FALLEN SUN

Assigned to Japan for Life magazine, Noel gives his findings on the American performance in that country -- a heartening, if occasionally critical report. Against a re-interpretation of the Japanese character and way of life, and its adjustments to the imposition of democratic conception, he indicates that the Japanese capacity for imitation and adaptability is at once a promise and a danger. He traces the reforms and purges in education, newspapers, national economy; the differences in Japanese behavior, customs, institutions, culture, life and characteristics from Western concepts. He gives great measure of credit to MacArthur and the authorities and commissions in charge, the dexterity with which an unprecedented situation has been handled. Controversial- and in sharp contradiction to the analysis presented by Richard Lauterbach in Danger from the East (see report P. 493).