1. the Pacific War-The USA Mistook the True Enemy Pg 42

The Pacific War: part 1

The Pacific War -The USA Mistook the True Enemy

How Did the War begin?The Truth About the US-Japan War.

The True Enemy of the Americans was Not Japan.

http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/remnant/pacificwar.htm

Arimasa Kubo (Japanese non-fiction writer)

[email protected]

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The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was not a start, but a result.

It was like a man, whose neck was fastened by a tormenter, with

all his last strength before dying, tried to hit the tormenter’s face.

The USA and Japan fought against each other in the Pacific War during 1941-1945. Many American people were taught that Japan had done evil things in China, so the USA was justified in going to war against Japan. But the truth was different. The true enemy of the USA and of the world in those days was not Japanbut communism, which Japan was fighting against. But, failing to recognize who the true enemy was, and whom to fight against, the USAallied with the Soviet Union and fought against Japan.

World War II Was Not "Democracy vs. Fascism" Many American people were taught that World War II was a war of "democracy vs. fascism." But this was nothing but false, because Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union, whom the USA was allied with to win the war, was a fascist and a more savage dictator than Adolph Hitler of Germany. Stalin killed more than 20 million people of his own nation, and he was planning to conquer the world with communism.

Stalin was a more savage dictator than Hitler. He killed more than 20 million people of his own nation. The USA was allied with this man.

Japan, whom the USA fought against, was a democratic country which had no dictator, and where the leaders were often changed by general elections. The Japanese constitution fulfilled its function perfectly even during the war, and all important policies were determined by discussions of the national assembly just as in the United States. The Japanese leaders, including Emperor Hirohito, could act only under the constitution and the Diet. They did not have any conspiracy to conquer Asia nor the world, and their war was fought solely for self-defense and protecting Asia. Thus, World War II was not a war of "democracy vs. fascism." This idea was only war propaganda made for the American public in those days. The USAmade mistakes in analyzing the complex situation of Asia, mistook whom to fight against, and whom to act with. In fact, six years after the Pacific War ended, in 1951, the American General Douglas MacArthur, being asked in the U.S. Senate about the Japanese war, looked back upon it and testified: "Their purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security."

MacArthur testified that the Japanese war was for self-defense.

MacArthur, who had spent so much energy leading the fight against Japan, later realized the Japanese war had been for "security," in other words, for self-defense. And he added that the biggest mistake which the United States had made in the 20th century was that they allowed the spread of communism.

The Russo-Japanese War and the USA How did the war between the USA and Japan begin? Why did the two have to fight? The conflict did not begin suddenly when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but rather, tensions had been building decades before Pearl Harbor. Because soon after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), which Japan won against Russia, the American people started to feel hostility toward Japan. Until the Russo-Japanese War, the American people were generally friendly to the Japanese, and the

Japanese were thinking of the USA as their mentor for modernization. Even during the Russo-Japanese War, the American government's attitude was not bad. But when Japan defeated Russia, the Americans saw that this yellow-skinned nation had won the war against a white-skinned great nation, the American public's attitude became suspicious of the Japanese. The Russo-Japanese War occurred by the aggressive act of Russia into Manchuria, which was located east of China and north of Korea. Japan fought the war against Russia for the security of Manchuria, Korea and Japan. As a matter of fact, prior to that, in 1894-1895 there had been a war between Japan and China. The Qing dynasty of China tried to subordinate Korea to it, and Japan fought against China to make Korea an independent country. This war ended with Japan's victory. Japan made Korea an independent country, and also received from China the Liao-dong peninsula of Manchuria by treaty with China. But Russia wanted this Liao-dong peninsula because it had ice-free harbors. Then, Russia, in association with Germany and France, exerted strong pressure and forced Japan to give the peninsula back to China using a powerful argument. Japan did not have the power to reject, so the Japanese regretfully gave the peninsula back to China. After that, Russia said to China, "We returned the peninsula back to you, give us a reward." As a result, Russia received many rights and interests in China. In addition, Russia entered the Liao-dong peninsula and made it their own without any cost! Russia did such a sly thing. But this was not the first time Russia had engaged in such tactics, since this country had been doing the same kind of things in many places, widening their territories with deception and invasion. This expanding country, Russia, was a great threat

to Japan in those days. The giant country was trying to swallow Manchuria, China, Korea and then, Japan. That was why Japan had to fight the war against Russia. This war was to protect East Asia and Japan from Russian invasion. Most of the people in the world never imagined that this small country called Japan could defeat that giant country. But Japan miraculously won the war, although the victory was won by a slim margin. Japan owed the victory much to the help of a great Jewish banker in the USA, Jacob Shiff, who undertook much of the war cost for Japan. In those days there were many persecutions of Jews in Russia, so he wanted Russia to be punished. In addition, the American president, Theodore Roosevelt, mediated between Russia and Japan to end the war and establish peace, so the feeling of the Japanese to the USA in those days was nothing but gratitude and respect.

Change of the American People's Attitude But after the Russo-Japanese war, strange rumors spread in the USA, and many absurd articles appeared in newspapers such as, "Japan will easily take the Philippines, Hawaii and then, all of the Pacific Ocean." It is said that these rumors were set up by a Russian politician, Sergei Vitte. This was one of a series of attempts by the Russians, who lost the war against Japan, to take revenge on Japan, and make Japan out to be an evil of the world, so that the Americans and Europeans may become suspicious of Japan.

So, when the President Theodore Roosevelt commanded the American fleet during a world cruise to visit Japan, many people in the USA and Europe including some military leaders thought that the Japanese would surely attack the American fleet. But contrary to expectations, the Japanese greatly welcomed them, so the American president extolled the country as worthy of special mention

during the cruise.

However, such trust shown by the president was not in the majority. The American government soon began to look upon Japan as an enemy, and made a plan to control and suppress Japan. That was called the "Orange Plan," for they used different colors to distinguish countries, and Japan was colored orange. This was made soon after the Russo-Japanese War, and revised year by year, until finally it contained the plan to bomb the mainland of Japan to sweep away all the culture and the people, which is what really happened in the Pacific War.

It was only about a half year before the war that the Japanese began to think of the USA as their enemy. Until then, the Japanese had trusted the Americans and continued to try to be friendly to them, and never thought that Japan would have to fight a war against them. But the USA began to look upon Japan as their enemy 35 years before the war, as mentioned above, and was preparing to suppress Japan year by year.

Racial Discrimination in the USA

We cannot say this plan to suppress Japan had nothing to do with the fact that racism was strong in the USA in those days. Different from today, colored people were the object of strong prejudice and discrimination. The slavery of black people had been already abolished; however, restaurants, toilets, buses, etc., were segregated between white and colored people. The expulsion of the Chinese immigrants already began in the 1800's, and it later turned especially to the Japanese. Some Americans persecuted the Japanese by jealousy and prejudice, seeing that the Japanese immigrants had succeeded with diligence.

Especially in California, where there were many Japanese immigrants, writings were seen at stations, rest rooms and street corners such as "Japs, go away" or "Kill Japs." Barbers refused the

Japanese to come in, saying, "I don't do haircuts for animals." In addition, real estate agents refused them saying, "If the Japanese live there, the land value would decrease."

And right after the Russo-Japanese War, in 1906, when a big earthquake occurred in San Francisco, there was an expulsion movement of the Japanese, and the Japanese immigrants were attacked and plundered. But Japan, which was subject to frequent earthquakes, presented half a million yen at the time, which would be worth about today's 10 million dollars, to California as an expression of sympathy to recover from the damage of the earthquake. However, not only there was no word of gratitude from California, but also the Japanese pupils could not enter the schoolhouse which was rebuilt with that money, and they were segregated to be educated in a separate hut, although the teachers testified that the Japanese pupils were good students.

Offer for Joint Management of the Manchuria Railroad with the USA

Just after the Russo-Japanese War, an American railroad executive and a great business man, Edward Harriman, visited Japan to talk with Japanese leaders. At the time, as a result of the victory on the Russo-Japanese War, it was already determined that Japan would inherit the rights of Manchuria Railroad. Harriman met the Japanese leaders and suggested, "I will provide for the cost of the Manchuria Railroad. So, let us do a joint management of the railroad together."

Edward Harriman

In those days, railroads had a great meaning to widen territories of a country. If this joint management of the Manchuria Railroad between the USA and Japan was realized, the USA would have got a great opportunity to advance into Manchuria and China without any hard work. Some Japanese leaders who met Harriman felt that it was a good idea. Because Japan did not have enough money for managing the railroad since it was just after spending an enormous amount of money for the war. Besides, the presence of the USA in Manchuria might be good also for Japan to defend against the invasion of Russia. The Japanese leaders promised temporarily that they would soon sign the contract. But the Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura was not in Japan at the time, since he was in the USA. When he came back to Japan, he objected strongly to that idea, saying, "We spent an enormous amount of money and lost hundreds of thousands soldiers in the war. We can't hand the rights over to a foreign country. It is also against the purpose of the peace treaty." Indeed the rights were obtained at great cost to the Japanese, and the USA would inherit the rights without any hard work. In the end, Japan declined the offer, and decided to manage the railroad by itself. But this disappointed many American people very much, and they began to accuse Japan saying, "The Japanese are trying to monopolize Manchuria."

Racial Equality Bill Buried Away

Surely it was a fork in the road of history. Some Japanese historians say that if Japan had accepted the offer and began a joint management with the USA, there would not have been a war between the USA and Japan, because both would have had the same interests. Undoubtedly, if there had been the

joint management, history would have gone a different way. However, this is only an assumption of "What if" and it is not more than an imagination. Today's USA and today's Japan could have done such a joint management, but in those days, the USA had many problems of racism. So, other historians express doubts about if there would truly not have been a war. In 1886, an English ship named the Normanton sank by an accident at sea, Japanese passengers were not saved and were left to drown, when the captain of the ship said to them, "How much will you pay to be saved? Say it. Time is money."

"How much will you pay to be saved? Say it. Time is money."

