WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
well-to-do men may legally and openly maintain a concubine beside the wife. There is no need for clandestine intrigues and hypocritical subterfuges.
It is not easy for the Western mind to probe to the inner souls of our friends and allies of Japan. We are sundered by a wide differentiation in thought, religion, ideal, and aspiration. We cling tenaciously to life, and most of us dread death. The Japanese are, like other Eastern people, philosophic fatalists. But in many salient characteristics they are not Oriental. They are touched with the spirit of the West; they assimilate alien influences very readily.
Japan is an astounding country. In this empire, side by side with an advanced civilisation, the uncouth Ainus still live as in barbaric days. Culture and colleges flourish amidst curious superstitions and antique customs. Education is free and compulsory, and a number of the secondary schools are state-aided. The training of girls is not neglected. There are State universities, technical schools, and academies of medicine.
In ancient times group-marriage was the custom in Japan. The clans held together, and there was but little marriage outside of the group. Concubinage seems to have been an institution in the early primitive period. Rulers had one wife and many hired or purchased women; and at a later stage the regal harem
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