OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 224, 21 September 1945, Page 5

OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

UNITED STATES POLICY FORMULATED IN WASHINGTON Reed. 6 p.m. Washington, Sept. 19. The Acting Secretary of State, Mr. Acheson, told a Press con. femes that the United States Government, not General MacArthur, '■•’as formulating the American policy for the pacification and control of Japan. “I am surprised that anybody has gone so far as to say what occupation forces will be needed for Japan.'’ he said.

Departing from the usual procedure of the State Department : ini authorising direct quotation, Mr. Acheson said: “1 have no comment to make on the military aspects of what General MacArthur has stated. That is a purely military matter with which the State Department is not properly concerned. The important thing is that the policy regarding Japan is the same policy which has always been held and is at present held by this Government. In carrying out that policy, the occupation forces arc the instruments of the policy and not the determinants of the policy. ‘‘Japan will be put in ...a position where she cannot renew aggressive warfare. Whatever is needed to carry out that policy will be used.’*

General MacArthur s public relations office announced that he is allowing the statement about an occupation force of 200.000 to stand without coni' ment, adding that the statement is quite clear and self-explanatory. The Associated Press correspondent at Washington describes Mr. Acheson’s statement as more pugnacious than diplomatic and as indicating a social and economic revolution in Japan regardless of what General MacArthur thinks.

The correspondent says it is believed that Mr. Acheson spoke with the support of the War Department, hut that at present it is not known whether ho implied that the criticisms of General MacArthur were made with the full barking of President Truman.

At a Press conference yesterday Mr. Truman said he had not known anything about General MacArthur’s statement that 200.000 troops would be sufficient for the occupation of Japan until the statement was published. He added that a reduction in the number o r troons necessary for Japan might be nccomnanied by a similar reduction in Germany.