CONTROL OF JAPAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25964, 3 October 1945, Page 4

CONTROL OF JAPAN

The view that different ills require different remedies appears to have been accepted in the Allied arrangements for dealing with the defeated Axis nations. Although sharing a certain community of interest, in that both were totalitarian in organisation and seized with a ruthless lust for aggrandisement, it may be that Germany and Japan were never friends; they certainly have backgrounds so dissimilar as to defy a synthesis except at the level of alliance for profit; and in defeat they have presented different problems to their conquerors. Germany, blackened by bombs, overrun by invading armies, and with the governing force dead or dissipated, had to be placed immediately under political control, in order to prevent insurrection and chaos. Even now, under the zoned system, there must be the possibility of German leadership being sought by violent means rather than ordered popular processes if the Allied grip ever relaxes. Japan, however, capitulated with the homeland comparatively inviolate, although certain desolation awaited it if the war had continued, and with the people still an organised community amenable to tlje authority of an ordered Government, and to mandates transmitted through the Emperor. The, occupation of Japan became a military operation subsequent, instead of, as in the case of Germany, antecedent to the surrender. It was necessary that a military commander-in-chief should, therefore, undertake the initial tasks in connection with the capitulation and the establishment of an over-all central authority. General MacArthur was the logical choice, and he has succeeded probably as well as any man could who was not gifted with a supernal power to interpret the mind of a foreign race. But it is evident for various reasons that the responsibility resting on him can advantageously be distributed, while a good case can be made out for the divorcing of the political and military aspects of the occupation. The United States, it appears, has for weeks been considering the broadening of the supervisory agency in Japan by including advisers of other Allies. As now arranged among the interested Powers, the formulation of Allied policy will be entrusted to a Far Eastern Commission, on which, in addition to the Big Four Powers, those others with Pacific interests, including Australia and New Zealand, will have representation. At the moment it remains to be decided whether General MacArthur will be the instrument by which the plans of this commission will be put into operation. There is room for a strong presumption that before it has functioned long such a body will desire to translate its ideas into action through a central council, to which the military administration would, in effect, be an adjunct.