Press translations [Japan]. Social Series 0016, 1945-11-14.
Date14 November, 1945
translation numbersocial-0053
call numberDS801 .S84
Persistent Identifier
SOCIAL SERIES: 16
ITEM 1 Practical work of reconstruction will be fostered by Retired Soldiers Aid Association - Tokyo Shinbun - 10 Nov Translator: Y. Akabane.
Summary:
Since Its inauguration, the Retired Soldiers Aid Association (TAISHOHU-GUFJIN HODO
FAI) has been actively engaged in the work
of reestablishing demobilized soldiers in all walks of life. For instance, assisting
them in getting employment, returning
them to farms and schools and so forth.
It was recently decided by the Association to help train workers in engineering and
construct ion work. A six months class
will be opened in Asia Expansion Technical School (KOAKOGAKUIN) on December first.
The students will be able to take active
parts in the reconstruction of new JAPAN after finishing the term.
ITEM 2 Japanese in Manchuria and Korea Suffering from Cold and Hunger - Asahi Shimbun - 10 Nov 45. Translator: K. Minagi.
Summary:
Since the end of the war no means of communication have been available with MANCHURIA
and NORTH KOREA and therefore we can
only conjecture about the situation there from scraps of news from those who have
escaped lately from those areas.
It is most urgent at present that help be extended to the 1,600,000 Japanese still
left in MANCHURIA and KOREA.
IWAI, Hachisabure, a man from the Manchurian Heavy Industry Co., Hsinking Head Office,
(MANSHU JUKOGYO SHINKYO HONSHA)
OKAZAKI, Seifi, a HARBIN man and INOUE, Teshiki from Hsinking reported the following
pertinent facts on Japanese being frozen
and starved to death, in the meeting held on the 8th by the Association for the Protection
of Japanese evacuees from MANCHURIA
and KOREA: "Prizes Offered for Hunting Japanese." Japanese have to go shopping in
Disguese".
(l) MANCHURIA:
All Japanese in Manohuria, who hadn't thought of JAPAN and RUSSIA engaging in war,
when war was declared were determined to
fight to the last not only in HSINKING and HARBIN but everywhere. On the night of
August 10 the KWANTUNG Army issued an
evacuation directive to Japanese officials, the staffs of the Manchurian Railway Co.
and other special corporations. After
some commotion among the Japanese the radio on the l5th broadcast the Imperial Rescript
ordering the truce which the Japanese
people could hardly believe. Immediately after the truce the Manchurian rebel army
streamed into Japanese streets to rob and
ravage. Chinese, too, taking advantage of this, killed about 200 Japanese in HSINKING
in spite of all efforts to prevent this
by the Japanese vigilants in every ward, 100,000 evacuees streamed from all parts
of the provinces to HSINKING, and 70,000
poured into HARBIN, all of whom had nothing except their
SOCIAL SERIES: 16 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
clothes they had on, their luggage having been taken by Manchurians, They were living
in school-houses, cinema-houses, railway
store-houses on floors without any clothing or food or heat. Even with the poor crops
this year in MANCHURIA, money could have
bought every possible foodstuff but with no anticipation of conflict between JAPAN
and RUSSIA Provisions had not been stored
away. Their food was probably exhausted in August. There is possibility of their obtaining
any fuel because the miners have
all turned into bandits. At the end of August the prizes of ¥ 50 or ¥ 70 were offered
for capturing one Japanese which is
called "Japanese Hunting" and no Japanese could even go shopping in broad daylight
without a disguise. By now their money must
he exhausted.
(2) NORTH KOREA:
The disturbance in NORTH KOREA is spreading. Travel on trains being impossible in
NORTH KOREA Japanese have to travel on foot
in disguise. When Japanese enter NORTF KOREA in evacuation trains, they were inspected
by the police consisting chiefly of
college students. Some communist forces plundered their luggage and in September "Japanese
Hunting" was still worse and
Japanese had to eat their lunches while in hiding.
Women and children were hid under the floor. A pregnant mother and her daughter were
raped and the mother killed herself. The
present state of things in MANCHURIA and NORTH KOREA is like hell on earth, Immediate
steps for the relief must be taken or
else it will mean the death of 1,600,000 Japanese.
