Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0150, 1945-12-23.

Full Translation:

The current coal shortage is threatening to lead our country into a complete economic crisis. The Government declares that of late the potentiality for mining coal has begun to show a tendency to increase. However, despite the output estimated by the Government, there is already a very marked falling off in coal stock. If the supply should stop, it would inevitably evoke an overall collapse of the national economy with aggravation of social unrest as the result. Coal is the very food of all trades. As things stand, the drastic curtailment of transportation facilities due to the deficiency of coal supply has spurred the food conditions in the cities to the crisis stage and transportation lines to abnormal congestion. The situation is dangerous enough as it is. Under the circumstances the reactivating of civil production is not feasible. It will be impossible to produce electric lights or domestic utensils for instance. Hospitals are now suffering from a shortage of such medicines as are made from coal and are obliged to discontinue performing surgical operations due to a deficiency in coal. The cause of the deplorable situation may be entirely attributed to the lack of policy on the part of the Government. Despite the difficulties to which coal supply has long been subject, the Government has dared to take no resolute stand on the issue. It is pitiful that even today the Government agencies, such as the Coal Affairs Office and temporary provincial offices are still indulging in making mere paper plans. It is doubtful a whether the Government realizes fully the true situation regarding coo1. Evidently the most urgent problem is to find labor to work in if in the mines and to overcome the shortage due to the repatriation of the Korean end Chinese miners. In this state there is little proepoot of materializing the governmental recruiting program which aims to secure sixty thousand voluntary laborers by the end of this year and seventy thousand be end of next March, totaling one hundred and thirty thousand volunteers It will prove ineffective to urge the Nation to work by means of force or preaching, as was the case during the war. Despite a drastic boost of coal prices, miners' wages have been raised only a little. Coal miners are always threatened with the danger of death while working in the pits and the working conditions are so much worse due to reckless mining during the war. Yet they are paid only twelve yen per day particularly at a time when carpenters and plasterers are enjoying much better treatment. Usually the latter can manage to earn fifty yen per day, with three meals in addition.

The killed and the injured in the pits numbered 84,867 in 1940. The number shows a gradual increase year, [illegible]reaching as many as 55,759 during the period of the first half of 1944. It is most urgently necessary to prevent such cal[illegible]ities, to take counter[illegible]sures against discases and improve labor management on a through and broad [illegible]. It is

EDITORIAL SERIES: 150 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

also necessary to improve miners' economic conditions without limiting them to the present distribution of rations of rice, rubber-soled tabi and working clothes. As a countermeasure in this issue, a nationalization or national control of coal mines must be carried out.

A complete socialization of the coal mining industry under state ownership with management under labor union control will serve to speed up the restoration of the output of 400,000,000 tons, which corresponds to the total tonage used in the pre-war period. By permitting workers to participate in managing the business, improvement will be made in labor control and welfare facilities and will aid not only in securing robust and strong workers but in absorbing a great number of the jobless.

So long as workers are the main factor of tiding over this coal impasse, it is necessary to organize them so that labor unions may be able to participate positively in managing the business. Only thus will they learn to realize that they themselves are the main factor in tiding over the current coal crisis. The present stringent situation will remain uncorrected so long as the management of the industry is under the mine owners' control. The latter are eager to continue the feudalistic altreatment of workers, sticking to the old way of managing private business. In view of the situation in the coal mines, it is impossible to expect radical changes of the business from such mine owners. If the Government and capitalists lack ability and will remain indifferent to this problem, there is no alternative but that the coal miners themselves settle it.

Full Translation:

Now that the Government is being readjusted and equalized, the same consideration must be given to the national education. The essential expenses for the students in their courses, to say nothing of the educational institutions, must be borne by the Government, thus enabling all people to have an equal opportunity in education. Hitherto, in some educational institutions students' expenses were borne by the Government. The principal examples of this are in army and navy schools and normal schools. However, in these schools the system itself led to an educational result cen[illegible]to the intention of the Government, which had maintained these schools for special purposes.

The students in army and navy schools, ought to have become the right-hand men of the Emperor and the "fortress" of the country. But what were those ugly deeds conducted by the professional soldiers during and after the war? The Nation was especially disgusted at the deeds of the professional soldiers who, taking advantage of the confusion immediately following the war, acted like robbers. They boasted of their disinterestedness in money, yet, they proved that they are all greedy misers.

Then, what about the teachers, who graduated from the normal schools. They say that education is a task given them by heaven. They claim that they were not interested in material wealth, yet this is not always so. Movements for greater incomes were attempted by various groups in wartime, and it was the teachers who most frequently created scandals because of this. They were accused by schoolboys of disposing of crops for their own advantage. These crops were raised by the students as a task imposed upon then at the request of the country. The exploitation by the teachers of the students is evident in these cases. The fact that the main cause of any of the school strikes after the war is attributed

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ITEM 2 (Continued)

to such misdeeds of the teachers, leads us to visualize how the teachers have de[illegible]neratedted.

