Fight for the Pacific - The Japanese Communist Party at the head of the democratic forces in the struggle against American enslavement and reaction

Fight for the Pacific 

Avarin

2. The Japanese Communist Party at the head of the democratic forces in the struggle against American enslavement and reaction

In the ranks of the world army of fighters for peace, progress and democracy, the Japanese Communist Party, the leader of Japan's democratic forces, actively takes part. Despite the ferocious attacks and insidious provocations of the reactionary forces, despite the enormous difficulties that the Japanese Communist Party encounters at every step, it is developing energetic activities, setting as its goal the democratic reconstruction of Japan.

The Japanese Communist Party has been heroically fighting for the interests of the Japanese workers and the entire Japanese people for several decades now. The first communist groups in Japan arose after the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. In 1922 they took shape in the Communist Party. From the very first steps, the Communist Party had to fight against the regime of terror and reaction under exceptionally difficult conditions. Arrests, torture in police dungeons, murders of Communist Party leaders - all this has been the rule, not the exception, in Japan from the very beginning of the working class party. Nevertheless, the Party achieved certain results, awakening the masses of the people, organizing the advanced elements of the workers, peasants and intelligentsia. Despite brutal repressions, communist cells appeared even in army units and in the navy.

The Japanese Communist Party is the only political party in Japan that has always resolutely opposed the aggressive plans of the military and the zaibatsu, the invasion of Manchuria, the occupation of China, the anti-Soviet aggression of Japanese imperialism, and the Pacific War initiated by the attack on Pearl Harbor.

It is not surprising that the Japanese gendarmerie has always attacked with extraordinary fury the advanced elements of the working class and working intelligentsia who dared to oppose the increase in armaments and the plans of Japanese imperialist aggression.

Even according to Japanese police statistics, over a decade (from 1930 to 1939) 60,000 communists were captured and imprisoned, and the total number of "unreliable" arrested during this time amounted to 300,000 people. The vast majority of those arrested were tortured to death in "underground bags" and executed.

And yet the ideas of communism in Japan lived and developed. They penetrated the hearts of the oppressed, which inspired the rulers of Japan with increasing anxiety.

The English newspaper The Manchester Guardian, in the first half of the 1930s, expressed its astonishment at this in the following words: “Considering the ferocity with which communism is eradicated in Japan, one would think that it should be completely destroyed. However, he lives. There is something that makes an extremely deep impression, something terrifying in this incessant appearance of more and more new people who are ready to risk everything for the spread of communism ... Those who are at the helm of power fear them like death ” (1) .

The fear of the Japanese ruling classes before "dangerous thoughts" reached the point of curiosity. In Japan, for example, it was forbidden to stage plays by Molière. This was motivated by the fact that Moliere created the type of impolite servants, expresses the sympathy of the independence of women, in the disputes of the elderly with youth, it takes the side of the youth, etc.

To diminish the consciousness of the masses, zoological nationalism was widely encouraged and the medieval feudal ideology was taken to the shield. School textbooks, distributed in millions of copies, taught the Japanese youth that the Japanese emperor is a descendant of the sun goddess and is himself a deity, that the Japanese are not ordinary people, but "god-men" (2) , etc.

Shinto sects tried to give a religious justification for the divinity of the "Yamato race". Religious teachings appeared in Japan that met the interests of imperialism. Each sect claimed that it was its town or town that was the center of the world, the new Mecca or Jerusalem. Thus, the Tenrikyo sect, which had its center in the town of Tambaitsi, not far from the industrial center of Osaka, claimed that it had 18 million followers. The essence of the teachings of this sect was contained in the following “postulate”: “Until now, Japan and other countries have existed. Henceforth, there should be nothing in the world but Japan.

Hundreds of petty chauvinist societies, sects and groups, fulfilling the social order of the ruling classes, have tried and are still trying to keep the Japanese people in the chains of an ideology that is a monstrous mixture of feudal superstitions, monarchist-fascist savagery and the "ideas" of super-imperialism.

The forces of reaction remained in power even after the capitulation of Japan. Only the Communist Party put forward a demand for the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a democratic republic.

In the post-war situation, the Japanese Communist Party has become the center around which all progressive elements are grouped, striving for national independence and the democratization of the country.

The program of the Communist Party after the surrender of the Japanese aggressors, in addition to demanding the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a democratic republic, also included demands for the creation of a united democratic popular front, the confiscation of the landowners' land, their distribution among the landless peasantry, the expropriation of the war profits of the capitalists, the provision of people with work, housing, food, and the liberation small enterprises from under the power of concerns, exposing and punishing war criminals.

