Press translations [Japan]. Social Series 0052, 1945-12-02.
Date2 December, 1945
translation numbersocial-0179
call numberDS801 .S84
Persistent Identifier
SOCIAL SERIES: 52
ITEM 1 News from Japanese Soldiers Abroad - Asahi Shimbun - 28 Nov 45. Translator: H. Nishihara.
Full translation:
Four or five thousand letters inquiring about the safety of soldiers abroad are sent
daily to the Soldiers' Families
Department (RIKUGUN RUSU GYCMUBU) at INAGE, CHIBA-Shi; and about one thousand five
hundred persons appear daily at the office
for the same purpose.
Inquiries vary in their contents, and satisfactory answers are not available because
of the suspension of communications. The
actual state of communication abroad is as follows: 1. NEW GUINEA. Correspondence
stopped since April 1944, but Major TAKEHANA
brought the lists of the dead of the Eighteenth Army's headquarters. One third of
the troops under direct command of the
headquarters and 51 Division died in a submarine attack last May. 2. NEW BRITAIN.
Communications continued until the end of
the war; so confirmation of the dead is possible. 3. BOUGAINVILLE. In May 1945 the
number of living officers and men was
reported, but details are not known because of the obscure wording of telegrams. No
later reports have arrived. 4. WEST NEW
GUINEA. No correspondence since November 1944. 5. BORNEO. No report after the landing
of the American forces. 6. FRENCH
INDOCHINA, THAI, MALAYA. Correspondence was possible until the end of the war. Confirming
the dead is possible. 7. PHILIPPINE
ISLAHDS. No reports have arrived since the landing of the American forces. 8. BURMA,
No details known after the IMPHAL
campaign. 9. MAHCHURIA, NORTH KOREA, and KARAFUTO. No message since the end of the
war.
Many reports concerning the death or safety of military men were lost en route to
the homeland.
The Soldiers' Families Department handles a business which concerns families of 478,964
persons in 5,920 military units
(including civilians in military service). The Department desires that [illegible]men demobilized from
overseas will give reports about the death or safety of their friends.
ITEM 2 Kyoto Imperial University Literary Faculty's Winter Holiday - Asahi Shimbun - 28 Nov 45. Translator: H. Nishihara.
Full translation:
The Literature Department of KYOTO University decided to extend the winter vacation
this year and to stop lectures between 24
December and 28 February, due to the food shortage. All other departments are expected
to follow their plans, though there is
no precedent for a winter vacation longer than two months.
SOCIAL SERIES: 52 (Continued)
ITEM 3 Free of Charge Lodgings in Ueno - Asahi Shimbun - 28 Nov 45. Translator: H. Nishihara.
Full translation:
At UENO Station, about one thousand vagrants spend the night. General MacARTHUR's
Headquarters was greatly concerned about
this matter and made inquiry at the TOKYO Civilian Welfare Bureau to make plans to
rescue the sufferers. To comply with the
inquiry, the Civilian Welfare Bureau ordered UENC Station officers to investigate
these vagrants, and found that 100 are
literally vagrants and 500 had regular jobs, but owing to the lack of cheap lodgings,
they were forced to spend nights at UENO
Station.
The Civilian Welfare Bureau decided to use the auditorium of SAKURAOKA National School
at SHITAYA for lodging, free of charge,
to accommodate the sufferers, and when the repair of the SHINUBUGAOKA National School
is completed, they will he removed
there.
ITEM 4 5 Asahi Reporters' Discussion on Local Situations - Asahi Shimbun - 29 Nov 45. Translator: K. Minagi.
Summary:
Question: How is democracy interpreted by provincial people?
ENDO: There was talk in the FUKUOKA Prefectural Office that many people imagine that
democracy is a liberalism which would
permit a refusal to supply rice to the Government. A united movement of Government
and people for educating the country folk
is necessary.
SASAYAMA: Apart from any abstract views, they do not know the concrete effects of
democracy. They must be shown what is the
material importance of democracy instead of its abstract meaning.
Question: How are union movements going on in the provinces?
ENDO: All miners in North KYUSHU have formed a union aiming at the reconstruction
of the mining management system. Union
movements are prevalent in all mining areas of HOKKAIDO. In September, 800 miners
of YUBARI went on strike and this strike
spread to MIUTA Mine. Mr. MORI, Ryogen, a communist who insists that one must not
spoil industrial organization, formed a
labor union at the SUMITOMO Mining Plant and at the SHOWA DENKO Mining Plant. There
they say that there must be a continuation
of the fight against capitalists.
Question: Are farmers' associations showing any further developments?
SAWADA: In NIIGATA, the North Japan Farmers' Association, under the leadership of
TAMAI, Junji and the Japan Agricultural
Association were united into the NIIGATA Union of the Japan Agricultural Society with
a total membership of 15,000 They
started with a movement for reducing tenants' rent and some of them succeeded in getting
a 40 per cent cut.
Question: What is the general feeling towards servicemen and officials?
ENDO: The farmers will not offer rice for Government collection unless the military
and naval people's misdeeds under the
cover of the confusion at the end of the war are brought to light.
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SOCIAL SERIES: 52 (Continued)
ITEM 4 (Continued)
NOZUE: Militarists' crimes at the end of the war have caused a general loss of confidence
in anything official; All orders
from prefectural authorities to farmers are not heeded.
Question: How are crime conditions?
NOZUE: Recently there have been many cases of rice theft in TOYAMA Prefecture.
Question: What do people think of electing provincial governors?
SAWADA: All classes of people advocate it. Fundamental renovation of provincial administration
can not be made by electing
governors only. Many are of the opinion that village-headmen, and chiefs of the Provincial
Affairs Office should be elected.
These last two elections will be more practical and handy steps to provincial democratization.
