G,ARL' CROW 
 
 .l){!l)''n4MiJnJi 
 
(Cornell Mntuetattij Stbratrg 
 
 Stljara, NfW fork 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 
 BEQUEATHED TQ CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 849.U5C95 
 
 Japan and America :a contrast /by Carl C 
 
 3 1924 023 233 830 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023233830 
 
JAPAN AND AMERICA 
 
JAPAN AND AMERICA 
 
 A CONTRAST 
 
 BY 
 CARL CROW 
 
 Author of "America and the Philippihes," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY 
 
 1916 
 
 U 
 
Copyright, 1916, by 
 RoBEAT M. McBbide & Co. 
 
 Published February, 1916 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 I Problems of the Pacific 1 
 
 II The Real Estate Point of View 8 
 
 III Japan's Great Illusion 29 
 
 IV Japan's Wondeeful Peogeess 54 
 
 V The Cost of Pbogkess 73 
 
 VI Dangerous Thoughts 101 
 
 VII The Two Japans 121 
 
 VIII Points of Contact 148 
 
 IX The American Question in Japan .... 172 
 
 X What Japan Thinks of Us 200 
 
 XI Japan's Aims in China 222 
 
 XII The Raid on Tsingtau 252 
 
 XIII Japan's Toetuous Diplomacy 272 
 
 XIV Is Japan a Menace? 301 
 
JAPAN AND AMERICA 
 
JAPAN AND AMERICA— 
 A CONTRAST 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PEOBLEMS OP THE PACIFIC 
 
 SEPARATED only by an ocean, wMch with 
 the advance in navigation grows narrower 
 each year, are Japan and the United 
 States, two countries which in history, ideals, 
 civilization, culture, have nothing in common. 
 The governments of the two countries represent 
 the extremes of political ideas, the one a de- 
 mocracy, the other an autocracy. So different are 
 the. institutions of the two peoples that neither 
 can without danger to itself adopt the ideals and 
 culture of the other. While the influx of a large 
 number of Japanese to the United States would 
 create new labor problems and seriously threaten 
 American institutions, the migration of a similar 
 number of Americans to Japan would prove 
 equally serious to that country. Japanese, with 
 
 their lower requirements of living, their lax ideas 
 
 1 
 
2 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 of morality, and their deficient political develop- 
 ment, would seriously threaten the survival of 
 American institutions in any community in which 
 they settled in large numbers and acquired Amer- 
 ican citizenship. Americans, with their superior 
 command of capital, larger experience in organ- 
 ization and management, as well as their inherent 
 animosity to the form of government by which 
 Japan is ruled, would, if resident there in large 
 numbers, not only threaten the Japanese by their 
 industrial competition, but menace the very exist- 
 ence of the government itself. 
 
 The Americanization of Japan would mean the 
 end of the Japanese state as it exists to-day 
 and would make necessary a reconstruction much 
 more difficult than that by which Japan has within 
 the lifetime of living men emerged from seclusion 
 and become a world power ; with the Japanization 
 of America we would give up all the things our 
 grandfathers fought for. Neither of these even- 
 tualities is probable or possible, but the problems 
 which they involve are projected on us in minor 
 degree with every increase in immigration or in- 
 tercourse between the two peoples. -In its menac- 
 ing possibilities the problem of immigration is as 
 serious for Japan as for America, and if Japan 
 were threatened by the influx of a large number 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC 3 
 
 of Americans who would purchase land and set 
 themselves up in competition with native labor- 
 ers, we might expect to hear of a much greater 
 outpouring of protests and restrictive legislation 
 there than has been occasioned here by Japanese 
 immigration. The circumstance that America of- 
 fers to Japanese opportunities which Japan does 
 not offer to Americans has compelled America to 
 take certain defensive actions which Japan can 
 forgo, because Americans never have and never 
 will go to Japan in large numbers.^ 
 
 This is but one of the many complex problems 
 of the Pacific which are pressing for solution. 
 Though never seeking a quarrel with Japan and 
 though having no ambitions for possessions in the 
 Pacific any more extensive than those we now 
 hold, a number of events of the present generation 
 have in a striking and unmistakable way placed 
 
 1 The American population of Japan is about 1,700, the total 
 American and European population of the coxmtry being less 
 than 10,000. Of the American population probably half may 
 be classified as missionaries, members of missionaries' families, 
 teachers, or members of the diplomatic and consular service. 
 There are also a number not engaged in any occupation who 
 make Japan their home. Certainly less than one-third are 
 making their living in Japan in the sense that they derive 
 their income directly or indirectly from the Japanese. More 
 than one-half though living in the country are supported by 
 salaries paid in America. The Japanese population of the 
 United States is about 100,000, practically all of whom derive a 
 living from America and in competition with Americans. 
 
4 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Japan and tlie United States as the champions of 
 opposing and conflicting aims and interests. The 
 conflict of interests of the two. countries is not a 
 possible development of the future ; it is an imme- 
 diate and at-present-existing fact, which no amount 
 of peace-advocate logic can reason away. In the 
 course of time one of the two countries must recede 
 from its present position. We must give up some 
 of our cherished traditions and renounce policies 
 in which all Americans have taken a just pride, 
 or Japan must give up imperial ambitions which 
 are dear to all Japanese and have dominated state 
 policy for years. 
 
 Tiis book is not written to exaggerate the prob- 
 lems or to alarm Americans. It is the sincere wish 
 of the author that the problems find a peaceful 
 solution and that the ocean which separates Japan 
 from the mainland of America remain pacific in 
 fact as well as in name. But a solution is not to 
 be found until the problem is stated in definite 
 terms, nor does it aid toward a better understand- 
 ing of the situation to give the Japanese credit for 
 a sentiment they do not possess, and attribute to 
 them a code of morality which is as strange to 
 them as is hari kari to us. 
 
 If the Japan which really exists on the other side 
 of the Pacific were the Japan which exists in the 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC 5 
 
 minds of many Americans, there would be no seri- 
 ous problem of the Pacific, nor would there be an 
 excuse for this addition to the voluminous litera- 
 ture on the country. The Japan of the wonderful 
 cherry blossoms, the fascinating geishas, and mag- 
 nificent Fujiyama is told of in a thousand pretty 
 books and is graven on the hearts of ten thousand 
 travelers. It is a beautiful and a wonderful coun- 
 try. But this is not the real Japan with which 
 Americans of this war-cursed age are concerned. 
 Cherry blossoms, geishas — the kind of stuff post- 
 cards are made of — are useful to entertain a bored 
 tourist and supply him with thrills and impres- 
 sions, but of no more importance to America than 
 the cathedral chimes which break the stillness of 
 Eussia's white night, or of the golden-skinned 
 maidens who grace the dirty streets of Tehuante- 
 pec. 
 
 The Japan which we should know is the Japan 
 of farms and factories and fishermen, ruled by a 
 little group of ambitious statesmen and dominated 
 by the imperialistic aims which dominated Ger- 
 many. It is a Japan which has at its command 
 all the superior forces of Western civilization, 
 modem battleships, a trained army, a highly or- 
 ganized industrial system, but in its uses of these 
 forces is subject to none of the restraints which 
 
6 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 govern other powers. The history of the world 
 would have been quite different but for the fact 
 that modern weapons of warfare were not per- 
 fected until civilization had taught a certain mod- 
 eration in their use. Kublai Khan, Hideyoshi, or 
 Tammerlane, if possessed of the weapons and 
 modem forces held by a secondary power to-day, 
 would have devastated the earth. In Japan we 
 see a power still partially under the influence of 
 barbaric traditions of warfare and conquest and 
 yet possessed of all the weapons and powers of 
 the most enlightened countries. A study of her 
 modern history shows that she maintains a dou- 
 ble standard of conduct — one for use with strong 
 nations, the other for use with weak ones. Japan 
 shows to Western nations a studied and careful 
 observance of Western traditions and codes, and 
 yet in her relations with weaker Asiatic powers 
 relapses into the use of brutal tactics which re- 
 veal a code of action and a national psychology 
 as strange to the American of to-day as the 
 strangest, wildest story ever brought from Asia, 
 the land of fakes and fables. 
 
 It is this Japan we must reckon with in titie set- 
 tlement of our differences, not the Japan of senti- 
 ment and imagination. In the following pages the 
 author will attempt to measure the power of this 
 
PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC 7 
 
 Japan and the restraints on that power ; note the 
 points at issue between Japan and the United 
 States ; and state the methods which past history- 
 has taught us we may expect Japan to use in ac- 
 complishing her aims. 
 
CHAPTER n 
 
 THE BEAL ESTATE POINT OP VIEW 
 
 WE Americans have often been accused 
 of bragging too insistently about the 
 size and the potential wealth of our 
 national domain, a habit we have doubtless in- 
 herited from our grandfathers, who had little else 
 to brag about. The temptation to measure our 
 acreage against that of less bulky nations is al- 
 ways strong, for it can always be done with the 
 certainty that it will show our own superiority. 
 The temptation is never so strong as when Japan 
 is under discussion, for against no other power 
 can we array such an impressive showing of 
 greater acreage of fields and forests and greater 
 extent of mines. 
 
 The Empire of Japan is composed of several 
 thousand islands, only five of which are as large 
 as the State of Connecticut, the others being so 
 small that none of them is of any importance 
 and hundreds are not inhabited. Of the five 
 islands which may be said to make up Japan, 
 Honshu, the largest, is the same size as Kansas 
 
 8 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 9 
 
 (81,000 square miles) ; Hokkaido, next in area, is 
 about the size of South Carolina (30,000 square 
 miles) ; Kyushu and Formosa together are about 
 equal to the area of Maine, while Shikoku is 
 smaller than New Jersey. The entire area of the 
 Empire is only 600 square miles greater than the 
 area of California (158,360 square miles). 
 
 However, while the area of this small kingdom 
 is about the same as that of California, the extent 
 of its fields is much less. In California one-third 
 of the total area is under cultivation, while in 
 Japan the cultivated area is only one-eighth. A 
 large part of the untUled portion is covered with 
 mountains and hills often surpassingly beautiful 
 but always unproductive. Even the native grass 
 which softens the outliues of the hills and decks 
 the valleys in green, is coarse and hard, and like 
 many other things in Japan is more decorative 
 than useful. It adds to the beauty of the land- 
 scape but will cut the intestines of sheep which 
 graze on it. Mountainous Switzerland contains 
 six times the proportion of agricultural land that 
 is to be found in Japan, where the fields under cul- 
 tivation cover but 20,000 square miles. That is 
 the area from which the present population of 60 
 miUions is fed except as they are able to purchase 
 food from other countries and supplement the 
 
10 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 produce of the farms with fish and seaweed from 
 the neighboring waters. Nearly the entire popu- 
 lation lives near this source of food supply. 
 There is no part of Japan more than one hundred 
 miles from the sea coast and only one small sec- 
 tion in the interior of the main island is more than 
 fifty miles distant. Both in quantity and quality 
 of fish, few waters are richer than those which 
 surround the beautiful island empire. 
 
 Until a comparatively few years ago Japan had 
 no foreign commerce and no manufacturing indus- 
 tries of any importance, the country being essen- 
 tially agricultural. The workers of the country 
 have always been farmers and fishermen and, 
 despite the recent progress in manufacturing, the 
 farming population is still predominant and farm- 
 ing remains the most important industry. The 
 farms are naturally very small, averaging less 
 than three and one-half acres. This average in- 
 cludes the areas of upland pastures and plains, 
 which take up fully one-third of what is counted as 
 the cultivated area. 
 
 It has often been pointed out that the population 
 of Japan is not so dense as in Belgium or Eng- 
 land. But Belgium and England are almost 
 wholly arable; Japan is almost wholly mountain- 
 ous. If we eliminate from the figures of area the 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 11 
 
 unproductive lands of eacli country, the popula- 
 tion per square mile works out, approximately: 
 England, 466 ; Belgium, 702 ; Japan, 2688. A pop- 
 ulation of 2688 on every square mile of arable 
 land — ^less than a quarter of an acre of land for 
 each person! There is more good farm land in 
 mountainous Kentucky than in all Japan. 
 
 Japanese publicists, anxious to make the best 
 possible showing for the resources of their coun- 
 try, have often contended that though the soil of 
 Japan is meager in extent, it is so fertile, comes 
 under the influence of such a genial climate and is 
 so skilfully cultivated that its agricultural wealth 
 may be compared very favorably with countries 
 possessing a more generous domain. This is only 
 partially true.^ In some parts of Japan several 
 
 iThe erroneous statement that several crops a year are pro- 
 duced in Japan is to be found in nearly every book written on 
 the country. Mr. Chamberlain, in his authoritative work, 
 Things Japanese, remarks on the prevalence of this idea. He 
 says: "Many Europeans believe that two rice crops are pro- 
 duced in the year. This occurs as a solitary exception in the 
 province of Tosa, where the warming effect of the Kuro-shio, 
 or Japanese Gulf Stream, makes itself felt with special energy. 
 Elsewhere such a thing is rendered impossible by the length 
 and severity of the winter." According to the official statisticg, 
 which may always be depended on to take the most optimiatie 
 view of Japanese resources, less than one-third of the rice 
 fields are classed as "two crop fields." See Japcm Tear Book, 
 1914 edition, page 341. In actual practice, most of these "two 
 crop" fields really produce three crops in two year*. 
 
12 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 crops a year are grown, but here the law of di- 
 minishing returns works as inexorably as else- 
 where and the more frequent the crop the less is 
 the yield. In these favored sections excellent sys- 
 tems of irrigation rob drouths of their terror and 
 the climate is so genial that late spring frosts 
 never come to kill the growing crops. But these 
 favorable conditions are not universal. The Em- 
 pire of Japan dots an area which is roughly 1800 
 miles from north to south and 2200 miles from 
 east to west. If we were to place the southern 
 point of Formosa a few miles south of the south- 
 ern tip of Florida, a point which is on the same 
 parallel of latitude, the country would extend over 
 all the Atlantic seaboard and the northernmost 
 island of Hokkaido would be in Maine. " Or if we 
 were to put the southernmost point of Kyushu in 
 the south of Sicily, it would make a long narrow 
 country covering the whole of Italy, Switzerland, 
 Alsace-Lorraine, Baden, Wiirttemberg, Hesse, and 
 the Ehenish provinces of Prussia. Or if you 
 placed its southernmost point at Assouan, in 
 Egypt, which is on the same parallel of latitude 
 with the south of Japan, you would get a long nar- 
 row empire reaching from there to about Warsaw, 
 in Poland." 2 
 
 iEverjf-day Japan, by Arthur Lloyd. 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 13 
 
 Within this great range of distances there are 
 about the same differences of climate and of soil 
 fertility one would find in the European or Ameri- 
 can territories to which it has been compared. 
 Though some parts are very rich, in many others 
 the soil is thin and climatic conditions make the 
 crop uncertain. In the past five years, though the 
 area planted to rice, the principal crop, has re- 
 mained practically the same, the production has 
 varied more than ten per cent, from year to year, 
 while there has been a still greater variation in 
 the non-irrigated crops. 
 
 The natural thinness of the soil is shown by the 
 fact that Japan, considering its farm acreage, is 
 the best market in the world for commercial fer- 
 tilizers, and a constantly increasing amount is 
 needed to maintain the fertility of the soil. The 
 yearly consumption of fertilizers, domestic and 
 imported, is estimated at above $100,000,000 or 
 say $5 per acre for all cultivated lands.^ Of this 
 about one-half is imported. 
 
 This enormous amount of fertilizer is used with 
 the greatest care and the tiny patches which are 
 called farms in Japan are cultivated like American 
 flower gardens. The plants are coddled and 
 nursed to maturity with an attention to details of 
 
 » Japan Tear Book, 1914 edition, page 343. 
 
14 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 which the American fanner has never dreamed. 
 Wheat, com, and rice are planted in forcing beds 
 as lettuce or tomatoes are planted in America, and, 
 when the young plants have attained sufficient 
 growth, are very carefully transplanted to the field 
 where every clod is broken up and every weed re- 
 moved. Thereafter the cultivation of each plant 
 is a daily task to which as much care is given as 
 an American florist would bestow on his favorite 
 rose bush. Every insect is picked off, every weed 
 removed before it has an opportunity to sap the 
 fertility of the soil. If the farmer fails in an at- 
 tempt to nurse a weak plant back to vigor, it is 
 immediately replaced by another from the forcing 
 bed so that no square inch of the small fields re- 
 mains unproductive. But for all of their labor 
 and their careful use of fertilizers, the farmers of 
 Japan do not raise remarkable crops, as shown by 
 the following average yield for a five-year period : * 
 
 Rice bushels per acre, 32 
 
 Barley bushels per acre, 30 
 
 Wheat bushels per acre, 20 
 
 Indian millet bushels per acre, 20 
 
 Sorghum bushels per acre, 24 
 
 Barnyard millet bushels per acre, 26 
 
 Soy beans bushels per acre, 15 
 
 * Outlines of Agriculture in Jap<m, published by the Agricul- 
 tural Bureau, Department of Agriculture and Commerce, Tokyo. 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 15 
 
 Small beans bushels per acre, 13 
 
 Buckwheat bushels per acre, 15 
 
 Sweet potatoes pounds per acre, 8384 
 
 Cotton (in seed) pounds per acre, 448 
 
 Hemp pounds per acre, 648 
 
 Leaf tobacco pounds per acre, 1216 
 
 The statistics do not make a very good showing 
 either for the ability of the Japanese farmer or 
 for the fertility of his land. The United States 
 is not generally known as a rice producing coun- 
 try, though the acreage devoted to that useful crop 
 is more than one million and is growing larger 
 each year. Eice is grown in Texas, Louisiana, 
 Arkansas, and California. According to the most 
 recent statistics of the Department of Agriculture 
 at Washington the average yield per acre is 35 
 bushels, or 3 bushels greater than the average for 
 Japan. The average barley yield for the Western 
 States, the greatest barley producing section of 
 the United States, is 33 bushels, the average yield 
 for the entire United States being 30 bushels, ex- 
 actly the same as for Japan. The average wheat 
 yield of the United States is far less than the 
 average for Japan, but if we eliminate the sections 
 where wheat is grown as a catch crop, the average 
 is greater. America's average yield of buckwheat 
 is 20 bushels ; Japan's 15. Japan, with truck gar- 
 den methods and the liberal use of fertilizer, raises 
 
16 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 20 bushels of corn to the acre; the United States 
 raises 28. 
 
 If we compare Japan's crop yields with those 
 of any European country, where the intensive cul- 
 tivation common in Japan is more general than in 
 the United States, the contrast is even more strik- 
 ing. There is scarcely a country in Europe which 
 does not raise crops far superior to those of Japan. 
 Japan's cultivation, if we may judge it by the size 
 of the farms, the amount of fertilizer used and the 
 manual labor involved, is the most iatensive in the 
 world ; the cultivation of the United States is the 
 most careless. The number of farmers in the 
 United States and in Japan is practically the same, 
 for while 64 per cent, of Japan's population of 60 
 millions are set down as farmers, we make a simi- 
 lar classification of about 30 per cent, of our popu- 
 lation of 100 millions. The farmers of Japan pro- 
 duce annually about 400 million bushels of grain 
 (including rice, barley, wheat, com, millet, beans, 
 and peas), 3 million tons of potatoes and vege- 
 tables. The American farmer produces annually 
 5000 million bushels of grain, 14 million tons of 
 potatoes, 64 million tons of hay, and 13 million 
 bales of cotton. In brief, the annual products of 
 the Japanese farms are worth 500 million dollars, 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 17 
 
 or less than $9 per capita. The annual products 
 of the American farms are worth 6000 million dol- 
 lars, or $60 per capita. Undoubtedly the expendi- 
 ture of physical labor on the part of the Japanese 
 is much greater than that of the American, though 
 his products are worth only one-twelfth as much as 
 the products of the American farmer. 
 
 In old Japan, in the days before the ambition to 
 become a world power seized on the rulers of the 
 country, the Japanese fanners, in spite of their 
 slender resources, were quite able to supply food- 
 stuffs for their own country. It was not until the 
 weight of a huge standing army and a big navy 
 had been added to the national burdens that the 
 farmer began to fail, Japan has for many years 
 been unable to supply her own foodstuffs and has 
 been compelled to import them in constantly in- 
 creasing quantities. From an annual average of 
 about $25,000,000 a few years ago, the annual aver- 
 age of imports of foodstuffs has risen to above 
 $50,000,000. The important items imported in 
 
 1913 were : 
 
 Rice $24,000,000 
 
 Beans 3,000,000 
 
 Flour 1,000,000 
 
 Sugar 18,000,000 
 
 Wheat 6,000,000 
 
18 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 The total of all foodstuffs imported that year 
 was $55,000,000. Against this must be credited 
 the exportation of a certain amount of foodstuffs, 
 of which rice, tea and sugar make up the principal 
 items. Japan is both an importer and exporter of 
 rice for she sells her best rice abroad and imports 
 cheaper qualities for home consumption. In 
 former years her exports of foodstuffs balanced 
 her imports, but recently they have fallen far be- 
 low and are now barely enough to cover the im- 
 ports of oil cake brought in for use as fertilizer. 
 
 In the year for which the figures above are given, 
 the exports of foodstuffs, amounting to $21,000,000, 
 included the following items : 
 
 Rice $2,000,000 
 
 Tea 5,000,000 
 
 Marine products 3,000,000 
 
 Sugar 8,000,000 
 
 The meagemess of the soil has made the strug- 
 gle for existence always hard in Japan and has 
 had a profound effect on the national life and char- 
 acter of the people. During the greater part of 
 our history we Americans have had before us fer- 
 tile plains which were to be had by driving out the 
 savages. The Japanese who centuries ago drove 
 out the aborigines and possessed themselves of the 
 country gained a more beautiful but poorer prize 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 19 
 
 in their circumscribed plains and narrow valleys. 
 These strikingly different conditions have natu- 
 rally affected the national characteristics of the 
 two peoples and, just as the lands occupied by them 
 present greater physical differences than are to 
 be found between the domains of any other two 
 powers, so are the people separated by racial dif- 
 ferences greater than those which separate any 
 others. These are not the differences of race 
 prejudice and color, but differences which find 
 equal cause in the histories and the physical en- 
 vironments of Americans and Japanese. What 
 some of these racial differences are will be consid- 
 ered in later chapters. For the present it is 
 enough to point out that, while we in America have 
 the most liberal allowance of land on which to 
 raise our food and the food of others, Japan has 
 the most meager allowance. Japan might exist in 
 luxury on the uncultivated fence corners of 
 America. 
 
