Press translations [Japan]. Social Series 0067, 1945-12-06.

Full translation:

Professor HA[illegible]O [illegible]itaro and Professor U[illegible]O, Kozo of [illegible]Law and Literture Deportments of [illegible]OTOKU University will be allowed to teach again as soon as their reinstatement has been approved by the Professors' Council. They had been forced to retire because of "dangerous thoughts."

Full translation:

Eight persons, including NAKAJIMA, Syosaburo, of 129, KAMITAKADA, NAKANO-ku, stole 30 kan of oil and canned goods from the storehouse of the KANTO Packing Company in KANTO, FORMOSA and took them to the NAKAJIMA house. Upon inquiry by the police, NAKAJIMA said, "I did not steal, but only bought" encouraged by more than 300 Chinese gathered outside. When Major Rebisu and about 30 other military policemen came to the spot, and took in custody 16 Chinese who were brought to the Metropolitan Police Office. In the confusion, NOZAKI, Sectional Chief of the Metropolitan Police Office sustained an injury which will take one week to heal completely.

Summary:

All the school-boys who are now home from the war fronts or the munition factories lament not only the lack of new publications but the lack of secondhand books. Badly needed,, popular second hand book are shut up in show-cases labelled "Exchange Books." A MEIDAI boy proposed to exchange his four rare books for a book on Japanese Administration at a law-book store but the shop-assistant was not agreeable to such a trade.

A customer may ask, "How much is the Complete Works of SOSEKI?" "We do not sell it for money, but for commodities," is the reply. "What commodities do you want?" "Rice or sugar, sir" "How much rice?" is too hard a question for a lady sales clerk to answer on the spot so she goes to the chief-clerk. "Two to of rice and 150 yen."

A book-for-book bargain would be possible with students but how can they manage rice or vegetables? Yet the above is an every day scene

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ITEM 3 (Continued)

in KANDA book shops. The manager of GANSHO-DO book store said; If there are too many buyers, we may ask some commodities instead of money but so far we have never proposed to exchange books for food, but on the other hand some customers have proposed to exchange their own rice for a copy of an English-Japanese dictionary. Chief of the KANDA Police, KAJI, said that he had never heard of the book dealers barter system and that any exhorbitant demand from the dealers will be regulated.

Summary:

TOKYO is in the throes of the biggest crime wave since the Police Board was created after the MEIJI Restoration. From the end of the war up to December, TOKYO alone has had nine murder cases and 47 cases of burglary with assault. These burglaries were committed in gangs of two or more and in each case the burglars armed with pistols, swords or daggers assaulted and injured their victims. Up to the present the police have only been able to arrest five out of the nine murderers and effect arrests in only six of the 47 cases of burglary.

Journalists attached to the Police Board believe the following reasons are responsible for these poor results by the police: 1. Bad communication. The murderer in the SHITAYA murder case in November was known, but escaped because the police could not reach the spot in time to effect his arrest. In the TAMACHI murder of an aged couple, the inspector only reached the spot hours after the murder was discovered because his car had broke dam. Investigation reveals that the Police Board Sections for crime detection and inspection possess only two cars, and they are in poor condition. At present it is not a rare occurrence for a detective to walk 20 miles a day because of a traffic; breakdown or lack of transportation facilities.

Lack of food also decreases his working ability. The Police have a free pass for all transportation facilities, but they still have expenses which are not sufficiently recognized. For the expense account the Police Board pays a detective 20 yen, a police sergeant 18 yen, and an ordinary policeman 15 yen per month, in addition to which all police receive 26.70 yen for their yearly clothing allowance. However, these sums are today insufficient to even pay for shoe repairs. Telephone and wireless installations between the Metropolitan Police Board and the 80 TOKYO Police Stations are in such condition that at present only ten police stations out of the eighty can maintain normal communications. The remainder are required to use special messengers.

