Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-12-11
Scandal Of the Occupation

President Truman has joined the State and War departments in
many. One can understand why, from the standpoint of III prestige
abroad, it may be unwise to wash dirty linen in public. But it is also
important that the American people understand u occupation policies,
and from that standpoint an investigation is sorey needed.
This was the bunch of Senator Kilgore last September when he
sent a committee investigator to Germany. But after the investigator
berg lssuaded tn committee majority rom pursuing the inquiry. The
Republican members we're dissatisfied. Somebody leaked the inves-
Republicans take control OF the committee in January there will be an
investigation.
Unfortunately the chances are very slim that we shall see the kind
Of investigation that is really needed. TIE most significant issue of our
occupation policies is the gap between our announced intentions and our
enemy StateS; out oT actlons ala TN very apostles OF faSclst reactlon
we once fought.
Frederick Kuh's Berlin dispatches to The Sun and other CORES
pondence have reported the virtual collapse of Identification in the
American zone. It has been frequently charged that w arr not breaking
up German cartels. A former colonel in the intelligence branch of A. M.
G. has testified that some Army officers occupying influential economic
posts are businessmen in uniform, with commercial connections at home
that might prejudice them.
Here is the real scandal of the occupation that ought to be exposed
But pubicity-huntng conservatives like Senators Brewster and Fergu-
son are unlikely to expose it They will find much more to their taste
the secondary, though important, issue of decentralization Of or troops.
INSTANCES of moral laxity, corruption, luxurious living and
black-market operations have, no doubt, occurred. These ae the n
happy fruits of conquest, as every cOnquering army since Caesar has
found out. Such problems are easily distorted, easily overemphasizcd:
but they capture the headlines, and can be expected to receive more
attention than the deeper questions of broad occupation policy.
If serious investigation Of that question could be had, it certainly
should extend to Japan. Correspondents in Tokyo report increasing
signs OF a subtle Army censorship o n news at the source. According TO
Drew Pearson, General Macarthur has lately informed the War De-
partment that if a delegation of newspaper executives is sent to study
the occupation there, he will not tolerate representatives of the San
Francisco Chronicle, the Daily Worker, the New York Herald Tribune,
PM, the Christian Science Monitor and The Chicago Sun.
Eliminating from the list the Daily Worker, which has its w fish
70 try, 1t Will De noted hat the one thing these papers have in common
is that they have dared to question the wisdom and liberalism of Amer
lean occupation policies in Japan. They have dared to report facts which
suggest th the facade OF democratlzation raised by General Macarthur
conceal collaboration with the same old reachonary imperialiHs
who made Japan our mortal enemy.
This newspaper has not the faintest desire to be represented on a
hand-picked junket to Japan. But we consider it a sinister development
if General Macarthur is trying to prevent free access to the facts by
those newspapers which have treated his regime a something less than
diVine-The Chicago Sun.