The militarist state of Hirohito

GOVIND TALWALKAR

Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Professor Herbert P. Bix; Harper-Collins; pages 800; $ 35.

THIS, the year's Pulitzer Prize winning book by Professor Herbert P. Bix, is a scathing indictment of the late Emperor of Japan, Michinomiya Hirohita (1901-89). Both President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) and General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) of the United States have been similarly indicted by the author, who is regarded as an authority on Japan. Professor Bix has written several books on Japan.

In 1904, when Japan triumphed over Tsarist Russia, the victory was acclaimed by countries all over the East, including India. Indian leaders were jubilant that an eastern nation had defeated a European one. For some time Japan was taken as a model to be emulated. It was not thought proper to go into the history of Japan under the Meiji regime. Meiji Tenno (1852-1912), the great-grandfather of the present Emperor of Japan, converted the Japanese people to militarism. He made systematic efforts to make his people believe that his lineage descended from God and this divine lineage gave him divine rights. In his regime, the Diet, the Japanese parliament, was beholden to the Emperor. So it could be convoked or dissolved at his behest. The Emperor was the source of law. As the Emperor had "divine rights", the people were reduced to abject servitude.

Japan under Meiji rule and Russia under Tsarist rule were not very different from each other, and there was nothing to be jubilant about Japan's victory over Russia. Both were equally autocratic and oppressive. Indian leaders were critical of Tsarist Russia but showered praise on Meiji's Japan. One of the tenets held firmly by the Meiji rulers was that though Japan was an eastern country, it was different from not only other eastern nations but also all other nations of the world. The Japanese belief was that Japan was the cleanest nation in the world and that therefore it had the moral right to rule over the "unclean" nations.

The victory over Tsarist Russia might have been hailed all over the East, but in Japan it had a mixed reception from the people. First, the war ended with a treaty, which was brokered by a third country - the U.S. Japan lost in the war 1.1 lakh of its soldiers. Immediately after the War there were riots in several parts of the country. Besides, it was perceived that the country was under constant threat from Russia.

Hirohito, who was born in 1901, was brought up under strict military discipline. His supervisors were military officers, who saw to it that the prince got an education that would equip him to grow into an emperor. His father was a weakling, and so Hirohito acted as a regent for about four years from 1921. After his father's death, he was enthroned Emperor. Hirohito wanted to build a modern Japan but did not want Western political institutions and ideologies to take root in his country. Expansionism was the natural outcome. Japan then launched a drive in Manchuria. The local people were having trouble with the nationalist forces of China, which were fighting under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek. Japan supported the local leadership to defeat China, and after that goal was achieved it brought Manchuria under its dominance.

The Western countries were in the grip of an economic Depression and had no will or means to stop the aggression of Japan. Japan itself was not immune from the Depression. In 1931, the Vice-President of the Privy Council, Hiranuma, who was a bureaucrat in the Justice Ministry, surveyed the scene and declared that the Depression was taking a heavy toll. Families were breaking up and starving people were filling the streets. His remedy was to discard the liberal values and accept nationalism. He praised the Emperor and imperial rule. He and others of his persuasion thought it imperative to launch into a course of expansion. Many in the army supported this view and demanded more money to strengthen the armed forces.

This was also the period when Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the Chancellor of Germany (1933-1945), and his National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party were gaining ground in Germany. With Hitler's rise, there was a strong opinion in Japan, which was in favour of having ties with the Nazis. Japan's special role was also emphasised. But Hirohito was hesitant, not because he was against the nationalist upsurge or because he was opposed to the Nazis but because he feared strong measures by the U.S., Britain and other countries. Fear of the Soviet Union also lurked in his mind. Even then Japan brought Manchuria under its control and then launched an offensive against China. The Chinese leadership, which was divided, could not resist this aggression and conceded five Northern provinces to Japan.

The Japanese brought under their control Shanghai and Nanjing. As in Manchuria, some incidents were stage-managed as a reason to launch an offensive. The Japanese all the while refused to call their military action against China a war; they called it an "incident". After a resistance that lasted about five days, the walled city of Nanjing fell in the hands of the Japanese. Japanese soldiers then launched a campaign of executions. They executed unarmed people and prisoners of war and indulged in arson, rape and looting. For three months this slaughter in the city and its adjoining rural areas went on. On the first day the Japanese army killed 32,300 Chinese soldiers, who were prisoners of war. They shot dead 17,000 people, who were fleeing the city. Two lakh people fell victim to these brutal atrocities, according to one Japanese estimate. Hirohito was aware of what was going on but made no effort to stop the carnage. In 1939, 420 Japanese soldiers were tried and convicted for rape and murder, but nobody was executed.

In 1939, when the Second World War broke out, Japan thought it an opportune moment to conquer China and the South-East Asian countries. It also had agreements with the Nazi government of Germany. In areas conquered by Japan, the local people were subjected to untold suffering owing to the army's brutality that had crossed all bounds. Ultimately, Japan was defeated and General MacArthur became the Chief Commander to guide the destinies of post-War Japan.

Under MacArthur a new Constitution was ushered in, which made the Emperor a figurehead. The press became free, and slowly some scholars began to question Hirohito's role in the War. It was generally believed that Hirohito would be tried as a war criminal. But the Emperor had long conversations with MacArthur, who did not want Hirohito to be brought before the tribunal. President Truman backed the General, and both tried their best to shield Hirohito. MacArthur declared that the Emperor had no direct responsibility in the War, which was totally false. Hirohito was not a puppet in the hands of military leaders, as depicted by apologists of the Emperor, but an active leader in the War. He knew what was going on and directed the operations.

Unlike the Nuremberg tribunal, which tried Nazi war criminals, the war crime tribunal for Japan was a sham. Very few Japanese were brought before it, and all efforts of the Americans were concentrated on protecting Hirohito. The Emperor's officers wined and dined with U.S. attorneys and went duck-hunting. Immediately after the termination of the War, relations between the U.S. and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) became sour, and that started the Cold War. A blocked-off Berlin added to the annoyance of the Americans, who then thought that Japan could be an asset and would be useful in its strategy against the Soviet Union. The U.S., therefore, folded up the war crime tribunal - which exonerated Hirohito in a short time. In return for this favour, the Americans wanted to establish their military bases in Japan, and the Japanese readily agreed.

This shameful story is brought out in all its detail by Prof. Bix, and it cannot be complete without narrating the deplorable behaviour of the Indian judge on the war crime tribunal, Radha Binod Pal, who was appointed by the then Government of India. He did not attend more than one-third of the meetings of the tribunal, and all the while held that the Japanese leaders in general and Hirohito in particular were not guilty of war crimes. Hirohito, who directed the War and presided over the destiny of his country, was set free. The War cost nearly 20 million lives in Asia, more than three million in Japan, and 60,000 in Western countries. Hirohito, however, retained his throne.