MOVING SCENES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 250, 21 October 1937, Page 12

MOVING SCENES

WAR IN THE EAST JAPANESE PROPAGANDA “COMIC OPERA" STEWARDS Illuminating sidelights on the war in the East are contained in a letter received in Auckland from a young woman, homeward bound to America, who recently passed through the troublous area. She sailed from Shanghai for Vancouver on the Japanese ship Hein Maru on August 19. She told of the laughable experience; on board as the result of untrained “boys” or stewards, the Others having been “called up.” She told of the war fever in Japan, and also of the tension in that city of impending doom, Shanghai.

“The service on the ship,” she wrote “is terrific. All the experienced boys have had to go to war and these we have now are all so inexperienced that they dref) dishes and act as nearly like comic opera stewards as I ever hope to see. I asked my table boy for some more water melon the other morning and he laughed and slapped me gently on the back. When we ask him for a fork or a spoon he produces them from his pants pockets, and, as a crowning touch, to-night he showed one of the girls how to eat a Japanese dish she had ordered. He stood behind her and put his arms round her neck. I even gave my room boy a lesson in bedmaking. He refused to ‘plump’ up the pillows. Pitiful Sights in Shanghai “The day we sailed from Shanghai the two Japanese were killed without provocation (they say). It was pitiful to see the poor Chinese evacuating their homes and moving to the International Settlement. They knew trouble wasn't far off. It was just like a parade of rickshaws, all piled high with household goods of all kinds. It was impossible to get a rickshaw about the city because the Chinese were all using them as moving vans. “The day we landed at Kobe the entire waterfront was blockaded and we 1 were stopped four times on the way to •he hotel. When we got through the blockade it was closed again, and the shipping company had hurriedly to provide ferry services back to the ship for those who were going on to Yokohama.

“Looking back, the whole of Japan 1 seems to be nothing but a long series 1 of flags, parades and martial music. I While I was there the Government issued a decree banning all except stir-

ring music. Dance hall proprietors anu all were subject to arrest if they played sentimental pieces. Everywhere crowds were seeing soldiers off to the front. Every station was a gathering place. They sang and prayed and > shouted and waved their arms, and flags until I was almost crazy. Friendship Bonds in Japan “Little boys with bells attached to them darted in and out of the shops giving out extras containing the latest news from the war —victories of course. Women stood on every street corner putting French knots in long strips of cloth—friendship bonds for the soldiers, a thousand knots to each bond. The soldiers wound them about their wasts, and were thus supposed to be impervious to bullets. Pathetic, isn’t it? “Every time I went out of the hotel I saw more parades, more soldiers being sent off to the war, more recruiting stations, more money boxes for the cause, more flags, more friendship bonds, more truck-loads of yelling men and more pictures of the war in all the shop windows. I have not decided yet whether all the yelling was to keep up their own spirits, to attract new recruits or whether the> were really war-mad, and actually felt the way they acted. Whatever the reason, I shall not soon forget the shouting.

“Certainly they are preparing for a long time affair. This is going to be no little war unless they are able to gain China quickly, which they themselves seem to doubt. It was sickening to read the papers. They blamed everything on the poor Chinese. “Even on the boat here, they are quietly spreading propaganda. Each of us found a paper booklet in our cabin yesterday, entitled ‘What Happened at Tungchow.’ Of course, what happened was that some Japanese were killed, but they neglect to mention that they (the Japanese) were the first aggressors. It is maddening to listen to the news reports on the radio. All they let us hear are those from Tokyo, and they are all couched in oily Japanese phrases. “True to their belief in and respect for international peace, the Japanese are doing their utmost to end this unpleasant affair, but since the Chinese continue to play the part of aggressor, the Navy Department, in order to protect Japanese interests in China, feels it is duty to etc., etc. I wonder if they think we are stupid enough to believe it.”