JAPAN: Depurged

Home from the political wilderness last week came 69,000 Japanese who were banned from public office by General MacArthur 5½ years ago. The "depurgees" (as they were labeled in army gobbledygook) : former leaders of certain nationalistic organizations and onetime "undesirables" from the press, radio and motion picture industries.

Their return to full participation in civilian life was authorized by General Ridgway. Fifty thousand more Japanese will eventually be allowed to come out of enforced retirement. Likely to remain banned indefinitely: 20,000 war criminals, officers of terrorist societies and members of the "thought police."

The Japanese press welcomed the men back to public life like returning heroes, but also sounded some editorial warnings. Said Tokyo's Yomiuri: "People welcome their badly needed talent ... but people have not forgotten these men's actions which led to disaster . . . Let them search their souls and take their good fortune humbly."