DARK SIDE OF JAPAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 21, 15 June 1914, Page 7

DARK SIDE OF JAPAN.

"It seems to be the general opinion among Americans, who have taken their knowledge on hearsay," says the Tokio correspondent of the New York Evening Post, "that Japan is a country of perpetual cherry blossoms, balmy air, and pretty almond-eyed maidens in gay-col-crcd kimonos. The idea is not confined to America; elsewhere the old impression of Japan as a land of warmth and flowers, of prettiness and romance everywhere, has not been killed by the cold truth by many visitors since the war. The correspondent's article is calculated to make one realise the huge mass of poverty and suffering that lies behind the Japan of comic opera. He dwells oluefy on the cold, telling how in llokaido much snow falls in the winter, often cutting off communication for days at a time, hut his article is mainly taken up with the terrible details of the famine. Writing in the. middle of February, he said that there were nearly 10,000,000 people in the famine districts, and it was estimated that there were 200,000 people in urgent need of food. The loss in the rice crop of the districts was 23,000,000 bushels, a serious matter when it is remembered that rice is three-fourths of the people's food, j The remainder is mainly made up of . fish, and simultaneously with the rice failure, the cold weather kept the fish . off shore. People were found living on grass seeds, entrails of nnimals, and decomposed food that dogs would irbt touch. A fish's head, rescued from the refuse of a fishshop, with a little grassseed, was to make three meals for a family. A hoy who was seriously ill, was found to have a large wad of straw in his stomach, which lie had eaten to allay his- hunger. Houses were gradually pulled to pieces to provide fuel. A large house was offered for sale for 30 .shillings, and no one having enough money to buy it, the wood was used for fuel. Children were too weak to go to school, and their teachers were not much better off, for their salaries were only 3.)s to 40s a month. The most terrible feature of the calamity was that even before the public knew of the famine, men from Tokio and other large cities were already in the stricken districts, getting girls for the factories and the infamous Yoshiwarra quarters. We hear very little about the famine now. but the suffering must he still acute.