The Press: Code for the Japs

Before Pearl Harbor, Tokyo’s largest newspaper, Asahi, was considered sufficiently pro-American to have once had its plant wrecked by irate militarists. And after Japan’s fall it was still the most favorable to the U.S. of Tokyo’s six dailies. (Editorialized Asahi: “The Tojo military clique represented deliberate arrogance, ignorance, self-complacency, vanity.”)

But last week Asahi got the toughest rapdown yet meted out to any Jap paper by General MacArthur: a two-day suspension. Reason: Asahi had darkly suggested that “some people think [the] announcement of Japanese atrocities may be timed to offset the news about outrages committed by some American soldiers in Japan ” (Japs have accused G.I.s of rape.) Next day MacArthur suspended for one day the English-language Nippon-Times.

So that there may be no further nonsense, MacArthur followed up with a tough ten-point code for the press. In effect, it ordered the Japs to tell the truth, at the same time tell no truth that would hurt the U.S. Some rules:

¶ “News must adhere strictly to the truth.

¶ “No false or destructive criticism of the Allied powers. . . .

¶ “News stories shall not be colored to conform with any propaganda line.”

Penalty for editors who fail to toe the U.S. line: jail.