NARITA: In the CHUGOKU districts, some are against elections and others are not.
Those who object to it are of the opinion
that election could make local governments too independent of one another.
NOZUE Another reason for the objection is that, besides excessively isolated relations
of local governments, appointment of
officials will be biased. The drawbacks of political parties will be introduced into
local administration.
Question: what are the best plans for the election?
NOZUE: Ballots of prefectural assemblymen are too few to represent the will of the
majority, but voting by all the people is
still more difficult. The plural ballot system would be most suitable.
ITEM 5 What are the Japanese Provinces Thinking? - Mainichi Shimbun - 29 Nov 45. Translator: C. Gilbert.
Summary:
Allied Headquarters is issueing in swift succession directives encompassing the entire
life of the Japanese people. The aim is
evidently to effect a swift transformation of JAPAN into a democracy. There is a general
feeling that the effort expended in
this direction is of a revolutionary nature, the onrush of which is sweeping away
the Japanese Government, as well as the
people. What are the Japanese people in the provinces thinking under these conditions?
The answer is that they are maintaining
a conservative attitude, deeply shocked and not trying to swim with this tide of transformation.
The people in the provinces had, in general, put up a genuine effort to win the war.
The defeat has left them apathetic. The
demobilized soldiers and armament workers, returning with plenty of military goods
and the publication of the misdeeds of the
GUMBATSU, ZAIEATSU and KANRYO (militarists, capitalists, and bureaucrats) have made
the peasants angry and, at the same time,
sharply decreased their will to cooperate with the Government to deliver food. This
has made black marketing a rampant and
serious situation. Only thus can the fact be explained that entire villages in YAMANAHI-Ken,
which had been insolvent for
generations, have suddenly become fairly
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SOCIAL SERIES: 52 (Continued)
ITEM 5 (Continued)
prosperous. Formerly, in this province only one peasant household in a hundred was
out of debt. Now the situation is reversed,
and each peasant is a small-scale capitalist holding 5,000 to 10,000 yen. In NAGANO-Ken,
an apple producing center, all the
apples have disappeared into the black market, Village leaders who do not indulge
in black market deals are called the
"foolish honest".
The over-emphasis of propaganda on the shortage of rice has only made the peasants
try to keep back as much rice as possible
for their own consumption. In the cities it has led to active black market transactions
with citizens trying to hoard as much
rice as they can buy. So many food rations are disappearing on the way from producer
to consumer in black market channels that
a proposal has been made whereby the Government would publish ration quantities for
each province, city and village so that
the graft of the various organs and middlemen could be checked and controlled. Another
factor seriously impeding the delivery
of the State rice allotments is that rice has become the equivalent of money in the
provinces. The farmer finds he cannot buy
farm implements or rubber boots unless he pays in rice.
Under such conditions the food question takes up almost the whole perspective of
the provincial people, and questions like the
general election and womens' suffrage are evoking little interest. Women are much
too busy buying in the black market to
concern themselves about political questions that do not involve the immediate livelihood
of the family.
Against the demand that all present Diet members and provincial assemblymen resign,
the problem arises as to who, with the
lack of suitable new men, is to take their places. In the TOHOKU district there exists
a tendency among those men who failed
during the war as candidates for the Imperial Rule Assistance Party to make a comeback
under a democratic mask. IWATE and
YAMAGATA-Ken are especially noteworthy examples of this tendency. In the FUKUSHIMA-Ken,
provincial assemblymen are the most
active political force, and interest in a public election for provincial governor
is very small. The masses are totally
uninterested; the provincial intellectual class admits the supreme importance of the
Governor for the provincial
administration, since[illegible]with the exception of the police, appointment of all departmental chiefs are
made on recommendation of the Governor and acceptance by the provincial assembly.
But these intellectuals are just as helpless
when it comes to recommending a new man.
On the question of land reform, tenant farmers in the KANTO district declare that
they are not interested in buying land at a
high price if the purpose of the Government in effecting land reform is to increase
production. They point out that greater
results could be achieved by increased fertilizer distribution or imports. KANTO landowners
are also of the opinion that the
time is inopportune for effecting a land reform, and the Government should wait until
present high prices settle down. In
YAMAGATA-Ken and the entire TOHOKU district peasants still cling to the feudal system
and show absolutely no interest in the
prospected land reform. Peasants in YAMAGATA are extremely loyal to the two great
landowning houses of HOMMA and SAKAI.
HOKKAIDO landowners are mostly absentee landowners. They, however, point out that
HOKKAIDO is suitable only for large scale
farming. Since tenants have difficulty in getting in touch with their absentee landlords,
they would leave the negotiations to
the Government.
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SOCIAL SERIES: 52 (Continued)
ITEM 5 (Continued)
Provincial people are generally for cancellation of Government War Bonds, saying
"We have been fooled, But what is the use of
clinging to papers which have lost their value?"
A great majority of the demobilized soldiers and armament workers returning to the
provinces become black market dealers; they
are becoming a problem. It is pointed out that if the Japanese emigrants to MANCHUKUO
should return to JAPAN, this
unemployment problem would be accentuated. Therefore the Government must now devise
a farsighted plan to cope with this
problem. The Japanese prewar stock of silk yarn is 45,000 bales, 30,000 of which is
stored in OKATANI in NAGANO-Ken. Ten
thousand bales are to be inspected and shipped to AMERICA this year. The outlook for
future silk production as payment for
Japanese reparations and food imports is at present discouraging.
Japanese farmers show no interest in increasing mulberry plantations; on the contrary
they are reducing plantations to
increase food production. Their general attitude is that they would be forced to sell
their cocoons at cheap Government prices
and It is, therefore, more lucrative to produce more rice.
Distribution "X"
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