Japan And China II Japanese Interest In Trade Relations

Press, Volume C, Issue 29516, 18 May 1961, Page 12

Japan And China II Japanese Interest In Trade Relations

IBy R. E. BLAZEY, Tokyo Correspondent of “The Press”)

“If China remains free from a major war for a period of 10 years I think it will grow into a big and powerful country, whether we like it or not,” and that “ultimately we (Japanese) must come to terms with Peking,” is the considered opinion of one of Japan’s foremost experts on Communist China and a leading negotiator in Japanese endeavours to find a way out of the present impasse in diplomatic relations.

Mr Tatsunosuke Takasaki. the war-time director of Japan's industrialisation of Manchuria and a post-war Minister of Trade visited China and discussed diplomatic and trade relations with Mr Chou En-lai and other Communist leaders m October last year, reported back to Tokyo and then went off to Washington to sound out American reactions to a possible Japan-China settlement.

I interviewed Mr Takasaki twice, once after his return from China and after his return from America. He gave me his views on China in some detail and did not deny that he had been acting as a “go-between” for the Japanese Goverment. Mr Takasaki. although nominally a director and advisor to a canister manufacturer 'Toyo Seikan) is one of the leading figures in Japan’s ruling LiberalDemocratic Party. Double Value

His observations, therefore, have a double value; first he is one of the best informed and experienced commentators on the Chinese situation, and second, because he is a spokesman for the Japanese policy-makers. The following is an account of Mr Takasaki’s statements to the Japanese press and myself in answer to questions on the present state of Chinese industry and on the prospects for a re-open-ing of trade and diplomatic relations with Peking. Mr Takasaki said "China at present has much in common with the war-time Japan under the Tojo (General Hideki Tojo) administration. No Chinese are suffering from dire poverty but I felt depressed to find that women do not groom their faces. Thefe was a food shortage In some localities and I though there were some signs of an anti-Communist feeling. On the other hand I noticed the people of China had been so well trained that they would not lose their unity. If China remains free from a major war for a period of 10 years, I think it will grow into a big and powerful country, whether we (Japanese) like It or not. "Like Russia in 1940“ “It is doubtful, however, whether the present Communist ideas will remain unchanged. China at present resembles the Soviet Union in 1940. I visited the Soviet Union in 1940, 1958 and again in 1980 and every time I visited that country I found that things had changed. I think China too, will undergo change and become like the present Soviet Union. “It is a mistake to believe that communism and capitalism are incompatible and that countries upholding them must fight with each other.

“On October 10, last year I left for China for the purpose of inspecting the industries in Manchuria, meeting 17 (Japanese) war criminals still detained there and visiting the tombs of 125,000 Japanese prisoners who died there while awaiting repatriation to Japan. I was accompanied by a party of 14 including trade experts, and representatives from the iron-steel chemical.

shipbuilding machinery and farm products industries. The day after I arrived I had a face-to-face meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister Mr Chou En-lai, who afterwards entertained our whole party at dinner. U.S.-Japan Treaty

“Mr Chou told me that the Japan-United States Security Treaty was proof of the hostile attitude of Japan and the United States toward China but that the Chinese including Mr Chou himself, paid their respect to the people of Japan who, in objection to the treaty, had succeeded in unseating the Kishi administration and also that he hoped the Japanese would continue such resistance.

“I flatly denied this view, saying that I had visited his country because the people of China held such a view in spite of the fact that no Japanese, including Kishi, had any intention of waging a war against China. We failed to reach any agreement on this issue however.

“I said that Japan should pay reparations to China for the damage inflicted on China during the 50 years of Japanese aggression, but Mr Chou replied that Japan need not pay reparations since Japan had brought about the revolution and the flight of Chiang Kai Shek.” “I then made a round of visits to various cities in Manchuria, such as Harbin. Changchun, Shenyang. Anshan and Dairen. I found the manufacturing industries developing at a fast pace. The Anshan steel mill, for example, was turning out 6 million tons of pig iron annually compared with 1 million to 1.300.000 tons when it was run by us Japanese. Shortcomings “Such a marked development of industry could. I think, be attributed to the introduction of Soviet industrial techniques into China. There were shortcomings. however, such as that Chinese steel plants could not produce galvanized iron sheets. “In Dairen. 1 heard that a big ship of 13.000 tons was built and launched in only two months, but the ship was moored unfinished to a pier when we visited there, because the necessary parts could not be secured from abroad. “I found that many women were at work in the factories. Power supplies are inadequate. To save power even Peking is only dimly lighted at night with only one in five lamps burning. “When we returned to Peking on October, 24, I had another change to talk with Mr Chou and he asked me for my frank opinions on what I had seen.

.“I told him then of the two facts that surprised me. One was China's achievement of such remarkable industrial development in only a decade and the other was the widespread belief among the Chinese that Japan might attack China pursuant to the JapaanUnited States Security Treaty. “Asked to comment on the industrial development of Manchuria, I told Mr Chou frankly that it was because China depended on

the Soviet Union too much that such a long time was required to fit out a ship which had been built in two months.

“I asked him why China would not try to co-operate with Japan. I also told him about the Manchurian motor car factory which produces 30,000 cars by employing 20,000 workers and that a Japanese factory could produce three times that number of vehicles with the same work force.

“At the dinner party the Chinese gave us before we left I told Mr Chou that Japanese politicians, if they are practically minded, consider it necessary to seek America’s understanding in promoting friendship with China, for Japan owed much to America’s generous policies for her post-war recovery.

“Mr Chou made some critical remarks about the (present) Ikeda cabinet after admitting that what I said might be right.”

(To be continued)