Peacetime Living

In Tokyo, where beggary had once been rare, police seized 232 vagrants in Ueno Park. Some were children who lived by begging and stealing, spending the nights under piled debris. In a nation of fanatic workers, there would soon be 2,500,000 unemployed veterans of the home army alone. The figure would grow as soldiers were shipped home from overseas.

Charcoal supplies were one-third of normal, and at Tsushima a village school was established to teach returning soldiers to make charcoal.

Sardines & Saccharine. In Ibaraki prefecture, 21 boats returned to mackerel fishing. The U.S. Fifth Fleet was politely asked to move elsewhere in Tokyo Bay, since its anchorage barred the way to the best sardine fishing grounds.

Japan would not soon be likely to get the 25% of her rice supply which normally came from abroad, and the domestic crop was 8% below normal. Steel production was 20% of normal, machine tools 70%, chemicals 20%, textiles 15%, electricity 30%. There was little salt, and the general public could expect no leather shoes before 1946. Meanwhile they would wear wooden get a (clogs). The country had lost 11 million of its 14 million prewar cotton spindles but could still supply domestic textile needs if it had 5 million piculs (1,300,000 U.S. bales) of cotton. The total on hand: 100,000 piculs. Because of the sugar shortage, chemical companies turned to saccharine production, hoped to produce two grams per capita yearly.

Reverence was also in short supply: the peeresses' school reported the theft of a silver ear picker used by the Emperor Komei and crested incense burners presented by the Empress Shoken.

The True Hearts. A few things were not so grim. Newspapers reported with wonderment the case of a young Osaka worker employed by the U.S. Army. He had been hit by a tram and seriously injured. Three U.S. corporals called on him in the hospital, offered to pay his medical expenses. His family was "overcome with the sense of true-heartedness of the Allied soldiers."

Kyoto had an exhibit of fine embroidery. The prize went to an obi (sash) from the Nishijin textile cooperative. Its price: 3,800 yen ($250).

In the unbombed resort of Kamakura, police received 10,000 applications for licenses to operate dance halls, cabarets and cafes to occupy the occupying troops.

In Tokyo a publishing association planned to print 50,000 English dictionaries for the schools, and civic leaders were promoting a loo-million-yen ($650,-500) amusement center for U.S. troops. It would provide billiards, rifle shooting, golf, tennis, fried fish, sweet bean soup, tea and souvenirs. An entertainment association advertised for 5,000 professional hostesses and 3,000 women entertainers, including dancers, waitresses and daruma geisha. As distinguished from real geisha, who excel at conversation, the daruma geisha are named after daruma dolls, which have round, weighted bases and push over easily.

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