The USA, too, had the same kind of racist problems. In fact, after World War I, when Japan proposed the Racial Equality Bill at the League of Nations

Commission during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the American president and the chairman of the Conference, Woodrow Wilson, rejected and buried it away, because racial discrimination was strong in the USA and the UK in those days. In fact, Japan was the first in history to propose the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the stage of international politics. When Japan proposed it during discussions on the League of Nations charter, Italy, France and many countries agreed. The American Black Association was also very pleased at the proposal, saying, "All the black people express the maximum respect to Japan." But the UK, which had many colonies in the world, was strongly against it. Australia also strongly disagreed, due to their "White Australia" policy. The conference got into an imbroglio.

Japanese ambassador Nobuaki Makino. He proposed a bill on racial equality

at the League of Nations Commission in 1919.

The voting result was 11 in favor of the bill and 5 against. It seemed that the bill passed. But suddenly the chairman, American President Wilson, said, "It was not unanimous, therefore, the proposal has not passed." Then, the Japanese ambassador Nobuaki Makino stood, pressing the chairman to say, "We have always decided every proposal by majority. Why do you suddenly say this must be unanimous?" But the chairman did not listen to the ambassador and the Japanese proposal was thus buried away. The USA could not permit racial

equality.

Woodrow Wilson is known as the president who insisted on "racial self-determination," which had a great influence on the independence of the nations of Europe, and for this he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. But the "race" he meant was only European races, not Asian or African ones. The colored people were not accepted as a human race. Thus, those days were the age of racial discrimination.

So, if the USA and Japan could have worked together on the Manchuria Railroad, it would have been wonderful; however, it seems that it was difficult for Japan to continue to work with such a country not admitting racial equality. It seems that it was a historical inevitability that these two countries, the United States which is symbolized with stars on the national flag and Japan which is symbolized with the sun, would someday fight against each other.

USA Did Not Realize the Danger of Communism

In 1917, Russia became a communist country and changed its name to the Soviet Union. But its expanding and invasive nature did not change, but rather increased. In fact, the leaders of the Soviet Union considered how to export their communism and make all the world communist countries. The method in their mind was to export wars, and when the countries became weak by the wars, it would be a good opportunity to communize them. That is, the thought was, "if they fight against each other, we would be the one to profit from it."

And they built the "Communist International" to realize the purpose. The head office was located in Moscow, and they began exporting the seeds of war to many countries. In such a time, Japan was the only country in Asia which strongly realized the danger of communism and fought against

communists early on. However, the USA did not realize the danger at all, although some men of good judgment did. For most of the American people it was just an incident of the same white people, and something happening far away, not related immediately to their own lives.

The Japanese understood communism to be the biggest menace to the world, and Japan's consistent policy was to protect Asia from it. For instance, in August, 1917, the USA and Japan, along with the UK, France, China and Italy, sent troops to Siberia to fight against the Bolsheviks, the communists of that area. Japan sent soldiers there because Japan received a request of the countries to do so, and because Japan knew the danger of the communism.

But at the time the USA kept a suspicious eye on the purpose of Japan, which had sent their troops, and besides, the Americans even showed a friendly attitude to the Bolsheviks. Because the Bolsheviks were the people who overthrew an autocracy, and in that sense they looked to the Americans as similar to democratic people. To the eyes of the Americans the Bolsheviks were not as bad as the Japanese who had advanced into Siberia. Thus, in those days the Americans did not realize the danger of communism.

From around that time, Japan had experienced many times the communist lies, deceits and invasions especially in Manchuria and China. For instance, in 1920 there was a mass slaughter of more than 700 Japanese inhabitants who lived in Nikolayevsk, a city near Sakhalin. They were attacked by communists and brutally massacred. And in 1939, the Soviet troops invaded Manchuria, and there was a great battle between the Soviet troops and the Japanese ones. After both armies were greatly damaged, it ended with a cease-fire agreement, but this made Japan realize again the danger of communism.

In the same year in Europe, the Soviet Union absorbed Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and portions of Poland into their territories. The Soviet Union swallowed up these countries with deceits, threats and their military forces. In those days, some American people accused the Soviet Union of being a crafty plunderer, but most of the American public were not interested in the issue, and the American government later considered the Soviet Union as a partner to fight the Pacific War.

Communist Spies Sent to Japan and China

In Asia, Japan was the only country which turned strongly against the communists, while the USA was very slow to realize the danger of communism. And for the Soviet Union, Japan was the biggest impediment to communize Asia. That was why the Soviet Union tried to use the American armed forces to destroy Japan. For that purpose, the Soviet Union sent many secret agents of the Communist International to China, the USA and Japan. Some of their agents were sent to Japan, but the Japanese police strictly discovered and arrested them. It is famous in Japan that a German communist, Richard Sorge, entered Japan and succeeded in sending some secret documents on important Japanese policies to the Soviet Union. The information he sent later contributed to the victory of the Soviet Union against Germany and Japan. Due to the information provided by Sorge, the Soviet Union was able to delay invading Japan until the USA defeated Japan in 1945. Sorge himself was arrested as a spy suspect just before the Pacific War and later executed. The Communist International also sent many agents to China to help Chinese communists and make China a communist country. The Soviet agents worked with the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong in every way, and also around Chiang Kai-shek were many communist agents. Chiang himself

was not a communist but was shrewdly managed by the communists. For the communists, the biggest desire was to drag the USA into the war against Japan, for Japan was the biggest impediment to communizing China, and the only country with the power to destroy Japan was the USA. If they fought against each other, there would be a big opportunity of communizing China. In fact, on July 19, 1935, American ambassador to the Soviet Union, W. Bullitt, informed his country that it was the biggest desire for the Soviet Union to drag the USA into a war against Japan. In order to realize this, the communists used every method to make the USA look upon Japan as the enemy.

The "Tanaka Memorial" Forgery One of the methods which the communists took in China for this purpose was producing a false document called the "Tanaka Memorial." This was an alleged Japanese strategic planning document from 1927, in which Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka laid out for Emperor Hirohito a strategy to take over the world. But it was written in Chinese only, and there was no Japanese original. There were also many mistakes and contradictions on dates and other details, so it was clear that the document was a forgery. However, the translation of this document was widely read in the USA among the senators and congressmen, who believed that this item showed the malicious intention of the Japanese to take over Asia and the world. They did not know that this document was written by Chinese communists. Besides, American newspapers devoted a great space everyday to making Japan out to be the evil of the world, especially the newspapers owned by William Randolf Hearst, a leading newspaper publisher, who was said to be even to “initiate a war

in order to increase sales of his newspapers.” He wrote up every demagogic article and baseless rumor that Japanese were bad and invasive people ready to conquer even the USA. Thus, many of the American newspapers became filled with such articles, and provoked the American public.

Ralph Townsend (1900-1975), American vice-consul

in Shanghai before the Pacific War. He appealed that the USA should have trusted Japan to solve

the problems of China.

People who knew the real state of affairs of Japan and China, such as Ralph Townsend who had been an American vice-consul in Shanghai before the Pacific War for years, and others, often pleaded that the enemy of the USA was not Japan, but the communist internationalists who took control of the American mass media. Townsend appealed that Japan was indeed a good partner to the USA, and the USA should not have intervened in problems of China, but rather the USA should have trusted Japan to solve the problems of China. However, his voice never reached the American public. After Townsend came back to the United States, he continued to appeal to the USA to trust Japan, not to torture Japan. Townsend was a brave man and told the truth, but the American government imprisoned him for a year just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, saying that he had deluded the American public and done anti-American activities.

Looking upon the past, in order to make an excuse to persecute Jews, a forgery was produced in Russia in the name of the "Protocol of the Elders of Zion," which was an alleged plan of the Jews to take over the world, and it was used in many countries to show the malicious intention of the Jews. People who believed it thought that the Jews deserved to be killed. Likewise, the same kind of forgery, named the Tanaka Memorial, was produced to make the Japanese out to be the evil of the world. People such as Ralph Townsend said many times that the Tanaka Memorial was a forgery, but their voice could not stop the spread of this lie, and many of the general public in the Western world believed it. Roosevelt Was Surrounded by 300 Communist Spies The agents who were sent from the Communist International were not only in China, but also in the USA, especially around Franklin Roosevelt, who was the president when the Pacific War began. Surprisingly it is known today that Roosevelt was surrounded by more than 300 communist spies, who were in the Democratic Party he belonged to, the White House, Department of State, Department of the Army, and other government authorities. But in the Republican Party there were almost none.

Franklin Roosevelt. He was surrounded

by more than 300 communist spies.

This fact appeared in 1995-1996 when American professors searched the Russian National Archives the files related to the Communist International, and they found among the documents and the files called "VENONA" the lists of collaborators to the Soviet Union. The lists showed that the American Democratic Party had been filled with communist spies, and President Roosevelt had been making his policies with them.

About this, the husband of a daughter of President Roosevelt, Curtis Dall, exposed the details from inside, writing in his books that President Roosevelt had been a robot of the communist internationalists, and it was all for the Soviet Union that he had driven Japan into the war. Because of these many communist agents inside the US government, American people after the war had to do a great campaign called the Red Scare to purge all the communists from the government.

Hull Note Written by a Soviet Spy One great example of the achievements of the communist spies inside the American government was the "Hull Note," which was the hard ultimatum delivered from President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull to Japan on November 26, 1941. It was the very one which made Japan finally decide to attack Pearl Harbor. The draft of the Hull Note was not really written by Hull himself, but was written by a high official Harry White, who after the war turned out to be a communist spy for the Soviet Union.

Harry White (left) who wrote the Hull Note. He was a Soviet spy.

Before the Hull Note, there had been many diplomatic negotiations for peace between the USA and Japan for months, and Japan was preparing maximum concessions to it, but the content of the Hull Note was to disregard all the past negotiations and it was a sudden rejection of all the Japanese diplomatic efforts. The content was just equal to saying to Japan "You, die!" It was so strict that Japan could never accept it. To accept it would mean the national suicide for Japan. What would the Americans feel if they were told, "The USA must go back to the time it consisted of only 13 states"? The Hull Note delivered to Japan resembled such a proposition.

