Show japans girls replace men in industry women fill factory farm jobs as army claims manpower prepared by national geographic society washington hington D C service aher when a japanese kapahee soldier leaves his native soil to fight an undeclared war what happens to the lob job he left behind him for just as important as a battle against some chinese war lord is the battle on the nations labor front japan struggling for national self sufficient cy Is finding the answer to this problem by filling vacant jobs J 0 bs with its native girls and women in the large cities such su ch as tokyo osaka and nagoya are many west ern type factories some of these are thoroughly up to date cement buildings large windows window running water and modern toile toilets ts clinics and lunchrooms in a toothpaste factory in tokyo the majority of jobs are fined filled by girls girls and only 70 men the girl workers fill tubes paste on labels and pack the cartons the they Y A no 2 manufacture because the army needs neds men factories ac of every eve type have been b een forced to replace rep 2 ace male workers with young girls here is a japanese maid bringing in wood to be e made into charcoal other industries in which these girls find employment include the manufacture of shoes clothing clochin g glass pottery toothpaste and a host of others stand at long tables from 7 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon forty minutes for lunch and two rest periods of ten minutes each are their only chances to sit down the manager who shows you around points proudly to the rooms where the employees change from street to work clothes and to the laundry with running water where the uniforms fire are washed outnumber men alen 4 to 1 in a stocking and rubber shoe factory near osaka again the majority of workers are women and girls girls to 1 men some work at sewing machines others pack the finished product the girls wear white cloths claths over their hair but no masks to protect their lungs to questions as to age hours of work and living conditions the proprietor answers that the girls live in the neighborhood and have lunch in we the factory one of japans largest industries z 7 A no 4 AFTER HOURS western e rn ideas have made inroads into the workaday life of the th e japanese girls but with these new ideas of work lias has also come a trend toward new recreational activity these two japanese girls are walking out on the court for a game of tennis the one on the left even wears shorts like many an aspirant for court honors among american women players is the preparing of the raw silk skeins of silk thread to be seat sent to europe and america this work is done in factories called silk filatures fila tures which are practically staffed with girls and young women to the onlooker the job itself seems most trying since each girl 0 no 1 BUSINESS the commercial field in japan has ca claimed aimed many ny young girls pals as steno stenographers rap and clerks some 0 of these ti ese girls are educated in the united states and have adopted american office tech however the stenographer pictured here is using a typewriter with an oriental keyboard this keyboard has 2 2209 sym symbols bols and as a result is much U 1 slower than the western type machine h has as to watch constantly the silk feeding onto 20 spindles to do this she must stand all day and her hands are continually in and out of basins of hot water pulling the silk strands from the cocoons and directing them over the tiny wheels to the spindle above the workers of the silk filature are on a contract basis and live in one part of tha factory called the dormitory to any section suffering from famine managers of factories go and make contracts with the families of girls the faff family illy receives a sum of cash to help them carry on until the next good harvest and the girl pays for it by serving three or four years in the filature after her contract is fulfilled she goes home and is married to a young man whom her family has chosen by far the greater number of japans factories are small workshops manned perhaps by two or three workers or at most by 10 to 25 some of these are famal family Y concerns in which the women and girls of the family help others are ara neighborhood enterprises to which the local girls and women flock tokyo glass factory in any street may be heard heam the 1 soft whir of looms or 1 the clang k yr N 10 0 M V no A 7 FARMING one of japans chiel chief needs at the present time is food for its soldiers on chinas cainas war fronts now as at no other time in history japanese women have turned to the fields to provide this food pictured here are arc young girls picking weeds wee ds from a field of rice ing and banging of heavy machinery A few of these illustrate how vast numbers of japans women are employed in a glass factory in tokyo housed in fragile wooden buildings women sort wash and pack the glassware floors are simply well packed d earth and the window openings small the furnaces make the heat insufferable even on a cool day tokyo also has a concern which makes metal fixtures heads tot for electric light bulbs tops tor for candy bottles and vanity cases heavy machine work machinery Is placed so close together that you fear to pass through a room lest you be caught by some part of your clothing women and girls with rounded shoulders squat before machines machine crudely made by the concern itself fashioning the covers and bulb ends some of the girls are barely 14 or 15 romle are middle aged or old women one woman with bad eyesight bends and squints over her work As you ascend the scale of employment the japanese woman is not missing telephone girls typists or copyists throng the business offices the telephone girls are on the whole older than the clerks many of ct them are married the typists are higher school students ranging in age from 19 18 to 20 some use the native instrument others who know english are trained to iise use the modern machine the oriental typewriter has a board containing more than 2200 symbols including some 2000 chinese ideographic characters two kana or systems of 51 symbols sym bolos each the english alphabet both small and capital letters letter and the arable numerals |