JAPAN: Holy Mac

U.S. occupation authorities in Japan are dedicated to the principle of freedom of worship. Last week they proved it.

As stiff-necked, German-born G-2 officer Brigadier General Charles A. Willoughby (who changed his name from Von Tscheppe-Weidenbach) sat in his Dai Ichi Building office late one night, scanning proofsheets of the English-language Nippon Times, his eye lit on an editorial reprinted from the Tokyo daily Jiji Shimpo. “Japanese teachers,” he read, “have the habit of blind worship for . . . the man in power. . . . They used to endeavor to instill in the minds of their pupils that the Emperor was God. Now they claim that General MacArthur is the Savior.. .. Until the Japanese are cleansed of this servile concept, democracy in Japan will make no progress.”

Promptly General Willoughby organized a squad of MPs, descended on the printing plant, where presses were rolling off the last of an edition of 50,000. He ordered the presses stopped. Trains were held up until papers already loaded could be removed. When the last copies of the offending editorial had been burned, the Nippon Times went to press again.

Said Willoughby: “This article was censorable under the American code affecting any derogatory statement which tends to diminish the reputation . . . of the occupation forces or its commanders.”

There was nothing to be done about the original editorial in the Japanese-language paper. That had already been distributed to 250,000 readers. But Censor Willoughby could find some comfort in its concluding words:

“The way to express the gratitude of the Japanese people to General MacArthur . . . is not to worship him as a god but to cast away the servile spirit and gain the self-respect that would not bow its head to anybody. Only thus would MacArthur rest content.”