 It is difficult for us who have always had land 
 for the asking, or the homesteading, to visualize 
 the conditions which confront a less fortunate peo- 
 ple, but it may aid us to realize the situation in 
 Japan if we imagine what the struggle for exist- 
 ence in America would mean if the entire popu- 
 lation of the United States were crowded into the 
 
20 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 State of Ohio. Considering only the area and pro- 
 ductivity of the soil, the citizens of our Republic 
 would have a better opportunity to prosper on the 
 diminished area of Ohio than the subjects of Japan 
 have in the country they now possess. But if 
 Ohio were given to the Japanese as it was given to 
 us, uncultivated, unimproved and infested by sav- 
 ages, it is doubtful if the Japanese would have 
 made of it what we have, or that they would have 
 made serious attempts to take possession of it. 
 
 It is frequently asserted that every square foot 
 of arable land in Japan is under intensive cultiva- 
 tion. Doubtless this is the impression one gets on 
 coming from America, where in some places at 
 least, the owners still count their possessions by 
 the section and the quarter section rather than the 
 acre. But a closer study of the area of the coun- 
 try and its development reveals the fact that the 
 present area under cultivation might be appreci- 
 ably increased. Though theirs is a mountainous 
 country, the Japanese are not mountaineers, but 
 dwellers of the plains and valleys. There they 
 live, contented with their narrow fields, and the 
 sides of hills and mountains which would be ter- 
 raced by Chinese or Igorots remain uncultivated 
 and unproductive. The government authorities 
 after a careful survey of the entire country have 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OP VIEW 21 
 
 readied the conclusion that simply by reclaiming 
 and putting under cultivation the land which is 
 inclined at an angle of less than 15 degrees, the 
 area of arable land may be doubled. 
 
 Though living in a country where the cramp of 
 land hunger was felt long before the fertile plains 
 of America were discovered to Europe, the Japa- 
 nese are not pioneers and know nothing of that 
 passion for ownership and development of land 
 which has made so much American history. 
 They have not felt that lure of the distant plain 
 which in less than a century has carried the Ameri- 
 cans through deserts and the strongholds of hos- 
 tile Indians from the Mississippi Valley to the 
 Pacific Coast, a distance much greater than that 
 which the Japanese people have traversed in the 
 twenty-five centuries of national existence which 
 they claim. In Hokkaido, the important northern 
 island of the Japanese Archipelago, there is 
 enough uncultivated land to take care of Japan's 
 surplus population for many years to come. But 
 the island remains sparsely inhabited and is not 
 the objective of any steady stream of immigration 
 to be compared with that which in America con- 
 stantly moves from the crowded States to the less 
 thickly settled portions of the country where land 
 is cheap and plentiful. 
 
22 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 The Japanese appear to lack that moral courage 
 which has enabled other peoples to plunge into the 
 "wilderness and by their own individual efforts 
 wrest a living from the soil. Their development 
 of their own country was slow and tedious. They 
 did not press on into the wilderness until compelled 
 to do so by strong economic pressure in the por- 
 tions already settled. Their development of Ja- 
 pan is not yet completed and they are demanding 
 land in the most favored sections of other coun- 
 tries while fertile parts of their own country re- 
 main uncultivated and unproductive. Unlike the 
 Chinese, the Japanese will not go where there is 
 either extreme heat or extreme cold. The heat 
 keeps them from Formosa and the cold from the 
 northern parts of their ancient domain. The 
 Japanese are not to be found in any numbers in 
 either Formosa or the Federated Malay States, 
 and these places have been developed by Chinese 
 who had opportunities no better than those of the 
 Japanese. Japanese claims to a broader oppor- 
 tunity must always be discounted by this reluc- 
 tance on their part to earn the opportunity they 
 demand. Other peoples, the Spaniards, British, 
 French, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Americans, 
 who have sought and found greater opportunities 
 for their energies, have gone into the waste places 
 
THE EEAL ESTATE POINT OF VIEW 23 
 
 of the world and made the wastes blossom and 
 produce. In Formosa, Japan has had an oppor- 
 tunity to do this, but after twenty years of occu- 
 pation of the country the Japanese settlers there 
 are few and their achievements of little conse- 
 quence. They have yet to learn that it is not the 
 conquest of the soldier but the conquest of the 
 farmer which gives a final title. 
 
 The Japanese cultivates with intense care the 
 small plot of land which belongs to him, but cen- 
 turies of life in a country where all individualism 
 and all initiative in the lower classes were crushed 
 out of existence have left him without a mentality 
 to conceive the possibilities of an uncultivated hill- 
 side, or a piece of unimproved plain more than a 
 day's journey from his native village. There is 
 no more striking example of the lack of initiative 
 with which he is so often charged. 
 
 Denied the possession of a wide expanse of fer- 
 tile soil, the Japanese are also denied the safe pos- 
 session of the small areas of land they occupy. 
 Typhoons, floods, earthquakes and volcanic erup- 
 tions — all of the hysteria of nature which are most 
 terrifying to mankind and most destructive to his 
 property — are, in this beautiful country, not iso- 
 lated incidents to be encountered once in a life- 
 time, but events to be expected during eaxih. year, 
 
24 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 like the coming of frost or the heat of summer. 
 The many rivers which in their gentler moods flow 
 in graceful curves through the flower-decked val- 
 leys become raging torrents with each rainy sea- 
 son, devastating the valleys which they formerly 
 adorned. In the most fortunate years the damage 
 by flood always exceeds several million dollars, 
 and an oflficial record kept for more than thirty 
 years shows an average loss of life from floods of 
 693 yearly. The average annual destruction of 
 property because of floods, typhoons and tidal 
 waves, as shown by records kept for a number of 
 years, is nearly $15,000,000. I doubt if in our 
 own wide expanse of territory with its many un- 
 curbed rivers our annual loss from floods is so 
 great. 
 
 Many of the mountains which crown Japan with 
 majestic beauty are of volcanic origin, and some of 
 those which have long been considered extinct oc- 
 casionally become dangerously active and compel 
 the desertion of large areas of the country which 
 for centuries have been occupied by farms and vil- 
 lages. The latest example of this was the eruption 
 of Sakurajima, which after being quiescent for 
 many years broke out in the early part of 1914 
 and devastated the beautiful island of the same 
 name, covering a large area of farm land with 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OP VIEW 25 
 
 ashes and making many thousands homeless. 
 About fifty volcanoes in Japan are still accounted 
 as active, and there have been few decades in re- 
 cent history without a destructive eruption of one 
 or more of them. 
 
 Earthquakes come with great frequency to ter- 
 rorize all. An earthquake is something to which 
 no one ever becomes accustomed. After much 
 travel one may toss through a severe storm at sea 
 without apprehension, but when the solid earth be- 
 neath one begins to shake and quiver, the stoutest 
 hearts grow faint. In Japan these natural appre- 
 hensions are strengthened by a study of local his- 
 tory which is full of records of earthquakes carry- 
 ing death and destruction with them. Without 
 going into a record of ancient disasters or of the 
 minor ones which are of yearly occurrence, a list 
 of recent severe earthquake shocks will give some 
 idea of what Japan has always suffered from 
 them: 
 
 Houses Persons Persons 
 
 Date 
 
 Place 
 
 Destroyed 
 
 Killed 
 
 Injured 
 
 Oct. 28, 1891 
 
 Mino, Owari 
 
 222,501 
 
 7,273 
 
 17,775 
 
 Oct. 22, 1894 
 
 Skonai 
 
 8,403 
 
 726 
 
 977 
 
 June 15, 1896 
 
 North Japan 
 
 13,073 
 
 27,122 
 
 9,247 
 
 Aug. 31, 1896 
 
 Ou 
 
 8,995 
 
 209 
 
 779 
 
 Aug. 14, 1909 
 
 Mino, Omi 
 
 9,544 
 
 37 
 
 441 
 
26 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 These natural characteristics of the country in 
 which they dwell have gone far toward forming the 
 character of the Japanese. The absence of large 
 areas of fertile land has necessarily made them 
 industrious, though not energetic. They cannot 
 exist like their Filipino neighbors on the labor 
 of a few days each year. There has always been 
 the necessity of unremitting toil, much like that 
 enforced on the Igorots who were driven by other 
 Filipinos to occupy a portion of the Philippines 
 similar to Japan in its wealth of mountains and 
 its poverty of productive soil. Through centuries 
 of comparative privation the Japanese have 
 learned to live by a maximum of labor and a mini- 
 mum of clothing, food and shelter. Living in a 
 country so beautiful they have very naturally be- 
 come a nation of artists, who may or may not rival 
 the artists of the Occident, but have at least added 
 more to the art of the world than they have added 
 to its wealth or its ethics. 
 
 The value of Japan's fields, forests and mines, 
 as compared to the value of American fields, for- 
 ests and mines, is insignificant, nor is the ratio 
 ever likely to be materially changed. While Ja- 
 pan's national resources are under development 
 and are constantly growing more important and 
 more valuable, the same is true of America, with 
 
THE REAL ESTATE POINT OP VIEW 27 
 
 the difference that there is nmch greater oppor- 
 tunity for development in America than in Japan. 
 In natural wealth the two countries occupy ex- 
 treme positions, one being the wealthiest and the 
 other the poorest of the great powers. A few 
 comparative statistics will give some idea of how 
 great this difference is : ^ 
 
 Total area of land in square miles: 
 
 United States 3,571,492 
 
 Japan 158,960 
 
 In these figures colonies and overseas possessions are 
 omitted. 
 
 Annual value of farm products: 
 
 United States $6,000,000,000 
 
 Japan 500,000,000 
 
 Value of farm lands: 
 
 United States $40,000,000,000 
 
 Japan 2,500,000,000 
 
 Value of annual mining products, including non-me- 
 tallic minerals: 
 
 United States $3,110,000,000 
 
 Japan 73,000,000 
 
 Value of annual forestry products: 
 
 United States ' $1,156,000,000 
 
 Japan 50,000,000 
 
 5 Figures relating to the United States are taken from the 
 Statesman's Tear Book, while those relating to Japan are taken 
 chiefly from the Jwpan Tear Book, both 1914 editions. Where 
 figures from the JapoM Tear Book are not available, the latest 
 and most authoritative estimates of Japanese authorities are 
 given. 
 
28 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Capital of banks, savings banks, loan and trust com- 
 panies: 
 
 United States $1,039,000,000 
 
 Japan 280,000,000 
 
 Individual bank deposits: 
 
 United States $11,528,000,000 
 
 Japan 700,000,000 
 
 Value of annual product of fisheries : 
 
 United States $54,000,000 
 
 Japan 50,000,000 
 
 Annual exports of raw materials and manufactures: 
 
 United States $2,465,000,000 
 
 Japan 316,000,000 
 
 This list might be lengthened indefinitely, but 
 enough items have been given to indicate the great 
 differences between the two countries. So far as 
 natural wealth goes, the Pacific Ocean divides 
 those who have the most from those who have the 
 least. 
 
CHAPTEE in 
 
 japan's GBEAT IIjLTJSION 
 
 AFTER one has read through the tedious 
 myths and unromantic romances which 
 make up the early part of Japanese his- 
 tory, and the more authentic accounts of civil wars 
 and court intrigues which make up the latter part, 
 the one important fact which rewards his study is 
 that there has never been a struggle of the Japa- 
 nese people for liberty or for personal rights. 
 The idea of a sovereign people has never intruded 
 to retard the ambitions of kings and courtiers, and 
 is but little understood even at this late day. The 
 many bloody battles which have marked Japanese 
 history have always been fought to decide who 
 would rule, never to determine how those in power 
 would rule. Great families have fallen and others 
 have risen to power through the fortunes of bat- 
 tle, but no victory has ever been consecrated by a 
 great principle of human rights established, a just 
 cause vindicated. Eulers have changed places 
 and subjects have changed masters, but the rela- 
 tionship between the two classes has never been 
 
 29 
 
30 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 altered. The Japanese people, suffering oppres- 
 sions which few other peoples have endured, have 
 never availed themselves of that right which the 
 most despotic ruler can never take away — the right 
 to revolt. 
 
 This record is in striking contrast with that of 
 our own history through which we are able to trace 
 a slow but gradual development of personal liber- 
 ties. The great pages are those which have meant 
 a surrender of kingly rights to the people, the 
 breaking down of tyrannical old ideas and the es- 
 tablishment of new principles in which there was 
 hope of greater happiness. The big events of 
 Japanese history record nothing more important 
 than a change of masters, some more oppressive, 
 some less, than their predecessors. The people 
 have on many occasions taken up arms to aid their 
 feudal lord in his petty warfare against a rival, 
 or to further his ambition to gain supreme power, 
 but they have never struck a blow to help them- 
 selves. 
 
 This remarkable record, as well as many other 
 remarkable things about the Japanese people, is 
 accounted for by the alleged divinity of their Em- 
 peror, who is the head of the state, the source 
 alike of sovereignty and morality. For his au- 
 thority he does not rely on divine right ; he is him- 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 31 
 
 self a divinity separated from his subjects as the 
 Japanese heaven is separated from the Japanese 
 earth. Obedience to his rescripts and loyalty to 
 him is the beginning and the end of Japanese 
 morality. Having complied with these require- 
 ments the Japanese subject may search his con- 
 science and find there nothing to give him any 
 qualms. The Japanese constitution, written and 
 interpreted more with a view to strengthening the 
 power and prestige of the Emperor than to safe- 
 guarding the rights of the people, declares him to 
 be sacred and inviolable, the head of the Empire, 
 holding in himself all rights of sovereignty. The 
 entire structure of the Japanese state and the 
 entire system of Japanese morahty are based on 
 this foundation. Probably it is the strongest pos- 
 sible foundation for a people cut off from the rest 
 of the world and kept in ignorance, but many 
 believe it cannot withstand the skepticism of an 
 enlightened era. 
 
 Quite as important, from a political point of 
 view, as the belief in the divinity of the Emperor, 
 is the Japanese conception of morality, as based 
 on the idea of loyalty. It might be said that the 
 Japanese word disloyalty is the nearest synonym 
 for the Christian word sin. The moral plumb 
 line in Japan has always been loyalty — ^loyalty 
 
32 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 to Emperor, feudal lord, husband, parents, fam- 
 ily or clan. No moral system or religion could 
 have been invented which would have more se- 
 curely fastened on the lower classes the rule of 
 the upper. 
 
 The first tenet of the Shinto creed (the national 
 ethical code of Japan which has been garnished 
 with the trappings of religion), and, indeed the 
 only tenet of that system which may be stated with 
 any degree of certainty, is, ' ' Obey the Emperor. ' ' 
 No religion has ever been taught more system- 
 atically, or strengthened with more petty devices 
 of ritual and superstition, and no religion has been 
 used more successfully as a means of keeping the 
 people silent under oppressive and unjust rule. 
 Under the name of "moral instruction" a large 
 part of the curriculum in the public schools is 
 given over to the teachings of this creed of the 
 divinity of the Emperor and of loyalty to su- 
 periors. The pupils are taught that they should 
 be diligent in their studies and work, brave on 
 the battlefield, and devoted to the interests of the 
 country, because in that way they will show their 
 loyalty to the Emperor. Every good act is com- 
 mended as an act of loyalty to him, every bad one 
 as an act of disloyalty. How successful this 
 teaching is has been shown in many instances of 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 33 
 
 reckless bravery on the part of Japanese troops. 
 Their Emperor is the master of their souls as weU 
 as the ruler of their bodies. 
 
 Japan has more moral teaching than any other 
 country in the world. It is the first thing taught 
 to school children. It is preached by every supe- 
 rior official to his inferiors. The Japanese police- 
 man will exhort an unruly crowd with maxims 
 from the Emperor's rescript. Heads of govern- 
 ment bureaus vie with each other in drawing up 
 rules for the regulation of the lives of their sub- 
 ordinates and in the promulgation of good advice 
 which, if followed, would make moral paragons of 
 the Japanese. This moral teaching always finds 
 its authority in the divinity of the Emperor and 
 loyalty to him. By making loyalty to the Em- 
 peror a religious as well as a civic duty the rulers 
 of Japan have, as far as it is possible for any 
 rulers to do so, robbed the people of the right to 
 rebel. Believing in the divinity of their Emperor, 
 it would be as vain and impious for a Japanese to 
 demand greater rights of him, as it would be for 
 a Christian to demand that the Ten Command- 
 ments be changed or the Sermon on the Mount re- 
 vised. 
 
 This political stratagem of surrounding the 
 nominal ruler with mystery and with the attributes 
 
34 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 of divinity is not peculiar to Japan. It lias been 
 found in many countries of backward political de- 
 velopment. But nowhere else has it survived so 
 long or been made use of so successfully. Its 
 long survival and its strength at the present day 
 is proof alike of the high political abilities of those 
 who have ruled Japan and of the retarded develop- 
 ment of those who have been ruled. It is not an 
 evidence either of the ability or the divinity of the 
 Imperial family. Their long survival is a tri- 
 umph of eugenics and nothing more. Except on a 
 few occasions the emperors of Japan have never 
 ruled, but have been the puppets of those who sur- 
 rounded them, who if they did not create at least 
 have kept alive the popular belief in that divinity 
 and have traded on it to their own ends. It has 
 only been by isolating the Emperor and depriving 
 him of all real power that his theoretical power 
 and divinity have survived. On the few occasions 
 when the emperors have been allowed an unre- 
 stricted use of their powers, they haVe, like false 
 divinities elsewhere, weakened their prestige by 
 their base actions. In the early part of the Chris- 
 tian era Japan suffered from the unrestricted 
 reign of several tyrannical rulers. The Emperor 
 Yuraku (457-459), after exiling an officer to gain 
 possession of his wife, killed his own brothers and 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 35 
 
 sisters and other members of the Imperial fam- 
 ily.^ Two of his successors were equally bloody 
 and despotic. Since that time the emperors have 
 been secluded and amused with concubines or re- 
 ligious meditation, while the real power has been 
 exercised by others, who have kept alive the idea 
 of divinity or allowed it to fall into neglect, ac- 
 cording to the political exigencies of the times. 
 
 Throughout the history of Japan the title to 
 power has been possession of the Imperial person. 
 To accomplish this has been the first task of every 
 ambitious clan or general. The authority of one 
 who held that divine symbol of power was unques- 
 tioned and was opposed only for the purpose of 
 wresting the symbol from him. Thus, while 
 everything has been done in the name of the Em- 
 peror, the Emperor has done nothing. Japanese 
 acceptance of this peculiar arrangement has been 
 explained by Dr. Grulick as arising from a charac- 
 teristic which he terms their **nominality." He 
 explains : "It accepts and, apparently at least, is 
 satisfied with a nominal state of affairs, which may 
 be quite different from the real. The theoretical 
 aspect of a question is accepted without reference 
 to the real facts. The real power may be in the 
 hands of a general or of the daimyo, but if author- 
 
 1 See page 85, vol. 1, Japan, by Brinkley. 
 
36 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ity nominally proceed from the throne, the theo- 
 retical demands are satisfied. ' ' ^ 
 
 This nominality of the Japanese, their inability 
 or refusal to distinguish between theory and fact, 
 between fancy and reality, is something which 
 every one who studies Japan and the Japanese 
 must always keep in mind, for it is the source of 
 many misconceptions. It was some years after 
 foreigners began to study Japan before they 
 probed beneath the surface of pretense and theory 
 and discovered the real political organization of 
 the country. Many more years must probably 
 pass before the common illusions about the coun- 
 try have been swept away and it comes to be 
 known as it really exists. 
 
 With the theoretical absolute authority of the 
 Emperor for guidance not only in affairs of state 
 but in morality as well, the Japanese have always 
 been the most thoroughly ruled people in the 
 world. "With this powerful backing the officials 
 of the land have governed not only the actions of 
 the people but their thoughts as well, arrogating 
 to themselves the rights of an almighty god. So 
 successful have they been that in spite of their 
 educational advances the Japanese people find it 
 difficult to make up their minds on any question 
 
 i Evolution of the Japanese, page 146. 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 37 
 
 where the decision has not been laid down by rule, 
 or a precedent set by some superior. This is not 
 wholly true of the English-speaking Japanese with 
 whom the foreigner comes in contact, for many of 
 them have broken away from the old ideas and de- 
 veloped a certain independence of thought and 
 action. But 95 per cent, of the people remain in 
 mental bondage, their minds * ' steeped in tradition 
 and laid away for safe-keeping in official hands. ' ' 
 The remarkable unanimity of opinion on national 
 affairs, which has so often been the occasion of 
 comment by foreigners, is not the result of the 
 patriotism for which the Japanese are given 
 credit, but the result of the fact that 95 per cent, 
 of the people do not think about public affairs, but 
 blindly follow their clan leaders. This tendency 
 has been well exemplified in the three most recent 
 wars in which Japan has engaged. Neither in the 
 war against China, Eussia, nor Germany was Ja- 
 pan's sovereignty assailed. In no one of them 
 was there any question of national honor at stake. 
 They were all wars of conquest, occasioned by the 
 ambitions of the military clan of Japan. Yet in 
 no case was there an anti-war party. The Japa- 
 nese Peace Societies which had been active for 
 years were strangely silent when the attack on 
 Germany as Tsingtau was planned. They have 
 
38 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 always been silent on tlie armaments of Japan 
 whicli all peace advocates must disapprove. So 
 it has always been. Japanese subjects were 
 taxed in tbe Middle Ages to support civil warfare 
 from which they could gain no benefits. They are 
 taxed to-day to support an army and navy to 
 which not one in a thousand gives intelligent ap- 
 proval. 
 
