New-York tribune., 1921-03-06
Secret Police
Trail Visitor
] All Over Japan
system Omnipresent and
pcstilential, Copied After
German. but Carried Out
by Unreasoning Agents
Tourists Are Questioned
Correspondent Is Shadowed
Even on Aimless Rambles
in By-Streets of Toxic
Bv Nathaniel PETER

Copyright. 1921 New York Tribune Inc.
TOXIC, Japan, Jan. SOL can think
of nothing that pictures the atmos-
nhere of Japan and it's contrasts better
than my own experience in one definite
respect.
Anv tourist who has even stopped
at japan ports for a day on his way
10 China or the Philippines knows the
omnipre sent, pestilential Japanese Sc
eret police system. BY comparison,
prussiss was lax and dilettante, ex-
cept in efficiency. Except in efficiency,
because nowhere else in the world is
there so absurdly incompetent a police
system.
As soon as the boat docks little
uniformed parsonage girt with sword
comes up. He proceeds to ask impos-
sible, irrelevant questions in broken
book-o etiquette English covering
everything from ancestry to preference
in cocktails
Those who have travelled much in
the Far East refuse to take him or
his questions seriously. Ancestry? :?
Senegambian, Cambodian, Fiji. Occu-
patton? Treacle- bender paper-stretch-
er, dough-carver. He takes it all down
in his notebook. solemn and satisfied,
but not understanding. Like so much
else in Japan the system has been
copied wholesale from the West-Ger-
many in this case-and applied me-
chanically according to the prescribed
rules, knowing neither why nor what
10 do with it.
Replies Never the Same
In my own case, if the intelligence
service ever collates the information l
have given concerning myself the vari-
GUS times and various places l have
been in Japan it can not only charge
ne with perjury-it can hang me.
have never answered any question
twice the same way.
Once tried to explain my occupation
TO one such individual. Correspondent
was beyond the limits of his English
Editorial work. ! said. Light dawned,
All, editor? Yes, editor; for I was
| told him. Any other papers? Yes.
What capacity? Correspondent. Again
justification, explanation, enlighten-
ment. Editor, l acknowledged With
what other papers had l been connected
with he wanted to know. Why, is be-
ycnd human understanding, but he did
began, and | have a typical news
paper career-mig gratory. In short, |
went down on the records of the I'm
perial Japanese government as editor,
in some cases simultaneously, though
We never got quite straight about that,
Of one paper in New York, one in Chi
cago, one in Colorado and one in China
That system is for tourists. For resi-
dents of the Far East there is nothing
50 casual and simple. In the japanese
police eye any American is a subject for
scrutiny, any American living in China
is doubly to be scrutinized, any Amer
lean living in Peking, China, and also
a correspondent is suspect. l come
within all three classifcations
| came here this time from Peking
aross Manchura and Corea. When
disembarked from the channel ferry at
i. Shlmoaoseki two of the uniformed gen.
tlemen met me- After the usual cross
examination, with the usual results, /
sat down in the station hotel to wait
for the Toxic express. The two gen.
tlemen sat down near me.
PAGES Through Corridor
They escorted me to the train and
another, not in uniform, got on with
me. There is one branch of the serv-
ice permanently stationed, another that
travels. All that night and the next
day he was wandering about in the cor
rldor outside my compartment. When
the train came to stop in Toxic sta
ton he jumped off ahead of me and
waited. AS | started down the train
shed to the exit wicket he closed in.
AT the wicket he came up, sm led, re-
moved his hat and bowed me pleasant
farewell. The profession apparently
las its amenities. But before leaving
ne turned me over to a colleague, who
waits at the station for such assign
ments- The new one followed me out
10 the 'riksha stand-I know NY way
about Toxic fairly well--and when.
had got into the 'riksha asked the 'rik-
sha puller where / was going. Then
ne whispered something to him at con-
Flderable length and the 'riksha pulled
out
For three weeks T was not without
my shadow. It was not forty-eight
hours before I knew he was following
me, Tor all his plain clothes and per-
petual absorption in a newspaper. He
was as secret as q mountain, as mvs-
ferrous as radish. Every morning
"hen came down to breakfast at the
imperial Hotel he was waiting for me
near the foot OF the stairs, always deep
IN MS paper. And to him and, | sup
pose, the whole Japanese inte ligence
service, have been a sensation and a
mystery beyond fathoming.
FOR happen to be characterized by
an absolute lack of sense of direction,
snd even more by an infinite capacity
-or getting lost. | could get lost in my
own bedroom. And in Toxic, when I
get into the less familiar districts,
am lrretrievable. | have gone to the
same place on three successive days
and been lost each day, wandering aim
,essly around numerous blocks, and,
because | cannot speak Japanese, un-
aoie TO ask direction. | do not know
"nat my shadow thought on those &C.
easlons: whether | was 81 spy or
unatic.
Rambles in By-Streets
Furthermore, l like to ramble, and
Iae narrow by-streets of Toxic are
peasant, eolorful Rlaces to ramble in.
would go out evenings, strike out in
any direction fancy called, enter any
pace that promised interest. What
.ny shadow thought on those occasions
aiso do not know: lunatic, probably.
should like-how I should like-to
see she reports he turned in at head
euarters those nights.
ana how | must have agitated the
saperts at headquarters! What o sem
ssSe'on / must have been! At 10 in
ae morning I would call on q noto-
fa.oos socialist leader in his house on
s;me svne back street, at noon / would
~ Eas-