National Affairs: A Little Rain

In Manhattan, Sept. 18 was a rotten day; but it was also the anniversary of that day in 1931 when, in Mukden, a garrison of Japanese soldiers struck the first, low blow of World War II. That fact meant incomparably more to thousands of men, women & children crowding the streets of Manhattan's Chinatown. With love, skill and patience they had worked for days perfecting their delicately ferocious and gay paper dragons, their butterfly-cheerful costumes, their happy floats.

When the Mayor's office suggested that they postpone their victory parade, their organizer and spokesman T....