4.0000A
104-10064-10012
2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992
DISPATCH T
CLASSIFICATION
LI
PROCESSING ACTION
{WANTED FOR MORE
TO
INFO.
FROM
SUBJECT
Chief, WOMUSE/ICG
Chief, Sov Bloc Div; Chief, Far East Division
Tokyof
RYBAT MHPASHA REDTOP
-
Chief of Station, Tokyo
NO INDEXING REQUIRED
ONLY QUALIFIED DESK
CAN JUDGE INDEXING
MICROFILM
Beheiren and the Four U.S. Navy Deserters
ACTION REQUIRED. REFERENCES
TOKYO 7263
As noted in reference, forwarded herewith is a copy of the sub-
ject memorandum. Please note that the information in the memorandum
Paragraph B. 4. b) is particularly sensitive and should only be
given properly restricted dissemination.
maik)
Mark J. 
kilpail
Mark J. LIDGERWOOL
ATTACHMENT.
Memo dtd 27 Nov 67
Distribution
✓ - C/SB Div w/1 cy attach
1
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1
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C/FE w/1 cy attach
C/WOMUSE/ICG w/1 attach
CLASSIFICATION REVIEW
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CS COPY.
8603
DATE
DEC 6 1967
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UNKNOWN
14-00000
RE
27 November 1967
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD:
SUBJECT: BEHEIREN and the Four U.S. Navy Deserters
Origin and Development of BEHEIREN.
Founding: BEHEIREŃ (Japan "Peace for Vietnam" Com-
mittee) was organized in April 1965, nominally as a politically
Independent group of intellectuals and cultured persons whose
purpose was "to help restore peace in Vietnam." Actually, it
is a loosely organized group of ex-JCP members, progressive
intellectuals, leftist cultured persons, and leftwing students
banded together in the name of opposition to the Vietnam war
by two common denominators, dedicated anti-Americanism and
refusal to be dominated or controlled by the orthodox Japan
Communist Party.
-
2. Hard-Core Secretariat: The real force behind the
organization of BEHEIREN, right from the beginning to the
present, has been a brilliant Communist named YOSHIKAWA.
Yuichi, whose conspiratorial organizational skills have
been perhaps the most indispensible ingredients in BEHEIREN's
development. YOSHIKAWA was expelled from Tokyo University
for his role as a ZENGAKUREN leader in the 1960 U.S./Japan
Security Treaty riots. He then went into fulltime JCP mass
movement professional work, becoming the Secretariat official
in charge of international relations for the Japan Peace
Committee. YOSHIKAWA broke with the JCP in late 1964,
following the rupture in relations between the JCP and CPSU
in May that year. The inspiration for BEHEIREN springs in
large measure from YOSHIKAWA's personal desire to use his
organizational talents in countering the JCP and its Japan
Peace Committee. YOSHIKAWA, in addition to being a well
qualified English linguist himself, years ago surrounded
himself with a small following of similarly qualified
lieutenants, whom he brought along into BEHEIREN to give
him the necessary depth and experience to run this new
organization. YOSHIKAWA functions as BEHEIREN's Secretary
General.
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3. Respectable Intellectual Front: Following funda-
mental Communist principles for mass movement work (better
than the JCP itself follows these tenets), the ex-JCP
organizers of ELHEIREN kept themselves in the background
and lined up a number of prominent Japanese progressive
intellectuals and leftist cultured persons to front for
BEHEIREN. The choice of ODA Makoto, ex-Fulbrighter and
popular young novelist, to be the chief front man Chair-
man – was an extremely lucky stroke for BEHEIREN. ODA has
taken to this grand-standing, front work like a duck to
water. It has given him a chance to give unbridled vent to
his own latent anti-American foolings, puffed him up to the
extent that he has been dubbed "the emperor" by other BEHEIREN
activists, and given him at long last an ideological mission
to pursue.
YOSHIKAWA has performed magnificently in feeding
ODA's ego needs and in infusing and indoctrinating ODA so.
that his words and actions take on sufficiently virulent
anti-American overtones. ODA has served another vital
function for BEHEIREN by recruiting a sizeable number of
fellow intellectuals to join the ranks of BEHEIREN activists.
