MacArthur's Way

U.S. occupation policy in Japan was neither timid nor confused. Douglas Mac-Arthur knew what he was doing, and was prepared to insist that his critics did not. Most uncomfortable was the way Red Army General Kuzma Derevyanko found this out last week at a meeting of the Allied Council for Japan.

Derevyanko started with lots of chips. Since almost all Japanese public men were tainted with militarism, it would not be difficult to strike at MacArthur by bringing charges against members of any government that might be formed. Premier Kijuro Shidehara was about to resign because he had received little support in the recent elections; the man who had received the most support was Ichiro Hatoyama, head of the Liberal Party, who was well-smeared with anti-democratic stain (TIME, April 22).

Derevyanko sized up this situation as his meat. He bellowed to the Council: "Undesirable persons have not yet been removed from leading positions. It is desirable that the Allied Council be in formed of the matter as soon as possible."

MacArthur complied. Brigadier General Courtney Whitney, onetime Manila lawyer, began informing the Council in the most specific detail of the U.S. democratization policies. (At one point he read the names of nearly 200 Japanese organizations, apologized for omitting the addresses.) In the deliberate fashion of a schoolmaster lecturing a group of dull pupils, he interspersed pointed remarks directed at the Russian. (On one occasion: "Is the Russian representative understanding all this?" On another: "Will you kindly interpret that to General Derevyanko?") At the noon recess a correspondent asked when Whitney would finish. He smiled and answered: "I may be through by the end of summer."

At the beginning of the afternoon session, Derevyanko, backed by MacMahon Ball: the British Commonwealth representative, suggested that the remainder of the report be submitted in writing. Whitney refused: ". . . the gentleman's [Derevyanko's] allegation . . . was a challenge to the Supreme Commander's conduct of the occupation. I intend to give the full details of this report and nothing short of it." He was allowed to finish while Ball closed his eyes as if in sleep.

His voice husky with emotion, Whitney said: "He who fails to see in [the recent Japanese] election a demonstration of democracy on the march . . . either fails to understand the meaning of democracy or is blinded by prejudice."

Derevyanko was meek. "Not a word on our part" could be regarded as "a threat to the success of the occupation. I have no doubt that there is some success in ... the democratization of Japan."

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