Figure 1.--Here we see Japanese boys's playing war. The phoographer has capioned it 'Banzai'. Note that none of the boys have toy guns, but they hve bamboo swords. Manyof these boys will learn kendo.) American boys also played war, but we had toy guns. rember by cap six-shooer at abou the same time hios nphoograph was taken. And out toy guns were were mostly made in Japan. he photograph was not dated, but was pabably taken in he late-1940s because we sill see pre-War syles. The photorapher was S.F. Lindstrom, a civilian employee of the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the U.S. War Department--the War-time name of the Defense Deparment. He was also active in the American Pacifi Islands and China.

Reserachers have found lower levels of fantasy play with Asian children and this seems to be the case in Japan. Western children enjoy role playing games like cops and robbers and war. We note free play with boys playing war, but have few images during the 1930s and eraly-40s at the peak of militarism. This was also true in the West, but unlike Japan it was not promoted in the schools. Here there are images, especilly duing the Pacific War (1941-45). We see chldren honing their miliary skills. And by he end of the War in desperatioin this included girls as part of the Ketsugo effort. Of course in America did not lead to launching agressive wars and the murder of millios of people. Working in America, researchers found that Korean-American 4- and 5-year-olds were less involved than Americans wih European ancestry. 【Farver and Shin】 A recent study found that in Japan 'pretend play was scarce, even in play spaces designed for children.' 【DiYanni】 We also think that there were fewer sports facilities for children.

Sources

DiYanni, Cara. "Observing Children at Play in Japan: Creative Themes, but Structure Dominates Over Iimagination," Psycholog Today (June 18, 2024).

Farver, J.A. and Y.L Shin. "Social pretend play in Korean- and Anglo-American preschoolers." Child Development (June 1997), Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 544-56.

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