104 10064 10012

DISPATCH

TO Chief, Sov Bloc Div; Chief, Far East Division Chief, WOMUSE/ICG

FROM Chief of Station, Tokyo

SUBJECT RYBAT MIPASHA REDTOP - Beheiren and the Four U.S. Navy Deserters

ACTION REQUIRED. REFERENCES TOKYO 7263

As noted in reference, forwarded herewith is a copy of the subject memorandum. Please note that the information in the memorandum Paragraph B. 4. b) is particularly sensitive and should only be given properly restricted dissemination.

Mark J. LIDGERWOOL

ATTACHMENT Memo dtd 27 Nov 67

Distribution 1 - C/SB Div w/l cy attach 1 - C/FE w/l cy attach 1 - C/WOMUSE/ICG w/l attach

CS COPY 8603

DISPATCH SYMBOL AND NUMBER FJTA-53626 DATE DEC 6 1967 HOS FILE NUMBER UNKNOWN

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD:

SUBJECT: BEHEIREN and the Four U.S. Navy Deserters

A. Origin and Development of BEHEIREN.

Founding: BEHEIREN (Japan "Peace for Vietnam" Committee) was organized in April 1965, nominally as a politically Independent group of intellectuals and cultured persons whose purpose was "to help restore peace in Vietnam." Actually, it is a loosely organized group of ex-JCP members, progressive intellectuals, leftist cultured persons, and leftwing students banded together in the name of opposition to the Vietnam war by two common denominators, dedicated anti-Americanism and refusal to be dominated or controlled by the orthodox Japan Communist Party.
Hard-Core Secretariat: The real force behind the organization of BEHEIREN, right from the beginning to the present, has been a brilliant Communist named YOSHIKAWA Yuichi, whose conspiratorial organizational skills have been perhaps the most indispensible ingredients in BEREIREN'S development. YOSHIKAWA was expelled from Tokyo University for his role as a ZENGAKUREN leader in the 1960 U.S./Japan Security Treaty riots. He then went into fulltime JCP mass movement professional work, becoming the Secretariat official in charge of international relations for the Japan Peace Committee. YOSHIKAWA broke with the JCP in late 1964, following the rupture in relations between the JCP and CPSU in May that year. The inspiration for BEHEIREN springs in large measure from YOSHIKAWA's personal desire to use his organizational talents in countering the JCP and its Japan Peace Committee. YOSHIKAWA, in addition to being a well qualified English linguist himself, years ago surrounded himself with a small following of similarly qualified lieutenants, whom he brought along into BEREIREN to give him the necessary depth and experience to run this new organization. YOSHIKAWA functions as BEHEIREN's Secretary General.
Respectable Intellectual Front: Following fundamental Communist principles for mass movement work (better than the JCP itself follows these tenets), the ex-JCP organizers of BEHEIREN kept themselves in the background and lined up a number of prominent Japanese progressive intellectuals and leftist cultured persons to front for BEHEIREN. The choice of ODA Makoto, ex-Fulbrighter and popular young novelist, to be the chief front man - Chairman - was an extremely lucky stroke for BEHEIREN. ODA has taken to this grand-standing, front work like a duck to water. It has given him a chance to give unbridled vent to his own latent anti-American foolings, puffed him up to the extent that he has been dubbed "the emperor" by other BEHEIREN activists, and given him at long last an ideological mission to pursue. YOSHIKAWA has performed magnificently in feeding ODA's ego needs and in infusing and indoctrinating ODA so that his words and actions take on sufficiently virulent anti-American overtones. ODA has served another vital function for BEHEIREN by recruiting a sizeable number of fellow intellectuals to join the ranks of BEREIREN activists. (Attachment 1 is a listing of a number of those Japanese who have been identified as active BEHEIREN supporters or sympathizers.)
Organizational Development: In its 2 1/2 year history, BEHEIREN has not appreciably changed its organizational format, although it has moved its office three times and modified its name even oftener. PEHEIREN is not a "mass organization", because it has had no sizeable popular backing to the present time. Its hard core, secretariat organization is run by YOSHIKAWA and his lieutenants. Its public image, intellectual front is led by ODA, and given body by a score of like-minded intellectual friends of ODA and YOSHIKAWA, who form the loose body of BEHEIREN's activist leadership. Under this ΒΕΠΕΙΡΕΝ leadership superstructure lies a paltry base of only several hundred BEHEIREN "rank-and-file" supporters, mostly young Japanese students. Organizationally, EEHEIREN has no formal membership system, so its base of supporters is fluid and not precisely measurable. However, the base support for BEHEIREN has definitely been on the upswing during 1967, and made such notable strides during the past summer that JCP Headquarters officials finally felt constrained to note with concern that BEHEIREN was beginning to drain off a growing number of progressive youth who otherwise would have been absorbed into the JCP's own youth movement. BEREIREN leaders have tried to help this growth along by setting up a youth section, calling it "Young BEHEIREN." BEHEIREN's imaginative actions and publicity-conscious programs have been responsible for its recent growth, and this period of growth seems to be now on