 Their lives and their thoughts are to-day regu- 
 lated to a minute degree which would drive a less 
 docUe people to revolution. Threatened with a 
 rule less despotic than that which the Japanese 
 have patiently borne for centuries, the Virginia 
 Assembly, in 1623, sent a message to the King 
 saying: "Rather than be reduced to live under 
 the like government, we desire His Majesty that 
 commissioners be sent to hang us. ' ' At the time 
 the Virginians were fightiug for their rights, the 
 Japanese were living under regulations which are 
 still preserved in the law-books of the time. Laf- 
 cadio Hearn gives an account of some of these 
 laws in his Japan, an Interpretation: 
 
 "Every class of Japanese society was under sumptu- 
 ary regulation, — the degrees of regulation varying in 
 different centuries; and this kind of legislation appears 
 to have been established at an early period. It is re- 
 corded that in the year 681 a. d., the Emperor Temmu 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 39 
 
 regulated the costumes of all classes, — 'from tlie Prinees 
 of the Blood down to the common people, — and the wear- 
 ing of headdresses and girdles, as well as of all kinds 
 of colored stuffs, — according to a scale.' The costumes 
 and the colors to be worn by priests and nuns had been 
 already fixed, by an edict issued in 679 a.d. After- 
 wards these regulations were greatly multiplied and de- 
 tailed. But it was under the Tokugawa rulers, a thou- 
 sand years later, that sumptuary laws obtained their 
 most remarkable development; and the nature of them 
 is best indicated by the regulations applying to the peas- 
 antry. Every detail of the farmer's existence was pre- 
 scribed for by law, and the cost of his dwelling, down 
 even to such trifling matters as the number and the qual- 
 ity of the dishes to be served to him at meal-times. A 
 farmer with an income of 100 koku of rice — (let us say 
 £90 to £100 per annum) — might build a house 60 feet 
 long, but no longer: he was forbidden to construct it 
 with a room containing an alcove; and he was not al- 
 lowed — except by special permission — to roof it with 
 tiles. None of his family were permitted to wear silk; 
 and in case of the marriage of his daughter to a person 
 legally entitled to wear silk, the bridegroom was to be 
 requested not to wear sUk at the wedding. Three kinds 
 of viands only were to be served at the wedding of such 
 a farmer's daughter or son; and the quality as well as 
 the quantity of the soup, fish, or sweetmeats offered to 
 the wedding-guests was legally fixed. So likewise the 
 number of the wedding-gifts : even the cost of the pres- 
 ents of rice-wine and dried fish was prescribed, and the 
 quality of the single fan which it was permissible to 
 offer the bride. At no time was a farmer allowed to 
 make any valuable presents to his friends. At a 
 funeral he might serve the guests with certain kinds of 
 
40 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 plain food; but if rice-wine were served it was not to 
 be served in wine cups — only in soup cups! (The lat- 
 ter regulation probably referred to Shinto funerals in 
 especial.) On the occasion of a child's birth, the grand- 
 parents were allowed to make only four presents (ac- 
 cording to custom), — including 'one cotton baby dress'; 
 and the values of the presents were fixed. On the occa- 
 sion of the Boy's Festival, the presents to be given to 
 the child by the whole family, including grandparents, 
 were limited by law to 'one paper-flag,' and 'two toy 
 spears.' ... A farmer whose property was assessed at 
 50 koku was forbidden to build a house more than 45 
 feet long. At the wedding of his daughter the gift 
 girdle was not to exceed 50 sen in value and it was for- 
 bidden to serve more than one kind of soup at the wed- 
 ding feast. ..." 
 
 The same negative qualities of tlie people which 
 secured an obedience to these regulations ensured 
 the payment of oppressive taxes which enabled 
 the large ruling classes to live in idleness and 
 luxury. At one period in addition to the taxes 
 on the products of the land, and on all the princi- 
 pal staples of production, there was a forced 
 corvee of thirty days of labor annually from every 
 male between the ages of twenty-one and sixty-six 
 years and of fifteen days from every minor. At 
 the end of the Ninth Century each farmer was pay- 
 ing into the central government one-eleventh of 
 the gross produce of his land, and also a forced 
 corvee of thirty days of labor annually. His taxes 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 41 
 
 did not stop here for the provincial governors and 
 local lords levied additional taxes equally heavy. 
 
 These tyrannical exactions and heavy tax levies 
 have never driven the people to rebellion. On the 
 other hand, the pretext on which authority has 
 been changed has always been the "restoration" 
 of the Emperor to those rights which he has al- 
 ways held in theory and has never held in prac- 
 tice. Each rebellious general has declared it to 
 be his intention to rescue the Emperor from those 
 who held him in their power and restore him to 
 his real authority. Each restorer has followed 
 the example of his predecessors by secluding 
 the Emperor and by ruling in the Emperor's 
 name. 
 
 The restoration of the Emperor to power in 
 1868 was not the remarkable achievement it is 
 usually thought to have been by foreigners. In- 
 deed, except for the pressure of foreign influence 
 which compelled a change in the system of govern- 
 ment, it was but a repetition of the many other 
 restorations which did not restore. The Emperor 
 to-day has little more power than was wielded by 
 his grandfather who was secluded in Kyoto while 
 the Shogun at Yedo ruled the country. The Sat- 
 suma and Choshu clansmen, the hereditary ene- 
 mies of the Shogunate family, finally overthrew 
 
42 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the last Shogun, again "restored" the Emperor 
 to power, and have since ruled Japan just as their 
 predecessors in power ruled, in the name of the 
 puppet Emperor. 
 
 The Shogun had allowed reverence for himself 
 to replace the old reverence for the Emperor, and 
 when forty years ago Prince Ito and his colleagues 
 set about building up the new Japanese state, 
 they laid the foundation by restoring to the Em- 
 peror the divinity of which he had been robbed 
 by the Shogun. Much of the pomp and mystery 
 surrounding the present ruler of Japan, which 
 most foreigners believe to be the result of tradi- 
 tions handed down from a hoary old age, are no 
 older than the present generation. They have all 
 been invented since the telephone. According to 
 Japanese history the present occupant of the 
 throne is the 120th descendant of Jimmu Tenno 
 (the descendant of the amorous sun-goddess 
 Amaterasu), who in 660 b. c. ascended to the 
 throne of Japan and became its first ruler. Each 
 year February 11 is celebrated as the anniversary 
 of the accession of Jimmu Tenno and Japanese 
 dates are reckoned from 660 b. c. But it was not 
 until a few years ago that the date of Jimmu 
 Tenno 's accession to the throne was decided on, 
 and that decision was reached by a process of re- 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 43 
 
 search no foreigner understands. It would be 
 quite as easy, witli the historical materials at 
 hand, to fix the exact day of the week, month, and 
 year when Eve ate the apple. The custom of bow- 
 ing to the picture of the Emperor, the idea that it 
 is an act of sacrilege to look on him from above 
 — these and many other devices are recent inno- 
 vations unknown to the Japanese of half a cen- 
 tury ago. 
 
 Every one who has lived in Japan for any 
 length of time will recall the many petty expedi- 
 ents, amusing to outsiders but intensely serious 
 to their inventors, to add to the cult of Emperor- 
 divinity. In the school histories one reads that 
 during the Eusso-Japanese War the Emperor was 
 at the front, encouraging his troops and aiding 
 them by his divine influence. Yet it is well known 
 that he was no nearer the front than Hiroshima, 
 a comfortable resort on the Inland Sea, a day's 
 journey from Tokyo. This Japanese perversion 
 of facts in order to increase the prestige of the 
 royal family was illustrated at the recent death of 
 the Empress Dowager. On April 9, 1914, the 
 Tokyo papers issued extras stating that the Em- 
 press Dowager, who had been at the summer pal- 
 ace at Numadzu for some time, had become criti- 
 cally iU and would be brought to Tokyo during the 
 
44 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 day. The extras further stated that the Emperor 
 and Empress had left that morning for the bed- 
 side of the Empress Dowager. 
 
 The uninitiated foreigner naturally accepted the 
 news at its face value and wondered why an old 
 lady so critically ill should be subjected to the 
 dangers of a railway journey of several hours. 
 But to the old resident the extras meant that the 
 Empress Dowager was dead. Officials of the 
 Foreign Office admitted, confidentially, to the 
 newspaper correspondents that she was dead, but 
 a strict censorship prevented the news from being 
 sent abroad. For twenty-four hours all intelli- 
 gent Japan kaew that the Empress Dowager was 
 dead, but no newspaper dared print the news. 
 The reason for this was a recently manufactured 
 tradition that no member of the Imperial family 
 dies outside the Imperial city. 
 
 During the twenty-four hours that this news was 
 kept bottled up by official authority, courtiers kept 
 up the ghastly farce of pretending that the Em- 
 press Dowager was alive. Meals were served to 
 her and when the body arrived in Tokyo it was 
 met Lq the usual way and conveyed to the Tokyo 
 residence in the red lacquered carriage of the pal- 
 ace. In the official histories of the future it will 
 be set down that the Empress Dowager died in 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 45 
 
 Tokyo on April 10, 1914, while everyone knows 
 that she died at Numadzu on April 9. There is 
 consistency in one thing. The hour and minute 
 of her death are set down with care, being the 
 exact hour and minute at which life was pro- 
 nounced extinct, but twenty -four hours later ! 
 
 During the attack on Tsingtau in the autumn 
 of 1914, hundreds of lives were sacrificed in an at- 
 tempt to make the fall of the place coincide with 
 the birthday of the Emperor, October 31, a patri- 
 otic project which the stubborn resistance of the 
 Germans thwarted. Having failed in this, the 
 army commanders did the next best thing. They 
 announced that the general attack on the place had 
 begun on October 31, and later ascribed the sur- 
 render to the auspicious date on which the attack 
 was begun. Even the date of the birthday is 
 wrong. The present Emperor was bom on Au- 
 gust 31, 1877, but for some reason which I have 
 forgotten, the date was arbitrarily changed to 
 October 31. The Emperor is officially two months 
 younger than he really is. 
 
 The outward exhibitions of reverence for the 
 Emperor are not left by the officials to the voli- 
 tions of the people, but are subject to police regu- 
 lation down to the minutest detail. When the 
 funeral of the Empress Dowager was held the po- 
 
46 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 lice were busy for many days before tbe event 
 issuing a complicated set of regulations wbose 
 observance would ensure an outward sliow of re- 
 spect. I was a spectator at the funeral and found 
 the tedious ceremony relieved by tbe actions of tbe 
 police wbo looked after the behavior of the crowd 
 with maternal care. "Now is the time to stop 
 talking," they would observe to the crowd. 
 "Now you must remove your hats." "Now you 
 must not move or talk," etc. The great outward 
 show of respect, the draped flags, the funeral deco- 
 rations on the humblest house, the band of crepe 
 universally worn — all the things which so im- 
 pressed foreign visitors may be attributed to the 
 efficiency of the Tokyo police. With a natural 
 curiosity in the movements of a divinity, I have 
 been present at a good many of the comings and 
 goings of the Emperor and other members of the 
 Imperial family, and on every occasion I have 
 found that the impressive outward show of rever- 
 ence has been strictly enforced by the police. I do 
 not mean to say that there is not a great deal of 
 real veneration for the Emperor on the part of 
 the Japanese people. I merely wish to emphasize 
 the interesting fact that the outward show of rev- 
 erence which has so profoundly impressed foreign 
 observers, is regulated by the police and would be 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 47 
 
 equally impressive if there were at heart no rever- 
 ence at all. 
 
 While the bureaucrats who rule the country 
 have done much toward strengthening the belief 
 in the divinity of the Emperor, it has been upheld 
 and strengthened by other things over which the 
 rulers have had but indirect control. The con- 
 tiaued progress of the country since the most re- 
 cent restoration of the Emperor has probably been 
 as valuable as the artificial devices in giving solid- 
 ity to this fiction of divinity. In the two wars 
 fought in his name, and in the more recent raid 
 against German possessions in the Pacific, his ad- 
 versaries have been defeated and his territories 
 and property increased. Native commerce, man- 
 ufacturing and shipping have grown at a remark- 
 able rate and the Japanese have come to enjoy a 
 place in the family of great powers. Credit for 
 all of these accomplishments is given, not to the 
 men who were responsible for them, but to the 
 virtue of the Emperor and the guidance of the 
 spirits of the divine ancestors. 
 
 It is interesting to speculate on how it would be 
 affected by adversity. Every event of the past 
 fifty years has helped to strengthen it, because the 
 Empire of Japan has during that time constantly 
 added to its glories. But suppose the Emperor's 
 
48 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 standards should be defeated in war, his industrial 
 enterprises fail, or prolonged business depression 
 ruin the finances of the Empire ! It is reasonable 
 to believe that in either event faith in his divinity- 
 would be weakened and the foundation of the state 
 shaken. 
 
 Official theory does not take into account a pos- 
 sibility of this sort, for the steady progress of 
 Japan until the nation reaches its goal of a fore- 
 most position among the nations of the world is 
 taken for granted. Every student in the primary 
 schools is taught in the official textbooks that "the 
 Emperors through one unbroken line have inher- 
 ited the nature of divinity. No nation in the 
 world can be compared with Japan in age or in 
 holy nature. Our nation is the oldest in all the 
 world and its future will be more prosperous with 
 the years." 
 
 While the Satsuma and Choshu clans have exer- 
 cised every ingenuity to increase the power of 
 the Emperor, they have been equally diligent in 
 piling on him a wealth the country can ill afford. 
 In a catalog of his property we come first to the 
 land, which amounts to about five million acres, 
 more than 5 per cent, of the total area of the coun- 
 try. This is divided into dwelling land, forests 
 and plains, ranging from the most valuable of 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 49 
 
 city property to forest and mountain land of lit- 
 tle value. But in crowded Japan there is no 
 land whicli can be called valueless and much ordi- 
 nary farm land sells for $1000 an acre. A price 
 of $100 an acre is a very conservative average and 
 at this rate the value of the crown lands (this does 
 not include state possessions) may be placed at 
 500 million dollars. It is very probably worth 
 nearer one billion dollars. In addition to this 
 very valuable property, the court is a heavy stock- 
 holder in many of the industrial enterprises of 
 the country. These items include: 60,660 shares 
 in the Bank of Japan, 60,400 shares in the Yoko- 
 hama Specie Bank, 10,000 shares in the Industrial 
 Bank, and 80,550 shares in the Nippon Yusen 
 Kaisha, the well-known steamship company. Ac- 
 cording to the Japan Year Booh, the total value 
 of these industrial holdings is $250,000,000. With 
 the estimated value of the land the total climbs 
 near the billion-dollar mark. Yet the Hohenzol- 
 lerns were accounted wealthy with their $125,- 
 000,000! 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the wealth which 
 has been thrust on the court of Japan is the per- 
 sonal property of the Emperor except in name. 
 Like the divinity with which they have invested 
 him, it is nominal and is for the use of those who 
 
50 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 rule Mm and, through him, rule Japan. It is ad- 
 ministered and expended by the clansmen, in- 
 vested in enterprises which they foster, paid out 
 in pensions to the nobility and as grants to those 
 who have earned the gratitude of the ruling fac- 
 tion. Much is said of the grants to charity made 
 by the Emperor, but in comparison to his great 
 wealth these grants are absurdly small. There 
 are many American philanthropists who give 
 more in a year than the Emperor of Japan gives 
 in a decade. 
 
 The combination, the wealth of the court and 
 the power acquired through the fiction of divinity, 
 makes one of the most powerful political machines 
 in the world. Let us see how it operates in every- 
 day affairs. 
 
 The lower house of the Imperial Diet of Japan 
 is in session. There are present nearly all of the 
 three hundred members who represent the million 
 and a half voters of the Empire, for matters of 
 great importance are being discussed. The ma- 
 jority party at the command of the ministry is try- 
 ing to force through a heavy naval appropriation 
 which the minority parties disapprove, partly be- 
 cause it has been disclosed that many of the high 
 officials of the navy have been receiving bribes 
 from naval constructors and partly because they 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 51 
 
 wish to voice the demands of the people for lower 
 taxes. A few days before the discussion of the 
 question became so violent that several members 
 came to blows. To-day the argument is bitter and 
 personal. 
 
 A speaker is in the midst of an attack on the 
 administration when a royal messenger walks out 
 on the rostrum. The debate stops and the cham- 
 ber is hushed. The speaker of the house advances 
 to meet him and reverently receives an envelope 
 bearing the royal seal. He opens it and an- 
 nounces that by the authority of the Emperor the 
 sitting of the Diet has been suspended for three 
 days. Instantly the warring members are on 
 their feet. They bow low, touching their fore- 
 heads to their desks to signify their obedience to 
 the Emperor's command, and a few minutes later 
 the hall is empty and deserted. 
 
 If the message had been a command that the 
 budget be passed, the assent would have been 
 equally as prompt and unquestioned, in spite of 
 the fact that the houses of the Diet were at that 
 time surrounded by an angry mob determined that 
 no more of their taxes be spent on naval expan- 
 sion. The government of Japan is a government 
 whose chief object is the glory of the Emperor, as 
 expressed by Imperialistic achievements. Those 
 
52 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 who gain high places in its councils are not those 
 who serve the people but those who add to his vic- 
 tories in warfare, or by the building up of a large 
 army and navy which will add to his prestige 
 among the nations of the world. This has been 
 the inspiration of Japanese ministries which have 
 piled up taxation in an ever increasing burden and 
 forced on the people a hateful conscription that 
 the Emperor might glory in the strength of an 
 army and navy justified neither by the resources 
 of his country, the desires of his subjects, nor the 
 necessities of defense. One by one these minis- 
 tries have been forced out of office either by popu- 
 lar clamor or by a quarrel between the army and 
 navy factions, and each has been succeeded by an- 
 other ministry equally ambitious to carry out 
 plans which would make prematurely a power of 
 the first class out of Japan no matter what might 
 be the cost to Japanese subjects. 
 
 One cannot but admire the wisdom of Japanese 
 leaders in their invention of this illusion without 
 which we would not now be called upon to admire 
 the progress Japan has made during the past half 
 century. As Professor Chamberlain says in his 
 Things Japanese: ' ' New Japan could never have 
 risen and expanded as she has done without some 
 ideal to beckon her onward; and this Imperial- 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT ILLUSION 53 
 
 istic ideal was tlie only one within reach. It has 
 been the lever that has raised her from Oriental 
 impotence to her present rank among the great 
 powers of the world." But while we are admir- 
 ing the astuteness of the leaders we cannot forget 
 the reverse of this fabric of state — that the illu- 
 sion would not be possible with a people less docile 
 than the Japanese, that they without protest allow 
 themselves to be imposed upon by cramping po- 
 litical ideas which America threw off before she 
 began to be a nation. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 japan's wondekful peogeess 
 
 So much has been written about the wonders 
 of Japan's progress and the miracle of her 
 modernization that one can hope to say lit- 
 tle about it that has not already been said. The 
 story of how this secluded nation of Asiatics was 
 awakened by the appearance of Commodore 
 Perry's fleet, set in to remake herself after the 
 European pattern, and has succeeded so well that 
 she is now able to compete successfully with her 
 teachers is, as it is usually told, a narrative which 
 lacks only the presence of an Aladdin and a won- 
 derful lamp to make it plausible. Each new 
 writer has found it more wonderful than the last. 
 Each has added something to a tale already pleas- 
 ing until we finally have a story so fascinating 
 that it has convinced the Japanese themselves, 
 and they have told it over and over again with 
 embellishments of their own. To the average 
 person, who has not studied the details of Japan's 
 progress, compared it to the progress of other 
 countries, and inquired into the means of accom- 
 
 64 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 55 
 
 plisliment, the story is one of almost superhimian 
 achievement which proves the Japanese to be a 
 superior people and makes their competition a 
 menace which may well fill the Westerner with 
 terror. 
 
 Captain Brinkley has smnmed up Japan's 
 achievements as follows: "When an American 
 squadron arrived to break down her isolation, she 
 did not possess even the beginnings of a national 
 fleet or a national army; of an ocean-going mer- 
 cantile marine; of a telegraph or postal system; 
 of a newspaper press ; of enlightened codes ; of a 
 trained judiciary, or of properly organized tribu- 
 nals of justice; she knew nothing of Occidental 
 sciences and philosophies; was a complete 
 stranger to international law and the usages of 
 diplomacy; had no conception of parliamentary 
 institutions or popular representation; and was 
 divided into a number of feudal principalities, 
 each virtually independent of the other, and all 
 alike untutored in the spirit of nationality or im- 
 perialism. In thirty years these conditions were 
 absolutely metamorphosed. Feudalism had been 
 abolished ; the whole country united under one ad- 
 ministration ; the polity of the state placed on a 
 constitutional basis; the people admitted to a 
 share in the government under representative in- 
 
56 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 stitutions; an absorbing sentiment of patriotism 
 substituted for the narrow local loyalties of fiefs ; 
 the country intersected with telegraphs and rail- 
 ways, and its remotest region brought within the 
 circuit of an excellent postal system; the flag of 
 the nation carried to distant countries by a large 
 mercantile marine; a powerful fleet organized, 
 manned by expert seamen, and proved to be as 
 capable of fighting scientifically as of navigating 
 the high seas with marked immunity from mishap ; 
 the method of conscription applied to raising a 
 large military force, provided with the best mod- 
 em weapons and trained according to Western 
 tactics ; the laws recast on the most advanced prin- 
 ciples of Occidental jurisprudence and embodied 
 in exhaustive codes; provision made for the ad- 
 ministration of justice by well-equipped tribunals 
 and an educated judiciary ; an extensive system of 
 national education inaugurated, with universities 
 turning out students capable of original research 
 in the sciences and philosophies of the West; the 
 state represented at foreign courts by competent 
 diplomatists; the people supplied with an ample 
 number of journals and periodicals; the founda- 
 tions of a great manufacturing career laid, and 
 the respect of foreign powers unreservedly won." 
 So rapid has been the modernization of the 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 57 
 
 country that new institutions have followed fast 
 on each other 's heels with confusing sequence. A 
 chronology, which must necessarily be incomplete 
 since the particulars of Japan's progress in the 
 past fifty years would be as voluminous as the 
 particulars of Europe's pi'ogress for the past five 
 centuries, may give some idea of the rapidity of 
 that progress : 
 
 1870. The feudal lords and barons, a few 
 voluntarily, some under compulsion and some 
 through ignorance of the consequences, gave up 
 their possessions to the Emperor and relinquished 
 all sovereignty to him. In return they received 
 government bonds to the value of their property.^ 
 
 1871. A bureaucratic centralized government 
 set up. A mint established, posts and telegraphs 
 inaugurated, Buddhism nominally disestablished, 
 all social disabilities removed. 
 
 1872. Building of railways begun. Imperial 
 University founded. 
 
 1873. European dress for officials adopted, 
 along with vaccination, meat eating and photog- 
 raphy. Persecution of Christians stopped. 
 