The general secretary of the communist parties, Toku, in one of his speeches in the fall of 1948, declared that the popular front, the creation of which the communists consider their immediate goal, would fight for the national independence of Japan, for democracy, for the civil rights and economic interests of the majority of the people.

Only a part of the old cadres of the Japanese Communist Party remained alive after the terrible terror to which everyone suspected of "dangerous thoughts" was subjected.

In the first months after the capitulation of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party numbered only 1,000 people in its ranks, most of whom either returned from exile or miraculously survived, despite years of imprisonment. By the end of 1949, the number of party members exceeded 200 thousand people.

The Communist Party enjoys significant influence in the trade unions, which by the beginning of 1951 united about 7.5 million workers, workers and employees. The party's influence is also great in the Peasants' Union, which unites the advanced Japanese peasants.

The parliamentary elections in MacArthurian Japan took place under such conditions (deprivation of the right to vote, monarcho-fascist terrorist attacks against progressive voters, bribery and bribery, abuse of vote counting, etc.) that only the bourgeois parties had the opportunity to hold a large number of their representatives in parliament.

The influence of the Japanese Communist Party, despite the terror of the American occupation authorities, increased to such an extent, the disappointment of the working people in the bourgeois-landowner parties so intensified that in the parliamentary elections in January 1949, the Communist Party received 3.6 million, or 10 % of all votes. The number of representatives of the Communist Party in parliament has increased to 36 people. This victory of the democratic forces of Japan, won despite all the violence of the police and the occupation administration, infuriated the US imperialists and their agents in Japan. Prime Minister Yoshida, who received power for the second time from the hands of the invaders, threatened that he would “crush the Communist Party.” By arranging early parliamentary re-elections in the fall of 1952, the reactionary clique in Japan created such conditions as not to admit a single communist to the Parliament. This led, however,

The so-called right-wing Socialist Party of Japan, whose leaders actively supported the aggression of Japanese imperialism and put forward the caricatured slogan "socialism under the emperor", is one of the varieties of bourgeois-monarchist parties. Among its members there are workers and other elements deceived by the demagoguery of this party, drawn into its ranks, but striving for a united front with the Communist Party to fight for the interests of the masses.

The Japanese Communist Party sees its most important task in creating a united democratic national front, in which the broad working masses and the peasantry, broad sections of the intelligentsia and petty bourgeoisie, who suffer severely as a result of the economic and political oppression of the fascist regime, as well as all patriotic democratic elements, would take part. Social representatives of the so-called Japanese socialist parties-sabotage the creation of a democratic front, but ordinary members of parties are increasingly performing together with advanced, class-conscious workers against American invaders, in defense of the country's independence and their vital interests.

Despite unusually ferocious repression, the occupation regime was unable to suppress the strike movement and other actions of the working class and democratic forces in Japan.

The struggle of the working class against political oppression and unbearable economic exploitation became very acute in Japan in the very first years after the defeat of Japanese imperialism. In 1946, 3.7 million people took part in labor conflicts and strikes, in 1947 - 11.5 million, in 1948 - 18.8 million. which united trade unions with a total number of more than 5 million workers and employees. In March 1949, Zenroren joined the World Federation of Trade Unions.

Despite the fact that MacArthur's headquarters, through its puppet government of Yosida, issued a number of fascist anti-worker laws in the second half of 1948 and began to widely use arrests and violence to suppress strikes, the strike struggle of the workers did not subside even in 1949.

In March 1948 alone, almost 2.5 million workers went on strike. On May 3, 1949, a miners' strike began in Japan, in which 450,000 workers took part. The workers in Japan have shown that they have a strengthened will to fight and a growing class consciousness. At the congress of the railroad trade union, which took place in April 1949, the democratic elements led by the communists won the election of the executive committee of the trade union. This trade union returned to the association of workers' trade unions "Zenroren", which defended the class interests of the proletariat. The Nippon Times, an organ of Japanese-American reactionaries, openly admitted in May 1949 that a "leftward movement" of the labor movement was taking place in Japan.

The American occupiers, seeing that their Japanese agents were completely unable to cope with the powerful growth of democratic forces, themselves began more and more directly and openly to crack down on the democratic movement in Japan.

Back in the spring of 1948, it became known that one of the communications trade union workers, Yamanouci, was subjected to terrible torture in the dungeons of the American occupation administration (3) . In August of the same year, 150 American police officers with 4 tanks took part in repressions against striking workers (4). At the end of December 1948, the head of the labor department of the occupation headquarters, Hepler, suggested that the leaders of a number of trade unions stop the strikes. Repealing the Japanese constitution with a stroke of the pen, MacArthur, in a letter to the Japanese government, proposed "temporarily relinquishing certain privileges and freedoms inherent in a free society" (5) .