(Attachment 1 is a listing of a number of those Japanese who
have been identified as active BEHEIREN supporters or sympa-
\thizers.) ·
4. Organizational Development: In its 2 1/2 year history,
ETHEIREN has not appreciably changed its organizational format,
although it has moved its office three times and modified its
name even oftener. PEHEIREN is not a "mass organization", be-
cause it has had no sizeable popular backing to the present
time. Its hard core, secretariat organization is run by
YOSHIKAWA and his lieutenants. Its public image, intellectual
front is led by ODA, and given body by a score of like-minded
intellectual friends of ODA and YOSHIKAWA, who form the loose
body of BEHEIREN's activist leadership. Under this BEHEIREN
leadership superstructure lies a paltry base of only several
hundred BEHEIREN "rank-and-file" supporters, mostly young
Japanese students. Organizationally, EEHEIREN has no formal
membership system, so its base of supporters is fluid and not
precisely measurable. However, the base support for BEHEIREN
has definitely been on the upswing during 1967, and made such
notable strides during the past summer that JCP Headquarters
officials finally felt constrained to note with concern that
BEHEIREN was beginning to drain off a growing number of pro-
gressive youth who otherwise would have been absorbed into
the JCP's own youth movement. BEHEIREN leaders have tried to
help this growth along by setting up a youth section, calling
it "Young BEHEIREN. BEHEIREN's imaginative actions and
publicity-conscious programs have been responsible for its
recent growth, and this period of growth seems to be now on
"#
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the verge of really picking up speed and momentum. As a result
of its role in the case of the four deserting sailors, BEHEIREN
has reaped bountiful publicity, has succeeded in touching a
delicate Japanese public nerve of sympathy and pacifism, open-
ing a floodgate of support for BEHEIREN from all over Japan.
When this case fades from the limelight, it is still most
likely that a fair percentage of current wave of popular
support for BEHEIREN will solidify into permanent mass backing,
giving BERRIREN, for the first time, a meaningful base to
support its future activities,
5. Activities and Accomplishments: BEHEIREN has engaged
in a number of propaganda actions, and participated in inter-
national anti-Vietnam War activities. It has tried to co-
operate with certain front activities in Japan controlled by
the JCP, most notably the Japan Committee to Investigate War
Crimes in Vietnam activities, which culminated in the Tokyo
Court of last August, but has been soundly and rudely rebuffed
by the JCP. In spite of this, BEHEIREN has churned along at
its own pace, with a continuing series of anti-Vietnam war
actions, most of them related in some way to the American
pacifist movement. In this regard, BEHEIREN has succeeded in
cornering a virtual monopoly on Japanese contacts with the U.S.
pacifist movements, and has effectually capitalized on this to
promote its own action program. The case of the four deserting.
sailors, while an apparent lucky windfall for BEHEIREN, only
points up the fact that BEHEIREN, through past organizational
work and promotional activities, was "johnny-on-the-spot",
ready and capable (unique in Japan in this regard) to take
the ball and run with it. BEHEIREN ran all the way in this
case and scored its most notable success since it was organized.
(Attachment 2 is a listing of BEHEIREN's more notable activities
since its founding. Attachment 3 is a partial listing of
American and other foreign persons known to have been in
contact with or cooperated with BEHEIREN.)
B. The Case of the Four Sailor Deserters and BEHFIREN.
-
11 How It Started: The consensus of all available overt
media material, with no recorded dissent, indicates that the
four sailors voluntarily left their ship, went AWOL, and ended
up wallowing around Tokyo's hippie-land. Precisely what personal
grievances prompted the four to embark on this mis-adventure is
not yet known. But, up to this point, the four could fairly be
categorized as misguided youngsters, gone astray in a foreign
land, and due to get slapped back in line with traditional
Navy justice when they finally decided to stop the fun and go
back to the ship. So far, this made their cases far from
unique.
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2. How It Became an Incident:
But instead of returning to
their ship of their own volition or being apprehended by the
Shore Patrol, the four made contact with BEHEIREN leaders.
Again, press reports indicate that this was just a coincidence,
that there was no pre-planning by the four to contact BEHEIREN.
There are no available overt nor Covert reports that indicate
otherwise. But, once the BEHEIREN people made contact, they
recognized the potential immediately and moved fast for the
11ll.
(Attachment 4 is a Yomiuri Newspaper clipping, 22 Nov-
ember 1967, that is both a representative and comprehensive
account of this phase of the case. Even if this article
should contain some minor inaccuracies, the basic line seems
factual and has not been challenged elsewhere.)
