“His writing is worth while because he writes as he really sees and thinks. His descriptions are like untouched photographs and his judgments square and fair. He is the calm and unafraid commentator, the patient and constant observer and recorder, and the caustic critic. The book weighs more than ten ordinary American books on Japan. It is vital.” F: O’Brien
+ N Y Times 25:5 Jl 18 ’20 1050w
“Mr Greenbie’s frank, lively, imaginative account of Japan may properly be called ‘a real book.’ It is entitled to this popular but expressive characterization because, by reason of its intimate realism, its sensitive perception, and, above all, its common sense, it stands out conspicuously from the great mass of variously interesting literature upon the subject with which it deals.”
+ No Am 212:719 N ’20 480w
“A very readable and beautiful book.” G. D.
+ St Louis 18:250 O ’20 40w
“The people whom he met he actually studied and classified and he has endeavored to interpret what he has seen for the benefit of other Americans, the result being a book which inspires confidence.”
+ Springf’d Republican p9a N 14 ’20 360w
“He writes from experience gained from close contact with the people; and it is evident throughout that he is concerned to tell the truth without partiality or prejudice, and that he is by temperament qualified to recognize it in matters of every-day intercourse. But with the best will in the world he would have difficulty in appreciating the point of view of the Japanese, for it is a point of view that he—an American of the Americans—cannot conceive a sensible person adopting. It should be made clear that Mr Greenbie writes without malice.”
+ − The Times [London] Lit Sup p681 O 21 ’20 900w + Yale R n s 10:431 Ja ’21 340w