A JAPANESE FUNERAL RECALLS THE OTHER JAPAN 277

is re-elected he will promptly veer to the right, so far as domestic
affairs are concerned, and lay all emphasis on preparedness. But
if Roosevelt for some unknown reason does not run again, or if,
contrary to indications, he should fail of re-election, then I should
like to see Willkie as our new President. He seems to me, from
this distance, to have honesty, strength, and experience, clear vision
and executive ability, and, above all, a clear conception of our
national problems in their perspective, and I base this judgment on
the very few but not the less significant utterances of his that I have
read. From now on we must base all our future calculations on the
hypothetical loss of the British fleet. Roosevelt appreciates that fact,
and from what I know of Willkie's outlook I guess that he does too.

June 18, 1940

The diary has fallen back lately. We are already past the middle
of June, and with the appalling developments that are going on in
the world I have little stomach to sit down and record our trivial
doings and interests here. When history comes to be pieced out,
however, even the trivial pieces in the puzzle-picture will fall into
place, so with reluctance I shall try to keep up the continuity of
this inadequate sketch. Events in Europe are bound to exert an
important, possibly a drastic, influence in the Far East, and are likely
to lead to developments of far-reaching consequence. I am pro-
foundly thankful that I didn't leave the job at this, perhaps, crucial
period.

A JAPANESE FUNERAL RECALLS THE OTHER JAPAN

June ii, 1940

The Buddhist funeral rites for Prince Tokugawa to-day were
intensely impressive, as all such ceremonies are in Japan. Alice
and Dooman and I and the Thai Minister were the only foreigners
visible at the intimate service, which lasted for nearly two hours,
from one till three o'clock, the other diplomats and the crowd merely
filing by after three o'clock to burn incense at the altar. After eight
years in Japan I had the feeling to-day of being not outsiders but
an intimate part of that group, almost as if the gathering were of
old family friends in Boston and not in Tokyo. We knew well a
great many of the Japanese and their wives who were sitting around
us, members of the outstanding families and clans. The Tokugawas,
Konoyes, Matsudairas, Matsukatas might have been' Saltonstafis and
Sedgwicks and Peabodys. We knew their positions, their influence
and reputations, their personalities, and their interrelationships as well
as those of a similar group in Boston. And we felt too that they
regarded us as a sort of part of them.

This may sound a little snobbish, but that is not the idea at all.
It would be just the same as if we called them Okubos and Suzukis
and Hayashis in Tokyo and Smiths, Joneses, and Robinsons at home.