Evening star., 1943-06-18
What Is Jupon Up To?

oAA%V SAAS ooPoA4Oo~ &%4CU VI AOWCI
House of Parliament would be con-
vened in extraordinary session, spec
ulation has been rife concerning its
meaning. Extraordinary Diet sessions
are rare and portend some special
emergency. This one would not have
been called without good and press
ing reasons. Hence, it was said, the
Government obviously had something
highly important in mind.
The fact that the last previous
extraordinary session was convoked
shortly before Pearl Harbor led many
commentators to forecast some big
new move in the military or diplo-
matte fields. One guess, especially
favored in Chungking, was that
Japan was about to launch the Oft
prophesied attack on Russia's Mari
time Province and Eastern Siberia.
Other guesses dealt with possible
offensives in China, the South Pacific,
or even against Hawaii. All such
forecasts assumed that the govern
ment's intentions were focused pri-
marily abroad.
However, accounts of the three-day
session just concluded tend to show
that the governments reasons for
convoking the Diet concerned chiefly
domestic matters. Evidence is accu-
mulating that the home front in
Japan is not satisfactory to TOTO and
his warlord colleagues. Heavy indus
try has not stepped up production to
meet government requirements. This
has happened for various technical
reasons such as lack of precision
tools, shortage Of skilled labor, and
backward deliveries of critical i'm
ported raw materials due chiefly to
shipping bottleneck. But there are
likewise intimations that big busi-
ness and finance are not sacrificing
themselves with the completeness de-
manded from totalitarian economy.
This extraordinary session of the Diet
may thus be interpreted as an inten-
tion to get its formal approval for an
utterly ruthless economic program to
squeeze the last drop of productive
power out Of every phase of Japan's
economic life. That would, indeed, be
the logical elimination of the totali-
tartan ideal held by TOTO and his fell
lows, who envisage Japanese nation
and people completely and perma-
nently modified for boundless ag-
gression under a regime aptly de-
scribed as Barrack- Room Socialism.
This economic aim could account
for the grim warnings uttered by
Premier TOTO in his two addresses to
the Diet; one in his capacity as Prime
Minister, the other in his dual role
as Minister of War. The Diet was
told that Japan's foes were planning
counteroffensives. that the battles in
the South Pacific "are growing fiercer
and f1ercer, that the Chinese Air
Force has begun to recover with
support by the Americans. The enemy
40 VI A16 w / dlO Jul DdSCS. NOG OILY
that, the enemy is also trying to raid
our mainland and shut off our supply
routes We must expect that
the enemy will raid our mainland"
OF course, those warnings were in
terlarded with assurances that all
enemy moves had been foreseen, that
ccuntermeasures were prepared, and
that ultimate victory was assured.
But that characteristic double-talk
does not disguise either the unsatis-
factory state of Japan's domestic
situation or the governments inten-
ton to institute total mobilization"
In the extreme sense Of the phrase.
The extraordinary session of the
Diet thus clearly foreshadows new
developments of a decisive character.
In the first instance, those are likely
to be on the home front, but they