794.00/5–2652
No. 543
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Commander in Chief, Far East (Ridgway)1
[Extract]
. . . . . . .
7. Speaking of the Communist threat in Japan, he [Yoshida] outlined his plan of shortly beginning a campaign of education of the Japanese people, an element of which would be the sending of representatives of the Liberal Party throughout the country districts of Japan, because he said the farmers were substantial people and honest thinkers. “From here,” he pointed out, “the people, understanding the Communist threat, would themselves demand that Japan provide its own protection by rearming.”
“Rather than me urging rearmament,” he said, “I want the demand for it and for revision of the Constitution to permit it, to come from the people. Under this plan I feel sure it will. We are going to watch a Gallup poll and when we get about two-thirds who demand rearmament, then the Government can move openly in that direction.”
“If the Government should try to move now in that direction, it would find itself strongly attacked by the Opposition and probably saddled with a lot of members of the extreme Right, former Generals and Admirals particularly.” “Neither the extreme Right nor the extreme Left,” he said, “would be good for my people. We want the support of the middle-of-the-roaders, and that is why the farm population, with its honesty and stability, is so important.”2
. . . . . . .
General, United States Army
- This extract is part of one of several excerpts from records of conversations held between General Ridgway and Prime Minister Yoshida (during 1951–1952) which the General gave to Ambassador Robert Murphy and which the latter transmitted to Allison in a letter dated May 26, not printed. The entire packet is attached to Allison’s reply dated June 11, in which the Assistant Secretary commented in part: “It is also of interest to note that Yoshida has long been alive to the Communist threat, and that he has plans for educating the Japanese people to the necessity of dealing with this threat effectively. Education along such lines should, as Yoshida points out, assist in awakening the people to demand rearmament rather than having the Government faced with the necessity of forcing this issue.”↩
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In a memorandum to Allison concerning a conversation held May 23 in Washington with General Ridgway, Bruce reported the General’s views on Japanese rearmament as follows:
↩“Japanese rearmament is impeded (a) by financial considerations and (b) by the fact that the Prime Minister is determined not to allow the reconstitution of the traditional officer caste. The General approves of this attitude regarding officers and has confidence that the Japanese are handling the problem of rearmament wisely within the limitations of their capabilities. He says there is a psychological difficulty in our having first indoctrinated the Japanese people with the undesirability of having land forces and now being faced with the necessity of indoctrinating them in the desirability of so doing.” (Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 65 D 238)