Concerning this Hull Note, it is famous that Judge Radhabinod Pal from India mentioned after the war at the Tokyo Trial (International Military Tribunal for the Far East): "Even contemporary historians could think that 'as for the present war, the Principality of Monaco, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, would have taken up arms against the United States on receipt of such a note.'"

As a matter of fact, the original draft of the Hull Note, which Hull himself had in mind first, was not such a strict one, but rather a softer one, and if it had been delivered, Japan could have accepted it and made all Japanese troops return. The fleet which was going to Pearl Harbor would have returned. However, when the new draft that Harry White wrote came up, the president liked it and said, "Proceed with this," and the very strict Hull Note was delivered to Japan. Reading it, the Japanese leaders came to realize that their diplomatic efforts over the past few months had all ended in vain, and they concluded that the only way left was to fight against the USA. They chose to die fighting rather than to die sitting. Because the Hull Note was a diplomatic document with great influence, it should have been discussed in the American Congress beforehand, but no senators or congressmen, nor the American public knew about its existence. The Hull Note was delivered secretly to Japan and it was hidden from the American public. Only Roosevelt, Hull and some others, including Harry White who wrote the draft, knew. The senators and congressmen, who later learned of the existence of the Hull Note, became very angry but it was too late because the war had already begun. After the war, it turned out that Harry White was a Soviet spy. Other arrested agents testified that he was a spy, and soon he died a suspicious death after leaving Washington. White was a well trusted man and got a high evaluation in the Roosevelt Government, but he was shrewdly managing the policies of the USA for the Soviet Union. The code name of White as a communist agent was "Jurist," and his activity was called in Moscow the "Snow Operation," due to his name. They were all working to drag the USA into the war against Japan, to destroy Japan which was the enemy of the

communists in Asia, and they succeeded.

Biased Views of President Roosevelt about the Asians

And some causes of the Pacific War were much related to the biased views of President Roosevelt about the Soviet Union, China and Japan. Since President Roosevelt was surrounded by more than 300 communist spies, as mentioned above, the president was much influenced by them and had an indulgent view on the Soviet Union. For instance, he said that if giving the Soviet Union what they want, they would not invade or interfere with the American policies. He was scarcely cautious about communism, and had indulgent illusions of that communist country.

As for the Chinese, President Roosevelt often said, "I always feel familiar with them," because his grandfather earned much money in the opium trade in China and the family became very rich. And even after Chiang Kai-shek killed millions of Chinese fellow countrymen to protect his own interests, President Roosevelt trusted Chiang and applauded him as a great leader of China. In contrast, the president believed that Japan was an evil empire. This was because when he was young, he read a demagogic story similar to the Tanaka Memorial, and strongly believed that the Japanese were bad people with a malicious intention to conquer the world. In fact, he once had a professor of the Smithsonian Museum to study about "why the Japanese are so malicious," and was satisfied to hear his answer: "It is because their skull development is 2000 years behind ours." And in his public speaking the president once compared the Japanese to a virus, and talked about the "extermination of the Japanese." Thus, we can't deny that the Pacific War was much

caused by the biased views of President Roosevelt. Unfortunately he did not realize that the true enemy of the USA was not Japan, but the Soviet Union, and that the USA and Japan should have cooperated with each other to save China. Conflict in China between the USA and Japan The direct cause of the Pacific War was a conflict in China between the USA and Japan. The communists used the conflict to let the USA and Japan fight against each other.

The USA had been widening its territories by going to the west. Firstly, this country obtained their territories of the West as far as California, and then, the "frontier spirit" went farther and crossed the ocean. The USA annexed Hawaii by a military threat to the defenseless and peaceful Hawaiian Kingdom, and later, got the Philippines by a war against Spain.

The Americans justified these territorial acquisitions with their belief in "Manifest Destiny," which was the thought that it was obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny") for the white people to rule the colored and to civilize them, and that the USA was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. It was an ideology to expand to the west more and more.

In the war against the Mexicans, "Remember the Alamo!" was their slogan. And in the war against Spain, it was "Remember the Maine!," which was an American battleship that exploded and sank. The inquiries on the cause of the explosion had many contradictions but the American mass media insisted that the explosion was caused by malicious intention of the Spanish. Thus, the war against Spain began. When the Americans began a war, a convenient incident always happened, and the war always began with the "Remember" slogan.

The next target of the Manifest Destiny was China, because the other Asian countries had already become colonies of European countries. For instance, India, Burma and Malaysia were colonized by the UK. The east part of Indochina (what is today's Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) was a French colony. Indonesia was a Dutch colony. While, in China there were many European and Japanese concessions, and China was becoming a half colony, and was embroiled in a competitive process of being divided and ruled by these countries. The USA tried to enter into such China under such conditions. For this purpose, the USA requested the countries an open-door policy, that is, the USA asked, "Please let me in also." But the countries obtained the rights and interests in China with much expense, so, the USA's request to enter into China without any labor sounded a glib talking to them. It was not easy for the USA to enter into China. And especially since the great stock market panic of 1929, the USA came into a tight bloc economy, which was a closed-door system of foreign trade. The UK also made a bloc economy. They abandoned a free economy and shut the door to the other countries outside the bloc. That is, the USA never opened the door to the others, but continued a persistent request to open the door of China. It was such a perfect double standard policy, and became a cause of the conflict there. Especially the USA thought of Japan to be the most bothersome obstacle for the USA to enter into China.

The USA could have lived even in a closed economy, but Japan, which did not have any natural resources, could not live without foreign trade. Being shut out from the USA and UK economic blocs, Japan suffered greatly. It was not only Japan, but also Germany, Italy and many other countries that did not have natural resources, could not sustain self-sufficient lives and suffered.

Japan was compelled to make their own economic

bloc in East Asia, but the USA, which had abundant resources for their own, did not allow Japan to do it, and tried to add more and more to what they had. Germany and Italy also were compelled to make their own economic blocs.

Many Americans were taught that World War II had been of "democracy vs. fascism"; however, this was wrong because it was actually of "the haves vs. the have-nots." The war occurred because "the countries which did have" tormented "the countries which did not have." Nine years before World War II, a Japanese scholar and pacifist Kamekichi Takahashi realized this and wrote a thesis about how World War II would occur. After the war, the American occupation forces removed him from public office because his thesis had hit the nail on the head.

Manchukuo, a New State in Manchuria

Manchuria and China were very important for Japan to establish a self-sufficient economic bloc for Asia.

Let me explain about Manchuria first. Manchuria was not China because it is outside the Great Wall, and had never been a part of China in all its history. And through the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan obtained the rights of the Manchuria Railroad, so, it was Japan's right and duty to modernize the land. Manchuria was not a sovereign state which had a government, laws and administrative offices. To modernize the region, Japan firstly cooperated with Zhang Xueliang, warlord and substantial ruler of Manchuria. But Zhang was a former bandit and exacted taxes very heavily from the inhabitants. Besides this, he broke the contract which had been concluded with Japan, and he obstructed the Manchuria Railroad. So, the Japanese army expelled him and his influence, an action which the inhabitants applauded and rejoiced in because they were released from the severe taxation.

Considering that Japan was thus occupying Manchuria, the Western world did not understand the situation and accused Japan. But if the USA was placed in the same situation as Japan, I believe the USA would have done the same. Due to the criticism of the Western world about the Japanese occupation, Japan had to withdraw from the League of Nations, but Sir Reginald Johnston, tutor of the last emperor Puyi of the Qing Dynasty, who knew well about the complex state of affairs of Manchuria, criticized the Western world which did not understand Manchuria and the act of Japan.

In Manchuria, Japan built a new state called Manchukuo (meaning State of Manchuria), but since the purpose of Japan was not to own the land, Japan asked the last emperor Puyi to become the emperor of Manchukuo, for he was a Manchurian and it was his homeland. Japan began cooperating with Puyi to modernize Manchukuo, making the government, laws, administrative offices, industries, schools, hospitals, etc.. It developed amazingly, and more than one million immigrants from various outside nations flowed into Manchukuo every year, desiring to work there. It was such a land of fascination, or a utopia, compared with the surrounding lands of Asia which was full of civil wars, famine and poverty.

Capital of Manchukuo, land of racial equality. More than one million immigrants

flowed into the country every year.

The Manchurians, Chinese, Mongolians, Koreans and Japanese cooperated with each other to make it a modernized country. And many Russians, who disliked communism and escaped from the Soviet Union, also worked there. The waitresses working in deluxe dining cars of the Manchuria Railroad were Russian ladies. Europeans and Americans could work there. Jews also could live there safely. An American vice-consul in Shanghai, Ralph Townsend, once traveled in Manchukuo and wrote that there he met American business men, who all said, "I really appreciate Japan, since Japan expelled all the bandits from Manchuria and made this land safe for us and safe for business." Thus, Manchukuo was a county of racial equality and of great development. If the country still existed today, it would have become a powerful country and become like the United States of America in Asia. In Manchukuo, Japan never shut the economic door to the USA. Townsend reported that he saw many kinds of American merchandise were sold in stores of Manchukuo, including American tobacco, etc.. He also wrote that Manchukuo and Japan were among the biggest importing countries of American merchandise, and he wrote it was a vicious lie that the American mass media reported that Japan had shut the USA out. Japan could have cooperated with the USA to develop Manchukuo if the USA wanted to and if there had been no anti-Japanese movement in the USA. And it would have benefited all the USA, Japan, Manchukuo and Asia. But history did not go that way.

