The Blossoms Are Opening

One day last week the "extra" bells in Tokyo newspaper offices jangled urgently. The best & biggest news since the occupation came clacking over the teletypes from Washington, D.C.: the U.S. had renounced all further reparations claims on Japan. It was the most striking proof the West had yet offered that it had abandoned its postwar policy of keeping Japan on her knees, seriously meant to rebuild Japan's shattered economy.

The general comment from Japanese was: "Arigatai des" [We're grateful]. But there were some skeptics. Said one young Japanese: "Sure, we're terribly grateful for this. Still, if they wanted to continue the reparations, what would there be left to take?"

Actually, there was still plenty to be taken out of Japan. The U.S. had recently cut by more than half the number of Japanese plants earmarked for reparations. Now the remainder will stay, too, working to get Japan off U.S. relief.

There was other good news. The elite of Kabuto Cho, Tokyo's Wall Street, met at the Tokyo stock exchange, wearing their best pin-striped trousers and their warmest smiles. There was some happy oratory. One speaker exclaimed: "The blossoms are opening;" the meeting's chairman called for a teuchi shiki (an old Japanese ceremony of congratulations). The assembled bankers and brokers solemnly rose and clapped their hands in unison, 13 times. Then they adjourned for a buffet lunch of roast beef, beer and strawberry shortcake.

The occasion was well worth the clapping. Earlier in the week General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters had formally authorized the reopening of stock exchanges in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, closed down since war's end.

Amid Japan's general satisfaction, bushy-haired Prince Chichibu, 46-year-old brother of Emperor Hirohito, spoke a few words of caution. "I think this is the beginning of recovery," he said, "but there are still so many black-market millionaires in Japan that honest people have lost the will to work." Chichibu doubts that Japan's slender resources can support her huge and growing population. An avid fan of Li'l Abner, the Prince wistfully recalled his hero's fabulous friend which, as a kind of one-animal Marshall Plan, had promised to provide humanity with an abundance of everything from eggs to suspender buttons (TIME, Dec. 27). "Even with American help," smiled Prince Chichibu, "the shmoos are quite needed in Japan."*

* For further news of the shmoos, see PRESS.

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