Closed-Door Policy

In the Far East command of General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. correspondents who have written dispatches critical of the commander or of occupation policies have soon learned what it is like to be unpopular. Some got the deep freeze from Mac-Arthur's staff. Others who left Tokyo on visits, or assignments in the Far East, had to wait weeks and slice through endless snarls of red tape before they were allowed to return to Japan (TIME, Feb. 9, 1948).

Recently, Douglas MacArthur went a step farther: he flatly barred a correspondent of the leftwing, anti-Communist Nation from entering Japan.

For a year, the Nation had been trying to get Correspondent Andrew Roth into Japan. Roth, an ex-naval officer who was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of espionage conspiracy (TIME, June 18, 1945) and later cleared, had been accredited as a correspondent by the National Military Establishment. MacArthur then exercised his veto power to turn Roth down, gave no reason for his decision.

Brushing aside his indictment as a cause for barring him, Correspondent Roth said he thought that the ruling was made be cause of his book, Dilemma in Japan, which he called "a bible of the progressive opposition to General MacArthur." The Defense Department upheld MacArthur, making the point that he was within his rights, as area commander, in making his ruling. Cried the indignant Nation last week in an editorial: "Military arrogance and dictatorship . . ."

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