ABSTRACT
THE conclusion of a military and political alliance between Japan and the European dictatorships, the emergence of an almost exclusively military government, the abolition of all political parties and a number of other totalitarian symptoms in Japan frequently lead to the belief that the structure of the Japanese state is very much the same as that of National-Socialist Germany and Fascist Italy before its downfall and that government in all three is or used to be conducted on more or less identical lines. This is only partly true and therefore misleading. While totalitarian ideas are older and have deeper roots in Japan than in the Western dictatorships, present-day Japan is nevertheless not nearly as thoroughly organised on totalitarian lines as Hitler’s Germany. The reason for this is simple, and it explains much that seems puzzling and contradictory in Japanese government. Japan has evolved her totalitarian system gradually, in stages and interrupted by frequent relapses. Since Pearl Harbour and the formation of a military cabinet under General Tojo this development towards outright totalitarian government had been greatly accelerated, but it received a sudden check with the fall of Tojo on July 18, 1944. In Germany, on the other hand, the totalitarian system did not develop gradually through several decades but was imposed, readymade, from one day to the next. On assuming power Hitler and his associates immediately set about putting into effect a scheme worked out long in advance and providing for every aspect of national and public life, and every, or almost every, contingency arising from it. The blue-print for Dr. Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry was ready to be put into execution the moment it was required, as was the plan for the abolition of political parties and many other measures. If delays occurred, if half-measures were taken and temporary expedients adopted, it was not because Hitler did not know what to do next but because he was wondering how best to do it. The strait-jacket of “thought control” was hanging ready from the peg, and it was merely a question of catching the prospective prisoner at an opportune moment and to fit it on.
