Theola Walden Baker wrote:
>
> ---- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom" > >
> << They were spread about
> > > during the war to promote the "we are different and
> > > superior" mythos.  >>
>
> A few years ago when I was still teaching university ESL classes, I made a
> reference one day in one of my classes, predominantly populated by Far
> Easterners, to some specific Asian Pacific Rim nations.  One of my Japanese
> students took umbrage at the suggestion that he was--gasp!--Asian.  He
> immediately corrected my error by avowing before the class that Japanese
> were JAPANESE--they were *NOT* Asians.

Never heard this one, though I do hear some pretty strange
things sometimes. What the Japanese learn in history class
and what other people write about them are sometimes widely
in varience.

 The info that I thought
> was vastly interesting was about a village in Japan (begins with an -H,
> maybe?) where the people do not eat any rice at all, are exceptionally
> long-lived in spite of high tobacco use,  stay youthful looking, and are
> physically vigorous, strong and agile into very old age.  The main starch in
> their diet, if I remember correctly, is a type of yam.

Well, sweet potatoes are pretty popular, especially in the
south. In fact, vendors drive little trucks around selling
hot sweet potatoes door to door in the winter.