Vignettes of Nippon

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

Vignettes of Nippon

JAPAN" 5s * feudal country, in which it is justifiable to take a man's life for "'dangerous thoughts." Living conditions of the peasant and his family have remained unaltered for 500 years. He cannot afford the white rice he grows. He buys cheap Saigon rice. The townsman lives in a wood-and-paper house, for which he pays perhaps 3/(5 a week. His electric light and fuel will cost about 2/ a month. He buys an outfit of working clothes for 11/. He can furnish his home for £2. Breakfast for six—probably comprising bean soup, rice, pickles and tea-— will cost about 4d. Cheaper Films And Cigarettes A seat at the cinema costs Sd or less. Saki (rice wine) can be bought for Sd a quart, lager for 4d or 5d a pint. Apples are three for a penny, bananas Jd each, peaches 10 for 3Jd. Sixpence for 50 is an average price for cigarettes. In Japan only two classes of women count —the grandmother and the mother-in-law. To them a wife must accord obedience even more than to her husband. In a Tokyo tram a man gets up to give his seat to a boy—not to a woman. It is the woman who holds open the door. The male child is all-important. His mother will call him "Honourable Moon Sir." There are said to be 4.000,000 girls under 15 in houses of ill-fame. A man can obtain a divorce merely by writing three lines on a sheet of paper. He gives his wife permission to marry another. The Emperor is a divinity, a living God whose name mt»6t not be mentioned in conversation.

The worst oath used by a Japanese is to call another man "Other-than-to-be-expected fellow." Service in the army is universal and compulsory. All men are on the army list until they are 40. Everyone is taught the virtue and honour of dying for the Fatherland. In the town propaganda blasts its way into every home, instilling contempt and hatred for the Westerner. Japan has warplanes, battleships and tanks. She has also crippling taxation, poverty and malnutrition.