Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0156, 1945-12-25.

Summary:

The present poverty facing our Nation was all that out country acquired, at the sacrifice of science and education, under the pretext of carrying out the war. Our country is now groaning under nation wide starvation and poverty. Mental poverty, born of physical starvation, is steadily driving the people to despair. We are undergoing penance for our destruction of science and our neglect of education.

Education needs to be immediately established as part of long-range administrative reconstruction. Based upon a thorough-going criticism of the old farm of education, a drastic reform should be made in the present system. Now is the time when intelligence, instead of militarism, education, Instead armaments, should play on important role in pulling the Nation out of the pit.

As a means to this end, we are attempting to reconstruct the TOKYO Imperial University. The poverty in thinking and learning fundamentally accounts for our surrender. In JAPAN, up to the present time, the masses have had little opportunity to learn about science. That is the reason why war attempting the re-establishment of learning. The students who are so fortunate as to be studying at the highest educational institutions can no longer monopolize up-to-date knowledge. In this light, our movement for educational readjustment needs to undergo a physical change.

The objective of our movement should be the productive populations, especially farmers. In this way we have decided to reconstruct the farmer's education. We intend to rationalize the daily lives of farmers, to enrich their culture and offer them equal opportunity education. The only way to relieve our nation is to introduce a new kind of education along democratic lines.

(ISHIJIMA, Tai—student of the Tokyo Imperial University)

No 2 Concerning the exchanges of professions between JAPAN and ITALY.

I am giving my answer to Mr. "H'S" contribution, "Popularization of education."

I hear that the reason why I was selected as an exchange professor to go to ITALY was that I had studied there considerably and that the

EDITORIAL SERIES: 156 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

Government placed importance in its relations with the VATICAN.

It is my unshaken belief that we should contribute to world peace by striving for mutual understanding and friendship among the nations through science. For this purpose, I am convinced, every opportunity should be seized, regardless of political ideology or the political state of affairs. That is why I visited AMERICA on my way to ITALY and exchanged ideas with American professors. Further, despite the opposition of the Italian authorities, especially of the late MUSSOLINI, I dared to lecture at universities in FRANCE and BELGIUM.

My lectures wore purely academic and not related to politics. All the manuscripts of those lectures were printed and made public. Even now they are preserved in my study. I must confess that my work, "The Theory of Universal Law," on which I lectured most often, could be regarded as a criticism of Fascism. Therefore, lecturing en this theory in ROME required a great deal of courage for me. But, since my lecture was based on a purely academic viewpoint, there occurred no trouble.

(TANAKA, Kotaro—professor of TOKYO Imperial

University and director of the Bureau

of School Education)

Full Translation:

The progress of the KEISEI railway (TN. Railway between TOKYO and NARITA) dispute has produced many lessens. In view of the necessity for traffic facilities, the employees of the KEISEI railway line did not suspend operations after starting the strike and took up the tactics of giving free transportation. We might note here with the similar case of the YOMIURI press, which never stopped publishing during the long period of that dispute.

People were deeply impressed because the number of trains in operation has increased since the strike and service has been improved. Instead of bothering the passengers, this strike was to their advantage. According to reports, the workers made up their minds on 100 per cent office attendance. Other reports reveal that all employees of the TSUDANUMA vehicle factory worked all night, establishing a record, by repairing 20 vehicles and veneering all the broken windows during the three-day period of free transportation. The result of this strike was as follows: first, the system can run 13 trains, a situation which could not have been accomplished until now; second, three trains can now be added during the rush hour and two others can be kept in reserve. Already short of hands, drivers and conductors refused their holidays voluntarily and were working hard every day.

If a traffic strike were carried out by sabotage, the public would attempt to break it even if they wore in sympathy with the employees, because they would have no means of transportation. One example demonstrates this. Many years ago, students undertook to run the cars when tram-drivers started a strike. If things came to this, the probability of a large-scale breakdown would be great.

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 156 (Continued)

ITEM 2 (Continued)

The present case of the KEISEI company did not have the effect of the usual strike, but just the contrary. The most remarkable point is that the strikers did not choose a utilitarian method of action, but, in order to carry on the operation of traffic facilities, they carried on the entire dispute without interfering with the public. It must be noted that the results were very good. The reason lies in the fact that the participation of common workers n management has lade them firm in their perseverance towards their duties.

The same observation can be made in the case of the YOMIURI press strike. After the dispute, the paper gained special influence and creative talent, and the articles were replete with vivid impressions. Politicians and industrialists should not overlook this fact. They must know that increasing coal output can never be accomplished merely by tending workers into the mines. The trick lies in improving the management of the mines.

DISTRIBUTION"X"

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