 The mountains of Japan stand in the path of the rising sun. The storms of Earth's mightiest ocean beat upon our shores and strike again. Yet our land endures, eternal as Fuji. So it is with us, the people of Japan. From the beginning the sea has given us strength, food, the wealth of commerce. There came a day not long ago when it brought home our young men from battle fronts of the vast Pacific. Several millions the Americans sent back to us. We were glad to see them. We needed their help. We are numerous people. One of the great and powerful nations of the East. 83 millions of us live in these islands. Many of us in the teeming cities. And many in the rural areas of our fair land whose beauty stirs the heart. The cherry blossoms and lovely vistas are famed in many lands. Still others live by the sea and turn to the sea for its wealth. Saining its waters for the means whereby to live. All these needed now to do their part if our people were to survive. From laboratories where Americans worked with our technicians came grave warning. We must join forces to fight the common enemy, disease. Breakdown of normal services due to war brought a menace to public health. The waters our people were using in these hard times threatened us with malaria, typhoid and other plagues. They must be sprayed. Every swamp was a source of danger. Small vermin must be examined as well. All sources of food had to be examined immediately and health laws enforced with vigor. The health of our people was a matter of first concern. We had to reestablish sources of supply but also see that these sources were pure. We had to establish clinics for the care of our people. Many of them homeless and without ordinary means of caring for themselves. At this critical time there was a shortage of trained personnel. Some had died on far-flung battle fronts of the war. Some were still prisoners of the Russians who gave no sign of releasing the masses of our people they held. Now, with the help of the Americans we were training new nurses and technicians. Equally urgent was our need for food. Each hillside patch must yield to the full often by grueling, back-breaking work. Yet the good earth needed help. Here again the Americans helped us as they did in so many ways in those dark and discouraging days. Cargo vessels brought fertilizer from across the Pacific and soon it was at work to make the soil yield every possible bit of food for our hungry millions. The farmers were aided by many who had come from the cities in search of a livelihood. Somehow new land must be found and put to use, however rough it might be. There was no shortage of labor for this hard work and with all we must start the replanting of our forests. At the same time we must look ahead. The farmers of tomorrow must be trained, must know not only the science of farming but how to do the practical work. So schools of agriculture were established in rural areas and instructors and students worked together producing crops in these field schools. Now came use of a profound change in land ownership. The emperor and diet proclaimed that those who till the soil should own it, no longer live in bondage. Farmers had the right to vote for their land commissioners. Soon the surveyors with transits and stakes were dividing the land. In fact we're cutting up the ancient feudal system substituting the ways of democracy. Now a man who owned nothing in the old days could buy his piece of land and get a deed for it. So even amidst our urgent need to produce subsistence for our people the seeds of democracy were sown. We were harvesting food while the roots of freedom grew. Those who tilled the soil and worked in the fields were to have dignity and worth and a free man share in the products of their toil. The Japanese farmer was not to be a surf. Throughout our land there was an awareness that the freedom and dignity we had longed for was close at hand. It reached the men who go out upon the seas in fishing craft to sain the waters for their treasure. Here were rugged valiant sailors who once ranged the Pacific and brought home great harvest in fish. Not only to feed our people but to trade in the markets of the world and yet these men building the wealth and dignity of Japan often were deprived of a livelihood. To make the sea yield its fish was not enough. They must also be marketed. The rights, the controls lay with others. Now at night after their work they gathered in their cooperatives to discuss their problems to exchange views to stand together for their rights as members of a democracy. And so in the new day they go forth with courage and hope. Free men of the new democratic Japan for industry had been hard hit in the devastation of war but soon was pouring its products again into the veins of commerce. This was true especially in the handicraft trades. We had lost markets but labor had made gains. The unions destroyed by police in earlier days were restored. There was collective bargaining. The work day was shortened. We had a ministry of labor. Women had greater equality and child labor had become illegal. We urgently needed wood for the rebuilding of our homes, for ships, for fuel and for a thousand purposes of a nation stricken by the ruin of war. Our new democratic system needs an informed enlightened people. There must be paper for books, newspapers, printed matter of many kinds. Once our great steel mills reddened the skies. Now we had to arouse this dormant shattered industry to give us the basic materials for construction, for transport. If we were to survive we must get the wheels turning again. In these difficult times we were thankful for the restoration of our good system of railroads powered by electricity from our mountain streams. Despite the difficulties of getting our industrial machine underway there was a new and better relationship between management and labor. They met as equals, discussed problems across the table, reached solutions for our common good in an atmosphere of responsibility and respect. For all of us it was paramount to move forward, yet do it in the pattern of democracy. If we were to survive and regain our position in world trade we must have ships. It was a glad day when the first of these was on its way lifting the spirits of our striving people. We knew we must have commerce to survive. Here at least was a good start. Soon this fine ship was at sea, welcomed in New York, harbinger of our return to a place among the nations. Japanese trade fairs were arranged by American businessmen of Pacific Coast cities and elsewhere for the display of our products. These formally won favor in the markets of the Seven Seas and we believed would again. The democratic world that in the difficult years of war had set its face against us now was offering us encouragement and showing a lively interest in the quality and economy of Japanese goods. Meanwhile, our young people eagerly sought the universities and schools. These had set aside old restrictions, had opened wide the doors of learning, inviting the greatest freedom of thought and discussion. America sent us teachers inspiring guides for those who wanted to learn the ways of the democratic world where freedom of thought, speech, action was a right. Our young people welcomed this opportunity to explore the whole range of knowledge in