 1875. Brand new orders of knighthood created. 
 
 1 The samurai, or fighting men, who laid down their arms at 
 the restoration of the Emperor, did so only after they had been 
 promised pensions. In 1876, after repeated reductions these pen- 
 sions amounted to $18,000,000 yearly. 
 
58 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Torture abolished and steamship companies es- 
 tablished. 
 
 1877. National exhibition held. 
 
 1878. Stock exchange and Chamber of Com- 
 merce established. 
 
 1880. All old laws abolished and replaced by a 
 set of new laws drawn up by foreign authorities. 
 
 1883. Supreme court established. 
 
 1884. English introduced into the curriculum 
 of the public schools. An aristocracy created by 
 oflBeial order. 
 
 1888. Local self-government granted, with res- 
 ervations which leave the central government in 
 power. 
 
 1889. Constitution formally promulgated. 
 
 1890. Imperial Diet formally assembled. 
 
 1896. Subsidies granted for shipbuilding and 
 navigation. 
 
 1897. Gold standard adopted. 
 
 This is truly a remarkable record. Stripped of 
 all of the fanciful trimmings which have been 
 added by superficial and imaginative foreigners 
 and perpetuated through Japanese conceit, it is 
 still remarkable — a record which, as we have often 
 been told, has no parallel in the history of the 
 world. But the story is only half told when this 
 list of accomplishments is catalogued. It is im- 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 59 
 
 portant to know not only what was done but also 
 why and how it was done. Whence came the desire 
 for it and whence the means 1 How was it possible 
 for this nation of little brown men to accomplish 
 so much with the tools of the white man, of which 
 they had been in entire ignorance a short time be- 
 fore? It is a very ungracious task to spoil a 
 pretty story and prove that the fairy prince did 
 not exist. It is a task for which one gets much 
 abuse and little thanks, and I would not attempt 
 it were it not for the fact that the myth of Japa- 
 nese accomplishment has grown to such huge pro- 
 portions that a large part of the world is deceived 
 by it and because of this deception it is difficult to 
 form correct opinions on current Japanese ques- 
 tions. 
 
 The motives for Japan's modernization should 
 not be difficult to understand or to appraise. It 
 is not necessary to credit her with any qualities 
 that we do not ourselves possess. We need only 
 note our own interest in the story of the world's 
 progress, as told in the daUy papers, to visualize 
 the effect which the sudden opening up to Japan 
 of the wonders of modem civilization must have 
 had on that secluded people. A German phy- 
 sician makes a discovery in surgery; an Italian 
 teacher perfects a new and successful method of 
 
60 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 teaching children; a new novel by a Eussian au- 
 thor is published ; a new comic opera is presented 
 in Vienna; a French aviator does with an aero- 
 plane something that was never done before, and 
 at once the cables are busy. We read of it with 
 eager interest next morning and do not rest until 
 these accomplishments are our own. 
 
 Japan had for centuries been cut off from con- 
 tact with that progress which we follow from day 
 to day with such intense interest. At once the 
 new world was opened to her as dramatically as 
 though a theater curtain had been lifted. The 
 wonders of mechanical invention dazzled her just 
 as we might be dazzled if we were cut off from 
 the rest of the world for a decade and then sud- 
 denly acquainted with what had been accomplished 
 in the meantime. Japan displayed no more eager- 
 ness to master the ideas of the West than we dis- 
 play in our daily efforts to keep up with the 
 progress of the world. 
 
 This was illustrated in the attitude of foreigners 
 toward Japan. Many appear to have overlooked 
 the fact that while Japan has been industriously 
 studying the West, the West has been Avith equal 
 industry studying Japan. The zeal of the Japa- 
 nese students who were trying to master Western 
 learning was matched by the zeal with which for- 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 61 
 
 eigners sought to master Japanese learning. Of 
 the two, the achievements of the foreigner have 
 been the more remarkable. Without hope of lu- 
 crative employment and official honors, of which 
 the Japanese student could be confident, the for- 
 eign student worked with equal energy. Thanks 
 to him, the history of Japan, its literature, its art 
 and its social and political systems were disclosed 
 to the West quite as rapidly as the things of the 
 West were disclosed to the Japanese. Japan's 
 adoption of the tools of Western civilization was 
 because of the same discrimination that led us to 
 adopt Japanese decorative art. We have taken 
 from Japan all she had that we believed to be su- 
 perior to our own. Japan has done the same 
 thing. Japan has taken more only because we 
 had more to offer. 
 
 There was, of course, a strong reason for Ja- 
 pan's haste in the adoption of Western civiliza- 
 tion. It came to her in the form of battleships 
 and threatened her national existence. Foreign 
 merchants and investors flocked to the country. 
 There were demands for concessions, for extra- 
 territorial rights, for treaties which left Japan 
 with her sovereignty sadly impaired and with the 
 way open for foreign aggression. She believed 
 that she must adopt the tools of the foreigner or 
 
62 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 lose her national existence and she wisely chose 
 the former course. The motives for the modern- 
 ization of Japan were those which would have 
 been shared by any intelligent people placed in a 
 similar situation. It is only when we come to a 
 study of the means employed to secure her prog- 
 ress that we see revealed the great difference be- 
 tween her people and our own. 
 
 The program for the modernization of Japan 
 was worked out by a small group of men. It 
 would perhaps be better to say that the decision 
 that she was to be modernized along European 
 lines was made by a few men, while the program, 
 down to the minutest details, was worked out by 
 a group of foreign experts employed for that pur- 
 pose. The Japanese people had little or nothing 
 to do with it. It was their duty to obey in haste 
 and approve at leisure. Before they knew what 
 railways were, they were compelled to pay taxes 
 for the building of them. New laws, patterned 
 after the European fashion, and actually written 
 by Europeans, were adopted faster than the 
 judges could learn them. Everything was made 
 over as rapidly as the foreign experts could do 
 the work, and the docile Japanese accepted the 
 new order of things because they had been told 
 to do so by their superiors. 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 63 
 
 It may be descending from the sublime to the 
 ridiculous to compare the modernization of Japan 
 with the introduction of forks into Europe, but it 
 happened that soon after reading an especially 
 enthusiastic story of the rapidity of Japan's 
 transformation, I read Disraeli's amusing ac- 
 count *'0f domestic novelties at first condemned," 
 and found that the introduction of forks into gen- 
 eral use in Europe took a longer time than has 
 been occasioned by the entire transformation of 
 Japan. Forks, it appears, were known at the 
 time of Queen Bess, but such was the opposition 
 of the independent English to this Italian inven- 
 tion that they did not come into general use be- 
 fore the Restoration. "Here the use of forks 
 was, however, long ridiculed; it was reprobated 
 in Germany, where some uncleanly saints actually 
 preached agaiast the unnatural custom 'as an in- 
 sult on providence, not to touch our meat with our 
 fingers. ' It is a curious fact that forks were long 
 interdicted in the Congregation de St. Maur, and 
 were only used after a protracted struggle be- 
 tween the old members, zealous for their tradi- 
 tions, and the young reformers, for their fingers." 
 
 Thus it has always been with all progress in 
 the West, whether it be the introduction of forks 
 or philosophy. Nothing has won its way until it 
 
64 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 has been proven and accepted from the highest 
 to the lowest. In Japan no such tedious process 
 has been necessary. Several centuries ago, when 
 Jesuit missionaries came near bringing Japan 
 into the boimdaries of the Papal Empire, the 
 Japanese became nominal Christians in this way. 
 A feudal lord, having been converted to belief in 
 this strange religion, would send out word that 
 all of his retainers were to assemble on the fol- 
 lowing day at a certain hour and be baptized in 
 the new faith. These new converts, baptized in 
 lots of thousands, would bum down the Buddhist 
 temples where yesterday they had worshiped. 
 Trained from the beginning of their history to 
 that slavish obedience to superiors against which 
 American civilization is a protest, the Japanese 
 people have adopted Western notions for no better 
 reason than that they were told by the officials to 
 do so. 
 
 The belief that the masses of the Japanese peo- 
 ple were in favor of these innovations is a com- 
 mon error. Here ignorance and superstition 
 were to be found as elsewhere ; it was not an im- 
 pediment to progress here because of the weak- 
 ness of the individual. A Japanese writer, de- 
 scribing the construction of the first telegraph 
 line, says: "This pioneer line suffered much 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 65 
 
 from the persecution aad maltreatment of the ig- 
 norant masses, who betrayed their simplicity by 
 regarding telegraphy as a sort of witchcraft, and 
 taxed the patience of the government by fre- 
 quently injuring the line. The task of guarding 
 it alone was no easy matter." Viscount Inouye, 
 writing of the early building of railways, says: 
 "What was then the public opinion concerning 
 railway construction? Naturally there was a uni- 
 versal cry of opposition, and it is not to be won- 
 dered at, for the people were not yet able to ap- 
 preciate its benefits. Even after the work of con- 
 struction began, opposition was still heard." 
 
 Had the Japanese nation been composed of sub- 
 jects with the independence and spirit possessed, 
 let us say, by the average Chinese, who will be 
 bullied into no reform of which he does not ap- 
 prove, Japan's progress would have been a vastly 
 different story. It would have been accom- 
 plished by that slow and tedious process with 
 which reform is accomplished elsewhere. No 
 matter from what angle Japan's progress is stud- 
 ied, one must come to the conclusion that it has 
 been effected quite as much through the docility 
 of the people as through the wisdom of the lead- 
 ers. 
 
 If I appear to go out of my way to bring out 
 
66 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 this point, it is not through a desire to discount 
 the progress of Japan, or to underrate the capa- 
 bilities of the Japanese. Sooner or later Japan 
 will demand of us certain privileges in the way 
 of immigration and citizenship which make it im- 
 portant that we know what the Japanese people 
 are. Criticism here of the Japanese people is not 
 intended to stir up animosity between the two 
 peoples. I desire quite as much as any one to see 
 good relations between the two countries, but I 
 do not believe any good will come of a friendship 
 based on a false idea of Japan's progress, and the 
 false ideas of the Japanese people which have 
 been spread in America by Japanese press agents 
 and by Japan's misguided and deluded Amer- 
 ican friends. The contrasts between Japan and 
 America are not set forth to prove American 
 superiority, but merely to present some of the dif- 
 ferences between the people which appear to be 
 important. The methods of progress indicate 
 one of these fundamental differences. 
 
 In our own republic, before any reform can be 
 effected we must have public approval, not only 
 approval of the educated public, but of the igno- 
 rant as well. Then there must be a careful con- 
 sideration of all of the thousands of rights and 
 prerogatives which would be infringed by the in- 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 67 
 
 novation. We are always reforming, always pro- 
 gressing, but the advance is tedious because it 
 must overcome the weight of ignorant opposition. 
 It is permanent because this opposition has been 
 overcome. In Japan no such considerations have 
 been necessary. Once a change is decided on by 
 the little group in power, it is as good as effected. 
 There is no need to wait for tardy public approval, 
 nor to consider the private rights which such a 
 change might injure. Banks have been opened, 
 railways built, schools established — all without 
 waiting for the approval of any but the little 
 group of rulers. Thus it has come about that 
 Japan is the contemporary of America in her 
 equipment of the tools of civilization, railways, 
 banks, schools, telegraphs, shipping lines, etc. — 
 and socially and politically is far behind the Eu- 
 rope from which the American colonists fled. 
 
 We must always remember that in governmental 
 affairs particularly, the people of Japan are the 
 materialists, and we of America the idealists. 
 We sacrifice a certain amount of efficiency to the 
 ideal of democracy, personal rights and liberties. 
 The progress of the Japanese in material things 
 is hampered by no such sentiment. Her guiding 
 rule is expediency, and the expedient imperialistic 
 idea has formed the dominating policy in every- 
 
68 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 thing that Japan has done. Our republic has 
 been built up as a dwelling place for its citizens. 
 Japan has been built up as a glory to the Em- 
 peror. Between these two motives for national 
 progress will be found a great deal more than the 
 color line and the race prejudice which separate 
 the two peoples. In it is found the only phase of 
 the yellow peril that deserves serious considera- 
 tion. We can stand the introduction of yellow 
 labor into America, and survive, but we cannot 
 survive the introduction of yellow political, social, 
 and moral ideas. 
 
 There remains one more point of view from 
 which to consider Japan's progress, a comparison 
 with the progress we and others have made dur- 
 ing the time in which her modernization has been 
 accomplished. Those who tell of Japan's prog- 
 ress during the past half century too often ignore 
 the fact that it is not Japan alone that has pro- 
 gressed during this time. The world, as is its 
 habit, has been moving rapidly, and a large part 
 of that progress for which Japan has been given 
 credit is but a part of that forward impetus which 
 has been shared by all the world. In many phases 
 of her progress, political, social and industrial, 
 she has not equaled the progress made by the 
 United States during the same length of time ; in 
 
JAPAN'S WONDERFUL PROGRESS 69 
 
 actual and potential wealth and strength, she is 
 relatively as far behind the United States to-day 
 as she was at the time of the visit of Commodore 
 Perry. When we wonder at Japan's reformation 
 of her social system, we should not forget that 
 during this time America has abolished slavery, a 
 social reform far greater than any which has been 
 accomplished by Japan. The Japanese have not 
 yet succeeded in ameliorating the condition of the 
 two million etas, who though of pure Japanese 
 blood are to-day socially ostracized as relentlessly 
 as Southerners ostracize the negro. The Amer- 
 ican women, who have in so many States gained 
 the right to vote, have advanced socially and po- 
 litically far more than the Japanese women have 
 advanced during that period. It is stiU against 
 the law for a Japanese woman to attend a political 
 meeting. To go farther afield, the individual 
 Filipinos through American aid enjoy far more 
 personal freedom and a greater participation in 
 governmental affairs than is enjoyed by the indi- 
 vidual Japanese subject. Japan has abolished 
 the old form of her feudal government, but in 
 operation the feudal government remains. She 
 has a constitution, but the real rulers of the coun- 
 try, the Grenro or Elder Statesmen, have no con- 
 stitutional status. She has an elective legislative 
 
70 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 body which, can in its own constitutional right do 
 but one thing, vote money for the maintenance of 
 the Imperial Household. Though a quarter of a 
 century has passed since the opening of this body, 
 it has not yet developed any political party 
 founded on principles. 
 
 When we come to an appraisement of Japan's 
 material progress — and it is to this that Japan 
 has given the most careful attention — ^we find the 
 brilliancy of her achievements lessened in com- 
 parison with the achievements of others. In this 
 phase of the story of Japan's progress, as in that 
 dealing with social and political reforms, the 
 chroniclers have frequently overlooked the fact 
 that a large part of it has been merely incidental 
 to the progress of the rest of the world. The 
 marvel that Japan to-day has telephones, battle- 
 ships, automobiles, ceases to be a marvel when we 
 remember that fifty years ago no one had any of 
 these things and now no country is without them. 
 Commodore Perry's fleet which startled the Japa- 
 nese out of their seclusion was made up of boats 
 of insignificant tonnage as compared with the bat- 
 tleships of to-day. America had not at that time 
 a line of railway west of the Missouri River. The 
 telephone, the electric light, the phonograph — all 
 these things were yet unknown to the world and 
 
JAPAN'S WONDEEFUL PROGRESS 71 
 
 their invention and development by America is a 
 far more wonderful feat than their adoption by- 
 Japan. Who is it that has not adopted them? 
 
 Japan's progress, even in material things, has 
 been more dramatic but no more important than 
 the progress of America during the same period. 
 During the time she has been making such won- 
 derful strides, she has not contributed as much to 
 the material progress of the world as has Thomas 
 A. Edison ; she has not built as many railways as 
 James J. Hill; her expenditures for education 
 have not equaled the educational endowments of 
 Rockefeller and Carnegie. Japanese capitalists 
 have organized many companies, some of which 
 are now competing with American shipping lines, 
 while others have driven American cotton goods 
 from portions of the Far Eastern market where 
 formerly America was dominant, but the total of 
 their labors is small as compared to some individ- 
 ual enterprises in America. The total paid up 
 capital of all agricultural, industrial, commercial 
 and transportation companies in Japan, embracing 
 practically every enterprise in the country, is 
 $878,000,000, being but slightly in excess of the 
 capital of the New York street railways alone, and 
 far less than the amount invested in public utili- 
 ties in the island of Manhattan. Two of the lead- 
 
72 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ing life insurance companies in the United States 
 could buy up every ordinary partnership, joint 
 stock company, and limited partnership company 
 in Japan, thereby taking over every industry in 
 the country except farming and fishing, and still 
 have millions left in their reserves. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 THE COSX OF PBOGRESS 
 
 JAPAN'S development, from the point of 
 view of an American, has been as contrary 
 to established principles as the Japanese 
 way of doing things is, to us, wrong and topsy- 
 turvy. Just as a Japanese book begins where our 
 books end, so, it appears to Americans, has Japan- 
 ese national policy begun where it should end, and 
 what should be the effect of progress has been 
 made the cause. Imperialism, the standing of 
 America and Americans, the relative size of our 
 fleet, the opinion of our country and ourselves 
 held by other people — these are things in which 
 Americans have a certain vain and idle interest, 
 but they have seldom been considerations which 
 would outweigh questions of domestic policy. 
 The occasional sneers and jeers of foreigners have 
 aroused the ire of the individual, but even at this 
 late day have never driven Congress to appropri- 
 ate enough money to put our diplomatic and con- 
 sular service on a basis suitable to our size and 
 importance. The pacifist who would scrap our 
 
 73 
 
74 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 navy and keep the army infinitesimal has his most 
 potent ally in the citizen who believes in a big 
 navy, but believes even more strongly that the 
 local river should be dredged and a federal build- 
 ing erected at the county seat. In his eyes it is 
 more important that Hick Center outstrip the 
 rival city of Maple Grove than it is for the United 
 States to maintain an adequate fleet. If the rest 
 of the world does not appreciate the greatness of 
 the United States, as exemplified by a thousand 
 resplendent and growing Hick Centers, then it is 
 the fault of the rest of the world, which is wal- 
 lowing in the mire of ignorance and prejudice. 
 
 Exactly the opposite is true in Japan, for from 
 the very beginning of her modernization, her am- 
 bition, her guiding policy in all things has been 
 national glory — the recognition of the greatness 
 of Japan and the equality or superiority of the 
 Japanese people in the eyes of the world. Japan 
 is, among the nations of the world, the social 
 climber, and she has worked to achieve her ambi- 
 tion just as the social climber works. The ambi- 
 tion has been the same in both cases, recognition 
 of equality by those who hold themselves superior. 
 I know of no comparison which will better explain 
 and visualize Japan's efforts and policies during 
 the past fifty years than to compare her to the 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 75 
 
 woman whose husband has an income of $3000 a 
 year, trying to break into a social set with an aver- 
 age income of three times that amount. In each 
 case the effort means sacrifice of home comforts 
 and pleasures for outward show. In one the 
 climber must do without the luxuries of the table, 
 must forgo all expensive private comforts in 
 order that she can maintain a motor car and other 
 outward indications of wealth and luxury. In the 
 other the climber has sacrificed the comfort and 
 health of her subjects, has piled on them an op- 
 pressive taxation and conscription, has denied 
 them the protection of factory laws, in order that 
 Japan's army and navy, her mercantile marine 
 and her diplomatic and consular service may gain 
 for her recognition in the eyes of the world. 
 
 The struggle is one which must arouse pity, de- 
 rision, or sympathy, according to the point of 
 view. Much as we, as Americans, must condemn 
 Japan's policy as one which is diametrically op- 
 posed to our own ideals of democracy, no one who 
 has studied her sincere efforts to make a place for 
 herself among the nations of the first rank but 
 must applaud the success she has so far achieved. 
 We certainly cannot approve of all of her methods, 
 for some of them have been unscrupulous and she 
 has never hesitated to sacrifice personal rights 
 
76 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 for imperial ambitions. But we must admire the 
 pluck and determination which has made her prog- 
 ress possible, has gained for her the recognition 
 of the great powers as one on whom it is neces- 
 sary to count in all questions of world politics. 
 
 Foreign approval is still a very important con- 
 sideration in all matters of state policy, and the 
 administration pays a great deal more attention 
 to the comments of foreigners and of foreign 
 newspapers than is generally known. Doubtless 
 many editorial writers in America would be both 
 surprised and flattered to know that their com- 
 ments on Japan are cabled in full to the Foreign 
 Office in Tokyo and there given out for publica- 
 tion in all the Japanese newspapers. During the 
 past year I have seen comments from practically 
 all the New York, Chicago and San Francisco 
 newspapers and from several papers in cities of 
 less than 100,000 cabled to Japan for publication. 
 Very often the cabled comments, even if they 
 could be known to represent American public 
 opinion, could be of no conceivable value in de- 
 ciding governmental policy. Their sole value 
 was to answer that question which Japan is so in- 
 sistently putting to the world: "What do you 
 think of us ? Have we advanced far enough to be 
 recognized by you on terms of equality?" We 
 
THE COST OF PEOGRESS 77 
 
 have a glimpse of the sensitiveness of the people 
 when we think of the great and powerful Japa- 
 nese government putting its consular and diplo- 
 matic machinery to work to collect these expres- 
 sions of opinion which can do little more than flat- 
 ter national vanity. The simile is inevitable: 
 The social climber listening to the gossip of serv- 
 ants to learn what her rich neighbors think of her. 
 In every phase of her progress toward the goal 
 which she hopes soon to reach, Japan has paid a 
 price which Americans would refuse to pay, even 
 if they shared the Japanese motives for progress. 
 They would like to see American factories the 
 largest and most prosperous in the world, but, 
 more than that, they want the small independent 
 manufacturer to be protected and they want the 
 factory laborers to be well paid and to be pro- 
 tected by wise factory laws. A big national army 
 and a big navy would please the vanity of some 
 and quiet the fear of others, but most Americans 
 have preferred low taxes and a policy which would 
 make for peace. A system of conscription in 
 America such as that of Japan would possibly re- 
 sult in a rebel army before it would form a na- 
 tional one. Most Americans believe that an 
 American mercantile marine which would carry 
 the American flag into the principal ports of the 
 
78 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 world would be a fitting advertisement of our 
 national greatness and a valuable commercial as- 
 set as well. But a desire to protect the sailor has 
 outweighed the desire for ships, and until the Eu- 
 ropean war forcibly brought home to Americans 
 the great need for a mercantile marine, public 
 opinion was overwhelmingly against any plan 
 which would tax the people for the encouragement 
 of shipping. 
 
