The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-01-05
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OUT GOES FUJIWARA

OUT GOES FUJIWARA
! Although Premier Gen. Kuniaki
Koiso has taken number of steps
to broaden the base of his govern
ment, the recent resignation of Ginjiro
Fujiwara as Japan's munitions min
lister raises the question of whether
Koiso has actually succeeded in heal
ing long-existing differences between
the military and the Zaibatsu, the big
family financial cliques.
Fujiwara, a Mitsui man whose chair
manship of the monopolistic Ojo Pa
per Company won him the title OF
Japan's paper king represented the
industrialists in the Koiso cabinet.
The Japanese Domei agency, in re-
porting Fujiwara's resignation, gave
the reason as "ill health" Fujiwara
is rs years old and he may be in ill
health. 1t was noteworthy, however,
hat he was replaced not by an indus
trials, but by government bureau
crat who has close ties with the inner
circles of Japan's mass totalitarian
party, the Imperial Rule Assistance
Association (IRAA) and with Adm.
Mitsumasa Yonai, navy minister and
No. man in the Koiso cabinet.
The new munitions minister is &c.
year-old Shigeru Yoshida,, who was
governor of Fdkuoka Prefecture and
concurrently director of the Regional
Mines and Marine Transportation Blu
reaus. Yoshida was Welfare Minister
in Yonai's cabinet in 1910 He also
served as deputy mayor of Tokyo fol-
lowing the 1923 earthquake and later
as head of the Tokyo division of the
IRAA Young Mems Association.
Yoshida has held a number of jobs
in his time, but he is by no means as
well known or as impressive a figure
as Fujiwara, a student and practi-
toner of mass production, whose hold
ings extend beyond paper into hydro
electric plants, newspapers and a
number of other interests controlled
by the gigantic Mitsui financial-com-
mercial-industrial empire.
Fujiwara's appointment as muni-
lions minister last July and his resig-
nation now gain significance when
viewed against the background of dis
pute between the Japanese military
and industrialists over economic pol
icy.
Even before the war the military
and business leaders had clashed over
economic policy, with the army men
berating the conservatism" of the in
dustrialists and accusing them of be-
ing concerned only with profits"
The army, generally speaking, took
the position that Japan's economic
policy should be guided by national
considerations and that, consequently,
the army should direct it.
This squabbIe endured throughout
the regime of former Premier Gen.
Hideki TOTO, who-as the representa-
tive of the army-served as his own
munitions minister A series of mill
tary reverses and home-front prob
lens combined, however, to drive |
TOTO from both the Premiership and
the munster ministry job When
Koiso took over the leadership of a |
coalition government last July, the |
Army retained top control, but-in a |
number of concessions of the navy,
the bureaucrats, the totalitarian party
and the industrialists-Fuj be-
came the zaibatsu spokesman in the |
job of munitions minister.
Last July, as Koiso's new govern
ment took office, the Tokyo press !
hailed Fujiwara's appointment, called /
belatedly to army misman-
agement Of industrial matters, and |
urged free hand for Fujiwara in
the munitions program.
Since becoming premier, Koiso has
at least four extraccabinet |
bodies to spread responsibility" |
among the various national groups |
While these boards were being estaD- |
lished, however. Tokyo broadcasts in
Dictated continuing differences be-
tween Fujiwara and the militarists.