TO EDUCATE JAPAN

Grey River Argus, 19 September 1945, Page 5

TO EDUCATE JAPAN

IN LIBERAL IDEAS Big Plan of U.S. Occupation Army (Rec. 11.40). NEW YORK, Sept. 18. A “New York Times” correspondent in Tokio stated: The American Eighth Army has a plan for the education of the Japanese. This plan represents the most massive plan in ' history to influence minds of a nation. The avowed aim of the Eighth Army is to re-orient the intellectual processes of seventy-eight million Japanese people. The ways of thinking of the Japanese are essentially unchanged from what they were in mediaeval times. The plan has five distinct objectives, as follows: — (1) To eradicate militarism and ultra Japanese nationalism. <2) To make cleai’ the fact that Japan has been defeated, and to acquaint the Japanese with’ responsibility for war atrocities committed by their armies, and with war guilt of their leaders. (3) To foster sound economy, and to encourage democratic organisation. (4) To encourage a free Government responsible to the people. (5) To promote political and civil liberties,’ and the right of assembly, of public discussion, education, and free elections, and also respect for human rights. General MacArthur’s Headquarters feel that before the Japanese can take effective steps to “cast, out the demon” they must first be given a sense of shame and of national wrongdoing. and then given a scapegoat, namely, the military. At Washington the U.S. State Department has been surprised by General MacArthur’s statement to the occupation. The Department plans to investigate. One official said it was feared an impression might spread abroad that the United States was planning to withdraw at an early date, leaving Japan largely in charge of her own affairs. General MacArthur said: Probably no greater gamble was taken in history than the initial landings in Japan, where the occupation forces were out-numbered by 1000 to one by armed Japanese, but the stakes were worth it. An unknown quantity at the outset of the occupation was whether an Allied Military Government would be required to be established. This would have involved several million troops, but, by working with the existing Japanese Government, the purposes of the surrender terms would be accomplished with only a small fraction of men, time and money. A 20-YEARS’ OCCUPATION SUGGESTED (Rec. 11.30) NEW YORK. Sept. 18 General Wainwright, who was a prisoner of the Japanese, in a broadcast said: The Japanese deliberately practised all forms of cruelty they knew or heard about. One night a Japanese private struck me fivt times and then knocked’ me as flat as a pancake with a hit on the jaw. All Allied officers of my rank, also Governors of the British and Dutch colonies, were required to perform manual labour, including a job of hoarding flocks of' goats. We were struck without particular reason as part of a studied plan to belittle Anglo-Saxons in the eyes of Oriental people. We should occupy Japan for about twenty years. We should deprive the Japanese of any business or any industry capable of preparing them for war. The Chinese Central News Agency says: The Japanese have violated the surrender terms in a number of instances since September 2. including destruction of arms, ammunition, railway bridges and equipment.

JAP DEMOBILISATION UNEMPLOYED EXPECTED THIRTEEN MILLION (Rec. 10.40). NEW YORK, Sept. 18 A Tokio correspondent of the “Herald Tribune” said: General MacArthur’s estimate of an occupation force of two hundred thousand men means one American per square mile of occupied territory. Half of Japan’s three million home army are demobilised already. Japanese still assert it will take three years to discharge four million overseas Japanese forces. The Japanese aso estimate that there will be thirteen million unemployed Japanese by the time that the demobilisation is complete. It is obvious that there will be potentialities for disorder. The ‘Tieraid’ Tribune” said: Amazed State Department officials told our Washington correspondent that publication of such a low .estimate w’ould create an impression in the world that the United States was about to weaken her diplomatic hand in the Far East at the very time when the Big Five are preparing to draw up peace terms involving a multitude of momentoils Asiatic political issues. In a statement Gen. MacArthur said:— The occupation forces were being drastically cut and troops would be returned to the United States as rapidly as shins were available within six months. unless unforseen factors arose. Once Japan was disarmed, a force of 200,000 would he sufficiently strong to ensure the Allied will. The questions involved were entirely independent of the future Japanese political and governmental structure on a national and international plane. This problem was one of which the ultimate solution necessarily awaited the completion of the military phase of the surrender. • General MacArthur instituted a broad information programme which is designed to convince every Japanese of the Empire’s defeat, war guilt, reveal atrocities, eliminate militarism and encourage democratic principles. The programme, which will use the Press, films, radio and schools, will be conducted by a new “information dissemination section,” under General MacArthur’s military secretary Brigadier-General Bonner Feller ’ Initially, the section will operate through the Japanese Board of Information, which the militarists used for spreading domestic international propaganda. J'apanese newspapers and radios must present certain items, including factual descriptions of the atrocities. BIG JAP SCHEME TO ENTERTAIN OCCUPATION . ARMIES (Rec. 11-10) NEW YORK, Sept. 18 The Japanese Government and Tokio business interests are planning to erect a gigantic amusement centre for the Allied occupation troops in Tnkio The centre will cost six million five hundred thousand dollars and will employ five thouand protessional women entertainers. Features will be cafes, oars, dance halls, movie theatres golf courses, tennis couits, Jifl? ranges, and fishing. Gambling will be prohibited. . The “Asahi” reports that Lieuten-ant-General Yoshio Shinotsuka, a member of the Supreme War Council committed suicide by . cutting his throat with a Samurai swoid Sh r notsuka was Tojo’s classmate at the Army Officers’ School.