ADDRESS ON JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25637, 28 October 1948, Page 2

ADDRESS ON JAPAN

YOUNG CONTINGENT OF VICTORIA LEAGUE

The Japanese are ready for Christianity and for democracy, which they regard as almost synonymous terms, said Mr G. Sandston, addressing a luncheon meeting of the Young Contingent of the Victoria League at the National Clubrooms yesterday. Mr Sandston spent several months in Japan with the army of occupation and yesterday he gave an account of some aspects of life in that very beautiful country. , , Though some Japanese, doubtless, had been guilty of terrible atrocities, he said, they were on the whole decent people. They had had a terrible shock and felt that their gods had failed them. All the large towns except Kyoto had been devastated during the recent war. To understand the Japanese. Mr Sandston thought, it was necessary to know something of their background. The country was heavily populated and it was extremely noor. Because of these two dominant factors the people were orderly and disciplined and very industrious. They had no freedom, as New Zealanders understand freedom. They were regulated in dress, education, manners and customs. Essentially a suppressed people, among whom the police had great power, they took no part in civic affairs and had had no training in methods of running a democracy. The essential characteristics of the Japanese were introspection, excessive sensitiveness, especially to ridicule, sentimentality, devotion to their families, politeness and a certain childishness. The women, for whom marriages were always arranged by their parents, were efficient and likeable, and their standard of domestic virtue was high. Mr Sandston described the fpod of the people and their dress and said that the Americans, who were trying to establish a democracy in Japan, were making some progress. Mrs K. Jameson thanked Mr Sandston for his address and Miss Judy Macfarlane presided at the meeting. On exhibition at the meeting was a good collection of warm clothing knitted by members of the Young Contingent under the direction of Miss Lilian Johns and Miss Constance Gilbert. The garments will be sent to a baby hospital in London.