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Hatoyama, with the help of the Liberals, has a clear majority to conduct the day-to-day business of governing. But he does not have the two-thirds majority necessary for changes in the constitution. A leftward swing in national sentiment chopped another 21 seats away from the Liberals and transferred them to the two Socialist groups. The Socialists differ on many issues (the left-wing group often runs close to the Communist line), but they emphatically agree in their opposition to Japanese rearmament. Counting miscellaneous left-wing Deputies (among them two Communists), the Socialists can block any amendment to the Mac-Arthur constitution. This, to the barely concealed satisfaction of most of the conservatives, means that the Diet will probably not erase the no-war clause from its constitution in response to the current U.S. desire for Japanese rearmament.
Trade & Cooperation. "Cooperation with the U.S.," says Hatoyama with a polite smile, "is the basic policy of the Japanese government." He also believes that "Soviet intentions toward world domination are still there." Nevertheless, this wealthy and conservative politician is eager to negotiate a peace settlement with the Russians, and is convinced that trade with Communist China is vital to Japan's revival. The statistics suggest otherwise—China accounted for only about 12% of Japan's prewar trade—but the vision whets the desires of many Japanese. "I am convinced that China has no idea of trying to conquer Japan through Communist infiltration and violence," says Premier Hatoyama. "Right now I see no reason for regarding China as an enemy." Desire for Neutralism. Looking ahead, some Westerners fear a revived Japanese appetite for conquest, but the appetite, if it exists, would be hard to gratify without the great war-making resources of Manchuria and the food-producing potential of Formosa, which are both now lost to Japan. A livelier concern to the U.S. is the possibility that an independent Japan might one day be drawn too close to the Communist mainland. In Communist theorizing, Japan, the Ruhr of the Orient, is the big prize in the East.
"If, under economic pressures, Japan should feel forced to accept political arrangements with the Communist mainland," said U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles at Bangkok last fortnight, "that would surely have a grave effect upon the entire free world position in Asia. All of us know what it meant to combat Japan alone ... If there should be combined at any time under international Communism the power of Soviet Russia in Asia, of Communist China, and the industrial capability of Japan—if all three were a unit of force, then, I think, we must recognize that our position . . . would be extremely precarious."