By 1908, Japan was ensconced in the imaginations of Americans, their bathrooms, their kitchens, their fields. Sears-Roebuck imported “elegant” toothbrushes, “neat and sanitary” woven-grass kitchen matting, and (again with the woven grass) a suit serving hunters as both duck blind and raincoat. 100 Colored Stereoscopic Views extolled a 1904-1905 siege against a Russian port, proof that Japan itself “could never be invaded except by the extermination of every living man.” Other Views showed everyday life – a medley of fox worshippers, geishas, and a humble potato dealer’s stall in “Yakohama”, a misspelled city America would bomb to smithereens, come May 1945.
So interesting. My mother lived in Yokahama from 1947-1949. She has a lot to say on the subject of incendiaries. K.
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