The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-06-02
Concept of Divine Mission
Spreads AS Clique
Tightens Rule

YIN ", June Z. (UP)-rIapan
is, passing through revolution
bloodleSs thus far-which may
give to the world Il new form of
totalltarlan government.
Japan appears to be headed for
a corporate stateship which is
neither Fascism, Nazism or Com
munism. 1t has similarities to
each of the three but it has extra
ingredients which are purely Jap
aneSe. ..
The elements which set Japan
apart from other totalitarian
states are the mystic, unquestion-
ing worship of an emperor who is
considered divine, and an unfal-
tering belief that Japan is carry
ing out a God-given mission on
earth ' :..'.
There is strict control from the
top, embracing all nationals,
group and individual activities.
The government is dominated by
a clique rather than a single die
tator. The leaders may change in
the constant jockeying for power,
but they stay in the shadows and
operate by influencing the en-
peror rather than publicly under
their own identities. y.
The current Sino-Japanesc hos
tilities are Fastening events, but
they did not originate the present
tendency toward tightly knit,
rigidly controlled economy. That
tendency came down through the
years as natural heritage from
the swashbuckling shoguns and
diamyos Of Japan's earlier his
tory.
JAPAN HAS HAD
ITS HITLER
Japan already has had its Hit
Ter and its Anschluss.. Centuries
ago Japan experienced dictatorS
and also dictatorial governments.
There even has been a time when
the type of toy that children
might play with was prescribed
by the shotgun in power. Since
constitutional government began
in 1889 there has been less Of
that, but there has been govern
mcnt by groups, oligarchies domi-
mated sometimes by the military,
sometimes by the financiers, less
frequently by governmental bu-
rcaucrats.
The Manchurian adventure,
starting in 1881, gave Japan's
militariStS testing ground for IA
government which, tried out in
the puppet state of Manchukuo,
is being spread gradually to in
clude the whole Japanese empire.
Right now the militarists are in
control. They have little use for
the fnanciers except as they pro-
vide the equipment for war. But
they realize that the financlcrs
can not. be smashed as some
would like to see them smashed
without knocking down the whole
economic structure.
SITUATION is
PARADOXICAL
There are many paradoXcs in
the situation.
Japan hates Communism and
has made it's anti-Communism
stand the spearhead of its foreign
policy. Yet there are similarities
between the Soviet government
and the government of Japan.
japan has its profound, relig
ious awe of the emperor and faith
that his decisions are always cor
rect. Yet some of the men who
run the empire have little regard
for his counsel,
japan is a constitutional mon
archy yet at the same time one Of
the most democratic of nations.
There is little kow-towing to the
great, except where the imperial
family is concerned. Prince Toku-
gawa, artistocrat, wealthy, de-
scendant of the last of the sho-
guns, is simply Tokugawa-san or
"Mr. Tokugawa" to the taxi-driv-
CT or the vegetable seller.
The average Japanese is a
kindly, loveable person. He has
an international reputation for
politeness and suavity. Yet he can
be brutal, he can be boorish, he
can be cruel in a cold, unimagi-
native way.
MANY CONTRA
DICTIONS EXIST.
There are so many cOntradlc-
tons that it is the usual proceed
ure to ascribe them to the occult
Orientalism which Occidentals are
not supposed to understand.
The reference to Hitler in ia
pans rart is not the observation