Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "486500942",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Japan, Situation Report 38",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500942"
}

{
    "id": "486500942",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500942",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Japan, Situation Report 38",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500942",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875514/875514-01-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875514/875514-01-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875514/875514-01-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 119,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500942",
    "naId": 486500942,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 14,
            "logicalDate": "1948-09-14",
            "month": 9,
            "year": 1948
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 31,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875514/875514-01-031.tif",
    "mediaId": "ebdb5470c8184abf",
    "ocrText": "SECRET\nage-old military tradition, the respect and social standing accorded the soldier in even\nthe smallest villages cannot have been completely dissolved during the brief months\nof the Occupation. The five million Japanese veterans, now attempting to readjust\nto civilian life, represent a potential pressure group and a source of reaction. Veterans'\nsocieties as such have been reported, but to date not in any strength nor as the sources\nof any subversive action. The one-time anti-USSR training of the veteran makes him,\nas a group, conservative in outlook. This situation could be changed, possibly, if\nJapan's economic situation continues to deteriorate.\ne. The Koreans.\nThe Koreans, who have suffered from police repression as well as economic and\nsocial discrimination, constitute the largest racial minority in Japan. At the time of\nthe surrender their numbers had reached 2 1/2 million as a result of immigration stimu-\nlated after Korea's annexation by the expansion of Japanese industry and accelerated\nduring the war by forced importation. Voluntary and occupation-supervised repatria-\ntion has reduced the size of the Korean minority to about 600,000 persons.\nThe Koreans have been a public safety factor since the surrender. The occu-\npation and the subsequent confusion in the Japanese Government has led Koreans\nto claim pseudo-extra-territorial status despite occupation policy to the contrary. With\na minimum of police interference they have engaged in blackmarket activities and\nsmuggling. General living conditions in Korea being inferior, thousands of individuals\nrepatriated to Korea have re-entered Japan-now only possible illegally. At the same\ntime the insecurity and discontent of Koreans in Japan has been aggravated by the\ndiminished need for Korean labor which has created pressures for preventing illegal\nentrance and for further reducing the existing minority.\nPolitically the Koreans are divided into right and left wings with the latter\napparently the stronger. The Japan Communist Party (JCP), alone of all the po-\nlitical parties, has given attention to the Korean problems and has assisted the\nleftists in organizing. Korean leftists, under the strong influence of the JCP repre-\nsent a minor threat to the Occupation and to US interests in the Far East.\nf. The Kuromaku.\n\"Kuromaku\", or \"black curtain\" is the customary phrase in Japan applied to\nthose who manipulate the strings of power from behind the scenes. The employment\nof puppet frontmen is a traditional and accepted aspect of public life. That these in-\nfluences continue to operate with varying degrees of success even under the Occupa-\ntion is to be expected. The purges have eliminated from public life the majority of\nthe ranking and most experienced officials and politicians. It would seem unreason-\nable to expect their inexperienced successors to have refrained from seeking advice on\noccasion. The Zaibatsu largely financed and controlled the major pre-war political\nparties, and to conclude that their influence is completely eliminated from the present\nconservative parties would be naive. Prior to the war, underworld characters were\nemployed in the name of \"patriotism\" to bring pressure on politicians and officials.\nA recently jailed racketeer boss in Tokyo managed to purchase an endorsement from\nthe Liberal Party and ran unsuccessfully for the Diet in the 1947 general elections.\nI-21\nSECRE"
}