The Wilmington morning star., 1945-10-26
JAPANESE DEFYINC
MACARTHUR RULE
CONTINUED from Page One)

in a Japan newly stripped OF her
dilomatic tentacles and writing
in confusion under American occu-
patton.
Postmortems on loss of the war
continued, with Konoye said to be
intending voluntarily to assume
responsibility for a leading role
in the period Of aggression. The
Admiral who launched the Pearl
Harbor attack commended it had de-
layed his country's inevitable de-
feat.
Konoye, the brooding, heavy
udded mystic who was premier
when Japan attacked China in
1897 and again just before Pearl
Harbor, was declared by the
Domei agency to be preparing to
retire from the Imperial Court,
yield all his titles and preroga-
tives and start a new political
career as commoner.
The Domei report said that Ko'
noye disclosed his intentions to
Marquis Koichi Kiko, Lord Keeper
Of the Privy cal, who persuaded
Konoye to postpone the step be-
cause he presently was working or
a proposed revision of the constl'
tuition.
Konoye himself said Sunday that
General Macarthur, Supreme Al
lied Commander, had suggested
that he head a liberal political
movement and revamp the consti-
tuition. The revision eventually
would eliminate the need for such
advisers to the throne as Konoye
himself, he stated.
While Konoye said he had given
no definite answer to Japanese who
!, also had asked him to head a new
political party, the Domei report
if accurate-Would indicate that he
had decided to go with the dem.
ocratic tide.
Konoye has had two conferences
with Macarthur and is conceded in
high Japanese circles to be the cen
trail figure in the present cloudy
governmental affairs.
While politics thus boiled, Mac
Arthur in an order without proceed.
emit in modern history, ordered ia
pan to transfer all her diplomatic
and consular properties and arch
ives everywhere in the world to the
Allied powers, to cease relations
with foreign governments, and to
recall her diplomatic and consular
representative from abroad.
This order came down from the
Joint chiefs of staff in Washington.
1t would place the conquered ma
ton more firmly than ever in the
grip of the victors, taking from her
a network that reached into the
nerve centers of the world.
Another such system already was
under death sentence in the dis
banding of the Zaibatsu--the fam
ily-operated industrial monopolies,
which are slated for dissolution
and which the Ministry of Com
merce and Industry said would be
banned by proposed antitrust leg
islation soon.
Differing with various other high
ranking Japanese who have had
their say about the sneak attack
on Pearl Harbor and have deplored
it as mistake, Adm. Osami IA
gano, the man who gave the actual
orders, asserted that it was an I'm
expected great success, was mill
tarily sound, and Japan would
have been defeated earlier" if it
had not been launched.
Nagano, former chief of the Ma
val Staff, was for the assault, al
though many Admirals thought it
was too dangerous. he disclosed in
an interview.
A declaration Of war was to have
preceded the strike by 80 minutes,
but something went wrong and the
declaration followed the attack, he
said.
Nagano, who declared he fully ex-
pected to be charged as war
criminal, contended mo one in ia
pan had the strength to halt the
tide Of war running in Japan" But
that the definite decision was MOI
made until after Prince Konoye'
cabinet fell and Gen. Hidekl Io]t
came into power Oct. II. 1941.
Toto and his Pearl Harbor cab
int all are on the list Of suspect