At the start of the year the 720th MP Battalion and its organic units, HQ & HQ Company, Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog Companies and a Medical Detachment were stationed on occupation duty in Tokyo, Japan subordinate to Headquarters & Service Group, General Headquarters (GHQ), Far East Command.

     The battalion was still quartered in Camp Burness at Z and 20th Streets, Tokyo performing traditional military police functions and the maintenance of a mobile alert force for use in the event of emergencies.

    The 1949-1950 intramural baseball league was expanded by the Special Services Section of HQ & Service Group, GHQ to include two loops of competition, The Tokyo League and the Occupation League.

    The Tokyo League included teams from the 441st Counter Intelligence Center, the Civilian Army Civil Service (composed of ex-GI’s and their dependents), 71st Signal Service Battalion, HQ & Service Group Staff Battalion, Translator & Interpreter Services, Tokyo Quartermaster, and the 720th MP Battalion.

     The Occupation League teams were the GHQ Motor Battalion, 8th Army Stockade, 94th Engineer Maintenance Company, 64th Engineer Topographical Battalion, Grant Heights (housing), 49th General Hospital, 22nd Ordnance Base, and 361st Station Hospital.

     The teams played their afternoon games at six different ball diamonds, and at the end of the season their inter-league championship. The championship series involved the top four teams from each league competing in a double elimination playoff.

     “It was New Years Day and we had the football playoff between the 11th Airborne and the 8th Army. During that time, about 300 airborne troops went AWOL, and it took us about three months to round them all up.

     This was the time we were all put into [airborne style] jump boots, and these airborne guys would tackle our men and cut the boots off their feet.”   SGT James P. Robinson, Sr., Charlie Company, 1947-1950.

13 January There was an editorial block in the sports section of the Pacific Stars and Stripes Newspaper called “Chotto Matte,” which in Japanese means, one moment, wait a moment, just a moment, just a minute, or hang on, take your pick. In January 1949 it was written by SFC Dick Harn the papers Sports Editor. Harn was so impressed with the 12 January basketball game between the battalion team and the team from GHQ Translator’s Interpreter’s Service (TIS), that he devoted the entire 13 January editorial to it.

     Saw one of the best exhibitions of how basketball should be played out at National Gym last night when the 720th Military Police edged TIS 32-30 in a Tokyo League game. Play was fast and furious, hard-fought, but clean throughout. Each man on both teams was in there to win, and each literally played his heart out.

     We believe the happiest man we have seen in a long time was LT O. E. Cartmel, and therein lies a story. We do not know the name of the 720th’s coach, but he certainly brought his team along in fine style. But getting back to the lieutenant. We believe much credit should go to him for the spirit which prevails on the team.

     It was our pleasure to have visited Cartmel Christmas morning. During out visit all members of the basketball team came in. Once they were assembled, Cartmel talked to them. It was an inspiring talk, and we know that the members of the team will long remember and cherish the things he told them.

     Yes, its hats off today to LT Cartmel, to the coach, and the basketball team of the 720th MP’s. In downing the TIS team, they did something we do not believe any other team has been able to do in league play this season. They defeated one of the finest teams in Tokyo, a team which plays hard, clean, offensive basketball.

     It is an impossibility to pick the star or stars of the game. There were just two fine teams playing as single units. Black, of the winners, bucketed 11 points. He was ably assisted by CPL Frederick E. Ayres of HQ Company, who counted six markers.  Here are the names of those who sent TIS down to their first defeat: [PVT Marshall D.] Tull, [PFC Russell A.] Yoder, [PVT Dewey] Hicks, [PFC William] Nichols, [CPL Doyt] Pritchard, [PFC Frederick] Ayres, [Lyman S.] Black and [CPL Thomas E.] Eves.

17 January MAJ William C. Smith passed command of the Battalion to LTC Aubrey S. Kenworthy. LTC Kenworthy was the former Tribunal Provost Marshal, and commander of the military police detachment for the International Military (War Crimes) Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE).

     “We had a visiting doctor in those early months, but our MSC (Medical Service Corps) officers, [1LT] Wade H. Dexter and, later, Joe Carr, were the PA’s (Physician Assistants) of the time. The medics were allowed a free reign unknown today, in this medical-legal morass we currently live with. I was always looking for the sick and injured to practice wound dressing and suturing on, and I occasionally gave classes in first aid.

     The first night on the town with the boys, down Z Avenue someplace, the odor of post-war Japan- and perhaps something I ate- made me ill. I spent the night throwing up. But I recovered, and conditions in Japan also improved noticeably during my time.

      During those early post-war years, public transportation was free in Occupied Japan, and we used it often traveling in Tokyo and elsewhere throughout the country.

    The medics competed with each other for patients that were victims of Venus [cockney rhyming slang for penis]. We had a PRO Station in the back of the Dispensary, which was never much used. Penicillin was dispensed on the QT for inflated prices. None of us got rich on this black market, though.

     “Shanker Mechanic” was not an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), but that was a name common to medics back then. Venereal disease was an offense back then, and men were busted for it or had their promotion delayed. That left little incentive for a routine report to sick call, and so they came to us.”   CPL (COL Retired) Thomas P. Chisholm, Medical Detachment, 1949-1952.

