y

SER ee

By M. MARKOV

The Mikado, the heart of Japanese
Imperialism and one of the greatest
aggressors in history, is not on trial

T HE trial of the major Japanese war criminals opened
* in Toyko last week. They will be tried by a specially

established international tribunal composed of representa-

tives of countries that signed Japan’s surrender terms.

iiike the Nazis being tried! at
Wuremburg, the top men of Jap-
anese imperialism, organizers of
aggression in the far east, will
now also have to face an inter-
national tribunal.

The Japanese imperialists have
done their best to escape retribu-
tion for the heinous crimes they
have committed. Ever since Hit-
jer Germany's capitulation they
have been trying to convince the
public in Allied countries and
aiso their own people that there
is nobody in Japan to be brought
before the court.

Their crude attempts at influ-
encing public opinion, however,
did not help. The Potsdam De-
claration on Japan issued July 26,
1945, demanded the severe punish-
ment of those who deceived and
misled the people of Japan into
embarking on world conquest. It
follewed from the text of the
declaration that the persons to be
prosecuted were the Japanese
militarist leaders responsible for
inciting and conducting aggres-
sive wars, and also those who had
actively supported the militarists,
that is, the members of the im-
perial family, leading statesmen,
high-placed officials, operators of
industrial concerns and banks,
leaders of war in€ustry, the
Iainstay of the militarists. Last-
ly, those Japanese guilty of war
atrocities. :

Lists Not Complete

! first list of Japanese war

criminals, dated September 11,
1945, begins with the name of
General Hideki Tojo who headed
the fokyo cabinet at the time of
the attack on Pearl Harbor. This
kimonoed Hitler is involved not
cnly in the treacherous attacks on
American and British possessions
in the Pacific but also in the long
and cruel war against China, the
plunger of captured territories
and the enslavement of Asiatic

S>SYTATDENOTDD CU TU TNATOTTAALN OTTO
: °
Japanese Unions

Reach New High

TOKYOQ—Three million Japan-
ese workers are now organized
and the number of union locals
throughout the country exceeds
10,000, the Tokyo Welfare Min-
istry revealed. This constitutes
an all-time membership high
and is eight times the previous
record of 400,000, set before the
militarists smashed the labor
Movement in preparation for
their agesression against Man-
churia_

The Wational Wederation of
“aber, with half a million mem-
bers, is held to be connected
with the Social § Democratic
Party. The Council of Labor
Wnions, with another half mil-
ion, is said to look to the
Communist party for political
teadership. The rest of the
workers are in unions that are
Hot nationally federated.

LACIEIC THIBUNE — PAGE it

nations under the device of the
“greater east Asia eo-prosperity
sphere.” The same list names the
members, too of the cabinet, in-
cluding Toro and Kaya.

These criminals were not only
Builty of launching the Pacific
war. Long before this their rec-
ords showed numerous services
rendered as organizers and lead-
ers of aggression in China and as
creators of the Japanese war ma-
chine.

These lists, however, are far
from complete. They do not con-
tain the names of many people
whose punishment is demanded
by the nations that participated
in the defeat of Japan. As the
Chinese press points out, General
Okamura, former commander of
the Japanese forces in China, has
not only not been arrested as a
War criminal but is still in Nan-
king in command of the undis-
armed Japanese troops.

Other leaders of Japanese ag-
gression in these lists are also
missing. The men at the top of
Japanese industrial concerns—the
Zaibatus—do not fisure in the
lists; nor do many leaders of the
secret terrorist organizations and
members of the fascist imperial
circle.

Emperor Untouched

{a American occupation auth-
orities have not acceded to the

-demand made by world public

opinion to bring the emperor, one

of the major war criminals, be-_

fore the court. The Tokyo corres-
pondent of the New York Herald
Tribune points out that the de-
cision taken: by Australia and New
Zealand to declare Hmperor Hiro-
hito “war criminal Number One”
caused some embarrassment at
MacArthur’s headquarters which
had been trying to Shield the
Mikado and protect him from
punishment.

In view of the position adopted
by the occupation authorities,

the Japanese reactionaries are

openly agitating against the de-
mand of progressive sections of
the Japanese public that the em-

peror be removed frem _ the
throne and brought to trial.
The emperor himself, laying

aside his divine majesty, under-
took a propaganda trip through
the country advertising his will-
ingness to “serve democracy.”

World public epinion insists
that Hirohito be brought to trial.
As Senator Russel (Democrat)
rightly pointed out in the United
States senate when he spoke in
aefence of the resolution demanc-
ing the arrest of the Mikado as a
war criminal, Wirohito is the
heart of Japanese militarism and
cne of the greatest aggressors in
history. He added that due to the
great respect shown Hirohito by
the Allies, the Japanese people
did not feel their defeat.