the verge of really picking up speed and momentum. As a result of its role in the case of the four deserting sailors, BEREIREN has reaped bountiful publicity, has succeeded in touching a delicate Japanese public nerve of sympathy and pacifism, opening a floodgate of support for BEHEIREN from all over Japan. When this case fades from the limelight, it is still most likely that a fair percentage of current wave of popular support for BEHEIREN will solidify into permanent mass backing, giving BEHEIREN, for the first time, a meaningful base to support its future activities,

Activities and Accomplishments: BEHEIREN has engaged in a number of propaganda actions, and participated in international anti-Vietnam War activities. It has tried to co-operate with certain front activities in Japan controlled by the JCP, most notably the Japan Committee to Investigate War Crimes in Vietnam activities, which culminated in the Tokyo Court of last August, but has been soundly and rudely rebuffed by the JCP. In spite of this, BEHEIREN has churned along at its own pace, with a continuing series of anti-Vietnam war actions, most of them related in some way to the American pacifist movement. In this regard, BEHEIREN has succeeded in cornering a virtual monopoly on Japanese contacts with the U.S. pacifist movements, and has effectually capitalized on this to promote its own action program. The case of the four deserting sailors, while an apparent lucky windfall for BEHEIREN, only points up the fact that BEHEIREN, through past organizational work and promotional activities, was "johnny-on-the-spot", ready and capable (unique in Japan in this regard) to take the ball and run with it. BEMEIREN ran all the way in this case and scored its most notable success since it was organized. (Attachment 2 is a listing of BEHEIREN's more notable activities since its founding. Attachment 3 is a partial listing of American and other foreign persons known to have been in contact with or cooperated with BEHEIREN.)

B. The Case of the Four Sailor Deserters and BEHEIREN.

How It Started: The consensus of all available overt medin material, with no recorded dissent, indicates that the four sailors voluntarily left their ship, went AWOL, and ended up wallowing around Tokyo's hippie-land. Precisely what personal grievances prompted the four to embark on this mis-adventure is not yet known. But, up to this point, the four could fairly be categorized as misguided youngsters, gone astray in a foreign land, and due to get slapped back in line with traditional Navy justice when they finally decided to stop the fun and go back to the ship. So far, this made their cases far from unique.
How It Became an Incident: "But instead of returning to their ship of their own volition or being apprehended by the Shore Patrol, the four made contact with BEHEIREN leaders. Acsin, press reports indicate that this was just a coincidence, that there was no pre-planning by the four to contact EEHEIREN. There are no available overt nor covert reports that indicate otherwise. But, once the BEHEIREN people made contact, they recognized the potential immediately and moved fast for the kill. (Attachment 4 is a Yomiuri Newspaper clipping, 22 November 1967, that is both a representative and comprehensive account of this phase of the case. Even if this article should contain some minor inaccuracies, the basic line seems factual and has not been challenged elsewhere.)
BEHEIREN Takes Over: When the four made contact with EEHEIREN, it suddenly became an entirely different ballgame. BEHEIREN had everything needed to capitalize on this: veteran activist leaders who are experienced enough to recognize the windfall that had come their way; an apparatus that could provide hiding places for the four; long standing liaison contacts with Soviet Embassy officials for use in planning exit from Japan; solid contacts with reliable American pacifists with whom the bona fides of the four sailors could be checked; money and organization to capitalize on the propaganda potential (such as preparing a movie film for the initial BEHEIREN press conference announcing the desertion, prepared more likely than not by BEHEIREN stalwart EUEQ Keinosuke, an independent film producer) and English speaking activists capable of sympathizing, encouraging, soothing, or agitating the four young sailors, so that there would be no turning back.
The BEHEIREN Apparatus At Work: While many of the small pieces of this puzzle, which would put the whole case in proper detailed chronological order and eliminate speculation on minor points, are still missing, enough is known now, through overt and covert sources, that the picture of BEHEIREN'S adept handling of this case shines through clearly. The following elements, all part of the BEHEIREN apparatus, make up the bulk of the picture:

