Journal Entry 29 July 1949

Anyway, the Russian delegate on the Allied Council let loose another blast this week, and Ted just finished a draft of a radiogram MacArthur will send to the US government, blasting the commies for their deliberate exploitation of what seems to be a staged provocation. If Washington releases the radio, you will probably have seen it by now.
Back to the kiss for a moment (!) I forgot to mention what seems to be behind the thing is that the Japanese give the kiss the fullest possible sexual significance, whereas we have progressively attenuated its meaning. A kiss is virtually equivalent to the sex act, and if a girl gives a kiss, she automatically gives permission for intercourse. In the traditional circles and villages, even if a girl gives a man her hand she grants permission for fucking. This implies a general tension over physical contact, and this is borne out in such things as the insistence on bowing instead of handshaking between all people, and the real reluctance of Japanese to accommodate themselves to the American handshake custom. People just shouldn't have contact with each other, especially across the sexes. This is breaking down in the cities, of course.


Photos > Portfolio 4 > Women of the Night
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Kaso Mura village children, on their way to school early in the morning on a cold rainy day, stopped in front of the ryokan where the research team was staying.
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The cheeks of some of the children also display the rosy chapping resulting from constant exposure to cold outdoors and also in the barely heated houses.
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Doing Photography and Social Research in the Allied Occupation of Japan, 1948-1951:
A Personal and Professional Memoir
John W. Bennett
Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
Ohio State University
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link Far Outliers Apr.21.04