 Japan's policy is in striking contrast. One of 
 the most noteworthy achievements of the country, 
 perhaps the one achievement outside of her wars 
 that has brought on her the most favorable com- 
 ment of the world, has been her progress in ship- 
 ping. When travelers were able to go to Japan 
 from the principal ports of the world in Japanese 
 steamers, owned by Japanese companies and 
 manned and managed largely by Japanese, the 
 skeptics were willing to admit the abilities of the 
 little brown people. As the steamship lines under 
 Japanese ownership have grown in size the belief 
 in Japanese capabilities has grown. Yet this suc- 
 cess does not mean all that it appears to mean for 
 if it were not for the lavish subsidies of the gov- 
 ernment there would not be a Japanese steamer 
 farther away from home ports than the Chinese 
 coast. 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 79 
 
 There are two of these Japanese steamship 
 lines, the Toyo Kisen Kaisha and the Nippon 
 Yusen Kaisha, which compete seriously with 
 American lines across the Pacific. The Toyo Ki- 
 sen Kaisha 's steamers sail from San Francisco 
 for the Orient and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha 's 
 steamers from Seattle. The first has been for 
 years the most serious competitor of the Pacific 
 Mail and the second is the most serious competi- 
 tor of the Great Northern Steamship Company. 
 The American lines not only receive no subsidies 
 or grants, but are compelled to compete with the 
 Japanese lines for the United States mail con- 
 tracts.^ 
 
 It is illuminating to see how these Japanese 
 lines continue an apparent success. In 1913 the 
 Toyo Kisen Kaisha, which has a paid up capital 
 of $6,500,000, enjoyed a gross revenue of $2,855,- 
 000 while its gross expenditure was $4,107,000, 
 leaving an apparent deficit of $1,252,000 — a deficit 
 amounting to almost 20 per cent, of the capital 
 stock. However, the state subsidy of $1,650,000 
 
 1 Since the above was written the Pacific Mail Line, a pioneer 
 in Pacific shipping, has sold its ships and retired. This action 
 was followed by the retirement of the Great Northern Company, 
 thus leaving no American mail boats in the transpacific trade. 
 Though American legislation is blamed for this, Japanese ship- 
 ping subsidies have been an equally important cause. 
 
80 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 for the year enabled the company to wipe out the 
 deficit and pay a dividend of 7.7 per cent. The 
 Nippon Yusen Kaisha for the same year made a 
 better showing. Its gross revenue was $14,588,- 
 000 and gross expenditure $14,079,000, leaving net 
 earnings of $519,000. The government subsidy of 
 $2,417,000 for the year enabled it to pass $1,696,- 
 000 to the reserves and pay a dividend of 10 per 
 cent, on the capital stock of $11,000,000. 
 
 There are ten Japanese shipping companies 
 which receive subsidies, these comprising all the 
 companies which do a foreign carrying business. 
 These ten companies have a combined capital 
 stock, paid up, of $29,945,000, and they receive 
 an annual subsidy and bounty amounting to 
 $5,760,000. In other words, they can operate with 
 a loss of almost $3,000,000 a year and still pay a 
 dividend of 10 per cent, on the capital stock. In 
 the ten years ending with 1913, these shipping 
 companies were granted subsidies amounting to 
 more than $43,000,000, the average annual sub- 
 sidy being more than 15 per cent, of the paid up 
 capital. 
 
 It is largely because of these companies and the 
 subsidy which they receive that the American 
 flag is of so little importance on the Pacific and 
 if American legislation continues in the course it 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 81 
 
 tas recently taken it will be of still less impor- 
 tance in the future. The principal American 
 steamship lines are debarred from the use of the 
 Panama Canal, while it will be open to these 
 Japanese lines which through the support of their 
 own government subsidy will be able to carry 
 goods and passengers at a loss and still pay large 
 dividends. 
 
 Unless something is done in America to relieve 
 the situation Japan will dominate the traffic from 
 the Atlantic coast to the Orient through the Pan- 
 ama Canal. At the time the American Congress 
 was enacting laws denying steamship lines owned 
 by American railways the right to use the canal, 
 the Japanese authorities were drawing up a sys- 
 tem of subsidies which would enable the Japanese 
 lines to run at a loss and compete for Panama 
 traffic. The scheme provides for the payment of 
 the following state bounties to Japanese lines 
 which maintain a service through the Panama 
 Canal: for 1915-16, $718,000; for 191&-17, $841,- 
 000 ; for each of the three following years, $875,- 
 000. 
 
 Let us quit complaining at American shipping 
 when it must meet such competition as this. If 
 the United States, following the example of 
 Japan, would spend for shipping subsidies an 
 
82 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 amount in proportion to the value of her farm, 
 mine and fisheries products, she would offer her 
 shipowners an annual subsidy of about $75,000,- 
 000. If the expenditure were in proportion to the 
 volume of American foreign trade, the annual 
 shipping subsidies would be about $40,000,000. 
 The expenditure of either amount would certainly 
 carry the American flag into every port in the 
 world. This is not an argument either for or 
 against shipping subsidies and the subject is 
 mentioned here only to illustrate the difference 
 between the American and the Japanese views. 
 
 The products of Japanese factories are finding 
 a constantly increasing market. Japan has driven 
 American cotton goods from the fine market they 
 formerly held in Manchuria; she sells matches 
 and toilet articles in all parts of the Far East. 
 The chances are that the toothbrush you used this 
 morning was made in Japan for we buy seven mil- 
 lion Japanese toothbrushes every year. In a re- 
 cent year we bought from Japan eight hundred 
 thousand tablecloths, two hundred and thirty- 
 three million cigarette mouthpieces, sixty-seven 
 million paper napkins, two million imitation pan- 
 ama hats and twenty million bundles of braid. 
 In addition we bought more than $50,000,000 
 worth of silk in various forms. Chinese pur- 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 83 
 
 chases of manufactured products are even larger, 
 for the Chinese take a large part of the cotton 
 goods which Japan's million factory girls pro- 
 duce. 
 
 It is in the barbarous treatment of these fac- 
 tory girls that Japan is paying a price for her 
 increasing foreign trade which would probably 
 not be paid by any other covmtry. These girls 
 are overworked, underfed and underpaid to an ex- 
 tent that the average American would find unbe- 
 lievable. In almost all of the factories in Japan, 
 the dormitory system prevails, the girls being 
 kept in barracks on the factory grounds, under 
 the direct control of the superintendent. Usually 
 the regulations are so strict that even the visits 
 of parents are regulated to a certain number a 
 month and the girls are allowed to leave the com- 
 pound of the factory only with the permission of 
 the superintendent. The visits of foreigners to 
 these factories have been followed in the past with 
 such harrowing stories of conditions under which 
 the girls worked that at present it is impossible 
 for a foreigner to visit any of the large factories.^ 
 
 2 "Publicists and economists have thus far concentrated their 
 eflforts on finding ways of increasing the per capita productivity 
 of the nation, and bringing down the adverse balance of trade, 
 tut they have been strangely near-sighted. They have apparently 
 failed to realize at what fearful cost to the present and future 
 
84 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 It is a remarkable and interesting fact that the 
 conditions prevailing in these factories are fairly- 
 well known to the Japanese, but there is no public 
 sentiment against them. It is only another of the 
 hundreds of facts which might be brought to 
 prove that the impulse we feel to work for the 
 welfare of man is not to be found among the 
 Japanese, However, this spirit is awakening and 
 occasionally one can find in the Japanese papers 
 a reference to bad factory conditions. One of 
 these appeared in the Tokyo Asahi in the early 
 part of April, 1914. A physician who had looked 
 after the health of a number of factory girls in 
 Nagano prefecture wrote an article in which he 
 said: 
 
 "The number of girls employed by all the fila- 
 tures in this prefecture is 80,000, of whom 58,000 
 have their homes here and the others come from 
 adjoining prefectures. Most of these girls work 
 from 6 A. M. to 7 p. m. They are often compelled 
 
 generations has the wealth derived from the factories been won. 
 Even though philanthropists and publicists have failed to see 
 the menace of the factory system to the health and fertility of 
 the nation, one would expect that the general staff of the army, 
 at least, would have seen that sooner or later the impaired 
 physique of hundreds of thousands of women in factories would 
 weaken the physique of future conscripts, and would also bring 
 down the birth-rate.'' — Galen M. Fisher in "The Christian Move- 
 ment in the Japanese Empire" 1915 edition. 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 85 
 
 to work for fifteen hours a day. As regards their 
 health, the illness most prevalent among them is 
 the illness of exhaustion — a species of illness pe- 
 culiar to them which may be called 'factory girl 
 sickness.' The great majority of the girls are 
 more or less affected by this distemper. But this 
 is not so formidable an illness, for two or three 
 days of quiet rest will generally set the patient to 
 rights. What is really dreadful is consumption 
 and its rapid dissemination among them, the 
 constitutions of factory girls growing weaker and 
 weaker. Excess of labor combined with absence 
 of nutritive food causes disorders of the stomach 
 and intestines. The poor quality of the food, 
 which is furnished by the factory management, 
 and the extraordinary length of the working hours 
 keep their vitality down. In two or three fila- 
 tures which I have personally inspected I saw the 
 girls despatch their meals while standing in from 
 five to seven minutes and then resume their work 
 without any rest. 
 
 "Yet another cause for the general decay in 
 their health is to be found in the fact that they are 
 paid for work done, not for the duration of their 
 working hours. Keen competition is natural ; for 
 many, fearing to be outstripped by their competi- 
 tors, volunteer to work as long as they can possi- 
 
86 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 bly endure. While on the one hand they are thus 
 destroying their own health, on the other the un- 
 sanitary condition of their dormitories is con- 
 tributing to their destruction. They dwell pro- 
 miscuously in small chambers which scarcely 
 know the sunlight. At night they sleep together 
 face to face, two girls on each mat. (The Japa- 
 nese mat is six feet by three.) It is no wonder 
 then that consumption should be spreading 
 amongst them with alarming rapidity. If sub- 
 mitted to strict examination at least 40 per cent, 
 of the factory girls would be found to be victims 
 of consumption. In extreme cases girls affected 
 with fever of over 39° (centigrade) are some- 
 times found actually engaged in work, and such 
 cases are often discovered quite accidentally by 
 physicians. Under these circumstances it is nat- 
 ural that the development of consumption from 
 one stage to another is effected very rapidly. 
 When the patients, finding it absolutely impossi- 
 ble to continue their work, go home, it is gener- 
 ally to expire in less than a month. 
 
 "What is still more terrible is the fact that 
 young girls of twelve or thirteen, who work in the 
 filatures in growing numbers, are infected by this 
 disease. The owners of filatures, however, are 
 too much engrossed with their own profits to 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 87 
 
 think of introducing remedies for the improve- 
 ment of these terrific conditions. Year after 
 year this dreadful tendency of increased disease 
 is growing more accentuated." 
 
 The picture given here of conditions under 
 which Japanese factory girls work is not over- 
 drawn. Indeed the physician might have gone 
 much farther without in any way exaggerating the 
 horrors of Japanese factory life. There is no 
 legal restraint whatever on the owner or superin- 
 tendent of a factory, and if he see fit to work 
 his operatives day and night he can do so. In 
 most places the employees are on a long time con- 
 tract which places them entirely at the mercy of 
 the employer who, by holding out back pay and 
 the imposition of fines, makes individual or col- 
 lective opposition to his exactions impossible. 
 The fact that Japanese factories are so free from 
 strikes has often been suggested as proof of the 
 remarkably cordial relations existing between em- 
 ployer and employee. It proves nothing more 
 happy than the perfection of a system which 
 makes strikes well-nigh impossible, and keeps the 
 workers under a system of peonage. 
 
 Several years ago, goaded into action by for- 
 eign criticism of the inhuman factory conditions, 
 the Japanese Diet passed a factory law. Its en- 
 
88 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 actment by the Diet was against the violent pro- 
 test of the manufacturers, who quite truthfully 
 asserted that if they were compelled to forgo the 
 employment of children, submit to restrictions re- 
 garding the hours of labor, obey sanitary regula- 
 tions and abandon night work, they would not be 
 able to compete with foreign mills. Before the 
 factory law got through the Diet some member 
 had slipped a joker into it. This is a provision 
 that during rush seasons the legal limitations in 
 regard to hours of labor are to be ignored and 
 that the provincial governors may at their dis- 
 cretion suspend the operation of the factory law 
 in their own provinces. Even in the law itself 
 the hours of labor allowed were so long that in 
 any other country the law would be a ghastly joke, 
 for its requirements were so lax and the interpre- 
 tation of the rights of employers so broad as to 
 have only the effect of legalizing the inhuman 
 methods now prevailing. However, the entire bit 
 of legislation has now only a melancholy academic 
 interest, for after the bill was passed by the Diet 
 it was stored away in the archives and has never 
 been given the Imperial sanction that legislation 
 in Japan must receive before it becomes a law. 
 The fact that the Japanese Diet had passed a fac- 
 tory law was heralded abroad. Newspapers com- 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 89 
 
 mented on this convincing proof of the advance 
 of Japan — and the overworked, underfed factory 
 girls went on committing suicide at the same rate 
 as before. 
 
 The Japanese manufacturers were quite right 
 when they protested against any kind of factory 
 legislation, for it is only their prodigal expendi- 
 ture of human life that enables them to compete 
 successfully with British and American factories 
 for the trade of Asia. So great is the wastage 
 that factory owners are compelled to recruit about 
 200,000 new employees every year in order to keep 
 up the supply. These girls come from the farms, 
 but after their factory experience, the police rec- 
 ords show, less than half of them return to their 
 homes. The others drift from one unskilled em- 
 ployment to another, many of them becoming 
 maids in the disreputable tea houses or inmates in 
 houses of prostitution. The price which Japan 
 will pay for this present commercial success will 
 be measured in the decreased birth rate of the 
 future, if a more violent reckoning is not exacted 
 by social and political upheavals. 
 
 Japan's great success in manufacturing has 
 been usually credited to her very low wage scale 
 which is made possible by her very low cost of liv- 
 ing. The other factor, of equal or greater impor- 
 
90 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 tance, is the inhuman condition under "which, her 
 goods are produced. The Japanese worker is not 
 eflScient, and even with the low wage scale, the 
 Japanese factories would not be able to compete 
 with other factories, if they were compelled to ob- 
 serve the regulations enforced here or in England. 
 The wage scale of Japan, as given by the official 
 reports, is very low. According to the fourteenth 
 Financial and Economic Annual of Japan, aver- 
 age daily wages of laborers in various lines of 
 work were, in 1913 : 
 
 Cents 
 
 Female silk spinners 15 
 
 Weavers, male, 21 
 
 Weavers, female, 13 
 
 Dyers 25 
 
 Tailors 28 
 
 Shoemakers 30 
 
 Confectioners 22 
 
 Carpenters 43 
 
 Plasterers 45 
 
 Stonecutters 50 
 
 Jewelers 34 
 
 Printers 26 
 
 The wage rate in many lines is even lower than 
 indicated by these figures. This is especially true 
 of factory girls, most of whom are compelled to 
 live in the dormitories of the factory and take 
 meals furnished by the management. The cost of 
 
THE COST OF PEOGRESS 91 
 
 these accommodations is taken from their wages 
 and a system of fines still further reduces the 
 amount they actually receive. There have been 
 instances of girls working for months and actually 
 being in debt to the factory owner at the end of 
 the time. 
 
 In all lines given above, the wages apply, not to 
 the eight-hour day of America, but to the ten-, 
 twelve- or sixteen-hour day of Japan. For in- 
 stance, Japanese printers, if paid the wage given 
 above for the 48-hour week which is now observed 
 in so many American printing shops, would earn 
 from $1 to $1.25 weekly. Stonecutters, plasterers 
 and carpenters in Japan as elsewhere are likely 
 to have long periods of idleness, which greatly 
 reduce their average daily income. Some of the 
 wage scales are based, not on hours worked but 
 on the amount of work done, so that the wages 
 given above apply only when the wage earner has 
 performed tasks designated as a theoretical day's 
 work. 
 
 There is a common belief that the low cost of liv- 
 ing in Japan tends to equalize the low scale of 
 wages, and make it possible for the Japanese 
 workman to enjoy about the same comforts and 
 opportunities as are enjoyed by his fellow work- 
 man in other lands. This is one of the many illu- 
 
92 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 sions about Japan. The problem of making in- 
 come meet expenditure is, for nine-tenths of the 
 Japanese, a problem which must be solved not 
 only by careful thrift but by much self-denial as 
 well. Japanese periodicals devoted to the inter- 
 ests of women are full of discussions of the prob- 
 lem and in a recent symposium on the subject, a 
 number of model family budgets were published. 
 Among them a very interesting one was submitted 
 by a primary school-teacher with a monthly sal- 
 ary of $17.50. He was married and had two 
 children, his family being smaller than the usual 
 Japanese family, just as his income was larger 
 than that enjoyed by any Japanese workman. 
 He divided his expenses as follows : 
 
 Rice $2.60 
 
 Sugar, salt, tea, wood 1.95 
 
 Meat, pickles, etc 3.00 
 
 House rent 3.75 
 
 Furniture 50 
 
 Clothing 1.25 
 
 Social expense (entertaining) 75 
 
 Books and newspapers 75 
 
 Car fare 75 
 
 Barber and bath. 35 
 
 Extraordinary expense 50 
 
 Pocket money and tobacco 85 
 
 Savings 50 
 
THE COST OF PKOGEESS 93 
 
 The amount expended would buy no more rice 
 in Japan than in America, for the price of this 
 food staple is practically the same in both coun- 
 tries. It would purchase about 50 pounds of the 
 best quality rice, or 70 pounds of the poorest qual- 
 ity. The amount of sugar and salt purchased 
 would be practically the same as in America, while 
 tea would, of course, be cheaper, and wood dearer 
 in Japan. The amount expended for meat would 
 purchase less in Japan than in America unless all 
 of it were spent for fish. Nearness to the source 
 of supply makes fish a very cheap article of diet. 
 The minimum prices for meat, at the time this bud- 
 get was published, were : beef, 23 cents a pound ; 
 horse meat, 13 cents; pork, 15 cents. These 
 prices, it should be noted, are for the cheapest cuts. 
 It has been my experience that the good cuts of 
 meat are more expensive in Japan than in Amer- 
 ica. Butter, cheese, milk and cream sell at about 
 the same price in both countries. Eggs in Japan 
 are cheaper, the best grade selling the year round 
 at 18 cents a dozen. But this is hardly a fair com- 
 parison, for the eggs of Japan are much smaller 
 and are of an inferior quality. Vegetables, as a 
 rule, are cheaper in Japan, though the difference 
 is not great. If the teacher whose budget is pub- 
 
94 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 lished bought the cheapest quality of horse meat 
 and the cheapest quality of rice, he would have a 
 daily allowance of food for each member of the 
 family of 3 ounces of horse meat and 10 ounces of 
 rice. Any variation of the diet would mean les- 
 sened quantities of these two staples. 
 
 The house for which a rental of $3.75 a month is 
 paid could probably not be duplicated in America. 
 It is small, of very light construction which gives 
 no protection from the cold of winter. Its nearest 
 counterpart would be found in the single room of 
 a frame tenement. Considering the fact that the 
 renter in Japan does not have the benefit of sew- 
 ers, improved streets and sidewalks, rents in 
 Japan are no cheaper than in America. 
 
 It is difficult to make a comparison between the 
 cost of clothing in the two countries, owing to the 
 great differences in requirements. Cotton and 
 silk textiles cost much less in Japan than in Amer- 
 ica, while the smaller cost of the cotton fabric is 
 largely offset by its inferior quality. From per- 
 sonal experience I would say that clothing of the 
 European style costs about the same in Japan as 
 ia England. Japanese clothing, contrary to the 
 usual idea, is more expensive than European and 
 many Japanese adopt the foreign style of dress 
 out of motives of economy. The Japanese spend 
 
THE COST OP PROGRESS 95 
 
 much less for clothing than we do, but that is 
 largely because their requirements are less. No- 
 where else in the world does a coUar do such yeo- 
 man service before it is sent to the wash. In few 
 other countries do the people do with such a small 
 amount of clothing. During a great part of the 
 year the climate is such that little clothing is 
 needed and the lower classes do not add much to 
 the loin cloth which a wise statute requires all 
 residents of Japan to wear. But in the winters, 
 which are more severe than those of England, 
 there is intense suffering from the cold. A very 
 large proportion of the population — certainly one- 
 fifth — ^wear nothing but thin cotton garments 
 from year end to year end in spite of the fact that 
 snow and sleet remain on the ground for days at a 
 time. 
 
 Electric lights, gas, coal and wood are as ex- 
 pensive in Japan as elsewhere. The family whose 
 budget has been given would have no more than 
 one electric light of 8-candle power and would 
 have no heat other than a tiny charcoal fire. 
 Street car fares are cheaper, as they are cheaper 
 everywhere. It is only in America and the Philip- 
 pines that a five-cent street car fare is charged. 
 However, the monthly allowance of 75 cents for 
 street car fare would provide for only thirty trips 
 
96 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 during the month. The Japanese live on their 
 pitifully small incomes only because they do with- 
 out many things we believe to be necessities. 
 
 When Japan started on her imperial progress, 
 she had no money and little resources. In order 
 to carry out her plans, she has been a prodigal 
 borrower and has piled up an enormous debt. 
 The present national debt, exclusive of the mil- 
 lions owed abroad for provincial and municipal 
 loans and iiidustrial debentures, amounts to 1250 
 million dollars. How greatly this debt overbal- 
 ances the resources of the country may be realized 
 by the statement that Japan's creditors might 
 take over every agricultural, industrial, commer- 
 cial and transportation concern in the country at 
 the capital stock valuation without satisfying 
 more than one-fourth of the obligation. The en- 
 tire exports of the country for four years would 
 not be enough to retire the outstanding national 
 bonds. The strain on Japan's credit is shown by 
 the fact that Japanese bonds are less favored and 
 sell at a cheaper price than bonds of Mexico, China 
 or Cuba. 
 
