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IF THE BIG BAD WOLF were flesh and blood instead of mere fiction, the Japanese would have cause for worry. In the old storybook tradition, he could huff and puff and blow their house down.

Japanese houses are small and fragile. They are made of wood that is never painted (because the Japanese like their houses pure and simple). Very seldom are they made of brick or stone. The windows and doors are paper and sticks of wood. But the small houses are inviting and cozily confining. There is not the cold, unlived-in atmosphere often common to a big house of brick or stone.

The serviceman who spends many months in Japan comes to look on the wood-and-paper houses of Nippon with approval. And when the time finally comes for him to build his own abode in the States, he has made up his mind as to exactly what kind of house he wants.

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