Detroit evening times., 1945-10-31
ROAD
TO TOKYO
By James r.
Young

Japan's military forces, ac-
complished with unprecedented
ease, leaves the Japanese to face
a new evolution in agriculture,
industry and education.
With Japan under Gen. Doug
las Macarthur, l have no fear
of a soft policy in controlling
big business. of any hesitancy in
redistributing the vast farming
estates and forests of the
imperial household. or that he
will coddle the education sys-
tenn of the broken-down empire.
But once military control is re-
moved. we face the ugly fact
that we may become the victims
OF inadequate control of those
three essential categories.
| hope Gen. Macarthur will
be tough and practical in adj
ministeFing Japan's new edHea-
ton program. I'm m d ate
progress must be made in dis
trlbutlng factual knowledge TO
replace distorted statements,
half truths and fictionalized
mythology in textbooks.
THE handspring OF japanese
Il education. which must be
replaced with a foreign model
10 really make time in this inn
portant effort 10 re-educate
1000, 900 students, is the SUBJ
stitution of charter on educa-
tion TO replace the Imperial Re-
script en- Education issued by
the Emperor MeiJi Oct. 30 1890,
when the school system was
modelled after western methods.
was once told by an elderly
Japanese educator, Baron Sho-
suke Sato, Johns Hopkins
claSSmate Of Woodrow Wilson,
that the advice of Ulysses s.
Grant, on a visit to Japan after
he retired from the presidency,
resulted in adoption OF our
methods of school work. Baron
Sato was president of the ITok-
kaido Imperial University al
-SappoFo on whose grounds I
presume our Ninth l.. s. Army
Corps under Maj Gen. Charles
Ryder is now based Gen.
Grant was asked By Emperor
Meiji In the early days OF the
restoration period, nearly 20
years ago, how Japan could be-
come a great country.
Introduce compulsory mill
tary training and see that mass
education ~ provid d." the
emperor was told
The German education sys-
TEN prevailed for many years,
but finally American methods
were substituted. The PruSSian
military system was adopted
and continued in use 10 1915.
4 y IMPERIAL RESCRIPT is
"A known 10 a japanese by
heart better than most OF us can
reclte the Lords Prayer. Stu
dents minds are hitched 10 the
principle of Hakko uchiu. mean
ing eight corners of the universe,
and they are inspired 10 believe
that their ancestors founded the
world Loyalty and filial pretty
have become the psalms Of the
imperial commandment on edu-
cation Consequently through
Tour generations, the training ~
youth and the shaping Of the
mind have been toward war and
aggression, explained by a Japa-
neSe professor as self-defense.
TltE Imperial Rescript is
royal prerogative which the
emperor is unlikely 10 renounce
unless Macarthur so demands
In my bailiwick / would toss
Education Minister Tamon Ma
yeda and the rcScript into he
basement Of the Marunouchi
police station. 2 stones throw
south Of MacArthur's Tokyo
headquarters
| VENTURE the opinion that
Il Japanese college professors
and all grade and high school
teachers are 50 thoroughly
Japanized from heavy injections
OF propaganda under the double
crossing Education Minister
Mayeda and his predecessors
that most teachers could not
recognize historical facts az
truths They will he slow in
admitting that japanese SCI
entistS did not invent the
telephone, radar. electric light
bulbs, the airplane. railroad
locomotives and gunpowder.
In scientific schools. for ex-
ample, japanese will write a
paper 70 establish priority In
claiming himself as the in
ventor. The original idea he
has obtained from American or
European technical magazines
or scientific publications. To
accuse him of plagiarism only
makes him bristle, mentally.
and he recoils into his thick
skull. When you scrape the
surface you find conceit.
/ maintain that this condi-
tioning will render impossible
for many years a liberal educa-
tion system in Japan unless the
imperial reSCript on education
ic rappupcnd ~, tLo ..,..,<...