China, Land of Civil Wars

Next, in what state was China? Many people think that the Japanese military forces went into "peaceful China" and began a war there. But it was not so. China in those days was a land of civil wars, famines and starvation. China did not have any established government, but was fragmented by many warlords. Each warlord professed himself a

true government and fought against the other. The victims were farmers who made up most of the Chinese population. The number of war victims often reached several millions, and sometimes more than 10 millions. Farming and environment were destroyed because of the civil wars, and it caused famines and added a similar number of other victims. It is famous that even human meat was sold in Chinese markets in those days. Thus, China was a land of confusion, disorder, civil wars and death.

The Japanese, living next to China, could not sit idly by and watch this miserable state of affairs. If we compare it to a row house, China was like a family living next to us and having many children. But the husband and wife quarrel each other every day, throwing things and sometimes the things break our windows and come into our rooms. Besides this, they do not work and have no income, so some children starved to death. In this state of affairs, we can't sit idly by and watch it, but want to do something for the family.

And moreover, there was another reason that the Japanese could not sit idly by. It was the invasive nature of the Soviet Union (Russia). If the Soviet Union rules the land, the next target will surely be Japan. Japan will become isolated islands and become like a man with his neck fastened by a rope, losing the power to reject it.

The exploiting nature of European countries was also a Japanese concern. The UK once sold opium to the Chinese and when they tried to reject it, the UK fought the Opium Wars against China and forced them to buy. The Japanese saw that the Chinese people all behaved as servants to the Europeans. The European countries exploited Asian countries only for their own selfish purpose, siphoning off Asian resources, and did not do anything good for the Asians.

So, what the Japanese desired was that China would be taken back into the hands of the Chinese people, and become a strong independent country which could reject the rules of the Soviet Union and of the European countries, and then, cooperating with Japan and other Asian countries, make a prosperous great Asia (East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere) together. For this purpose, Japan accepted many Chinese students to study in Japan. The peak was in 1906 and the number of the students reached 20-30 thousands. After they came back to China, they all became leaders of new China. The Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen, who is often referred to as the Father of Modern China, also studied in Japan. He once succeeded to make a republican government in China, but it had a weak basis, and soon the government was taken over by others and failed.

Sun Yat-sen. He learned in Japan and once succeeded to make a republican government in China, but soon failed.

Anti-Japanese Propaganda by the Americans in China

China became a land of confusion again. Since around that time, anti-Japanese propaganda had

been spread by the Americans who were in China. In fact, the Japanese government wrote in the national defense white paper in 1923, "The USA built many institutions in China with a malicious anti-Japanese propaganda, and is threatening the Japanese presence in China." At the background of this, there was a biased view and romantic illusion of the Americans about China. The illusion was strengthened by the Nobel Prize-winning literature "The Good Earth" written by Pearl Buck, which depicted indomitable Chinese people. And James Hilton wrote his fantasy "Lost Horizon" which popularized the mythical Shangri-La, alleged utopia in the interior of China, and the fantasy was also made into a movie and recorded a breaking hit. In addition, Henry Luce, founder of "Time" and "Life" magazines, devoted himself to the spread of views which were pro-China and anti-Japan. They drew an image of a "beautiful China"; however, they never wrote about a dark side of China, such things as the case one of Sun Yat-sen's secretaries, who became a Christian evangelist and was trusted by American missionaries, but later, when he was deluded by nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek, changed to the contrary and alas, on Christmas in 1926 in the city of Hankou he betrayed his former brethren and began an extermination movement against Christianity. The deluded crowds attacked the city and almost all foreigners had to escape to Shanghai. And in the city of Fuzhou a pious female missionary, who did not have any children, seeing with compassion a Chinese orphaned boy who was formerly treated as a slave, took charge of him with love. She raised him expecting that he would be a servant of God. But later, when the anti-foreign movement began, the boy disappeared somewhere. Later, during some unrest in the city, she finally decided to escape, when hoodlums appeared at the gate of her house. Alas, one of them was that boy, and he was the one who took the lead in

plundering. Ralph Townsend reported these and many other things, and he wrote in his book that the Chinese did not know any obligation to kindness. He even often heard that Chinese orphaned children, who had been brought up by missionaries with love, said here and there, "My mother's property will soon be mine." This kind of things was not unusual in China, but China was filled with such things. The Japanese also often experienced the same kind of things in China. But the American newspapers and novels never wrote of such a dark aspect of the Chinese. The missionaries also did not talk about these aspects, fearing to lose financial support for their work. On this wrong view about the Chinese, the Americans continued their biased pro-Chinese attitudes, and spread anti-Japanese propaganda, believing that Japan was an evil empire to rule China, as written in the Tanaka Memorial forgery. And the Americans tried to make the Chinese more and more anti-Japanese to drive the Japanese out and to monopolize China. How much the Japanese had to be patient with such a hardship in China! Chiang Kai-shek's Change of Mind After the republican government of Sun Yat-sen failed, China became a land of civil war again, and by far the biggest was the conflict between the communists led by Mao Zedong and the nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek. At first, the troops of Mao Zedong were defeated by Chiang Kai-shek, and were on the verge of annihilation. But an incident happened as follows, and it changed history.

Chiang Kai-shek was caught by communists during a careless moment in Xi'an in 1936, and was taken to Mao Zedong, who really wanted to kill him. But before killing Chiang, Mao asked Moscow what to do. The answer was, "Do not kill him. Force him to fight against Japan." Mao followed this order and

said to Chiang, "I will save your life if you fight against the Japanese military forces!" Chiang accepted it and then on, he was always being watched by the communists who had infiltrated his troops.

Mao Zedong (left) and Chiang Kai-shek (right). This photo was taken in 1945. Chiang's change

of mind drove Japan to the war.

By Chiang's change of mind, Japan was dragged into the Chinese civil war, for Chiang's soldiers began attacking the Japanese people to provoke them to war. There were many cases where Chinese soldiers attacked Japanese places of residence and brutally murdered more than 200 Japanese and some Korean inhabitants in a gruesome "Chinese manner," like piercing a woman with a stick from crotch to head, or gouging out a man's eyes. As soon as the news ran all over Japan, deep sorrow and rage filled the whole Japanese Archipelago. There occurred many cases like this, but American newspapers did not report even one case or even one paragraph. The Japanese kept patient about them. But on one night in 1937 at the Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao) near Beijing, where a Japanese garrison was

stationed according to the treaty between China and Japan, Chinese soldiers fired their guns and there was a small battle between the Chinese and the Japanese.

Japanese soldiers on Marco Polo Bridge in China. The shots of the communists were the

beginning of the Sino-Japanese War.

As a matter of fact, the first bullets were shot by communists, because the communist leader Liu Shaoqi later proudly told that it was his maneuvering. The Japanese tried to treat it as a local issue, but on the day after the incident, the Communist Party of Mao Zedong said that the Nationalist Party of Chiang Kai-shek should have begun the war against Japan. And the Communist International ordered Mao Zedong to lead it to a full-scale war, and kill those trying to solve it locally.

And soon after that, Chinese soldiers in civilian clothing began to attack the Japanese in Shanghai. And Chinese bombers bombed the Japanese Consulate General, the city streets, ships, battleships, and even other countries' institutions to make a pretense that the Japanese did it. The Japanese did not want to fight. However, the Chinese wanted to fight, and a full-scale war began between the two at last.

The Pacific War: part 2

The Pacific War and the Basis of Racial Equality

The War Made the Basis of Racial EqualityThe Truth About the Sino-Japanese War

and the Following US-Japan War.

Arimasa Kubo (Japanese non-fiction writer)

Your browser does not correspond to iLine Frame. The following is the text displayed.

Japanese soldiers playing with Chinese children (1937).

The Japanese troops had a good relationship with Chinese civilians.

Continued from the former page(The Pacific War: part 1 ? The USA Mistook the

True Enemy)

War Began between China and Japan After the battle occurred between the Chinese and the Japanese in Shanghai in 1937, there was in Japan a violent argument between those who thought Japan should have entered China to punish the Chinese, and those who thought Japan should not have done so. The argument lasted a long time but at last, the former argument prevailed. In this way, Japan ran out of patience and was compelled to enter China to fight against the Chinese troops. The war thus began. But Japan fell right into the communist trap, so the communists laughed and said: "While Japan is fighting against the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek, we communists will be able to rebuild our troops. Japan will weaken the Nationalists. And then, the USA, which is angry about the Japanese existence in China, will destroy Japan. That will be the opportunity for us to communize China." In fact, it is famous that after the Pacific War, when China had become a communist country, Mao-Zedong once told a group of visiting Japanese politicians, "We could communize China because Japan had invaded it. We owe the victory to you," and he ironically appreciated Japan.

I could say that it was a mistake for the Japanese troops to enter China crossing the Great Wall and fighting a war against the Chinese troops. Japan should not have entered the country despite enduring one provocation after another, if possible. And if the Japanese military forces had not entered China, there would have been no way to make the USA angry. But even if it made the USA angry, it might be said that there was a legitimate obligation for Japan to stop the Chinese civil war and establish peace there.

Now that Japan had entered, the Japanese began to try to end the Chinese civil war, and help to build a

modernized government of the Chinese, by the Chinese and for the Chinese. It was not an invasion, but a moral intervention to save China. In fact, Japan never desired to incorporate any land of China into Japan's territory, nor to own China, but Japan declared its intention to preserve the territorial and cultural integrity of China for the Chinese people. Japan could not leave its neighbor China in disorder and darkness. Japan started to wipe out the cause of the disorder, and to build there a new government which was not a communist one. And Japan hoped to cooperate with the new Chinese government to build a prosperous Asia together.

Japanese soldiers celebrating the New Year of 1938,

which was already during the war,

with Chinese adults and children.

