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JAPAN: Babe’s Patriot

2 minute read
TIME

Into a Tokyo police station one day last week strutted a proud young man.

“I have just stabbed Matsutaro Shoriki, the unpatriotic publisher, in the neck!” he boasted. “I am a patriot. My name is Katsusuke Nagasaki. I am 28 years old and belong to the Warlike Gods Society.”

Stabbed Publisher Shoriki, whose famed Yomiuri is Tokyo’s third largest newsorgan, had meanwhile been rushed to hospital, hastily given a blood transfusion. In the eyes of Japanese jingoes his conduct has long merited Death. Not only has Tycoon Shoriki annoyed Japan’s dominant dictatorial clique by printing eulogies on Constitutional Government but last year he even went to the extreme of bringing Babe Ruth to Japan just as her jingoes were successfully working up public opinion to believe that the U. S. is the “White Menace.”

Inoffensive Mr. Ruth, cheered up & down Japan by frenzied millions of slant-eyed baseball fans, proved a Peace Envoy par excellence (TIME, Nov. 12). Shocked in Manhattan by the news from Tokyo last week, the Babe said: “I am mighty sorry to hear that anything has happened to Mr. Shoriki and I hope he recovers. He wasn’t in the game for money, but because he believed baseball a good thing for Japan. To us he was a fine host, full of energy and hustle.”

Tokyo police, after looking up Knifer Nagasaki’s record, reported that several times during the past three years he has been arrested for attempted assaults, has always been released after explaining his patriotic motives.

Eight young patriots who approached the U. S. Embassy in Tokyo flaunting a skull banner last week were courteously received by experienced Councilor of Embassy Edwin L. Neville. After hearing their expostulations against the rigors of Japanese life in Arizona, Councilor Neville bowed the eight patriots out, saw them safely arrested by Tokyo police, rang up Tokyo papers to say that the Embassy had not called the police.

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