Press translations [Japan]. Social Series 0176, 1946-01-17.

Full Translation:

On the night of 11 January several employees of the state railway at SENDAI were arrested on a theft charge. The criminals were SAKURAI, Shotaro, aged 31; TAKAHASHI, Kun, 21; KOBAYASHI, Toshio, 20; MIYANO, Kazuo, 21; and CHIBA, Teruo, 20.

They were all locomotive engineers or assistant engineers employed by the SENDAI Railway.

SAKURAI was the leader of a group, consisting of about 20 members, which stole trunks, parcels, and various other things on the platform of SENDAI station. The goods they stole were divided equally among them. When they were off duty, they would enter passenger cars and steal rucksacks filled with rice, which they sold at exorbitant prices. They are also suspected of stealing canned goods, cakes, and other food from freight cars belonging to the occupation troops. Further crimes are expected to be revealed.

The section of criminal affairs in AKITA-Ken made some arrests in conjunction with various police stations. The AKITA police station arrested seven criminals IMANO, Toshio, aged 21 of the AKITA Steel Factory at MICHIKAWA-Mura, YURI-Gun; KANAMORI, Yukio, aged 20, assistant locomotive engineer of the same village; KATO, Matsutaro, aged 20, of the AKITA branch, office of the TEIKOKU Petroleum Company, of the same village; MIURA, Kiyoshi, aged 21, railway switchman, of the same village; SATO, Minoru, aged 20, assistant engineer of ARAKAWA-Mura, SENDKITA-Gun; and YAMAMOTO, Giichi, aged 19, of HONDAOKA-Mura, YURI-Gun.

These men stole a large quantity of clothing, food, and other goods amounting to approximately 100,000 tons at AKITA, TSUCHISAKI, OIWAKE, NIIYA, and MICHIKAWA stations, between August and December of last year. The goods were divided equally among them and they all were indulging in extravagant pleasures. IMANO bought a prostitute for 3,500 Yen. The value of the goods they stole amounted to more than 100,000 Yen and further losses are expected to be revealed because the men are suspected of other crimes.

Full Translation:

The resignation of KUMAGAI, President of the TOHOKU Imperial University, has been formally announced. In these days, when prompt democratization is being required in educational circles, the problem concerning the selection of the new president has been attracting public attention. One 14 January the deans of the various

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ITEM 2 (Continued)

departments of the institution held a meeting and decided to elect a new president. TAKAHASHI, Satomi, professor of law, and also a member of the literature department, is now widely favored as the new president.

The Prefectural Doctor's Society (KEN ISHI KAI) in MIYAGI-Ken has adopted a new democratic method for selecting its president. Hitherto, he had been appointed by the Welfare Minister, through the recommendation of the prefectural governor. The new president, SATO, Kozo was elected by 17 representative members sent from various branches of the Society. The newly elected vice-president is KAMATA, Tsunesuke. Other officials of the Society were appointed by the new president and vice-president as follows: Managing Director: WATANABE, Takanobu; Directors; ABE, Tetsuoj ICHIMI, Koshio; MUTO, Kano; KOYAMA, Takuro; and IMANO, Genshiro. The Society will do its utmost to obtain medical instruments and medicines and to restore hospitals which were damaged in the air raids.

Summary:

The Civil Information and Education Section has made it known that an allocation of translations of American books will be made shortly. The section also clarified the procedures for obtaining the translation rights. As a beginning, forty books will be translated. A list of these forty books will be published by the JAPAN Publisher's Association. Applications for permission to translate the books should be made through the Association, which will send the application to AMERICA, through the Civil Information and Education Section. If the conditions offered by Japanese Publishers are satisfactory, the American publishers will notify the Civil Information and Education Section.

Translators may begin work before the contracts are completed. Members of the Association will not be given preference over other publishers in obtaining translation rights.

Summary:

The TOKYO Police Office aims to help civilians organize self-defense organizations, and has notified every police office under it's jurisdiction about "the Principles of Helping the Civilian Crime Prevent ion Organizations".

According to these instructions every police station will take the initiative in forming civilian organizations to prevent crimes; but executive-members will all be civilians, and police office will give only guidance and protection to the organizations. The General Crime Prevention Association will be the head office, and in each neighborhood group association a branch office will be formed. Under these branch offices, neighborhood associations will have crime prevention organizations. Schools, companies and factories will also have branch offices.

Expenses will be paid by the members. The associations will (1), form a system by which members of the association will be put on duty to prevent crimes; (2) protect young boys and girls who may go astray at the first chance; (3) notify the homes of these children; (4) give instruction in crime prevention by means of meetings, lectures round table talks, and films, (5) form a self defense association at

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ITEM 4 (Continued)

each office.

The police will co-operate with the associations.

Summary:

According to a municipal announcement in NACAOKA-Shi on the influence of the food shortage, as investigated by Mr. FISHER of the occupation army, there is no sign of starvation among the civilians, but many people are still dying from malnutrition. At present, the number of deaths in the city, with the reduced population of 38,600, is the same as in the previous year when the population was 53,800.

Summary:

Political Education.

MINOBE: While in foreign countries, I felt that the political standards of foreigners were far higher than those of the Japanese and that almost every one was politically minded. Political education, I think, is necessary for the Japanese masses.

