Evening star., 1937-02-11
TOXIC ARMY SEEN
FORCING ELECTION
Militarists Seen Leading
Empire Straight Toward
Disaster.

crisis tn Japan ana Ihe OUTLOOK JOI
further trouble as result OF the
japanese Armys apparent deternii-
nation to dominate government pol
tcies are analysed here in the first
of series of three dispatches from
Toxic By noted American Jour-
faaliSt who has spent more than
IS years in the Far East.
BY FRANK H. HEDGES.
BY Radio to The Star.
TOXIC, February il (NAN.A).-
It is problematical how long the gov
ernment will be able to keep the hot
bloods of the Japanese Army in check
and prevent their forcing dissolution
of the Diet and the calling of a
general election. They yielded with
poor grace when the present Hayashi
cabinet was formed, but undoubtedly
they are seeking an opportunity now
to put their PLANS into effect and
force the nation to go to the polls.
The overthrow of the Hirota gov
ernment in late January was due en-
tirely to the unwillingneSs of the Jap
anese Army to permit the political
parties a voice in determining the
policies of the nation and to its fanat-
ical ambition to put its own program,
with Fascist coloring, into opera
ton. The violent attack on the army
by KunimatSu Hamada in the Diet
served only as an excuse for the war
office to act.
Pressure of public opinion compelled
the war Office to supply the Hayashi
cabinet with minister to represent
st. but the views of the military re-
main unchanged. The higher officers
OF the army are, in the main, not so
fanatical themselves, but the preach
ing of extreme nationalism. which
they have practiced for several years
has fired the minds of a group of
junior officers, whom the older men
now find difficult to control.
People Are Kesentful.
The people of Japan are fully aware
OF these facts and are bitterly resent
full. The blind alteration of the army
that had so long existed among the
japanese masses was shattered by
the military revolt of February 26-29,
1886. The months that followed
brought with them major defeats in
the diplomatic field for Japan and
an increasingly high cost of living
for every Japanese. All this was due
to the fact that the Japanese Army
was shaping national policy to its
own ends, and even the peasant in
the field and the coolie in the street
are conscious of this fact and resent it.
The japanese Army, by the course
1t Is advocating and as far as possible
pursuing, is leading the empire
straight toward disaster. Unless radi-
cally altered its policy toward China
will sooner or later provoke that re-
public into open warfare and the
China of the present day will prove
a foe worthy of the steel of Japan.
Soviet Russia is more than irritated
at japanese military policy, as ex-
pressed through diplomacy and con-
slant petty conflict with Japan's ally,
Manchukuo, and the Soviet fighting
machine in the Russian Far East is
now so strong as to arouse apprehen-
sion and dread in the japanese war
Office.
Within Japan the military would
stif1e freedom of speech, and the
japanese of the present generation
have learned to value highly that
fundamental of democracy The press
Is already cowed into silence when
1t comes to criticism of the army, and
the outspoken attack on the war Of
f1ce in the Diet last month brought
on the present political crisis, causing
. change in cabinets.
Imitation Threatened.
Demands of the army for more and
more money with which to meet the
cost of the Manchurian adventure
and to build up stronger and better
armed military force, coupled with
similar demands from the navy,
threaten to bring on imitation, a still
higher cost of living and steadily
mounting taxes. If the present trend
continues, Japan will approach the
point of national bankruptcy.
These are the results of the policy
insisted upon and so far obtained by
the Japanese Army. The people at
large are wide awake to these facts.
and, in case of general election, they
may be depended upon to elect a
House OF Representatives in accord
with their views and in disagreement
with the viewpoint of the army.
The strategy of the war office in
this case Is clear. 1t will insist upon
the dissolution of the new Diet and
the holding of still another election,
and it will strive to repeat this process
until it has accomplished its objective.
That objective is to destroy the Sci
yukai, the Minseito and other existing