The U.S. Army authorities who governed post-war Japan saw to the censoring the civil radio broadcasts, newspapers, and the everyday letters in the mail, for, like their former BFFs in far-off Germany, the Japanese were recovering Fascists and they required watching; they also turned their wary eyes to members of the American press corps. No doubt there were probably a number of goings-on they preferred to keep out of the hometown papers, but the one this article is concerned with is censorship. What makes this article surprising is the fact that the brass hats at the U.S. Army Occupation Headquarters knew full well that the American people hate censorship and would not want it practiced in their name:
“… it is safe to say that the American authorities are aware that our censorship policy is creating a considerable bad feeling… [and] efforts have been made to keep such information away from people in the United States.”
“Unfortunately I am not able to quote verbatim a memorandum sent by a high-ranking policy making officer to several District Censorship Stations throughout Japan and Korea, but the substance of it was this: ‘that extreme secrecy must be maintained concerning all censorship operations inasmuch as there are groups in Congress and among the American people who would be adverse to the censorship policy. Those people must not be given access to the facts.'”
Click here to read about August 28, 1945 – the day the occupation began.
