Good-Bye, Mr. Tojo!
pp. 8-44 · Read in the full issue
Why a Gentleman Who Had Lost Face Went Into the Discard
By R. W. Robson
AS I see it, the dismissal of To jo and Company can be explained simply enough. I will admit, how ever, that international events now are moving with such rapidity that, by the time this is published, the whole set-up may have changed, and the following explanation may be unnecessary.
Within four months after Pearl Harbour, Japanese expeditions had occupied fifteen Territories, to which they had been allotted in the Japa nese Master-Plan; "and Radio Tokio was shouting gleefully that the Co- Prosperity Sphere was in being, and that Japan already was suprerrie mistress of South-east Asia, Indonesia and the Western Pacific, and soon would be ruler of the world. In that period, 2i years ago, I expressed these opinions: • The Japanese had defied the fundamental rules of war by spread ing themselves out over such a wide area; and long lines of vital com munications were exposed to attack. • It was evidently the belief of Tokio that Germany and Italy could hold all Britain’s strength and part of America’s strength, while Japan dug herself in in her new Empire; and that the task of overcoming and occupying hundreds of fortified islands would break the hearts of the remaining Americans, and induce them to seek peace, long before they reached the latitude of Tokio.
This was the plan of the Tokio war lords—and especially of General Tojo, the cunning soldier-politician of the Kwantung Army, and of Admiral Yamamoto, head of the Japanese Navy. I said, early in 1942, and re peated it many times afterwards, “Air-power is the thing that Mr. Tojo forgot.”
AND so it proved. Air-power broke Germany; air-power struck at the vital communications of the Jap defensive organisation, and exposed the fatal weaknesses of the Tojo- Yamamoto plan; by the end of 1942. air-power had forced the Japanese upon the defensive.
Yamamoto, early in the piece, rea lised that Japan would herself be strangled in the trap she had devised for the embarrassment of her enemies; and so Yamamoto, like a good Son of. Heaven, exterminated himself. Tokio reported that he had been killed while directing operations from a plane in the Solomon Islands.
If so, it was a singular coincidence that Yamamoto should have died just when it became plain to everyone, as the outcome of Guadalcanal, that the Yamamoto strategy would bring about Japan’s defeat.
Tokio spent all of 1943 floundering
about, and hoping for a miracle. The growth of Allied air-power, the suc cess of our North African campaign, the strength of the United States in dustrial potential, and the terrifying character and size of the forces be ing built up by America—these things must have been noted and appraised in Tokio; but Tokio still hoped that Hitler somehow would contrive to pull, a rabbit out of his hat.
Tokio thought that Germany might defeat Russia; and, when the Ger mans began the long, disastrous re treat from Stalingrad, Tokio still gambled on Hitler’s secret weapon.
Von Ribbentrop (who seems to have had a singular faculty for mes merising Japanese) probably con vinced Tokio’s representative, late in 1943, that Germany’s flying-bomb would destroy Britain and cripple American plans; but, just when the flying-bomb plan was full of promise, the RAF found the home of the new secret weapon, at Peenemunde, near the Baltic coast, and blew it to pieces.
It may be that that achievement altered the course of the war. The flying-bomb attack was disrupted, and could not be re-organised and launched until after the British and Americans had landed in France— too late to interfere with the Western invasion, and too late to avert the complete defeat of Germany.
Too late, also, to assist Mr. To jo in the delicate task of keeping his face on.
ACTUALLY, Tokio spent all of 1943 and some of 1944 in trying to save face—in desperately seeking a way out of the jam caused by the failure of the Jap Air Force and the impending collapse of Germany.
As long ago as June, 1943, I argued publicly that Mr. To jo of Tokio had only two courses open to him: He must either send out his fleet, in an attempt to regain control of the
(Continued on Page 42)
Loss of Face.
Cartoonist Armstrong’s comment in “The Argus,” on the disappearance of Mr. Tojo from the Government of Japan.
Western Pacific and protect the Japanese armies in Indonesia and South-east Asia; or he must with draw from the Netherlands Indies, South-east Asia, Philippines and South-west Pacific, It was apparent that Japan, lacking air cover, dare not send out her fleet.
The logical outcome of that situa tion—the northwards withdrawal of the Japs—did not happen—in fact, it actually has not happened yet. Why?
XT is all a matter of face. Tokio X could not bear the thought of withdrawing from the newly-won Em pire, and thus acknowledging defeat to the members of the precious “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
Ever since December, 1941, Japan has been driving the conquered peoples of Indonesia and South-east Asia into the “Sphere”—a set-up which, according to Tokio, is to be a sort of League in which all Asiatic nations will enjoy absolute equality and resist European exploitation; but which actually is a group of terrified peoples brought together under the Japanese whip, for ruthless exploi tation by Japan.
The nations already in the “Sphere” are Japan, Puppet China, Manchuria, Thailand and Burma; and the nations being “prepared” for inclusion are Philippines, Indo-China, Malaya and Netherlands Indies. For two years, more than 200,000,000 people were told that Japan is their friend and the mistress of the world. Some what difficult, after that, to go into reverse!
But it has to be done. Japan’s only hope of saving anythihg out of the wreck of her dreams is to withdraw her forces from all places southward of Indo-China, where they are being bled white, and concentrate them for a last-ditch stand in defence of the home-land.
The choice was plain. Either save the face of Mr. Tojo by hanging on
in Indonesia and elsewhere, and hop ing that Japan’s far-flung forces might not be trapped; or sack Mr.
Tojo, with face besmirched, and get ready for the northwards march.
And so Tokio said “Good-bye” to the calamitous Mr. Tojo. A new Cabinet has taken charge. Tokio Radio, in the best Goebbels style, says the newcomers will organise for vic tory the indomitable will of a united people, whose destiny it is to control the world.
TF the new Cabinet can see a chance of doing something spectacular, to demonstrate the Son of Heaven’s inflexible will to conquer, that will be done. But the facts of the present situation, read against the back ground of events since Pearl Har bour, indicate that the course of things, in the next few months, will be something like this: • The Japanese will concentrate available forces to hamper and delay the American plan of occupying all four southern Marianas (Saipan, Guam, Tinian and Rota), and estab lishing there a base from which it would be possible to attack either the Philippines or Japan itself. • Meanwhile, the Japanese will begin withdrawal from the Nether lands Indies, because they realise that, if the Americans get a footing in the Philippines, they will cut off all Japanese sea-borne communi cations with the Netherlands Indies and Malaya. • Japan will put every ounce of energy she has behind an attempt to make the “Co-Prosperity Sphere” fight. So far, the “Sphere” has been mostly hot air. But, if the people of Philippines, Indo-China, Malaya and South-east China can be induced to rally around the Japanese, and fight against the Americans, British and Dutch, Japanese face may be saved, anfl Japan (says Tokio) might yet be permitted to hang on to some part of her stolen Empire. • Meanwhile, far-reaching and drastic steps will be taken to prepare the islands of Japan itself to resist invasion. Plans will be made for the most effective use of the Japanese Navy, within the waters of Japan it self; and Japanese industrial strength will be concentrated upon the crea tion of an Air Force designed and trained specially to guard the shores of Japan and South-east China.
In a sentence: A new Cabinet has been brought in, so that Japan, with out unendurable loss of face, can abandon the no-longer-defendable Empire of Mr. Tojo and Admiral Yamamoto, and can make adequate preparations for the defence of the Japanese home country—in co operation with the “Co-Prosperity” peoples, if possible.
Mrs. Adelaide Clark, mother of Mr Hugh Clark, of Cable & Wireless, Ltd, Suva, Fiji, died in Suva on June 26, at the age of 76.