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The Western Mail July 31st
1935
Army v. Industrialists
Conflict in Japan
By Gareth Jones
“The Japanese Industrialists are selfish; they are
motivated by lust for profit and by sheer greed. We who love the Army
hate the spirit which the Industrialists are putting in the nation. We
believe in character, in honour, and in poverty.”
In a small room in Tokyo a Japanese with great
influence in the Army was explaining to me the ideals that actuate the
soldiers of the Son of Heaven, and in the words which I have quoted he
summed up the struggle which will take place and is now taking place
between two sections of Japanese life - the industrialists and the Army.
Army Anti-Capitalistic
“The Army hates Osaka - the Manchester of Japan - for
Osaka symbolizes capitalism, and the Army is anti-capitalistic.
“The Osaka merchants want to beat England and bring
Lancashire to her knees. But the Army recognises the value of clear
understanding with Great Britain in order to counteract the influence of
Bolshevism.” So spoke another expert on Japan to me.
Industrialists versus the Army - that is the
conflict, and the Army is having the
upper hand.
It seemed strange to me, when I arrived in Japan that
the Army should play such a vital part in politics; that Army officers
should openly proclaim to the nation their views on economics, and that
the Army, which in most countries is conservative, should have
Socialistic views, while suppressing “international Socialism.”
The young officers have a hatred for the big
capitalists such as the Mitsuis and the Mitsubishis who dominate
Japanese industrial life.
These soldiers realise that commerce in Japan is in
the hands of a few large family groups whose word is law in finance and
manufacture.
No Sympathy for Rich
They fear that too large profits are going into the
hands of a few, and they fight, for a more equal distribution of
wealth. They have a profound disdain for luxury, and revering a
Spartanlike existence, they have no sympathy for the rich.
They believe that concentration of wealth in a few
hands leads to the deterioration of the wealthy class and to the
impoverishment of those classes from which the soldiers are drawn. They
look towards Europe, and there they consider that the West is facing a
catastrophe due to excessive capitalism, to mechanisation, and to an
exaggerated stress upon individualism and egoism.
“Let us save our nation from the evil results of
Western capitalism,” the young officers cry. “Let us return to the true
worship of the Emperor. Let the State be all powerful and curb the
rapacity of the rich. Let the State produce goods and be, responsible
for the masses.”
Passionate Idealism
These young Japanese officers - very honest, deeply
sincere, vague in their thoughts, but imbued with a passionate idealism
- are working out their plans for a State Socialistic Japan.
They must, however, have an experimentation ground
where they can test their ideas. They have decided that their field for
research will be none other than the Manchukuo taken from the Chinese
Manchukuo is to be the next Socialistic State. It
will be a Soviet Union run on Japanese lines. Already, there are three
industries under the control of the State, firstly the railway (the
famous South Manchurian Railway, which runs coalmines, steelworks, and
many factories), secondly salt, and thirdly opium.
Converting Manchukuo
One man of no little importance prophesied to me: “We
will in Manchukuo develop a State Industry in cement, in the building of
locomotives, and in coal, which we hope to nationalise. In fact, we
will socialise almost everything. Manchukuo will be an example of State
Socialism.”
This type of nationalistic State Socialism is opposed
by the industrialists, who wish private enterprise to dominate. But
what can the industrialists do against the Army?
Watch Manchukuo, therefore, in the future. It may be
annexed completely by Japan, and it may be, after Soviet Russia, the
world’s most interesting field for experiments in State Socialisation
and in the battle against private enterprise.
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