Boss of "Stars and Stripes"

ARRIVING in Tokyo shortly before the Pacific Stars and Stripes was launched on a pay-as-you-go basis (a nickel or 20 yen a copy), Capt. Sidney B. Cardozo '38, who is in charge of the service daily, found that he had a job on his hands which proved to be even more of a contrast to his "complacent little world at Esquire" than he had bargained for when recalled to Army service. After the Stars andStripes had been given away for five years, the editors expected "a mighty howl from those stationed in Japan, who would have to pay," as Captain Cardozo expressed it in an interview-by-mail with the MAGAZINE.

Soon after his arrival in Tokyo a year ago, Cardozo with his staff set up a business office in record time, and made an overnight decision: the public would be offered a 16-page tabloid instead of the regular four-page edition it had been getting. In two weeks a total of 20,000 paid subscriptions had been taken in and processed. In spite of novel difficulties, which included streets not having names in Japan, and there being no way for negotiating with news dealers except by letter, a paid circulation of 40,000 was built up in a remarkably short period.

Captain Cardozo writes of the present Pacific Stars and Stripes: "We publish two editions here in Tokyo and mat another for Korea which is flown over to Pusan every night and printed in our own plant there. We are maintaining a circulation of 52,000 in Japan and distribute over 80,000 copies (free) in Korea.... The paper is pretty darn good now. ... It has been the result of devotion by men and officers of all four services. My part in it has been mostly tilting at windmills, cutting red tape, trying to steer a course through the regulations, policies and directives—and still get out a newspaper."

Since his graduation from Dartmouth, Captain Cardozo has done editorial work for Life and Time magazines, and is now on leave from Esquire.

Captain Sidney B. Cardozo Jr. '38 with General Ridgway in the Tokyo "Stars and Stripes" office.