MacArthur Urges Tolerant Approach To Japan’s Treaty

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 September 1947, Page 8

MacArthur Urges Tolerant Approach To Japan’s Treaty

TOKIO, Sept. 1

General MacArthur, in a statement on the second anniversary of the signing of the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, said that if Japan in the post-treaty era were given a just opportunity to live in freedom and at peace . with her neighbours in the community of nations there would be no threat to the survival or strengthening of the democratic processes inaugurated under the occupation.

There was no need for concern over fears recently expressed of an imminent economic collapse, said General MacArthur. The economic prostration of Japan was complete at the beginning of the occupation. Under the guidance of the occupation and with American help Japan has been gradually restoring her shattered economy. The curve was up, not down.

Referring to the peace treaty, General MacArthur said it should be approached in the same tolerant, just atmosphere that had marked the occupation, to ensure that the defeated country had an opportunity of becoming self-sustaining rather than to reduce it to a condition of mendicancy. Japan should not become a burden for the economy of any other country.

“Right, rather than might, has been our criterion,” General MacArthur said. “The fruits of this policy are now self-evident. Japan today stands out as one of.the few places in a distraught world where, in spite of an economy of critically short supply, there is a minimum of fear, confusion, and unrest—where the people are diligently endeavouring to expiate the breach of the peace for which their nation stands universally condemned, to overcome the poverty left by war and defeat, and to elevate themselves to trusted, useful membership in the family of nations.”