TASTE TO CARRY A SEVERED HEAD?
The Saigon government, which,. it is well known, is battling shoulder to shoulder with the Johnson administration for democracy and the free world, is having trouble getting truthful pictures about its successes in the civil war shown to the Japanese people.
On May 9 the first of a series of films was shown on Nippon Television Network, Entitled "The Battle of the Vietnamese Marines," it showed a government attack on a guerrilla stronghold and no doubt was prepared at considerable risk to the cameramen and considerable cost to the American taxpayers.
As described by the May 13 Japan Times, "There were scenes of beheading, cutting off fingers, the execution of an old farmer beg~ ging for his life, etc., as well as scenes of South Vietnamese sol~ diers walking around with severed heads in their hands."
Among others who protested, the Tokyo Customs Office said that the showing of the film ran counter to a pledge made by newspapers and broadcasting firms in 1961 concerning the import of news films of questionable character.
The Nippon Television Network argued that the film did not go counter to public order or good taste but that it would “adhere to the spirit of the pledge on news film imports."
Last year photographs depicting similar scenes in Saigon's conduct of the civil war were embargoed at Tokyo International Airport by customs agents. They were sent by the Associated Press correspondent in Saigon to the Tokyo bureau of the AP.
The photographs showed South Vietnamese troops carrying severed heads of alleged guerrilla fighters as trophies.
When AP protested this interference with truthful reporting of the war, customs asked the advice of the committee on imported films. The advice was to send the photographs back to Saigon.