Shakedown

From Government posts and palace walls the Humpty Dumpties of Japan were having great falls. General Douglas MacArthur's purge of militarists and ultranationalists from public office was shaking down the old order in Japanese politics and society.

Premier Kijuro Shidehara, flat on his back with bronchitis, tried hard to prop up his wobbly Cabinet. He accepted the resignations of five ministers on the Allied blacklist, but instead of replacing them with ambitious Liberals or Social Democrats, he chose veteran conservatives and bureaucrats. While the press groaned with dissatisfaction, Shidehara announced that he would carry on until parliamentary elections in "late March or early April."

The elections were originally scheduled for late this month, but MacArthur's purge had disrupted party organizations and all campaign plans. At least 107 of the present Diet's Representatives (full membership: 466) were said to be ultra-nationalist or militarist, and therefore ineligible for reelection.

Royal Problems. Also qualifying for the Allied blacklist were at least twelve Imperial Princes, holders of various public offices, who had been members of Japan's armed forces.

Leading this select list were the three brothers of Emperor Hirohito. Prince Yasuhito Chichibu, 43, educated at Oxford, a lover of English tweeds and Swiss ski slopes, once likened the code of Bushido to the chivalry of King Arthur's Round Table; he served with Tokyo's military garrison. Prince Nobuhito Takamatsu, 40, more retiring than his older brother, was last week reported giving counsel to the Emperor on government reform. Prince Takahito Mikasa, 30, who likes the strenuous life, once made an eye-filling picture while training as an Army cavalryman at Yatsu Beach near Tokyo (see cut).

Now, said Osaka's Jiji Shimpo, one of Japan's prime social problems was to find new jobs for the Princes. There was always the down-to-earth Empress' newly revealed hobby (see cut).

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