JAPAN’S WAR PLANS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 2

JAPAN’S WAR PLANS

INVASION OF DOMINION WAS CONTEMPLATED EVIDENCE DISCOVERED BY U.S. OFFICERS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 16. ■ United States Army intelligence teams operating in Japan have discovered documentary evidence that the Japanese did intend to invade ana occupy New Zealand, and that they did have a plan for the subjection of the New Zealand people. This is revealed in a statement released to-day by the Prime Minister’s Department. The evidence is not drawn from Japanese official war records, since the bulk of these was destroyed before the Allies entered Japan. The questioning of Japanese officers has revealed that operations were contemplated in Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, and New Caledonia. Plans for the management of’these territories were published in Japan by the Kokusaku Kenkyu Kai, an unofficial Government agency, in December,.l94l. The document contemplated total Japanese rule over every aspect of New Zealand life. One extract stated: “When Japan completely occupies southern regions as a result of the present great East Asia war, Japan will be in a position to decide all matters concerning the type of sovereignty, politics, culture, and economy for those regions, according to her own desire.” New Zealand’s resources, were to be devoted to the service of the Japanese Empire, and her economy was to be tailored to suit Japan. The documentsaid: *‘ln order to ensure the existence of the Japanese Empire, and that a national defence state of high degree be built up, the development of the available natural resources of those various regions by their inhabitants, under our leadership, is the thing to be obtained. Plans must quickly be made for the industrial reorganisation of the whole co-prosperity sphere, and also, in particular, a counter-plan is necessary for a cut in the production of such natural resources as are considered to be overproduction to the demand of the cb-prosperity sphere.” Although self-government for internal affairs was gradually to be granted each country, Japan was to exercise control through some special organisation over defence and foreign affairs. Regions to be under the jurisdiction of the “New Zealand Gov-ernment-general” included Macquarie Island and “the entire sea in . the South Pole region.”