 In addition to the huge sums required to pay the 
 interest on this big debt and establish a sinking 
 fund, the Japanese statesmen have been prodigal 
 in their expenditure for the army and navy, and, 
 
THE COST OF PROGRESS 97 
 
 as has been shown in detail, in their encourage- 
 ment of the mercantile marine. To meet these 
 great outlays every possible resource of taxation 
 has been exhausted. There is a high protective 
 tariff on imports and taxes on every kind of busi- 
 ness. Government monopolies on salt, tobacco 
 and camphor add to the prices of these staples and 
 turn additional revenue into the exchequer. The 
 income tax affects all with an income of more than 
 $150 a year. When one rides on a street car, one- 
 fifth of the fare is paid to the government as a 
 transit tax. Eailways, telegraphs and telephones 
 have been nationalized to add to the national reve- 
 nue. There are special taxes on sugar, kerosene 
 and textiles. The taxes have been piled up so 
 rapidly that they have doubled in the past ten 
 years and one of the most pressing problems of 
 the administration at present is the discovery of 
 some new method of taxation which will increase 
 the national revenue. While the taxation burdens 
 have increased, the increases in the national army 
 have taken from productive employment hundreds 
 of thousands of young men. One of the immedi- 
 ate results of this great national debt and the 
 expenditures on imperial projects has been to 
 greatly increase the cost of living. There has 
 been an increase also in the scale of wages, but this 
 
98 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 has not been in proportion to the advance in 
 prices. 
 
 The peasants and laborers have paid a heavj'' 
 price for the progress of the country and have had 
 little or nothing to say about the policies which 
 determined that progress. Through property 
 qualifications the franchise is limited to a million 
 and a half of the fifteen million men who would be 
 allowed to vote if American laws were applied. 
 These voters under the bureaucratic system of 
 government, have little influence or authority. 
 The millions of lesser people who cast no vote are 
 but rarely considered in legislation. They are 
 poorer to-day than they were a decade ago. The 
 laborer has a larger income, but he must pay out 
 more of it for taxes and must pay enhanced prices 
 for rent, food and clothing. The farmer is finding 
 it impossible to stand up under the economic 
 strain and every year a growing number of the 
 small independent farmers are compelled to sell 
 their ancestral holdings and take up the drudgery 
 and semi-slavery of tenant farming. 
 
 Let us look at the other and even less pleasing 
 side of the picture. While the lower classes are 
 growing poorer, the capitalists and landlords, 
 rulers and friends of rulers, are growing richer. 
 They have sacrificed nothing, but have ridden to 
 
THE COST OP PROGRESS 99 
 
 wealth on the wings of national ambition. The 
 connection between the capitalists and the power- 
 ful official circle is close, and in a country where 
 the government controls so many enterprises and 
 is so lavish in its expenditures on national under- 
 takings, there are many rich plums. Shipping 
 subsidies are paid to steamship lines whose stock 
 is held by the Imperial family, by the officials and 
 their friends. Government contracts are given to 
 firms in which officials are interested ; government 
 funds are used to aid banks in which officials and 
 their families are stockholders. The Eusso-Japa- 
 nese War, which piled such heavy debts on the 
 country and added so much to the burdens of the 
 poor, made fortunes for the capitalists. The 
 practices by which those close to powerful officials 
 gain fortunes are more or less open, and there is 
 no pubhc opinion which condemns them. It is a 
 notorious fact that though the salaries of high 
 officials are very small, many of them retire from 
 a short term of office with comfortable fortunes. 
 The progress of Japan has been accomplished at 
 great cost and enormous sacrifices. But the cost 
 has not fallen on the people responsible for the 
 rule of the country. Just as the old daimyos sur- 
 rendered their possessions to the Emperor only 
 in return for government bonds, so have the sue- 
 
100 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 cessors of the daimyos profited at every step in 
 the progress of the country. The cost has been 
 borne by that oppressed mass which has not yet 
 found power to voice its wrongs. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 DANGEEOTJS THOUGHTS 
 
 SEVERAL years ago a Japanese statesman 
 coined a phrase, "dangerous thoughts, " 
 which has come into usage as common as 
 President Roosevelt's "undesirable citizen" or 
 President Wilson 's ' ' watchful waiting. ' ' Indeed, 
 while the presidential phrases have had their 
 vogue and have gone into the ash heap with last 
 year's slang, the Japanese phrase is growing in 
 popularity and will probably continue to be used 
 for many years to come. Everyone in Japan 
 knows what "dangerous thoughts" are and a 
 great many people are thinking dangerously. In 
 a broad way "dangerous thoughts" may be said 
 to include all those ideas of Western civilization 
 which cannot be accepted without doing violence 
 to Japan's political and social institutions. There 
 are many kinds of these thoughts. Socialism is 
 one, believed by the Japanese authorities to be the 
 most insidious and most dangerous. Personal 
 rights is another, for when the people of Japan 
 
 101 
 
102 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 begin to think of personal rights and liberties, 
 the sand under the foundation of Japanese things 
 political will begin to wash away. The new femi- 
 nism is another, for Japan is so far behind the 
 rest of the world in social and political evolution 
 that we find the problems that the West solved in 
 the Middle Ages and the problems the West is 
 striving now to solve demanding an equal amount 
 of attention. 
 
 There are so many of these dangerous thoughts 
 in present-day Japan that it would be most diffi- 
 cult to place them in the order of their importance. 
 But since the government towers above everything 
 else in Japan, is the fountain of aU morality as 
 well as all power, it may be well to consider first 
 the dangerous thoughts which do most violence to 
 the theory of government itself. The theory of 
 the government of Japan is exactly the reverse of 
 that of the United States. No Japanese states- 
 man ever thought of "the consent of the gov- 
 erned," for that would have been a most danger- 
 ous thought, dangerous alike for Japanese insti- 
 tutions and for the man who proposed such an 
 heretical idea. The Emperor is supreme, his 
 powers being set forth in the first part of the con- 
 stitution of Japan as follows : 
 
 "The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 103 
 
 and governed by a line of emperors unbroken for 
 ages eternal. The Emperor is sacred and inviola- 
 ble. The Emperor is the head of the Empire, 
 combining in himseK the rights of sovereignty, 
 and exercising them, according to the provisions 
 of this constitution." 
 
 Thus the entire structure of the Japanese state 
 is reared on the belief that the Emperor is the 
 descendant of the gods, sacred and divine. There 
 is no other authority for Japanese law and it is 
 solely through appointment by the Emperor or 
 sanction of his acts that a Japanese official exer- 
 cises his powers. The many elective officers do 
 not take office until their election has been sanc- 
 tioned by the Emperor, and the election itself is 
 nothing more, in theory, than a recommendation 
 to the Emperor that a certain candidate be ap- 
 pointed to that particular office. So thoroughly is 
 this theory carried out that more than one candi- 
 date for the mayoralty of a city is voted for, those 
 receiving the smaller number of votes being recom- 
 mended to the Emperor as alternates, to receive 
 the appointment in the event that the leading can- 
 didate does not meet with Imperial favor. 
 
 Siace the accession to the throne of the present 
 ruler the popular belief in the divinity of the 
 Emperor has been weakened. The present Em- 
 
104 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 peror, son of the late Emperor Meiji by a concu- 
 bine, does not command the veneration of bis sub- 
 jects as did his father, a circumstance which is 
 explained alike by the growing skepticism of the 
 people and by the differences in the men. The 
 late Emperor was a man who justly earned the re- 
 gard of all Japanese and those who were skeptical 
 enough to reject the idea of his divinity, respected 
 him as a man. The prestige of the present Em- 
 peror must, unfortunately, rest solely on the 
 theory of his divine ancestry. He lacks the 
 strong character of his father, is a weakling in 
 body, and according to Tokyo gossip, is a weakling 
 in mind as well. Gossip like this may be expected 
 about those who lead mysterious lives like that of 
 the Emperor of Japan. In this case it is of no 
 importance whether or not it be true. The impor- 
 tant thing is that Japanese make this charge 
 agaiast their Emperor, for it shows that some of 
 them have pierced the shallow ruse and found the 
 man beneath the trappings of divinity. 
 
 Nothing in Japan has been guarded more care- 
 fully than this idea of the divinity of the Emperor 
 and nothiag, the Japanese statesmen would have 
 us believe, has a firmer hold on the people. In the 
 past it has not been necessary to definitely attack 
 the idea to bring about a storm of protest; any- 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 105 
 
 thing that could in any way be construed as a sug- 
 gestion that the Emperor was not divine, that the 
 Japanese state could be anything other than it is, 
 was interpreted as treason. In 1891, Mr. Ozaki, 
 who was then Minister of Education, made a 
 speech in which he criticized the tendency of the 
 Japanese to give undue honors to men with money. 
 In order to illustrate his point he said: "You 
 Japanese worship money even more reverently 
 than the Americans do. If you had a republic 
 as they have, you would nominate an Iwazaki or a 
 Mitsui to be president, whereas they don't think 
 of electing a Vanderbilt or a Gould." This faint 
 suggestion that a republican form of government 
 might be possible in Japan was seized upon by 
 Mr. Ozaki 's political opponents to such good ad- 
 vantage that in a short time they had forced him 
 to resign his office and retire from political life 
 for several years. His speech so weakened the 
 prestige of the cabinet of which he was a member 
 that it was compelled to retire soon after. 
 
 It would be vain to attempt to determine how 
 widespread is the disbelief in the divinity of the 
 Emperor. It is naturally not a subject of general 
 conversation, for the police are everywhere, and 
 punishment for such blasphemy is severe. Yet 
 many Japanese have, in private conversation, told 
 
106 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 me this idea of divinity was only a bit of political 
 nonsense with which the officials sought to fool 
 the people. This skepticism may be confined to 
 the group of socialists who flourish clandestinely 
 in Tokyo. Criticism of the theory of state is be- 
 yond the capabilities of the average Japanese sub- 
 ject, nor would it be consistent with Japanese 
 character to quarrel with a theory. The great 
 bulk of the Japanese accept the theory in its en- 
 tirety, and falter in their loyalty to the Emperor 
 only when that loyalty calls for something more 
 than respectful bows. Payment of taxes and serv- 
 ice in the army comprise the two concrete duties of 
 the Japanese to their emperor, and it is in the 
 fulfilment of these duties that the flaw in their de- 
 votion appears. Some would have us believe that 
 Japanese patriotism is of such a superior quality 
 that they look on the payment of taxes and service 
 in the army as joyful privileges rather than painful 
 duties. Yet the Japanese system has not made 
 the collection of taxes or the enforcement of con- 
 scription any easier there than elsewhere, except 
 insofar as it is made easier by the greater docility 
 of the Japanese. 
 
 While in Japan I took advantage of every oppor- 
 tunity to inquire of Japanese friends about the 
 payment of taxes and was surprised at the number 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 107 
 
 of them wlio bad managed to escape the attentions 
 of the tax collector. The practice of giving false 
 returns for the income tax is widespread and is 
 connived at by some of the biggest concerns in. 
 Japan. The same attitude prevails toward con- 
 scription which is universally dreaded and univer- 
 sally avoided. The number of young Japanese 
 who pretend defective eyesight in order to avoid 
 being drafted into the army has given opportunity 
 for a collection of native jests on the prosperity of 
 the spectacle makers as affected by the size of the 
 standing army. Any visitor to Tokyo must be 
 struck by the fact that spectacle wearers are con- 
 fined almost exclusively to young men of conscrip- 
 tion age. I do not pretend to say that the Japa- 
 nese are any more adept at dodging taxes than are 
 my own countrymen, or that their attitude toward 
 conscription is not more obedient than our atti- 
 tude would be. In theory Japanese patriotism is 
 of a peculiar quality, combining in itself the high- 
 est motives of civic and religious duty ; in practice 
 it differs from other patriotism only in a narrow 
 chauvinism and in the blindness of its devotion to 
 the opinion of leaders. In fact Japanese states- 
 men have taken advantage of the very natural dis- 
 inclination to serve in the army by making certain 
 exemptions of students in the higher schools, with 
 
108 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 tlie result that students make many sacrifices in 
 the hope of being able to remain in school and 
 postpone or avoid service in the army. 
 
 Partly as a result of this system of encourage- 
 ment of higher education, Japan is suffering now 
 and has suffered for several years from a surplus 
 of young men with a college education. By their 
 training they have unfitted themselves for me- 
 chanical labor, and there is no place for them in 
 the government or in the overcrowded professions. 
 In the early part of her modernization the Japa- 
 nese government was able to give employment to 
 all who mastered even the rudiments of a foreign 
 education. So great was the demand for talent 
 of this sort that illiterate American and British 
 sailors have in the past found lucrative employ- 
 ment as teachers of English. The government 
 then took over the entire educational product of 
 the country, and it still takes over the pick of the 
 graduates. The government has a virtual monop- 
 oly on the brains of Japan, for both high and low 
 prefer employment by the government to any other 
 career. The permanency of employment even at 
 a low wage is attractive, and there is the further 
 advantage that one's social position in Japan is 
 determined solely by his oflScial rank. But that 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 109 
 
 tendency to combine into clans and groups which 
 is so characteristic of the Japanese soon asserted 
 itself in the government service and now entry 
 into the charmed circle of official employment is 
 guarded by every known device of nepotism. The 
 average departmental payroll looks like a family 
 tree, and even a roster of high officials of the coun- 
 try betrays on close examination striking family 
 connections, and even more striking and danger- 
 ous connections with great financial interests. 
 Ten years ago Lafcadio Hearn commented on this 
 condition, which exists to-day in a more aggra- 
 vated degree than at his time. He said: "In 
 theory any man of great talent and energy may 
 rise, from rank to rank, up to the highest posi- 
 tions. But as private life is still controlled to no 
 small degree by the old communism, so public life 
 is yet controlled by survivals of class or clan des- 
 potism. The chances for ability to rise without 
 assistance, to win its way to rank and power, are 
 extraordiuarily small; since to contend alone 
 against an opposition that thinks by groups, and 
 acts by masses, must be almost hopeless. Only 
 commercial or industrial life now offers really 
 fair opportunities to capable men. The few tal- 
 ented persons of humble origin who do succeed in 
 
110 JAPAN AND AMEKICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 official directions owe their success chiefly to party 
 help or clan patronage ; in order to force any rec- 
 ognition of personal ability, group must be op- 
 posed to group." 
 
 Since that was written the same clannishness 
 which had closed the ranks of official employment 
 operated to limit the opportunities for employ- 
 ment in industry and commerce. Just as the 
 Choshu and Satsuma clans have gained and held 
 complete control of the army and the navy so have 
 certain powerful families gained control of cer- 
 tain industries and businesses. The most notable 
 example of this is the great Mitsui family, which 
 handles more than one-third of the exports and 
 imports of Japan. This great concern, with 
 branches in all parts of the world, is relatively of 
 greater importance in Japan than would be a great 
 American combination consisting of the Standard 
 Oil Company, the steel trust, the harvester trust, 
 and all the great life insurance and banking com- 
 panies. In this as well as all other enterprises in 
 Japan, kinship to one in power is the only certain 
 method of securing employment. 
 
 It is from the ranks of these unemployed young 
 men that the political malcontents are recruited. 
 There is a Young Japan party just as truly as 
 there is, or was, a Young Turk party and a Young 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 111 
 
 China party. The stringency and efficiency of po- 
 lice regulations keep the Young Japan party silent 
 and clandestine. It would perhaps be too much to 
 say that they have any definite aims or policies, 
 that they are united by any stronger bond than a 
 vigorous if repressed discontent with things as 
 they are. 
 
 They are the "Outs" in political affairs and 
 against them the "Ins" are effectively barricaded 
 by a limitation of the ballot, for these briefless 
 young lawyers, idle physicians, and unemployed 
 graduates are by their poverty denied the right 
 to vote. The use of the ballot might afford this 
 large and growing class of malcontents an oppor- 
 tunity to work off their unrest in political activity, 
 but any extension of the ballot liberal enough to 
 include them would be revolutionary, and would 
 mean even greater turbulence than is now the rule 
 in Japanese politics. This reform, like an exten- 
 sion of greater powers to the Diet, would be plung- 
 ing into immediate difficulties in order to avoid a 
 danger which is, as yet, remote. The Japanese 
 people, as a mass, have not yet shown any great 
 political abilities or any large capacity for self- 
 government. A quarter of a century of parlia- 
 mentary experience has not yet resulted in the 
 formation of a single political party with fixed 
 
112 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 and definite principles. Many parties have been 
 formed in the past on what appeared to be a bed- 
 rock of political belief, but all of them soon aban- 
 doned their principles for personal allegiance to 
 one or another leader, and none have hesitated to 
 adjust and reverse their platforms to meet politi- 
 cal exigencies of the day. There are not half a 
 dozen political leaders in Japan who have not 
 shamelessly abandoned their principles and vio- 
 lated their election pledges, not once, but many 
 times. The political parties of the present time 
 bear more resemblance to our fraternal organiza- 
 tions than to our political parties. They are com- 
 posed of men who are bound together by common 
 interests, not by common principles. Party mem- 
 bership plays but a minor part in elections to the 
 Diet, personal allegiance being a far more impor- 
 tant factor. Members of the Diet frequently 
 change parties after election, with no complaints 
 from their constituents and no explanations for 
 the change. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the ballot is restricted 
 to the prosperous one-tenth of the population, 
 bribery and selling of votes is a shockingly com- 
 mon practice. Every election is followed by in- 
 vestigations which show widespread political cor- 
 ruption. Enormous sums are spent by candidates 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 113 
 
 for the seats in the Diet and investigations show 
 that this money is often expended directly in the 
 purchase of votes. Membership in the Diet car- 
 ries with it little power, and a very small salary. 
 But it does often give the holder an opportunity 
 to share in government patronage. It is quite a 
 common practice for members of the Diet to accept 
 positions on the directorate of concerns which 
 hope to profit through government contracts, and 
 it is from such connections as this that the mem- 
 bers are able to recoup themselves for their heavy 
 election expenses. 
 
 Recent events have shown that even among the 
 higher officers of the country bribery and commis- 
 sion hunting are common. Within the past year 
 conditions in the Household Department, which 
 has charge of the administration of the Emperor's 
 estate, have been found to be so bad that there was 
 a wholesale dismissal of all the higher employees. 
 During the same time an admiral has been con- 
 victed of the collection of a commission on the cost 
 of one of Japan's biggest battleships, and there 
 was a cabinet crisis due to the implication of one 
 of the members of the Cabinet in a piece of bribery. 
 These are but the most prominent incidents of a 
 year which has been filled with hundreds of 
 exposures of bribery and political corruption. 
 
114 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 There is no reason to believe that an extension of 
 the ballot would remedy any of these conditions. 
 On the other hand it is quite reasonable to suppose 
 that it would make conditions worse. If the most 
 prosperous subjects show such a small apprecia- 
 tion of the duties of citizenship, is it reasonable 
 to suppose that the conduct of the poorer and less 
 responsible portion of the population would be any 
 better? 
 
 Some of the malcontents turn their thoughts to 
 socialism, though necessarily in secret, for only a 
 few years ago several Japanese subjects were exe- 
 cuted for no greater crime than a public avowal 
 of belief in socialist doctrines. Since then the 
 socialists have flourished in a secrecy so well 
 guarded that one cannot make an intelligent guess 
 at their number. Socialist books are clandestinely 
 published and circulated. Some daring souls even 
 manage to make sociahst street speeches, care- 
 fully sugar coating their socialist teaching with 
 patriotic sentiments. It is this element that is re- 
 sponsible for the many riots in Tokyo in the past 
 few years. They are but following the precedent 
 set by many others in other lands, for when the 
 ballot is denied it is human nature to turn to the 
 use of cobble stones. In the past these disturb- 
 ances have never be«n very serious; in fact the 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 115 
 
 Tokyo rioters have seldom done as much, damage 
 to property as would be done by a bunch of Ameri- 
 can schoolboys celebrating a football victory. 
 They have seldom had any definite object except 
 a display of defiance for constituted power. It 
 may be many years before, these disturbances take 
 on a serious aspect, but the discontent, the loss of 
 faith in the impeccability of the Japanese state 
 and the tendency toward independent modem 
 thought on political things have yearly grown more 
 pronounced. 
 
 The dangerous thoughts of Japanese women 
 have little to do with politics. It is against the 
 law La Japan for women to attend political meet- 
 ings, so that a Japanese suffra^st becomes a felon 
 as soon as she attempts to gain converts to her 
 cause. The possibility of Japanese women voting 
 is so remote that so far as I know it has never been 
 discussed in Japan. The franchise as granted to 
 men is so limited by property qualifications that I 
 doubt if more than 5000 women of Japan could 
 qualify to vote even if the sex qualification were 
 removed. Nine-tenths of these would be the pro- 
 prietresses of questionable tea houses, for that 
 class comprises practically all of the women who 
 have independent business enterprises and inde- 
 pendent incomes. This results in the peculiar 
 
116 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 situation that the Japanese women's efforts for 
 the franchise would result only in increased power 
 for the few women whom the others hold to be the 
 enemies of the sex. 
 
 The dangerous thoughts of the Japanese women 
 are much more primitive and fundamental. They 
 are hoping, not for political rights, but for decent 
 womanhood. They want a marriage system which 
 will guarantee the faith of the husband, a reform 
 in society which will not allow the husband to 
 openly flout the wife for any painted prostitute 
 who may strike his fancy. They want also, though 
 the want has hardly yet become articulate, a re- 
 form in the laws and social system which will give 
 some stability to the marriage relation, for di- 
 vorces are more frequent in Japan than in any 
 other country of the world. Not long since, the 
 Japanese author of a book on the Japanese- Ameri- 
 can immigration question sought to prove his con- 
 tention for Japanese immigration by proving that 
 America was no better morally than Japan. 
 Among the many other charges he brought against 
 his adopted home was the very large number of 
 divorces in America. He had evidently forgotten 
 to look up the facts as regards his own country. 
 The comparative statistics for a recent year are 
 as follows: 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 117 
 
 ges Divorces Percentage 
 
 for year for year divorces to 
 
 marriages 
 
 Japan 461,000 60,000 13 
 
 United States ...853,000 72,000 8i/^ 
 
 The percentage of divorces in America is noth- 
 ing to be proud of but at least it can be reasonably 
 explained. With a few minor exceptions which 
 do not affect the general rule, it will be seen on an 
 examination of the statistics that the percentage 
 of divorces to marriages in the United States is 
 large in the Western States where the community 
 is new ; and small in the older States where society 
 is more settled. Thus in New England, the only 
 part of the United States which can be in any way 
 compared to Japan for established social systems, 
 the percentage of divorces is negligible. There 
 the permanency of the social system makes mar- 
 riages permanent, just as in the West the looseness 
 of the social system tends to make marriages easily 
 dissolved. If the Japanese were like Americans 
 we might reasonably expect them to have the low- 
 est instead of the highest percentage of diyoroes, 
 for if a few centuries of life in New England can 
 result in a low divorce rate, it might be reasonable 
 to expect twenty centuries of life in Japan would 
 have a similar happy result. 
 
