WHAT OF JAPAN ?‘
The Military Side of Japanese Life. By M. D. Kennedy. (Constable. 21s. net.)
.Glimpses of Japan and Formosa. By H. A. Franck. (T. Fisher Unwin. 10s. net.)
Fuji from Hampstead Heath. By Gonnoske Kornai. (Collins. 7s. 6d. net.) IT seems that dwellers in the West will believe anything of Japan, except perhaps the truth. Even to this present gene- ration is Japan a gaily-decked garden of perpetual cherry- blossom and smiling geisha. That Osaka looks more like the English potteries than a flower-bed and that Tokyo is more renowned for its bad trams than its fine flowers are facts seemingly unknown.
Captain Kennedy divides his book into three.parts. In the first he tells of his observations and experiences while attached to the Japanese Army in Japan. This narrative, although highly informative, is by no means dull, for it is enlivened by personal experiences ; for instance, his Glengarry cap and uniform frequently led to the author being mistaken for a Chinese-I Part II deals with Captain Kennedy's duties as an attached officer with the Japanese Army in Manchuria, Korea, and Europe. Part III, entitled " Broader Aspects of the Japanese Army," gives a historical sketch and a more minute examination of the subdivisions of the Japanese military system. The book is, well written, authoritative, and with its comprehensive index and clear maps should prove a valuable book of reference.
Mr. Franck gives us in his Glimpses of Japan and Formosa a worthy companion to his Chinese books of travel. It is im- possible not to admire his perspicacity ; his time in the country was so short as to lead one to expect the " usual tourist rubbish." There is nothing of this sort in Mr. Franck's book. With admirable directness, yet with due humility, he takes up various ill-considered statements on Japan. Particu- larly does he flay the writer who called the Japanese excellent linguists. Mr. Franck is anamiable and humorous companion.
Mr. Graham Martyr's beautiful book is an attempt to retain a fast hold on the popular conception of Japan as a land of fabrie. Old poems, old stories and good reproductions of the ancient " seal " characters of the Chinese are given, and one finishes the book with a sense of unsatisfied longing in accord with the best traditions of Japanese literature.
The Rev. Walter Weston endeavours to guide us through unfamiliar Japan, but as a book for travellers it is hardly to be recommended. The writer has allowed himself to be in- fluenced all too often by things as they seem instead of going a little deeper into the realities below the surface.
We cannot congratulate Mr. Kornai on his Fuji from Hamp- stead Heath. As a collection of essays and translations pur- porting to represent the Japanese outlook on life it is not to be compared with Mr. Martyr's Dai Nihon, and it is not impro- bable that the writer's own countrymen will be his severest critics.
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