1929
Following the expedition to western China, I went to Japan in November of 1929. In spite of the fact that during the last couple of decades Japan has started to become westernized, that the streets of Tokyo and many other smaller cities have been provided with electricity, that railroads cut across Japan and that European-style universities and scientific societies have sprung up, Japan nevertheless represents, no less than China, a special, oriental society. Here everything is peculiar and original. Both in China and, to a great extent, in Japan, the hieroglyphic typography constitutes still, in spite of westernization, a wall separating the Orient from the West in the wide sense. Even the simplification of the Japanese script by means of so-called katakana and hiragana characters has not made it significantly easier to learn the Japanese language or freed one from having to learn the orthographic characters. Perhaps Japan is to some extent a clue to understanding China. In fact, with its large number of scientific societies and European-language journals, aspiring to form a link with Europe, Japan provides an opportunity for better understanding all of eastern Asia.
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