a) Hide-out: When EEHEIREN got hold of the four on about 26 October, they had to be hiden out for the approximate two week period until their exit from Japan could be arranged. This presented BEHEIREN no great logistical problem. A number of the BEREIREN activist leaders have homes well suited to harboring fugitives. For example, BEHEIREN activist leader FUKASAKU Mitsusada has a villa hidden away in Chigasaki, which was used on the night of 12 September for a meeting of about 20 top BEHEIREN leaders, and which would be highly suitable

for hiding the four deserters. Other private-dwellings, belonging to BEHEIREN leaders and loyal supporters, are scattered throughout both the Kanto and Kansai areas.

b) BELEIREN/Soviet Liaison: EEDEIREN Secretary General YOSHIKAWA has maintained periodic contact with Soviet Embassy officials for years. BEFEIREN Chairman ODA has met Soviet Peace Committee officials in Moscow. The exact means of how this liaison was accomplished in this case is precisely known from a covert phone tap on the Soviet Embassy's line. A full transcript is available of two phone calls made on 30 October, first by Brian Victoria to Chief Press Attache Nikolay V. Vasilyevich, and second by YOSHIKAWA to First Secretary Sergey D. Anisimov, urgently requesting a private meeting later that day to discuss "an extremely important, extremely delicate antter", without doubt the case of the four sailors.

c) BEHEIREN/U.S. Pacifist Liaison: BEHEIREN contacted Dartmouth University professor Ernest P. Young, who flew to Japan on & November, apparently helped BEHEIREN leaders check out the bona fides of the deserters, and returned to the U.S. on 11 November. (Attachment 5 is the translation of a Sankei Shimbun article, dated 21 November, reporting an interview with Young, giving his version of his role in this case.)

Escape to Moscow: The four deserters turned up in moscow on 20 November. The press has speculated widely and unanimously that the four left Japan on the Soviet passenger ship Baikal on 11 November. Again, there is no dissenting opinion, overt nor covert. The only mystery concerning this final phase of the Japanese portion of this case concerns the mechanics of how the four boarded the Baikal and who assisted in this maneauver. But with the sailing of the Baikal from Yokohama, BEHEIREN completed its most highly successful and beautifully executed activity in its 2 1/2 year history. Not only did BEHEIREN smear the American Government's image in Japan, not only did BEHEIREN gain a vast amount of priceless publicity that will swell the ranks of its supporters and be invaluable in future activities, but BEHEIREN doubtlessly even made a profit, financially, on this low budget operation - donations are still pouring into BERZIREN Headquarters from all over Japan to "help and protect U.S. deserters".

Attachment No. 1.

