The fear of ghosts clings pertinaciously to the Japanese people in spite of the influence of Western education and conversions to Christianity, and this trait causes them to suffer the most unhygienic conditions to accompany their sleep.
In daytime, the Japanese cannot have too much fresh air, and winter or summer, rain or shine, at the first peep of dawn, the “amado,” heavy wooden shutters, that really are the outside walls of the house, are slid back on their iron groove, and neatly stacked away in the recess built for them at the end of the house. Inside the amado, just three feet distant, are the “shoji,” or fragile sliding paper screens, and these too, are pushed back, one upon the other, or lifted out entirely, and thus, with both the outside and inside walls removed, the household practically lives in the open. The one thing they seem to require in superabundance by day is fresh air, but their desire for this vanishes suddenly the moment bedtime comes, and first the shoji and fusuma are put back in their places, and then the heavy amado, with much pushing and creaking, are slid snugly home and fastened shut with a long iron or wooden bar.
When this has been done, the household is prepared for its slumbers, but the only fresh air that can possibly get into the house at night must force itself through the one or two small crescents that may perhaps have been cut in the amado, to give a ray of light for the maid who comes to open them in the morning. It is needless to say that a night spent in such an atmosphere is not conducive to the maintenance of a healthy body, and the two conditions that contribute most to the alarming spread of consumption in Japan, and make its cure almost hopeless, are those of the sleeping-rooms being shared by so many people, and the lack of ventilation at night.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
