General MacArthur Pleased With Progress In Japan

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 September 1949, Page 6

General MacArthur Pleased With Progress In Japan

TOKIO, September I.—The Allied Supreme Commander in Japan (General MacArthur), in a statement on the fourth anniversary of the Japanese surrender, paid a. tribute to the Japanese people and expressed confidence in their country’s future. The main points made by General MacArthur were:—(l) Japan deserved a formal peace treaty; (2) the Communist threat in Japan was past; (3) the danger of the re-emergence of a police State was non-existent; (4) Japan was well on its way to being self-supporting; (5) there was no need for Japan to trade with Communist China; and (6) the Allied occupation forces’ efforts to reorient and reconstruct Japan had proved eminently successful. Surrender Commitments General MacArthur said: “The Japanese have fully and faithfully fulfilled their surrender commitments, and have well earned the freedom, dignity, and opportunity which alone can come with the restoration of formal peace. With energy, hope and industry, they are now launched on the huge task of making Japan once again self-supporting among the family of nations. Today, Japan may be viewed as a symbol of hope for less fortunate peoples, overwhelmed by despotic rule and coercive force.” General MacArthur said that the last year had seen accelerated progress in every phase of Japan’s reconstruction. Industrial production was rapidly approaching its 1930-34 level, which the Far Eastern Commission had prescribed as the interim standard. The United States’ “significant decisions” to halt reparations removals and to finance the rehabilitation of Japan had played an important part in the country’s recovery. “The threat of Communism as a major issue in Japanese life is past,” said General MacArthur. “Its own excesses aroused Japanese public opinion to the threat, it constituted to their free institutions. Enfranchised women promise to prove a powerful and effective force in Japanese politics, while a broad middle class is emerging which will support democracy and reject with scorn any will-of-the-wisp economic Utopias which require the surrender of an individual’s freedom to the State.” Trade Unionism Trade unionisfn, in spite of a degree of freedom unsurpassed in modern civilisation, had been somewhat impeded by irresponsible union leadership. The rank and file were, however, increasingly insisting on moderation and objectivity. The police services were being administered with restraint, tolerance and commendable efficiency, said General MacArthur. The danger that a police State would re-emerge, or that the police system as now constituted and manned would not maintain reasonable law and order, was non-existent. General MacArthur said there was no mass unemployment, no social unrest, and no large-scale dole, in spite of an increase of 9,500,000 in the population since October 1, 1945. Five million of the new .population had resulted from repatriation, and the remainder as the result of natural increase.. - - -