Chapter 344 Destroying Japan's Military Industry Foundation

A cruise ship arrived at Tokyo Port and thousands of passengers disembarked. Among these passengers were a large number of managers and technicians sent to Japan by various conglomerates.

This is the third batch.

In total, no less than two thousand people have been sent here.

The seven major financial groups acquired hundreds of Japanese companies and dozens of banks, and each of these companies sent its own management personnel.

Some companies want to upgrade their technology or purchase advanced production lines from the United States and need to bring in technical personnel.

If it were just one company, it would not be able to afford such a large investment in personnel, but for the seven major conglomerates, it is nothing.

There are dozens of big companies that can be named in the conglomerates, with hundreds of direct subsidiaries and even more affiliated companies.

Although these transferred management and technical personnel are not small in number, they are scattered among the hundreds of companies acquired by the seven major conglomerates, so they are nothing. More people will come in the future, and it is expected that the number will reach 10,000 to 20,000.

This is the foundation of the consortium.

When Hardy first envisioned controlling the Japanese economy, he decided to bring along these conglomerates, not only because of their influence on the economy and government, but also because of the talent and technology they had.

Sun Tzu's Art of War says:

"If you have ten of them, surround them; if you have five of them, attack them; if you have twice as many of them, divide them; if you are the enemy, fight them; if you have fewer of them, flee; if you are inferior to them, avoid them."

Only by deploying overwhelming military force can you gain overwhelming advantage.

Only the Hadi Group itself.

It was obvious that the United States was not strong enough to swallow Japan alone, but with the combined strength of the seven major American conglomerates, they were strong enough to swallow up Japan's economy. Coupled with the US military occupation of Japan, Japan had no power to resist.

Another big meeting today.

After each company reported their situation, it was Hadi's turn. Hadi said, "The overall work is progressing well and is basically on the right track now. I want to talk about another thing."

"We haven't taken back the military industrial enterprises we bought before we came to Japan because MacArthur has been blocking us. We spent 570 million US dollars on these enterprises, but now we can't get the factories back. If we delay for a day, we will lose a lot of money."

"We have to find a way to resolve this matter."

After Hardy finished speaking, he looked at the representatives of the various conglomerates present.

The vice president of Morgan Stanley frowned and said, "US$570 million, the interest alone is US$100,000 a day. Now it has been delayed for 60 days, and we have already lost US$6 million."

"What on earth does MacArthur want to do? We have the sale documents from Congress. Why would he stop it?"

"I think we should mobilize our forces to have Washington or members of Congress warn MacArthur," someone suggested.

This is exactly what Hardy wanted.

In fact, he could have gone to find MacArthur himself, but he just didn't go. When MacArthur prevented them from taking over the factory, Hardy was secretly happy and deliberately delayed going to find him.

Now that the acquisition of banks and companies has been completed, many Japanese companies have begun to resume work and production. According to Hardy's design, Japan will become a factory for the United States in the future, cutting off its heavy industry and military industry.

Now that Japan's economic structure has been basically completed, Hardy can free up his hands to deal with MacArthur.

He was arrogant.

I wonder if he would be afraid of offending the seven major conglomerates.

The result of everyone's discussion was to file a complaint with the consortium together and have the consortium boss go to the congressmen or directly to the White House.

Whoever prevents capitalists from making money is their enemy.

Losses amounted to $6 million.

This amount of money is not a small number no matter where it is placed. At this moment, MacArthur became the enemy of the Seven Major Conglomerates.

Someone called President Johnson.

And not just one.

In fact, Johnson had always had a bad impression of MacArthur. Of course, General Marshall, as the Secretary of Defense, simply hated MacArthur.

The two also have personal grudges.

When MacArthur was the Army Chief of Staff, he treated Marshall very unfairly, which affected Marshall's promotion. Later, Marshall's teacher Pershing kicked MacArthur to the Philippines, which allowed Marshall to rise.

As for why Pershing kicked MacArthur out, that's another interesting story, because MacArthur married Pershing's lover, which made Pershing very angry.

President Johnson and Marshall both had the same opinion about MacArthur's obstruction of the seven major conglomerates from acquiring the factory. That is, MacArthur felt that he was in charge of Japan and he was very unhappy that he had not discussed it with him before, so he did such a stupid thing.

"He likes to brag, loves to show off, is unruly and annoying. This is the impression everyone who has come into contact with him has of him," said Marshall.

"I will send him a telegram in the name of the Ministry of Defense. Japan's economic affairs have been handed over to Hardy. Tell him not to hinder it." Marshall said.

Johnson thought about it.

He said in a deep voice: "I will also have the Presidential Office send him a telegram. The sale of Japanese military industrial enterprises is a decision made by Congress. No one can stop it."

"During this time, Hadi has been sorting out the economy in Japan. Hundreds of companies have resumed work. In the future, that place will become a factory for the United States. Now that the Japanese economy is gradually recovering, it can already exchange for the food it needs and does not need continued assistance from the United States. I am very satisfied with what Hadi has done."

"MacArthur was trying to stop him. I think he may have made a mistake in his own positioning. Although he was the Allied commander and was responsible for Japanese affairs, he represented the United States and carried out American orders. Japan was not MacArthur's own colony."

......

osaka military base.

MacArthur was reading a report with a pipe in his mouth. The report was about the country in the East. The bald man retreated to the island, the North had occupied most of the territory, and even sent troops to confront the British across the river, but finally withdrew.

Now the North has determined the time for founding its nation.

At this moment,

The adjutant came in with a telegram. "Commander-in-chief, we have received a telegram from the United States. It is from Congressman Harriman."

"Harriman, why would he telegraph to himself?"

