BITTER IN DEFEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 54, 1 September 1945, Page 7

BITTER IN DEFEAT

PEOPLE OF TOKIO

WIDESPREAD BOMB DAMAGE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrlgnt.)

NEW YORK, August 31. "The people of this battered capital went about' their daily tasks on this momentous day with shocked impassivity, and with no .outward sign of hostility against the few Americans who reached the city," says a correspondent of the Associated Press in Tokio. "The American bombs have cut a wide, ugly pathway through most of the best-known districts, and have hammered many industrial areas on the edge of the city into rusted rubble. However, a few of the finest buildings, including the Imperial Palace, rise grotesquely from the ruins, which have long grown shoddy from neglect." The correspondent says that he rode to Tokio in a jammed street-car alongside housewives, students, fishermen, farmers, and numerous enemy servicemen who had already been demobilised and were returning to their homes. "Tokio has been a city of continual hunger following the fall of Okinawa," he said. "The Japanese knew their fate was sealed. "It is impossible to estimate accurately the extent of the damage, including that in the most modern parts of Tokio. The city's principal shopping street is virtually flat except for a few major department stores, the upper storeys of which are burnt out, but which remain open with meagre stocks | on the ground floors. Most stores and offices in the financial district are still standing and can be used. "The people appear adequately fed but poorly clothed. Almost all women and children and most men are wearing wooden clogs or straw sandals. Current issues of the 'Nippon Times advertise slightly-used shoes for sale. "The Japanese I have met extended every courtesy, but one could sense the bitterness of defeat that touches every living Japanese as he contemplates the problems of Japan's resurrection, the correspondent adds. An interpreter, Kidiyashi Kasuga, iwho is a Tokio school teacher, commented to the correspondent: "We have been deceived; we never knew about our reverses in the Philippines.' The rations of rice, beans, and peas were reduced last January, and meat and fish were unobtainable, Kasuga said. "Our people are dejected, but their hearts are warm, and I am sure nobody will attempt to make trouble, the school teacher added. "Our Emperor told us in his Rescript to cooperate and not to make trouble. In Tokio at least there have been very few suicides. We know that the war is lost and that there is nothing left to do but to act correctly." Two Japanese naval lieutenants corroborated Kasuga's statements. All the Japanese said . they knew little or nothing about the prison camps. Some, fanatical elements in Japan were so determined to continue the war that' they publicly threatened to shoot' down the surrender envoys who were sent to General Mac Arthur, the corres- ?' ondent says. Kamikaze pilots flooded okio with pamphlets urging continuance of fighting. . The emissaries slipped out of Tokio by falsifying the advance announcement of their departure, and returned by publicly proclaiming an inaccurate schedule. This was done with General Mac Arthur's full support. THE EMPEROR'S GAMBLE. The "consensus of opinion of- v Japanese with whom 1 talked was that Emperor Hirohito won a courageous gamble when he '-ued for peace," the correspondent adds. "The public uproar after Hirohito's surrender broadcast on August 15 died much quicker than was expected. The people were shocked by the sudden change after eight years of consistent propaganda emphasising that they would die rather than surrender." One of Tokio's leading bankers, a member of the powerful Mitsubishi firm, told the correspondent that 1 Japan would have fought on to the last man if Hirohito had been killed, and said: "The Emperor did a tremendously courageous thing in stopping the war in spite of the attitude of the Government, which had wanted to continue it. You must understand that the whole fate of the Japanese people rests in the hands of the Emperor. The people were apprehensive lest a kamikaze attack should be staged during the initial landings, but fortunately nothing has happened. "The atomic bomb was the greatest single factor in the Emperor's decision, but the continued Super-Fortress attacks came a close second. The people of Tokio lived in continual terror. The civilians of Japan want no more war ever. They are anxious to see what becomes of them, what reparations they must pay, and whether Japan will ever be able to industrialise again and take its place in world trade."