JAPANESE AT PLAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 27

JAPANESE AT PLAY

• SCENE AT THE BEACH ADVANCE OF WESTERN WAYS The small newsboy’s bell tinkles urgently as he rushes through the village carrying another “ Gogai ” special edition—under his arm (writes a Japanese correspondent in the Manchester Guardian). He slips one out, drops it into the porch of a subscriber, and runs on. The single sheet is eagerly seized. A double Japanese swimming victory. Records broken. The great news is displayed in huge Chinese characters that can be read halfway across the street without difficulty On the back of the sheet are three pictures, radiographed from Berlin to Tokio and telephoted thence to the local paper The illustrations are mere smudges, but the happy imagination can easily fill out one blur into a mass of enthusiastic spectators cheering Nippon’s victory and the others into likenesses of the hero and heroine themselves who had won the races. The circle of the Rising Sun can easily be discerned on their chests. A few minutes later I reach the beach. Crowds of young people come here every day to escape from the hot streets to the cooling water, to lie with free limbs on the warm sand and to meet their friends. There are a number of convenient i little booths here where soft drinks, ice-cream, chocolate, simple dishes of Japanese food and so on can be bought cheaply and eaten under the shelter of a straw roof. Behind some of these shacks there are changing rooms. THREE YEARS’ CHANGES Japan’s beaches are in every stage of development. Many are similar to whftt this used to be when I first knew it three years ago. At that time there were a few decrepit huts which had once been used by fishermen, and a useless boat rotting on the sand. A score of young men and schoolboys, each with a cloth round his waist and most with a twisted towel round their cropped heads, were to be seen swimming or playing there on hot days. There would be several schoolgirls as well, with ugly bias . swimming costumes hanging to them, splashing in the shadows, and there were usually one or two middle-aged women. At the othei extreme there are in Japan a number of fashionable beaches such as this may become in a few years time. This particular stretch of seashore is In an attractive stage of development, in which it is aware of its transformation and is delighting in it. Conspicuous are the groups of dainty Japanese girls in well-made, backless swimming suits, brightly coloured and often deeprated lust now ivith the five Olympic rings. A few have smart shorts or pyjamas, but not many There will be more of these next year, When they are not in the water they have a brief cape fluttering from their shoulders, and they all swim in neat helmets such as are thought pretty on every beach in the world. They are so tiny that a Westerner would set their age at 15 or less, but, in fact, a lot of them are 17 or even 18. DIFFERENCE IN BEARING There is a difference between the bearing of the girls on a Japanese beach and those on a Western beach There is a touch of diffidence in the way the girls walk, in the way they glance at each other. They are not used to this sort of life and do not quite know how to adjust themselves to the new conception of Japanese womanhood which their presence on the beach implies. Unless with their families they never speak to a man In the big cities there are a number of women who, earning their own living, demand “ freedom.” They are featured in countless films and novelettes as the unscrupulous woman in foreign dress who, after temporarily turning the hero’s head, loses him again to the kimono-clad, hcme-loving Japanese girl with the traditional ideals. Most of the girls on this beach would be horrified if they were taken for “ moga.” (This is the Japanese abbreviation of the English words “ modern girl.”) They would, for instance, think it more than daring to speak to a man outside their family circle. The elder sister of one of them would not even speak to the man her parents had arranged for her to marry except under circumstances carefully prescribed by convention. The indoor lives of their mothers and grandmonths still cling to the minds and behaviour of these light-hearted youngsters. How long will it be before the fresh air they are for the moment breathing will stir in the homes of Old Japan? Perhaps 50 years; perhaps by the next Olympic Games. PRIDE OF SUCCESS The men on the beach are also young. Few can be much over 25. They are mostly students or office workers who are fortunate enough to have a holiday. They wear only trunks, and are proud of their tanned, muscular bodies. Their minds are full of the successes of their fellow-countrymen in Berlin. A group of college boys practising the hop, step, and jtlmp. Their men had a great triumph in this event, breaking a world record. “ The youth of Japan ” —this thought i. in every mind—“ has surely now proved itself the equal of any in the wbrld.” The suspicion that he is thought inferior moves the Japanese to an agony of anger and grief. No one should dealwith Japan, whether in politics, business, or sport, without understanding this. “Olimpiku; Amerika; Doitsu (Germany),” again and again one catches the words. Up comes the inevitable topic. _ “ Isn’t Machatasan splendid? ” cries a girl as she fastens her short cape round her shoulders, and there is the ring of hero-worship in her voice as she speaks of the famous Japanese woman swimmer. From all round come exclamations of agreement. Eagerly they speak of the swimmer’s triumphs and of the further feats confidently expected of her. THE WOMAN’S DESTINY On the sand and in the water rubber balls are tossed from hand to hand. Three young men are turning somersaults; one is doing the pole jump with an unreliable-loipk-ing length of bamboo. My attention is caught by an unusual sight. A young man of the middle twenties and a girl about five years younger are saying good-bye to an older man and woman. They bow again and again. It looks incongruous to see them bowing with grave conventionality in their scanty wet bathing things. Then the older couple leave diem and they look hapnily at each other. They are certainly not a *' moga ” and “ mobo ” (modern girl and modern boy) aggressively defying convention; they are shy and modest, a good-looking pair, and probably newly married.

Will such a couple one day cease to be noteworthy? I strike out leisurely through the clear water. A powerful youth speeds past with the grace of an expert swimmer. A girl laughs and throws her gay ball to her friend, the water glistening on her brown arms and her face aligl. with happiness. Where will she be next summer, I wonder? Not here, probably, for she is of an age soon to be thinking of marriage, and she will be anxious to avoid disfiguring herself with an unsightly tar. She will not venture into the sun next year, I suspect, without a dainty sunshade held over her head. A year after that, maybe, having achieved the whiteness which is one of the chief tests of beauty in a Japanese woman, and is guarded even by women working in the fields, her marriage will be arranged for her, and she will disappear into the house 01 her husband’s parents. Seldom will she emerge except to t to market, make a formal call on relatives, or take a journey to visit members of the family in another city. In 10 years’ time, though, she may come here on a hot day with the family, and she will sit with her .nother-in-law and the youngest of her children watching while her husban nroudly carries the second youngest into the water. She will be about 30 then, and there will be less need to safeguard her complexion, but even so if she can keep the sun off with one of those big, bright umbrellas, so much the better.