ITEM 3 Repatriation of Japanese nationals from South Korea - Nippon Sangyo Keizai - 11 Nov 45. Translator: T. Ogawa.
Summary:
Concerning the repatriation of Japanese from SOUTH KOREA, a transportation schedule
covering a two month period from November
1 has been made, by the Allied Forces, and is already under way. Regarding the present
situation of Japanese residents in
SOUTH KOREA, Mr. WAKAO OIWA, manager of the KEIJO branch of KYODO News Agency (KYODO
TSUSHIN SHA), who arrived in TOKYO
yesterday, states that: "The transportation schedule made by the Allied. Forces seems
to be going on very smoothly. 4,500
Japanese are leaving KEIJO every flay for FUSAN via two trains, while an average of
10,000 evacuees are sent home daily from
FUSAN. In KOREA a crop of unprecedented Proportions is expected this year. Because
of this rice is being sold at ¥ 6 or ¥ 8 at
highest for 1 SHO (3.18 pints): meat is also plentiful. Public feelings have calmed
down gradually and there is nothing to
worry about concerning the food situation there.
ITEM 4 Tenant-Farming System: Its Reform Urgent Necessity. Land-Owners want payment In Farm Products. Tenants in Money - Mainichi Shimbun - 11 Nov Translator: K, Minagi.
Summary:
Problems in connection with the reform of tenant-farming are still left unsettled
and as a result the government is hindered
in the purchase of farm products.
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SOCIAL SERIES: l6 (Continued)
ITEM 4 (Continued)
An investigation by the Metropolitan Police Office (KEISHICHO) of the farming districts
near TOKYO revealed the
following:
Rice-fields: Arable area 4,255 Cho (TN About 2½ acres) 6 tan (TN .245 acres) 920
cho 6 tan are not tenanted or 21 per cent of
the whole area; the tenanted area is 3,335 cho or a little over 71 per cent. Average
crops per tan are 1 koku (TK 4.96
bushels) 6 to (TN. 3.97 gallens) and the average rent per tan is 7 to 7
sho, 48 per cent of the average output per tan.
Vegetable Fields: The whole arable area 14,434 cho 8 tan of which 6,957 cho 7 tan,
a little less than 49 per cent is
untenanted. The tenanted area is 7,477 cho 7 tan, or 51 per cent of the whole Average
output per tan is: upland rice 1 koku 1
to. Wheat and barley 1 koku 5 to, potatoes 444 kan, sweet potatoes 390 kan. Average
rent per tan
is ¥ 23, or 23 percent of the product per tan. Some pay in Products:—upland rice 6
to, or 54 per cent of the output per tan;
Wheat and Barley 6 to, or 40 per cent of the output; per tan: potato, 87 kan, a little
over 19 per cent of 1 tan output; sweet
Potato 62 kan, 15 per cent of 1 tan output. Trends of landowners and tenants in connection
with tenant farming problems.
Landowners: Present rates of rent were regulated more than ten years ago and the
decrease in the income of landowners due to
the rise in prices and taxes in ten years has given them the inclination to rent their
land to amateurs or evacuees who can
afford more rent or to demand the payment of rent in commodities instead of in money
thus adversely affecting the sales to the
government.
Tenants: The shortage of manure and labor for a long period as well as bad weather
has caused very bad crops this year, and no
agricultural implements can be obtained unless at exorbitant black market prices.
Therefore, the farmers have to sell their
products at black market prices and therefore are very unwilling to sell to the government,
at its prices. The tenants, whose
purses are now pretty well-lined want to pay their rents in money.
ITEM 5 AKITA. Ujaku, Popular Front Dramatist Set Free - Mainichi Shimbun - 11 Nov 45. Translator: K. Minagi.
Full translation:
Mr. AKITA, Ujaku is enjoying his emancipation on the outskirts of AOMORI-City, after
having his liberty of speech and thought
restricted by government, He and his wife were arrested, subject to close questioning
and held in custody although innocent
under the pretext that his theatrical association the SHINKYO theatrical Association
(SHINKY-GEKIDAN) was a Popular Front
Movement.
