Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0107, 1945-12-16.
Date16 December, 1945
translation numbereditorial-0367
call numberDS801 .S82
Persistent Identifier
EDITORIAL SERIES: 107
ITEM 1 Strife with the Feudalistic Interests - Provincial Newspapers, Hokkoku Mainichi Shimbun (Kanazawa) - 9 Dec 45. Translator: K. Hirata.
Full Translation:
Since freedom of speech, publication, association and religion were guaranteed, many
political parties and other cultural
groups have successively come into existence. Politicians are hurrying to form political
parties, openly or secretly, with the
forthcoming general election in view. At present only three parties, namely the Progressive
Party, the Liberal Party and
Social Democratic Party have seats in the Diet, but already more than thirty parties
hove declared themselves as newly formed
political associations.
To speak summarily, the Liberal Party is a conservative one which supports a constitutional
monarchy. The Social Democratic
Party, as well as the Communist Party, stand for socialism. The latter Party has been
a secret organization for the past
several decades, only coming into legal being after our surrender. It may be that
the Liberal Party is an intermediate party
between the Progressive and Social Democratic Parties. As for other minor parties,
they will come under one of the categories
of the above three parties. The Progressive Party is nothing but the remanant of the
two now-defunct SEIYU-KAI and MINSEI-KAI.
It is widely known that the party, consisting of those House members elected during
the tenure of the TOJO Cabinet by a
precendent breaking government recommendation system, unconditionally supported the
TOJO Cabinet policies. However, at present
the party has a majority in the Diet and is most influential in political circles,
thanks to its long history of political
activities. Therefore, it is expected that the party will rank first in the forthcoming
general election, high above the
Liberal and Social Democratic Parties. If the old saying that we cannot fill an old
bottle with new wine is true, the
Progressive Party should be named "the Japanese Retrogression Party" and disappear
from the political scene.
The Liberal Party seemed, at first, to enlighten the general public, as an ideology
of orthodox liberalism, which attracted
the attention of part of the bourgeois intelligentsia. However, to our regret, party
leader HATOYAMA's speeches delivered at
the inauguration ceremony of the party as well as in the Diet, reveal the party leaders
ideologies still linger somewhere
between conservatism and socialism, failing to come up to democracy as yet. Surely
HATOYAMA spoke about liberalism and
democracy on those occasions, and yet he seemed to lack understanding as to what the
public and nation really want and to
which trends they are inclining in idea. In short, he is, in political ideology, far
from democratic.
Compared with these two leading (at least up to the present) Parties,
EDITORIAL SERIES: 107 (Continued)
ITEM 1 (Continued)
the Social Democratic and Communist Parties were formed entirely on the basis of
socialism. At present, we cannot foresee what
record the two parties will show in the forthcoming election, but at least the Social
Democratic Party wall lead other parties
so long as democracy is encouraged in our country. Whether we like it or not, our
political situation is believed to be
inclined toward the hegemony of socialism. In order to encourage liberal and democratic
tendencies more and more in this land,
we must be entirely opposed to feudalism and despotism which have been hindrances
to the development of liberalism and
democracy for many years. For this, liberals and democrats need intrepid fighting
spirits, not afraid of even a bloody
revolution. Without any fight against feudalistic influences, the democratic construction
of JAPAN could never be realized.
Therefore, we are opposed to the Progressive Party which is a remnant of the feudalistic
influence and the Liberal Party which
is aiming at getting into power by compromise with the vested feudal interests.
ITEM 2 Take Proper Measures to Overcome the Shortage of Medicine - Asahi Shimbun - 13 Dec 45. Translator:K. Ncbunaga.
Full Translation:
We are suffering from a shortage of medicines all over the country. Physicians cannot
prescribe for patients. owing to the
lack of medicines, many people die who could have been helped.
A miserable fact was reported as follows: Two sons suffered from diphtheria at the
same time. Their parents could get only one
dose of the serum, and so they had to decide which son was to be given the serum injection.
One was helped, the other died.
This winter, at a time of severe shortage of medicines, serious epidemics are expected
to prevail because of the poor food and
clothing situation.
Diphtheria has gradually increase since the winter of 1943 and now shows signs of
great prevalence.
