MACARTHUR POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 63, 12 September 1945, Page 7

MACARTHUR POLICY

STRUGGLE FOR CONTROL IN JAPAN

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) NEW YORK, September 10. The situation that is unfolding in Japan has made many Americans fear that the leaders of the occupation armies are failing- in their task. American correspondents in Japan continue to declare that the Japanese are winning the struggle with General Mac Arthur to determine who shall govern Japan.

"General Mac Arthur has blundered in adopting the velvet glove attitude towards Japan." said the New York "Herald Tribune." "Basic issues of policy should not be left to General Mac Arthur but should be decided only on the very highest levels. At the moment there is apparently no liaison between General Mac Arthur and the United Nations, for whom he is acting. "General Mac Arthur's mistake lies in his Interpretation of the Potsdam Declaration, on which the surrender instrument is based. He points out that the whole present Japanese governmental, economic, and social structure is to remain substantially intact. I This course seems certain to run into serious difficulties if it is maintained. General Mac Arthur's expressed intention of abolishing such things as militarism and militant nationalism and encouraging liberalism cannot be fulfilled by strengthening the Emperor institution and the ruling oligarchy which fostered militarism."

POWER TO FEUDAL LORDS.

The "Herald Tribune" asks in an editorial "whether we are raisin" the Samurai sword or democracy' 7 in Japan. "General Mac Arthur, in the policy of working through the Emperor, is being earnestly encouraged and abetted by the feudal families whose rule has been responsible for the war, for Pearl Harbour, for the unfathomable horrors of aggression, and for the unspeakable brutalities of the field prison camps," it says. "This policy undoubtedly saved hundreds of thousands of lives* but it leads to strengthening of the Emperor institution, with all its fantastic mythology." The newspaper prophesies that this policy, if continued, will lead to a Western-style Parliament dominated by the feudal lords, while the Allied diplomats and control commissioners will remain to be as badJy deceived as were the diplomats before Pearl Harbour. "The alternative is revolution, 1 it says. "The United Nations can remove the barriers which prevent revolution. * They can enforce genuine freedom of speech and offer the Emperor institution no more respect than It deserves, which is very little. They can use the existing agencies of the Government without permitting them to continue as bulwarks of power for the small feudal class. It seems that nothing short of going through a special revolution is going to fit this primitive people for the modern world." . ■ The "New York Times" correspondent says: "General Mac Arthur is preparing for more far-reaching action to eliminate the war element from Japan, and is refusing to be stampeded by the critics. He has waited till enough troops are ashore and he is in a position to enforce his rules, and then move quickly, but meanwhile to let the enemy think he is afraid to act and let them say their piece and reveal their hand."

SUPPORT OF ANCIENT ORDER

The "New York Times," in an editorial commenting on the Allied policy in Japan, says: "Subject to General Mac Arthur's authority over it, Japans much-vaunted 'peerless 'policy,; which culminates in Emperor-worship and

Three of the 29 Japanese

perpetrated and could impress the .picture of Japanese cruelty on the records of civilisation for all time. , The "Telegraph" recalls that Britain and America sent a similar delegation to see the horror camps of Germany, and says its report hardened the hearts of the Allies and ensured that the German war criminals would never escape. . , . "We must bring the facts clearly to the people of the world, for on the world's understanding we have to depend for policies which will preserve us against a rise of the same elements in Japan again," the paper says.

COMMENT ON CENSORSHIP

DECREES

NEW YORK, September 11. Commenting on the order issued today by General MacArUiur imposing censorship on the Japanese Press and radio, the "New York Sun's" lokio correspondent says: "It's about time. "Until now the Japanese newspapers have been getting away with murder. They have . een consistently playing up so-called incidents of assault, rape, and other alleged offences by the Americans. Editorial comment has been frequently caustic, with sly digs at the occupation forces. "The 'Nippon Times,' in a lengthy sarcastic editorial on the American decrees, said: 'If the Americans are going to be tough, then the Japanese Seople will be unable to avoid feeling lat American military control is no better than the militarism of our own war leaders from which we thought the Americans came to liberate us.

MACARTHUR'S GRIP

STRONGER THAN JAPANESE

THINK

Rec. 11.10 a.m. NEW. YORK. Sept. 11. "General Mac Arthur has a far stronger grip of the situation than most informed Japanese with whom he has dealt are aware," says the Tokio correspondent of the "New York Times. "Some of his actions may appear unorthodox at home, some too weak, and some too strong.. However, after two weeks here, with information pouring in from all sources, he has had a chance to size up the situation and get troops ashore. . „, "His dissolution of the Imperial General Staff, which ordered the rape of Manila and other untoward events, was issued as soon as enough divisions were ashore, and the Japanese had been sufficiently disarmed to make the

the doctrine of Japan's 'holy mission to conquer the world, will apparently remain, untouched. Any modification, of the existing order in the direction of democracy will apparently be left to the good graces of the Japanese Government and the zeal of whatever Japanese liberals may have survived the totalitarian war regime. The policy not'only falls short of the severity applied to Germany; it is milder than that applied to Italy, not to mention the Russian regime in eastern "So far there is no effort by the military Government to extirpate the Japanese equivalent of Nazism, .no dissolution of organisations serving totalitarian ends, 'no removal of the leaders hostile to the Allies, no interference with the big monopolies, no arrests of leading industrialists. The policy merely tends to support the ancient order and stifle in the bud whatever Japanese opposition rises against it. It clearly falls far short of our proclaimed war objectives. "We cannot pursue one policy in Europe and another in Japan without indicting one policy by the other and laying ourselves open to misunderstandings and suspicions in a world already too full of them."

promulgation possible without an attempt to wipe out the American foothold. General Mac Arthur, preparatory to his latest orders, issued a statement that he was over all Japanese authorities, including the military, but not a word of the statement was published in the Japanese newspapers."

eaders. whose arrest has been ordere

•d by General Mac Arthur