TRIAL OF JAP LEADERS

Chronicle (Levin), 19 June 1946, Page 5

TRIAL OF JAP LEADERS

-Press Association

-V— — TOJO LISTS CAUSES OF WAR

By Telegraph -

Reeeived Tuesday, 7..' 3 ]>.m. TOK I ( ), .June 17. At Ihe 1ri:il of (leiieral Tojo and 27 other Japanese allegcd war criminals, tlie a«sist;uit prosecufor charged defendnuts willi beginning in 102.S to prepare .Japan for war. The hearing jiroceeded todav and the first witness was ,calk*d despite Ihe resignalion of six defence connsel and their comphiiiit that "unsolved problems" were hanipering them in the task of jireparing their cases. Jn replv 1o the prosecutifm 's allegations against himself and Jiis co-dei'endaiits, Tojo says that the coalilion of Britain and Amerira "ehused the Jajianese Kmpire into a conllict which is now c:\lled a war on ci\ i lisat ion. " Tojo's I'eplv was issned th rough his defence connsel, Mr. lehiro Kiyo.se. II lisled the causes of the I'acilic war and ])laced the origin of Ihe war many years before the date pet by Ihe proseeution, which, in general, begins ils case with preludes to the .Manchurian " incident " 'in 1931. The causes listed by Tojo are: — 1. Pressnre by the British and American coalilion against the Japanese Kmpire after the 11)11-18 war. 2. The suppression of ti) o Japanese Kmpire 's trade development by the objection of a certain big Povver (presmnablv the. Knited States) against Kast Asiatic ini migration, the adopFion oi a liigh tarifT policy and formation,of an .economic ldoe. j ' .'i Ifjieial diseriinjbation. 4. The economic blockading of .Tapan immediately before the (Ireater East Asia war through joint British and American miglit and military and economic, threats. 5. The adoption of a policy to eause ('hina lo continue her resistance and to eause ('hina and Japan to fight each other. (i. The presontation of impossible proposals to Japan at the last stage of the Jajianese and American negotiat.ions. The iirsl jiroser-ution witness at the irial was Lieuf .-('olonel Donald Nugent, chief of the civil information and education section, who tauglit in Japan before the war. He said the Japanese war plolters had used the schools to instil into Japanese youth that their nation had a divine mission to rule East Asia. The students were told that Japan eventually would dominate the world under one roof. They were put Ihrough field manoeuvres, street. tighting jirolilems, bayonet. drills and mach-ine-gun instruction. Such teaching inculcated in them both ultra-national- . ism a)id mililarism and tauglit them fanatiral devotion to their country and blind obedience (o authority.