The Charlotte News
Friday, August 17, 1945
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Japan had selected its emissaries to receive formally the terms of surrender, and reported to General MacArthur that they would be departing for Ie Shima the next day. The message had been received by the General's headquarters at 2:45 a.m., Saturday, Manila time. It came in response to a curt directive by General MacArthur, ordering compliance, saying he would tolerate no extended delay without good reason. General MacArthur told the Japanese that the emissary would not be required to sign the documents, just receive them.
Members of the royal family were departing for China and Indo-China to impart to the commanders along the fronts the terms of surrender and to insure they obeyed.
Japan admitted having inflicted damage on a dozen Allied transport ships which had approached closely to Kochi on Skikoku.
Four American planes were attacked by ten Japanese fighters over Tokyo. The new B-32's were merely on a photographic mission at the time. None of the crews were injured, but one of the bombers was hit. Two of the fighters were knocked down.
Japan had requested that General MacArthur undertake urgent steps to see that the Soviet offensive in Manchuria was halted. The Japanese stated that part of the Chinese Army of Chungking was also continuing to attack the Japanese along the Tientsin-Pukow railway and in the Yangtze Valley in North and Central China.
The Russians, meanwhile, contended that the Japanese had launched a widespread counter-offensive in Manchuria and that they were only responding to it. The Russians had issued orders that the Japanese quit fighting.
The Emperor issued a sterner rescript, ordering hostilities to cease by Japanese forces. Newly installed Premier Higashi-Kuni echoed the order.
Newspapers around the United States, including two in Honolulu and the Christian Science Monitor, began heavily to criticize retention of the Emperor in light of the double-talk they perceived from his statements to the Japanese people since surrender. The Honolulu Advertiser, for instance, referred to his "lying apology to the Japanese people" and stated that it could not be dismissed as merely amusing.
A major concern immediately to General MacArthur was the release of the many thousands of Allied prisoners in Japanese camps in Japan and Manchuria. The prisoner list was headed by Lt. General Jonathan Wainwright, the hero of Corregidor in early May, 1942, who held out to the last before surrender.
General Hap Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, disclosed that a new plane had been developed which was considerably superior to the B-29. It was said to be capable of flying over all of East Asia from the Western Pacific. The B-29 could fly from Guam to Washington in 36 hours, a distance of 9,000 miles. The new plane, not the recently announced B-32, was said to be possibly a little faster.
Presumably, the General referred to the B-36, forerunner to the B-52.
General Arnold also stated his intention soon to retire.
He said that new developments in weaponry and further developments with the atomic bomb forecasted a "Buck Rogers conception of war," which would include guided missiles moving at speeds making them difficult to defend. The U.S., he further stated, needed bases in the Pacific to insure that it could use
In Paris, General De Gaulle, not unexpectedly, spared the life of his mentor, Marshal Henri Petain, who had just been sentenced to death for treason despite the recommendation by the judge of the tribunal, which had heard testimony for three weeks, that he be found not guilty. The court itself, in rendering the verdict, had asked that the sentence of death not be carried out. Marshal Petain would live out his days, until his death in 1951, under detention.
The Little Steel wage formula, in effect since the beginning of the war, freezing wage increases to 15 percent above those in effect at the beginning of 1941, was scrapped by President Truman, permitting voluntary wage increases as long as employers certified that they would not lead to price increases. He asked that Labor continue to obey the no-strike pledge of early 1942.
The Army cut its orders for coal and declared the supply problem thus solved for the winter. But the Solid Fuels Administration under Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes declared this contention not to be accurate, even though the cut would help alleviate problems in civilian supply.
The Army also stated that meat would be released to the civilian market, plus 10,000 Jeeps and other war surplus. Reduced shipments, it stated, should ameliorate the problem of overcrowded railroads.
Secretary of Agriculture Clinton Anderson stated that meat supplies in the period October through December would be increased to a per capita rate of 145 pounds annually, compared to 120 pounds thus far in 1945.
We interpret that to have meant that everyone in the country was free during the coming holiday season to gain 25 pounds, even General Skinny Wainwright.
The Office of Defense Transportation abolished all limits on taxis, rental cars, auto racing, and state and local fairs, as well as permitting larger conventions.
A table lists the financial costs of the war. On December 7, 1941, the country's debt was at 55 billion dollars, 43 billion on September 1, 1940, a year after Germany invaded Poland. It stood at 263 billion on August 14, 1945, V-J Day.
On the editorial page, "Let's Back Up" recommends a falling back to pre-war time, that is Standard Time. War Time, originally moved up a half hour before Pearl Harbor, was advanced in early 1942 the full hour, to coincide with what later became known as Daylight Savings Time, but in place year around during the war.
The piece wants to preserve the cool morning summer hours for sleep, and certainly did not want hour-long forward spring continued into the winter.
"Danger Ahead" comments on Governor Gregg Cherry's program to accelerate construction of roads in the state, with the war over. He also announced his intention soon to drop the wartime speed limit of 35 mph and resume the old 60 mph on major thoroughfares outside the cities.
