-travelers to discredit and blackmail the Chinese Government and confuse the actual issues...
...This put the matter clearly up to the American Government, which however continued its "hush-hush" policy...
...The aforesaid 3 great powers, mindful of the enslavement of the people of Korea, are determined that in due course Korea shall become free and independent...
...The American Government might, in the circumstances, have widely publicized the Declaration of Cairo, which specifically provided for the future of Manchuria...
...In more realistic terms...
...And Time's own comment was : "What was needed now, more than anything else, was a clear and positive statement of U. S. aims toward Japan, of U. S. policy after Japan succumbs to inevitable defeat...
...Long before T. V. Soong and Frederick Kuh made their statements, some informed persons at Washington learned of the Japanese offers, but it would have been betraying personal confidences to make them public...
...The proper answer is to let decent, peace-loving Americans know something of what is going on...
...We should not be dependent upon war-mongers for news...
...1 issued at Cairo a formal statement declaring specifically: "The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan...
...It was at this time that the elements which opposed peace on any terms except Moscow's opened up, "exposing" the Tokyo offers in order to block them—and of course omitting mention of Cairo...
...If Stalin can get Manchuria in that way, he will again have demonstrated his shrewd statesmanship...
...Moderates" got hold, and Admiral Suzuki formed a Government...
...It would appear that Stalin wanted too much, and that no agreement was reached...
...Is it becoming a "scrap of paper" like the Atlantic Charter...
...HERE were definite aims...
...Tens of thousands of readers of religious publications like the Christian Century and Christianity in Crisis sent signed petitions to the President for this purpose...
...If Japan were seeking peace, Moscow wanted to be in on the kill...
...White of Maine rose to demand that the American Government further define "Unconditional Surrender...
...But the proper answer to this is not silence or flat denials from the State Department...
...mentioned an approach to "an American mission in a neutral country," by a person whom jic did not care to identify, who stated that he had been authorized ("though he did not indicate by whom !") to approach the Government of the neutral country with a view to persuading the Allies to drop Unconditional Surrender and propose specific terms for Japan...
...Or, if it has, i( is still a deep secret...
...Our boys who are fighting and dying in the Pacific also want to know...
...THE American Government should make its aims clear...
...It is their purpose that Japan shall 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, and that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China...
...On May 8. the well-posted Frederick Kuh of PM and the Chicago Sun, reported the Japanese offer, "said to have reached Washington more than a month ago," the terms of which (quoted in my article in The Progressive May 28) wholly coincided with the Cairo demands—excepting that Korea was not mentioned in the Kuh story...
...And Muscovy could shrewdly make use of this feeling against*us—an "Imperialist Power which has double-crossed China...
...Whatever was passing between Washington, Moscow, and Tokyo, it presumably did not concern the common people who were fighting •the war...
...The present writer has no desire to embarrass Secretary Grew in any desires he may have to save a million American lives and lay a more secure basis for peacp in the far East by something less than is being demanded by the warlovers among us...
...Moscow has made no secret, however, of its own interest in Manchuria...
...On another occasion, "leading Japanese industrialists" wanted to know the "best possible conditions the Allies would advance for a compromise peace...
...Make 'em fight and tell 'em nothing...
...IF secret agreements were made at Yalta—or anywhere else—in violation of the Declaration of Cairo, we should know it...
...its possession would make the Soviet Union the Great Power of the Far East—far stronger than Japan could ever be...
...He made specific reference (in connection with the question of Korea) to the Declaration of Cairo, which his Government still adhered to as the terms for Japan...
...These cautious understatements were part of a general "denial" by Secretary Grew that there had been any peace feelers from Japan...
...Rout and defeat the advocates of a compromise peace with the Japanese imperialists and war lords...
...The demand spread to the halls of Congress, where Sen...
...Foreign Minister (now Premier) T. V. Soong took advantage of his first press conference at San Francisco, on May 1, to state that China had received Japanese peace offers "by the bushel," but had no intention of making a separate peace...
...Unconditional Surrender of Japan" was called for specifically "with these objects in view...
...The United States has made the defeat of Japan possible, and the people of America have a right to know to what extent we are committed to advance the imperial aims of our Allies with our blood and treasure...
...The' National Congress of the Kuomintang, the governing party of China, had prepared for this in its sessions at Chungking from May 5 to 21...
...The Maritime Province was the reward of the "honest broker...
...There is nothing especially "Communist" about this...