Japanese soldiers cherishing a Chinese child (1938)

Those whom the Japanese troops fought against were mainly the soldiers of Chiang Kai-shek. The troops of Mao Zedong hid themselves in an interior mountainous area and were rebuilding their war potential. The Japanese always won the battles, and the Chinese were defeated. Thus the Japanese troops pressed the Chiang troops. When the Japanese soldiers were fighting against the Chinese, the Japanese were often surprised and shed tears to see the abnormal state of the Chinese troops, because the Chinese troops had a peculiar practice which the American troops or the Japanese troops never had. That was, at the back of the Chinese troops there were "fight-demand" Chinese soldiers who shot and killed any of their fellow Chinese soldiers who would try to escape from the

battlefield. Thus, the Chinese were killing the Chinese, and this was a traditional style of Chinese fighting. Concerning the number of the victims, a historian from Taiwan, Huang Wenxiong, writes it seems that the Chinese soldiers who were killed by the fight-demand units were more than those who were killed by the Japanese troops. On the other hand, the Japanese troops had a feature which the Chinese never had. After every battle, the Japanese built monuments to honor the dead, one for the Japanese souls, and one for the Chinese souls. They had a memorial service both for their fellow countrymen and their enemies. This was because while the Japanese had to fight against the Chinese soldiers of Chiang and Mao, they did not hate the Chinese. They prayed for the consolation on the souls of the dead Chinese soldiers.

Japanese soldiers having a memorial service for the dead Chinese soldiers in front of the monument on

which was written"The Tomb of the Unknown Chinese Soldiers."

(1938)

The So-called "Nanking Massacre," False Propaganda

Chiang Kai-shek was living in the city of Nanking. "When Nanking is occupied, the war will be over" was the thought every Japanese soldier had. But in December, 1937, before the Japanese troops attacked the city Nanking, Chiang escaped from Nanking to an interior mountainous area, entrusting the defense of Nanking to his subordinate general. However, when the Japanese attack became violent, shamefully this general also escaped. And the Chinese soldiers had to fight without their leader. After violent battles, the Japanese occupied Nanking at last. Concerning this Nanking occupation, in Europe and the USA this was called the "Nanking Massacre," in which it is said that the Japanese troops slaughtered about 300,000 citizens. But it is wrong and was a false propaganda made by Chinese Nationalists and later spread by Communists. We know this because on the day when the Japanese troops entered Nanking on Dec. 13, 1937, more than 100 press reporters and photographers entered there together with them. The press men were not only from Japan, but also many other European and American press organizations, including Reuters and AP. But nobody reported the massacre. If you think I am lying, you can read the newspapers of those days in the library.

The population of Nanking just before the Japanese occupation was about 200,000. How can the Japanese kill 300,000 citizens in a city that consisted of 200,000 people? And one month after the occupation many Nanking citizens, who had escaped the city, came back to Nanking, learning that peace had returned, and the population

increased to about 250,000, for there is a record that the Japanese troops distributed food to that number of citizens. Would the citizens have come back to a city in which there had been a massacre? Never!

In those days, a major Japanese newspaper Asahi Shinbun reported about Nanking with many photos. We can see them in libraries. For instance, five days after the occupation, the newspaper placed the photos and reported about the peaceful scenes of Nanking. In one photo, some Japanese soldiers are buying something from a Chinese without carrying their guns.

From the Japanese newspaper reporting the scenes of Nanking five days after the Japanese occupation:(Right) Japanese soldiers buying from a Chinese;

(center top) Chinese farmers who returned to Nanking cultivating their fields;

(center bottom) Chinese citizens returning to Nanking;

(left) Street barbershop

In another photo, Chinese farmers who returned to Nanking are cultivating their fields. In the other photos, many Chinese citizens are returning to Nanking carrying bags in a crowd, some citizens

have a street barbershop and the Chinese adults and children around it are all smiling, wearing armbands of the flag of Japan. The articles of other dates are all similar and reporting that peaceful Chinese lives returned to Nanking.

I read lots of testimonies of the Japanese soldiers who had participated in the Nanking operation. But nobody testified that there was a mass slaughter. Some testimonies referred to executions of the Chinese soldiers who had killed Chinese citizens, took their civilian clothes and entered the Nanking Safety Zone pretending to be citizens. They did this because if the soldiers had tried to escape from the battlefield, they would have been killed by the Chinese "fight-demand" unit, so, they tried to pose as citizens. But such soldiers were dangerous, and the international law says they are not to be treated as prisoners and could be executed. Some did get executed, but this was not a massacre of civilians.

While the Japanese troops were attacking Nanking, the citizens inside Nanking had all gathered in the Safety Zone. The Japanese troops knew about the district and did not attack it, so, the citizens inside were all safe. The citizens were not only Chinese, but also some foreigners. After the occupation of Nanking, the leader of the Safety Zone, who was a European, handed a letter of thanks to the Japanese army commander, saying, "Thanks to you, we could stay here without one fire and without one plunder, and the inhabitants were all safe."

Recently, a Chinese American Iris Chang wrote her book entitled "The Rape of Nanking," which told about the brutal massacre by the Japanese in Nanking, which became a bestseller in the USA and spread the lie to the Americans. But later, her book was much criticized by many other books, which pointed out that what she had written and the photos in her book were not related to the so-called Nanking Massacre. She killed herself at the end of 2004 by pistol. The London Economist magazine wrote that she had committed suicide perhaps

because her book was much criticized and she was deeply depressed about it.

The Japanese newspaper reporting the scenes of Nanking eight days after the Japanese occupation,

in an article entitled "Kindness to Yesterday's Enemy":

(Right top) Chinese soldiers under medical treatment;

(left top) Chinese soldiers receiving food from a Japanese;

(center) Japanese soldiers buying at a Chinese shop;

(right bottom) Chief Yamada talking with a Chinese leader---

(left bottom) Chinese citizens relaxing in Nanking city

The commander of the Japanese troops in the Nanking operation was Iwane Matsui. According to his attendant Mr. Okada, during the battle, a baby's cry was heard from a site of fire. Commander Matsui ordered Okada to go find the baby. Matsui

took the baby up in his arms, gave a bath and milk to nourish the baby. When entering Nanking, Okada was holding the baby on his back.

In Japanese history, there is no culture of slaughtering citizens during war. But it is rather a tradition in Chinese culture, for in Chinese chronicles are many reports about slaughtering citizens who live inside castle walls. But the Japanese citizens live outside castle walls, and only the Samurai soldiers fought against each other. Slaughtering citizens was not Japanese culture, but Chinese.(You can see more corroborating photos that the "Nanking Massacre" was a fabrication here)

Chiang Kai-shek Killed Millions of Chinese People

After the occupation of Nanking, the Japanese troops pursued Chiang Kai-shek. But in 1938, for the purpose of blocking the Japanese advancing path, Chiang ordered his troops to blow up an embankment of the Yellow River to collapse it, knowing many Chinese farmers around the river would be killed by that. At the time there was also a heavy rain, and it became a very tragic incident that the water covered 11 cities and about 4,000 villages, killing about 1 million Chinese people. Besides, another 6 million people also died because the course of the Yellow River was changed by this artificial disaster, and around the river occurred a terrible famine. Moreover, Chiang troops began to plunder in the stricken area, being troubled with a lack of food. By this disaster, no Japanese soldiers died, but only the Chinese people were killed. Being surprised to see this tragic incident, the Japanese troops began to help those still alive, gave them medical treatment, took preventive measures against

communicable diseases, and rebuilt the embankment. Thus, while Chiang's troops were killing the Chinese people, the Japanese troops were saving the Chinese. Chiang also started to spread propaganda that this disaster was caused by the Japanese, but later, the foreign press found out it was Chiang's lie. Besides, Chiang stated he was pleased to have blocked the Japanese advance for half a year. In his mind he had no concern for Chinese compatriots. Alas, what was his war for? Chiang Kai-shek whom the USA supported was such a man. The common practice of Chiang's troops, as well as of Mao Zedong's troops, were plundering everywhere they went, and destroying roads, factories, watering facilities, etc., not to leave any of them for the Japanese. So, the Chinese economy was greatly damaged by them, and farming and industries were destroyed here and there. The most miserable were farmers who comprised most of the Chinese population. In contrast, the Japanese troops, who came there, struggled to save the farmers from the very beginning and rebuilt the Chinese economy. The big battles between the Chinese troops and the Japanese ones ended after about one year and a half, and the Japanese occupied about 40 % of the Chinese population and 54 % of the arable land. The Japanese immediately began to rebuild the farming, roads, factories, watering facilities, etc. That surprised the Chinese farmers because it was the first time they had ever seen such saving military forces. The true People's Liberation Army was the Japanese army, not the Chinese one. That is why there still are aged Chinese people who speak well of the Japanese of those days, even under today's anti-Japanese policies of the Chinese government. Already in 1938, the Japanese government spoke

about the recovery plan of Chinese agriculture, and carried it out. And as a result, farming in the areas which the Japanese occupied made a rapid recovery and progress, as well as light and heavy industries. Japan spent a large amount of money of about 4.7 billion yen in total during 1938-1945 at a time when the Japanese national yearly budget was 2 billion yen. This was not spent for the war, but to save the Chinese. The Pope Supported the Action of Japan In October 1937, which was the year of the start of the Sino-Japanese War, Pope Pius XI, who was known to be a pacifist, said that the action of the Japanese troops was understandable, and the Pope appealed to all the Catholic believers to cooperate with the Japanese troops, saying: "The action of the Japanese troops was not to invade, but to protect China. They are fighting to get rid of communism there. As long as communism is in the world, all Catholic believers should cooperate with Japan without hesitation."

Pope Pius XI. He supported the action of Japan in China.

The Pope's speech was reported in Japanese newspapers in those days, and welcomed as the words of a man of great judgment who knew well about the complex situation of China. How pleased the Japanese were! But the Pope died in 1939 and

his influence was limited. It seems that the Pope's voice was not heard by the American people. After Japan occupied about half of the land of China, Japan made a new government in Nanking, and entrusted the rule of the land to Wang Jingwei, who once was the No. 2 of the Nationalist Party and used to work with Chiang Kai-shek. He parted from Chiang, and decided to work with Japan, thinking that it was the best way for the future of China. The cooperation of Japan with Wang was to help to make China a modernized country of the Chinese, for the Chinese and by the Chinese. Wang enacted good policies and the Chinese people's lives improved. When his government could become one that could stand by itself, Japan would have fully entrusted the rule to it. Meanwhile, in the areas under Chiang Kai-shek's rule, the lives of the Chinese inhabitants were miserable. Chiang did not think about the lives of the people, he was not interested in it, but only plundered them. It is well-known that the aid supplies of the USA reached the soldiers of Chiang, but never reached the inhabitants. There was a large difference like heaven and earth between life under Chiang's troops and life under the Japanese troops.

