894.017/9–2148
Press Release Issued September 17 by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur at Tokyo1
immediate release
General MacArthur today brushed off as baseless charges made yesterday by the Soviet Ambassador in Washington that his policies with respect to the responsibility of public servants were in violation of controlling Allied policy including the Potsdam Declaration but took occasion to comment as follows upon certain aspects of the situation in Japan:
“No segment of Japanese society has been afforded more liberal gains since the surrender than has Japanese labor. It enjoys greater privileges and protection here than in many democratic countries. Its main potential danger lies in its absorption and ultimate destruction by communists who seek to exploit it to spread disorder, anarchy and revolution. Indeed were the concept of communism to prevail here, Japanese labor would be first to feel its completely totalitarian suppression and control, and the trade union movement would perish to be replaced by the oligarchic control of a handful of self-appointed masters. The liberty of the worker would disappear and labor would become merely a commodity. It was not the purpose of the Potsdam terms nor will the Supreme Commander permit such conditions to develop in occupied Japan.
“Perhaps the most unsuccessful effort made anywhere by world wide propaganda to instill communistic principles has been in Japan. Here concepts leading to disorder, discontent and ultimate chaos have made little headway. Despite frantic communistic efforts to achieve the contrary, Japan continues calm, stable and well ordered. The Communists and those who adhere to their cause thus have a growing sense of frustration at their failure in Japan. If they had their way they would repeat here the deplorable state of affairs which they have brought about in certain unhappy European centers.
“There is a deep and natural resentment throughout Japan at what is generally regarded by all Japanese as a basic disregard of human and moral values in the retention in Russia after more than three years following surrender of half a million Japanese prisoners employed under shocking conditions of forced servitude in works designed to increase the Soviet war potential. This, despite the solemn undertaking entered into by the Allied Powers in Clause 9 of the Potsdam Declaration offered as a condition to the Japanese surrender, [Page 848] which reads as follows: ‘The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.’
“There is an old oriental proverb, equally understood by the West as by the East, which says there can be ‘no greater hypocrisy than to fail to practice what you preach’.”
- Copy transmitted to the Department in covering despatch 623, September 21, from Tokyo; received September 29.↩