Press translations [Japan]. Political Series 0101, 1945-12-22.
Date22 December, 1945
RepositoryRauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
Call Numberpolitical-0442
Call NumberDS801 .S85
Persistent Identifier
Access and Usage Rights Copyright © 2018 Trustees of Dartmouth College. Publicly accessible for non-commercial use: these pages may be freely searched and displayed, but permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please see http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/schcomm/copyright/rights.html for more information.
POLITICAL SERIES: 101
ITEM 1 Election Measures Outlined by Representatives of Various Parties - Asahi Shimbun
- 19 Dec 45.
Translator: K. Murakami.
Full Translation:
HATOYAMA, Ichiro, President of the Liberal party, yesterday spoke on the election
policy of his party as follows: "The basic
policies of the Liberal party attach first importance to the protection and maintenance
of the Emperor system. Second, the
party emphasizes the guarantee of 2.5 go of rice, barley, and wheat as the daily minimum
food supply and demands food imports
under a democratic administration. Third, importance is given to the question of unemployment
relief. The present unemployed
are different from those of farmer years, because they have been made jobless due
to air raids, or are demobilized soldiers.
In other words, most of them are victims of the national policy, so to speak, and
they have to be treated in a different
way.
"Our party, therefore, strongly insists that an extensive engineering project should
be encouraged with the construction of a
new JAPAN as the basis. The State should start a huge engineering project such as
river improvement, reconstruction of ports
and harbors, etc., and for this project jobless people should be mobilized so that
they may work and gain their self respect.
For this purpose, new Japanese bonds should be issued. Fourth, we emphasize necessary
agrarian measures and restoration of
commerce and industry. The economy of the future JAPAN will be brightened through
participation in international trade on the
basis of liberalism. I believe commerce and industry and farming communities will
be restored by free trade.
"First of all, food should be imported in huge quantities and efforts should be made
to lower the prices. Then, the cost of
living will be lowered and exports will be promoted. In this way, the economy of the
people will find its way opened to
reconstruction.
"For the rehabilitation of war victims, the Government should undertake thorough
relief measures on a large scale. For
instance, the building of money simple houses to give to war victims would be an excellent
start. Next, let me deal with the
general elections. The coming epoch-making general elections will be held soon. Election
campaigns are to be conducted with
inconvenient transportation and communication facilities. We had insisted on a new
method of campaigning, such as speaking on
the street with the megaphone in hand. In spite of this insistence of ours, the Government
bill for reform of the Election Law
has been revised with the condition that any act calculated to excite the voters shall
not be permitted. This is a matter of
regret. Today when I called at Supreme Headquarters, this matter became a subject
of discussion. Americans cannot understand
why the Diet has restricted the
POLITICAL SERIES: 101 (Continued)
ITEM 1 (Continued)
freedom of election campaigns and extended the authority of the bureaucracy. It is
just as the Americans maintain—when a
vigorous campaign is allowed, the new men will be given a chance for seats in the
Diet. It is to be hoped that the foregoing
restrictions will be removed by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.
"The Liberal party will face the general election full of confidence, endeavoring
to acquire a large number of new men in
addition to re-electing its present members."
KATAYAMA, Tetsu, Chief Secretary of the Social Democratic party says: "We are to
face the general elections with the spirit
that our party alone is fully equipped with power and qualifications for shouldering
the prevailing situation. The present
impoverished life of the people cannot be saved unless the party in power is the political
party of the working masses and one
professing socialism. The first job in the coming elections for our party is to restore
to the hands of the masses the
political power which a small number of privileged people heretofore held. Our misfortune
of today is a product of
capitalistic politics. The unsuccessful men will be replaced by new ones in the coming
general elections. This is why we have
decided to adopt the slogan in struggle of the coming election, 'Socialism or Capitalism?'
"Weakness of the SHIDEHARA Cabinet
exists in the fact that, although all the policies are changing to social policies,
as seen in the Labor Union Law or Agrarian
Land System Law, the policies of the Cabinet are still far from socialistic and it
carries on its policies in an indecisive
way, pressed only by the force of Supreme Headquarters. Other parties have, of course,
the same basic character as the members
of the present Cabinet. The Social-Democratic Party alone has a fresh point of view.
A socialistic country is a cultured and
peaceful country. From this point of view alone, I believe that statesmen of the past
should be swept away. We shall endorse
some 250 recognized candidates, of whom we are confident some 100 will be elected
to the Diet. Some persons say that because
new candidates are numerous, our party will be at a disadvantage, but no longer will
the labels of individuals have any
effect. Much importance is now attached to the policies of the political parties.
The voters, I am sure, will vote for
political parties, not for individuals. As for the various postwar economic questions
such as food supply, unemployment and
inflation, they can be solved only by executing the social policies of our party.