3.
BEHEIREN Takes Over: When the four made contact with
BEHEIREN, it suddenly became an entirely different ballgame.
BEHEIREN had everything needed to capitalize on this: veteran
activist leaders who are experienced enough to recognize the
windfall that had come their way; an apparatus that could.
provide hiding places for the four; long standing liaison
contacts with Soviet Embassy officials for use in planning
exit from Japan; solid contacts with reliable American
pacifists with whom the bona fides of the four sailors could
be checked; money and organization to capitalize on the
propaganda potential (such as preparing a movie film for the
initial BEHEIREN press conference announcing the desertion,
prepared more likely than not by BEHEIREN stalwart EUEQ.
Keinosuke, an independent film producer) and English speaking
activists capable of sympathizing, encouraging, soothing, or
agitating the four young sailors, so that there would be no
turning back.
4. The BEHEIREN Apparatus At Work: While many of the
small pieces of this puzzle, which would put the whole case in
proper detailed chronological order and eliminate speculation
on minor points, are still missing, enough is known now,
through overt and covert sources, that the picture of BEHEIREN's
adept handling of this case shines through clearly. The follow-
ing elements, all part of the BEFEIREN apparatus, make up the
bulk of the picture:
(a) Hide-out: When EEHEIREN got hold of the four on
about 26 October, they had to be hiden out for the approximate
two week period until their exit from Japan could be arranged.
This presented BEHEIREN no great logistical problem. A number
of the BEHEIREN activist leaders have homes well suited to
harboring fugitives. For example, BEHEIREN activist leader
FUKASAKU Mitsusada has a villa hidden away in Chigasaki, which
was used on the night of 12 September for a meeting of about
20 top BEHEIREN leaders, and which would be highly suitable
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for hiding the four deserters. Other private-dwellings, be-
longing 
to BEHEIREN leaders and loyal supporters, are scattered
throughout both the Kanto and Kansai areas.
4b) BEMEIREN/Soviet Liaison: REHEIREN Secretary General
YOSHIKAWA has maintained periodic contact with Soviet Embassy
officials for years. BEHEIREN Chairman ODA has met Soviet
Peace Committee officials in Moscow. The exact means of how
this liaison was accomplished in this case is precisely known
from a covert phone tap on the Soviet Embassy's line. A full
transcript is available of two phone calls made on 30 October,
first by Brian Victoria to Chief Press Attacho Nikolay V.
Vasilyevich, and second by YOSHIKAWA to First Secretary
Sergey D. Anisimov, urgently requesting a private meeting
later that day to discuss "an extremely important, extremely
delicate matter", without doubt the case of the four sailors.
c) BEHEIREN/U.S. Pacifist Liaison: BEHEIREN contacted
Dartmouth University professor Ernest P. Young, who flew to
Japan on 8 November, apparently helped BEKEIREN leaders check
out the bona fides of the deserters, and returned to the U.S.
on 11 November. (Attachment 5 is the translation of a Sankei
Shimbun article, dated 21 November, reporting an interview
with Young, giving his version of his role in this case.)
5. Escape to Moscow: The four deserters turned up in
moscow on 20 November. The press has speculated widely and
unanimously that the four left Japan on the Soviet passenger
ship Baikal on 11 November. Again, there is no dissenting
opinion, overt nor covert. The only mystery concerning this
final phase of the Japanese portion of this case concerns the
mechanics of how the four boarded the Baikal and who assisted
in this maneauver. But with the sailing of the Baikal from
Yokohama, BEHEIREN completed its most highly successful and
beautifully executed activity in its 2 1/2 year history.
Not
only did BEHEIREN smear the American Government's image in
Japan, not only did BEHEIREN gain a vast amount of priceless
publicity that will swell the ranks of its supporters and be
invaluable in future activities, but BEHEIREN doubtlessly
even made a profit, financially, on this low budget operation
donations are still pouring into BEREIREN Headquarters from
all over Japan to "help and protect U.S. deserters".
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Attachment No. 1.
Japanese Who Have Been Identified as
Active DEHEIREN Supporters or Sympathizers
1. YOSHIKAWA Yuichi (BEHEIREN Secretary General) - former JCP
member.
