"Change in Attitude"

Premier Hideki Tojo had warned Japan that she was on the threshold of "emergency" (TIME, Oct. 4). Heeding his stern voice, the Cabinet last week obediently voted:

>To disband the Ministry of Commerce and the Imperial Planning Board, through which the Army sought to rule Japan's economy.

>To create a new Munitions Ministry which the Army will directly control.

>To call an extraordinary session of the Diet on Oct. 25, to rubber-stamp all changes planned by Tojo.

Behind Tojo's changes was an old & bitter tug of war between the Army and Big Business for the control of heavy industry. Japan's great holding families, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, did not oppose war; they opposed Army dominance of the economy. Under the Army's guidance, the new Ministry will now divert more yen, men and materials into the manufacture of weapons, at the expense of the little man's wardrobe and dinner bowl. Especial care, Tojo has indicated, will be lavished upon the aircraft industry.

Other evidence that Japan is tightening up:

>Draft deferments for Japanese in occupied territory have been canceled.

>Compulsory military service has been decreed for Formosa, peopled largely by Chinese.

>The presidents of the imperial universities have been summoned to Tokyo to explain why Japan's inventors have not kept up with the U.S. and British scientists. Said Tojo to the luckless educators: "A change in attitude . . . should be made. [You must] comply with these demands of the nation."

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