Censorship

On August 15, 1945 Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces. General MacArthur arrived in Japan on August 30, 1945. Within three weeks, General MacArthur's General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) issued a ten-point Press Code for the Japanese news media. The Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD), an operating unit overseen by the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2), was transferred from the Philippines to Japan at the beginning of the Occupation. The CCD was to establish censorship of civilian communications (mail, telephone, telegraph, film, radio and publications). Japanese agencies and private individuals were required to submit their publications to the CCD, which then determined whether they contained violations of the Press Code. Censorship action, when it occurred, involved additions to or deletions from texts, suppressions of materials, disapprovals, publishing delays, and changes.

Tanizaki Junichiro (1886-1965), an acclaimed and established author even prior to World War II, submitted a short story entitled Mrs A 's Letters (A fujin no tegami) for publication in the August, 1946 edition of the magazine Chuo Koron. The story, which consisted of three letters from one married woman to another, described the brave and handsome Japanese pilots who flew over Mrs. A's home. She was intrigued by their planes and even sketched their flight patterns. The story was suppressed by the Civil Censorship Detachment as "militaristic." Tanizaki's story was finally published in Chuo Koron in January 1950 with an epilogue from the author stating: "This story was originally written in the summer of 1946 (Showa 21) and was my first work after the war ended. However, due to certain conditions, its publication was postponed until now. I would like my readers to keep this in mind as they read the story. December, 1949."