Why salt and tobacco you ask? For the war effort, instead of selling war bonds and asking people to volunteer for their country Japan simply acquired these two highly profitable commodities and made them national monopolies. Tobacco, not surprising given the number of smokers in Japan (40% of the adult population?), is given the bulk of the limelight. You might even say that they promote smoking given the number of kids that frequent the place and the fact that there's no space given to the health hazards. Score one for Big Tobacco. Other than the message slant the exhibits are quite nice with much attention given to craft and small details. I can't elaborate on the content as only the title copy was translated. I wouldn't say it bothered me, though.
5 comments:
I was hoping to find some photos!
Glad to hear your flight was bearable. Was that really the view you had of Alaska? Unreal.
What war were they trying to finance (or couldn't you read that)? I bet you're getting all kinds of ideas for your next museum. Any thoughts on venturing up to Mt. Fuji?
They took control of tobacco and salt for the Russo-Japanese War effort in 1904 and stayed government controlled until 1985. I'm probably not going to climb Mt.Fuji. It looks close but it's actually a 3 hour train ride and it's winter so i'm not really prepared for that level of hike.
And, yes, that was my view.
Good thing the headline-only translation didn't bother you. I'm reminded of a little museum that's being built somewhere in Florida that is going to translate only the headlines.
Well, the Florida museum that you must be thinking of translates all but the tediously drawn-out and dry "body copy" that if translated would leave little room for anything else.
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