CALL TO SERVICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25300, 6 September 1945, Page 5

CALL TO SERVICE

EMPEBOK IN DIET DEFEAT TO BE EXPLAINED TOKYO, Sept. 4 Emperor Hirohito motored in a maroon-coloured sedan to open the extraordinary session of the Diet today. All upper storeys of buildings along the route were curtained to prevent his subjects looking down on him. Only Japanese flags flew in Tokyo. The session lasted only 25 minutes. In his speech the Emperor called on the Japanese people to "surmount the manifold hardships and trials attending the termination of the war, make manifest the innate giory of Japan's national policy, win the confidence of the world and devote ourselves to reconstruction in every field." He did not once use the word "surrender," but referred throughout to the "termination of the war" and the "cessation of hostilities." Vote of Appreciation Hirohito said he had directed his Ministers of State to explain the foreign and domestic conditions and the course of events that had led to his "extraordinary measure." He called on all Japanese to unite in service to the State with greater zeal than ever. The Lower House immediately adopted a reply expressing appreciation of the efforts exerted by the officers and men of the Imperial forces, as well as of the endeavours on the home front. The House of Peers resolved "to acknowledge the reality of our defeat and cut a way out of the present situation." The Peers decided to embark upon a new course of national rebuilding with a view to safeguarding the age-old national structure and contributing to world peace so that His Majesty's mind may be put at rest. Cheated by Government Baron Rcijiro Wakatsuki, a member of the House of Peers and a former Prime Minister, in a speech, said: "The Japanese Government cheated us at the outset of the war because it told us we had more strength than we actually had. We wanted to fight the United States at the start of the war. Everyone then believed in victory, but now we have no guns, no aircraft and no men, so we must accept the Potsdam Declaration. We gave money and food for war, but as the years passed we grew weaker. All we now have to show for these sacrifices is the shame of our defeat." A member of the Diet, Yukio Ozaki, aged 88, speaking before the session opened, said the complete overhauling of education was necessary to impress upon the people the laws of humanity and the difference between right and wrong. Ozaki, who has long been critical of Japan's aggression, attacked the Diet as being far short of a constitutional Government. He said that in his opinion the atomic bomb was necessary to revert the people's existence to past righteousness. General Mac Arthur overruled a Japanese Foreign Office order that Allied correspondents attending the opening session of the Diet would, be searched at the door and would not be allowed to smoke or drink inside the building.

JAPANESE STRATEGY ESCAPE OF AUSTRALIA ATTACK ON UNITED STATES NEW YORK, Sept. 4 Vice-Admiral Tamas Kanabewa told a Mutual Broadcasting System correspondent that the Japanese Fleet was heading for Port Moresby and then going to Australia when the Battle of the Coral Sea occurred in 1942. He said the Japanese did not invade Pearl Harbour after the 1941 attack because they feared they would not be able to keep supplies moving to their troops. "When we lost Guadalcanal" he added, "we knew that we had overtaxed our supply lines-" , , The split between the Army and Navy probably kept the Japanese from going to war with Russia, which Germany hoped for, said the German Ambassador to Japan, Heinrich Stahmer, in an interview with the New York Times correspondent in Tokyo. The Japanese Army wanted to go to war but the Navy was opposed. Instead they attacked tho United States. The Germans did not know until a day or two after the events what the Japanese were going to do. . , Stahmer said he was never instructed to prepare for tho arrival of Hitler or any otner Germans in Japan when Germany collapsed. The correspondent says he found 50 Italian, German, Siamese and IndoChinese diplomats living in a luxury hotel at Miyanoshita, 22 miles from Fujiyama. There the fountains were filled with schools of trained goldfish. The diplomats' suites contained exquisite lacquered cabinets, prints and supplies of local delicacies. ANNAM RIOT CASUALTIES NEW YORK. Sept. 4 Reports from Hanoi, capital of IndoChina, state that at least ten Frenchmen, including two priests,, were killed during the Annainite uprisings.