A Comment on the Berlin Declaration
(October 16, 1942)
The Berlin spokesman already made a formal declaration on October 12. The
declaration says: “The armies of Germany have already shifted from offense to
defense.” The declaration also says: “This should not be seen as our fighting plan
for the future, and it does not mean that any country among the three allies has
decided or has been forced to give the initiative to the enemy either. This merely
reflects that Germany and its allies have gained a position that is not easily
attacked after three years of war and they maintain a calm attitude and the
confidence of victory with this change.”
This last passage is a lie. But this lie is extremely necessary for the Fascists in
their current position, because the shift Hitler made from offense to defense this
year is very different from his shift from offense to defense last year.
Last year, Germany could prepare for another offensive this year because it
still had surplus forces and because the Fascists of Japan had agreed with Hitler
to break open the Pacific War soon. Thus, the thinking went, this was enough,
first, to anesthetize the people and, second, to pin down the United States and
weaken England so that there would be no second front. In addition to this it was
because the Japanese Fascists had answered Hitler’s call that they would attack
Siberia in concert with Germany under certain conditions (e.g., should the second
German summer offensive reach its aims). These three items were all present
then, or were possible, and so Hitler had no need to spout such a pitiful lie as this
after the defeat of the attack on Moscow. He could just hand the head of his
commander-in-chief [Walther von] Brauchitsch to the people, blaming the failure
of the attack on him and claiming that, naturally, it would not have happened if
he, Hitler, had been in charge.
As expected, the Pacific War broke out, with England and the United States

suffering great losses and Japan gaining a great reputation. This event
immediately anesthetized the people of Germany and Europe. Hitler’s pain
caused by the twin wounds of the failure of the summer offensive and the winter
counterattack by the Red Army was eased by this anesthetic. And, as expected,
there was no second front when Hitler launched his summer offensive this year.
Last year, Hitler dealt with the winter offensive of the Red Army, and he
supplemented his old forces, replenishing his military strength and snatching
some ten divisions from Italy, Romania, and Hungary at the same time. These
were the bases on which Hitler and all his Fascist partners maintained that they
still had a future and still possessed real strength. Based on these, Hitler launched
this year’s offensive as expected. Even though it was not as intense as last year’s
offensive, still it caused confusion during the three months of July, August, and
September, making people feel that Hitler was really very strong.
It is only the third item which down to the present has seen no movement.
Even if there were still some possibility of it, well, there seems only one
opportunity, when England and the United States launch their attack on
Germany, for the Fascists to try to escape with their lives or for the Japanese
militarists to give it one more go. But that plan to coordinate an attack with
Hitler this year is bankrupt.
In the past year, two of the three items have been fulfilled, and these are
something the German Fascists can congratulate themselves on when they settle
accounts for the year.
However, there is another side to this, and that is that all three items are now
bankrupt. First, this year’s offensive has completely fallen through. Last year they
still had that magic weapon with which to comfort themselves and the people
completely, but this year it is gone. The statement “defense should not be seen as
our fighting plan for the future” suggests hope for a third offensive, but it is
nothing but a lie. Hitler’s older forces are extremely worn, with their best units
already consumed. His human resources and military materiél, regardless of his
exhortations, cannot organize a similar offensive. The condition that used to hold
the people’s hearts together and extend the life of the Fascists has been basically
destroyed—Germany’s offensive strength has now been transformed into its
opposite. Precisely at a time like this the Fascists need to use a complete lie like
this to hold on to the hearts of their people, but in this world there has never been