I believe it was against the national interests of the USA that the USA was hostile to this Japan. What evil thing did Japan do to the USA? Japan was only trying to save China. History of Those Who Deceive and Those Who are Deceived It is said that the Chinese chronicles were the history of those who deceived and of those who were deceived. Chiang tried to deceive the USA to get the support for his troops, and to make Japan out to be evil. Since around that time, the American magazines and newspapers became full of false propaganda fabricated by the Chinese.

For instance, Life magazine once carried a large photo, taken by a Chinese American photographer, of a baby who was sitting and crying alone in the debris of a station in Shanghai city just after the attack of Japanese bombers (photo below left). That sad sight caused a big reaction of the Americans that the Japanese were cruel invaders against the poor Chinese people. But the photo was a prearranged performance, because there was another photo of the same scene, and in the photo an adult man is setting up the child at the scene (photo below right). Besides, the scene was also taken in a movie, in which the man is running to the scene holding the baby.

The left photo gave rise to an anti-Japanese atmosphere,

but it was staged photograph taken by a Chinese photographer.

And many other staged photos were also used to increase anti-Japanese feeling among the Americans. In one photo, a man in the uniform of Japanese soldier holds a sword in one hand and is about to swing it down to cut off the head of an American tied with a rope, sitting and blindfolded. But the Japanese way to swing down a sword is not with one hand, but with both hands. Swinging down the sword with one hand is the Chinese way. The man's method of swinging it down in the photo is really Chinese. But this was enough to deceive the American public. And in a movie, two men who wear Japanese clothing and look like Japanese are playing a game of catch with an alleged Chinese baby as if the baby is a ball, and received the baby with a bayonet piercing it. This kind of insulting action to enemy people was widely seen in the Chinese history but never was in Japan. In Chinese chronicles, we see many descriptions of piercing an enemy child, but the Japanese never have had such an idea. It is a Chinese practice, not a Japanese one. But the magazines and newspapers in the USA were filled with such articles and photos like a flood due to the plot of the Chinese. Japan was winning the battles in China against Chiang's and Mao's troops, but in the USA, Japan was indeed losing in the information war. Even when the diplomats who knew the situation of China very well strongly appealed that Chiang Kai-shek was only a selfish fascist, their voices never reached the American public. The American mass media promoted the idea that Chiang was the hope of Chinese democracy, and the Japanese were evil ones conspiring to conquer Asia for their own. Most of the American public believed it and thus, public opinion was being manipulated.

Chinese Pseudo-Christians

It was well-known among the American missionaries in China that the Chinese in those days too quickly became "Christians" when they knew it would be to their advantage. For example, when Chinese military leader Fen Yuxiang once recognized it was useful to be called Christian, he made all his soldiers march in rows and had them baptized in water sprayed by fire engines. But then on, he often committed fraud, threatened, and did everything in an un-Christlike manner, so, the missionaries were finally compelled to part from him.

One of the American missionaries Rev. Diamond was a respected missionary leader working for the Chinese without sparing himself. But he left China two years after his work there, being disgusted with Chinese lies. In his latter years, he was asked, "How many became Christians in China?" and he dropped his shoulders and said, "There were many who were nominal, but none genuine."

Chiang Kai-shek was one of these hastily made Christians or pseudo-Christians. The American public trusted him hearing he was a Christian, but at the same time, the nationalists under him in China were murdering the missionaries, plundering them and burning their missionary schools. Meanwhile, Chiang's wife, who was fluent in English, told tearjerker stories, describing the difficulties of China when canvassing at various places in the USA, and gathered an enormous amount of financial aid for Chiang Kai-shek.

But if the USA had understood the real situation of China and had not supported the fascist Chiang Kai-shek, Japan would have opened the Chinese market to the USA, since the USA was for Japan a mentor of modernization, and it would have brought great benefit to both countries. And if the USA had not failed to recognize the true enemy, history would have gone a different way.

China would not have become a communist country, and there would have been no war between the USA and Japan. There would not have been any chance of many Americans being killed in the war. The Chinese leader working with Japan, Wang Jingwei, said when he heard the war had begun between the USA and Japan: "What a terrible mistake! The USA and Japan must not fight against each other. Both should join their forces together and fight in cooperation against the Soviet Union." But the USA was facing a different direction, and the USA thought of Japan as evil and an enemy against the USA to get access to the great market of China. For the purpose of destroying the Japanese troops in China, the USA reinforced the support for Chiang Kai-shek. From 1937, Japan made a peace proposal at least ten times to Chiang Kai-shek, and suggested they build a modernized country together. But Chiang always refused, because if he did so, he would have been killed by Mao Zedong and the communists who were hiding amongst his troops. Wang Jingwei and his wife, who were true Chinese patriots, once parted from the communists at the risk of their lives, however, Chiang did not have such a mind. And if he accepted the Japanese proposal, he would have lost the enormous aid from the USA. The USA was indeed a source of great revenue for Chiang Kai-shek. And if the USA would enter into the war against Japan as he wished, the USA would defeat Japan and he would get all China without any hard work of his. Chiang had such mind and with this reason, he refused all the peace proposals of Japan. It is well-known that Chiang jumped for joy in 1941 when he heard the war had begun between the USA and Japan as the day his dreams had come true. It is natural, therefore, that the peace proposals with such a man were always in vain.

First Shot Must be From Japan

Franklin Roosevelt was elected as the president of the USA telling the American public, "I will never send your sons to the battlefield." But in August, 1941, on the new and strongest English battleship HMS Prince of Wales, which was said to be "unsinkable," there was a conference between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the UK, and Roosevelt talked about how the USA could join the war against Germany to save the UK and Europe. The method was to provoke Japan and make Japan attack the USA. Since Japan is an ally of Germany, the war against Japan will be automatically the one against Germany. Thus, the USA could join the war. In those days, most of American public thought the USA should not be involved in the war in Europe nor in China, thinking that the problems were of their own making. How could the president change the public opinion and lead them to the war? The USA is a country of "the duel," as we see in cowboy movies. If the opponent draws his gun first, he would deserve to be killed by a quick shot or a counterattack. According to the testimony of the US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, President Roosevelt had a secret meeting on Nov. 25, 1941, with leaders of the government, Stimson, Hull, Knox and Stark, and in that meeting the president mentioned the possibility of making Japan shoot the first bullet. However, since there would be some danger, it was advisable to drive the Japanese to shoot the first bullet for the purpose of obtaining the full support of the American public for the war. The president, following that plan, put an embargo on the export of iron, tin, and every other natural resource as well as food to Japan, in cooperation with the UK and Holland. And he froze all Japanese assets in the USA and finally put an embargo on the export of all petroleum to Japan. Japan did not have

any petroleum and without importing it, all factories, cars, ships, etc. would stop. The USA thus fastened the neck of Japan and tightened it. Besides, the president reinforced the support for Chiang Kai-shek in China to make Japan suffer more. All were for driving Japan to shoot the first bullet. According to the international law, supporting a belligerent nation and putting an embargo of necessities for one's existence are both considered to be an act of war. So, the USA had already participated in the act of war against Japan. Many Americans were taught that the Japanese had begun the Pacific War by a sudden attack on Pearl Harbor, but even before that time, the USA had already been fighting the war. Since the USA supported Chiang Kai-shek and gave him every weapon, it was only natural that Japan would someday attack the USA as a belligerent nation. If someone had fastened his hands around your neck, wouldn't you try to hit him in his face, exerting all your last strength before you die? Japan was fastened around its neck before hitting the face of the USA. But Japan was very patient until the last. On the one hand, Japan had to prepare for the war against the USA though, on the other hand, Japan was expecting to the very end that problems would be solved by diplomatic negotiations, which were later valued as sincere by historians another generation.

After months of negotiations, what the USA handed the Japanese ambassador at last was one disregarding all the past negotiations. This was the terrible ultimatum called the Hull Note, which was written by a communist spy in the Roosevelt Government, as mentioned in The Pacific War: Part 1. It was equal to saying, "You, die!" to Japan. To accept it meant national suicide for Japan. So, Japan chose to die fighting rather than to die sitting. Hideki Tojo's Tears

The Prime Minister of Japan when the US-Japan War began was Hideki Tojo. He was loyal to Emperor Hirohito, who desired peace. Tojo was appointed to the post of the prime minister with the emperor's words, "Avoid war with every effort of yours." Tojo followed the order. He had such great power on the Japanese Army that he was expected to oppress the Army. But when Tojo read the Hull Note, he was deeply disappointed and felt dizzy at it. He then knew that the diplomatic negotiations all had failed, and the only way left for Japan was to fight against the USA.

Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo at the Tokyo Trial (1945). During the war he

let his men save several tens of thousands Jews in China. He was sentenced to death

at the Trial as a Class A criminal but for the Jews saved, he was a Class A great man.

