Letter: A pure myth, possibly made in the USA

Sir: Tim Lincoln wonders (Letters, 16 October) whether it can be true that the Japanese town of Usa was so named in order to confuse people into thinking goods made there were made in the USA. I am happy to say that his incredulity is entirely justified, and that the story is pure myth. In fact, Usa has a recorded history of more than 800 years.

Perhaps the United States has taken to using the abbreviation USA in order to make people think its products are made in Usa, and so have Japanese levels of reliability.

Yours faithfully,

T. B. M. SCREECH

Lecturer

Department of Art and

Archaeology

School of Oriental and African

Studies

University of London

London, WC1

17 October