On the Record

Not since Manila, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, had Douglas MacArthur granted an all-out press conference. So when the Supreme Commander finally consented to lunch with the Tokyo correspondents at their Shimbun Alley clubhouse last week, many Allied newsmen did not bother to bring paper or notebooks. But what MacArthur told them, for the record, kept them scribbling for an hour on napkins, chit books, and letters from home. The reverberations continued all week.

The MacArthur Doctrine amounted to the flat declaration that Japan was ready for a peace treaty; that delay would further cripple the Japanese economy (thus requiring mounting U.S. aid); that for some time after the treaty Japan would need both steering and protection--and that this might well be a job for U.N.

Americans sensed (though MacArthur had not told them much about it) that the amazing results of the U.S. occupation of Japan were based on concepts far deeper than mere administrative efficiency. MacArthur the philosopher had touched deep chords in the Japanese soul. He hinted at his guiding principle when he said that the Japanese, disarmed and with a new constitution renouncing war, "are relying upon the advanced spirituality of the world to protect them. . . ."

Tokyo Reservations. Japanese were striving as usual last week to do & think like Americans,* but Japanese Premier Yoshida could not go all the way with MacArthur. Yoshida cheered the statement that Japan was ready for a peace treaty. He deplored the idea of U.S. withdrawal afterwards: "We are having our battles with the Communists too, and we have a very dangerous enemy to the north. ... I am not acquainted with the strength of the United Nations."

Official Washington, taken by surprise once more, explained that MacArthur must have been speaking as Supreme Allied Commander--that is, as MacArthur--instead of as the U.S. spokesman. One Washington official grumbled that U.N. still finds it "an intolerable administrative burden to push a peanut from one wall to another." How could a U.N. committee made up of members variously interested in 1) free enterprise, 2) Socialism, and 3) Communism stabilize and guide Japan?

No Reservations. For the Japanese who got a good look at the great Commander at the Shimbun Alley clubhouse, there were no reservations whatever. Said Yasokichi Akomoto, 32-year-old head bar steward who was an ack-ack gunner in Tokyo during the war: "He is a simple, gentle man. I have seen many Japanese generals. . . . They would have shouted and had men with guns standing guard for blocks around here. What he said was kind to the Japanese. I shall never again see such a great man."

The waitresses were awed, said they could never repay the General for the great trust he showed in them: "All morning we expected someone to come and test the food he was to eat. We thought perhaps he feared we might poison him. No such test was made, and we are honored beyond belief."

-One example: On St. Patrick's Day half a dozen Tokyo attorneys turned up in the war crimes court wearing green lapel ribbons.

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