Rice Before Rifles

"The Japanese people forever renounce war," pronounced Japan's postwar constitution. The notion, fostered eloquently by General Douglas MacArthur, proved so popular that later Japanese governments have never spent more than 19% of their budgets on defense.* "Rice before rifles," sing the Japanese politicos and add, "The Americans will pay for the rifles."

While lagging on their own rearmament for 4 1/2 years, the Japanese have recently been shelling out up to $155 million a year to help support the U.S. troops stationed on their islands. In his demagogic election campaign, Japan's Premier Ichiro Hatoyama boasted that he would knock $55 million off the bill and spend the money on social welfare. The U.S. told Hatoyama it would accept the cut, if the Japanese put all the savings into their own rearmament. Last week, after 30 days of tense bargaining,

1) the U.S. agreed to lop $49 million off the $155 million a year it charges Japan;

2) Japan agreed to spend $35 million of the savings on its defenses--enough for 39,000 recruits for the 145,000-man defense forces--with the other $14 million to be spent as Hatoyama sees fit. Pleased with his bargain, Hatoyama decreed an immediate 10% income-tax cut, while Japanese Defense Ministry officials confidently speculated that U.S. ground troops would still be in Japan defending them come 1961. In other words, the Americans were still paying for the rifles.

* Compared for 1954-55 to the U.S.'s 68.4%, Britain's 37%, neutral India's 44%.

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