MacArthur on Japan
At a Press conference which must have left the bewildered corre- spondents with a singing in their ears, General MacArthur announced in Tokyo on Monday that the military occupation of Japan had achieved all its objects, that politically the Japanese had their feet firmly planted on the road to democracy, and that Japanese economic independence must now be pursued through a revival of her over- seas trade. There was no evidence that the General's conclusion that a peace treaty should be signed as soon as possible was directly connected with President Truman's recent demarche. But what this particular soldier says is evidence and, however histrionically he says it, it must be examined with care. As to the destruction of Japan's military power General MacArthur is plainly right, though it would require more knowledge than he has at his command to prove that that power will never rise again. As to Japan's political conversion, his conclusions are much more doubtful, despite the proved capacity of the Japanese for sudden mass-changes. But there can be no doubt whatever of the correctness of his economic con- clusions. Japan must trade with the outside world or else enter upon a period of slow death by economic strangulation. It is also impossible to quarrel with the General's conclusion that a long period of supervision by the United Nations must be faced. Military revival behind a veil of secrecy must be guarded against, a relapse into the peculiarly lethal Japanese variety of fascism must be pre- vented, and trading recovery must never again be allowed to go hand in hand with the lowest standards of life. But the General's rhetoric got the better of him when he said that " if the United Nations cannot handle the controls necessary for Japan it cannot handle anything." It would be nearer the truth to say that if the United Nations can handle those controls it can handle everything.
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