Communist Collapse

In 1949 the Japanese Communist Party was at its peak: 200,000 claimed members, working control of Japanese unions, 3,000,000 votes in the Diet elections.

Then the Red organizers overreached themselves. A wave of Communist tax riots and wildcat strikes shocked Japanese. Communists were suspected of murdering Railways President Sadanori Shimoyama. As U.S.-sponsored economic policies gradually brought prices down, unionists began to distrust Red propaganda.

The worst blow to Japanese Communists came from within, when the Cominform publicly blasted Party Strategist Sanzo Nozaka, a Popular Front advocate, for not using more "revolutionary" methods. Japanese Politburo Member Yoshio Shiga accused Nozaka of "Titoism," caused a still unhealed intraparty schism.

Last June General MacArthur ordered Nozaka, Shiga and 22 other Red leaders expelled from political life. They went underground. Leaderless, the party rank & file began to drift away.

At present only 70,000 avowed party members are left. The strength of the Red-dominated C.I.U. dwindled from 1,000,000 to less than 150,000. Most Japanese unionists now belong to the anti-Communist Labor Council.

The loyalty of Japanese labor during the Korean war showed how low Communist prestige has sunk. Unlike their French and Italian comrades, Japanese Reds were unable to engineer anti-armament strikes, work stoppages or sabotage. Japanese railroads carry record-breaking loads for the Korea war, Japanese factories produce such items as napalm tanks for U.N. forces in Korea.

Some 1,000,000 Japanese remain Communist sympathizers. Last week, when Japanese police raided 424 distribution points for illegal Red newspapers, they closed down the last means of open contact between these proCommunists and Japan's fugitive Communist leaders.

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