In 1949, MacArthur forbade the representatives of Japanese workers from traveling to the 10th Congress of the USSR Trade Unions. By August 1949, at the request of the occupying authorities, more than 250,000 workers from various state enterprises, as well as a large number of workers from private enterprises, were dismissed. First of all, active fighters for the independence of Japan, for democracy, were thrown out into the street. After crushing a railroad workers' strike protesting mass layoffs, the Japanese government, following MacArthur's orders, fired 47 leaders of the Central Committee of the railroad workers' union and thousands of other trade union activists. Even many scientists, artists and writers have openly declared their affiliation with the Communist Party, the only political party in Japan that selflessly defends the interests of the Japanese people.

At the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, held in January 1950, General Secretary Tokuda declared that one of the most important points of the political program of the party in these conditions was the struggle against a separate world, "which leads to colonization and fascism."

The strengthening of Soviet-Chinese friendship also strengthened the camp of democracy and peace in Japan, led by the Communist Party.

The growth of the ideological and political influence of the Communist Party was shown by the May Day demonstrations of 1950, held under the slogans of defending the peace and independence of Japan, against turning the country into a military foothold and colony of the United States. In Tokyo, more than 600 thousand people took part in the demonstration, in a number of other cities the number of demonstrators exceeded 100 thousand. The elections to the House of Councilors held in early June 1950 also showed the strengthening of the political positions of the party. less than the Communist Party received 2,800 thousand votes and retained its seats in the House of Councilors.

MacArthur, who at that time was preparing an adventure in Korea, decided, in order to prepare the rear for the war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to put an end to the legal activities of the Communist Party. On June 6, 1950, an order was issued prohibiting many of the most prominent participants in the communist movement, including members of the party's Central Committee, from engaging in political activities. Across the country, mass arrests of Communist Party leaders began, raids on the premises of the Communist Party press organs. Immediately after the outbreak of the Korean War, the communist and all democratic press in Japan was banned. The leading figures of the Communist Party were forced to go underground.

The working masses of Japan support the political program of the Communist Party more and more resolutely. After the attack of American imperialism on Korea, the workers in Japan expressed their sympathy for the Korean people, in a number of cases they refused to ship, transport and produce weapons for the American invaders. In September-December 1950 and in 1951, the Japanese police, on the orders of the American occupiers, repeatedly perpetrated brutal reprisals against the unemployed, strikers and all those protesting against the US imperialist colonial policy. Hundreds of workers and students were wounded and mutilated, hundreds were arrested and thrown into dungeons.

Even in the Japanese vocational press and in the press of the American invaders themselves there are messages indicating that the widespread masses of the Japanese population are full of deep hatred of American monopolists, racists and military men, with contempt with the Japanese, as a submissive and “lower” race. Chicago gangsters and Alabai Ku Klux Klans recruited into the MacArthur-Ridgway legions treat the Japanese in Tokyo or Hokkaido in exactly the same way as they treated the American Indians in their time, robbing them, killing them with impunity and mocking them.

Here are some examples of American military violence in Japan. American robber soldiers near Tokyo killed a family consisting of a husband, wife and two young children. Another burglar soldier in the Tokyo area killed a girl during a robbery and wounded another. In the Sapporo area on the island of Hokkaido, American soldiers, committing robberies, killed 52 Japanese over the course of several days. The US military even raided the Thai embassy in Tokyo, where they seized 245,000 yen from a safe. They, of course, counted on a much larger booty.

The Japanese Communist Party is leading the people's protests against the policy of the Japanese government and its American masters, who have enslaved the Japanese people and seek to use them also as cannon fodder. The proclamations of the Communist Party called on the working people to resist the production and transportation of weapons for the American imperialists, to resist turning Japan into a US military base and the Japanese people into an instrument of American aggression. In an address published in early October 1950, the Provisional Central Leadership of the Japanese Communist Party called on the people to overthrow the Yoshida government and to fight in the ranks of the Democratic National Front under the slogans: "Hands off Korea!", "Against war and separate peace!"

Despite persecution by the gendarmes of MacArthur, by the beginning of November 1950, the Stockholm Appeal was signed by 6 million Japanese. An appeal for a Peace Pact between the five great powers was signed by 6.4 million Japanese. The Communist Party and all democratic forces in Japan are resolutely opposed to a separate treaty, demanding the conclusion of a peace treaty with the participation of the USSR and the People's Republic of China and the withdrawal of American troops from Japan.

