Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0123, 1945-12-20.

Full Translation:

The Army and Navy leaders who abused their authority with self - complacency and secrecy, have now led themselves to ruin as a direct result of their absolute and despotic administration. Now the self-eom[illegible]lacency, secrecy and powerful control of the bureaucrats is expected to collapse. Their powerful control is destined to be thoroughly ruined sooner or later because of the awakening of freedom and democracy among the Japanese people.

Army and Navy leaders and officials took advantage of SHINTO, the national religion, as a basis for their control of power in former days. SHINTO is founded on ancestor worship. Shrines are still being supported due to the natural feelings of the Nation. They will be long regarded as objects of worship. After all, this is the traditional worship of the Nation.

SHINTO, however, was misinterpreted by the militarists and bureaucrats who gave it a mysterious vatene and used it to oppress the Nation trough high handed measures. That is where the vital misfortune of SHINTO lies. Whether SHINTO is a religion or not, leaves room for discussion. As to whether SHINTO forms complete body of philosophy, there is ground for controversy. Moreover, it is doubtful that SHINTO was regarded as being the national religion in our country up to this time. Nevertheless the nation feels, as SAIGYO, a famous poet, said, "Although I did not know what lay in the Great Shrine, I shed tears with grantification," Chrine worship by the nation has a good reason for existance. SHINTO is nothing but the pure feelings of the Nation.

In order for SHINTO to be separated from the pure feelings of the Nation and enter the religious world of pure reason, its theoretical structures must make great advances. Insofar as Japanese myths and the records of the Divine Age now presented are conscerned, SHINTO has no room for such rapid progress. This leads to the conclusion that Shrines are not religions. So in a pure sense SHINTO and Shrines cannot be compared with BUDDHISM or CHRISTIANITY. It is quite meaningless when we compare SHINTO with these religions. There is no reason for compulsory religious and formal worship by the nation. It is the wisest policy for SHINTO and Shrines to keep their natural position among the pure feelings of the Nation.

Mystery, self-complacency, and power always unite and oppress a nation. They are the taboos of primitive races, lacking reason, wisdom, and philosophy.

EDITORIAL SERIES 123 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

The power of the authorities of the Army and Navy and the will of the officials for power are no more than the manifestation of such a racial taboo. SHINTO in JAPAN must go its original way, separated, from them. When it does so, it will have a bright and hopeful future. In this sense, Japanese myths in the records of the Divine Age must be studied. By aid of our resoning power and wisdom we should be fully prepared to observe them through the viewpoints of faith and science, without misinterpreting the real facts

Full Translation:

The fact that burglary, murder, and theft are rampant in the cities and in other places does not improve the morale of the people who are already in a melancholy mood as the result of the war. Neverthless, the prestige of the police is gone because of their failure to make any arrests. The result of this failure is that social unrest is becoming more and more pronounced.

It is needless to say that such severe crime wave should be attributed to the shortage of food as well as to unemeloyment. Its complete elimination cannot be hoped for without first solving such problems. However, this is no reason for slackness in police supervision. If no attempts are made to halt the crime wave, the situation will soon get out of hand.

It may be said that TOKYO has lost its police control. Do the police now lack self-confidence? It is not the lack of facilities that place the police at a less as to what to do; it is their failure to establish a new police policy after their old one was utterly crushed and their special thought control policy was wiped out by a directive of the Supreme Commanders. Also their evil practice of trampling on personal rights was strongly condemned by the public. If this is true, and if such a state continues, streets will be flooded with evil and the hope of reconstructing a new JAPAN will completely disappear. If we, therefore, wish to prevent JAPAN from degenerating into a country of criminals, we must find where the defects lie and try to change them as quickly as possible.

It is characteristic of the recent crimes that they are committed more frequently by notices than by old offenders It is also characteristic that these novicies work in bands. The increase in the number of delinquents indicates the degeneration of, demobilized soldiers and unemployed. Many offenders carry daggers, Japanese swords, pistols and so on, and they are more likely to use them without warning for killing or wounding their victims than for purposes as of intimidation. While the police are making a vain effort to arrest criminals, new robberies follow one after another, throwing them into confusion as to where to begin.

Previously, in order to find the offender, the police arrested all those who were suspected and kept them in custody until one of them was tortured into making a confession. The Allied directive which demanded the preservation of human rights has swept away this feudal method of criminal detection once and for all. That is the principal reason that the police are at a lose. Even the Metropolitan Police Board has lost its self-confidence and is making no efforts to stop the crime wave.

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 123 (Continued)

ITEM 2 (Continued)

It is, therefore, urgent to make the public effective once more by establishing a new and fresh spirit in conformity with the new age. Futhermore, there are technical matters to be considered. Due to war damages, census-t king is incomplete, and employment statistics remain unknown. Automobiles for police purposes are limited. Telephones are disabled and the shortage of food threatens many with starvation. These obstacles to efficiency are not insurmountable.

However there is the question of incompetency. In the UNITED STATES during the Prohibition Period, prosecutors were prevented from effective action because of the incompetency of state police officers. At last a central police system was adopted and the "G-men" of the FBI was born. We are astonished at the stu[illegible]idity of police authorities in leaving unsolved such a trivial problem as incompetency. The fact that policement can no longer use the reproaching words they, where are you going," is, in effert, a confession of their incompetency. It is clear that they need new training. We hear that the Metropolita Police Beard is petitioning Supreme Headquarters to allow police officers to use tear gas bombs and carry pistols. Before this happens scientific methods of crime defection should be studied.

The quality of policemen began to drop when the Government began advertising for policemen without any qualifications except that they had not previously been an offender. Most of these men were given no training before assuming their duties. In replacing them by better qualified policemen, better treatment must also be considered. According to information obtained by an investigation of a certain police office in TOKYO, the average monthly income of an assistant police inspector is 205 yen 60 sen, that of a police sergeant is 202 yen, and that of a patrolman is 133 yen 57 sen. Such incomes are inadequate.

We desire that the authorities establish a new police spirit as soon as possible. It is also our ernest desire that policemen in the police boxes or in the streets respected by the people as good public servants and that they retain sufficient dignity to carry out their duty in the maintainance of public peace.

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