Shot in the Arm

U.S. occupation policy in Japan was committed to administering democracy by hypodermic needle, and Douglas MacArthur meant to see that the inoculation took.

The Supreme Commander gave his blessing to Shigeru Yoshida as Japan's third postwar premier.

Stuffy, blundering Yoshida ran into immediate trouble. While he struggled to form a government, Tokyo leftists swarmed into the streets. They coupled the demand "Give us more rice," with the cry "Down with Yoshida." One mob, 200,000 strong, marched on the Premier's residence. Thirty demonstration leaders, among them Kyuichi Tokuda, Secretary General of Japan's Communist Party, entered the house, bedded down in the front parlor, threatened to stay until the Premier resigned.

The General sent Tokyo police, armed with short swords, to rout the sit-downers, after issuing a warning: "Physical violence [by] undisciplined elements will not be permitted."

Observers predicted that Yoshida would need more shots of MacArthurian adrenalin if he was to survive in spite of his lack of tact. Sample: some time ago he invited two U.S. correspondents of Irish descent to dinner in an effort to enlist their help in mitigating occupation directives--which, said he, "as you Irishmen can understand, are too oppressive for the proud to bear."

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