UN General Assembly
1951

31. When the Charter was framed, the events which had led to the Second World War were still fresh in the minds of the representatives assembled at San Francisco. They knew that the Japanese militarists could not have launched their full-scale war against my country in 1937, or their Pearl Harbour attack against the United States of America in 1941, unless and until they had secured absolute control in Japan. In the six years which preceded Japan's full-scale war against China, the militarists in Japan executed a series of terroristic acts to get rid of political leaders who stood for peace and moderation. They succeeded in manipulating Japanese political life and public opinion to such an extent that their regime, in fact, became a totalitarian one. The suppression of freedom in Japan was a pre-condition and a prelude to aggressive war.