Japan's Rosenberg Case

...It claimed that a Japanese called Saito had seen twelve American soldiers detach the rails at the spot where the train wreck occurred...

...After hearing the sentences, many noted writers and professors expressed surprise about their severity...

...They claimed the sentences were based on insufficient evidence, and, more important, began to picture the case not as a criminal incident, but as a Dreyfus affair...

...The Committee to Secure Justice in the Matsukawa Case was set up by a Communist front known as the National Relief Society...

...This story was repeated by Peking Radio last month, a day after the latest decision in the case was handed down...

...Another veteran novelist, Hirotsu, wrote a book called The Truth Appeals...

...The intellectuals were joined by several thousand local unionists and students curious about the fate of those charged with wrecking a train carrying 600 passengers and killing three engineers...

...All available evidence shows we are all innocent...

...It has been second on the best-seller list for weeks...

...Communist propaganda, of course, is quick to "broaden" any issue it creates...

...Obviously, the intense Communist propaganda during the two years of the case has not been in vain...

...Noted writers were also drawn into the service of the Communist line...

...The defendants themselves published a statement which said: "The decision proves the judge abandoned his independence, conscience and humanity...

...With the passage of time—the trials have been going on for almost four years now—memories faded and Communist propaganda took root...

...To date, the Committee has enlisted the support of 641 organizations, including labor unions, student associations and cultural societies...

...This professor, by the way, a popular anti-American neutralist with influence among students and intellectuals, is going to the United States this year under the Cultural Exchange Program of the State Department...

...This will undoubtedly give the Communists an opportunity to gain more influence among Japanese intellectuals and fade-unionists...

...The court was tense on the morning the presiding judge read the sentences...

...In June 1952, an anonymous English document written in a faltering style, entitled Murder Will Out, was widely circulated and reprinted in the left-wing press...

...In desperation, the judge finished reading the decision into the record...

...But, while Beria and his six associates were summarily executed, the Matsukawa case will linger on until the Supreme Court renders a final decision...

...And, shortly afterward, Peking Radio carried a 2,000-word statement which called the decision "an intrigue by American-Japanese reactionaries to oppress the people and pave the way to rearmament and the revival of Japanese militarism...

...In the final analysis, it must be stressed that the recent decision in the Matsukawa case was a serious blow to the Communists...

...The Tokyo meeting, which drew a crowd of 1.700 unionists, students and intellectuals, passed resolutions demanding repeal of the decision and acquittal for all the defendants...

...The others followed, shouting, "The judge is a traitor to the nation...

...This means the Americans and Yoshida are going to kill the defendants of the Matsukawa case to push the nation to war again...

...One of them, a collection of the letters between the Rosenbergs, has been given the sensational Japanese title of Love Beyond Death...

...As each defendant rose to hear the verdict, he shouted at the judge: "Repeal the sentences...

...As yet, no one is sure whether he committed suicide or was murdered...

...Others said the verdict was not convincing and left much to be explained...

...Two books on the Rosenberg case, favorable to the convicted spies, have been translated here...

...Radio Free Japan, which broadcasts from Peking to Vladivostok, came up with a more fantastic charge: "The whole policy of war and rearmament arranged by the Americans and the Yoshida Government depended on this case...

...Uno, a highly esteemed novelist, recently published a book on the case entitled The Most Unbelievable Story in the World...

...Meanwhile, Vice President Nixon and Assistant Secretary of State Robertson came to Japan to finish her large-scale rearmament program...

...They came to witness the proceedings scheduled at the Higher Court building, where sentence was to be passed on 20 defendants (19 of them Communists) in the Matsukawa railroad sabotage case of 1949...

...Shortly before the second decision, a petition for acquittal signed by 135 novelists and writers was sent to the Superior Court...

...The trials of the past two years were merely a cover-up to pretend fairness...

...It has raised 20 million yen ($55,000) for its work...

...On the contrary, it has been convincing people that it is all a matter of "peace and rights of the people," of "independence, conscience and humanity...

...It resulted in five death sentences, four life imprisonments and varying prison terms...

