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A TOUCH OF PANIC nudges the newcomer to Japan as he observes some of the Japanese, men and women, strolling the streets wearing a mask over their mouths. Are they bandits? Social outcasts? Refugees from a hospital's operating room?

No, he discovers, they are none of these. They merely have a cold. The mask prevents the spread of germs and keeps out the cool, blowing wind. Some of the Japanese, when going to a crowded place or riding a crowded train, wear a mask even though they haven't a cold. But wearing the mask prevents them from catching a cold from someone who has a cold but wears no covering. Wakaru desuka? (Do you understand?)

If an American youngster sees his dad outfitted with the thieving trademark, he immediately thinks of the old "cops and robbers" game. And before he can explain, Pop finds a toy pistol staring him in the face.

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