According to the testimony of Hideki Tojo's wife, Katsuko, in the morning of the day before the beginning of the war, she and her daughters were awakened by a cry which was heard from the next room. They quietly peeped through an opening of a door. It was Tojo himself crying alone near a window, sitting properly in Japanese fashion and facing the direction of the Imperial Palace. The tears were tears for sorrow, for he felt very sorry he could

not realize the peace which the emperor wanted, and he thought of the coming catastrophe. It was not a figure of an invader, but of a man in great agony. The war began with the Japanese attack on the US navy base of Pearl Harbor, which was an important foothold for the USA to advance into Asia. The Japanese pilots carefully attacked battleships and military facilities only, and left the city streets nearby unhurt. President Roosevelt had known that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor in advance, because the USA already succeeded in intercepting Japanese ciphers and they interpreted the ciphers regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor. And the American navy caught the existence of the Japanese fleet heading for Hawaii days before. But the president did not inform the commanders of the base of Pearl Harbor, and later the commanders, Admiral Kimmel and General Short, were fired after being accused of neglect of duty, and they were expelled from the navy and finally they passed away in disappointment. However, in 2000 the US congress resolved to recover the honor of the two, because the defeat at Pearl Harbor was due to the American government who had known the Japanese attack in advance but had not informed it to the commanders. But at the time they had already passed away. They were used and thrown away, and after their death their honor was restored. When President Roosevelt had just heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he showed breathing a sigh of relief, said one of his staff. It was the day when his wish of years had come true. But once he sat in front of a radio microphone, he hid his feeling and blamed Japan violently, not referring to the attack information known in advance at all, calling it a "sneak attack," and he spoke to the American public, "Remember Pearl Harbor!" Thus,

the president succeeded to stir up the American people to go to war. For Japan, the war against the USA also meant being at war against their ally, the UK. And three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese combat planes sank the English battleship HMS Prince of Wales, called "unsinkable," where Roosevelt and Churchill once talked about driving Japan to shoot the first bullet. The Truth about the Bataan Death March After that, the Japanese troops occupied the Philippines. But just before the occupation, Douglas MacArthur saw the war was not going in his favor and he left the Philippines entrusting the defense to his men. It was natural that the troops without the leader could not have won the battle. They soon all surrendered, and only 30 thousand Japanese soldiers had to treat about 100 thousand American prisoners of war. Such a large number of prisoners were unprecedented. How hard it was! Concerning this, it is often told among the Americans that the Japanese treated the American prisoners cruelly at the so-called "Bataan Death March." But the Americans have never experienced the capture of 100 thousand prisoners before, for the USA in the Pacific War was not willing to take war prisoners. According to the writings of famous American aviator Charles Lindburgh who observed American troops, killing enemy soldiers was thought to be better than taking prisoners, and they killed as many as they could, so as not to take prisoners. But the Japanese tried to observe the international law which ruled the protection of prisoners. The Japanese troops had never experienced such a large number of prisoners. Besides, it was in a foodless jungle, and they had to take the prisoners to a place more than 60 kilometers away. There were no trucks to carry all of them. Most of them had to walk in a very tired condition under the

tropical sun without food and water. The Japanese soldiers walked with them. There were Japanese soldiers who gave their own water and food to American soldiers who were weakening. But due to tiredness and malaria, many of both the American and Japanese soldiers died before reaching the destination. After the war, the Japanese commander Masaharu Honma was executed by the Americans being blamed for the "Bataan Death March." But how can we blame him and his troops? If the Americans were placed in the situation of the Japanese with similar conditions, the same thing would have happened. The Americans and the Japanese were both victims of the war. The execution was only a lynching, not justice. War to Take Back Asia for Asian People

Now that Japan was compelled to enter into the war, the Japanese recognized the purpose of the war was not only to protect Japan, but also to liberate Asian countries from the bondage of the Europeans and Americans. Without liberating them from the rule of the White people, the security of Japan would not stand. The purpose of the Japanese war was not to rule the Asian countries for the Japanese, but to return Asia to the hands of the Asian people. In fact, in 1943 during the war, the Foreign Minister of Japan Mamoru Shigemitsu said:

"The purpose of the Japanese war is to liberate East Asia and revive Asia. We recognize that the basis of world peace is laid where every East Asian country is liberated from colonial rule and stands in an equal position with others. The realization of this is the very purpose of the war, and with it Japan will be fully satisfied."

"With it Japan will be fully satisfied" meant that Japan did not have any other ambition. Japan had to fight alone the war for taking back Asia, including Japan, into the hands of all the Asian people. Japan

fought the war in East Asia; however, Japan did not fight against East Asian people, but against the Western people in East Asia. The Japanese war was to liberate Asia. The future of Asia was hanging on it. That was why the Japanese gave the East Asian inhabitants everywhere education and military training soon after Japan occupied those countries. Such training was in effect in Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Burma and all other countries Japan occupied.

And in 1943 Japan convened a historic conference with heads of the East Asian nations. Hideki Tojo from Japan, Wang Jingwei from China, Zhang Jinghui from Manchukuo, Ba Maw from Burma, Whaiwhai Thayakone from Thailand, Jose Laurel from the Philippines and Chandra Bose from India took part in the conference, which was held in a warm and congenial atmosphere in Tokyo.

The heads of the East Asian nations who gathered in

Tokyo during the war for a historic conference.

"It was like a family party, " said Chandra Bose from India. And Ba Maw from Burma also said:"It produced a very impressive atmosphere, filled with the feeling to recognize broad Asia as one... We gathered as one single historical family which included all nations, not as separate people. Such a

thing had never been before."

The leaders also agreed that the biggest cause of the agony of Asia was the colonial rule, exploitation and racism of the white people, and the Asian nations must cooperate with each other to liberate Asia from their rule. So, they made a declaration, "We shall cooperate with each other to liberate East Asia from the bondage of the USA and the UK, to realize self-defense and to build the great East Asia, in order to make a contribution to establish world peace." This was the very purpose of the Japanese war. Citizens Killed by American Military Forces

In the beginning of the war, Japan was winning at many places, but later, the counterattack of the USA began and Japan started to lose. The American armed forces took Iwo-jima, a Japanese island located about 1200 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. They built an air base there, and began to have bomber planes take off from the base to do carpet bombing of Japanese cities. The method was to drop incendiary bombs to make fire walls of 5-6 kilometers square and then, rain innumerable bombs inside the walls. Those who lost refuge were to be killed in the fire. All rivers in the cities were stopped up with burnt bodies and the water turned red. Thus, the American bombing was aiming to kill unarmed citizens indiscriminately as many as they could, including babies, children, women and old people. It was against international law, but the American pilots comforted their guilty conscience saying to each other, "Killing Japs is not killing people" or "They are all cooperating with the military forces, so, they are the same as soldiers." By these carpet bombings of various cities in Japan including Tokyo, they killed about 600,000 Japanese citizens in total.

And the last bombings were the atomic bombs, which killed about 300,000 Japanese citizens in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in total. The American government explained to the American public, "Those bombings were necessary to end the war early." But it was a lie which many of the Americans still believe. Because historians know that prior to the atomic bombings, the Japanese government had asked the Soviet Union to mediate between the USA and Japan to end the war, although the offer was refused. The American government had known that fact by hearing it from the Soviet Union and by intercepting the Japanese communication ciphers. Thus, prior to dropping the atomic bombs, the USA had already known that Japan had a will to surrender. Japan would have soon surrendered only by conventional weapons.

Before dropping the atomic bombs, the USA had already known Japan would surrender.

In spite of this, the USA dropped the atomic bombs. They had three reasons for doing so. Firstly, they wanted to confirm the effect of the new weapon. The atomic bomb on Hiroshima was made of uranium, and the bomb on Nagasaki plutonium. They wanted to use both types, and did an experiment on human beings. After the war, the American forces built hospitals immediately in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were very convenient for them to research the effect on human bodies. Secondly, they already used an enormous amount of money to develop the new weapon. If the new bomb was not used even once, the congress would say, "Why did you waste a large amount of money for making such a needless weapon?" So, to avoid hearing this from the congress, the American president needed the use the bombs before the surrender of Japan, and he had to explain to the American public, "The bombs were necessary to end the war early." And thirdly, they wanted to make a demonstration of the great American power to the Soviet Union, thinking of the postwar days. The scientific director of the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bombs, J. Robert Oppenheimer, later said, "My hands are bloodstained."

Kamikaze fighters before a sally. They knew many of their compatriots were being killed, and that was why they willingly dedicated

their lives to save Japan and Asia.

People Who Told the Truth About Japan

Japan finally surrendered and the Pacific War was over on Aug. 15, 1945. But, it was the beginning of the invasion of the Soviet Union into the Japanese territories. The troops of the Soviet Union, who entered Manchukuo and Sakhalin several days before the Japanese surrender, continued their takeover of these areas after Aug. 15, and they also invaded the Japanese islands north of Hokkaido on Aug. 18 and took over them. They were looters at a fire, reaping a profit out of confusion.

Besides, the Soviet troops took away about 600,000 Japanese people from Manchukuo to Siberia to make them slaves, telling them a lie, "The war is over. Unarm, and get on the train. You are going home." But the destination was Siberia, and most of them died there after decades of servile labors. The USA and European countries did not blame the Soviet Union for this inhumane act.

After the Pacific War, the USA tried the Japanese leaders in the Tokyo Trial (International Military Tribunal for the Far East). It was set up to judge only the war crimes of the defeated, but did not judge any crimes of the winner. It was not a true trial, but rather a lynching, an act of revenge or a performance to show to the world how bad Japan was. The judges were all from winner countries, including the Soviet Union which was at the very hour doing the above mentioned inhumane act.

The conclusion of the trial was already determined before it began. The purpose of the trial was to find the Japanese leaders guilty and execute them, showing the USA was good and Japan was bad. It was in a sense like the Sanhedrin trial for Christ to put him to death. Japan was not Christ, but the conclusion of the trial for Christ was also determined before it began.

The Tokyo Trial. It was more like a lynching or an act of revenge.

But I appreciate that defense lawyers in the court told the truth courageously for Japan. Some of them

were so honest that they were fired. One of them was Defense Counsel Ben Bruce Blakeney, who spoke out that this trial was wrong, and that the country which had committed an unprecedented massacre by dropping the atomic bombs and had violated the international law, did not have the right to judge the Japanese defendants, although his words were stopped halfway.