2. ODA Makoto (BEHEIREN Chairman) popular novelist.
Akutagawa prize winning novelist.
3.
KAIKO Ken
4.
KUBO Keinosuke
-
film producer and director.
-
Doshisha University professor.
5. TSURUHI Shunsuke
6. TSURUMI Kazuko
philosopher, Yusuke).
7. FURUYAMA Yozo
8.
-
sister of Shunsuke (their father is the late
bigh school teacher.
MUTO Ichiyo - ex-JCP (tried to travel to U.S. to represent
BEREIREN at October 21 demonstrations this year, but was
denied a visa to enter the U.S.)
9. YANADA Atsushi
10. FUKUDA Yoshiyuki
ex-JCP.
playwriter.
11. TOMINAGA Ichiro - cartoonist.
12.
FUKASAKU Mitsusada
-
professor.
13. AWAZU Kiyoshi - graphic designer.
14. TAKADO Kaname Christian leader.
15. YOSHIDA Kiju
16.
17. HASHIKOTO Mineo
-
film director.
UMIHARA Shun
Q
writer.
-
Buddhist priest.
18.
HOTTA Yoshie
-
novelist.
19.
GOTO Hiroyuki - scientist.
120. KUWABARA Takeo
professor at Kyoto University.
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21. SAKAMOTO Yoshikazu
22. HIDAKA Rokuro
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Assistant professor at Tokyo University.
professor at Tokyo University.
23.
IIDA Momo
-
writer.
24. TSURUMI Yoshiyuki
25. TERAI Minako
26. ANAI Fumihiko
27. NASU Masanno
28. MATSUMOTO Ichiju
29. FUKUTHI Setsuo
employed at International House in Tokyo.
30.
31.
KURIHARA Yukio
etc: ANDO Jimbei, CHIBA Hido, EGAWA Taku, FUJII Nittatsu,
HARIYU Ichiro, HOSHINO Yasusaburo, ICHII Saburo, IKEYAHA Juro,
ISHIDA Takeshi, KANAI Yoshiko, KASAI Seiichi, KATAGIRI Yuzuru,
KATO Shuichi, KAZAMA Michitaro, MATSUURA Sozo, KIDOKORO Masao,
KITAKOJI Satoshi, KOBAYASHI Shoichiro, KOMATSU Sakyo,
KOBAYASEI Tomi, KUNO Osamu (Shu), KURODA Hidetoshi, MARUYAMA
Masao, MIDORIKAWA Toru, HIZUSAWA Yana, MORITAKI Ichiro,
MUCHAKU Seikyo, KURAMATSU Hiro, NISHIO Noboru, NOMURA Koichi,
OGOSHI Teruo, OTSUKOTSU Yoshiko, SERIZAWA Tae, SHIRAI Shimpei,.
SHINHERA Takesni, SHISHIDO Hiroshi, SUGIURA Hitsuo, SUGIYAMA
Tatsumaru, SUZUKI Masahira, TAKEUCHI Yoshitomo, WADA Nagahisa,
YAMADA Nunemitsu, YAMADA Toshio, YAMAGUCHI Kosaku, YAMANI SHI
Elichi, YASUDA Takeshi, YOSHINO Gonzaburo, YOSHIWARA Koichiro,
OKAMOTO Taro, MATSUMOTO Seicho, El Rokusuke, IZUMI Taku,
AWAYA Noriko, KATO Yoshiro, SHIROYAMA Saburo, TAKAHASHI
Taketomo, ODAGIRI Hideo, OKUMA Hinoru, SANO Kenji, SUZUKI
Hichihiko, KUBATA Hanya, SHINOHARA Seiei, MARUYAMA Kunio,
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COMMENT:
SEGRET
TSURUSHIMA Setsurei, MURO Kenji, KONAKA Yotaro, SAKAMOTO
Yoshikazu, SAITO Masahiko, etc.
Although not recorded here, many of the above persons
are ex-JCP members.
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Attachment No. 2
Some BEHEIREN Activities and Accomplishments
1. Regular once-per-month demonstrations at a public park in
Tokyo, consisting of anti-American speeches and followed by street
marches..
2. An all night TV "teach-in" with BEHEIREN activist leadors,
along with special guest, U. S. pacifist Carl Oglesby (Chairman of
the Students for a Democratic Society.)
