CHAPTER II

BOYS AND GIRLS IN JAPAN


In no country in the world do children have a happier childhood than in
Japan. Their parents are devoted to them, and the children are always good.
This seems a great deal to say, but it is quite true. Japanese boys and
girls behave as quietly and with as much composure as grown-up men and
women. From the first moment that it can understand anything, a Japanese
baby is taught to control its feelings. If it is in pain or sad, it is not
to cry or to pull an ugly face; that would not be nice for other people to
hear or see. If it is very merry or happy, it is not to laugh too loudly or
to make too much noise; that would be vulgar. So the Japanese boy or girl
grows up very quiet, very gentle, and very polite, with a smile for
everything and everybody.

While they are little they have plenty of play and fun when they are not in
school. In both towns and villages the streets are the playground, and here
they play ball, or battledore and shuttlecock, or fly kites.

Almost every little girl has a baby brother or sister strapped on her back,
for babies are never carried in the arms in Japan except by the nurses of
very wealthy people. The baby is fastened on its mother's or its sister's
shoulders by a shawl, and that serves it for both cot and cradle. The
little girl does not lose a single scrap of her play because of the baby.
She runs here and there, striking with her battledore, or racing after her