The 77th Extraordinary Session of the Imperial Diet bowed itself into history on Nov. 21, 1941. The world then saw no hint in the reported proceedings of an event scheduled for Dec. 7. Later the double-talk about "immutable resolution" and "exhaustible patience" proved to have great meaning.
Last week a wiser world searched the published proceedings of the 82nd Extraordinary Session for hints of military lunges to come. If Premier Hideki Tojo had plans for a Russian Pearl Harbor, the warning was drowned in the clatter of his windy generalities. Never had a Diet session commanded the airtime that Radio Tokyo devoted to this one. Yet never had there seemed less reason for calling the mummers to enact their pantomime. Said Tojo:
"The war has reached a decisive stage. . . . The enemy must be destroyed. . . . The situation in Attu was . . . very regrettable. ... It depressed his Imperial Majesty a little. It is Japan's immutable policy to .free Greater Asia from agelong Anglo-Saxon domination. . . . Enemy plans for a counteroffensive have been foreseen. . . . We are meeting them wherever they come. . . ." There was much more, but still nothing to explain convoking the nation's No. 1 sounding board.
Then came words that might prove to be the clue: "We will accord the honor of independence to the Philippines in the course of the current year. . . . We shall take measures envisaging participation of native populations in the Government to an extent commensurate with their ability. . . . We intend to realize this state of affairs as early as possible in Java . . . and Burma."
Tojo was learning. At the 77th he had said it would be going too far to say that Japan aimed at "immediate liberation of the oppressed races." Now there might be more to gain by purring. Radio Tokyo beamed the independence theme at India, added: "Japan is resolved to exhaust all means to help eliminate Anglo-Saxon influences ... to enable India to obtain full independence in the true sense of the term." The true sense might be the Manchukuo sense; Tojo did not specify.
One thing was certain: no important military operation can be launched from India against Japanese-occupied territory until the monsoons lift next October or November. Philippine "independence" was being announced for approximately the same season. There was plenty of time for the connection to sink in.