JAPAN: Blunder of Magnitude

Tokyo was tense with apprehension of a coup d'état last week. For the first time a newsorgan of first magnitude made articulate the mounting fear that Japan's parliamentary institutions (imported only 42 years ago from the West) might be thrust aside by the military clique which launched Japan on her recent Manchurian and Shanghai adventures.

"While we hope that the worst is over, there is no telling what may suddenly develop," declared Tokyo's Nichi Nickl Shimbun. "We are told that there are in the country ominous trends of thought which look for the replacement of reason by power. . . . Never before has the Diet stood in greater need of prestige and authority than at present."

The diet was formally opened at 11 a. m. next day by the Son of Heaven, Emperor Hirohito, and at once adjourned as the diet always does to permit political adjustments behind the scenes before Japan's elected Deputies again face the public.

The Cabinet last week was in a state bordering chaos. The Minister of Interior had resigned and such a squabble for his place ensued that Premier Ki Inukai was obliged to become temporarily his own Minister of Interior, was solemnly invested as such by the Sublime Emperor.

The Premier had lately done a most extraordinary thing. He, whose Government launched the Japanese thrust against Shanghai (TIME, Feb. 1), had contributed the introduction to a book published in the U. S. last week which declared:*

"Whatever the official explanation, whatever the extenuating circumstances, Japan's single-handed intervention in the Shanghai area is a blunder of the first magnitude."

This statement, appearing under the personal patronage of Japan's Premier while Japanese forces were still occupying Shanghai last week, showed how close the Empire had come to anarchy—the anarchists being that group of Japanese generals and admirals who contemplate a coup d'état.

Troops. Three Japanese transports left Shanghai with 20,000 troops aboard last week, but 30,000 troops remained. Sufficiently remarkable were the farewell words of General Yoshinori Shirakawa to the embarking troops:

"Soldiers!

"The conditions at home and abroad are increasing in difficulty daily and the responsibility which the imperial troops face in these circumstances is mounting gradually. Under these conditions, upon returning home you must train yourselves sufficiently to be ready to rally to the call immediately when things happen."

Since China's forces had withdrawn some 20 miles from Shanghai (TIME, March 14), Japan's remaining 30,000 troops had last month's battlefield to themselves. Upon it last week they proceeded to stage a sham battle. Advancing with shouts of "Banzai!" against a nonexistent Chinese foe, the Japanese captured position after position, firing their rifles and machine guns as they did so. Realism was added by the presence of hundreds of decomposing Chinese dead upon the field.