e did not address the issue, this contrast implied the necessity of allowing the Japanese people to retain some of their vital traditions despite the overall effort to Westernize their nation.
On August 9, 1948, Time magazine ran a brief article which also concerned a traditional practice of the Japanese people. However, in contrast to the New York Times, this article took a far more derogatory tone in describing the beliefs and values of the Japanese. Time was (and is) a popular American newsmagazine covering the important national and international events of the week. Written for the average American reader, Time had a huge circulation which was comparable to that of the New York Times. However, Time was characterized by having a more conservative and opinionated point of view. In the Time article, a description was given of an unusual practice among Japanese "poets and philosophers." Every summer over the past two centuries, this group of people had gathered in the swamps near Tokyo in the hope of hearing "the soft explosion of opening
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