The Press: Free, Unfettered?

The Society for a Free World Press last week got a testimonial from Tokyo. Wrote General Douglas MacArthur: “No . . . agency can play a greater role in remaking Japan . . . than the free, uncontrolled and unfettered press which we are seeking to encourage. . . .”

Same day, MacArthur’s censors let Japanese editors print an item that was forbidden the day before: the suicide note left by Prince Fumimaro Konoye, thrice Premier of Japan. Japanese papers were still forbidden to print one pertinent paragraph, in which he had spoken of the “boastfulness of the conquerors.”

For the first time, the Son of Heaven held a press conference. Strolling the palace grounds, he met (by carefully arranged coincidence) six aging Japanese newsmen who had “covered” the Imperial household for a decade, with never an audience. They bowed low. Asked the Emperor: Did the newsmen have enough to eat? Had they been bombed out? Then, under strict orders to ask no questions and to write no stories, the newsmen bowed again. The press conference was ended.