From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Communism within Japanese militarists
Date: 28 Aug 92 06:11:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: Tomobiki.MS-C.714982289.1103527590.mrc
Organization: University of Washington
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There is some basis for the argument of Communism among Japan's militarists.
In a statement of his opinion to the Imperial Throne in February 1945, Prince
Konoye noted:
	`Sad though it is, I believe that Japan has already lost the war.
	...that which we have most to fear is not defeat itself but, rather,
	...a Communist revolution...  The more I think about the the more I
	feel that conditions...are rapidly progressing toward such an
	eventuality.

	`That which we have most to fear is the national renovation movement
	of the militarists.  A great number of young military men seem to
	think that Communism is compatible with Japan's imperial system -- a
	view which...constitutes the keynote of their renovation argument.

	`Since Japan's professional military men...hail from families below
	the middle class, their whole environment of life has been such that
	it is easy for them to fall prey to Communist doctrine.

	`I believe that it has at length become clear that the Manchurian
	Incident, the China Incident, and the Greater East Asia War were all
	perpetrated by the aforementioned national renovation faction of the
	militarists as part of a purposeful plan.  It is a well-known fact
	that at the time of the trouble in Manchuria the military declared
	the purpose of the Incident to be internal reform here in Japan.
	Later on, when the China Incident occurred, one of the central figures
	of the renovation faction publicly declared, "the longer the Incident
	lasts, the better, for if a settlement is reached we shall be unable
	to bring about domestic reform."

	`It is immaterial whether we call this revolution-minded group
	right-win or left-wing, for in reality the right-wingers are nothing
	more than Communists masquerading in the dress of the national
	polity-ists.  Our ignorant and simple-minded military men are putty
	in thier hands.  [Lit. `Our ignorant and simple-minded miliarists will
	be made to dance by them.']

	`The more critical the war situation becomes, the louder we hear the
	cry, "One hundred million die together!"  Although the so-called
	right-wingers are the ones who shout the loudest, it is the Communists
	who are the intigators of it all, for they hope to achieve their
	revolutionary aim by taking advantage of the confusion taht will arise
	out of defeat.

	`There is even one group of militarists sponsoring a rapproachement
	with the USSR...while others are thinking in terms of an alliance with
	the Yenan Chinese Communist regime.'

Although Konoye was undoubtably trying to back out of his own responsibility
for the debacle, it is clear that he sincerely believed the above.

There are other reasons to believe this.  In the early 1930's, the German
Communist Party did its best to torpedo the Social Democratic government,
knowing full well that their doing so would eventually lead to a Nazi regime.
They did so under direction from the Comintern, which believed that a Nazi
government would be so disasterous that the country would collapse and
Communism could fill the resulting power vacuum.

It is, I think, unlikely there was much direct cooperation between the
Japanese militarists and Mao's Communists.  Stalin's support for Mao was never
more than lukewarm; Mao was too independent of Stalin's leadership for
Stalin's taste.  Viewed in this context, the actions of the Japanese
militarists make perfect sense; to cause mischief and create a power vacuum in
China, as well as drain Japanese resources in an imperialistic venture.  All
of these would create an environment in which a Communist revolution could
take place, and preferable Communists more pliable to USSR leadership than
Mao.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan