Japan: A Nation In Search Of Itself

The name alone evokes modernity: dials, lights and numbers. The ancient civilization, with its Shinto priests and fragile poems, is more closely associated with all that is new in our times than any place on earth. Even the New World, now graying at the temples, regularly peers east to assess the future, to note where today’s advances are going for finishing touches. For its part, the zealous student-nation, famous for raiding others’ inspirations, has all but run out of models. The model is itself. Looking outward, Japan sees what it has become since Hiroshima: a source of fury and wonder to Western industries; a pressure point in the U.S.-Soviet staring match; a power without arms. Looking inward, Japan sees old ways shaken and new ones moving at so hectic a pace that the nation’s next volcano may erupt not from the quiescent cone of Mount Fuji but from the people themselves, who could be outrunning their sun.

What is this place, this center of international attention, worry, amazement? Who are these people, admired but not loved, who have made technology their art and commerce their religion? The characteristics collide: democracy and hierarchy; formality and chaos; a cramped infinity; cooperative free enterprise; ceremony with ruthlessness; the overfed wrestler, the shrunken tree. Above all else, the insularity of the group tied to a fear of being isolated.

In this issue, TIME explores some islands in the Pacific to determine their climate, shape, depth, inhabitants—and how far away they really are.