FilmIndia (1940)

TIT BITS QF MY TOUR WITH MALICE TO NONE Beer drinking, especially the Japanese "Kirin" and "Asahi" beers, is encouraged in Japan. Prices are cheap, the liquid is tolerably good and foreign bottles break themselves on the tariff walls. And as if to make up for the missing intoxication in the local stuff, beautiful bar girls all over the country serve the beer and very often without even the formal invitation share the glass with the guests. The bars are open all day and close at midnight and the only males you see about are the men who drink. Rooms are discreetly tucked up on the mezzanine floors, where one can tuck up his puritan morals for the night with his loose nurse strings. "The paper walls inspire intimate communion with the equally loving neighbour. ' Competing severely with the bars are the "Yoshiwaras". "Homukos" and "Fukuharas" of the different cities. All these Japanese words mean a Government confoPed Quarter where registered ostitutes ar; allowed to ply their * "e under the strictest possible • -'e-iic conditions. Cleanliness, politeness, beautiful environments, the desire to please, honesty in trade, hygienic conditions, a distinct code of honour and first and last beautiful girls are some nf the arguments that keep the Japanese away from marriage and make the tourists forget their wives and settle down in Japan. The pro-titute in Japan is not a victim o' any social odium. Very often, weF placed government officials marry these girls and society recrives them with open arms. Th'; necessity of doing something and living on one's own efforts seems to have been so much realized that even prostitution locks like one more national industry. Once a girl enters the "Yoshiwara" she can never come out un 16 • BY: BABURAO PATEL • less someone pays off the price of her original purchase with the sole Intention of marrying her. The earnings of the girl are small in comparison with her standing expense in showmanship, toilet and cleanliness — not to speak of the investment on several gold teeth. A single house contains as many as thirty girls at all ages and their large size photos are displayed in the lobby in attractive costumes and the thirsty traveller can pick his cup of pleasure from the assortment, for the payment of an amount which sounds ridiculous in foreign money. And there are usually over 300 houses in a single "Yoshiwara" So imagine the organization behind this "industry." • * * In Shanghai — the citadel or sin — where all sins which human flesh can commit, and endure, where crime is a profession and honesty, a pleasant surprise — the only innocent and seemingly respectable pastime is provided by the several dance halls where numerous girls, known as Taxi Dancers, step out with you on the highly polished floors for a foxtrot that costs about four annas in our money. And for every dance you can change your partner and at the end of the dance give her the usual four-anna ticket. Drinks are not served in thes3 halls but people know it and they either carry hip-pocket flasks or come already drunk. Shanghai is not the only city where the Taxi Dancers are found in the East. Almost all the principal towns in Japan and Far East, have such dance halls where thr> Taxi Dancers are as numerous as the taxis in the street. Certain cosmopolitan towns have the White Russian girls who give the guests a birth day fun every dav. • » • In addition to its much advertised "Democracy", America is also known for its gangsters and rac keteers. A popular racket in San Francisco is to arrest a homeward bound foreigner on the ship on the "charge" of his owing some money to a local American for "personal services" rendered. On an oath that the foreigner is "running back" home with the intention to "defraud" a "respectable" American citizen, the Courts obligingly grant a warrant of body arrest with a proviso for bail in the amount claimed. The amount is generally fixed at the popular figure of 200 dollars, which amount racketeers have found out through long experience and research, as a convenient leftover to be spared for the ever vigilant member of this gentry. As this; "profession" has become a.uite a nation wide and lucrative "industry", the bailiff supplied is also a polite official who advises in confidence that it is better to pay out quietly and clear out of the country rather than miss the boat, stay in America and fight out the issue. As there is solid sense in this advice, poor tourists pay and remember the farewell America gave them. ' *w *.: Another instance of racketeering is reported to be the umpteenth time sale of the City Hall of San Francisco. At regular intervals, phony solicitors bvhvj. rich oil farmers from the country and ask them to inveet money in real estate in the city. The Municipal City Hall is shown over and very soon sold for a little over a million dollars. At the well appointed "offices" of the attorneys the documents ar,-> completed and handed over to the "client" and possession nromised within a month. A month later the farmer, now considerably poor, comes to the city with his friends to take possession of "his nronerty" and celebrate a houso "/arming party. The attorney hEo by now disappeared and when the poor victim claims the Municipal City