But, the piece cautions, most of the cars were dilapidated jalopies, 80 percent being over three years old. Moreover, the tires were worn thin and were unreliable at higher speeds. And, adding to the mix was the fact that the population was itching to get behind the wheel again and let 'er rip for the first time in three and a half years.
It counsels moving slowly, lest there be a spate of automobile accidents.
The editorial does not recall the Herblock cartoon of August 18, 1941, which set forth, eerily, the grim statistic that there had been 2,390 more automobile accident fatalities in the first half of 1941 than in the first half of 1940, that figure coinciding exactly with the official number of deaths at Pearl Harbor December 7 of that fateful year.
So, perhaps there would be a return to this grim reaper's harvest of death on the highways should Governor Cherry make good on his promise of releasing the horses from the corral. We shall have to wait and see.
And, even more: "The old bus
"Indelible Stain" discusses the death sentence which had hung for a couple of days over 90-year old Marshal Petain in his cell in the Pyrenees, written before news of General De Gaulle's commutation. Thousands in the streets of Paris had demanded his execution. And so the court could do little but to abide the public will for retribution of the most severe sort for his having sold out France to Vichy and the Nazis.
Yet, the court's recommendation for lenience also went with the sentence.
The hero of Verdun had put up a poor defense, had not admitted anything, insisted that what he had done, he did for the good of France, to preserve it from destruction by the Germans at hopeless odds against the French Army in spring, 1940.
It offers that perhaps it had not just been Petain and Laval and Gamelin and the rest of the leaders who had betrayed France but also the people themselves, who abandoned their national virility and solidarity. That may have resulted from the twenty years between World War I and the fall. It suggests that perhaps the former glory of France was gone.
"Hark the King"
It offers that it must have come as something of a shock to hear the royal sovereign of England advocating socialist policies.
Yet, the Lords knew that whatever the people wanted in Britain had to be upheld by the King. And the people had spoken loudly on July 5.
"The King has come forth and declared for a people's socialism, and now he has retired to his regal stronghold. Long live the
The excerpt from the Congressional Record has Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York finding it deplorable that Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi had denied to a veteran and member of the AFL Sign, Pictorial, and Display Union the request to appear before the Committee on Veterans' Legislation.
An altercation had ensued between Mr. Rankin and the veteran, and the veteran was ordered arrested by the Congressman. The veteran was then removed, taken to the Old House Office Building, and interrogated in Gestapo manner.
Mr. Celler advocated allowing the veteran to have his say. He had participated in the occupation of Oran, from November 8 to December 10, 1942, and in the occupation of Gafsa and El Guettar in Tunisia, from March 17 to March 29, 1943. He had also participated in the battles of Asselitia Valley and Kairouan Pass in Tunisia, as well as participating in other engagements in both North Africa and Europe.
Responded Mr. Rankin: "I demand the words be taken down in which he deliberately and falsely charged that this veteran was
Drew Pearson again refers to the information he had received in 1922 while visiting Japan, from a young Quaker aide to Hirohito, named Renzo Sawada. Hirohito, then Crown Prince under a Regency, was bound for a sightseeing tour of the West and Mr. Sawada was to be his escort. It marked the first time that a Japanese ruler had left Japan.
"Mikado", Mr. Pearson informs parenthetically, means literally "awful place".
Japanese subjects never gazed upon the Emperor but worshipped at the Palace shrine. Shintoism had developed as a cult from this mystique and belief in the Emperor's literal endowment with divinity.
It had thus come as quite a shock to the people that their god would sail to England and France. Some had thrown themselves on the tracks in front of Hirohito's train to prevent it from carrying him to Yokohama for departure.
Indeed, the West, pursuant to Shinto belief, was made from the leftover seafoam and mud after the creation of Japan.
Hirohito had a made a public speech to the Lord Mayor of London during his visit, the first time any Emperor of Japan had made any public speech. In Paris, he bought a necktie for himself and a pearl for his mother, the first time an Emperor had ever purchased any item of any description.
Let us repeat that sentence: In Paris, he bought a necktie for himself and a pearl for his mother, the first time an Emperor had ever purchased any item of any description.
He also rode the Paris subway, also the first time any Emperor had ridden in a public conveyance. He had insisted on buying the tickets himself for his entourage. But he handed them to the fat woman at the gate in a bunch rather than fanning them to be punched quickly, causing protest by the passengers waiting in line. A woman openly scolded him to his face, another first.
At one point, Hirohito had exchanged coats with an aide during a parade and slipped away to see Paris on his own while his proxy took the applause of the crowds.
It was these sorts of gestures which had convinced many in the State Department that Hirohito was moderate or even liberal. While more moderate than the military caste surrounding him, and perhaps even opposed to the war—which he was not—, he had, suggests Mr. Pearson, become so much the tool of the militarists that it would be difficult to frame a new, democratic Japan around him.
He next informs that the FBI had been summoned to investigate how Mr. Pearson had obtained the Government blueprint for occupation of Germany, which he had published the previous week. The President, as he had informed, had originally authorized its publication but it had been delayed because of the military brass recommendation to withhold. Mr. Pearson stood by his decision that the people of the United States who had fought the war deserved to know what their Government intended in the way of an occupation policy of Germany.
