The Red Flirtation

Japan (pop. 87 million), the greatest industrial power in Asia, edged further last week toward friendship with the Communist empire--a step which its new Premier said was really doing the U.S. a favor. The prefectural assembly of Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island, called for "a positive interchange" between Japan, Russia and Red China. The Kobe and Osaka Chambers of Commerce formed delegations "ready to go to Mos cow and Peking." The Japanese fishing industry accepted a Communist invitation to send experts to Red China. Japan's political parties, from right to left, were moving left. The conservative Liberal Party of ex-Premier Shigeru Yoshida, not wanting to be left behind, came out for Red China trade.

Japan's new nationalist Premier Ichiro Hatoyama apparently hopes to win friends for the March elections by working both sides of the Cold War street --and the alleys as well. He talked rearmament to please right-wing Japanese inter ests and the U.S. He talked recognition of Red China to please the left. Hatoyama himself seemed to believe that the U.S. should welcome improved relations between Japan and Red China as a means of reducing his country's "anti-American feeling." Hatoyama was talking more and more last week like a man who found it profitable to belabor the U.S. "Despotic diplomacy . . . loss of racial independence" were among the phrases Hatoyama used to describe "the long occupation." The pleased Russians let it be known that Hatoyama's drift to the left is entirely conducive to "restoring normal relations."

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