According to John Dower, Allied Occupation authorities imposed wide-ranging censorship on the Japanese media, which was imposed in September 1945 and continued until the (1952) end of the occupation, including bans on covering many sensitive social issues and serious crimes such as rape committed by members of the Occupation forces. The censorship hardened and grew over the months from its initial goal of suppressing militaristic and ultra-nationalistic ideas into also suppressing anything that was "'leftist' or even remotely critical of American policies".
According to Eiji Takemae and Robert Ricketts, Allied Occupation forces suppressed news of criminal activities such as rape; on September 10, 1945 SCAP "issued press and pre-censorship codes outlawing the publication of all reports and statistics 'inimical to the objectives of the Occupation'."
According to Teresa Svoboda the Japanese press reported cases of rape and looting two weeks into the occupation, to which the Occupation administration responded by "promptly censoring all media".
Following the occupation Japanese magazines published accounts of rapes committed by American servicemen.