20 January After spending the day before responding to fires throughout the city, at 1700 hours a fire broke out at Camp Burness, and the MPs one again found themselves not only acting as first responders, but also as firemen trying to stop the spread of the blaze to the enlisted men’s and officers barracks building.

     According to CPT Alfred J. Carey the battalion adjutant, the fire was believed to have started in the wiring of one of the workshops, quickly spreading to three others, and seriously injuring a Japanese mechanic. The MPs continued to man the fire extinguishers on the roofs the buildings, even after the arrival of Japanese fire departments that were kept busy fighting the main blaze.

31 January Supreme Commander of Allied Forces (SCAP) announced that their Educational Division was to distribute 40,000 copies of a discussion pamphlet, “What Shall We Do For The Construction Of A New Japan” to the Japanese Ministry of Education for distribution to the people of Tokyo through select community leaders.

     “I was in the 1st Cavalry MP Company [545th] and in December 1947 I went to the Honor Guard in GHQ. After being there one year anyone was allowed to transfer. In February 1949 I went to see CPT Moses and came to Baker Company, 720th MP Battalion. A total of four from the Honor Guard came with me. They were James Gillespie, James Mortimer, and Villard Killen. I was the only one of the four who went to the X Corps MP Company (provisional) in 1950.

     After leaving the battalion I did see these men that had served in Baker Company: Burton Jamison who was in the 38th Infantry Regiment [Korea). In 1954-1955 I saw James Gillespie who was an inmate at Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks. I also came across Legard Ball who had been a lieutenant in Baker Company. He had been riffed, and was a master sergeant in charge of the Fort Leavenworth hospital prison ward.

     In 1952 while I was the sergeant in-charge of the post stockade at Camp Crowder, Missouri. I received a prisoner who was AWOL. It was Bill Walls who had been in Baker Company in Tokyo. When the Korean War started in 1950 he went to an infantry company, and was shot up pretty bad. When I saw him at Camp Crowder he was AWOL from Letterman General Hospital [San Francisco]. He had been there undergoing multiple operations since 1950.

     I always enjoyed being assigned to work at the Main PX, located downtown on the Ginza. It was a large store, about four or five stories high, and offered everything you would expect to find at Macys or Gimbels. We were required to check identification cards of all authorized civilians before they entered the store.

     It was while on duty at the Main PX that I first met Mrs. Douglas MacArthur. She approached the entrance and was reaching in her purse for her ID when I waved her through, saying she didn’t need to display her ID at all. The sweet lady stopped in front of me and said she was no different than anyone else, and produced her identification. We then chatted and she asked me where I was from. She said that the general lived some years in Milwaukee as a young boy.

     We met again a few months later at the same door. She came through with her son, Arthur, and an aide. Again, she presented her ID and remembered me as the young many from Wisconsin. We chatted, and as she left, reminded me to write to my parents often. Right then and there I fell in love with her.”   CPL Joseph Selovich, Baker, HQ and Able Companies, 1949-1952.

Editors Note: Joe Selovich founded the 720th MP Battalion Reunion Association in 1982.

4 April With the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty, the new military defense confederation became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

     Influenced by the Soviet threat of further European expansionism, the U.S. needed a strong alliance of the free world countries in the region with an ability to counter any armed attack of Western Europe through mutual defense. To that end the U.S. proposed the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed by the twelve nations of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and the United States.

20 June SCAP’s Economic and Scientific Section announced that the Foreign Exchange Control Board authorized 130 agencies in fifty Japanese cities to purchase for Yen U.S. dollar and sterling traveler checks through the Bank of Japan, effective immediately. The agencies were in addition to foreign licensed banks, and were comprised of branches of Japanese Foreign Exchange Banks, the Japan Travel Bureau and Bank of Japan agencies at customs houses.

     The service enabled Occupation personnel and tourists to acquire Yen for local purchases while traveling anywhere in Japan.

     The Tokyo Provost Marshal’s Office announced that eight vehicle accidents occurred the day before on slippery blacktop pavement in the Tokyo Metropolitan area, due to excessive speed and following other vehicles to closely. Poor visibility, skidding on streetcar tracks, as well as the wet hazardous blacktop accounted for the accidents.

29 June The battalion baseball team lost a marathon seventeen-inning game, the longest in the season, to the HQ & Service Group Staff Battalion at Stateside Park, on a score of 6-5.

     On the same date, and for reasons not explained in the sports section of the Tokyo editions of the Stars & Stripes Newspaper, GHQ formed a new Meiji Baseball League for the 1949-1950 season consisting of the 720th MP Battalion, GHQ Motor Battalion, GHQ Staff Battalion, 71st Signal Service Battalion, Translator & Interpreter Services, and the Civilian Army Civil Service. The season lasted through 14 September, and the teams played all their games at the Stateside Park diamond in Tokyo.

      CPT William E. Ghan of Baker Company coached the battalion team through the previous GHQ Tokyo League schedule, and with their less than stellar record made some radical positional and roster changes. His new program, in which many of the players found themselves, wearing two or more hats, often in the same game, proved so successful that the battalion team went undefeated wining ten games and the new league’s championship.

