JAPAN: Ineligible

The shadow of a shady past rose last week to smite ambitious Ichiro Hatoyama. His Liberal Party had won a thumping plurality in Japan's first postwar Diet elections; after long hesitation Premier Shidehara had recommended the stocky, 63-year-old politico to the Emperor as his successor. Then the Allied Supreme Commander spoke. "The Japanese Government," said a MacArthur directive, "having failed to act on its own responsibility, the Supreme Commander has determined the facts relative to Hatoyama's eligibility . . . finds he is an undesirable person." Hatoyama was out.

The directive charged that as a Cabinet member (1927-1929) Hatoyama had helped...

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