From: cb522@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Cathy Atwood)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Daughters of changing Japan
Date: 13 Sep 1992 02:51:14 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


A book about Japan which I like:  *Daughters of changing
Japan* by Earl Herbert Cressy with Wong Su-ling, New York:
Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1955.
 
The dust jacket says:  Here is modern, urban, upper
middle-class Japan at home; an authentic and completely
absorbing portrait, seen through the eyes of the Japanese
themselves.  Dr. Cressy had the unique privilege of being
admitted into the inner affairs of ten Japanese young people
who wrote for his use alone the intimate stories of their
lives and their families, and answered his questions,
pertinent and impertinent.  Dr. Cressy selected about one
quarter of this material, made changes necessary to conceal
the identity of the writers, and limited the main characters
to five...
 
Dr. Cressy says: It is not enough to try to understand the
Japanese people en masse.  We must come to know and
sympathize with real people in actual situations... 
 
I originally picked up this book, at a used book store,
because it was about women in Japan.  But it also includes
tiny bits of culture which I haven't seen in other books. 
For instance, this is a scene from about 1931: "They went
window-shopping along the Ginza and walked endlessly along
the aisles of big department stores where she thought
everything in the world must be on sale.  She particularly
liked the tall slabs of ice with roses frozen in them, set
at intervals in the aisles on hot days.  She imitated the
other customers and rubbed her handkerchief on the ice and
then on her cheeks.  They rode in the elevators and came out
on the roof with the city spread out below them, and in one
corner was a baby elephant that small children could ride
for a small fee." (from page 35)
 
 
"This girl was the daughter of a well-known medical doctor. 
She was married to a young man from a wealthy family, but
had fled from the hotel where they had gone on their wedding
night when she found the groom was afflicted with a social
disease.
 
"This and another similar case soon after--again a doctor's
daughter, for most girls did not know about this sort of
thing--got into the papers and touched off no little
discussion.  Some praised them as "awakened women declaring
war against feudalism."  A more common reaction was that
their attitude was too advanced, and not womanly.  They were
criticized as influenced by foreign individualism, whereas
they should not have departed from the traditional customs
of their own land."  (from pages 56,57)
 
 
"Kazuko was assigned to the third grade [to teach], and when
she settled down behind her desk and looked around she felt
she might have been back in her childhood classroom.
 
"But she soon found there was a difference.  While she had
been enjoying an increasing freedom in college, war
psychology and growing military control had resulted in
increased regimentation at the primary level.  Here was
where the basic indoctrination of the nation went on.  This
brought an increased emphasis on the physical--austerity and
a process of hardening, and the building up of strength and
vitality.
 
"Students were not permitted to wear shoes and stockings. 
This was nothing in summer and the students rather liked it. 
But it was now midwinter, and while Kyushu is the
southernmost island, it has some snow and ice, and going
barefoot was painful.  They were not allowed to wear
overcoats either.
 
"The teachers, who wore shoes and stockings, explained this
would conserve materials and enable students to sympathize
with the soldiers who were fighting in China.  They told how
the soldiers had to endure severe cold and other handicaps,
and this moved the small hearts of their hearers.
 
"None the less it was a bitter experience, and they found it
hard to concentrate on lessons when their frozen feet were
paining them.  When it was below freezing the smaller pupils
would run whenever possible, but older pupils were posted to
record the names of those who ran, and they were called
before the teachers and scolded.
 
(a little deleted)
 
"There was also training in mastication.  Careful chewing
would conserve food and aid digestion.  Twice a week at
lunch time the whole school was drilled to orders through
the loud-speakers.
 
"Are you ready?  Put a bite of relish and rice into your
mouth.  Move it to the left side.  Now chew it.  One, two,
three...Now move it to the right side.  Now chew it.  One,
two, three...Now swallow.  Now put some more into your mouth
from your lunch box.  Put your hands on your knees. 
Straighten up.  Ready?"  (from pages 69, 70)  
 
Cathy Atwood