Japan Today

To the Editors:

Kipling notwithstanding, your special issue on Japan [Aug. 1] allowed East and West to meet in style.

Winifred O'Donnell Pennsauken, N.J.

Congratulations on your Japan issue. It is the most realistic and focused treatment we have seen in years, with none of the common misconceptions and glaring errors that so often mar such attempts.

David G. Ziegler, President

ZED Associates, Inc.

Arlington, Va.

Your Japan issue is excellent. As a businessman who has traveled frequently to that country over the past 20 years, I could have benefited from your stories years ago. The issue is a perceptive introduction for first-time visitors and a stimulating analysis for those of us who have experienced Japan.

Paul Thistleton Parkersburg, W. Va.

As a 28-year-old Japanese who has lived in the U.S. for four years, I found your Japan issue satisfying and revealing. I was particularly struck by the statement in your main story that "the American civic principle is freedom and equality. The Japanese civic logic is mutual obligation, hierarchy and the overriding primacy of the group." This observation explains why I am in America.

Kazumoto Ohno Cresskill, N.J.

When I went abroad, a lot of people said to me, "I know Japan: Toyota, Sony, Honda." Now your special issue shows a complete picture of my country to people all over the world. Your articles examine modern Japan from its technical skill to its traditional culture of geisha and harakiri.

Akiko Harada

Nagoya, Japan

I have often wondered how Japan rose to world-power status after it was leveled in World War II. Your issue makes it clear: people make a country. Unfortunately, we in the Philippines lack that feeling of nationhood with which the Japanese are blessed.

Wilfredo G. Villanueva Manila

The Japanese are so pacifistic that I believe a substantial number would run or surrender if attacked. It is sad that the U.S. has forced the government to begin assembling a military force primarily for economic reasons without considering the potential effect of such a move on Japanese society.

Peter Kaplan Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

Sooner or later, Japan and the U.S. must face up to the Japanese constitution, which pledges never to maintain "land, sea and air forces." In view of this prohibition, a strong relationship between the U.S. and Japan is the best defense against the Soviet Union.

Frank Iritani Bakersfield, Calif.

Japan is a nation that needs to be better understood. Your issue is a good analysis of my country, especially for those who are not familiar with us. It is also an excellent mirror for my people, who are not aware of their image.

Osamu Katayama Yokohama

Even though the Japanese are successful in producing and selling their products, their sense of social justice is crude, and their perception of the world is infantile. America has nothing to fear from Japan. U.S. power resides in its personal freedom and sense of fairness, which are lacking among the Japanese.

Chung I. Park Morton Grove, III.

Japanese society and its educational system do, as you say, discourage individualism and creativity. For its survival, Japan needs to modify its teaching methods in order to cultivate independent and critical thinking. Neither the Emperor, Shintoism, Buddhism nor Confucianism can help the Japanese develop a deeper understanding of the West.

Yuji Yoshida Amherst, Mass.

The dominance of Japanese men is bound to end. With his taste for kinky sex, the Japanese man is nothing but an adolescent. By the turn of the century, the middle-class Japanese man will be seeking solace with others of his sex because the docile little woman will no longer be waiting at home in her kimono.

Diane M. Patterson Mount Lebanon, Pa.

Your articles on Japan were mostly fair, except for your description of the woman economics major at Tokyo University who earned money by being a mistress. I spent three years as an engineering student at Tokyo University and found that most Japanese women who were there had high morals and were dedicated to making a happy home for their husbands and children.

Hideko Imamura Yokohama

TIME'S report says women are not accepted as business equals in Japan. That is not always true. I was the Los Angeles creative director for a large Japanese advertising company and feared that my presence might jeopardize the presentation we were making in Japan. My Japanese boss assured me that his colleagues have nothing against women in business-so long as the women are not Japanese.

Gerry Muir Larchmont, N. Y.

Your issue neglected an important aspect of the Japanese music industry, which is helping to preserve and promote American jazz. The Japanese are reissuing jazz recordings, training players and inviting many American jazz musicians to perform there. While jazz is neglected in the U.S., it is thriving in Japan.

David Cason Jr. Detroit

You fail to mention that there are approximately 5 million Japanese gay men and women who have yet to learn of gay liberation. However, there are hundreds of gay bars and bathhouses that are unexcelled anywhere in the world.

Andrew J. Betancourt San Francisco

Had you published such unmitigated praise of the Japanese people, industry, military prowess and society 40 years ago, you would have been arrested as traitors. I know the world has changed, but you would have stepped on fewer hearts if your articles had contained less admiration and praise.

Alan Howenstine Michigan City, Ind.

It is too bad the Japanese were not as you describe them when we met them in New Guinea and the Philippines.

Stanley J. Sharman Thonotasassa, Fla.

Japan's "marriage of feudalism to high capitalism" may seem a perfect combination now, but wait a while. The social problems that struck America in the 1950s and 1960s--conformity, the rise of a counterculture and the illusion that growth is limitless--will inevitably rise to torment Japan too.

