HIROHITO AND WAR

Evening Star, Issue 25673, 22 December 1945, Page 5

HIROHITO AND WAR

DESIRE WAS FOR PEACE PRINCE KONOYE'S MEMOIRS TOKIO, December 20. Prince Konoye's memoirs, which are now in the hands of the chief war crimes prosecutor, state there was no doubt of the Emperor's sincere wish at all times for peace. They condemn Japan's system of Government, which permitted free rein to the army. " While the Government was carrying on negotiations with all its might the army was pushing ahead with its war preparations, but the Government did not know what the preparations were. The movement of ships and mobilisation moves became known in the United States, creating doubt in the United States of the sincerity of the negotiations. The army wanted war and the navy would not, or could not, oppose the army. ' The Emperor remarked to me, 'lt is regrettable about the army.' " Prince Konoye commented in his memoirs on the fact that the Emperor rarely voiced his opinion to the degree is might be thought. He was too hesitant. Prince Konoye added: " Although it was proper that the Emperor should be passive in ' peace-time, such passivity, when the country was standing at the crossroads of peace or war, led to extreme difficulties." The memoirs reveal that the Japanese Cabinet, with full army and navy support, agreed in May, 1941, to accede to the American demands for withdrawal from China. The memoirs contain \ ample evidence of Japan's conviction that the China adventure was a complete fiasco, disastrously weakening the empire. Cabinet's decision to withdraw from China was conditional upon both sides refraining from making public the peace conditions lest Japan should lose too much face. 1 Japan agreed to the following terms: —First ; Chinese independence; secondly, withdrawal of Japanese forces; thirdly, non-annexation of Chinese territory; fourthly, no reparations; fifthly, restoration of the opendoor policy; sixthly, amalgation of Chiang Kai-shek's and Wang Chingwei's Government; seventhly, Japanese mass migration to China, eighthly, recognition of Manchuria.