Published on August 15, 2019.
Based on an essay by Kanji Nishio published in the monthly magazine Sound Argument, this article discusses the reality that postwar Japan, under occupation, had been deprived of its free will.
Through the rise of communist forces on the Chinese mainland, shifts in U.S. policy toward Japan, the possible postponement of the peace treaty, the weakness of a disarmed Japanese archipelago, the Syngman Rhee Line, and the Takeshima issue, it depicts the sorrowful emergence of a new habit of thought in which Japan came to regard protection by its former enemy, the United States, as “fortunate.”

August 15, 2019.
Around 1948, senior U.S. government officials were saying that because it would be impossible for the occupying forces to withdraw early from a disarmed Japanese archipelago, the peace treaty with Japan would probably have to be postponed.
This is a chapter I published on August 14, 2018, under the title, “If the Communist Party Wins in China, a New Possibility Will Emerge: Japan, the Former Enemy Nation, Will Be Placed in the Position Formerly Occupied by China, Which Had Been an Ally of the United States.”
The following is from an essay by Kanji Nishio published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Sound Argument for 840 yen, under the title, “The Three Villains I Choose from the Fortress of Postwar Liberalism: Kazutoshi Hando, Kenzo Nakajima, and Shuichi Kato — Feeble, Far Too Feeble Intellect.”
Emphasis in the text, other than headings, is mine.
Even when one looks at my Boyhood Memoir, based on the diary I kept during childhood, one can see that only after the war ended was a free and childlike school life restored.
Therefore, needless to say, peace is precious and productive.
That much is perfectly obvious.
However, even to the eyes of a boy who encountered the end of the war at the age of twelve, it was clearly visible that the country was in captivity.
When a country entrusts its fate to another country and is deprived of free will, there can be no individual life in the true sense.
Peace is precious and a grateful gift, but even in a child’s mind, it was recognized in various forms that a new problem of an entirely different dimension had arisen.
For a while after the war ended, China was an ally of America, and Japan remained a former enemy nation.
Before long, reports came that Chiang Kai-shek’s regime was struggling on the Chinese mainland, and it became clear that the communist forces were a major threat.
Around 1948, senior U.S. government officials were saying that because it would be impossible for the occupying forces to withdraw early from a disarmed Japanese archipelago, the peace treaty with Japan would probably have to be postponed.
*Taking advantage of the weakness of this disarmed Japanese archipelago, Syngman Rhee invaded Takeshima and unilaterally drew the Syngman Rhee Line, not only seizing numerous Japanese fishing boats but also killing and detaining Japanese fishermen, thereby committing an outrage that shamelessly displayed the DNA of “bottomless evil” and “a country of plausible lies.”＊
On the other hand, however, this sudden change in the situation on the continent was beginning to show an aspect favorable to Japan.
Observations were also being transmitted from the United States that if the Communist Party gained victory in China, the possibility would grow stronger that Japan, the former enemy nation, would be placed in the position that had until then been occupied by China, which had been an ally of the United States.
I was a first-year junior high school student, but from the conversations of adults and information in the newspapers, I was told that this was, to some extent, good news for Japan.
However, it is recorded that, as a child, I had doubts: “Is that really so? Is this not far too different from what was being discussed in Japan until yesterday?”
I could not express it well in words, but to my young self, it was in any case terribly sad that a new habit of thought had emerged: watching the expression of America, the former enemy nation, and regarding as “fortunate” a change in circumstances that would allow Japan to receive even more generous protection.
This article continues.