The preparation of the prose-
cution’s case against the Japan-
ese war criminals has undoubt—

~ after

Japanese War Criminals

On Trial

Storming the gates of the residence of J apan’s ex-premier Shidehara, this mass of
workers and peasants protested his government’s anti-democratic regime, which had
the blessing of U.S. occupation forces. The elections replaced Shidehara, a recogniz-
ed war criminal, with Shigeru Yoshida, another pawn upon which reaction hopes to
create a base for imperialist policies.

edly been adversely affected by.
the fact that the occupation auth-
crities permitted the Japanese re-
actionaries to develop an ‘open
Campaign in defence of these
criminals. While the whole coun-
try was ringing with demands
for the punishment of those
guilty. of the war, men whose
names were well known to the
whole people, Shidehara when he
accepted the post of prime min-
ister said: “I will meet with great
difficulty in forming a cabinet as
i do not Know who is considered
@ war criminal in our country.”

Communist Policy

T is highly indicative that of all

the many parties that took part
in- the elections on April 18, none
except the Communists and So-
cialists included the punishment
of those guilty of ageression in
their election platform. Instead
of exposing the political adven-
turers who embarked the country
on the road to bloody aggression,
Shidehara’s government set up a
commission to study the causes of
Gefeat so that “the mistakes made
qauring the war would not be re-
peated in the future. . - .”

The 89th session of the Jap-
anese parliament was turned into
an advocate’s bar where the
leaders of the government one
another made speeches
justifying those guilty of the war.

The Japanese police who ar-
rested the war criminals on the
instructions of General MacAr-
thus, gave many of them oppor-
tunities to commit suicide and
thus avoid trial. The former com-
mander of the Kwantung army,
General Honjo; the former chief
of the general army staff Sugi-
yamas former minister of educa-
tion in the Tojo cabinet Hashida,
and others, succeeded in putting
an end to their lives. These sui-
cides are not only evidence that
the accused fear trials; they also
eenstitute an attempt to set up
a martyr’s Ralo over the people
whose names were connected
with Japanese expansion in the
far east

The carelessness displayed by
the occupation authorities in re-

spect to the war criminals was
not limited to leavirig their arrest
to the Japanese police. It went
much further. An Associated
Press agency points out that the
American command gave the
war criminals a few days’ liberty.
in which to wind up their personal
affairs. Naturally during this re-
spite war criminals were able to
wipe away the traces and destroy
compromising documents.

Pass the Buck

TE leaders of the Japanese
government who directed the

acts of aggression put the whole

blame on the army; the army
chiefs blame the leaders of the
navy who in turn refer to the
dead. Togo expressed extreme as-
tonishment at his arrest and an-
nounced that he had done every-
thing -in his power to prevent
hostilities and that Tojo alone
was guilty of launching the war.
Shortly before his suicide Konoye
maintained that all his activity
had been nothing but “service”
in the cause of peace, but that
this activity had been hampered
by the militarists.

General Tojo, who aped all the
mannerisms of the Hitlerite leaw
ers when he was prime minister,
is now employing the same in-
dustry to copy faithfully the sub-
terfuges which they have in-
vented while in the dock at
Wuremburg. On “March 27 the
Nippon Times reported that it
was stated in authoritative circles
that “Tojo has besun to lose his
memory.” During questioning he
was “no longer able to remem-
ber dates and other important de-
tails.””

There is no @oubt that at the
trial the Japanese war criminais
will retain their tactics of de-
ception, evasion of responsibility
and shifting of guilt to others.
The recent trials in Manila of
two major war criminals, Gener-
als Yanrashita and Homma, are
evidence of this. Despite the fact
that the material evidence intro-
duced by the prosecution and the
testimony of numerous witnesses
painted an incontrovertible pic-

ture of the monstrous atrocities
committed by the Japanese troops
in the Philippines under com-
mand of the accused, the Ameri-
ean counsel for the defense ap-
pealed to the Supreme Court of
the Philippine Islands demanding
that Yamashita be treated as

prisoner of war! :

Progressive Factor

: lessons taught by the trials

already held should be taken
into consideration and the de-
mands of the nations for just
and speedy punishment of the war
criminals be heeded. The leaders
of the Japanese fascist-modelled
imperialism used the Same wea-
pons as the Hitlerites. The seiz-
ure of foreign territories, enslave-

-ment of other nations and aboli-

tion of their independence, the
plundering of whole countries, the
violation of all laws and cus-
tems of war and: of all generally
accepted principles of interna-
tional law, the sadistically brutal
treatment of prisoners of war
and of the population of con-
quered countries, the treacherous
violation of treaties—all this was
equally applicable to both the
German and Japanese imperial-
ists.

Today when reaction in Japan
has become considerably more
active, the Tokyo trial of the war
criminals is destined tp play an
important roie in strengthening
the position of the progressive
forces. The trial must expose the
connections between the present
leaders of Japanese reaction and
top-ranking militarists who are
now in the dock, and must also
remove the mystic veil of service
to the “son of heaven” behind
which the Japanese imperialists
have so long hidden their dark
deeds, turning the heads of the
people and depicting themselves
as blind tools of some higher
power. The just punishment of the
major Japanese war criminals
will greatly contribute to the
strengthening of peace and the
prevention of fresh aggression.

FRIDAY, ZUNE 14, 1946