one who using lies while not having real strength has managed to hold on to the
hearts of the people. Stalin modestly said, “While the strength of the Soviet Union
may not be great, it is still greater than that of the Fascists.” After the failure of
Hitler’s offensive, the strength of the Red Army has surpassed that of the Fascists.
Under these sorts of conditions, the Fascists internally face the danger of splitting,
as the former unity is no longer possible. The contradictions between the Fascists
and the people will certainly grow, for it is very difficult for the people and the
army to hold them together. There will be a tendency for relations between
Germany and Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland, and Japan to become strained,
and Italy may even change sides. The attitude of several neutral states in Europe
will change and some may even join the Allies.
As for the second item, this year is the reverse of last year. Japan’s victory has
mobilized the United States to reorganize its military, making up for its losses in
Hawaii within a single year and even vigorously preparing for attack. On the
same day Berlin declared its defensive position, [Franklin] Roosevelt said: “We
have already made several important decisions concerning the opening of a
second front. Among them, we all agree on the need to launch a new offensive
against Germany and Japan in order to disperse enemy forces from inside the
Soviet Union and China to other battlefields.” Japan fears the United States as if it
were a tiger. On August 28 the spokesman for the information department of the
Japanese navy said: “After the sinking of the British [HMS] Prince of Wales, the
United States immediately added $40 million to the air force budget and began
the transformation of some fourteen ships into aircraft carriers, while changing
some twenty merchant marine ships and some seven others under construction to
aircraft carriers. This shows how much weight the United States puts on aircraft
carriers. Our nation should not sit by and watch the United States build these
ships but should find a way to destroy them before it can build them.” On
September 26 [Japanese prime minister Tōjō Hideki] said: “England has gradually
reorganized its strategic line, and America’s plan of counter-attack becomes more
clear daily. The two countries rely on their ample resources swiftly to strengthen
their fighting power, awaiting the time to launch a comprehensive counterattack.
The formal development of the Great East Asian War is still in the future.” In all,
Japan trembles in the face of the United States. What about Germany? The same.
On October 12 the Berlin spokesman said: “The United States has begun its large-

scale armament plans. But no matter how much it is strengthened, if it wants to
retake Europe, Africa, and Asia, this will be beyond its capacity.” This last
sentence is also a lie. In reality, the Fascists clearly sense the demonic shadow of
a second battlefield daily approaching their back door. On August 28, the paper
of the Nazi security forces under [Heinrich] Himmler even went so far as to use
the power and prestige of the Red Army to threaten England and the United
States and to stir the will of his own troops. This paper said: “Those personnel
and arms that are now facing unprecedentedly ferocious fighting on the eastern
front will in the end exterminate England. We should ask the German military
personnel who have been severely tested in fighting on the eastern front and
have answered the call for the second front in the west if each man among them
eagerly hopes to use the ‘limitless’ strength they developed on the eastern front
against the British, or even the American, enemy. When England declared war in
1939 it did not know what war is, but we knew better what war was and now we
know fully what war is.” That is to tell Britain and the United States that we are
the students of the Red Army, come and get us! It is to tell the German soldiers,
we have engaged the Red Army so what do we have to fear with a second front!
Do the Fascists know what war is? They know that war is defeat. On October 4,
[Herman] Goering threatened the people saying, “If we are defeated in this war,
then Germany’s fate will be tragic, and Germans will be torn apart by the poison
fangs of international Jewry and will be annihilated. Germany will be erased
from the map.” In sum, the Fascists survive now only on lies and threats and have
no real strength on which to rely. Their offensive strength is already finished, and
their fate is sealed.
The situation for Japan is a bit different. Its strength is sufficient to mount
another offensive because the previous fighting did not exhaust its main force.
Thus we cannot determine at this time whether Japan will take another big
chance toward the north or the south. But one thing is clear: At present, Japan
faces the great danger of an American counterattack. Comparing Japan’s current
strength with that future danger, well, it just does not bear thinking about. The
frightened-to-the-bones reaction of the Japanese military headquarters to the U.S.
aircraft and warships comes from just this state of affairs. Japan now stands at
this decision point: Should they follow Germany’s risky model this year of an
offensive that is certain to bring defeat? Or should they follow Germany now in

preserving their forces on the defensive in hopes of a final victory? If the
Japanese Fascists choose the first road, that for Germany would mean using the
Japanese attack to preserve Germany, that is, by drawing the U.S. and Soviet
offensive from Europe to meet the Japanese attack. This is vastly different from
the plan for this year to use the Pacific War and the hope of a Japanese attack on
Siberia to support a German offensive. If the Japanese choose the second road,
that will naturally be advantageous to the Japanese, but it will be very harmful to
the Germans, and we might perhaps expect some strains between the Eastern and
Western Fascists on just this question. Before today, Germany had used Japan’s
attack on Britain and the United States, but was not able to use a Japanese attack
on the Soviet Union. Today? There has been a great change in the circumstances
of both the Germans and the Japanese, and we will have to wait to see clearly
what policy Japan chooses in the end.
But no matter what, the world situation has already undergone a basic change,
and all the Fascist countries in reality have lost the initiative. Regardless of
whether it is Germany or Japan, they are all like this, and no matter which road
Japan chooses, they are all like this.
The fate of the Fascists is sealed, and only the most timid of people still fear the
Fascists.
Note

--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 448–53, which is based on the editorial by Mao in
Jiefang ribao, October 16, 1942.