STATE DEPARTMENT UNEASY OVER ANTIWAR SENTIMENT IN JAPAN
The U.S,State Department appears to be somewhat uneasy over the mounting protests in Japan against Johnson's escalation of the war in Vietnam, Speaking before 150 leading businessmen of Osaka October 5, Ambassador Edwin 0. Reischauer sought to give a push to sentiments of an opposite kind. He talked about the profitable trade relations between the U.S. and Japan, the "threat". of Communist China, and the "misunderstanding" in Japan over U.S. policies.
He. said he could understand that as a result of the "great mis-
fortune" experienced by Japan in the second world war feeling could arise that to avoid the "sad events of the past" the country ought to carefully avoid involvement in the controversies which embroil the nations of the world.
This, he declared, was a mistake. Japan should give up the "passive" approach to peace and resort to an "active" approach like the one now being followed by the United States.
Referring to the Vietnam war, the American diplomat said that he was shocked at the results of a recent poll by the Asahi Shumbun which revealed that 42% or more of those who replied believed that it really does not matter if South Vietnam is overrun by the Communist North.
On the following day in Washington, the State Department attacked a report made by foreign editor Omori in Mainichi as “utterly false." Omori'ts report included the statement that American planes had "deliberately" bombed a hospital for lepers in north Vietnam,
Omori gave his reaction to a film produced by the north Viet~ namese national motion picture department. He said that “although this documentary film must have been made for propaganda purposes to fan the North Vietnamese anti-American feeling, for a third party like me the film's effect was great."