This winter we have small amounts of preventives and serum, so we cannot help but
think of how many children will die from
such diseases as typhus, paratyphbid, and abdominal typhus. Dysentery decreased at
one time, but recently has been increasing
again.
Influenza spread throughout EUROPE and AMERICA last year, but fortunately our country
got rid of the disease. The kind of
influenza known as "Soanish influenza" took ten million lives throughout the world
at the end of the first world War.
If this type of influenza afflicts our defeated country, it will bring a greater
calamity than the war brought. Since we are
facing such conditions, even though the total amount of medicines is small, the Government
should do its best to distribute
the existing supply to the patients as quickly as possible.
ASHIDA, Minister of Welfare, made a speech in the Diet in which he said, "Our Army
had medicines amounting to 12,000
truckloads and the Government will distribute it to civilians with permission of the
Allied Powers." The total price of the
medicines is more than 100,000,000 yen and the supply consists of 500,000 packages.
A long time elapsed since this military
medicine was declared for civilian use by the Minister. Nevertheless, the declaration
has not yet been carried out. An amount
of medicines valued at 100,000,000 yen is
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EDITORIAL SERIES: 107 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
enough to meet the civilian demand for one year. It was valued at 300,000,000 yen
a year in 1936. In 1941 it was valued at
400,000,000 yen. Out of this amount, 100,000,000 yen's worth was exported to CHINA
and the southern countries and a
considerable amount supplied the Army. Therefore, medicine worth 100,000,000 yen is
sufficient to take care of this year's
crisis.
The medicine is concealed in the mountains and in other places. The Government explains
the delay in distribution as due to
the difficulty in transportation or the lack of labor. If the distribution of the
medicine is not easily understood, by the
Supreme Command, we will blame the Government as being too uninterested to impress
the Allied Powers. This should be not only
a paper plan, but we also request that the Government distribute quickly the medicine
to hospitals, physicians, end the
sick,
The shortage of medicine is chiefly due to the shortage of coal and war damage to
the medicine factories. Shortage of salt and
other materials from the southern countries, on which our country depended, is also
a cause for a shortage of medicine.
The production of synthetic medicines ceased with the stoppage of the steel, sulphuric
acid, and alkali industries.
Consequently, it is difficult to establish a fundamental policy for the increase in
production of medicine.
However, a temporary policy to break the crisis of this winter should he considered.
We have already mentioned that the
Government should exert itself to obtain the military medicine with all possible speed.
Second, the control of production and
distribution of medicine should be expedited and the prices should be free from manipulation.
Regulations for the control of medicines are an obstacle to the production and distribution
of medicine. On account of the
poor control of the distribution, both patients and physicians cannot get a supply.
The complex procedure for distribution
causes delays for as long as six months or a year.
Physicians handling internal treatments are handicapped by the shortage of some medicines
while surgeons and obstetricians
have too much. The price of medicine should be established according to the present
situation; otherwise, hoarding and black
market dealing will result.
Becarbonate of soda will appear on the black market and the price of a dose of serum
will rise to 100 yen, although the fixed
price is one yen and thirty-five sen. The price of morphine hydrochloride will become
300 yen for five grams.
From the standpoint of the importance of medicine, its exclusive use by the rich
and not by the poor must be avoided. To
attain this objective, a specified price should be effectively established.
Geographical locations of medicine factories are: five at OSAKA, three at TOKKO,
and two at other places. In TOKYO, 64 per
cent of the factories were destoryed in the war, while in OSAKA only a few were destroyed.
Therefore, some of the medicines in
OSAKA should be transported to overcome the difficulty of packaging and distribution.
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EDITORIAL SERIES: 107 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
Preferential assistance is necessary for the reconstruction of the destroyed factories
so that medicines will be produced in
greater quantities It is reported that the TOKYO Metropolitan Office will establish
one or two distribution points in every
ward of the war-devastated districts.
The distributing point is to provide various kinds of medicines. It will satisfy
the needs of patients even at night.
Public association, social work organizations, and physicians' associations should
be more active as regards policies for
medical treatment. The Government, especially, should actively put some policy into
effect, to safeguard the health of our
people in this great crisis.
DISTRIBUTION: "X"
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