After three months detention he stayed at KUROISHI-CHO, AOMORI-Prefecture, then went
to SHINTO on the invitation of Mr. AWAYA,
Yuzo one of the Preparative Committee for the Branch Office of Social Party in AOMORI
who is going to establish a school of
politics and sociology.
He is still courageous enough to make the following remarks on the future of JAPAN
as well as on his work.
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SOCIAL SERIES: 16 (Continued)
ITEM 5 (Continued)
Militarism does not place value upon human life. I wonder if Japanese have any love
for their lives. In Japanese history there
have often been emancipation movements. By our efforts to unite this latent Japanese
potentiality with the activities of other
countries we must create a New JAPAN. We have a school here, in which I should like
to educate the pupils so as to awaken
their true Japanese inheritance, stripped of all hindrances to Japanese physical and
social development.
ITEM 6 HANI GORO "On Japanese History" - Yomiuri Shimbun - 11 Nov 45. Translator: C. Gilbert.
Summary:
The oppressors, the tyrants and the rulers of the people - the GUMBATSU, the ZAIBATSU
and the KANRYO are now being
incarcerated and will be judged as war criminals. This development however is by no
means "a revolution from outside" "a
rationed liberty" or "a gift of democracy", but rather the result of the Japanese
people's struggle for liberty and
democracy.
In 1901, KATAYAMA, Sen; KOTOKU, Shusui; KINOSHITA, Shoko; NISHIKAWA, Mitsujiro; KAWAKAMI,
Kiyoshl; ABE, Ido; all members of
the Social-democrats demanded the abolition of military expenditures, the class system,
the law for public safety (JIANIJIHO),
and the upper house; and proposed land and economic reforms, general elections, and
the right to form labor unions. This was
the beginning of the fight for liberty. In 1929 diet member YAMAMOTO, Kenji lost his
life in his fight against the monopoly of
the GUMBATSU. ZAIBATSU, and KANRYO; against War; and the law for public safety. There
have been also political parties whose
members were persecuted and imprisoned for fighting for peoples' rights during all
this time. They demanded the abolition of
the emperor system, freedom of the press, general elections, 7 hour labor, unemployment
insurance, and the combining of labor
and peasant unions. It was their purpose to save the people from starvation.
The "Stars & Stripes" of November 3rd reports that the SOVIET UNION matched the speed with which
they converted to war industries in their reconversion to the production of consumer
goods. Further, it was accomplished with
no resulting unemployment. Compare this feat with Japan's failure.
TOKYO SHIMBUN of 1 November 1945, states that LATTIMORE, member of the Allied Repatriations
Committee, has obvserved that
those in power in JAPAN have been in the habit of using the Emperor as the mouthpiece
for their ambitions for a long time.
This must stop.
The same HATOYAMA who in 1928 as chief secretary of the cabinet together with MAEDA,
President of the Legislation Bureau
designed the law for public safety and in 1933 as minister of culture gave out instructions
to IRIYE. Tanenori and HAYASHI,
Itsuo to dismiss all university professors suspected of communistic thought, is today
pretending to be a liberal. If
HATOYAMA's Liberal Party were to gain a majority, however, it would mean the suppression
of liberty.
The author then states that the ministry of culture and the literary circles suppressed
the efforts to make Japanese history
scientific and free it from the shackles of mythology. He then quotes the
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SOCIAL SERIES: 16 (Continued)
ITEM 6 (Continued)
famous MEIJI journalist FUKUZAVA, Yukichi who asserted there is no history of JAPAN,
but only of Japanese governments; that
JAPAN has a government but no people; that the Japanese people have not yet become
a nation. With all the talk of loyalty and
hara-kiri, only the poor peasant SAKURA, Shugoro dared to fight against the government
for people's rights. He was persecuted
for his beliefs.
The author concludes his article stating that the downfall of JAPAN began with the
Manchurian incident, when Japanese
capitalism indicated its imperialistic designs. All this will have to be revealed
in a new history of JAPAN.
DISTRIRUTION | NO OF COPIES |
CIE | 5 |
CIS | 12 |
G-2 SCAP | 2 |
GPA | 3 |
PUB HEALTH | 3 |
COL MASHBIR | 1 |
FILE | 50 |
INFO | 1 |
TRANS | 1 |
PERI | 5 |
TRAIN | 1 |
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