New York Times, Saturday 19th January 1946 (Page 20)

Sports of the Times

Tokyo Sidelight

By ARTHUR DALEY

    Lieut. G. M. Keren writes from Tokyo to describe the life of an Army censor. He says: “Radio Tokyo has been granted permission to resume sports broadcasting. So I go to all the baseball games and wrestling matches, along with my interpreter, and sit next to the announcer to make sure he stays on the ball. Just like the old days except - how'd you like to be the only white man in a wrestling arena with eight or ten thousand Japanese all yelling for blood? It's a living. But I'll take Madison Square Garden.
    "Japanese wrestling is quite different from what I'm used to seeing. They call it Sumo and it's not to be confused with Jiu-Jitsu. Sumo involves a great deal of ritual and ceremony. The whole setting, in a bomb-scarred arena, smelling of the squid that the people eat instead of peanuts and popcorn, and the colorful pageantry, make it all very interesting. The present meet ran for ten days and these Japanese take it more seriously than we do the world series."