Not "Papa," Not "Mama"

Japan's greatest braggart is Minister of Education Genji Matsuda. Presented to the Wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain, he promptly cabled to Japan "THE LLOYD GEORGE OF THE EAST MET THE LLOYD GEORGE OF THE WEST TODAY AND TALKED POLITICS OVER."

Some time ago Braggart Matsuda surpassed himself in the august presence of the Genro (Elder Statesman) Prince Saionji, supreme arbiter of Japanese politics and chief adviser to the Throne. With a twist of phrase Mr. Matsuda implied equality between himself and Prince Saionji, caused the Genro to burst out laughing.

Last week the eccentric Minister of Education was out inspecting elementary schools, flew into a tantrum on discovering that many Japanese moppets now refer to their parents as papa and mama, even as pop and mom. Aghast at this latest result of U. S. cinema invasion of the Orient,* the Lloyd George of the East rushed back to Tokyo, decreed from his Ministry of Education that on school premises Japanese children must hereafter "refer to their parents with proper respect" as O-to-san (Honorable Father) and O-ka-san (Honorable Mother).

Perfectly good Japanese today are such words as "club" (see p. 51), "kodak," "beefsteak" (pronounced bifteki) and the whole argot of baseball from "foul" to "home run." Compared to Chinese, Japanese are atrocious linguists but keep patiently plugging. Often one will sit down beside a foreigner with the bland request: "Can I talk to you so I can improve my English?"

*Japanese voices are not dubbed into foreign language films in Japan. A native "narrator" shouts in Japanese what the characters are saying, loudly enough to drown out partially the horn which is set at low volume. One day a week in many Tokyo cinema houses the "narrator" is not present, the horn is turned on "loud," and such performances are usually jammed with students trying to learn English.

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