From: Mark Crispin <mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU>
Subject: `we witch the Postsdam Declaration calmly'
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-2022-JP
Organization: University of Washington
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 00:57:57 GMT

Hirokatsu Watanabe claims this is a correct translation of the
Japanese government's use of the term `mokusatsu'.  I submit that
Watanabe thinks that foreigners are even more ignorant of the Japanese
language than he is of English.

Watanabe is yet another victim of the Monbusho^'s faulty education
about the war to post-war Japanese schoolchildren, so he can be
forgiven.  However, his sincerity does not mean his statements should
go unchallenged.

The Japanese word `mokusatsu' ($@L[;&(J) consists of the kanji $@L[(J 
(silence) and $@;&(J (kill).  It refers to a Japanese characteristic that
is well-known by anyone with much experience in dealing with Japanese
people.  When a Japanese is presented with something he does not want
to answer, he pretends he did not hear it, thus `killing' it with
`silence'.  Some dictionaries translate the term as `ignore', `take no
notice of it', or `treat it with silent contempt.'

Premier Suzuki was unable to reach closure in the Cabinet in the
meeting of July 27, 1945 on the response to the Potsdam Declaration.
Siding with Foreign Minister To^go^, he decided that it would be
unwise to reject it, and suggested that that the best thing would be
to `mokusatsu' the Potsdam Proclamation and seek more palatable terms
for surrender and in particular what the results of seeking the USSR's
assistance would be.  This was, however, to be kept secret, so that
the Allies would not believe that Japan had rejected it.

Let's consider some references from the vernacular.  In the To^kyo^
Asahi Shimbun for July 28, 1945, article `Seifu ha Mokusatsu', we
find the following, a quote from *the government* to the paper:
	Since the joint declaration of America, Britain, and
	Chungking is a thing of no great value, it will only
	serve to re-enhance the government's resolve to carry
	the war forward unfalteringly to a successful conclusion!

What is significant about this quote is that it appears in a Saturday
*morning* paper.  This is significant, because the military did not
present its demands to the government to publish an explicit rejection
of the Potsdam Proclamation until *after* the Saturday papers had gone
to press.

There is no doubt that To^go^ was aghast.  To^go^ knew quite well how
it would be interpreted in Washington -- or for that matter by the man
in the street in To^kyo^.  It was a flagrant violation of the
cabinet's decision to `withhold comment' and a contemptious rejection
of the Potsdam Proclamation.

Suzuki caved in to the military later that day at a press conference.
He announced, as was reported in the To^kyo^ Asahi Shimbun (`Sangoku
Seimei ha Kachi Nashi') on July 30, 1945, two days later:
	I consider the joint resolution of the three powers to be
	a rehash of the Cairo Declaration.  The government does not
	regard it as a thing of any great value; the government
	will just ignore [mokusatsu] it.  We will press forward
	resolutely to carry the way to a successful conclusion.

The New York Times, along with most of the rest of the world's
newspapers, informed its readers on July 30 that Japan had dismissed
the Potsdam Declaration with a contemptious gesture.

Many Japanese, including Watanabe, insist that the problem was due to
a `misunderstanding' of the term `mokusatsu', and that the a-bombs and
the USSR's entry into the war would not have happened if this had not
been said.  `Mokusatsu' was not the reason these things happened, but
they were a convenient justification for their timing.

Watanabe's contention can be believed *only* if the Japanese
government secretly planned to accept the Potsdam Proclamation
immediately -- as was demanded in the ultimatum -- in spite of public
posturing.  Japan had previously asked the USSR for assistance in
negotiating an end to the war.  Japan did not, in the days from July
29 until August 6, press the USSR for an answer, nor did it take
separate any action to seek an end to the war.  In fact, the Japanese
government was *still* waiting for the USSR to answer when the a-bombs
were dropped and the USSR declared war.

Japan was stalling in the week after the Potsdam Proclamation, in
spite of explicit statements that:
	[Allied might is] poised to strike the final blows upon
	Japan.  This military power...[will continue] to prosecute
	the war against Japan until she ceases to resist.

	The full application of our military power...WILL mean
	the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese
	armed forces and just as inevitably the utter destruction
	of the Japanese homeland.

	We will not deviate from [these terms].  There are no
	alternatives.  We shall brook no delay.

Japan was given full and adequate warning that the a-bombs were
coming.  The Japanese government choose to ignore those warnings and
continue in its folly.  The blood of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is upon
the Japanese government and the Japanese military, and NOT upon the
US.

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