3. A full page advertisement in the New York Times (16 November
1965), followed by another full page ad in the Washington Fost
(3 April 1967), appealing to Americans to stop the war in Vietnam.
4. A "Meet in Conference of Two Nations for Peace in Vietnam,
held in Tokyo in August 1966, and attended by BEHEIREN activists and
seven U.S. pacifist leaders (including Dave Dellinger), and observers
from France, England, Canada, the USSR, Pakistan, and Mongolia.
5. A mass meeting in Tokyo in October 1966, guest speakers of
which were French pacifists, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
6. Nationwide tours of Japan for lectures and peace rallies for
such anti-Vietnam war pacifists as Professor Howard Zian and the late
A. J. Muste of the United States, Claude Bourdet of France, and Thich
What Hanh of South Vietnam.
7. A mass meeting in Tokyo in January 1967, sponsored by
BEHEIREN and featuring U.S. folk singer and pacifist Joan Baez.
8.
A continuing program of direct distribution of pamphlets to
U.S. troops stationed in Japan, and those coming to Japan on warships,
and for rest or hospitalization from Vietnam.
9. Participation by two BEREIREN activist leaders (Kyoto
University professor KUWABARA Takeo and International House staffer
TSURUMI Yoshikyuki, tāking advantage of a trip to the U.S. to attend
a non-political Japan-America Congress on Cultural Problems) in
anti-Vietnam war Speech rallies and demonstrations at Dartmouth
University in early May 1967, followed by an unsuccessful attempt
to invite Cassius Clay to visit Japan on behalf of HEHEIREN.
20. Continuing efforts to bring to Japan for a nationwide
to
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speech tour on behalf of EEREIREN, Soviet poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko,
an effort that has not yet reached fruition but is still peng.
11. Participation in the Stockholm July 1967 "World Conference
on Vietnam," by sending two BEHEIREN activist leaders as delegates.
12. Cooperation with the U.S. Quakers, pacifists, and Earle
Reynolds in sending the yacht "Phoenix" with medical aid, first to
Haiphong, then on a second trip in the Fall of 1967, secking but
failing to find landfall to deliver medical aid to either North or
South Vietnam.
13. Attempted, but failed due to inability to obtain U.S. visa,
to send a BEHEIREN activist leader (NUTO Ichiyo) to the U.S. to
participate in the 21 October 1967 enti-Vietnam War demonstrations.
.:
14: Currently carrying out a fund raising campaign to send an
aid ship to North Vietnam. In this, and other activities, BEHEIREN
leaders are maintaining ever closer liaison contact with their
counterparts abroad, such as the French "Conite' Vietnam National.'
In an effort to generate public support for this aid ship fund
raising campaign, BENEIREN succeeded in issuing a public appeal,
under the endorsing signatures of Tokyo Governor MINORE Ryokichi and
Yokohama Mayor ASUKATA Ichio, as well as the usual Intellectuals
supporting BEHEIREN.
15.
In October 1967, EEHEIREN solicited approval to hold anti-
Vietnam War demonstrations in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo,
expecting to be denied and then intending to make this denial a court
test case. Instead, EEEEIREN was given this permission, and conducted
two orderly and well-publicized demonstrations in front of the American
Embassy, garuering a larger public turn out of participants than in
any previous BEHEIREN-sponsored demonstration.
16. Assisted and abetted the defection to the USSR of four
American sailors from the U.S. Navy carrier Intrepid. Following this
success, BEHEIREN's most effective activity to date, BEHEIREN leaders
are organizing a permanent "underground railway" of Japanese intell-
ectuals who will volunteer their homes as possible "way stops" for
hiding future U.S. military deserters that BEHEIREN now hopes to
induce.
Comment:
For other details, see Tokyo intelligence reporting.
FUT-11547, 31 May 1956
FUT-12046, 14 October 1966
HJT-12680, 10 May 1967
EU-12851, 5 July 1967
PUT-13081, 8 September 1967
FUT-13154, 27 September 1967
(FUT-13303, 22 November 1967
Also, OSS-6790, 11 July 1967
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ATTACHMENT 3
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Partial Listing of American and Other Foreign
Persons Known to Have Been in Contact with or
-
Cooperated with BEHEIREN
Americans.
1. Staughton Lynd (ez-Yale professor)
2. Norman Hailer (novelist)
3.
