The Coolidge examiner., 1933-09-08

EX THEN occidental man first
wv thinks about the Far East,
China and Japan are en-
visaged as being much alike-in-
deed, almost as twins. But time
enables him TO discriminate.
Historically. China is old and eth
ical. The burden of all her litera-
ture is. "What ought | TO do"
Japan is young and esthetic. The
burden of her thought, as recorded
for a thousand years, is, What is
beautiful"
Geologically. China is pre-an-
cient; Japan is recent Long after
Mother Earth had settled down to
rear her earlier brood OF lands,
Japan. the youngster, arrived. Only
about three-scOre years ago Japan
shocked her elders in Asia by de-
parting politically and socially from
the ancient ways and turning to-
ward those of the western bar
barians."
In nature, also. Japan has changed
within our remembrance; Bandai
san, one of the eruptions on her
pretty face. misbehaved. For hun
dreds of years. so far as known in
human records. perhaps during the
millenniums of unrecOrded time. ii
had been entirely dormant. AS sud-
denly as the discharge OF a can
non, il blew off its rocky cap in
1855 and killed more than 400 hui
man beings. Curiously enough. in
japanese the same sound, san,
serves to the ear for either mis-
ter" or for mountain"
The one-time medieval village,
Yedo. and the swift-growing ma
tional capital. Tokyo. which II be-
came, was leveled in 1855 and again
in 1923 by destructive earth ad-
justments. OF old. the rest Of the
world knew not of these earth
Quakes. In the era of electric
wires, even a tremor is news.
Like some vast factory town in
which the blazing furnaces take
Sabbath rest, TO begin again on
Monday. Japan has some 200 dor
mant volcanoes. How pretty, flow
er-covered and of graceful figure.
they scent Yet these mountain
forms are liable at any moment to
become unruly. and when in these
fits of deadly temper they often dew
astate vast areas of human habita-
ton and alter many square miles
of landscape, as we saw in 1923.
At least 80 of these sleeping. fairy
like cones have the promise and po-
tency of continued activity.
Lovely as their outlines often are,
their breath may be sulphurous 10
the point of danger. Even grace
full Full. seemingly as demure as
a virgin in her teens, cannot be
trusted.
Lies on Bed of Fire.
Garments of green forests, of
grand trees. the wells of bamboo
thickets, a tapestry of flowers, or
even a mantle of winter snow. pro-
vide no insurance against direful
Outbursts. But, If Japan acts often
as a fury, we must excuse her, be-
cause the bed on which she lies is
one of fire.
Go down to Beppu, in Kyushu.
for example, where the daily rice is
cooked by subterranean heat, where
people resort to bake out or broil
out their various ailments. In the
hot seashore sand. thousands of men
and women for hours, even days,
lie covered with the pulveriZed vol
canic debris. BY wet baking or par
boiling. even to scarification, the ua-
tients seek TO expel their many ills.
Beppu is a delightful place for a
patient with rheumatism or other
miseries. While there is a fair
Chance of being swallowed up and
changed 10 a cinder by some fresh
outburst of melted rock, such as
only a century or two filed the
valleys with scoria and lava. who
cares, when no one can foretell the
hour? Does not the man of Beppu
know that other parts of fair Japan
may be visited long before his turn
comes?
Did NOT Sakurajima at Kagoshi-
ma, of old supposed to be solid rock,
erupt and bury whole town of TO-
900 people?
Moreover. how welcome the Sc
quel to these earth's outbursts-fer-
tile soil covered with a carpet of
lovely flowers and plants and easily
coaxed into luxuriant production of
food for mani
"Shigata ga mai" Don't care) is
the usual verdict on the unknown,
with the merry-hearted sons and
daughters-hOw fair are the latter !!
of Nippon. One who had known
the sons of the Land of the Gods