...Fortunately, the average Japanese finds this ridiculous and sees no connection between the train wreck and rearmament...

...The actual case began in the summer of 1949, when Joseph M. Dodge, present U.S...

...But the extent of the Communist threat here is illustrated by the support their Matsukawa campaign has received...

...Thus ended the second trial of this case, which took up 110 court sessions and lasted for more than two years...

...Various resolutions were sent to the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Chief Judge of the Superior Court...

...This decision, like that of the first trial, is imbued with prejudice and pre-judgment...

...Tsuru wrote that he hoped the Matsukawa defendants would win out in the end...

...On what evidence are you going to kill us...

...The State Railway Corporation announced a layoff of 30,000 men on July 5; the next day, its president, Shimoyama, was found dead on the tracks several miles outside the capital...

...Sabotage was immediately suspected, and before long a 19-year-old railway worker, Akama, was arrested...

...This confession led to the prosecution's charge that the 20—all believed to be Communists with the exception of Akama—had engineered the wreck to avenge the State Railway dismissals...

...Half a year after he revealed this fact, the document continued, Saito was found dead in a dike near Yokahama...

...Most newspaper editorials on the subject did hail the sentences as just...

...The night the trial was completed, protest rallies sponsored by Communists and other leftist organizations were held in Tokyo and about ten other cities...

...Who ordered you to pass these sentences...

...it was the attitude of the general public...

...Three had been acquitted...

...It was at this point that the Communists, who had been silent on the matter all along, suddenly opened propaganda fire...

...The ensuing turmoil forced the judge to clear the court...

...This proves the train was wrecked by American hands...

...Rearmament and militarism are also dragged in...

...And, when the Asahi Weekly (circulation 600,000), printed a lengthy discussion of the Matsukawa decision, it printed in the same issue an article by Professor Tsuru, a Harvard graduate, comparing the Matsukawa incident to the Sacco and Vanzetti and Tom Mooney cases...

...Victims of the incident and their families were rarely mentioned in the press...

...This was not only the feeling of "progressive" intellectuals...

...Four defendants were sentenced to death, two received life imprisonment, eleven received prison terms...

...The Communists use the Matsukawa case as part of a broader anti-American campaign...

...JAPAN'S ROSENBERG CASE Japanese Communists are having a propaganda field day with the Matsukawa railroad case, in which a passenger train was sabotaged and three engineers were killed By Takeo Naoi Sendai, Japan Late last month, hundreds of newspapermen, photographers, unionists, artists and assorted intellectuals moved into this city, located 200 miles northeast of Tokyo...

...On July 15, shortly after a second layoff of 60,000 men had been announced, an empty train suddenly ran wild in Tokyo, killing 6 and injuring 14...

...instead, the sentencing of innocent workers was played up...

...Budget Director and then the Occupation's fiscal chief, instituted a tight-money policy that was hard on the Japanese economy...

...We cannot listen to such a rascal...

...A similar rally in Sendai drew 1.200 people: here the three acquitted defendants, as well as noted writers and lawyers from Tokyo, appeared...

...These incidents were followed by a passenger-train wreck near the small town of Matsukawa, in northwest Japan, on August 17...

...The date of the second trial was purposely postponed...

...It threatens peace and violates civil rights...

...The first trial in this case lasted for a year...

...The broadcast concluded, "The true culprits in the Matsukawa incident are none other than the Americans...

...But, at the afternoon session, one defendant rose and abruptly walked out, with the statement: "From the decision read this morning, we know what kind of a man the judge is, so we don't have to listen to him any more...

...This led to retrenchment in several industries, causing broad social unrest...

...We are convinced that the truth will emerge, regardless of the sentences passed by the judge...

...Communist propaganda does not refer to the Matsukawa case as a criminal incident involving the fatal wrecking of a train...

...Through the Committee to Secure Justice in the Matsukawa Case, the defense lawyers issued a statement declaring that "In spite of national and worldwide demands for a fair trial, this decision dealt extreme punishment to innocent workers...

...He admitted causing the wreck and implicated 19 others...