894.00/5–1649
The Chargé in Japan (Huston) to the Secretary of State
No. 314
[Received May 31.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit1 five copies of an address Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru delivered at the Tokyo Correspondents Club on May 11, 1949.
[Page 747]The address has aroused considerable interest because of the Prime Minister’s earnest appeal for world sympathy, confidence, and cooperation in assisting Japan’s economic recovery and return to normal international relations.
The Prime Minister also took occasion to correct what he considers a false impression of himself and the Democratic Liberal Party. He noted that he and his party are often described in foreign books, magazines, and newspapers as “ultra-conservatives,” “reactionaries,” and “die-hards”. Mr. Yoshida stated that he and some of his associates were arrested by the Military Police during the war because they did not subscribe to the creeds and doctrines of the militarists and ultra-nationalists then in power. The Prime Minister emphasized that during the war it was the militarists who were the radicals and that he and his associates were the conservatives who stood for peace and dared to defy those in power.
There is no doubt that Mr. Yoshida keenly resents the labels “reactionary” and “die-hard” which many foreign correspondents as well as leftist opponents in Japan repeatedly use in describing him and the Democratic Liberal Party. While some of the leaders of the Democratic Liberal Party unquestionably represent an old-guard type of conservatism, it is inaccurate to describe the Prime Minister and the party he heads as reactionary in the customary sense of the word. Mr. Yoshida and his party represent the principal conservative element in postwar Japan primarily because there is nothing further to the right as an influential organized party. As the Prime Minister noted in his address, the only difference between his position during the war and today is that he and his party are now in power.
Mr. Yoshida’s position is actually a relative one. Since the end of the war the scale for measuring political viewpoints has been shifted far to the left. During the war this scale began on the far right with the militarism and extreme nationalism as personified by the Tojo coterie, and extended only about as far to the left as Mr. Yoshida and other peace advocates who were harrassed or imprisoned for their “radical” views. With the end of the war, almost everything from Tojo extremism to the edge of Mr. Yoshida’s conservative position was swept from Japanese political life, while, at the same time, the political scale was shifted to include newly-risen political groups ranging from the liberalism of the Social Democratic Party to communism. This shifting of the scale has, of course, left Mr. Yoshida at what has now become the right in Japanese politics.
In his appeal for sympathy and understanding, Mr. Yoshida expressed the hope that the world will realize that the Japanese are today sincerely endeavoring to rebuild their nation upon a peaceful, democratic basis. He pleaded for a tempering of thoughts of revenge and retribution by those who suffered from Japanese aggression with the [Page 748] realization that Japan now stands before the world chastened, humbled, and helpless as a result of a disastrous military defeat. The Prime Minister expressed the hope that the world will not hold the transgressions of the past against Japan’s future and will permit Japan to resume its place among the nations. “All we are asking now,” the Prime Minister pleaded, “is access to materials and markets so that we may buy the food we need to live.”
The Prime Minister’s appeal for sympathy and understanding of the problems which face Japan’s recovery and his denial of having reactionary policies have been favorably received by the Japanese press as a highly desirable effort to dispel suspicion and misunderstanding over Japan’s efforts to recover. Some Japanese, however, have expressed disappointment that Mr. Yoshida did not deal with the communist problem and reiterate his determination to stamp out communism. In making his appeal for the world’s sympathy and in attempting to counter charges of being reactionary, Mr. Yoshida probably believed it would be inappropriate to deal with the communists beyond his concluding statement that he and his party do not see eye to eye with the Socialists and “abhor communism”.
Respectfully yours,
- Enclosure not printed.↩