And Lawyer William L. Logan said that the Europeans and Americans had imposed on Japan a hard economic blockade, which was already an act of war, adding the threat of a military siege, and Japan was compelled to the crisis to live or to die. And Logan added that for 35 years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USA had been planning in the Orange Plan to defeat Japan, thinking that if Japan was defeated, the USA would be able to control the rights and interests of China, although it was only one year before the beginning of the war that Japan had begun considering war against the USA. Then, Logan shouted, "Who was the provoker? Who first had the will to wage war? It is clear, isn't it? Such a country can never have the right to judge Japan." He told the truth indeed.

And we cannot forget Judge Radhabinod Pal from India. Among all the judges, he was the only professional in international law, while the other judges were all amateurs. Judge Pal alone found all the Japanese defendants not guilty, and he wrote more than 1000 pages of the reasons why Japan was not guilty. He proved that the Japanese war had been legitimate self-defense, although not even one page of his decision was read in the court. But the Japanese leaders were allowed to read it before they were executed. One of them, Hideki Tojo said, "I thought it would be 100 years from now, but I can see the writing right now in front of me." Seishiro Itagaki said, "I spent three days to reading it and was deeply moved." Iwane Matsui said, "It is very well written and he wrote all that we wanted to say." And Heitaro Kimura said, "Now I can die in peace looking up at the writing which shines in the

darkness."

Judge Radhabinod Pal. He found all the Japanese defendants not guilty.

The decision of Judge Pal was neglected in the Tokyo Trial and among the Americans; however, European newspapers reported it on the front page, and many lawyers and scholars expressed the opinion that Pal was right. Today, among the International Law Commission of the United Nations, it is an established view to think that Pal's decision was right.

Through the Japanese War, Asian Countries Obtained Independence

Japan was defeated by the USA in the war, but the Japanese endeavors to liberate Asian countries achieved results in many places. For instance, in 1945 when Japan surrendered and withdrew from Indonesia, Dutch people came back to make it their colony again. But Indonesia at the time was no longer its former self, because it already had many Indonesian soldiers (PETA) who had been trained by the Japanese and passionate for independence. And about 1000-2000 Japanese soldiers also remained in Indonesia just to fight against the Dutch. The soldiers finally ousted the Dutch from Indonesia and

soon Indonesia declared independence.

A similar thing happened in India. Near the end of the Pacific War, Japan conducted the Imphal Operation to liberate India from the bondage of the British. Participating in the operation were not only the Japanese, but also many Indian soldiers, who had left the British rule, had been trained by the Japanese and were led by their leader Chandra Bose. The operation failed, and most of the soldiers were killed by the British troops. But later, among the Indian people there occurred a loud voice of "Do not waste their martyrdom!" and the whole of India became filled with the anti-British movement, in which Gandhi's movement could also be effective. The UK finally had to part with India, and India was liberated from their subordinate situation of "not made alive nor killed," a condition which had lasted for more than 300 years, and achieved independence at last.

Other Asian countries were all similar. The energy of independence which the Japanese gave them became power for the Asians to win their independence. And soon, all Asia became independent countries, liberated from the colonial rule of the Western nations. If we look upon the past, prior to the Pacific War, the only independent countries were Japan and Thailand. Thailand barely kept its independence by shrewdly balancing British and French interests in their country. China was half colony. The other Asian countries were all colonies. But the Japanese war changed all this.

The former Prime Minister of Thailand Kukrit Pramot once wrote in a newspaper of Thailand,"All Asian countries could win their independence by the actions of Japan. The mother called Japan hurt her body, but her children are growing healthily. Whom do we East Asian nations owe that we can talk with Europeans and Americans today on equal terms? It was because there was the mother called Japan who killed herself and practiced humanity. December 8 (day of the attack on Pearl Harbor

in East Asian time. In American time it was Dec. 7) was the day our mother, who gave us this important thought, made the serious decision at the risk of her life. We must never forget that day."

The movements of Asia for independence soon influenced the ones of Africa, and the African Continent also became independent countries in the following decades. The black people in the USA could also obtain their full rights of citizenship after a long time of horrible discrimination. History changed. The age of "the white people to be the master and the colored people to be their servants" ended, and the new age, in which the white and the colored peoples could talk each other on equal terms began.

If there had not been the Japanese war, all this would not have happened, and all Asian and African countries would have still remained under the colonial rule. The celebrated English historian Arnold J. Toynbee once wrote that Japan had forced the colonial rule in Asia into dissolution, and did a good thing for the Asian people.

Japan was the first country which proposed racial equality in the League of Nations, although the proposal was abandoned by the opposition of the USA, UK and others in those days (See “Racial Equality Bill Buried Away” of the former page). But after the Pacific War, the Charter of the United Nations clearly included racial equality.

Japan was defeated in the war but in the end they realized their purpose for the war. This calls to mind a famous war theory of Carl von Clausewitz: "Victory or defeat in war is not known by victory or defeat in battle, but known by whether or not the purpose of the war has been realized." And in this sense, the celebrated Austrian social ecologist Peter Drucker once said that the true winner of the Pacific War had been Japan.

Peter Drucker. He said the true winner of the Pacific War had been Japan.

"Third Atomic Bomb" on the Japanese

However, today's Japan is covered by a dark cloud, which has been in place since the time just after the Pacific War. The Japanese leaders till the end of the war were all executed by the American occupation forces, which killed more than a thousand of them as Class A, B, or C war criminals. Many of them were good men but guilt was pinned on them and they were killed like victims of lynching. Because of their death, most of the Japanese lost the opportunity to listen to the truth about the past from them. And the American occupation forces regulated the Japanese information very strictly for years in the areas of newspaper, books, radio, and other media. The truth about the past was not permitted to be told, and those who spoke out were killed or punished. Permitted only was what the occupation forces said about the past.

In addition, the American occupation forces carried out the "War Guilt Information Program," which was a shrewd plan to implant to the Japanese souls the thought that the Japanese war had been a bad war of invasion. For this purpose, the occupation forces used the Japanese national radio NHK, and

broadcasted a program called "Shinso-bako," meaning "the box of truth," every day at prime time at night for more than one year while the Tokyo Trial was being held. The performers were Japanese but the script was all written by the occupation forces. It was to implant to the Japanese the historical view of the Americans, which was, in a word, "the USA was good and Japan was bad."

The content of the radio program was, "The Japanese public was good but the leaders were bad, and the leaders made a bad war. They invaded China and other Asian countries, but the USA punished them and liberated the Japanese public from militarism." And this view was also taught in all the schools. This was very effective, and the war guilt was successfully formed in the postwar generations just as the occupation forces desired. But it was an act of taking away the truth of history and the identity of the Japanese. It made the Japanese souls spineless and it was a subversive activity on the Japanese spirit. We could say it was, as it were, the third atomic bomb on the Japanese.

Communists and communist sympathizers in Japan used this situation for their own purpose, because one of their strategies to communize Japan was to let the Japanese think that Japan was a very bad country. It would make their communist revolution easier. So, they used every historical lie and fabrication to increase this war guilt of the Japanese. The communist government of China helped them, too. And the Korean government, which the USA planted after the war, also pursued anti-Japanese policies and tried to increase the war guilt. Such speech and writings covered all of the education in Japan. I myself was raised up in that education, and I used to hate the modern Japanese history and hated to be Japanese. Most of the Japanese were deceived like me. It took many years till I finally got to know the objective truth of history and parted from such a war guilt view. Around 50 years after the war,

good books on the Japanese war began to be published in Japan, and I could finally part from the guilt view. But many of the Japanese are still in that view, and that is the dark cloud which covers Japan still today. When two nations fought a war against each other, we cannot say that one nation was perfectly good, and the other was perfectly bad. Each nation had its own reason to fight, but both nations were responsible for the war. The war guilt should be on both nations.

What Was the Pacific War? Now, in the end, let us look back upon the Pacific War some more. Japan made big mistakes in the war. Some Japanese historians say that Japan should not have entered China, and should have been very patient even when the attacks of the Chinese became more violent. This opinion might be reasonable. If Japan had not entered China, Japan might not have needed to fight the war against the USA. And Japan should not have concluded the military alliance with Germany and Italy. The alliance with such distant countries was almost of no use. The Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka who concluded the alliance said in his latter days, "It was the biggest mistake in my whole life." On the other hand, the USA also made big mistakes. Firstly, the USA had almost no caution regarding communism, and was associated with the Soviet Union, till they defeated Japan which was the only anti-communist country in Asia. But the USA had to pay the debt after the war. The USA had to fight the wars against the communists in the Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam War (1959-1975), in which many American soldiers were killed, more than in the time of the Pacific War. If the United States did not make a mistake in recognizing the true enemy and did not defeat Japan, neither the

Korean War or Vietnam War was needed. American soldiers would also not have been killed in the wars.

The Korean War, in which the USA lost more soldiers than in the Pacific War.

After defeating Japan, the United States was troubled with the Cold War against the Soviet Union for a long time. The USA did not gain anything from the Pacific War. They just lost many American soldiers and lost China which they wanted the most. The only beneficiary of the Pacific War was the Soviet Union, which could widen their territories and made China a communist country. Secondly, the USA did not understand the complex state of affairs in China, and was strongly attached to the idea of taking the Chinese market. That was why the USA continued to be used by the Chinese nationalists and communists. The USA did not listen to the people who knew the Chinese state of affairs well. Thirdly, the USA unfairly rejected Japan. The biggest desire of the Soviet Union was to make a war between the USA and Japan. The Roosevelt Government was full of Soviet spies and was driven to torment Japan and make a war. If there had not been such mistakes, the history would have gone a

different way. But, we can't say "if" to the history, and it seems there must have been an inevitability to this history. The war must have been what we could not avoid in the stream of history. The pain must have been needed to build a new world in which Asia could talk with Europe and the USA from an equal position. After the USA fought the war against Japan, the USA looked around Asia and searched for a good partner which could be trusted, and noticed that it was Japan. I wish the USA had noticed it earlier. The USA is the super power of the world still today. And from now on, I hope and pray that the USA may not make mistakes in understanding the world situation and may lead the future of the world rightly.

(End)

Documents

1. the Pacific War-The USA Mistook the True Enemy Pg 42