Japanese Who Have Been Identified as Active DEREIREN Supporters or Sympathizers

YOSHIKAWA Yuichi (DEHEIREN Secretary General) - former JCP member.
ODA Makoto (BEHEIREN Chairman) - popular novelist.
ΚΑΙΚΟ Ken - Akutagawa prize winning novelist.
KUBO Keinosuke - film producer and director.
TSURUMI Shunsuke - Doshisha University professor.
TSURUMI Kazuko - sister of Shunsuke (their father is the late philosopher, Yusuke).
FURUYAMA YOZO - high school teacher.
MUTO Ichiyo - ex-JCP (tried to travel to U.S. to represent BEHEIREN at October 21 demonstrations this year, but was denied a visa to enter the U.S.)
YAMADA Atsushi - ex-JCP.
FUKUDA Yoshiyuki - playwriter.
TOMINAGA Ichiro - cartoonist.
FUKASAKU Mitsusada - professor.
AWAZU Kiyoshi - graphic designer.
TAKADO Kanane - Christian leader.
YOSHIDA Kiju - film director.
UMINARA Shun - writer.
HASHIMOTO Mineo - Buddhist priest.
HOTTA Yoshie - novelist.
GOTO Hiroyuki - scientist.
KUWABARA Takeo - professor at Kyoto University.
SAKAMOTO Yoshikazu - Assistant professor at Tokyo University.
HIDAKA Rokuro - professor at Tokyo University.
IIDA Momo - writer.
TSURUMI Yoshiyuki - employed at International House in Tokyo.
TERAN Minako
ΑΝΑI Fumihiko
NASU Masanao
MATSUMOTO Ichiju
FUKUTOWI Setsuo
KURIHARA Yukio
etc: ANDO Jimbei, CHIBA Hido, EGAWA Taku, FUJII Nittatsu, HARIYU Ichiro, HOSHINO Yasusaburo, ICHII Saburo, IKEYAMA Juro, ISHIDA Takeshi, KANAI Yoshiko, KASAI Seiichi, KATAGIRI Yuzuru, KATO Shuichi, KAZAMA Michitaro, MATSUURA Sozo, KIDOKORO Masao, KITAKOJI Satoshi, KOBAYASHI Shoichiro, KOMATSU Sakyo, KOBAYASEI Tomi, KUNO Osamu (Shu), KURODA Hidetoshi, MARUYAMA Masao, MIDORIKAWA Toru, MIZUSAWA Yana, MORITAKI Ichiro, KUCHAKU Seikyo, MURAMATSU Hiro, NISHIO Noboru, NOMURA Koichi, OGOSEI Teruo, OTSUKOTSU Yoshiko, SERIZAWA Tae, SHIRAI Shimpei, SHINMURA Takeshi, SHISHIDO Hiroshi, SUGIURA Mitsuo, SUGIYAMA Tatsubaru, SUZUKI Masahira, TAKEUCHI Yoshitomo, WADA Nagahisa, YAMADA Munenitsu, YAMADA Toshio, YAMAGUCHI Kosaku, YAMANI SH Eiichi, YASUDA Takeshi, YOSHINO Gonzaburo, YOSHIWARA Koichiro, OKAMOTO Taro, MATSUMOTO Seicho, EI Rokusuke, IZUMI Taku, AWAYA Noriko, KATO Yoshiro, SHIROYAMA Saburo, TAKAHASHI Taketomo, ODAGIRI Hideo, OKUMA Minoru, SANO Kenji, SUZUKI Michihiko, KUBATA Hanya, SHINOHARA Seiei, MARUYAMA Kunio,

TSURUSHIMA Sotsurei, NURO Kenji, KONAKA Yotaro, SAKAMOTO Yoshikazu, SAITO Masahiko, etc.

COMMENT: Although not recorded here, many of the above persons are ex-JCP members.

