ABSTRACT
According to the Basic Plan for Civil Censorship in Japan, violations of censorship rules could be punished by military tribunal. The Supreme Commander had the responsibility for all phases of censorship operations except their termination. To bring every violator of censorship rules to court was hardly feasible, and this form of punishment was seldom used. During the war, under Japanese censorship, allocation of paper had been an effective way of controlling news. The most lenient way of dealing with censorship violations was to issue a warning to the publisher. The possibility of stricter censorship was used as a threat, both in the beginning of censorship operations and later, especially after most media were transferred to postcensorship. The earlier warnings and the possibility of precensorship still existed, but prosecution in military tribunal now became a subject for discussion within scap. According to the initial censorship instructions issued to scap, censorship violations could be punished by military court.
