of American goods sold in place of Japanese merchandise. If efforts 

 were not made toward this end, there would be justifiable criticism 

 of American administration. 



But there are a number of reasons why it is difficult to do busi- 

 ness with Japan. Probably it is unnecessary to go beyond the fact that 

 Japanese currency is blocked — they haven't any money with which to buy 

 anything. Nor is it possible either to place orders with, or sell goods 

 directly to, Japanese producers or wholesalers. The established proce- 

 dure for purchasing Japanese products is to place an order with SCAP 

 or the U. S. Commercial Company. If approved, the order will be sent 

 to the Japanese Government clearing house, which has the product manu- 

 factured. In selling to Japan, it appears that it can only be done on 

 an involved barter basis, for example, bait netting traded for dried 

 bonito, no money changing hands. Such an arrangement was clearly im- 

 possible as a means of putting the bonito fishery on a paying basis, 

 and further attempts to rehabilitate the industry were held in abey- 

 ance pending a change in the system, or until United States funds 

 might be made available directly to a rehabilitation project. 



Japanese Method of Bonito Fishing — Native crew f Saipan f June 1946 . 

 The importance of the bonito fishery, not only at Saipan, but at other 

 bases throughout the former mandated area, warrants a full description 

 of the method of fishing, since it will become a pattern for future 

 operations. The sequence of activities is reported from an actual 

 day of fishing out of Saipan with a native Chamorro crew of 26. The 

 Japanese vessel, locally called a sampan, was of the type shown in 

 figure 19. 



Departure from the dock was at 0400 (dark), and by 0545 (first 

 dawn) the vessel was standing close inshore along the cliffs of Tinian 

 to search for live bait. As soon as it was light enough to see, the 

 vessel moved slowly along the cliffs, and a diver was sent over about 

 every hundred feet until one of them located a school of small anchovies, 

 Anchoviella purpureus . The vessel moved ahead approximately a hundred 

 yards and was quickly anchored from bow and stern parallel to shore 

 and less than a hundred feet from the cliffs. TRhile this was done, 

 a dozen divers formed a line extending fifty feet out from the cliffs 

 and began slowly swimming and splashing toward ship, driving the bait 

 ahead of them. From the vessel, two or three lines with a hook at 

 the end were carried ashore by swimmers and fastened to the rocks at 

 water level to hold the ship from drifting away from shore. They 

 were then in position to set the bait net, which measured 30 by 60 

 feet, and of very heavy bobbinet. This net was stretched between the 

 ship and cliffs, with one short edge inshore, the other on the ship. 

 The short edge which was pulled to shore by divers (figure 20) was 

 held at the surface by a bundle of bamboo, acting as a float. The 

 leading edge of the net (nearest the bait fish) was weighted down at 

 or near the bottom with rocks. The trailing edge away from the fish 

 was held at the surface. If necessary, additional divers go over 



28 



