This essay examines the background to the rise of the Democratic Party government through the lineage of the opponents of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the anti-independence camp, the old Socialist Party, pro-Zainichi forces, and anti-Japan media such as the Asahi Shimbun.
Through the perspective of Shoichi Watanabe, it sharply questions the distortions of postwar Japanese politics and the fundamental problems embedded in the Democratic Party government.

2019-06-19
In short, what became a major force in bringing the Democratic Party government into being was, put simply, a force stemming from those who opposed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, that is, from those who opposed Japan’s independence.
We must not forget this.

The following book is required reading not only for every Japanese citizen but also for people throughout the world.
It is filled with facts that those who merely subscribed to the Asahi Shimbun and watched NHK did not know at all…facts they were never told.
It is one of the finest books of postwar Japan.
Mr. Shoichi Watanabe was from Yamagata Prefecture, the prefecture neighboring Miyagi Prefecture, which is my birthplace.
The people of Yamagata must continue to proclaim to Japan and to the world with pride that they are compatriots of a man who was one of the greatest intellectuals of postwar Japan and one of Japan’s true treasures.
The Democratic Party government was the descendant of those who opposed Japan’s independence.
When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fell ill in 2007 and was forced to resign, he was succeeded by the Fukuda cabinet and then the Aso cabinet, but because infighting within the party and the sloppy management of pension records came to light, the Liberal Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat in the 2009 House of Representatives election.
With the backing of “anti-Japan” media such as the Asahi Shimbun, the Democratic Party leapt forward as the largest party, and the Yukio Hatoyama administration was born.
Looking back, the birth of the Democratic Party government was the beginning of great misfortune for Japan.
As former Cabinet Security Affairs Office Director Atsuyuki Sassa has said, whenever a weak left-wing government comes into being in Japan, somehow calamity strikes the Japanese archipelago.
Under the Tomiichi Murayama cabinet of 1995, leader of the Socialist Party, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Tokyo subway sarin attack occurred.
In 2011, under the Democratic Party cabinet of Naoto Kan, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear accident struck.
Even if we resign ourselves to the earthquake and tsunami as natural disasters, when it comes to the nuclear accident, it can only be called a man-made disaster caused by the Kan administration.
To begin with, the Democratic Party government was a government that inherited the line of the former Socialist Party.
What clearly shows the essence of the former Socialist Party is its attitude toward the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which took effect in 1952.
The conclusion of the peace treaty was an extremely joyful event, the first step toward Japan’s recovery of independence and reconstruction.
However, at the time, the Korean War was underway, and this was precisely the moment when the East-West Cold War had begun.
If Japan concluded a peace treaty led by the United States, Japan would join the liberal camp.
Naturally, the Soviet Union fiercely opposed this.
The Japanese Communist Party and the Socialist Party, following Stalin’s intentions, insisted on a “comprehensive peace” and opposed the conclusion of the peace treaty.
The Asahi Shimbun, Iwanami Shoten, and Japan’s leftist intellectuals joined in and raised the slogan, “Comprehensive peace or separate peace?”
When put that way, of course “comprehensive” sounds better.
But what they called a “separate peace” was peace with more than forty countries including the United States, an overwhelming majority, whereas “comprehensive peace” meant no more than including the Soviet Union and only two or three of its satellite states.
In the international situation of the time, it was impossible to conclude a peace treaty simultaneously with both the Soviet and American camps, and no one knew when such a thing could ever happen.
In other words, the advocates of “comprehensive peace” were forces hoping that Japan’s occupation status would continue.
That is why Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida at the time denounced the University of Tokyo President Shigeru Nambara, who supported comprehensive peace, as a “pseudo-scholar courting the world.”
It is only natural that the Communist Party would follow Soviet orders, but why then did the Socialist Party, the leading opposition party, oppose the peace treaty?
Looking back now, one major reason seems to have been that among the Socialist Party’s supporters at the time were not only leftists but also people who had profited enormously from Japan’s defeat, the so-called “war-defeat profiteers.”
These “war-defeat profiteers” included cultural figures and scholars based around Iwanami Shoten, which had been treated coldly before the war because it was under the influence of the Comintern, and also third-country nationals.
Third-country nationals made enormous profits from black-market goods in occupied Japan, which was suffering from a shortage of materials.
There was strict enforcement against Japanese people, but Japanese police were almost powerless against third-country nationals.
See Chapter 3, “The Resident Koreans in Japan Who Called Themselves Victors.”
But once independence was restored, Japan’s police powers would return.
For third-country nationals, this was no ordinary matter.
This was also a grave problem for the Socialist Party, which was receiving substantial assistance from resident Koreans in Japan for election funds and other matters, and it may well have been one of the reasons for its opposition to a “separate peace.”
That network of interests has today been inherited by the Democratic Party.
When the Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the election and seized power, the party leader and the successful candidates openly expressed gratitude to the resident Koreans in Japan.
In short, what became a major force in bringing the Democratic Party government into being was, put simply, a force stemming from those who opposed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, that is, from those who opposed Japan’s independence.
We must not forget this.
In fact, former Prime Minister Kan was being questioned in the Diet over the issue of illegal donations from a foreign national, a resident Korean in Japan.
In the midst of that, the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, and the pursuit of the matter had no choice but to end in an incomplete form.
This installment continues.