Attachment No. 2

Some BEHEIREN Activities and Accomplishments

Regular once-per-month demonstrations at a public park in Tokyo, consisting of anti-American speeches and followed by street marches.
An all night TV "teach-in" with BEHEIREN activist leadors, along with special guest, U. S. pacifist Carl Oglesby (Chairman of the Students for a Democratic Society.)
A full page advertisement in the New York Times (16 November 1965), followed by another full page ad in the Washington Fost (3 April 1967), appealing to Americans to stop the war in Vietnam.
A "Meet in Conference of Two Nations for Peace in Vietnam," held in Tokyo in August 1966, and attended by BEHEIREN activists and seven U.S. pacifist leaders (including Dave Dellinger), and observers from France, England, Canada, the USSR, Pakistan, and Mongolia.
A mass meeting in Tokyo in October 1966, guest speakers of which were French pacifists, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
Nationwide tours of Japan for lectures and peace rallies for such anti-Vietnam war pacifists as Professor Howard Zinn and the late A. J. Nuste of the United States, Claude Bourdet of France, and Thich Nhat Hanh of South Vietnam.
A mass meeting in Tokyo in January 1967, sponsored by DEHEIREN and featuring U.S. folk singer and pacifist Joan Baez.
A continuing program of direct distribution of pamphlets to U.S. troops stationed in Japan, and those coning to Japan on warships, and for rest or hospitalization from Vietnaz.
Participation by two BEREIREN activist leaders (Kyoto University professor KUWABARA Takeo and International House staffer TSURUMI Yoshikyuki, taking advantage of a trip to the U.S. to attend a non-political Japan-America Congress on Cultural Problems) in anti-Vietnam war speech rallies and demonstrations at Dartmouth University in early May 1967, followed by an unsuccessful attempt So invite Cassius Clay to visit Japan on behalf of BEHEIREN.
Continuing efforts to bring to Japan for a nationwide

speech tour on behalf of BENEIREN, Soviet poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko, an effort that has not yet reached fruition but is still pering

Participation in the Stockholm July 1967 "World Conference on Vietnam," by sending two BENEIREN activist leaders as delegates.
Cooperation with the U.S. Quakers, pacifists, and Earle Reynolds in sending the yacht "Phoenix" with medical aid, first to Haiphong, then on a second trip in the Fall of 1967, secking but failing to find landfall to deliver medical aid to either North or South Vietnam.
Attempted, but failed due to inability to obtain U.S. visa, to send a BEHEIREN activist leader (MUTO Ichiyo) to the U.S. to participate in the 21 October 1967 anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.
Currently carrying out a fund raising campaign to send an aid ship to North Vietnam. In this, and other activities, BEHEIREN leaders are maintaining ever closer liaison contact with their counterparts abroad, such as the French "Conite" Vietnam National." In an effort to generate public support for this aid ship fund raising campaign, BENEIREN succeeded in issuing a public appeal, under the endorsing signatures of Tokyo Governor MINOBE Ryokichi and Yokohama Nayor ASUKATA Ichio, as well as the usual intellectuals supporting BELEIREN.
In October 1967, BEREIREN solicited approval to hold anti- Vietnam War demonstrations in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, expecting to be denied and then intending to make this denial a court test case. Instead, SEHEIREN was given this permission, and conducted two crderly and well-publicized demonstrations in front of the American Embassy, garuering a larger public turn out of participants than in any previous BEHEIREN-sponsored demonstration.
Assisted and abetted the defection to the USSR of four American sailors from the U.S. Navy carrier Intrepid. Following this success, BELEIREN's most effective activity to date, BEREIREN leaders are organizing a permanent "underground railway" of Japanese intell- ectuals who will volunteer their homes as possible "way stops" for hiding future U.S. military deserters that BEHEIREN now hopes to induce.

Comment: For other details, see Tokyo intelligence reporting: FOT-11547, 31 May 1966 FJT-12046, 14 October 1966 EJT-12690, 10 May 1967 EJT-12851, 5 July 1967 FJT-13081, 8 September 1967 FJT-13154, 27 September 1967 FJT-13303, 22 November 1967 Also, OSS-6790, 11 July 1967

ATTACHMENT 3

Partial Listing of American and Other Foreign Persons Known to Have Been in Contact with or Cooperated with BEREIREN

Americans.