At the end of January 1951, Communist deputy Kawakami hurled the accusation in the face of Japanese reaction and the American invaders that the rearmament of Japan was a plot to turn the Japanese people into slaves of imperialism. He declared that "the Japanese people will never fight against the peoples of the USSR, China, Korea and other peace-loving peoples" and that the Japanese people have the right to overthrow the reaction, to defend the peace and independence of Japan.

The MacArthur-Ridgway regime was unable to eliminate the strike movement in Japan even after the introduction of emergency measures in connection with the American aggressors' attack on Korea. Along with strikes at individual enterprises, in the first half of February 1951, under economic slogans, a large strike of miners broke out on the island of Kyushu, in which 370,000 people took part. Cases of sabotage at railways and other enterprises multiplied.

The Fifth Conference of the Communist Party of Japan, held in August 1951, approved a new party program that included the immediate political and economic demands of the party (7) .

The program sets as its task the strengthening and expansion of the united national liberation democratic front, which must be based on an alliance of workers and peasants and draw into its ranks the petty bourgeoisie, all the progressive intelligentsia and all those elements of the bourgeoisie who want the independence and freedom of Japan.

Putting forward the slogan of overthrowing the reactionary puppet government, which is supported by anti-popular cliques and is a screen and support for the American occupiers, the Communist Party sets the goal of the united national liberation democratic front to create a coalition people's government for the national liberation of Japan, a government for the revolutionary democratic transformation of the country.

The Communist Party believes that the first tasks of this government should be: the conclusion of a comprehensive peace treaty, the abolition of the American occupation regime, the preservation of peace and the establishment of peaceful relations with all states. The program of the Communist Party calls for the abolition of imperial power in Japan and the creation of a democratic republic, the provision of democratic freedoms, the development of peaceful industry, the implementation of agrarian reforms, the establishment of a fixed minimum wage for workers and employees, 8 hours, and for underground workers 6 hours, the introduction social insurance, freedom of trade unions, the destruction of semi-feudal methods of exploitation of workers.

The masses of the Japanese people are increasingly rallying around the program of the Japanese Communist Party. The consciousness is spreading more and more widely among the workers and peasants, the intelligentsia, the petty bourgeoisie and all progressive elements, that only by embarking on the path pointed out by the Communist Party can the Japanese people win national independence and improve their conditions of existence.

In an atmosphere of ferocious terror and a more brutal than ever American occupation regime, over 400,000 people gathered for a May Day demonstration and rally in Tokyo in 1952. On that day, thousands of posters were inscribed with slogans: "Let's achieve freedom, independence of our homeland!", "We will not allow the rearmament of Japan!" etc. As a result of an armed attack by American serfs - Yoshida policemen - the working people of Tokyo lost up to 50 people that day, killed and seriously wounded; over 500 people were slightly injured. This brutal massacre intensified the indignation of the Japanese people against the invaders and their hirelings, strengthened the resolve of the Japanese patriots to overthrow the oppression of US imperialism and its puppets.

The working masses of Japan are rising more and more resolutely against their oppressors, in defense of peace, in defense of their rights, in defense of the independence of the Japanese people, for the victory of the democratic forces.

The Popular Front against a separate treaty, a military agreement with the United States, against the colonial enslavement of the Japanese people and the transformation of Japan into a military foothold of US imperialism, is expanding and growing stronger every month. In addition to the Communist Party, many trade unions, many local organizations and rank-and-file members of the worker-peasant and socialist parties, peasant organizations, cultural figures, the majority of students and the broad masses of the people take part in the national liberation democratic movement. Major political strikes and demonstrations, with tens of thousands of demonstrators fighting back against the attacks of thousands of American-led police officers, show that the determination and will to fight, as well as the unity of the working masses in Japan, are increasingly increasing, and the American occupiers and their clerks are forced to reckon with this. As a result of the struggle of the Japanese masses, the possibility of realizing the plans of American imperialism in Japan comes up against ever more determined opposition from the working people.

(1) Manchester Guardian, August 27, 1934.

(2) See, for example, the statement of Colonel Aizawa, the murderer of General Nagata, at the trial: "I am unshakably convinced that His Majesty the Emperor of Japan is the incarnation of God Almighty"; See also a textbook by Yu. Khibino, Nippon Shinto Rov (Japanese Shinto ideals) and others

(3) See Pravda, April 13, 1948

(4) See Pravda, August 21, 1948

(5) Izvestia, December 31, 1948

(6) See Izvestia, February 3, 1951

(7) See “For a strong world, for folk democracy!”, On November 23, 1951, a