BACK FROM JAPAN

Waipa Post, Volume 51, Issue 3694, 6 December 1935, Page 11

BACK FROM JAPAN

INTERESTING AND BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY. , TOURIST’S IMPRESSIONS. Back from a three-months’ tour of the Pacific ’countries, Mr. A. Whitehead, father of Mr. Ray Whitehead, the New Zealand airman, returned to Wellington on Monday by the liner Makura from Sydney. He was accompanied by Mrs. Whitehead and their daughter. Their tour had taken them to Chinese, Hawaiian -and Australian cities, and they spent about a month in the interesting country of Japan., Japan, said Mr. Whitehead, was a counry of wonderful scenery. In the cities he had stayed at fine modern European hotels. He had had no trouble in going about the country without interference from officialdom; indeed, the Japanese Customs department caused the traveller less inconvenience than that of most other

countries. The people were as a whole most courteous,-and those they had met on their tour they had found most likeable.

The tourists in Japan saw no sign of any prejudice against Europeans. On the contrary, everything was being done -to encourage visitors from overseas. Touring in Japan was not unduly expensive. Mr. Whitehead said that they had drven over 200 miles through the open country. They had hired an up-to-date American car from daylight till dark for the modest sum of 23 yen—about 35s of our money. This included the service of a chauffeur. They had seen peasant men and women working the ricefields, and had thought they seemed a very happy and contented people. The scenery of the countryside was beautiful, and while some of the old roads were narrow and rough, most of the way took them over new and modern highways, with excellent bridges.

Mr. Whitehead said he found the towns were made up largely of lightly built houses, with streets narrow and overcrowded. The main centres, however, were rapidly being modernised. While the men mostly wore Western dress, 90 per cent of the

women still went attired in the gaily coloured kimonos that were the national garb of their country. A feature which struck the visitor was the number of shrines in Japan. They had shrines everywhere for everything. While the Whiteheads were in Japan two new shrines were dedicated. One was consecrated to honour the fish caught in the Inland Sea as food for the people of Japan; the other was devoted to cats sacrificed to provide skins for banjo diaphragms. While there was no indication of aggressive militarism, and soldiers and sailors were to be seen about the streets no more often than in any other country, there was no doubt whatever of the efficiency of the Japanese army and navy. Naval manoeuvres were in progress when the Whiteheads were in Tokio, and one day they saw a hundred aeroplanes over the city at one time. On another occasion they saw troops skirmishing in the open country, during a mock battle, in extended order. The Japanese were very patriotic. Mr. Whitehead instanced the story told him of a man wounded during the last Japanese engagement in China. This man was wounded and recovered conscious-

ness to find himself a prisoner. He was released after the cessation of hostilities. On his return to Japan he committed hari-kari, the traditional ceremonial form of suicide by disembowelling himself, as he considered himself unfit to live after having fallen into the hands of the enemy.