Dave Dellinger (Editor of Liberation)
Howard Zinn (Boston U. professor)
5. Donald Keyes (National Committee for a Sane
Nuclear Policy)
6. David McReynolds (Chairman, War Resisters'
League)
A. J. Huste (now deceased)
8.
Karl Meyer
9. William Davidson
10. Bradford Lyttle
11. Charlotte Thurber
12. (Hiss) Quentin Bassett (Students for a Democratic
Society)
13
Murray 'Levin (Boston U. professor)
14. Robert Ockene (Veterans and Reservists to End
the War in Vietnam)
15. Carl Oglesby (Chairman, Students for a Democratic
Society)
16. Barbara Deming (Associate editor of Liberation)
17.
Joan Baez (folk singer)
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18. Ira Morris (Paris expatriate)
19. Otto Kaisan (phonetic, New York City peace activist)
20. Barbara and Earle Reynolds (divorced but separately
active long-time residents
in Japan)
21. William B. Christensen (an American pacifist drifter,
who gave BEHEIREN its first
experience in the summer of
1966 in exploiting for pro-
paganda in Japan, and then in
arranging the onward journey
of an American who wanted to
defect to the USSR)
22. Brian Victoria (head-shaved pacifist and "converted"
Buddhist priest, known to be in
regular contact with the Soviet
Embassy in Tokyo)
23. Mr. Willowby (fau, phonetic, "chief of the Quaker
Peace Action movement in the U.S").
24. An unidentified American of Japanese descent, from
Hawaii, who is currently a student at Waseda University
Kosaku Yamaguchi (reportedly born in U.S., present
citizenship status unclear) (formerly
was a professor at Momoyama University
in Osaka, but has been teaching at the
University of California in Berkeley
for some time)
B. Other Foreigners.
1. Mikhail Kotov, USSR (Soviet Peace Committee)
57.
Claude Bourdet, France (French Committee to Support
the Vietnamese People)
Peggy Duff, Great Britain (Campaign for Nuclear Dis-
armament
James Endicott, Canada (World Peace Council)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistan
Gabita Muslepov, USSR
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7. Mrs. Erdenebat Ojon, Mongolia
8. Konstantin Shugnov, USSR
9. Francis Marcel Kahn, France (Comite'. Vietnam
National)
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, France
10.
11. Thích Nhat Hanh, South Vietnam
COMMENT:
This is not, by any means, a complete listing, nor
does it necessarily list BEBEIREN's most important
activist contacts abroad. But this list is re-
presentative in showing the breadth of BEHEIREN
liaison abroad, particularly with the American
"new left".
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ATTACHMENT. 4
THE YOMIURI
YUICHI YOSHIKAWA, sec.
retary-general of the Japan
Peace-For-Vietnam Commit
tee (Beheiren), tells a press
conference Tuesday that the
four deserters of the US war.
ship Intrepid hoped to stay
in Japan but the Beheiren
could not help them to do so.
:
Now
Wednesday
4 US Deserters Possibly
Left Japan Aboard Baikal
The four deserters from the US aircraft carrier Intrepid who made a dramatic tele-
Vision 
appearance Monday in 
Moscow are believed to have left Japan irregularly
I 
by the Soviet-liner. Baikal which 
left Yokohama on November 11 for the Far East
Soviet port of Nakhodko.
Sources in the Metropolitan test against the Vietnam war,
Police 
Department said Tues- at 
a press conference held No
day that the four 
Americans vember 13 in Tokyo.
could have boarded 
the ship by
Not Worried.
When he first met the deser-
ters, they were practically
penniless but appeared quite
a special gangway for Soviet serters first wanted to live
Yoshikawa said that the de 
unconcerned, Naito said..
He said the deserters ap
Government officials.
Japanese watchmen were on the Behelren to find them jobs living on cheap Japanese food;
peacefully in Japan and asked parently enjoyed hippie life,
guard at another gangway for in 
which they could utilize (noodles) and shochu.
and drink
such 
as udon:
He said the four Americans;
ordinary passengers when 222 their English proficiency.
listed passengers. 
including The Beheiren told them that wanted to live in Japan, and
eight Americans, boarded the they could not: live in Japan if 
possible in Tokyo.
liner before it departed Yoko 
without being found, by the
hama at 11.50 am, November 
11. 
