The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-06
The Japanese General
Election
By S. SAkURAI.

THE complete returns of Japans present par
iamentary election shows landslide for
the Government Minseito Party. 1t is re-
ported that Premier Hamaguchi's "liberal'
party obtained 273 seats as against opposi-
tion's TIA. According to dispatch seven the
most ardent of Premier Hamaguchis support
ers had not ventured to predict" such an over
whelming victory. AS the total number of
seats in the lower house is 466, 273 constitutes
a clear majority.
1t is interesting, however, to know that this
so-called unexpectedly "big" landslide for the
Government Party was not altogether unex-
pected by the really class conscious workers
and peasants of Japan. AS was already dis
closed in the Daily Worker of several days
ago the present Minseito Government re-
placed General Tanaka's cabinet under the
direction of Japan's finance capitalize
Mkado himself is one of the big capitalists
of Japan-last July in spite of minority sup
port in the house of representatives. 1t fol-
lows then that in the event of the dissolution
of the lower house Japans finance capital will
exert it's utmost economic and theological in
fluence over the wavering petty bourgeois in
teigentzia elements to give the government
party an overwhelming majority in the general
election.
The feature of the present election, accord
ing to Hugh Byas, the New York Times Tokyo
correspondent is ''the defeat of labor leaders
and the failure of proletarian groups to achieve
the success they had confidently expected"
True, in this election only five seats were OBJ
tanned, as compared to in the previous cleo
ton, by the Laborites. But how shall we ac-
count for this defeat and failure?" For in
the present election the so-caed 'proletarian"
candidates numbered nearly 100 for the first
time
d D,-ae +ha 1ior
is the disunity emphasis mine), lack of
ganzation and of solid foundation of labor
sentiment in the electorate" although "over-
confidence" and other explanations adj
vanced That there was "disunity' among the
candidates of various "proletarian" parties is
evident. But why was it so? 1t is simply
because growing rehabilitation of the lower
sections of the working class and the peasants
necessarily brought about the developing reac-
tionary tendencies among the upper strata of
the working class and the petty-bourgeois in
telligentzia elements who pose as ''liberal" and
as Social Democratic" Besides, as the Com
munist Party of Japan had no candidates of
its own set up, because of its totally illegal
status as far as the proletariaH candidates
were concerned the 'disunity' meant nothing
but dsunity among the petty bourgeois in
tegentZia elements.
The lack of Organization" too, is correct.
However, who could hope for strong ''or-
ganzation" for the ''petty bourgeoisie'? They
gather and split like floating sea-weeds There
is no particular "class" interests for them.
They waver AS to the "lack of solid founda-
ton of labor sentiment in the electorate" we
could first say that there was such for the
class party of the workers and peasants, the
Communist Party of Japan, but the party
could not have its own candidates this time.
In the present moment the Minseito gov
eminent which poses as "liberal," outbids $50
cal democrats" in attracting the eyes of the
petty bourgeois voters. This particularly ac
counts for the failure of Isoo Abe, ex-professor
and president of the Social Democratic Party,
Bunji Suzuki, president of the reactionary
Japan Federation of Labor, to be reelected
and rejection of Komakichi Matsuoka, general
secretary of the same reactionary Federation
of Labor, and Toyohiko Kagawa, Princeton
ian and notorious "Christian Socialist" These
lahorites' are SO "yellowish' as well as "pink-
sh" that to most of the wavering voters it is
hard to distinguish them from the liberal
Minseito candidates. Hence the typical petty
bourgeois philosophy "better to vote for gov
eminent candidates than for small third
party candidate"
One more thing has to be mentioned. That
is the election of renegade lkuo Oyama of the
Labor Farmer Party. According to the Times
dispatch his election is the zone redeeming
feature from the labor viewpoint" Nothing
is farther from the truth. His election might
be "redeeming" to the cleft" social democrats,
but not to the really class conscious workers
and peasants of Japan. We only need to note
the fact that when this same Oyama ran and
was defeated in the previous general election
in l92S-that was before he degenerated into