The Lost War:

A Japanese Reporter's Inside Story [Illustrated Edition]

Masuo Kato

• Publisher: Verdun Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781786251541
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Includes The Bombing Of Japan During World War II illustrations pack with 120 maps, plans, and photos"Masuo Kato, an American educated Japanese newspaper man, represented the Domei news agency in Washington from 1937 to 1941, was repatriated in the first exchange. and served thereafter in Domei head. quarters in Tokyo. This little book, written following Japan's surrender with the assistance of an American occupation officer, reflects the attitudes of the "Westernized" Japanese.The author indicates his skepticism over Japan's policies of aggression, but describes his own participation in her wartime propaganda machine. One cannot fail but question the degree to which such an individual now accepts American occupation policies.The book gives a graphic account of wartime conditions in Japan. It tells of the changes in political leadership, terminating in the maneuvering of figures around the Throne preceding unconditional surrender. Kato attributes the acceptance of defeat by the people in large measure to the Emperor's radio appeal for maintenance of order."— John Masland, Dartmouth College

XIII — The Last Days

In the fortnight between Japan’s surrender and the arrival of the first occupation troops, most of the Japanese people went mechanically about their daily affairs, partly because there was nothing else to do, and there were few surface manifestations of the change from war to peace. The newspapers and radio attempted to bring to the public many of the facts of their situation long suppressed by a succession of militaristic governments, and the Emperor’s appeal for maintenance of order was repeated over and over.

“The hardships and sufferings to which our nation is to be subjected hereafter,” the Emperor had said, “will be certainly great. We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all of you, our subjects. However, it is according to the dictate of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable.

“Having been able to safeguard and maintain the structure of the Imperial state, we are always with you, our good and loyal subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity. Beware most strictly of any outbursts of emotion that may engender needless complications or any fraternal contention and strife that may create confusion, lead you astray, and cause you to lose the confidence of the world.”

The rescript was written in language that the ordinary Japanese could understand much better than that of previous rescripts—it set a precedent in that respect which is still being followed—and that fact increased the importance it had in the amazingly uneventful transition from war to surrender.

Tokyo street scenes in those two weeks reminded me more of China than of the Japan I had always known, instead of the industrious activity usually to be seen in the streets of Tokyo during the war, there were everywhere idle groups of people, huddling together in the ruins of a once great city, watching the sky and the passers-by, waiting for what might happen next. Everywhere around them reconstruction waited too, but there was no leadership that could have overcome that mass inertia; the leaders were sunk in the same kind of apathy; the very fabric of Japanese political life had dissolved overnight. Tears were soon over. There were only vacant, dull stares for many days.

If there was one emotion which pervaded the moral atmosphere of that period it was a sense of relief that the worst had now come, relief that the fighting was over and relief from the ever present fear of death from the skies. Russia’s declaration of war and the atomic bomb had proved to be the divine wind, the Kami Kaze of history, that had been counted upon to accomplish a miracle for the people of Japan. The divine wind had brought victory for the Allies, but it had released the Japanese people from a nightmare. In a way it was like a miraculous and unexpected cure after a long illness.

The newspapers attempted to furnish some sort of leadership, but the sudden change from war to peace found them as unprepared and as uncertain of the future as everyone else. In their new-found relative freedom they were like a canary that suddenly released from its cage after years of imprisonment, has forgotten how to fly and is still unable to effect the escape for which it has longed.

To Prince Higashikuni, who had been charged with the task of effecting an orderly surrender to the Allies, should go a share of the credit for the smoothness with which the occupation was effected. Although his Cabinet was short-lived, lasting only about fifty days, it was able to take the necessary measures to accomplish the surrender and permit a bloodless occ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• I - Empire in Ashes
• II - Failure of a Mission
• III - Why Japan Struck
• IV - Washington December 7, 1941
• V - Empire in the Building
• VI - Three Wars in One
• VII - The Leaders
• VIII - Psychological Warfare
• IX - The Sinews of War
• X - Culture in Bondage
• XI - Terror by Fire
• XII - Unconditional Surrender
• XIII - The Last Days