European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday november 20, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Leslie h. Gel Japan can t talk its Way out of Wii guilt As dec. 7 and the 50th anniversary of the Day of infamy approach japanese Are embracing an infamous explanation to excuse their guilt for world War ii. Japan so the Story goes did not really launch a sneak attack against Pearl Harbor. It is an elaborate tale about a diplomatic message so badly mishandled by Japan a embassy in Washington that the warning of War it contained did not get through until after japanese aircraft had already loosed their bombs and torpedoes. The tale has such Power that when it was raised recently in the diet or parliament foreign minister Taro Nakayama Felt compelled to make a a Bow of contrition for an event that occurred when he was a schoolchild Quot As Ayako Doi writes in the daily Japan digest. The suggestion of innocence is As frightening As it is preposterous. What would have been changed if the japanese embassy had Given Advance notice of attack As required by International Law what consciences would have been quieted if the United states had been provided with what amounted to a few minutes warning the results would have been the same at Pearl Harbor and in the minds of horrified americans. That so Many japanese fail to understand this demonstrates the galactic chasm still separating the two societies one that transcends economic Competition. The Story As recounted in Japan digest is an old one that has gained new currency As the anniversary draws near. Here it is. On saturday dec. 6, Tokyo transmitted a 14-Page Telegram to its Washington embassy. The critical last Page with delivery instructions was not even translated until sunday morning because the officer in charge was Busy organizing a chinese dinner for a departing colleague. A first Secretary was told to do the translation and typing himself. His typing was very slow Ana inaccurate forcing the ambassador to delay his sunday 1 . Appointment with Secretary of state Cordell Hull until 2 . The ambassador arrived at 2 05 and was kept waiting until 2 20. By that time the attack had been under Way for an hour. And by the Way hours after the United states had already intercepted and decoded the same message these facts Are apparently not in Dis Pute. The question is the meaning of the facts. Many japanese want them to mean that Tokyo intended to observe accepted rules of War and declare War before striking. If the diplomats had done their Job properly they say the action at Pearl Harbor would have been a a Surprise Quot but not a a sneak Quot attack. Thus Honor would be restored and japanese guilt assuaged. That explanation is of a piece with the prevailing japanese View that because president Franklin d. Roosevelt imposed economic sanctions on Japan Tokyo had no Choice but to attack As the Only Way of avoiding economic strangulation. Lost in this rendition of history is the fact that . Sanctions came in stages and Only after Japan had invaded Manchuria China and Indochina. The japanese also pair Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima wrote Columbia historian Carol Gluck and see them As forming a a tidy moral calculus in which Japan a aggressive attack is balanced by the nuclear bombings Quot John Toland the great popular historian of this period believes the japanese have Good grounds for thinking they behaved no worse than other colonial pow ers such As Britain and France. He also believes the japanese were special victims because the United  two atomic bombs on them a that weren t  he said in a Telephone interview that there is no need now for a japanese apology. A group of japanese historians and civil activists think otherwise. They have petitioned their government a to apologize publicly for these transgressions Quot pay damages to the victims of japanese aggression and conduct an inquiry into the historical facts of the War. The japanese people should listen to these voices and not to the Siren songs of their historical revisionists who destroy All sense of cause and effect right and wrong. These contortionists give new weight to Japan washers and to those who argue that it is hopeless for americans to communicate and cooperate with the japanese. As the Pearl Harbor Date draws close this much is dear if Japan wants to rewrite world War ii with self indulgent myths the infamy will linger and the end will be the same. C the now York times William f. Buckley  government involvement in t answer  it is glaringly Clear that whatever the White houses internal evaluation of the Economy it has failed to give out the kind of irradiation of concern that the american people want. Never mind the cold economic indices which place our plight on a relatively comfortable level if compared with economic crises of very recent memory. Unemployment is just under 7 percent which is an ice age removed from the 10 percent plus unemployment figure of 1980. And Back then we were reeling under the Impact of an inflation rate of 13.5 percent gradually reduced by the Reagan administration with interest rates up around 20 percent. By those statistical standards the current situation which economists Are not even unanimous in pronouncing As a recession would appear to be mild. But there Are reasons for the Gravity with which it is taken. One of these is that with few exceptions working households in America have committed their total resources this time around. Almost 65 percent of women Are working even the networks suffer from the relative shortage of soap opera viewers. And there is a second critical Factor namely the absolute refusal of the real estate Market to recover. In 1982, the pause in the Rise in value of real estate which is the principal capital Stock of the american family was merely that of the marathoner pausing to take a breath and Back it went the Rise in value of houses soaring to new highs giving out a sensation of economic amplitude. That sense of Assurance is gone As families attempting either to meet their mortgage payments or to consider relocation find themselves Frozen in place and using up their evanescent savings. And the tendency of the Public is to blame the government. This Isnit an ignorant reflex for several reasons. The first of these is that Ever since the ethos of the new Deal became a part of the Public psychology it has been taken for granted that when there is a social problem it is the governments responsibility to handle it. In better Days this would have been seen As an illogical rational step and even now there Are those who recognize that it Isnit obvious just exactly How to blame the government for the Rise in aids or in Bastardy or in illiteracy. But the most sophisticated analyst would certainly be justified in blaming government for much that obviously stands in the Way of economic recovery. It is As easy to ask the question How Many More americans would be profitably at work if the Cost of their produce were reduced by the extent of the Burden they need to shoulder in order to sustain government but for government we could produce a Ford Taurus Tor $5, h 0. It is tirelessly pointed out that the bureaucratic Cost of the health care system alone eats up More than s100 billion More than the Cost of providing free health care to All canadians. And yet the instinct of the afflicted is to ask government to do More even As acting sen. Harris Wolford in Pennsylvania became full time sen. Harris Wofford by proposing in Pennsylvania that the same people who gave us this $100 billion bureaucratic overhead increase their responsibility for health care by simply doing More of the same. Although it is widely accepted that the Middle class especially is suffering it Isnit obvious to Many who rail against the times and who ask government to expand its role that such expansions Are precisely at the expense of the Middle class. When unemployment benefits Are extended or medical benefits made free the Burden of the Middle class increases. The shill by which the Snake Oil salesmen cover themselves is by ordaining that the a Rich Quot should pay the Cost yet if taxes on the wealthy $100,l00-plus yearly income were doubled the sums raised by such action would not begin to pay for instance for the bureaucratic Cost of Medicine let alone Tor Medicine. Moreover experience has taught us As incandescent try As any economic lesson is Ever taught that what happens the Day after the Rise in the tax rate is the Retreat of he enterprising classes on whom so very much depends. The acute analyst Charles Murray reminds us that whereas at the end of the korean War fewer than one family in 50,000 earned $100,000 or More per year the figure in 1988 was four families per pm. Theirs is the capital Pool on which the country depends. To declare War against the economically successful could be enough to give democrats such As Mario Cuomo a standing ovation at a nominating convention but the Day after he takes Power we Are Back on tobacco Road of which he is the continuing National Bard a whistling the old songs about hunger and malnutrition with the same sin realistic Confidence that a generation after the Coil War. Some southerners Sang Dixie dreaming of the Good old Days. Mario Cuomo dreams about the bad old Days k  priv it