The Mysterious West

Nostalgic G.I.s in the audience licked their PX ice cream cones and marveled that a man could be so close to home 6,000 miles away. Their tabi-soxer* friends chewed gum (U.S. style) and snickered (Japanese style) at the strange way some of their sisters made a living.

In the arena of an Osaka theater, two muddy Japanese girls lifted and tugged at each other (see cut). Their holds were amateurish. Their disparate weights (240 and 120 pounds respectively) would have made the most jaded U.S. groan-&-grunt promoter blush. But the panting young women were symbols of a national effort. With free elections, polite policemen and Coca-Cola machines, Japanese had sought to ape U.S. ways. Now the ultimate imitation had been achieved--female wrestling on a mat of liquid mud.

*Tabl are the traditional toe-dividing Japanese socks.

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