     CPT Ghan’s feat earned him selection as the top coach (of three selected) of the Army-Navy All-star team, composed of players from every service command in Japan. The All-stars were scheduled for two games, 19 and 22 October, at Osaka, Japan against the San Francisco Seals of the Triple A Minor League Pacific Coast Baseball League.

31 August Typhoon “Kitty” struck the Tokyo area and left in her wake considerable damage of battalion equipment and facilities at Camp Burness.

     From reconnaissance reports the maximum sustained winds were reported to be near 110 knots 12 hours prior to landfall, but had fallen to minimum typhoon strength by the time it reached Honshu Island. The death toll reached 123 due to rainfall induced flooding and landslides, and caused about 15 billion yen in damages to Japan.

1 October The Chinese Communist forces (People’s Republic of China) supported financially and materially by Soviet Russia, and lead by Mao Zedong, declared victory over the Nationalist Chinese of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on Mainland China, effectively bring an end to the on again-off again civil war that began in 1927.

     Mao proclaimed it’s new capital of Beiping, and changed its name to Beijing. By the end of the year, the approximately two million Nationalists were forced to escape to the island of Formosa, now called Taiwan.

     With tons of captured U.S. arms and munitions, and the appearance that the U.S. government was disinterested in continuing aid to the Nationalist’s, Mao began planning the invasion of Formosa.

15 November The Eighth Army Headquarters Civil Communications Section announced that for the first time since the beginning of the occupation, International Postal reply coupons were available for sale at all larger Japanese post offices. The coupons enabled the Japanese to pass them along with self-addressed envelopes to the recipient’s of their foreign correspondence to respond. The coupons could also be exchanged in any member nation of the Universal Postal Union for postage of that country.

Editors Note: The Universal Postage Union was first formed by international treaty in 1874 at Berm, Switzerland as the General Postal Union. The purpose of the treaty was to unify disparate postal services and regulations so that international mail could be exchanged freely.

16 November The annual Headquarters and Service Group Autumn Field Day event was held at Nile Kinnick Stadium where a crowd of civilians and soldiers numbering in the hundreds were in attendance to examine the static and instructions displays, and watch as the organic units competed in military events for the honor of top unit.

    When the competition ended, the battalion placed third behind the Honor Guard Company and Motor Battalion. The battalion also provided one of the more exciting display’s of coordinated drill when they performed a realistic riot dispersal demonstration for the audience. Cups were awarded to the winning units by MG Walter L. Weible, the commanding general of HQ and Service Group.

25 December The battalion troops received the first (known) Souvenir Album or Year Book. It cited a commendable statistic, “Since the occupation of Japan began, the 720th Military Police Battalion has set a record that very few police departments in the United States can equal. Ninety percent of all stolen vehicles have been recovered and the city [Tokyo] has one of the lowest crimes rates of any large city in the world.”

Battalion Headquarters and Company command staff at the time were: LTC Kenworthy- Battalion Commander, MAJ W. C. Smith- Executive Officer, CPT A. J. Carey- Adjutant, 1LT R. E. Dillard- S2, 1LT B. K. Sandera- S3, 1LT B. J. Price- S4, WOJG D. C. Alford- Personnel, CPT W. E. Doyle- Repair & Utilization, 1LT Frederick F. Davis- Mess Officer, 1LT H. L. Peterson- Motor Officer, 1LT W. H. Dexter- Medical Officer, and 1LT Sheldon Coloff- Dental Officer.

Headquarters Company: LT Frederick Davis- Commanding Officer, and MSG A. C. Guerbadot- First Sergeant.

Able Company: CPT William C. Ghan- Commanding Officer, 1LT John P. Duffy, 2LT Donald E. DuChane, and MSG Cecil J. Nicholson- First Sergeant.

Baker Company: CPT John M. Moses- Commanding Officer, 1LT Legard Rall, 2LT Ray C. Clark, and 2LT Francis L. Roche.

Charlie Company: CPT Samuel T. Denton- Commanding Officer, 1LT Frank H. Hart, and 2LT Frank M. Robbins.

Dog Company: CPT Harold I. Funk- Commanding Officer, 1LT Frederick G. Peacock, 1LT William E. Van Buskirk, and 2LT Charles H. Avent.

30 December, 1900 hours In the Sakamoto district of Tokyo, 18-year-old PFC William B. Moore of Charlie Company shot and killed 19-year-old Hiroko Ito, his alleged Japanese girlfriend in her home, and then fled into the city in a rickshaw. Approximately ten minutes later he came upon and shot and wounded Akio Yajima, a Tokyo Metropolitan policeman, and then shot and killed 34-year-old Gihei Goto a nearby pedestrian of Japanese decent.

     PFC Moore then went to the Tokyo Provost Marshal MP Desk where he entered by a rear door, stood before the desk sergeant with the pistol at hand and shouted, “What’s the matter with you MPs- can’t you find a murderer?” After making the statement, PFC Moore raised the pistol and shot himself in the head. He died on the way to the hospital. Officer Yajima’s wound was slight because the bullet was deflected by a fountain pen and metal pencil.