Evening star., 1935-11-17

barge is placed on reporting in news
papers on the case of murder of a
woman near Rokkakudo. Matsuyama
City, in October and the taking of a
postal savings paSsbook and gold
Togo Maramatu of No Shinsyo,
Kyoto City, and the case of Matsu-
wanna Castle. Yours truly,
KUN HIRATA,
Public Prosecutor
From the japanese news editors
point of view the ban in itself might
not be so bad. But the police have
nasty habit of lifting a ban at some
unexpected moment, when the editors
have gone out for lunch or something,
and that sometimes means an extra
paper. A Toxic paper needs very lit
tie encouragement to get out an extra.
for the extra is confined to a single
sheet. a good deal larger than a post
age stamp but along the same gen.
eral design. The extra has the COM
pensationS of not only giving the
paper the prestige and the public the
news, but furnishes work for the 9TH
erwise unemployed, each newspaper
maintaining a staff of men of ad-
vanced age and specially trained voices
who race through the streets of Toxic
ringing bells and shouting in leather
lunged manner something that sounds
very much like Extra papah! Extra
papah! Extra papah! Wuh! Wuh!
Wuh! Tingalingaling! Wuh!"
This correspondent devoted conSid-
cradle time to research in running
down exactly what the boys cry and
received a variety of answers from
Americans, some of whom said they
called Extra papah' and others who
said they merely said "Wuh!" I final
ly cornered a japanese graduate of
the University of Washington and got
from him the reliable information that
they say. "Gogai! Goga.! Gogai," the
translation of which is "A number out
side; that is, number Of the paper
outside the regular number, denoting
to the japanese that something is up.
News Band Aids Police.
Aside from banning practically all
news relating to Communists and the
police activity against Communists the
Procurator often places a ban on
police news to assist the police in run
ming down the criminal, which is an
odd sort of notion for an American
newspaper man who always thought
than when a cop tells reporter the
police have laid careful trap for the
capture of Machine Gun Charlie, who
is expected to take train out OF
Union Station at II o'clock noon, the
thing to do is to get the news of the
trap to the public before the trap is
sprung. If Machine Gun Charlie reads
about the trap, why that's the police
departments hard luck. But in
Japan the police allow the papers to
print the news, say, about the finding
of a dismembered corpse in the canal.
which is said to be a popular sort of
crime story over here, and then. just
as the story is getting hot and the
police are about to catch the criminal
they clamp down ban and keep it
clamped down until they catch the
criminal or the criminal escapes.
Maybe six months later the ban will
be lifted and if the story is good
enough there will be a Gogai
There are some 80 bans on news Of
various sorts at present, I was in
but when I asked the editor of the
Nichi -Nichi English edition if the
japanese newspaper men did not re-
sent the bans he explained; I'VE do
not have the same idea of the free
dom of the press in Japan that you do
in America. And besides, we approve
of some of the bans" So that seemed
to be that, although there have been
cases where bans have been lifted
after vigorous protest by the papers
There are other ways of banning
news or censoring news than by the
formal issuance of bans, however. A
Toxic daily printed leading editorial
criticizing the army budget and the
editor received an invitation to call
at the war office-an invitation that
in Japan is not lightly to be disre-
garded. The day following the editors
visit the same paper printed an edi-
torial strongly indorsing the army
budget and saying that it was swell.
For the army and the navy, especially,
often find ardent support for their
policies from the fanatical patrioteers
and Nationalistic societies-such as
the famed Black Dragon Society
whose members can do much to guide
a newspapers policy along the straight
and narrow path, even to the extent
of pouring sand in the presses or beat
ing up the editor. Patriotism Is ap-
parently the refuge of many scoun-
drel in Japan.
Critic of Censorship Policy.
Mr. Seijun Ando, member of the
Lower House of the Japanese Diet,
made news to newspaper men all over
the world during the last session when
he took the apparently unprecedented
step of sharply criticizing the govern
ment for its censorship policy, and
for the violence which
marked the methods of the pa
trioteers. He read list of Japanese
editors who had been as
sassinated or beaten for the express
sion of their opinions and pointed
out particularly the danger that at
tended an editor or even a member
of the Diet who dared criticize diplo-
matte or military measures.
Should objection be taken to
opinion expressed by the press, it
should be made in the form of words
and writing" he said. Yet, under
present conditions, any criticisms ven-
tured upon the subject of diplomacy
or military matters are Immediately
defined as 'rebellious thought True
deliberation upon state policies is i'm
possible under such conditions"
This disciple of freedom of the press.
crying in the wilderness of Japan, lets
it be known to American newspaper
men who interview him, however.
that he is willing enough to let his
views on the subject stand as recorded
in the Diet. Enough, apparently, is
enough.
Foreign CORRESPONDENTS in .Janan