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TOJO BECOMES
VIRTUAL JAP
DICTATOR
NEW YORK, Monday.
The American Associated Press
points out that the sweeping shake
up in the Japanese High Command
apparently was the direct result of
the American assault on Truk.
Tokyo radio announced that Field-
Marshal Sugiyama and Fleet Admiral
Magano had been relieved of their
posts and would, in future, act as the
highest military advisers to the Em-
peror, but remaining on the Board
of Field-Marshals and Fleet Ad-
mirals.
Reuters diplomatic correspondent
says the assumption by General Tojo
and Admiral Shimada of the func-
tions of service chiefs is a significant
break with Japanese tradition.
This step, undoubtedly, would not
have been taken if the balance sheet
on military operations was showing a
profit instead of a loss. It had long
been an unwritten law in Japan that
the Army and Navy were virtually
independent of Cabinet and respon-
sible; only to the Emperor, but Cabi-
net was able to override any opposi-
tion from the Army and Navy staffs
to its strategic policy.
The Jap Government shake-up is
the first confession of strategical
failure but by no means an acknow-
ledgement of defeat, says the "New
York Times." To the contrary, it is
a warning to Japanese people that
the land of gods is endangered
which, by all precedents, will stimu-
late a fanaticised nation to even
greater exertions.
At some time the new set-up is ex-
pected to have very concrete and
practical results which might lead to
increased war production and more
active and more desperate strategy.
Tojo looks more like a Jap Hitler
who has concentrated all political,
military and economic power in his
hands. This, in addition to recent
mysterious upheavals in some of Ja-
pan's biggest business houses, sug-
gests that Japan is moving under
Tojo's guidance towards Imperial
Socialism, the equivalent of Fascism
and Nazi -ism.
The Washington correspondent of
the "Herald-Tribune," commenting
on the drastic changes in the Japan-
ese Cabinet, says they probably indi-
cate a retirement from the Pacific to
the inner defence system. The move
also suggests that Truk was much
harder hit than we believed or have
been able to find out.
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