We are ready to take charge of these
difficult problems. We appeal to the public to support our policies covering emancipation
of workers and farmers from their
slave-like circumstances, and rapid realization of the plan of governmental management
of fundamental industries such as
banking, mining of coal production of fertilizer farm implements, etc. Our slogan
is, 'government for the public, government
in the hands of the public.'"
TSURUMI, Yusuke, Chief Secretary of the progressive party says: "The planks of our
party are: 1. Protection and maintenance of
the national polity, (Emperor System), 2. Thoroughgoing enforcement of a social welfare
policy (guarantee of people's
livelihood), and 3. Recovery of international trust.
"In reply to the Communist party, which demands the abolition of the Emperor system,
our party, seeking the stabilization of
the State, will play the role of the representative political party, and this is the
platform to be adopted. For the purpose
of stabilizing the
- 2 -
POLITICAL SERIES: 101 (Continued)
ITEM 1 (Continued)
people's livelihood we must enforce a social welfare policy more thorough than the
New Deal of the UNITED STATES in order to
prevent the occurrence of violent revolution. Also, we should like to endeavor to
reduce the differences between the rich and
the poor.
"As a result of the present defeat in the war, it has been revealed that our so-called
moral diplomacy has not been moral at
all. We insist on encouragement of education so as to educate the Japanese as men
of the world and thereby recover
international trust.
"I want to leave this 3-point platform to the cool criticism of the people before
the coming general election. I anticipate
success in achieving an absolute majority. We shall have some 350 to 400 candidates,
of which about half will be new
men."
Election struggle predicted by TOKUDA, Kyuichi, Chief Secretary of the Communist
party: "The forthcoming general election will
be the basis of the democratic structure of JAPAN and also its first trial. The Communist
party, therefore, attaches much
importance to it. The party will, through the election campaign, endeavor to extend
the influence of the party and thoroughly
insist on the party's views. Second, the Party will endeavor to have as many of its
men elected as possible.
"So far, some 100 candidates have been chosen and 50 more are likely to be drafted
in the near future. These candidates
include all party staff members except MIYAMOTO, HAKAMAO, and KIN, who are ineligible
to run. The candidacy of two women is
pending negotiations,
"The chief platform planks in the platform are: (1) Stabilization and promotion of
the livelihood of the people, (2) thorough
pursuit of the war criminals, (3) abolition of the Emperor system and establishment
of a people's republican government with a
new, democratic constitution.
"In order to advertise the platform, we intend to make the most of all means of propaganda
such as speeches, pamphlets, etc.
Besides, for local districts, we are prepared to broadcast recorded speeches of the
central committeemen. The cost of the
campaign will depend chiefly on the donations of the workers.
"Utilizing the plural, ballot system, we will have two candidates standing in promising
electoral districts like TOKYO or
OSAKA. We should like to co-operate with other democratic elements like the Social-
Democratic Party and if conditions are
favorable to us, we can expect the success of 50 men or so."
"My Idea is Co-operation" says Mr. KUROSAWA of the Co-operation party. "It is of
the greatest importance for us, in our
attempts at revival, to do away with all defects, while still preserving our traditional
virtues. Friends! I should like to
advocate co-operation for the reconstruction of JAPAN. Co-operation means the establishment
of a co-operative community of
justice and humanity based on autonomy, labor, and love. A principle, however, accurate
and reasonable it may be, cannot help
the human community if it is nothing but a theory. In my belief, rigid principle is
to be mixed with warn humanity. All our
policies stand or fall on this point. For example, in the agricultural field, we can
establish a good farm-village and
multiply the production of foodstuffs by spreading the doctrine of co-operation in
every industry. Thus, the agrarian industry
and cultural and social institutions would be stabilized.
- 3 -
POLITICAL SERIES: 101 (Continued)
ITEM 1 (Continued)
"The industry of JAPAN hereafter is to be based on medium and small industry. In
order to raise this industry to the level of
the rest of the world, we must endeavor to improve techniques, enhance efficiency,
and rationalize the management under a
system of co-operative society.
"As for a few heavy industries like production of fertilizer and heavy farm implements,
we must to prevent monopolistic,
capitalistic enterprise. We demand to have more than 60 or 70 per cent of the shares
open to workers. Rural co-operative
societies and workers in the big factories would be able to take charge of the enterprise
as shareholders. In this way,
management of a company is controlled close co-operation between capitalists, technicians,
and consumers. If co-operation
prevails fully in every economic and social activity, all the farmers, as small promoters
of enterprises, will be successful
ones.
"In the establishment of a new JAPAN, we can learn much from Denmark. If foreign nations found that
JAPAN could easily feed her 80,000,000 population in such a narrow domain, they would
be ready to pay their respects to this
country. Then, she could be a most powerful speaker in international affairs.
"Universal disarmament is our final object, thereby insuring the everlasting peace
in the world. We must start in this way.
Only with such a high goal, can our race again be hopeful arise from its present miserable
situation."
DISTRIBUTION "X"
- 4 -
Loading...