"Cherchez la femme" was once the catchword of the police and following serious burglaries the police watched the pleasure quarters for inordinate spendings, but the trend of the present inflation has resulted in such spending in gay quarters that it is almost impossible to trace the criminal by this old method. The present rampant black market is helping the criminal. So many civilians are engaged in one way or the other in black market activities that when the police question them on a crime case, the questioned person possessing a quilty conscience himself is extremely reluctant to answer. Now the police have discovered that they have to question ten people for fact findings, whereas formerly three were sufficient. The investigation

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SOCIAL SERIES: 67 (Continued)

ITEM 4 (Continued)

of the KITATAMA murder case was made impossible through just such lack of co-operation by the inhabitants of the neighborhood.

In the last two days two more murder cases and seven cases of burglary with assault have occurred. To stem this very serious crime [illegible]ave three things are absolutely essential. The TOKYO criminal police must be motorized, the TOKYO citizens must co-operate and the pay and living standards of the police must be raised.

Full translation:

(1) Union Against Teacher Discharge. The NIPPON Teachers' Union (NIPPON KYOIKUSHA KUMIAI) stated its opinions against she dismissals of teachers resulting from the liquidation of the burned schools. FURUKAWA, Kanemitsu, managing director and. KAWASAKI, Natsu, and NIWA, Setsuko of the Union, visited the chief of the TOKYO-to office on 4 December and issued a statement, in which they declared that: "The Union was against the dismissal of teachers when national school education should be complete. If the teachers out number the demand, the number of classes should be increased or the teachers given an opportunity to receive further training."

(2) Revival of Basketball Teams.

WASEDA and KEIO Universities basketball teams are re-organized and will have their first post-war match on 8 December at the National Athletic Hall (KOKUMINTAIIKUKAN) at KANDA. In addition, a match of the graduates' team will be held on the same day.

(3) Education Consulting Rooms.

The Education Consulting Room in the Education Office opened on 20 November, and received five hundred inquiries in the first ten days. Ninty-one were concerned with changing of schools by high school on university students. Seventy-one concerned the changing or entrance into schools by the demobilized men. Sixty-four inquiries concerned: the changing or entering of schools by repatriates from abroad.

(4) HOSEI University Movement.

The preparatory course students of the HOSEI University who had demanded refreshments from the University, due to the prolonging of their vacation term from 6 December to 20 January, felt disappointed when their demands were burned down. As a result these students held a mass meeting on 4 December and demanded the resignation of President TAKEUCHI.

Full translation:

The Public Opinion section of the Information Bureau requested eight students of TOKYO Imperial University to investigate public opinion as regards reformation of farm system. The outline of the investigation was made known on 4 December.

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SOCIAL SERIES: 67 (Continued)

ITEM 6 (Continued)

The investigations were carried out in the IWATE-SENDAI, IBARAGI-TOCHIGI-GUMMA, CHIBA-KANAGAWA-YAMANASHI, TOKYO, NIIGATA-NAGANO, SHIZUOKA-AICHI, KYOTO-NARA and OSAK-KOBE areas, each student taking one area. One week was necessary for the students to finish their talks with the farmers.

The measures taken in this investigation might be regarded imperfect in many points: only one person investigated a large area, many opinions were not available, interpretation of the questions often depended on the investigator's manner of talking. But the tendency of public opinion might be gauged.

Questions and answers were as follows:

1. Question -Will products be increased because of the reformation? Answer - Yes; 2. Question - Mill the democratization of farms be encouraged? Answer - Yes; 3. Question - Is five "CHO" proper? Answer - No, that is too large. A maximum of three "CHO" may be proper, but in the TOHOKU area, five "CHO" is proper. Flexibility is desired in accordance with the provincial land situations; 4. Question - What about prices? Answer - (a) Confiscation is not favored, (b) Tenants and small-holders answered that the combined sums of Government prices and a certain amount of compensation would be proper. (c) Land owners were not in favor of the low price, but they seemed to think it inevitable; 5. Question - Have they funds to buy the lands? Answer - (a) No, not rice or wheat farms, (except) in the KEIHIN, and KEIHAN districts); (b) Yes, vegetable farms; 6. Question - Should titles be paid in money? Answer - (a) Land owners are against it. (b) Tenants are in favor. Precautionary measures are desired to prevent land owners from getting back the land.

DISTRIBUTION "X"

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