Japan's adolescent trade unions last week had discovered that democracy, like the art of love, is hard to learn (or practice) as long as Pop is in the parlor with the lights on.* For Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur, who fathered the Japanese union movement in October 1945, the problem was how to get out of the parlor with grace and dignity. Necessary occupation discipline had at last collided head on with Japan's experimental democracy.
By intervening on Feb. 1 to prevent a scheduled Tokyo general strike, SCAP (Supreme Command, Allied Powers) probably saved...
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