 That this has not been the result is only another 
 
118 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 proof, if any additional proof be needed, that there 
 is a very wide gulf separating the Japanese from 
 the Americans. It is difficult for Westerners, and 
 especially for Americans, to understand the Japa- 
 nese attitude toward women, for their attitude ig- 
 nores in this relation all that we take for granted. 
 Some of the most beautiful bits of our literature, 
 some of the most charming stories of our history 
 are based on love between husband and wife. It 
 is not too much to say that the Japanese leave out 
 of consideration any such sentiment as this. To 
 put it bluntly, they do not distinguish between 
 love and lust, and see in the relationship of the 
 sexes nothing more noble than the workings of 
 animal passion. Any public reference to domestic 
 affection they consider as shameful as a public 
 reference to those passions which they believe to 
 be the sole relationship between the sexes. Dr. 
 Gulick in his Evolution of the Japanese has given 
 a characteristic exam.ple of this. Some years ago, 
 when the late Dr. Neesima, the founder of the 
 Doshisha, a leading Japanese school, was on the 
 eve of his departure for the United States he made 
 an address to the students. "In the course of his 
 remarks he stated that there were three principal 
 considerations that made him regret the necessity 
 for his departure at that time. The first was that 
 
DANGEROUS THOUGHTS 119 
 
 the DosHsha was in a most critical position; it was 
 but starting on its larger work, and he felt that 
 all its friends should be on hand to help the great 
 undertaking. The second was that he was com- 
 pelled to leave his aged parents, whom he might 
 not find living on his return to Japan. The third 
 was his sorrow at leaving his beloved wife. This 
 public reference to his wife, and especially his love 
 for her, was so extraordinary that it created no 
 little comment, not to say scandal; especially ob- 
 noxious was it to many, because he mentioned her 
 after having mentioned his parents. In the re- 
 ports of this speech given by his friends to the 
 public press no reference was made to this expres- 
 sion of love for his wife. And a few months after 
 his death, when Dr. Davis prepared a short biogra- 
 phy of Dr. Neesima, he was severely criticized by 
 some of the Japanese for reproducing the speech 
 as Dr. Neesima gave it." 
 
 "We have the highest authority in Japan that 
 domestic affection, as we understand it, is not con- 
 sidered a necessary part of the marriage relation. 
 It is no less an authority than the rescript of the 
 late Emperor Meiji ^ which is declared to be the 
 embodiment of Japanese morals, the Ten Com- 
 mandments of the Japanese. The rescript, in 
 
 1 Japan Yea/r Book, 1912 edition, page 174. 
 
120 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 part, reads: "Ye, our subjects, be filial to your 
 parents, affectionate to your brother and sister; 
 as husbands and wives be harmonious ; as friends, 
 true. ' ' More, it will be seen, is demanded in the 
 relations between friends, children and parents 
 and brother and sister than is demanded in the re- 
 lation between husband and wife. If they can 
 live in harmony the commands of the rescript 
 will have been fulfilled! It would hardly have 
 been consistent for the Emperor to have taken a 
 different attitude toward marriage sLace he had 
 one wife and seven concubines, and some facetious 
 ones have suggested that the rescript reflected an 
 ideal of connubial relations which must have been 
 uppermost in the mind of a husband of eight. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE TWO JAPANS 
 
 IT is probably the experience of every one who 
 tries to gain an understanding of Japan by 
 reading the books and articles written about 
 the country, that he finds so many contradictory 
 statements that the longer he studies the more dif- 
 ficult it is for him to come to any decision about 
 the country or the people. Every generalization 
 whether it be in favor of Japan or against it can 
 be disproved by an overwhelming mass of contra- 
 dictory evidence. For every piece of evidence one 
 can find that the Japanese are or are not indus- 
 trious, progressive, eflScient, kindly, moral, cruel, 
 good, bad, peaceful, warlike ; it is possible to pro- 
 duce equally good evidence to prove the contrary. 
 This contradictory state of affairs may be partly 
 accounted for by the great differences between dif- 
 ferent classes of Japanese, differences in develop- 
 ment which have produced rather sharply con- 
 trasted results. There is, for instance, official 
 Japan and unofficial Japan. Official Japan, made 
 
 121 
 
122 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 up of the ruling oligarcliy, having the first demand 
 on the brains of the country, is, comparatively, 
 efficient, progressive and, to outward show at least, 
 governed by the same code of morals that governs 
 similar classes in other coimtries. Unofficial Ja- 
 pan, the Japan of the people, is still living with 
 the feudal point of view. It is inefficient and un- 
 progressive except as efficiency and progress are 
 forced on it by the officials. We find the Japa- 
 nese army and navy, the foremost products of the 
 official classes, to be equal if not superior to other 
 organizations. The operations at Port Arthur 
 and later at Tsingtau proved the high capabilities 
 of these two organizations. Troops were moved, 
 provisions and ammunitions carried over long dis- 
 tances, railways built, and extensive military oper- 
 ations carried on without a hitch and with a mini- 
 mum of labor and maximum of effect. Many ob- 
 servers believe the abilities of the Japanese army 
 and navy to be vastly overrated, and this belief 
 may be the correct one, but it is certain that in 
 comparison with other Japanese enterprises, the 
 degree of efficiency developed in these two organi- 
 zations is remarkable. 
 
 One may turn from the army and navy to any of 
 the industries of Japan and see a remarkable con- 
 trast. Everywhere there is inefficiency, confusion, 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 123 
 
 great manual skill in the use of primitive tools, but 
 great waste of effort through lack of organization 
 and inability to use labor-saving devices. The 
 millions of wooden clogs which are produced each 
 year are still made just as they were made centu- 
 ries ago, in small shops, almost the entire process 
 being by hand. Yet there are few articles of 
 every-day use in any land which could be more 
 easily produced by machinery, or whose cost would 
 
 be more certainly reduced by the adoption of labor- 
 
 « 
 
 saving methods. 
 
 In the industries where imported machinery is 
 used, there is the same inefficiency. An authority 
 on Japan who is noted for his sympathetic criti- 
 cism of the people says: "A visit to Japanese 
 factories often shows machinery treated carelessly, 
 employees so numerous that they impede rather 
 than expedite business, and a general lack of the 
 precision, regularity and earnestness that charac- 
 terize successful industrial enterprise in Europe 
 and America." ^ 
 
 Everywhere in Japan, in big factory or small 
 shop, in office or bank, there is what appears to a 
 Westerner to be a great surplus of employees, and 
 a maddening tediousness about transacting the 
 most trivial business. One need only carry an ac- 
 
 iJwpan, by Captain Brinkley. 
 
124 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 count at a Japanese bank to get a forcible illus- 
 tration of this. On many occasions I have 
 "watched the process through which the bank ma- 
 chinery went in order to cash a check. It has on 
 some occasions been thirty minutes after check and 
 bankbook were presented at the teller's window 
 before the cash was actually received. The rec- 
 ord time, so far as my experience goes, was ten 
 minutes. On that occasion I made a special re- 
 quest to the bank manager to hurry as I was try- 
 ing to catch a departing steamer. 
 
 In America the cashing of a check need not take 
 thirty seconds. Not so in Japan. Here the teller 
 stamps the check with his seal and passes it to the 
 bookkeeper who checks up the pass book with the 
 bank's books to see that the entries tally. A sec- 
 ond bookkeeper enters the new check on both books 
 and passes both to the chief cashier who examines 
 all the entries to see that they are correct and then 
 endorses an order for the payment of the money, 
 A fifth clerk records the endorsement and makes 
 a final check. The documents then go to a sixth 
 man who, if there has been no hitch in the proceed- 
 ings and you are still waiting, pays you the money. 
 The six men who take care of the cashing of a 
 check in the Japanese bank would not be able to 
 attend to one-tenth the number of customers who 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 125 
 
 are taken care of by the average teller of an Ameri- 
 can bank. 
 
 In the printing and publisliing business in Japan 
 there is inefficiency and waste which would drive 
 any American concern into bankruptcy. On the 
 best managed newspapers in the country forty re- 
 porters do the work ten would do in America 
 and do it twice as well. In the mechanical proc- 
 esses connected with printing, such as stereo- 
 typing, electrotyping, and engraving, the work 
 done is usually very poor and the minimum time 
 in which it is possible to complete a process is four 
 or five times the ordinary period required in 
 America. But in the government printing office 
 there is great improvement over these conditions. 
 There the machinery is modern and the employees 
 the most skilled to be found in the country. Japa- 
 nese manufacturers have as yet done very little 
 in the way of supplying the demands of their coun- 
 try for machinery. A cheap bicycle is the most 
 ambitious product of the private factories, but in 
 the government factories large caliber guns and 
 other munitions of war of the best quality are 
 turned out. 
 
 This official and unofficial Japan is only one of 
 the many contrasted aspects of the country. 
 There is the surface Japan, the country which the 
 
126 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 tourist sees, and the country which slowly and re- 
 luctantly reveals itself to the disillusioned foreign 
 resident. There is the Japan of the wistaria and 
 smiling faces and beautiful scenery which enchants 
 the tourist who does not stay long enough to learn 
 that it is but the outer shell of a nation which, ac- 
 cording to a well-known authority, "reeks with 
 every species of moral filth, abomination, crime 
 and corruption. ' ' So are there two Japanese peo- 
 ple, the polite obliging fellow traveler or casual 
 acquaintance who will walk blocks out of his way 
 to show a tourist some point of interest, and 
 the officious and sometimes insolent official un- 
 derstrapper with whom the foreign resident often 
 comes in touch. While Japan is the paradise of 
 the tourist, it proves a very nerve-racking place 
 for many foreign residents. 
 
 In so far as these different aspects of the coun- 
 try are natural, we can have no quarrel with them. 
 Rarely does the tourist view of a place coincide 
 with the view held by the foreign resident. In 
 China the old resident is the one who expresses the 
 highest regard for the Chinese, while the tourist 
 who does not remain long enough to learn the 
 solid worth of the people often goes away with 
 the impression that all are dirty and nearly all 
 dishonest. 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 127 
 
 But divergent views of Japan cannot be entirely 
 accounted for by the superficiality of the tourist 
 and the more or less profound observation of the 
 old resident, for in both cases the truth is obscured 
 by the Japanese people themselves. More than a 
 half century ago Sir Rutherford Alcock observed 
 "the incorrigible tendency of the Japanese to with- 
 hold from foreigners or disguise the truth on all 
 matters great and small." This tendency could 
 have been accounted for at that time as being a 
 spontaneous effort on the part of the Japanese, 
 who were quite naturally suspicious of the for- 
 eigner and believed that he would use to his own 
 advantage all the information he had about the 
 country. More recently this has been developed 
 into an organized campaign with many ramifica- 
 tions whose purpose it is to cover up all that is bad 
 about Japan, and to exploit all that is good, 
 whether real or imaginary. 
 
 There are many small towns in the West where 
 the stranger may live for months without being 
 able to learn anything to the detriment of the 
 place. It may be subject to drouths, it may be in 
 debt up to the eyebrows, perhaps sand storms 
 make the springtime hideous, but all of these 
 things are concealed by the local patriots, who 
 point with pride to everything in the vicinity and 
 
128 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 view nothing with alarm. Among themselves they 
 may discuss the disadvantages of climate and soil 
 and the shortcomings of the city administration, 
 but none of this reaches the ears of the visitor. A 
 psychologist might attribute this to the self-con- 
 sciousness and sensitiveness of a new and loosely 
 organized community. A cynic might find that 
 most of the boosters have real estate to sell. 
 Whatever the cause, the result is often deceptive 
 to the visitor unless he knows the viewpoint of the 
 residents of young and hopeful cities. 
 
 Similar motives have developed in Japan a code 
 in which every Japanese heartily concurs, binding 
 himself to present to strangers only the best side 
 of Japanese affairs. Whether it be a ricksha 
 coolie or a government official one talks to, it is 
 always exceedingly difficult to get him to give any 
 information which he feels would lower Japan in 
 the estimation of the foreigner. I have been told 
 that Americans have the same characteristic and 
 perhaps this is true. In several comers of the 
 world I have heard fellow Americans paint word 
 pictures of an America I do not know. But the 
 work of the boasting American is crude compared 
 to that of the Japanese. No people in the world 
 are more adept at making virtue out of necessity, 
 or of painting vice in presentable colors. 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 129 
 
 A foreigner of long residence in Japan, who had 
 spent many years in a study of the history of the 
 country, was once asked to describe in one word 
 the dominant characteristic of the Japanese peo- 
 ple. He answered that the one word to describe 
 them was "nice." They are a nice people. Per- 
 haps no other has ever paid so much attention to 
 the little relationships of life, to the formalities of 
 intercourse. No matter what situation may arise 
 in Japan, its rough and unpleasant features are 
 glossed over. Truth is never the supreme consid- 
 eration. Far more important than truth is the 
 necessity to avoid any xmpleasantness, any word 
 or action which may be deemed impolite. 
 
 It naturally follows from this that it is a Japa- 
 nese characteristic to give some ethical or senti- 
 mental reason for the existence of customs which 
 might readily be explained from natural causes. 
 For example, if you ask a Japanese why his coun- 
 trymen abstain from eating large quantities of 
 meat, the chances are he will reply that it is be- 
 cause they are Buddhists and Buddhism forbids 
 the eating of meat. One might accept this fine 
 proof of piety did he not know that Buddhism also 
 enjoins respect for the lives of fishes which have 
 always formed (except for one brief period) a 
 staple of Japanese food. The skeptic can easily 
 
130 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 explain the vegetarian tendencies of the Japanese 
 by the fact that they have never had any food 
 animals, the native grasses being too coarse for 
 pasturage. Their abstinence has been of the 
 same measure as their necessity. 
 
 Many foreign writers reflect this view. No less 
 an authority than Lafcadio Hearn was impressed 
 by the kindness of the people to dumb animals as 
 proven by the sight of "farmers coming to town, 
 trudging patiently beside their horses or oxen, 
 aiding their dumb companions to bear the bur- 
 den.'* The picture is pretty, as all Japanese pic- 
 tures are, and especially those painted by Hearn 's 
 magic pen, but what are the facts? In a land 
 where one can hire a carter at ten dollars a month 
 to drive a horse which costs twelve dollars a month 
 to feed, it would be foolish for the carter to ride 
 the horse. The value of the labor of the horse is 
 greater than that of man's labor and always has 
 been in Japan, so very naturally the carter leads 
 and aids the horse. No other arrangement would 
 be sensible. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a great deal of down- 
 right cruelty to animals in Japan. It is but natu- 
 ral that a people so blind to human suffering 
 should be equally callous to the sufferings of ani- 
 mals. Inhuman factory hours and a tender re- 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 131 
 
 gard for work horses would not be consistent. 
 The Yokohama Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals has been in existence for a 
 number of years, but its membership is almost en- 
 tirely foreign and Japanese interest in the organi- 
 zation is difficult to arouse. 
 
 There are a large number of Americans who be- 
 lieve it to be broad-minded and an indication of 
 culture to assert the superiority of foreign over 
 American institutions. From this class are re- 
 cruited a large number of the expatriates whom 
 the European war disturbed, and from it are also 
 recruited a large number of those who have been 
 carried away by Japanese superficiality. It is 
 their senseless adulation of Japan, their intem- 
 perate praise for everything Japanese that has re- 
 sulted in creating in the minds of many people a 
 conception of a Japan which does not exist, and 
 in giving the Japanese themselves a belief in their 
 own superiority. 
 
 In general it may be said, and there are few ex- 
 ceptions to' the rule, that all of the excellent or 
 superior qualities or habits with which the Japa- 
 nese people are popularly credited are subject to 
 discount on closer investigation. Instances of this 
 might be multiplied until they filled this entire 
 volume. We hear a great deal about Japanese 
 
132 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 personal cleanliness, for like their allies, the Eng- 
 lish, they make a fetich of the daily bath. But the 
 Japanese are not so cleanly as the Filipinos who 
 wash not only their bodies but also their shirts. 
 Dr. Gulick remarks that "the Japanese habit of 
 wearing heavy cotton wadded clothing, with little 
 or no underwear, produces the inevitable result in 
 the atmosphere of any closed room. In cold 
 weather I always find it necessary to throw open 
 all the doors and windows of my study or parlor, 
 after Bible classes of students or even after the 
 visits of cultured and well-to-do guests. That the 
 Japanese bathe so frequently is certainly an inter- 
 esting fact and a valuable feature of their civiliza- 
 tion; it indicates no little degree of cleanliness; 
 but for that, their clothing would become even 
 more disagreeable than it is, and the evil effect 
 upon themselves of wearing soiled garments would 
 be much greater. ... To a Japanese the size of 
 the weekly wash of a foreigner seems an extrava- 
 gance. ' ' 
 
 Even the frequency of the baths does not imply 
 the regard for cleanliness which would be pre- 
 sumed by one who is unacquainted with the na- 
 ture of a Japanese bath. The hot water in the 
 tub is not changed more than once a day. The 
 privilege of taking the first bath is accorded to the 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 133 
 
 master of tlie house and after Tiim come in the 
 order of their precedence the other members of 
 the household, ending with the servants. The 
 bath, instead of being a means to cleanliness, as 
 in other countries, is but little more than a luxuri- 
 ous soaking in warm water. 
 
 Japanese politeness, like Japanese cleanliness, 
 is greatly overestimated. In their complicated 
 rules of etiquette, the Japanese are probably ahead 
 of any other people except the Chinese. In the 
 feudal period these rules were so strict that a 
 Samurai might cut off the head of a commoner who 
 laughed with such impolite abandon as to show the 
 back teeth. For centuries politeness toward their 
 superiors was impressed on the Japanese at the 
 point of the sword, and with such severe penalties 
 for a violation of the rules, they learned their les- 
 son well. The tourist, meeting servants, hotel 
 keepers and curio dealers, comes to the conclusion 
 that all Japanese are obsequiously polite, and 
 that they are the most courteous of people. But 
 as in all other things connected with this charming 
 and aggravating country, a longer experience 
 brings a change of opinion, and even the politeness 
 is subject to a discount of disillusionment. There 
 is no country where the inferiors pay so grace- 
 fully their tribute of courtesy toward superiors, 
 
134 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 none where there is less graciousness of superiors 
 toward inferiors. The Japanese clerk, who greets 
 his employer with low bows and that audible suck- 
 ing of the breath through the teeth which is a sign 
 of Japanese respect, will be brutally rude to the 
 native salesman or collector, to everyone, in fact, 
 whom he can browbeat and insult with impunity. 
 This system is followed so consistently that it is 
 comparatively easy to tell the relative social stand- 
 ing of two people merely by the way they address 
 each other on the street. 
 
 In real courtesy and consideration for inferiors 
 the Japanese are not the equals of Europeans or 
 Americans though in the outward show of polite- 
 ness they are far their superiors. I have often 
 been told by Japanese of the petty clerk or servant 
 classes that they prefer employment by foreigners 
 to employment by their own countrymen because 
 the foreigners are more polite and considerate. 
 Observation of the different establishments in Ja- 
 pan shows that this is true. Throughout Japan 
 foreigners always call a male servant "Boy San," 
 or "Cook San"; that is "Mr. Boy," or "Mr. 
 Cook." Most foreigners erroneously believe that 
 in doing this they are complying with a native cus- 
 tom. Yet I have never been able to learn of a 
 single Japanese employer who used these hon- 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 135 
 
 orifics in addressing his servants. Foreign em- 
 ployers in Japan almost invariably treat their em- 
 ployees with greater consideration, work them 
 shorter hours, and demand from them none of the 
 groveling obeisance which the Japanese employer 
 assumes to be his right. 
 
 Because of this tendency of the Japanese to 
 make out the best possible case for their country, 
 and the tendency of foreigners to accept the most 
 fanciful and ridiculous explanations for things, it 
 has been easy for the Japanese government to 
 carry out a program which has still further cre- 
 ated false impressions about the country. Though 
 at first this program probably had no object other 
 than that of cultivating the friendship of foreign- 
 ers, it has been equally successful in giving errone- 
 ous ideas about the country and the people. This 
 program has included governmental rules and 
 regulations laid down for the special treatment of 
 foreigners by Japanese. Since the earliest days 
 of intercourse with foreigners these rules have 
 been issued, taught in the public schools, and en- 
 forced by the police. A number of the rules 
 now taught in the public schools have been trans- 
 lated as follows: 
 
 (1) Never call after foreigners passing along 
 the streets or roads. 
 
136 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 (2) When foreigners make inquiries, answer 
 them politely. If unahle to make them under- 
 stand, inform the police of the fact. 
 
 (3) Never accept a present from a foreigner 
 when there is no reason for his giving it, and never 
 charge him anything above what is proper. 
 
 (4) Do not crowd around a shop when a for- 
 eigner is making purchases, thereby causing him 
 much annoyance. The continuance of this prac- 
 tice disgraces us as a nation. 
 
 (5) Since all human beings are brothers and sis- 
 ters, there is no reason for fearing foreigners. 
 Treat them as equals and act uprightly in all your 
 dealings with them. Be neither servile nor arro- 
 gant. 
 
 (6) Beware of combining against the foreigner 
 and disliking him because he is a foreigner; men 
 are to be judged by their conduct and not by their 
 nationality. 
 
 (7) As intercourse with foreigners becomes 
 closer and extends over a series of years, there is 
 danger that many Japanese may become enamored 
 of their ways and customs and forsake the good 
 old customs of their forefathers. Against this 
 danger you must be on your guard. 
 
 (8) Taking off your hat is the proper way to 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 137 
 
 salute a foreigner. The bending of the body low 
 is not to be commended. 
 
 (9) When yon see a foreigner be sure to cover 
 up naked parts of the body. 
 
