Chapters 32, 33 and 34 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 32: Where Did You Get Them?

With the arrival of the Americans during the Japanese occupation, the country was once again poised to be the victim to the plundering of its unique art and cultural objects. Cheap souvenirs were produced to satisfy the hunger for Japanese items—everything had either a geisha, Mt. Fuji or cherry blossoms on it. The ware was sold by street vendors and in the many tiny shops that lined the streets. Netsuke were popular with Americans although critics looked down on them as passe and over-done.

Chapter 33: The Real Japan

By the early 1960s, Iggie was a long-term Tokyo resident and spoke fluent Japanese. He compared the rebuilding of Tokyo after the war to Vienna in 1919. Many friends wondered how he could stand the Japanese culture for so many years. But beneath the...