CAUSES OF DEFEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 55, 3 September 1945, Page 5

CAUSES OF DEFEAT

TO BE EXPLAINED BY THE PREMIER

NEW YORK, September 1. The Prime Minister, Prince HigashiKuni, will inform Japan next week that the death toll from bombs was 450,000, or nearly double the figures previously announced, says the Associated Press. Prince Higashi-Kuni told a Japanese Press conference yesterday that his speech will be prompted by the necessity for explaining the collapse of Japan's fighting spirit which caused the defeat. Authoritative sources said that 95,000 of the total population of 250,000 died at Hiroshima, with further deaths occurring daily as a result of the effects of the atomic bomb. Inosuke Furuno, president of the Domei news agency, said that the danger period of the occupation has passed. There is now little prospect of incidents marring the American expansion in Japan. Furuno, whose position virtually gave him Cabinet rank, said that personally he was surprised that the surrender was accomplished with so little trouble. He added that while many difficult economic problems lay ahead, Japan would attempt to solve' them without outside help. "We are able to produce enough food for the people at present living in ! Japan," he said, "but may need assistance if the Japanese are returned from Manchuria, China, Korea, and Formosa."