Candidly, we found little about which to be very excited, as most of it had been published second-hand by either Mr. Pearson, himself, or the other syndicated columnists or in news reports. But, Mr. Hoover may have had his own agenda to advance.
He next points out that when General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz would come together in Tokyo for the signing of the surrender documents, to occur September 2, it would be the first time that the two had met since the prior August when President Roosevelt had visited the Pacific. The two men were not good friends.
He also reports that the Russians and Japanese had been fighting for about two weeks before the Russian official declaration of war on August 8 and their incursion across the border into Manchuria from the east and west. The preliminary fighting had been labeled "border skirmishes" and had been monitored by the President.
Finally, the column reports that the firm of L. W. Robert of Atlanta, who had been the Democratic National Committee chair during the thirties, was scheduled to build a 20 million dollar Army hospital in Puerto Rico.
Marquis Childs again stresses the need for encouraging development of the sciences in the country, remarking on the close race with the Germans for the development of the atomic bomb, America having been aided by the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany, causing many of the scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project to immigrate to Britain and America.
Whereas the Soviets had continued to encourage scientific training, America had suspended virtually all research except crucial war research. Because of lack of deferments from the draft, the country was facing a shortfall of 150,000 scientists with bachelor of science degrees, and an exiguity of 17,000 Ph.D.'s.
Dr. Vannevar Bush had recommended that a government-sponsored scientific foundation be established to encourage research and development, and, to that end, Senators Harley Kilgore of West Virginia and Warren Magnuson of Washington had met with President Truman the previous week to discuss the Senators' proposed measures to establish such a foundation. Two bills had been introduced, one by each Senator, and plans were to combine the bills, Senator Kilgore's proposal to control patents having garnered the President's approval.
Mr. Childs asserts that it was likely the bill would pass the Congress.
Dorothy Thompson observes Imperial Japan and its structures, likens it to the atom, with the nucleus being the Mikado. The American view now appeared to be that shooting out the nucleus would cause the forces of democracy to be loosed. She finds it a dubious experiment, more so than the Trinity blast of July 16.
She offers that removing the island stepping stones from Japanese possession, which had enabled its Empire during the early stages of the war, was the basic requisite for prevention of future Japanese aggression, along with monitoring of its home industries. But the real challenge lay in changing the Japanese collective mind from the routine indoctrination of the Shinto religion, ascribing to the Emperor divine qualities.
She reflects the mirror onto America and asks whether, if the tables had been turned and Japan had dictated surrender, Americans would be willing to forget their heritage merely by methods of occupation by a foreign power.
The question remained what form of government, in the event of a national plebiscite in Japan, would replace Hirohito if he were voted out. She challenges Secretary of State Byrnes to come up with a viable alternative.
She states that, with the military victory over Japan complete, the United States could do nothing further to determine the Japanese internal system of government.
She concludes, "To know one's own
Harry Golden, in the second of his series of articles on eight famous trials, reviews the case of Alfred Dreyfuss in 1894. It had come about when a cleaning woman in the German Embassy in Paris had, as an agent for the French Military Intelligence, discovered in a wastebasket a memorandum offering to sell to the Germans the plans for French fortifications. These plans had been known only to the highest members of the military and so it narrowed the investigation as to the culprit who had tendered the treasonous offer.
Eventually, the investigation focused on Captain Dreyfuss and he was arrested on October 15, 1894, charged with treason and acting as a German spy. Captain Dreyfuss was from a family which stretched back six generations in the French military. In the wake of his arrest, a wave of anti-Semitism swept France, extending to its colonies. A massacre of 15 people occurred in Algeria.
A French military court heard evidence in secret and convicted the Captain, sentencing him to life imprisonment on Devil's Island in French Guiana. He spent the next three years on the
But slowly, a crusade to make public the trial evidence developed, as leaks began which tended to exculpate Captain Dreyfuss. Among his supporters was novelist Emile Zola who, in 1898, issued an open editorial in the Paris newspaper titled famously, "J'Accuse". In it, he accused Count Esterhazy, Hungarian-born member of the General Staff, of having actually been the offender who authored the incriminating memorandum.
Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and Lt. General Georges Piquart both agreed with M. Zola's argument that the entire trial had been conducted to frame Dreyfuss, an effort to obtain his removal from the General Staff based on anti-Semitism and the perception that he had been too outspoken.
Eventually, in the wake of increasing evidence showing the guilt of Esterhazy, Lt. Colonel Hubert-Joseph Henry, an officer of the French Military Intelligence, confessed that he had selected Dreyfuss as the scapegoat for the crime because of the asserted reasons, based on insistence by the French War Minister. M. Esterhazy, meanwhile, fled to Japan.
The 1899 election of the French president centered on the
A public trial of Captain Dreyfuss was then held, but the military court again convicted him, sentencing him to ten years. President Loubet, however, issued a pardon, and in 1906, the conviction of Captain Dreyfuss was overturned by the supreme court of appeals. Dreyfuss was then reinstated to the French Army as a major. He was also admitted to the French Legion of Honor. During World War I, he rose to the rank of colonel and was placed in charge of construction of military installations
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