Foreign News: MacArthur Marriages

Camphor balls and chrysanthemums mingled their odors in stately Meiji Memorial Hall last week as eager bridegrooms in rented cutaways thronged Tokyo's biggest marriage center to claim their kimonoed brides. In the corridors couples stood ten and twelve deep, waiting to go through the sake-drinking ceremony known as three-times-three-is-nine. Between marriages, the blue-and-white-robed Shinto priests, whose duty it is to provide suitable flute music, raced to washrooms to soak their aching fingers in hot water.

Downtown on the Ginza, a big department store was doing a hotcakes business in a $3,000 "bride's special"...

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