"National Mobilization"

Last week Japanese Democracy seemed to be fighting a wild, desk-banging, shrieking battle for its life in the Imperial Diet.

Japanese Democracy chiefly consists of three major political parties: the "National Political" Minseito (majority), "Friendly Political" Seiyukai (minority) and Shakai Taishuto or "Social Mass Party." The first two live almost entirely upon nation-wide local graft, plus contributions from large Japanese corporations and family groups, and these two parties completely dominate the Imperial Diet. The Army & Navy have now decided that wealthy Japanese must be fleeced by semi-confiscatory taxation for the glory of the Empire, and that this glory must not be dimmed by any objections from the working class, the class from which the great majority of Japanese Army & Navy officers themselves come. Therefore His Imperial Majesty's Government has been working since the first of the year to persuade the Imperial Diet to ratify what Japanese called with bated breath last week their National Mobilization Bill.

Members of the Diet have been going to work through Tokyo streets bristling with savage posters such as those which shrieked: "THOSE OPPOSING THE NATIONAL MOBILIZATION BILL ARE DOGS!" In charge of the police, as Minister of Home Affairs, is fiery Admiral Nobumasa Suetsugu. When deputies demanded that the posters be taken down he stormed at these representatives of the Japanese people as though they were schoolboys meddling on a warship's bridge. However, after 73-year-old Mr. Isoo Abe, leader of the Social Mass Party, had had his jaw broken by ruffians and retired to bed, Admiral Suetsugu permitted the police to give deputies opposed to the bill some protection, and the more inflammatory posters were pasted over with milder ones. To prove that His Imperial Majesty's Government was not asking anything unreasonable of the Diet, Government newsorgans came out prematurely (a month before even the U. S. House had passed the big Navy bill) with the screamer: "AMERICA PASSED GENERAL MOBILIZATION LAW."

His Imperial Majesty's Government, under its bill, proposes to run Japan under a Planning Commission with authority as complete as that of the Soviet Union State Planning Commission, but only "if in time of war it is found necessary." Much of the shouting and desk-banging in the Diet has been in efforts to find out whether His Imperial Majesty's Government considers that Japan today is at war--for Japan has not declared war on any country--and therefore whether or not the National Mobilization Bill would be operative as soon as passed. Premier Prince Konoye, after keeping away from as many sessions as he could on the plea that he was "sick," was finally haggled into saying that the National Mobilization Bill, even if passed, would not immediately become effective, would be administered by a commission on which would sit, promised the Premier, some members of the Seiyukai and the Minseito.

This was a substantial concession to Japanese Democracy, such as it is, and last week the screaming and desk-banging stopped. Members of the Imperial Diet suddenly quit issuing clarion calls that "Our parliamentary system is at the crossroads!" Members of the Government sitting in the Diet went abruptly from scowls to smiles. Members of the Social Mass Party emitted loud, derisive laughs as the Minseito and Seiyukai leaders switched around. "As a matter of fact, the Seiyukai Party declared 20 years ago the necessity for legislation such as this!" cried Seiyukai Spokesman Takejiro Nishioka. "I feel this bill contains no sinister design. It is not a Fascist scheme!" Minseito Spokesman Toyokichi Toyoda was less enthusiastic, supported the National Mobilization Bill in a speech earnestly voicing his hope that the Japanese Government will keep the promises it has made to the Imperial Diet.

The bill then passed the lower chamber without a single dissenting vote.

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