...A week later, President Truman issued his moderate and sensible declaration to Japan, which however dealt only in generalities and made no reference to the Cairo Declaration...
...We and our boys are entitled to know...
...and on Dec...
...CHINESE and Soviet aims for Manchuria were in conflict...
...There was, in fact, a statement of aims issued a year and a half ago, which is being carefully "hush-hushed" today...
...The question is—what sort of peace are we to have ? Are we to go on with the butchery of Japanese civilians—and of American boys—month after month, rousing the terrible and hopeless hatred of a beaten people who cannot escape, until Moscow steps in to "finish matters" and make peace on Moscow's terms...
...There were other approaches as well...
...If the Japanese offered surrender on the basis of that Declaration, we should know it...
...Grew's caution is understandable...
...Chungking And Moscow On April 5, with the Germans prepared to surrender to the United States and Great Britain, their Japanese allies prepared to do likewise...
...The American Government, however, instead of pursuing the obviously proper course, suggested that the Chinese approach Moscow, and settle matters with Stalin direct...
...It would discredit us forever among all Chinese who respected and trusted us...
...What has happened to the Declaration of Cairo, formally and publicly subscribed to by the American, British, and Chinese Governments...
...There was no other strong neutral through which a Japanese approach could be made...
...WE do not yet know the outcome of the Stalin-Soong discussions in Moscow...
...At the beginning of this month, Chinese Premier T. V. Soong arrived in Moscow with a large mission, prepared to make many concessions in order to obtain a friendly settlement with China's powerful and ambitious neighbor...
...China was prepared to enter a formal alliance which would give Moscow great strength in the Far East, and even permit Soviet ascendancy in Sinkiang, Outer Mongolia, and perhaps Inner Mongolia and some other areas, under the formulas of "local self-government" and "autonomy...
...Its official statement included the Soviet Union, with no outward indication of irony, with the United States and Great Britain as "our allies and friends," which "have shown us great sympathy in our long fight for justice," and "supplied us with arms, materials, and economic aid...
...President Truman received high praise for his public statement to the Japanese, on V-E Day, that we recognized the responsibility of Japanese "military leaders" for the war, and that we did not aim through "Unconditional Surrender" to exterminate or enslave the Japanese people...
...Demand For Peace Terms Throughout the United States, however, an increasing number of reputable papers have been suggesting that our Government further clarify our peace aims, and let both the American and the Japanese people know what we are fighting for...
...The wording of the Kuh story, it should be noted, was one of hostility to the Japanese offer, and made no mention of the fact that it essentially fulfilled the demands of the Declaration of Cairo...
...Such a policy, apparently, has not yet been formulated...
...Can we afford to rouse against us the hatred of both the Japanese and Chinese peoples—the 600 millions of the Far East, more than one-fourth the population of the earth ? Into whose hands will such hatred play...
...The Chinese Government was less secretive...
...The heads of the American, British, and Chinese Governments met personally in November 1943...
...Nothing could be clearer...
...It is most significant that the American Communist "Political Association," setting forth last month its new program under orders from Moscow via Paris, put first and foremost among its "slogans of action": 1. Hasten the defeat of fascist-militarist Japan...
...But the effort to keep the American people in the dark actually plays into the hands of the enemies of peace...
...By its Neutrality Pact with Japan in 1941, indeed, the Soviet Union pledged itself "to respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchukuo," (under Japan), but it naturajly had no desire to continue this if Japan was being beaten down...
...Every informed Japanese knows it...
...Moscow wants all it can get of Chinese and other territories, and would prefer to get what it wants in the least costly way...
...It is not only civilians who want to know what we are fighting for...
...U. S. military policy is clear: blow upon blow until all resistance is crushed...
...Japan will also be expelled from all other territories which she has taken by violence and greed...
...Muscovy obtained the great Maritime Province (larger than all Japan), where Vladivostok is now located, through "intermediatory" services between the Chinese (Manchu) imperial Government and the British and French in 1858-60, bringing the war between these Powers to an end...
...It would be directed against us—since it is we who have mainly encouraged, financed, and supplied the Chinese against Japan...
...It was definitely in order to block peace that the news of Japan's offers was given out 2 months ago— coupled with "editorializing" against such offers...
...It was no mere "rumors" of peace that sent the New York stock market into its terrific nose-dive as Stalin turned from his careful play with the Chinese and Japanese envoys at Moscow to meet Truman and Churchill at Berlin...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 31