Staughton Lynd (ez-Yale professor)
Norman Mailer (novelist)
Dave Dellinger (Editor of Liberation)
Howard Zinn (Boston U. professor)
Donald Keyes (National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy)
David EcReynolds (Chairman, War Resisters' League)
A. J. Huste (now deceased)
Karl Meyer
William Davidson
Bradford Lyttle
Charlotte Thurber
(Miss) Quentin Bassett (Students for a Democratic Society)
Murray Levin (Boston U. professor)
Robert Ockene (Veterans and Reservists to End the War in Vietnam)
Carl Oglesby (Chairman, Students for a Democratic Society)
Barbara Deming (Associate editor of Liberation)
Joan Baez (folk singer)
Ira Morris (Paris expatriate)
Otto Naisan (phonetic, New York City peace activist)
Barbara and Earle Reynolds (divorced but separately ective long-time residents in Japan)
William R. Christensen (an American pacifist drifter, who gave BEREIREN its first experience in the summer of 1966 in exploiting for propaganda in Japan, and then in arranging the onward journey of an American who wanted to defect to the USSR)
Brian Victoria (head-shaved pacifist and "converted" Buddhist priest, known to be in regular contact with the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo)
Mr. Willowby (inu, phonetic, "chief of the Quaker Peace Action movement in the U.S")
An unidentified American of Japanese descent, from Hawaii, who is currently a student at Waseda University
Kosaku Yamaguchi (reportedly born in U.S., present citizenship status unclear) (formerly was a professor at Momoyama University in Osaka, but has been teaching at the University of California in Berkeley for some time)

B. Other Foreigners.

Hikhail Kotov, USSR (Soviet Peace Committee)
Claude Bourdet, France (French Committee to Support the Vietnamese People)
Peggy Duff, Great Britain (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
James Endicott, Canada (World Peace Council)
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistan
Gabita Muslepov, USSR
Mrs. Erdenebat Ojon, Mongolia
Konstantin Shugnov, USSR
Francis Marcel Kahn, France (Comite Vietnam National)
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, France
Thích Nhat Hanh, South Vietnam

COMMENT: This is not, by any means, a complete listing, nor does it necessarily list BEHEIREN's most important activist contacts abroad. But this list is re- presentative in showing the breadth of BEHEIREN liaison abroad, particularly with the American "new left".

ATTACHMENT. 4 THE YOMIURI 22 NOVE

54 US Deseriers Possibly Left Japan Aboard Baikal-.. The four deserters from the US aircraft carrier Intrepid who made a dramatic tele- vision appearance Manday in Moscow are believed to have left Japan irregularly by the Soviet-liner Baikal which left Yokohama on November 11 for the Far East Soviet port of Nakhodko.

YUICHI YOSHIKAWA, secretary-general of the the Japan Peace-For-Vietnam Committee (Beheiren), tells a press conference Tuesday that the four deserters of the US warship Intrepid hoped to stay in Japan but the Beheiren could not help them to do so.

SANKEI (Full) November 21, 1967 Prof. YOUNG Says Four American Deserter Seamen Not in Japan Any More Went to Tokyo and Tried to Dissuade Them; Probably Escaped from Japan on the 12th or the 13th (New York, November 20, Correspondent Tadashi ONODERA) Professor Ernest P. YOUNG of Dartmouth College in the U.S., consented to an interview with this reporter on the question of the four American seamen who deserted from the U.S. aircraft carrier Intrepid. At the interview held on the 19th, Professor YOUNG clarified that the Peace for Vietnam Association (Beheiren, with Makoto ODA acting as its representative) contacted an anti-war organiza- tion in the U.S., and at this, Professor YOUNG hurriedly visited Tokyo, and meeting the four seamen in a room in an apartment house in Tokyo on the 9th and 10th, tried to persuade them to return. In regard to the pres ent where- abouts of these four seamen, he made the noteworthy statement that "those four were still in Japan, up puntil the night. night of the 11th, when I left I left Japan, but they are probably no longer in Japan now

Families Perplexed

The questions and answers exchanged with Professor YOUNG are as follows:

Why did you go to Japan?

