Foreign Correspondents in Japan. Charles Foreign Corresponden

flag-waving demonstrators marched onto the grounds in front of the Imperial Palace, which had been banned to them by government order, and clashed with 5,000 police armed with pistols and tear gas. Two demonstrators died, 1,500 were injured, and 1,232 people were arrested. Despite their opposition, the law giving the government powers to suppress subversive elements passed the Diet on July 4.

      Correspondents were out in full force reporting the demonstrations which began with orderly parades but quickly disintegrated into unruly mobs as they fought police with stones and bamboo spears. This was only the beginning of a series of strikes and protest gatherings that punctuated the year. In subsequent demonstrations held in many parts of Japan on May 30 and afterward, demonstrators added Molotov cocktails to their arsenal, setting fires to automobiles. Police began arming themselves with metal shields to go with their helmets.

       Snap election called

      On the political front, three anti-Yoshida conservative factions joined to form the new Progressive Party and persuaded Mamoru Shigemitsu, the highly respected former foreign minister who signed Japan's surrender in 1945, to head the party as president. Yoshida met the challenge by carrying out a snap dissolution of the House of Representatives on August 28. After negotiating and gaining the support of Ichiro Hatoyama, the "grand old man" who had re-entered the political wars after his depurge, he and his supporters expelled the principal leaders of the opposition bloc from the party. In the elections that followed on October 1, the Liberals captured 240 of the 436 seats, giving Yoshida the majority he needed to form his fourth cabinet on October 30.

      Two weeks later, however, the prime minister lost his right-hand man, Hayato Ikeda, like Yoshida crusty and outspoken, but lacking Yoshida's finesse. During interpellations in the Lower House on November 12, Ikeda, trade and industry minister in the new cabinet, said it "can't be helped" if small and medium businessmen fail or commit suicide as a result of the cabinet's austerity policy. To still the uproar that followed, Ikeda was forced to resign.

       Incomes rise

      During the 1952 year, the average personal income of the Japanese rose to 98.6% of the 1934-36 average. With an eye on Japanese businessmen traveling overseas, a BOAC Comet flew into Tokyo's Haneda Airport on July 8. It was the first jet passenger plane to be seen in Japan. December saw the start of reorganization of the Japanese banking system.

       Sports and entertainment

      In sports and entertainment, Japan continued its comeback. On July 19, the Fifteenth Olympic Games opened in Helsinki with Japan participating for the first time since the 1936 Olympiad in Berlin.

      On May 19, Yoshio Shirai defeated Dado Marino of Hawaii for the world flyweight boxing championship. It was Japan's first world boxing title, and Japan was in high spirits. On December 20, Japan opened its first bowling center, in Aoyama, Tokyo. On the musical stage, tiny Eri Chiemi, with word-perfect miming of the English words she learned from the U.S. Armed Services radio broadcasts, sent "Tennessee Waltz," "Shanghai Lil," and "Geisha Waltz" to the top of the hit song charts as screaming teenagers cheered her on. Among the young set, motor scooters were all the rage.

       Chapter Nine

      1953

      1953 FCCJ FACT FILE

      • Membership: No records.

      • Professional events: Press conferences and interviews. No record of Club events.

      • Social events: Inaugural party, Anniversary party, and New Year's Eve party. No record of other events.

      • President until June 30: William Jorden (AP); from July 1: Dwight Martin (Time-Life).

       Negotiations sputter along

      With the U.N.-Communist armistice talks at Panmunjom stalled and in recess since October 28, 1952, on the question of prisoner exchange, the venue of the debate had shifted to the United Nations. In December 1952, India had submitted to the General Assembly a compromise plan for prisoner exchange, providing for neutral screening of POWs to separate those desiring repatriation and those rejecting it. This proposal was approved by the General Assembly but totally rejected by the Communist bloc.

      On February 22, General Mark W. Clark, Commander of U.N. and U.S. forces in the Far East, on orders from Washington dusted off and transmitted to the Communist High Command an old U.N. proposal for the exchange of seriously sick and wounded prisoners even while hostilities were in progress.

      On March 2, the Soviets rejected the Clark proposal in the U.N. But when Josef V. Stalin, who had instigated, or at least approved, the North Korean invasion of South Korea, died of cerebral hemorrhage on March 5, the situation suddenly changed. Chosen to succeed him as premier and president of the Council of Ministers was Georgi M. Malenkov, who was backed by Nikita Khrushchev.

      Malenkov was more concerned with solving Communism's internal problems than with foreign adventures. When he launched a "peace offensive," the Communist and North Korean commanders in Korea made an about-face and on March 28 accepted General Clark's proposal, adding that the exchange of the sick and wounded "should be made to lead to the smooth settlement of the entire question of prisoners of war, thereby achieving an armistice in Korea. . . ." In line with this, they proposed the two sides "immediately" resume armistice negotiations at Panmunjom.

       "Operation Little Switch"