Harriman is not an ordinary congressman. His father is a famous American railroad tycoon. He himself is also a business elite. Later, he entered politics and served as a state governor. Now he is a Republican senator and has a high prestige within the Republican Party.

Although MacArthur held a high position in the military, he was not satisfied and ran for the presidency twice, once with Roosevelt. Haha, he got a fart behind Roosevelt and went back to the army obediently.

The second time was the last election, when Hardy pushed Johnson into office. He competed with Dewey for the Republican Party's nomination, and was defeated by Dewey with a landslide. He could only continue to serve as his own soldier.

However, he did not give up and was ready to participate in the next election. MacArthur joined the Republican Party, and Harriman was one of the senior Republican congressmen, and he wanted to win over the supporters.

In the telegram.

Harriman's tone was relatively tactful. When he learned that MacArthur had blocked the seven major conglomerates from accepting the acquisition of the Japanese factory, he told MacArthur that this was a very irrational behavior. Now that he was openly blocking other conglomerate businesses, the news had spread within Congress. If MacArthur offended the seven major conglomerates, if he wanted to participate in the presidential race in the future, I'm afraid no one would support him.

MacArthur's eye twitched.

I just wanted to give Hardy a hard time, but I didn't expect that guy never contacted me once in these days.

This delay lasted for two months.

Now those financial groups think that he is deliberately making things difficult for them, which makes MacArthur very hurt. He really doesn't think that way, he just wants to suppress Hardy.

What now?

Take the initiative to find Hardy and tell him that he can now take back those factories?

I guess Hardy must be laughing at himself in his heart.

While MacArthur was still thinking, his adjutant came over with another telegram: "Commander-in-Chief, a telegram from the Ministry of Defense."

MacArthur quickly took it.

I was stunned after reading the content. The content of the telegram from the Ministry of Defense was actually about those factories. The Ministry of Defense informed MacArthur in a very formal tone that those factories were decided by Congress to be sold to the consortium and asked MacArthur to execute it immediately.

Depend on,

The Ministry of Defense has issued the order.

It seems that those big financial groups have contacted the Ministry of Defense.

He really offended those big financial groups this time. He had originally planned to continue running for president next term, but now that he has offended the seven major financial groups, who will he find to spend money to support his election?

Now MacArthur really regrets that decision.

Just give it to him.

Now I am in a difficult situation.

Before he could finish his regret, a third telegram arrived: "Commander-in-Chief, this is a telegram from President Johnson."

In this telegram, Johnson told MacArthur in a rather stern tone that the factories must be returned to the seven major conglomerates immediately, and told him not to interfere in Japan's future economic activities, which would be entirely handled by Hardy.

Although MacArthur is unruly, he knows that he has offended many people. If he wants to survive, he must bow his head.

Call your adjutant.

"Have the military notify the troops guarding the military factory to allow them to take over. You call the office of the economic envoy and tell them that they can now take over the factory."

MacArthur finished his words.

He crumpled the three-part telegram in his hand into a ball and threw it into the paper basket.

He had not been treated so badly for a long time since he became the commander of the Allied Forces in Japan. On the Japanese side, no matter whether it was the emperor or the prime minister, everyone was respectful to him.

......

Hardy's office received a call from the military, telling them that they could take over the factory, and Hardy smiled when he heard the report.

"It turns out that even the arrogant MacArthur has a time to admit defeat. I thought he would confront the seven major conglomerates head-on."

MacArthur is just politically retarded, not really stupid.

He is just an expatriate general. There are many generals like him in the US military, and he is not irreplaceable.

Hardy ordered people to take over those factories. This time, the American troops stationed in Japan were much happier. After seeing the takeover documents, they handed over the factories to the other party and withdrew immediately. These factories fell completely into the hands of the seven major conglomerates.

These military factories are all heavy industrial industries.

Kawasaki Steel, Kobe Steel, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Shinsei Copper, Yokosuka Shipyard, Mitsubishi Machine Tools, Mazda Motor, Nissan Motor, Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, Mitsui Heavy Industries, Sumitomo Chemical Industries, Maruzen Petrochemical...

There are 306 in total.

These factories include steel, shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, gun manufacturing, machine tools, coal mining, coking, petroleum, copper making, aluminum making, chemical industry and many other fields.

It can be said that all of Japan’s heavy industry and military industry are here.

After taking control of these enterprises, Hardy once again convened a meeting of the heads of the seven major conglomerates to discuss how to deal with these factories.

According to Hadi's idea, all military uses of these heavy industrial enterprises will be eliminated and they will be converted to civilian use. For example, shipyards can manufacture civilian ships such as cargo ships, cruise ships, and fishing boats, but they cannot retain the ability to manufacture warships and submarines.

Companies that produce fighter planes, rifles, bullets, engines, torpedoes, missiles, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, radar, gunpowder, howitzers, etc.

All equipment has been dismantled and recycled. Japan will no longer retain the ability to manufacture military products. This is also a requirement of the United Nations.

If it were other countries, they would definitely feel sorry to see these production facilities being destroyed, but it was of no use to the United States. The seven major conglomerates all had their own military-industrial enterprises, which were much stronger than Japan in terms of production equipment, technology and scale.

The remaining equipment was all converted to civilian use.

Hardy's idea was simple.

If Japan's military-industrial foundations are destroyed, perhaps they will reappear in the future. But now without these factories, there will inevitably be a generational gap, especially a talent gap, and recovery will be much more difficult.

Hardy's purpose in doing this is actually very simple.

Just for the sake of fun.

When Hadi told Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru the delegation's decision, Yoshida Shigeru tried hard to smile, but Hadi could see that his smile was forced.

I think Japanese politicians and nobles would be very depressed when they heard this news.