It is not wrong to assert that the common defects which can be seen particularly in our soldiers and teachers have been nurtured and proeduced by the free expense system of their schools. The students often despise their own school merely because they are public supported, whereas the staffs of the school are apt to look down upon the students for the same reason. In extreme cases, it is possible for teachers to look down upon students as if they were orphans in an orphanage. It is but natural that the character of the students may be rather distorted by this sort of education. We do not say all of them are so, but it is a fact that the soldiers and teachers are educated in such circumstances.

There is no longer a question over military schools, for the Were liquidated following the dissolution of the army and navy. In normal schools, if we demand educators of true human character from these schools, not more educational technicians, we must, in the first place, abolish the free school expense system which is specially provided for them. Nevertheless, we do not insist that the free expense system itself is wrong. What is wrong is that the normal schools have been treated as exceptions. If the country had maintained all the educationa1 institutions on a similar basis, the so-called evil normal school education would, have not been created.

The Government once treated, the Imperial Universities specially as training organizations of civil officials. At the same time, the Government has been making special expenditures for the military and normal schools because they are indispensable for the country. However, indispensable persons ought not to have been limited to civil officials, teachers, and soldiers. Every person working in business is, of course, equally indispensable to the country. From this point of view, the Government ought to pay all expenses required for education. Thus the people will be freed from the burden of educational expenses. Hitherto in our counter the opportunity of education was determined by the power of money. Such an absurd evil must be abolished by the Government, and by this means the honor of a cultured country will be scoured. Now the tre[illegible]ndoacous military expenditure of the past is no longer needed. [illegible]e think there should be no difficulty to find sufficient funds for educational expenditures.

Full Translation:

(a) Mrs. TOJO'S Responsibility:

"Reading Mrs. TOJO'S justification of her husband's actions, I cannot help thinking that there should be a limit to such unjust blame placed upon the Japanese Nation. I say to you, Mrs. TOJO, that you do not seen to have the virtue of modesty which characterizes all Japanese wives. Following the war, why didn't you come and see the ruins caused by air-raids, instead, of retiring into your parents' home in a mountain hideout and taking no notice of the wretched conditions of the world? How unhappy the people are! They are miserable and are subjected, to a life which any ordinary man can hardly endure."

Of course, I have no mind to put all the war responsibility on your husband or on you. But, as one of these people and as one of the public.

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ITEM 3 (Continued)

I feel completely disgusted with you when you openly assort that TOJO is not to blame for the war. Besides, you are impudent enough to say that letters reproaching you are written in faltering handwriting. Moreover, I venture to say, the mass of the people surely believed in General TOJO as if he had been a god, listened to his skillfully arranged propaganda, and endured all the difficulties only to face the present great adversity. Have you ever thought that those who wrote to you most falteringly night have been the most ardent and fanatic TOJO fans? Then, could you blame then for their bad handwriting?

"Your attitude is the typical militaristic, feudalistic, and aristocratic attitude which privileged people willingly assume to remain self-contented. I will not advise you to commit suicide, because it is too honorable an atonement for you to choose. [illegible]erely say, 'I beg your pardon. I repent from the bottom of my heart.' You said you had received letters sympathizing with you, but they are surely from married ladies of your own privileged class." (A letter from a young soldier's wife, whose husband has not yet been repatriated.)

(b) War Widows' Wishes:

"I have been a war-widow since my husband went to war five years ago. Though many soldiers have been demobilized and have come back to their homes since the end of the war, yet I've heard nothing from my husband in the south for one year. For the first three years I was not pressed for money since I had an income of half his civilian salary and an allowance from the army division to which he belongs. For the past two years, however, I have hardly been able to bring up my two children on the allowance from the army and some additional income gained by needlework. Now, I have heard a rumor recently that the military allowance to bereaved families will be abolished. If our allowance from the army division, which is paid every three months in advance, is suspended in December, I shall be at a loss for funds. Though it may be reasonable that all allowances to military men should be suspended after the termination of war, yet such families as ours that have been deprived of their supporters cannot but starve in these days of rising prices. Surely many people are in the same situation as ours. My husband was promoted to captain and his allowance to his bereaved family is a little less than 100 yen a month. 100 yen is worth only two sho (20 go) of rice nowadays. But without it I cannot pay my children's school-fee, tax, and electric light charges. I want a responsible answer from the military authorities on relief for the many war widows.

(A letter from a humble woman in SHINANO)

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