REPORT ON JAPAN

After six weeks in Japan, TIME'S Chief Pacific Correspondent Manfred Gott fried added up his impressions in a succinct primer of questions & answers:

Q. Are the Japanese repentant? A. No. And neither are they unrepentant. They felt oppressed by their own military clique and are pleased because we have freed them from that oppression.

Q. Do they know they are beaten? A. Unlike the Germans after World War I, the Japs are aware that they were beaten on land, sea, and air. Nor do they blame it all on the atomic bomb. They know the war was a total loss, although the Emperor's an nouncement of that fact came at first as a shock and surprise.

Q. Do they feel moral guilt for their aggression? A. In general, no. How the minority of unreconstructed militarists justify Japanese aggression to themselves can only be guessed -- they are damn care ful right now to keep their mouths shut. At the opposite extreme the ardent peace advocates (like Kagawa) of course feel that the militarists are guilty. The great majority of Japs, including Premier Shidehara, believe in peace as a policy. But they still re gard Japan as the aggrieved party in the events leading up to the China war. They are not conscious of having adopted a national policy of aggres sion. Insofar as that policy existed, "some bad men were responsible." The idea that aggression is morally repre hensible does not yet appear to be part of Japanese ethics.

Q. Do they feel moral guilt for the atrocities committed by their armies? A. Unquestionably, yes. These things genuinely shock them as con traventions of their moral code. In dividual Japs committed more bar barities than the Germans did, but.

unlike Germans, they did not preach a new moral code which justified atrocities.

Q. Are they merely pretending to obey American orders while actually persevering in their evil intentions? A. No people likes to truckle to alien rule. The Japs are no exception.

But the element of hypocrisy in Japanese compliance with American demands is, I believe, very low. Some big businessmen pay only lip service to the dissolution of the Zaibatsu, peasants disapprove of free discussion of the imperial institution, etc. But the great majority hope that compliance with American demands will improve their lot. Certainly the Japs have to be watched--mainly because they are medievals whose westernization is only skin deep. Relatively. their purposes and motives are more trustworthy than their mental habits.

Q. How much truth is there in the repeated Russian charge that the Japanese are circumventing Allied demands and MacArthur is coddling them?

A. I think it is bunk--which does not mean that the complaint may not be partly sincere. The Russians fancy themselves as conquerors. Among their Allies in Tokyo they shoulder their way in and seize every opportunity to throw their weight around. Their own idea of victory, as revealed in areas where they are in occupation, is to make blunt demands at the point of a gun. But their method is not necessarily tougher or more effective than MacArthur's. He is using a policy much admired by Adolf Hitler, who was hardly a softie: making a demand which by itself does not seem to be worth resisting; after that has been gained, making another demand, and so on until large cumulative results are obtained.

Q. Is our reform of Japanese society retarded by keeping the Emperor?

A. Not if you mean reform. We had the choice of rebuilding or remodeling. We chose the latter. How satisfactory the results will be cannot yet be foretold. But remodeling has two advantages: it is quicker and cheaper. New social institutions cannot be created in one year or in five. Old institutions can be modified sooner. Furthermore, by using the imperial institution as our tool we are using Japanese resources in the political field, much as we use Japanese resources rather than our own to accomplish our economic ends in Japan.

Q. How soon will the Japs recover and again begin to struggle for economic dominance in the Orient?

A. Japan never had important resources in her home islands, and all of her overseas resources have been turned over to the victors. Now Japan lacks enough raw materials to feed and clothe the home population and to run her heavy industry. Moreover, Japan's processing capacity is now in fragments.

Japan can recover her position as economic top dog in the Orient only by showing far greater economic competence than her neighbors. Even in defeat, Germany remains economically a cornerstone of Europe. But Japan, within her present boundaries, is not the cornerstone of anything.

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