Professor: Beheiren contacted David DERKINGER, a pacifist activist in the U.S., asking him to "send someone to Japan to hear the stories of the four seamen and announce them in the U.S." I have been in Japan twice, and I also once served as special assistant to Ambassador REISCHAUER. During that time, I became friends with Beheiren representative ODA' and other intellectuals in Japan. It was for these reasons that I was given this assignment. I personally have never participated actively in the Of anti-Vietnam war movement so far the

-- When did you arrive in Japan, and where did you meet the four seamen?

Professor: I arrived. in Haneda on November 8, and met the four seamen Son the 9th and the 10th... The place of interview was in an apartment house ps in Tokyo, but I cannot say at this time where that apartment house was and awho owned it. However, on both days, I talked fully with these four seamen, ze for more than three hours on each occasion (according to an investigation made by the public security authorities, Professor YOUNG. arrived in Japan toward the evening of the 8th, and stayed at Hotel Tanakanwa in Shiba, s Minato-ku, until the morning of the 11th).

What were the motives for these four seamen's 'desertion?

Professor: The desertion was completely the decision of these four persons. It seems that the four seamen decided not to return to the ship, when the Intrepid entered Yokosuka Port on October 17, and they were per- ou mitted to go ashore for rest for one week. My impression on meeting these four seamen was that they were definitely not deserting for the purpose of chself-advertisement or that they were giving false reasons. I am convinced that they deserted really out of doubt about the Vietnam war.

-- What were the movements of the four after they deserted?

Professor: On the night of the 23rd, two days before the Intrepid was due to sail, the four went to Shinjuku, and told the people whom they met at a bar they happened to visit, that "we are fed up with war." The Japanese who heard them sympathized with them, and at one time, the four lived with some hippies (according to this paper's investigations; they include Mr. K., a student of Tokyo University's Liberal Arts Department, and vanguard artist A., who gather at Fugetsudo in Shinjuku.) Finally,

they were taken to Beheiren by a student who spoke English (according to this paper's investigation, this was Mr. S., a Waseda University student). After that, they were hidden by Beheiren. I cannot say where they were hidden.

Were the four firmly determined to desert?

Professor: My purpose in visiting Japan was to dissuade the four. I explained to them what the results of their desertion would be. I even told them that they would never again be permitted to stand on American soil, their fatherland. At the time I met them, it was still at a stage where they would only receive light punishment, if they reported back immediately, saying that they "had missed their ship.". However, their determination was firm, and my persuasion had no effects.

-- The four seamen's desertion was announced in the form of a press interview given by Beheiren. Were there no facts of their having been forced to desert, during that period?

Professor: I ascertained that point, too. However, they firmly denied any fact of their having been forced, saying that they had voluntarily aconsulted Beheiren as to whether they should publicly announce the "intention to desert, and if so, in what form this should be made.

-- Where are the four seamen.now, and where are they planning to go?

Professor: I am certain that the four of them were still in Japan, up until the lith, the day I left for home. However, they already knew fully well that it was not possible for them to obtain asylum in Japan. They even said that "we will probably have to go to some third nation, which is neutral." (The public security authorities judge that the four seamen left Japan immediately after Mr. YOUNG's persuasion, and consider that they probably were smuggled out of Japan after the 10th, and before the evening of the 13th, when Beheiren announced their désertion at a press conference. However, Mr. YOUNG says that the four seamen were in Japan up until the night of the lith. Therefore, the possibility is strong that they were smuggled out of Japan by ship, between the night of the 11th and the

--The films showing the four seamen were shown publicly in the U.S., by too. What were the reactions in the U.S.?

Professor: When the films were publicly shown, there was big excitement, with rows and rows of television and press cameramen. I thought I would be exposed to persistent questioning by the FBI and the CIA, after I returned home, but so far, I have only been questioned once by the Navy's. Intelligence Section, about the circumstances. It seems that American authorities con- cerned do not want to make too big a fuss over the matter.

What do the parents think of this act of this action taken by their sons?

Professor: A certain television station asked the mother of one of the four men about her son's life... This mother was completely perplexed, saying: "My son is a most average American youth. His school records were quite ordinary, and he liked sports just like any other student. I cannot understand why he acted in such a way!!..