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252 ignorance and gullibility of the Japanese people. Secondly, he realized that it was only his rank had saved his life; but later on, while he was commanding the Auto Corps, a new knowledge came and upset all these ideas. Did it come through witnessing the corruption of the Distribution Committee or the destitution of the population? No, what enlightened him more than all these things was the so-called Higher Politics of the Higher Command.

Close observation of the inner working of the Higher Command led him to see that it was bound hand and foot to the moneyed classes. The army existed not to defend the people of Japan from outside invasion, but to further the predatory imperialism of those whose well-being is rooted in the poverty and destitution of the Japanese people as a whole.

When the deep realization of this truth came to him the lieutenant no longer had any desire to serve in the army. The army, too, for its part had further no use for him.

That accounts for his conversion to Socialism.