Psychologically, the more doctrinaire forms of leftism played to the notion that the Japanese people as a whole did indeed have to be guided by their superiors to achieve a democratic revolution. The very notion of a left-wing or communist vanguard rested on the premise that the masses were backward and in need of such leadership. In this regard, left-wing elitism was not all that different from the conqueror’s, or from that of the conservatives who sought to retain power under the aegis and aura of the emperor. MacArthur’s GHQ, the old-guard Japanese who reluctantly went along with his
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