Hokkaido, second largest (30,132 sq. mi.) of Japan's home islands, sits just across a narrow strait from Russian-held Sakhalin, so close that at the end of World War II Communists tried to proclaim Hokkaido an "independent Socialist republic." They failed then, but last week one of the biggest cities on the island was in the grasp of a Communist-led strike so rough that police and government officials were powerless. Strikers, who have been besieging the big plant of the Oji Paper Co. in the bustling (pop. 40,000) town of Tomakomai since February, have since taken over the whole city....
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