Gary Brazeman Atlanta

Re your piece on Kotaro Nohmura, the Japanese business executive: I am an American engineer. I make $50,000 a year, work eight hours a day, five days a week. I see my wife and children for breakfast, at dinner and on weekends. My eight-room house is worth $120,000 and has a $30,000 .mortgage. I drive a late model American car. Now, who, would you say, has it better?

Jerry Arnolds Randolph, Maine

As a researcher in television technology, I am acutely aware that Japanese research and development is a decade ahead of ours. Furthermore, Japan's plans for fifth-generation computers are bold and far-reaching, even by American standards. If we remain lax in this and other important scientific areas, we may find our technological edge is on the dull side of the sword.

Michael A. Isnardi Cambridge, Mass.

You mention that San Francisco is studying the feasibility of adopting the Japanese system of the police box to control crime. Until Americans have the same strict gun-control laws as Japan, the Japanese system of the koban will not work in any U.S. city.

Nicholas Pogany Clark, N.J.

I do not agree that strict gun control is one of the reasons for Japan's low rate of violent crime. The Japanese have a greater respect for law than people in North America. It is a matter of attitude toward authority rather than ownership of a weapon that dictates less violence.

Finn Nielsen Mississauga, Ont.

If Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone is serious about the need to "publicize Japan culturally," he could begin by ending Japan's slaughter of whales. The destructive tendencies of old Japan are a matter of record. But by refusing to cooperate with international efforts to preserve these endangered species, the new Japan has yet to show that it has changed its ways.

Jeffrey Leznoff San Francisco

The image you present of Japan is narrow, derived from peeping through the bathroom-door keyhole. The day will come when the Japanese will let go of their cultural privacy and invite us into their world. An exchange of ideas and attitudes with a nation as old and culturally complex as Japan has to be on Japanese terms. But ultimately, the Japanese will open up because they need to.

Grethe Boe Hansen Oslo

The picture of a belching smokestack juxtaposed in front of lovely Mount Fuji reminded me of my ascent of the mountain. I was quite surprised as well as saddened by the mounds of trash left by littering Japanese climbers. The Japanese are indeed paradoxical.

Linn Henderson Chicago

With the help of your report, many Americans will now know more about Japan than just Sony, Toyota and sushi.

Tomoko Beebe Lake Forest, Calif.

I was in Tokyo in September 1945 when it was a wreck, and have always wanted to go back. Your Japan issue took me there.

Harvey Twyman Omaha

Central America Battles

Far be it from me to wish upon this nation another involvement like Viet Nam. But isn't it better to stop the Soviet-and Cuban-supported leftists in Central America [Aug. 1] now than to wait until the Communists reach the Rio Grande or Florida?

Fred W. Stine Stroudsburg, Pa.

If the civilian death toll in El Salvador had gone from 160 a month to, say, 143, then the Reagan Administration could assert that the government of El Salvador was making progress toward protecting human rights. But you report that civilian deaths rose from 160 a month to 177 during a half-year period. How can our Government possibly claim that the human rights situation has improved?

Donald Yarn Baldwinsville, N. Y.

One is apt to forget that it is 1983 and not 1973 when one sees musty, dusty Henry Kissinger taken out of mothballs and appointed to a position where he could get the U.S. into war. Our experience in Viet Nam was enough.

Janie Carpenter Luverne, Ala.

Protecting Moby Dick

My hat is off to the crew of the Rainbow Warrior for taking on the Soviet Union in its fight against the slaughter of whales [Aug. 1]. Perhaps next year Greenpeace, the environmental group that opposes whaling and ran the Rainbow Warrior expedition, can work on this side of the Bering Sea to stop the butchering of the poor walrus.

Floyd H. Wheeler Nome, Alaska

Dealers in Death

The private arms dealers you describe in your story "Arms for the Ayatullah" [July 25] are frightening individuals who earn their wealth by selling death. Even more despicable are nations like South Korea and Israel that resell arms ostensibly bought for their own defense. For our "allies" to turn around and sell those weapons to Iran, where we have banned such sales, is shocking.

Leila M. Saab

Alma E. Taylor

McLean, Va.

Kissing Cousins

In your article on Americans vacationing overseas [July 25], you show a photo of a U.S. tourist kissing a Windsor Castle Guardsman in England. What would happen if I, a British citizen, attempted to kiss your President's Secret Service men? Make no mistake, that "little toy soldier" is a member of the British army and has probably served in Northern Ireland or the Falklands. I do not deny that his dress uniform is a tourist attraction, but a little respect should be shown to the man and his profession.

Valerie Strickland Palm Bay, Fla.

Costly Parts

I am not against the military, but the story on the exploding prices of aircraft spare parts made my blood boil [July 25]. It almost makes me glad I am currently out of work, and not able to pay taxes to support this ripoff.

Steven Hanover Converse, Ind.

I am appalled at the inflated prices that spare-parts manufacturers are charging the U.S. Government. Companies such as Bendix, Rolls-Royce and Boeing should be forced to repay the huge profits they have accumulated from this practice.

Bradley B. Howe Kurtistown, Hawaii This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.