Occupation Without Troops. Glenn Davis
the World Bank before being elected president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). At the end of 1977, while his friend Kern was busy paying calls on the prime minister, Watanabe was serving as chairman of the Japanese section of the Trilateral Commission, which was enjoying its finest days during the late 1970s. The Commission was established by David Rockefeller, and Jimmy Carter (then president of the United States) and several of his cabinet secretaries were members.28
Another guest of Pakenham and Kern was Osamu Kaihara, a key figure in forming the National Police Reserve, the first stage of Japanese postwar rearmament which later became known as the Self Defense Forces (SDF). Kaihara later became secretary-general of the National Defense Council, after serving as chief secretary to the director general of the Defense Agency, and director of the Defense Bureau.
In evaluating the significance of that private dinner in June 1950, we must remember that Dulles was already the chief foreign policy advisor of the Republican Party and would become President Eisenhower's secretary of state before two years had elapsed. It is also important to note that his brother and business partner Allen, America's master spy, had just been brought to Washington to organize the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
What subjects, then, did Dulles discuss with the guests assembled by Kern? In an interview, Harry said that he "couldn't remember" what happened so long ago, but writer Ikuhiko Hata stated that the theme of the conversation was Japan's role in the Cold War structure of Asia. Watanabe concurred in his own diary, later published in Japanese, in which he recalled the contents of the conversation. Japan's role in Asia was indeed a timely subject, for it was only three days later that a shooting incident broke out at the 38th Parallel on the Korean Peninsula, which quickly escalated into the Korean War (1950-53). Was this the "positive action" Dulles had promised for "the preservation of peace in the Far East?" At any rate, Japan's role as a support station, especially for the repair of vehicles and planes, for U.S. troops in the Korean War became clear.
Whatever J.F. Dulles may have had in mind, the outbreak of the Korean War brought quick and drastic changes to the U.S.-Japan relationship. Japan was quickly swamped with a tidal wave of anti-communist hysteria similar to the rantings of McCarthyism in the United States. The central Committee of the Japan Communist Party (JCP) and the staff of its newspaper Akahata were outlawed despite constitutional guarantees. There was also a general purge of "reds" from labor unions, the press, and other public positions. Almost immediately, business began to boom with special procurement orders. Japan's role then, became that of industrial and logistical base for the defense of South Korea.29
Anti-Communism Flourishes
As the Korean War raged on, it became clear that America's experiment with democratizing Japan was over, especially after its chief proponent—General MacArthur—was away leading the American troops into battle against the North Koreans, who were supported by the two other communist powers on the Asian continent.
In July 1950, General MacArthur had ordered the formation of a 75,000-man police reserve force—later to be called the Self Defense Forces—with Pakenham's friend Osamu Kaihara in a leading role. What this military force was to be called was a very sensitive subject at the time because article nine of the 1947 constitution specifically prohibited the maintenance of any sort of army, navy, or air force in Japan.
In 1951, the Mitsubishi financial clique was re-established in virtually its pre-war dimensions and another zaibatsu quickly followed suit. John M. Allison, soon to be named ambassador to Japan, firmly believed that Japan held the key to victory or defeat in the battle' against communism in the Far East.30 He called urgently! for a peace treaty because otherwise there was only a fifty-fifty chance that Japan would remain a "liberal, democratic, and peaceful society." Dulles visited Japan again in 1951, this time accompanied by John D. Rockefeller, whose financial empire was soon to become the largest investor in Japan. Their mission was to pave the way for a peace treaty that tied Japan to Taiwan, a diplomatic move which has severely hampered Japan'? relations with China ever since.
In September 1951, a peace treaty with the United States was signed in San Francisco, in the conspicuous absence of America's wartime allies China and the Soviet Union. America's price for such a quick and generous peace was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's signature on a mutual security treaty with the United States which, despite the end of SCAPs Occupation, assured the continued presence of American military forces in Japan. However, the treaty had to be re-affirmed and extended at the end of a ten-year period. Meanwhile, from the ACJ's point of view, it was necessary to build up a right-wing, military-minded government in Japan that could overcome popular opposition to the treaty, American bases, and rearmament.
For that role, Kern's old friend and protege Nobusuke Kishi was being carefully groomed. At the sacrifice of his political career, Kishi got the revised and extended treaty rammed through the Diet by ordering in the police to drag opposition members from the chamber, in a Machiavellian move still considered one of the darkest days in Japan's postwar democratic government. When Kishi's hawkish brother Eisaku Sato became prime minister in 1964, he immediately went about the task of completing the arms buildup envisaged by the ACJ. The ACJ's scenario for Japan's anti-communist leadership role in the Far East had thus been completed, but there was still much work remaining for Harry Kern and his new generation of carefully groomed conservative crusaders.
NOTES:
1. It is worth noting that the first reports of the Grumman Scandal did not emanate from Japan. In fact, the first came from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), in a rather harmless looking bureaucratic report entitled Form 8-K, Current Report for the Month of January, 1979: Grumman Corporation, Washington, D. C: Securities & Exchange Commission, Commission File No. 1-302. The secret contract between Harry Kern and Grumman International was exposed in January 1979. Then Nissho-Iwai (the trading company that acted as Grumman's agent in Japan) president Mitsuo Ueda and managing director Sankei Shimada admitted in a press conference late that month that their earlier denials had been lies. They concurred that Kern was to be paid ¥190 million for the sale of 21 Grumman E-2C early warning planes, a commission that worked out to 40%. See "Nissho Admits Signing Secret Pact With Kern," The Daily Yomiuri, January 26,1979. A few days later, Nissho-Iwai's vice president in charge of marketing, Hachiro Kaifu, admitted the special contract had been in place since 1969. See "Kaifu Admits Existence of Secret Contract With Kern," Asahi Evening News, January 31,1979.
2. The Lockheed Aircraft Scandal shocked Japan in 1976. Nothing of its massive scale, involving so many politicians, business people, spies, and others had ever been seen in Japan before. Lockheed executives admitted paying off Japanese politicians, and even powerful Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was brought down by the revelations emanating from the American SEC. Curiously, none of the Americans under suspicion was detained or even questioned in depth, giving rise to the prevalent Japanese theory that the American government was out to "get" Tanaka and rightist Yoshio Kodama. The latter, who had been previously known in Japan as a right-wing "superpatriot," was unmasked as a secret agent promoting the sale of Lockheed aircraft in Japan. For a fascinating few months, the Japanese public was treated to a peek behind the closed sboji (paper doors) of Japanese elite decision-making at the highest levels. Cover-ups and inexplicable deaths were rife as the power elite scrambled to put the lid on before the entire political establishment was damaged. Interestingly, a New York Times report dated April 2,1976 quoted a former CIA agent stationed in Japan as saying that the agency was "checking with headquarters every step of the way when the Lockheed thing came up. Every move was approved by Washington." The final Supreme Court ruling of "guilty" was handed down in late February 1995, nineteen years after the case surfaced. The ruling by the nation's highest court affirmed that, yes, a ruling prime minister of Japan had been guilty of receiving bribes while in office. See "Lockheed Appeals Rejected," Asahi Everting News, February 23,1995.
3. "Of Arms and Men: Harry F. Kern and the Corruption of Postwar Japan," unpublished manuscript by Professor Howard Schonberger, University of Maine, dated February 25,1979.
4. The legality of textbook screening by the Ministry of Education has been challenged for decades by scholar Saburo Ienaga, who has sued the ministry for making "unwarranted" changes to his drafts of textbooks. The matter finally came to a head in October 1993 when the Tokyo High Court ordered the