Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

REISCHAUER, EDWIN O. • 211
RED PURGE. The Red Purge was an unjustified removal or discharge
of members of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and suspected
sympathizers from their workplace by the government or by corporations.
On 6 and 7 June 1950, all 24 members of the JCP’s central
committee (including seven members of the House of Councilors)
and 17 members of the editorial board of the Akahata, the JCP’s official
newspaper, were removed from their posts. After the outbreak
of the Korean War on 25 June 1950, General Douglas MacArthur
escalated the Red Purge, prohibiting JCP members and suspected
sympathizers from working for such major industries as newspapers,
broadcasting, electricity, coal, transportation, and iron. In September,
the Japanese government expanded the scope of the Red Purge to
government institutions and public enterprises. In 1950 alone, 1,177
people were purged from government institutions and 10,972 people
from private corporations.
The JCP could not implement effective resistance against the Red
Purge because of its internal disunity and confusion. As a result, the
JCP lost its influence and leadership in the postwar labor movement.
Labor unions expressed their intentions of disagreeing with the Red
Purge, but they could not organize an effective systematic anti-Red
Purge movement. As a result, labor unions in Japan also suffered
great damage and lost much of the influence gained in the early stage
of the Occupation.
REISCHAUER, EDWIN O. (1910–1990). Born in Japan to missionary
parents, Edwin Reischauer was one of America’s first scholars of East
Asia. After growing up in Tokyo, he attended Oberlin College and
Harvard University in the United States. During World War II, he
served as an officer in the U.S Army translating and deciphering
Japanese codes. He became well known as an Asia expert at Harvard
University in the 1950s, and was selected by newly elected President
John F. Kennedy to be the United States ambassador to Japan. As an
academic with no political or previous diplomatic experience, and because
of his public criticism of State Department policies regarding
Japan, Reischauer’s appointment was both unusual and resisted by
many in Washington. Nevertheless, he was able to mediate between
the two countries he knew so well during the five years he served as
ambassador before returning to Harvard. Reischauer’s wife, Haru