Foreign News: Status of Mind

At 4 a.m. U.S. Marine Pfc. Adolph W. Merten took a blurry look at the barroom quintet and decided he saw four Japanese Communists all set to kill an American Army sergeant. Merten, a Korea veteran subject to “Bolshephobia” (i.e., seeing Red) when liquored up, fired five wavering revolver shots. Shiro Takawa, 19, no Communist but simply another patron in the Yokosuka bar, fell dying. When Merten went to trial before a Japanese court last week for manslaughter, his Japanese lawyer pulled out Article 39 of the Japanese criminal code, which holds that “an act by a person of unsound mind is not punishable.” Judge Minoru Kamiizumi agreed, set Merten free because the marine “had been drinking whisky for several hours, showed symptoms of pathological intoxication and was in a state of mental unsoundness.”

This kind of justice to G.I.s might make some U.S. citizens feel better about turning over U.S. Soldier William Girard to the Japanese courts, but Tokyo’s Mainichi had a deeper worry: “This is like telling the world that in Japan you can do anything if you are drunk. Perhaps we should advertise Japan abroad not as the land of Mt. Fuji and geishas but as a paradise for alcoholics.” About twelve Japanese a year win acquittal on murder charges by proving they were drunk or drugged (a plea that is no defense at all in U.S. courts). Announced the Justice Ministry: “Revision of Article 39 is being considered.”