JAPAN: Garden Party

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Unlike Britain's King-Emperor, Japan's Son of Heaven provides no "courts" at which dowagers and debutantes can curtsy, but like George V, Hirohito does give garden parties. Last week 7,000 socialite Japanese, many in gorgeous court kimonos of rarest silk, and some 700 foreigners among whom missionaries, businessmen and journalists outnumbered diplomats, arrived for the Imperial

Spring Garden Party just as it began to rain.

Since the Emperor & Empress are young & strong, their guests waited confidently in the rain, Britishers recalling that at Buckingham Palace garden parties Their Majesties have marquees run up in case of bad weather, receive with undiminished graciousness under canvas. Last week Tokyo flunkies rushed about the palace garden in jittery excitement while guests huddled under trees. It kept on raining and Their Majesties simply did not appear. With an estimated $200,000 worth of silken kimonos sodden and streaked, Japanese socialites slipped quietly away, but most foreign guests as they departed made audible remarks.