Evening star., 1950-11-27
Jopon,s Recovery

Little more than five years ago. Japan was
nat on It's back. Shattered by total defeat after
its adventure in aggression it's economy-the
most advanced in the Far East-was in such a
state OF ruin as to seem incapable of recovery
except by slow stages over a period of decades
Today, however, according to General Mac
ArtnurS Tokyo headquarters Japans industrial
proouctlon has reached new postwar high
high enough, in fact to be equal to that pre-
valling just before the attack on Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941. Moreover, all signs indicate
that the figures are likely to continue going up.
Thus in addition to it's comeback in factory
output Japan has made important gains in what
the economists call the "index of industrial
activity which includes electric power and gas
generation. This index, as pointed out in Cor
don Gray's recent report on the foreign economic
policies of the United States, now exceeds the
prewar level, and it augurs we'll for further
increases in the country's production of goods
and services.
AS the Gray report states an essential
element in Japan's recovery (Which also embraces
agricultural output, now higher than before
Pearl Harbor) has been American aid totaling
about $1.8 billion since VI day-aid that has
enabled the country to meet the nearly complete
loss of its prewar sources of food and raw mate
r1als IN China, Korea and Formosa. Another
vital element-apart from the hard work of the
Japanese themselves-has been the nature of
the Allied occupation. Unlike Germany Japan
has not been cut up into separate zones. 1t has
functioned as national unity with the policy
of the United States dominant and with General
Macarthur executing that policy in genuinely
maSterful manner.
The japanese, of course, are not yet out of
the woods Although they are industrially pre-
dominant in the Far East, they lack natural
resourceS and arc therefore heavily deneydent
on foreign trade They must import to live.
To keep their economy going (because of their
great population increase, their per capita income
remains well below prewar in spite of their pro-
duction recovery, they must get from abroad
vast amounts of food and raw materials. But
to do this-and here is their major problem
they must develop export markets for their
manufactured goods in order to earn enough
dollars or other foreign currencies to pay for
all the things they need from overseas.
The Gray report, however, has made clear
that the Japanese can solve this problem by
increasing their productive efficiency at home
by being allowed to have larger merchant
fleet, and by being aided in other ways that
will enable them to help themselves expand
their export output and build toward a new
pattern of trade-a pattern in which the under
developed areas of Southeast Asia and similar
regions outside the Soviet sphere would become
their chief markets and sources of raw materials
Indeed given continuation of trends now
in their favor, the Japanese, according to the
Gray reports findings, may be wholly self
supporting by 1852, even though their per capita
income probably will be bit under the prewal
level. In short, as vanquished people, they
have staged truly remarkable comeback, which
is at once tribute to themselves and to the
American program as administered by Genera
Macarthur.
Beyond that, this recovery-h 1t can b.