That Japan is, pay excellence, a police country isa dictum to which foreigners who have lived here any length of time and have been suliciently observant will readily subscribe 'As soon as one arti here, especially if, he or she interested in, say, labour problems anything birth control, detectives dog one's steps all the 'A' well-known Jupanese publicist, Mr, Retsu Kiyosawa,- writing in the' Chuo' Koran (Central Review) on this. subject, waxes alternately indignant at the police, in Japan iigthe country an "unenviable Rotoriety" and alternately satirical: Formerly, he says, Japan bore the brand of' being mili but now she is known asa police power, the militaristic gilt wing largely fallen off, and hardly does an article on Japan appear in foreign magazines without some reference to the sway exercised by the police.
"This isa true and timely criti-clam. Detectives, posing as curious {ellow-travellers, will sit by you in the train and try to peer over your shoulder. as to what you ate reading: they will visit. you "in your home and ask you the" most, absurd, not to say" indiscreet and impertinent, questions in' wretched English, "What do. you think of Japan?' is generally' the euttain~ raiser, followed by: "Why did you and, often,. pointing fovone's wife:, "Who is that woman with" you?" Japan has borrowed Immensely from. the West, but hope regarding the Qceident, with suspicion, the police in. particular having "pet notion that the on objective of foreign countries. to get a rise out of. this country, despite all the pretty post-prandial Literances that are made every now and then. Japan in suffering. front extreme. nervousness "anda hectic and high' temperature. Ordinary travellers pass unnoticed, "except by" the fake curio. merchants who
all foreigners are believed to. have 0 mult "the pie foreigner more money" than brains. "But if tone should try, to make a study of economic. conditions or" evince Interest in the. proletarian move anid Mr. Kiyosawa, "are 3 "the says
two, greatest police powe in the, world, When you put. our foot across the frontier of ital feel that you have indeed a police country. Not only are 8 Tot of solemn-visaged policemen in evidence at the railway station, but members of the Fascist. party will board your train, making me quiries and keeping' watch and ward. Tt is the same here and we Japanese cannot help obsorvit the backbone of a police-sway country if our native Innd, when return from. a trip abroad, just as, formerly, on. returning the, country savoured of The writer then proceeds, quote Abraham Lincoln's: "Let the people know everything without, reservation, for it is. the safest policy," and declares. that. just, th opposite is followed by" police-swayed Japan, Recently, a man was kept for ten days in a police detention cell because, in connection with the -attémpted " axsussination of Premier Hamagucl made the innocent remar! ajo avimasen ka?" (It—assassination Seannot be: very pleasant)
Here the police interfere with what: women shall wear, while. the Yampancy of false detectives, prey ing on the public, and especially women, is in strange contrast 0 the large number of private detectives" maintained "by every police station. One is at w loss to Know which of "the two really causes most annoyance, toa longe suffering and grin-and-bear public.
Recently, Dr. Egi, Minister of Railways,' remarked: "Taken individually, the policemen are ati good men.' But directly they join fie force, Shey wees. ask thirty, but, sixty, and develop the characteristics of police doteetives ity those backward," feudal days. When we go to Osaka, for instance, detectives get entrenched inthe ery next room in our ian and will not badge It is the Atmosphere."
Bir," Kivowwa, commenting this and. asicing" what chance mere taxpayer har when even 5 "ae ie tas Rinospherw" that now pervades the country. Would it not be better," for asks ironically, "to abolish the Diet education, the Cabinet aystem uso forehand pul everything polities, morals, order, thought Efe hands of the police?" That fs charge that the police have bees, willing to take all-along,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.