TANAKA: There may be various reasons for the lower political standard of the Japanese. Special emphasis must be placed on the need for education in citizenship to be taken as a part of social education. One of the most serious drawbacks lies in the fact that too much stress has been placed on academic education alone. In foreign countries, religious education is comparatively thorough. Japanese Buddhists, the major religious group in JAPAN, have not accomplished their mission in such education. Moreover, there has been no real spiritual life in JAPAN because people have been too fatalistic. We must deeply reflect on these fundamental points.

TATSUNO: In regard to political consciousness, foreigners are very firm in their convictions. In my boarding house in GERMANY a widow of a soldier was an extreme rightist while the maid and her husband belonged to the labor party. At the election, the servants and the widow voted for different candidates.

TANAKA: Heretofore, differences of belief between parents and children have been very rare in JAPAN; nor is it usual for brothers to belong to different religious sects and go to different churches. Hereafter, however, such differences of thoughts will appear in Japanese domestic life, or rather they must appear for the perfection of our social existence. The Japanese have not yet become individualists in the true sense of the word.

MINOBE: I am afraid, that such a thing would be hopeless in JAPAN, even in the future. Unfortunately, JAPAN has not experienced a Renaissance or any religious revolution.

TANAKA: I am not so pessimistic. We have been only recently liberated from feudal chains and given the freedom of speech. I believe it will be realized comparatively early, but we must be alert so as not to fall into inconsistency of thought, which is more dangerous than militarism for present day JAPAN. There is a danger of the Japanese being easily caught by the idea of the moment and following it blindly to its logical conclusion.

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ITEM 6 (continued)

TANAKA: The basis of historical education is that facts and the truth must be respected. In consequence, historical facts and myths will be clearly distinguished. Myths, later established as historical fact, should be inserted in history, but things not clearly established as historical facts, such as the conditions immediately before and after the founding of the Empire, should be taught simply as non-established incidents. Moreover, history has been abused as a means of promote militarism or the idea of the superiority of the Japanese Nation. It is a serious mistake to abuse history for such expediencies. Therefore, certain ideologies must be eliminated from history, and prejudices must be removed in selecting historical facts. It is important to teach history impartially, selecting all historical facts which are worthwhile from a purely objective point of view.

KATAYAMA: In addition to teaching objective facts, teachers must, I believe: teach students historical analysis, enabling them at the same time to criticize these facts freely. History in schools has been considered a memory exercise, but, hereafter, the Nation should be led to judge freely and interpret social movements and national tendencies in relation to history.

TANAKA: Existing history is more political than cultural and social, and so the Education Ministry is not merely going to give details of battles, the rise and fall of rulers, and so on in the compilation of historical materials. However, different critics have different opinions, and I think it would be better to teach ordinary objective and common sense history, so far as younger students and children are concerned. The pupils' critical faculty would better be cultivated in other lessons.

TATSUNO: I learned Japanese, Oriental, and Occidental history separately, so the relation of ages was not clear. They did not teach us how the various eras in the history of the different hemisphere were related to one another. To avoid confusion, or to make clear the relations between facts chronologically, it is necessary to adopt a common method of counting years and ages.

TATSUNO: The system of teaching Japanese history is entirely wrong. It brings to mind an anecdote. The Emperor, while still young and studying in the Crown Prince's study, was asked by his instructor, Dr. SHIRATORI, why smoke rose from so few farm house chimneys when the Emperor NINTOKU looked over the villages from an elevated position. Soma of the Prince's schoolmates replied that the cause was flood or famine. The crown prince replied that it was probably due to the Korean expedition, which impressed his instructor deeply as a superior explanation. Actually, there was about a 100 year lapse between the Korean Expedition and the era of the Emperor NINTOKU (100 years may be in reality 10 or 15 years, as it was customary in ancient days to count Emperors' ages by a method which was longer than the ordinary way), but the domestic administration, following the expedition was not very satisfactory, a fact which the Crown Prince seemed to have noticed. The instructor's way of teaching is surely to be admired. He is said to have urged the crown prince to study JAPAN, whose history had been previously studied only from the internal point of view, from the stand point of the whole Orient. The love of the Emperor NINTOKU for his people is an important historical fact and must of course, be taught in Japanese history, but future education must also be directed in such a manner as to study the reason why the people were reduced to poverty and why their kitchen fires were extinguished.

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Summary:

Fish was distributed at the same time as fuel oil to TOKYO residents through the central wholesale Market at one-third of the ordinary price. In January, 6,800 tons of fish are scheduled to arrive in TOKYO, 7,000 tons in February, and 10,000 tons in March.

In response to public doubt about fair distribution, the TOKYO office and the retailers have decided that some of their members will be put on duty to observe distributions to consumers.

As a practical measure to realize fair distributions, it has been decided that when the Fishing Company has sold its fish to the retailers the chiefs of the neighborhood associations will issue certificates, duty scaled, indicating the population of the district, and the amount and price of fish distributed. The certificates will be sent back to the fishing companies. Then measures are designed to prevent black market trade and high prices caused by too many middlemen.

Civilians must keep close watch lest the supervision of the members on duty and the certificates of the chief of the neighborhood associations do not become merely formalities which have no practical results.

DISTRIBUTION "X"

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