Japanese police or US military decided to ask the help of the
The watchmen told police authorities sooner or later, Yo | Beheiren and
Nalto and his friend. Yamao
that they did not see any per 
shikawa said.
son who was not on the pas
senger list board the ship
through the ordinary gangway.
delivered the
four men to the Beheiren
Lived Like Hippies around November 26.
Hiromi 
Nalto, 20
, a painter Naito said he believed that'
Yomiuri all the 
four Americans were
Shimbun that he
It was learned that 17 off of Tokyo, told and his not communists and that they
•
cials of the Soviet Embassy and
trade mission in Tokyo and friend, Sansei Yamao, a hippie had no interest in communist
scores of visitors 
boarded the Beheiren, acted as go-betweens
poet and member of 
the 
ideology.
Baikal through the special
gangway.
The police sources said that
it was "quite possible" that the
Soviet authorities in Tokyo ar
ranged the 
deserters' exit..
Beheiren Pledge
Yuichi Yoshikawa, secretary-
general of the Japan Peace-For- He said both Americans leaving Japan because the ad-
Vietnam Committee (Beheiren), wore leather jackets and other ministrative 
agreement in the
told a press conference Tues- 
informal clothing which they Japan-US Security Treaty gua-
day that the committee could said they, borrowed from their rantees US military personnel
not 
disclose how the four Japanese hipple friends hang- the right to come, to stay in
Americans 
left because it had ing around the Shinjuku area. or leave Japan.
promised. not to do so.
He said the four must have
for the deserters and the decided to go to some neutral
Beheiren: ..
☐ country via the Soviet Union
the.
Naito said he met two of after they learned that they
Dick D. Bailey, 19, and Airman A spokesman for the Justice
A four 
deserters Airman could not live in Japan.
Mike A. Lindner, 19 at a hip- 
Ministry said Tuesday
ple hangout
that
was
in Shinjuku there
nothing legally.
around October 20.
wrong' in the four Americans
He neither affirmed nor dent-
ed the report that the Amer
icans left Japan by the Baikal
on 
November 11.
Bailey and Lindner and the He said he understood that
other two-Airman John M. the four Americans were tech-
Barilla, 20, and Airman Ap. nically still enlisted US mill-
prentice Craig WAnderson, tary personnel.
20-went around in pairs, Furthermore, if their exit
1. It was the. Beheiren which
took place on November 11, it
announced for the first time Lindner stay overnight at his made an official request to the
Naito said he let Bailey and was before US authorities
the desertion of the four crew house in Hayamiyacho, Neri- 
Japanese police to search for
members of 
the Intrepid to pro- ma-ku, from October: 24 to 25. them, he 
added.
Naito, said.
16%
He also said there were no
Japanese laws allowing charges
to be preferred against the
Beheiren officials and other Ja-
panese people who "protected"
the Americans in Japan and
helped their departure to the
Soviet Union.
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SANKEI (Full)
November 21, 1967
Prof. YOUNG Says Four American Deserter Seamen Not in Japan Any More
Went to Tokyo and Tried to Dissuade Them;
o Probably Escaped from Japan on the 12th or the 13th
fo'
(New York, November 20, Correspondent Tadashi ONODERA) Professor
Sa Ernest P. YOUNG of Dartmouth College in the U.S., consented to an interview
I with this reporter on the question of the four American seamen who deserted
from the U.S. aircraft carrier Intrepid. At the interview held on the 19th,
☐ Professor YOUNG clarified that the Peace for Vietnam Association (Beheiren,
I with Makoto ODA acting as its representative) contacted an anti-war organiza-
tion in the U.S., and at this, Professor YOUNG hurriedly visited Tokyo, and
a meeting the four seamen in a room in an apartment house in Tokyo on the 9th
and 10th; tried to persuade them to return. In regard to the present where-
meabouts of these four seamen, he made the noteworthy statement that "those
(four were still in Japan, up until the night of the 11th, when I left Japan,
but they are probably no longer in Japan now co
Families Perplexed
C
NOTECT
The questions and answers exchanged with Professor YOUNG are as follows:
A
Why did you go to Japan?
Professor: Beheiren contacted David DER KINGER, a pacifist activist
in the U.S., asking him to "send someone to Japan to hear the stories of
* the four seamen and announce them in the U.S." I have been in Japan twice,
and I also once served as special assistant to Ambassador REISCHAUER.
