The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-23
BY M. JAMES

THE fighting between the japanese and the
armed seizure of many strategical towns along
the South Manchurian Railway were described
by the imperialist press (for instance the New
York Tines local incidents" and as the
consequences of the skirmishes of the soldiers
who acted against the order of the represent
atives of their governments"
This is usual imperialist lie to befog the
mind of the working class. The whole chain
of events from the racial riots in Korea a few
weeks ago to the armed seizure of the Chinese
towns has been deliberately planned organized
and carried out by Japanese imperialism The
detectives of the Japanese government are to
get out OF the deepening crisis to smother the
revolutionary upsurge of the japanese, Korean
and the Chinese masses, and above all to open
up a military highway for the imperialist war
against the Soviet Union. An imperialist war
against the Soviet Union is the most central
objective of japanese and world imperialism
The present situation in Manchuria must be seen
from this very light.
Japanese imperialism has been hard hit by the
economic crisis which is still deepening Over
one-third of the total production has been cut
off. More than two million workers have been
thrown out on the streets Product en- of heavy
industries has been curtailed to sixty per cent.
Export showed more than thirty per cent de-
crease last year. There is big deficit in the
government budget. Wages have been cut forty
per cent. And there is no sign that the crisis
will be over. .
Japanese Crisis Deepens
The revolutionary struggles of the workers
and the toilers in Japan have been intensified
a hundredfold on the basis of the deepening
economic crisis. In 1928-29 there were recorded
seven hundred and fifty strikes. In 192s-3o the
number increased to one Thousand three-h hun
dred and nine. The salt workers struck against
wage cut for seven months this year. The strikes
of the $4,000 seamen and the $4,000 street car
workers showed unprecedented determination
and mitancy. In the rural districts, the agra
rian revolutionary movement against the land
lords and nobility is assuming increasing mo-
mentum. Under the leadership of the Com
munist Party of Japan, the revolutionary strug-
gle of the japanese masses threatened the very
foundation of Japanese Imperialism.
But this is not all that Japanese imperialism
has to worry about. The uprising of twenty
thousand natives of Formosa against japanese
domination last October, the rising anti-imperi-
alist movement in Korea under the leadership
OF the Communist Party of Korea, all combine
to shake the root of Japanese Imperialism.
The intensified penetration of American and
British imperialists in Manchuria, together with
the revolutionary upsurge in Manchuria and
elsewhere in China further awake Japanese i'm
perialism to the fact that her position has be-
come more preca-ious every day and that she
has to take measures in order to maintain her
self This armed seizure of the Manchurian
cities is one of the attempts of Japan in this
direction.
Japan Planned An Armed Struggle
Besides the direct attacks of the workers and
toiling masses in Japan, Formosa, and Korea
in the forms of capitalist naturalization, wage
cuts, unemployment starvation, white terror and
ruthless suppression, Japanese imperialism plan
ned and provoked the armed struggle in Man
churia to further exploit the Manchurian pro-
vinces, to smother the revolutionary movement
by distracting the attention of the revolutionary
masses by the false issue of racial hatred and
national prejudices. by strengthening her posi-
ton against British and Yankee penetration in
Manchuria and above all by building military
highway for a against the Soviet Union
While the situation reflects clearly the inner
antagopisms among the imperialist powsGs and
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