ABSTRACT

Censorship meant that there was always the risk of being presented with so many deletions, that the whole typesetting process would have to be done anew or be canceled totally. "Objectionable" was material that violated one or more articles of the Press Code or was considered undesirable according to current censorship policies. In the early stages of planning censorship operations in Japan, the organizers were astounded at how difficult it was to find persons who knew Japanese. Special censorship schooling was arranged for the non-American censors. The rules under which the censors worked were laid down in different manuals, subject matter files, and key logs. The manuals were handbooks for practical work and included the basic philosophy of censorship. In the beginning of the Occupation, the authorities were anxious to explain censorship to foreign correspondents and eager to foster the image that it somehow was a democratic undertaking.