which women were equals with men. Our industrial schools now spent the technical education of young people who would do the work of industry. We were going to need trained hands to man our machines. For the little ones, there was the same emphasis on freedom. A new view of child life that discouraged regimentation emphasized the birthright of happiness and gaiety. We agreed that they must not suffer from our country's depressed condition. The new education had new methods of instruction and guidance of the child. Motion pictures that brought the world into the school room showed our youngsters how the children of other lands live. The new freedom came to our libraries, opening wide their doors, tearing down the bars. No longer were books locked away, hard to get. They were out where eager hands, eager minds could reach them. Books went to the people of the country by car, speeding to villages to make knowledge available to all. The arrival of the bookmobile brought light and learning to all, young and old. A democratic people must have a free press. What news of the diet's action? What word from the emperor? What are the newest maneuvers of the communists? What action has the United Nations taken? Here were the answers. Democracy was in the air in those post-war years, sounding from every platform. Sometimes it was confusing. So many voices, each declaring it spoke the truth, each seeking our vote. Yet we knew that the ways of democracy required discussion, argument, thought. We voted as seemed best, confident that sooner or later we would find our way. We gathered later before the tabulation boards to see the results of our voting. Already we had a diet responsible to us, the Japanese people. Our emperor had called on us all to create a democratic order that would guard the rights of the common man and restore Japan to a place of honor in the democratic world. Speakers of various parties and groups, both men and women, addressed the diet, urging the viewpoint that seemed right to the speakers. And we had a constitution. We, the Japanese people, had said, had supreme rights. Even the right to change our constitution by the will of our people through voting for an amendment, acts of the diet, all matters of justice must have final review by our supreme court. Where the best legal minds of Japan, free from bias, free from pressure, would guard our rights and liberties. Here was a branch of our new government, independent of all the others. For us it was added assurance of truth and justice. And the new order had brought us a new police. Not cruel masters, but servants of law and order. We remembered how twenty years ago our democratic beginnings were crushed by the police, whose stifled freedom condemned us for thinking. These new police, like us, are aware of the rights of the people. In the courts, too, we had new rights. The right of habeas corpus, presumption of innocence, the right to counsel. The humblest citizen could look for protection of the fundamental rights of all free men. Those who headed our government were responsible to us, or by our votes we could remove them. They were charged with improving conditions for the people, bettering our relations abroad, the world new of our progress, and seemed to encourage our efforts. The United States opened its doors to our elected representatives, who were received as equals by leaders elected by the people of the United States. Such notables as Vice President Barclay and Secretary of State Atchison gave them warm greetings, indicating friendship and trust. We were emerging into the light of world opinion. In New York, our leaders visited the United Nations, where we hoped soon to take our place. Warren Austin, the United States delegate, was one of the leading figures who made our people welcome. It was a great moment when we entered the hall where world problems were being settled and listened to the spokesman of many peoples. Each spoke in his own tongue, with immediate translation in other languages. In Paris, a great door was opened to us. We joined UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization, devoted to extension of civilization and human rights. Neighbors of the Far East spoke in our behalf. When we were admitted, we knew that here was an important step toward reconciliation, toward the establishment of friendly relations with people of other lands. And we hoped a step toward resuming our place among the nations. And then a few months later, the peace conference convened in San Francisco, with President Truman appearing to welcome the delegates of 52 nations of the earth. This was the time to look to the future, not the past, he said. He praised our efforts in land reform, in extending equality to women, in furthering the rights of labor. President Truman acknowledged our many often peaceful advances since the war's end. He called for conditions to permit further progress. And finally, he offered us a partnership for peace, with full sovereignty for our land. Long months of preparation had gone into this treaty. All the democratic world was agreed on its terms. But in this critical hour, the Russian delegate tried to obstruct the treaty. He complained about the rules of procedure. He demanded new time-wasting commissions to make more studies. He called for impossible conditions, flung insults and charges left and right to make more trouble, a representative of Poland, one of the captive nations that danced to the Communist tune tried to interrupt and delay the sessions. The purpose was clear. The Communist bloc was trying, by all means, to prevent the treaty that would give Japan a place of equality among nations. We're doomed to failure. The nations gathered here, great and small, had determined upon peace. They were not to be stopped by trickery after 11 months of negotiations to enable Japan to re-enter the family of nations. The spokesman from New Zealand vehemently denounced the Communist stand. Even such nations as the Philippines that had suffered greatly in the war favored making peace with us. The architect of this peace treaty, Mr. Dulles, the American statesman, had worked tirelessly toward this moment. At last, Premier Yoshida, speaking for us, told them Japan is determined to make amends, is burning with desire to live at peace with her neighbors. This treaty, he said, was unparalleled in history. Here was no vengeance, but recognition that Japan was a new nation seeking peace. For in this solemn hour, almost 10 years from the day the fury of war was unleashed, the people of the United States signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with our people. Australia signed the Covenant. Cambodia signed. The British signed. Ceylon and France. Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan. 48 nations in all signed. The three nations of the Communist bloc did not. Nations of East and West, great and small, signed in this historic hour before our representatives added the pledge of our country to live at peace with all the world, to work with others dedicated to justice, progress and freedom. Dulles knows we have problems, but believe we have the courage, the willingness, the skill to build anew, to join others in the great constructive task of human progress under a government of the people, by the people, for the people of Japan.