During that time, I became friends with Beheiren representative ODA" and
Tother intellectuals in Japan. It was for these reasons that I was given
this assignment. I personally have never participated actively in the
Or anti-Vietnam war movement so far.
--
(0)
seamen?
When did you arrive in Japan, and where did you meet the four
✓ Professor: I arrived in Haneda on November 8, and met the four seamen
on the 9th and the 10th. The place of interview was in an apartment house"
in Tokyo, but I cannot say at this time where that apartment house was and
a who owned it. However, on both days, I talked fully with these four seamen,'
be for more than three hours on each occasion (according to an investigation
made by the public security authorities, Professor YOUNG. arrived in Japan.
toward the evening of the 8th, and stayed at Hotel Tanakanwa in Shiba,
rs Minato-ku, until the morning of the 11th).
THO
JUGUT
What were the motives for these four seamen's desertion?
Professor: The desertion was completely the decision of these four
1 persons. It seems that the four seamen decided not to return to the ship,
1 when the Intrepid entered Yokosuka Port on October 17, and they were per-
bmitted to go ashore for rest for one week. My impression on meeting these
four seamen was that they were definitely not deserting for the purpose of
chself-advertisement or that they were giving false reasons. I am convinced
that they deserted really out of doubt about the Vietnam war.
What were the movements of the four after they deserted?
"
Professor: On the night of the 23rd, two days before the Intrepid
I was due to sail, the four went to Shinjuku, and told the people whom they
met at a bar they happened to visit, that "we are fed up with war.' The
Japanese who heard them sympathized with them, and at one time, the four
lived with some hippies (according to this paper's investigations; they
include Mr. K., a student of Tokyo University's Liberal Arts Department,
and vanguard artist A., who gather at Fugetsudo in Shinjuku.). Finally,
14-00000
T
they were taken to Beheiren by a student who spoke English (according to
this paper's investigation, this was Mr. S., a Waseda University student).
After that, they were hidden by Beheiren. I cannot say where they were
won hidden.trad
Were the four firmly determined: to desert?
as
Professor: My purpose in visiting Japan was to dissuade the four.
I explained to them what the results of their desertion would be. even
retold them that they would never again be permitted to stand on American soil,
✓ their fatherland. At the time I met them, it was still at a stage where
they would only receive light punishment, if they reported back immediately,
saying that they "had missed their ship.". However, their determination was
firm, and my persuasion had no effects.
F
The four seamen's desertion was announced in the form of a press.
interview given by Beheiren. Were there no facts of their having been
forced to desert, during that period?
Professor: I ascertained that point, too. However, they firmly denied
any fact of their having been forced, saying that they had voluntarily
Na consulted Beheiren as to whether they should publicly announce the
'intention to desert, and if so, in what form this should be made.
Where are the four seamen now, and where are they planning to go?
Professor: I am certain that the four of them were still in Japan,
up until the 11th, the day I left for home. However, they already knew
fully well that it was not possible for them to obtain asylum in Japan..
They even said that "we will probably have to go to some third nation,
which is neutral." (The public security authorities judge that the four
seamen left Japan immediately after Mr. YOUNG's persuasion, and consider that
they probably were smuggled out of Japan after the 10th, and before the
evening of the 13th, when Beheiren announced their desertion at a press
* conference. However, Mr. YOUNG says that the four seamen were in Japan up
until the night of the 11th. Therefore, the possibility is strong that they
were smuggled out of Japan by ship, between the night of the 11th and the
evening of the 13th.),
es word eg wit
.
The films showing the four seamen were shown publicly in the U.S.,
brytoo. What were the reactions in the U.S.?
Professor: When the films were publicly shown, there was big excitement,
with rows and rows of television and press cameramen. I thought I would be
exposed to persistent questioning by the FBI and the CIA, after I returned
home, but so far, I have only been questioned once by the Navy's Intelligence
C Section, about the circumstances. It seems that American authorities con-
cerned do not want to make too big a fuss over the matter.
What do the parents think of this action taken by their sons?
Professor: A certain television station asked the mother of one of
the four men about her son's life. This mother was completely perplexed,
saying: "My son is a most average American youth. His school records
☐ were quite ordinary, and he liked sports, just like any other student.
I cannot understand why he acted in such a way!!!
KH