European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 4, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Agazine with no surviving Industry in produces a 10th of worlds Gross National by Jim Abrams associated press a nation of War wrenched incinerated cities and shattered Pride when it sur rendered in Japan today lives in the peace and Prosperity its former militaristic leaders promised but failed to perhaps no nation has changed As much As Japan has since Vij Day in August 40 years the Day of the Allied Victory in the Pacific in world War it was then a nation with no surviving but now it commands on tenth of the worlds Gross National women in Chic european fashions stroll thorough fares where crippled veterans in rags once families forced to sell off their Best Kimono to avoid starvation now worry about their children the great military Empire that once stretched from Manchuria to from Burma to the Solomon islands and even to the aleutians off Alaska is no while japans military Force is designed strictly for its the nations dedication to economic expansion alarms its neighbors and trading repression and xenophobia have Given Way to a system based on Liberty and adherence to Western emperor once revered As a at 84 enjoys quiet respect As a powerless Symbol of Japan and the United the former have what ambassador Mike Mansfield Calls the most important bilateral relationship in the bar economically and japans Success Story is the automobile Industry that produced Pas Senger cars in 1955 now makes More than 7 million a on fourth of world Japan builds 60 percent of the worlds 50 percent of its oceangoing 30 percent of its Industrial robots and three fourths of its Japan owns a 95 percent share of the videotape recorder is second to Hong Kong in watch production and the soviet Union in and makes 30 percent of the worlds its people claim a literacy rate of almost 100 per More than 90 percent graduate High school and 35 percent attend risen from the ashes Jelp Falls Success Story conspicuous consumption is rampant tiny apart ments bulge with video cassette recorders color televisions Home compute according to one newlyweds spend an aver age of to get married and set up House keep and about 60 percent of them honeymoon joining the million japanese 4 percent of the population of 120 million who travelled Over seas last according to government run More than 90 percent of japanese Call themselves Middle offi Cial figures show unemployment and inflation at 2 per and the Economy growing at 5 percent a businessmen who frequented the nations night clubs and Golf courses in 1983 spent trillion yen billion on expense considerably More than the government outlay for serious crime is according to police re there Are murders and robberies per people in compared with homicides and robberies in the United How did this asian Phoenix from the ashes a photo in a former education minister Michio Nagai said in an japans economic growth is a Success of the american occupation the 194552 occupation produced a National Constitution which declares that the japanese people for Ever renounce War As a Sovereign right of the it also introduced land Reform that rescued Farmers from compulsory education through the ninth Grade and the right of labor to in breaking up the or family run con the occupiers gave people like Masaru Iuka of Soichiro Honda of Honda motor and Kinnosuke Matsushita of Matsushita electric Industrial the Opportunity to turn storefront operations into corporations known today the world they says the Thomas Edison and Henry Fords of american Money built the factories that in Many cases today outstrip american just As in the late 19th when Japan emerged from More than 200 years of self imposed Feudal postwar japanese eagerly embraced Western since the Days of the japanese have a history of becoming the disciples of their Shichibei a leading writer on japanese so Cial said in an the disciple has become a Little impertinent to its former the japanese still prize the things they con Sider unique to their most Homes have a Tatami room where men can doff business suits for Kimo sip Sake Rice wine and sleep on the Reed mat floor under thick Futon while making some headway against in grained Job still take time for Ikebana Flower arranging classes or Ocha Tea about half of All marriages result from meet Ings arranged through friends or Job the acquisition of Western bad habits has caused cracks to appear in japans self disciplined school violence is a drug use is growing with the help of Rakuza gangster divorce is still Only per versus in the United states and in the soviet but continued on Page 14 August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 13