 (10) Hold in high regard the worship of ances- 
 tors and treat your relations with warm cordiality, 
 but do not regard a person as your enemy be- 
 cause he or she is a Christian. 
 
 (11) In going through the world you will often 
 find a knowledge of a foreign tongue absolutely 
 essential. 
 
 (12) Beware of selling your souls to foreigners 
 and becoming their slaves. Sell them no houses 
 or lands. 
 
 (13) Aim at not being beaten in your competi- 
 tion with foreigners. Eemember that loyalty and 
 filial piety are our most precious national treas- 
 ures and do rfothing to violate them. 
 
 Some of these interesting rules of conduct ex- 
 plain the wrong impressions travelers get of 
 Japan. Not long since a tourist writing in a mag- 
 azine of his impressions of a trip to Japan told 
 of offering some coppers to a group of Japanese 
 schoolboys who refused them. The tourist at- 
 tributed this to scorn of money, as taught by Bud- 
 dhism ! It was merely a part of school discipline. 
 
' 138 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 The student who wants to get at the truth of 
 things in Japan should never forget that the coun- 
 try has been made over to meet foreign approval 
 and that the appearance of reform does not al- 
 ways mean reform itself. It is well known that 
 when foreigners first came to Japan, nakedness 
 was much more prevalent than it is now, but when 
 it was found that foreigners looked on nakedness 
 with some disapproval, the edict went forth that 
 clothing should be worn — when foreigners were 
 about! The poor citizens of Tokyo are required 
 to wear some clothing even in summer because 
 there are a few foreigners in the city, but those 
 who live in the country are subject to no such 
 sumptuary legislation. Tourists traveling the 
 usual routes seldom see anything more than half 
 nakedness, but anyone who goes into the less 
 frequented sections of the country will find the 
 people with the same lack of clothing that pre- 
 vailed before the coming of the Western barba- 
 rians. In Tokyo, Kyoto and other places visited 
 by tourists, the famous mixed baths have disap- 
 peared, but in the smaller places uncontaminated 
 by prudish foreign ideas, men and women bathe 
 together in the public bathhouses. 
 
 For a similar reason — the disapproval of for- 
 eigners — ^the police forbid the sale of the many 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 139 
 
 lewd pictures whicli every great artist of Japan 
 has produced. Yet these articles, of whose ex- 
 istence not many foreigners are aware, are freely 
 sold between Japanese. Several curio dealers 
 have explained to me that they were in no dan- 
 ger of trouble through selling these pictures to 
 their fellow countrymen, but that the police prose- 
 cution would be very vigorous and effective if 
 they sold any to a foreigner. 
 
 One more instance of this conscious effort to 
 create a good impression among foreigners. A 
 recent Japanese writer who discussed a number 
 of reforms which should be made by his country- 
 men remarked on the tendency of the Japanese to 
 discuss indecent and vulgar subjects. He went to 
 some length to prove that the average conversa- 
 tion between Japanese men is foul and vulgar, 
 and then, with the anticHmax which is peculiarly 
 Japanese, advanced as his sole reason why this 
 was a bad practice the all convincing one that as 
 foreigners mastered the Japanese language, they 
 often overheard these conversations and it low- 
 ered Japanese in their estimation. 
 
 Throughout almost every official act we can find 
 this tendency to cater to the appreciation of the 
 foreigner. The English editions of the annual 
 reports of the various government bureaus and de- 
 
140 JAPAN AND AJIERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 partments are written and printed like advertis- 
 ing literature. The English edition of the annual 
 report of the Governor-General of Korea is prob- 
 ably the most attractive govemment report is- 
 sued in any country. It is clearly and interest- 
 ingly written, well printed and handsomely illus- 
 trated. The financial report of the Japanese gov- 
 ernment is handsomely printed and bound, and 
 contains a wealth of maps and colored charts. 
 The Japanese versions of these reports are con- 
 tained in the unillustrated and unattractive pages 
 of the government gazettes. 
 
 Soon after the outbreak of war in Europe, sev- 
 eral Japanese Eed Cross corps were hurried to 
 the battlefields of the allied countries. The mem- 
 bers of these corps were carefully selected and the 
 expeditions were elaborately equipped. No ex- 
 pense was spared either in the equipment of the 
 corps or in the publicity about the mission. They 
 proceeded to their posts through that white light 
 of publicity with which Japan always illuminates 
 her acts of virtue. One instinctively thinks of the 
 social climber who organizes charity balls. The 
 simile is just, for if the Japanese felt a call to do 
 himianitarian work they could find plenty of it to 
 do at home, where there are many fields of en- 
 deavor entirely untouched. The hospital equip- 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 141 
 
 ment of Japan is so poor that Americans are now- 
 being asked to contribute funds for the building 
 of a modern hospital in Tokyo. The principal 
 hospital located there now is a missionary enter- 
 prise. For years the principal work of caring 
 for the lepers of Japan has been done, not by the 
 government, or by Japanese organizations, but by 
 missionaries and foreigners. The care of lepers 
 has been so neglected that to-day less than five 
 thousand of the 24,000 lepers of the country are 
 properly provided for. The remainder are al- 
 lowed to wander about the country as they please 
 and are frequently seen even in Tokyo. There is 
 in all Japan absolutely no provision for the care 
 of the insane. The statement so frequently made 
 that provision for the care of insane is not neces- 
 sary because of the fact that relatives take this 
 duty on themselves is no more true in Japan than 
 it is true elsewhere. Japanese pay no attention 
 to the needs of their own lepers and insane. They 
 thoroughly appreciate the fact that charity should 
 not begin at home if its object is to create a good 
 impression among the neighbors. 
 
 If by chance some distinguished journalist or 
 statesman of the rank of Congressman be read- 
 ing this book I would suggest for him a trip to 
 Japan the next time he finds time hanging heavj'- 
 
142 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 on Ms hands. He should go with the proper ad- 
 vance notices and if his stay is not too long, say 
 for not more than two months, I can guarantee 
 that he will be most royally entertained. In fact 
 he will be overwhelmed with honors and if he be 
 extraordinarily distinguished, or show himself 
 tractable, he may receive a decoration. The vis- 
 itor will find that every minute of his time is filled 
 up, that he is always accompanied by charming 
 Japanese companions. He will meet some of the 
 country's most distinguished men and will be 
 photographed with them. He will be shown what 
 the Japanese want him to see, and told what they 
 want him to believe and will be given no oppor- 
 tunity to see anything else or to learn anything 
 else. In nine cases out of ten he will allow him- 
 self to be placed under so many obligations to the 
 Japanese that he cannot speak frankly of dis- 
 agreeable things which he may disapprove, and he 
 wUl join the ranks of Japan's band of volunteer 
 press agents. 
 
 Life for the foreign resident of Tokyo is unus- 
 ually duU, but one of the comic reliefs is afforded 
 by the frequent visits of these distinguished Amer- 
 icans. The system of entertaining them has been 
 made so perfect that every participant knows what 
 is to be don© and the foreign resident always 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 143 
 
 knows what the next move mil be. The visitor 
 is almost always swept off his feet by the atten- 
 tions and the honors — the rare experience of 
 lunching with a baron, dining with a premier and 
 being photographed in the center of a group com- 
 posed of the Cabinet. As was said by a mission- 
 ary of many years' residence in the country: 
 ' ' There are perhaps no people under heaven who 
 know better the happy art of entertaining their 
 guests, and none perhaps who succeed better in 
 preoccupying them with their views. Indeed, the 
 universal experience of those who remain long 
 enough in this country to see beneath the surface 
 is that first impressions are very deceitful." The 
 passenger list of every vessel coming to Japan is 
 carefully examined by Japanese agents who, if 
 they find thereon the names of any persons of 
 prominence, at once notify the Tokyo authorities, 
 who set in motion the machinery necessary to 
 properly impress the visitor. Quite a number of 
 the professional guides in Japan are officers in the 
 Japanese army who are detailed to this service for 
 the benefit of distinguished visitors. They are 
 very capable men who see to it that the visit is 
 made as pleasant as possible and that the visitor 
 sees only the pleasant side of thfe country. "When 
 these efforts are supplemented by the rounds of 
 
144 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 entertainments and functions, the effect is almost 
 always that of converting the visitor completely to 
 the point of view of the Japanese. It is a re- 
 markable fact, probably nothing more than a curi- 
 ous coincidence, that among the many prominent 
 Americans who have been entertained in this way 
 and converted to Japanese propaganda within the 
 past few years are to be found some of those who 
 are most prominent in their agitation to keep down 
 the armaments of the United States, and have been 
 most outspoken in their assurances of Japan's 
 good will. 
 
 This subject cannot be dismissed without some 
 reference to the very stringent censorship which 
 prevails at all times in Japan. The press censor 
 is as much an institution of peace as of war in 
 Japan. Police supervision over the newspapers 
 is maintained at all times, and during the eighteen 
 months that I was connected with a Tokyo news- 
 paper there was scarcely a week in which we were 
 not prohibited from publishing news which would 
 have been detrimental to the reputation of the 
 country. Cases of official bribery, corruption in 
 one of the biggest of the Buddhist temples, a 
 mysterious bomb explosion in a school attended 
 by the Crown Prince — these are only a few of the 
 instances I recall, Once placed under the police 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 145 
 
 ban, it is usually impossible to learn any further 
 details of these incidents. They might never have 
 happened so far as the outside world is concerned. 
 Of Japan's many scandals, public and private, the 
 world hears but little, owing to this strict censor- 
 ship. It is exercised not only in governmental af- 
 fairs but in all things that may affect the prestige 
 of the country. At the beginning of the fighting 
 in the Carpathians, a Japanese concern made de- 
 livery, on contract, of one million yards of cloth 
 which was to be used in the manufacture of uni- 
 forms in Russia. The entire consignment was re- 
 fused on the ground that it was of inferior qual- 
 ity — the old complaint that Japanese manufactur- 
 ers do not deliver goods up to the sample. The 
 first rumor of this event had just been received in 
 Tokyo when a message arrived at the newspaper 
 offices from the police forbidding the publication 
 of anything concerning it. The publication of the 
 news would have lessened the reputation of Japa- 
 nese manufacturers in some quarters and that rea- 
 son was enough, in the eyes of Japanese officials, 
 to justify the government prohibition. 
 
 This censorship is even more stringent on cable 
 news sent out of the country, for many things 
 which are published in the Japanese papers can- 
 not be cabled abroad. The censorship is pecu- 
 
146 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 liarly effective for the correspondent is never able 
 to tell whether or not the message he has filed has 
 been sent, unless he takes the time to unwind a 
 tremendous amount of red tape. Or if the mes- 
 sage be sent, he cannot be sure until months after- 
 wards, when newspapers from home arrive, that 
 the message was not changed by the Japanese 
 officials. It follows quite naturally that the Tokyo 
 correspondent who wishes to retain his position 
 is forced to "play safe" with the Japanese gov- 
 ernment. If he does not do so, if he attempts to 
 send out of the country any news that is likely to 
 meet with official disfavor, the Japanese officials 
 have at hand a certain and easy revenge. By 
 strictly censoring the messages of the unruly cor- 
 respondent they soon make him valueless to his 
 news organization and compel his replacement by 
 another man. 
 
 Japan's isolated position makes it possible for 
 her to carry on this censorship more successfully 
 than would be possible in other countries. The 
 length of time it takes for mail from Japan to 
 reach the United States makes it difficult to check 
 up the operations of the censorship and most mail 
 stories reaching America from Japan are so old 
 at the time of their receipt that they are value- 
 less to most newspapers. 
 
THE TWO JAPANS 147 
 
 Not content with restricting the news sent out 
 of Japan, the Japanese government has estah- 
 lished press bureaus which are supposed to spread 
 what they call the "true truth" about Japan. 
 There are quite a number of active and very able 
 press agents in America, several of whom are Jap- 
 anese and one, at least, an American — ^probably 
 the highest salaried press agent in the world. The 
 publicity organization is a formidable one and is 
 operating very successfully. It has deluded a 
 great many astute editors and has had its in- 
 fluence on American public opinion. It is not so 
 noisy as the recent German campaign; indeed, a 
 great many people do not know it exists, but it is 
 much more successful. So successful is this press 
 campaign that many who know of its inner work- 
 ings in the Fai* East feel that they are quite justi- 
 fied in discounting any news which appears under 
 a Tokyo date line. 
 
 Japanese explain these activities by saying we 
 do not understand Japan and that these agencies 
 will help to that understanding. What they want 
 is that we should imderstand, not the true Japan 
 but the fanciful Japan which does not exist, ex- 
 cept in the minds of sentimental travelers, and 
 Japanese press agents. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 POINTS OF CONTACT 
 
 COMMODORE PERRY'S success in indu- 
 cing the Japanese government to open 
 ports for foreign commerce and residence 
 came only after a number of unsuccessful earlier 
 attempts had been made by other Americans to 
 accomplish the same result. The Dutch had for 
 many years carried on an exclusive trade with Ja- 
 pan, being allowed to send one ship a year to 
 Nagasaki and to reside and maintain their fac- 
 tories on the small island of Deshima in Nagasaki 
 harbor. In 1797, Holland being then at war with 
 Great Britain, no Dutch vessels were available 
 for the trip to Japan, and the annual visit was 
 made by the Eliza, an American ship commanded 
 by Captain Stewart, the first American vessel to 
 visit Japan. Owing to the strangeness of the flag, 
 the Japanese made objections to the visit of the 
 American ship and it was only after lengthy ex- 
 planations that the Eliza was allowed to enter the 
 harbor and discharge cargo. Throughout the war 
 between Holland and Great Britain other Ameri- 
 
 148 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 149 
 
 can vessels visited Nagasaki but always under 
 charter by the Dutch East India Company. After 
 the close of the war Captain Stewart, who had 
 gained some idea of the profits to be made in the 
 trade with Japan, attempted an independent visit 
 to Nagasaki, but his request to be allowed to carry 
 on trade was refused and he was sent away. 
 
 Adventurous American skippers continued their 
 attempts to land cargoes and carry on trade in 
 Japanese ports, but none with more success than 
 had attended the efforts of Captain Stewart. It 
 was not until forty years after the visit of the 
 first American ship to Japan that a really serious 
 effort was made to open the doors which the Japa- 
 nese had so resolutely closed to foreign inter- 
 course. At that time there was a rather impor- 
 tant American colony in the Portuguese settle- 
 ment of Macao. The old American firm of Oly- 
 phant and Company had long been in the Chinese 
 trade and had one of its principal houses in Macao. 
 A number of pioneer American missionaries were 
 also living there, studying the Chinese language 
 and making attempts to gain an entrance to Chi- 
 nese territory. Missionaries and merchants had 
 looked forward with equal eagerness to the open- 
 ing of Japan and at length a curious circumstance 
 gave them what they believed to be an opportunity 
 
150 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 to establish friendly intercourse with the Japa- 
 nese. 
 
 A party of Japanese fishermen in a small boat 
 had been driven from the shores of Japan by a 
 storm and eventually the craft drifted to the coast 
 of British Columbia with seven survivors. These 
 were picked up by the agents of the Hudson Bay 
 Company, sent across Canada and the Atlantic to 
 London and thence to Macao by the boats of the 
 British East India Company. There they re- 
 mained awaiting an opportunity to return to their 
 homes. To the American merchants and mission- 
 aries this seemed a providential opportunity to 
 gain the friendship and confidence of the Japanese 
 by returning the fishermen to their homes. Ac- 
 cordingly a small boat was fitted out and in 1837 
 started on the great adventure. The party was 
 composed of Dr. Peter Parker, the pioneer Ameri- 
 can medical missionary to China; Dr. S. WeUs 
 Williams, an American missionary whose books 
 on China later brought him great fame ; Dr. Gutz- 
 laff, a German missionary and Chinese scholar; 
 and Mr. King, a member of the firm of Olyphant 
 and Company. Quite a number of presents were 
 taken on board, including a picture of Washing- 
 ton, many books, etc. In order to show that the 
 mission was a peaceful one they removed the can- 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 151 
 
 non with which merchant vessels of those pirati- 
 cal days were equipped. Several memorials were 
 prepared in the Chinese language, explaining that 
 the object of the mission was friendly and asking 
 for permission to remain long enough to explain 
 the books which had been brought as presents. 
 As a final preparation a small stock of goods was 
 placed on board so that the mercantile member 
 of the party might turn an honest penny in case 
 an opportunity presented itself. 
 
 Arriving at the Bay of Yedo the hopeful expe- 
 dition was surrounded by boats and fired on by 
 the forts so vigorously that a hasty and undigni- 
 fied departure was necessary. Several attempts 
 to land at different places on the coast met with a 
 similar reception and at length the party returned 
 to Macao without having been able to deliver the 
 gifts, present the memorials, return the Japanese 
 to their homes or sell the goods. 
 
 At that time American vessels were more nu- 
 merous on the Pacific than they are at the present 
 time and many vessels engaged in whaling came 
 in sight of Japanese shores or actually caught 
 whales in Japanese waters. In 1845, Captain 
 Cooper, commanding the Manhattan, of Sag Har- 
 bor, was in Japanese seas when he rescued from a 
 small island eleven shipwrecked Japanese. Soon 
 
152 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 afterward he rescued eleven more from a wrecked 
 junk. Like the missionaries and merchants at 
 Macao he thought this a providential opportunity 
 "to impress the government with the civilization 
 of the United States and its friendly disposition 
 toward the Emperor and the Japanese people." 
 Having previously sent messengers from another 
 part of the coast telling the object of his visit, 
 Captain Cooper proceeded to the Bay of Yedo, 
 where he was received in friendly spirit though 
 not allowed to land. In reply to the thanks of the 
 of!icials for bringing the shipwrecked sailors home, 
 the captain diplomatically suggested that he might 
 find other shipwrecked Japanese and would bring 
 them back. "Don't do that," said the Japanese. 
 ' ' Leave them at some Dutch port, but never come 
 to Japan again. The Emperor would prefer to 
 have them abandoned rather than that strangers 
 should visit his dominions." 
 
 About the time of Captain Cooper's unsuccess- 
 ful visit a New York Congressman introduced a 
 resolution providing that immediate steps be taken 
 to make commercial arrangements with Japan and 
 Korea. Thirteen years before this when Mr. 
 Roberts was sent to make treaties with Siam and 
 Muscat he carried with him letters and credentials 
 authorizing him to negotiate a treaty with Japan, 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 153 
 
 if prospects seemed favorable. He was success- 
 ful in his missions to Siam and Muscat and was 
 about to undertake the mission to Japan under 
 promising circumstances when his death in Macao 
 brought the work of his mission to an end. 
 
 Following the passage of the resolution in Con- 
 gress renewed efforts were made to effect a treaty 
 with Japan. Letters of credence were sent to 
 Mr. Everett, the American diplomatic representa- 
 tive in China, and at the same time Commodore 
 Biddle, commander of the American naval squad- 
 ron on the East India station, was instructed to 
 place his squadron at the disposition of Mr. Ever- 
 ett if the latter decided to attempt a visit to 
 Japan. He was also told that he might himself 
 undertake the mission if Mr. Everett were disin- 
 clined to do so. The result was that the sailor 
 took over the letters of credence sent to the diplo- 
 matic representative and went from Macao to Ja- 
 pan in two vessels, anchoring in the Bay of Yedo, 
 July 20, 1846. 
 
 To an officer who called on him the Commodore 
 presented a memorial asking if Japan were ready 
 to make a treaty with the United States. A week 
 after the arrival of the American vessels a reply 
 was given stating that foreigners could be received 
 only at Nagasaki; that no treaty could be made 
 
154 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 and that the ships were to go away at once and 
 not return to Japan. The document containing 
 this reply was prepared with a studied attempt at 
 discourtesy and rudeness and during its delivery 
 to Commodore Biddle he was pushed or struck by 
 a Japanese soldier. The mission left as all others 
 had done without setting foot on Japanese soil. 
 
 In the face of these discouragements it became 
 increasingly necessary for some understanding to 
 be reached with Japan. The whaling industry 
 was at the height of its prosperity and dozens of 
 vessels were engaged in the industry in or near 
 Japanese waters. Such was the hatred of Japa- 
 nese for all foreigners that American sailors 
 wrecked on Japanese shores were subjected to the 
 most cruel indignities. Many of them were im- 
 prisoned, were carried around the country in cages 
 and exhibited as wild animals and compelled to 
 spit and trample on the cross — symbol of the hated 
 Christian religion. In 1848 news was received in 
 Canton of the plight of the crew of the American 
 whaler Lawrence, which had been wrecked on the 
 Japanese coast, and soon thereafter it was learned 
 that the whaler Lagoda had also been wrecked. 
 To rescue the crews of these vessels Commander 
 Glynn went to Nagasaki with the Preble and after 
 some delay the sailors were delivered to him. 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 155 
 
 Commander Glynn, who had heard from the 
 sailors their stories of the harsh treatment they 
 had received in Japan, returned to Washington 
 and sought to convince the authorities of the ne- 
 cessity of providing some protection for others 
 who might be wrecked on Japan's inhospitable 
 shores. The matter was taken up at once and 
 provision made for a naval mission to Japan, for 
 which the most elaborate preparations were made. 
 Command of the expedition was finally given to 
 Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, who had 
 gained great distinction in the navy. The prepa- 
 rations which he completed were very elaborate. 
 At a cost of thousands of dollars he collected from 
 Europe a fine library on Japan. For charts alone, 
 which came from Holland, he paid $30,000. Scien- 
 tists, interpreters and all members of the party 
 which accompanied him were selected with great 
 care and discretion. 
 
 Following a farewell visit to the squadron by 
 the President, cabinet members, and many distin- 
 guished citizens. Commodore Perry sailed from 
 Annapolis, November 24, 1852. At Canton and 
 Macao he took on Dr. S. "Wells Williams to act as 
 chief interpreter and his squadron was augmented 
 by several additions from the American East In- 
 dian squadron. On the morning of July 8, 1853, 
 
156 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the Japanese coast was sighted and later in the 
 day the entire squadron, heedless of the signals 
 to stop and of the Japanese junks which swarmed 
 about, sailed majestically up the bay and came to 
 anchor. One of the vessels of the squadron was 
 the Susquehanna, a new steam frigate, the first 
 steam vessel to be seen in Japanese waters. The 
 sight of this strange craft belching smoke and 
 moving rapidly forward in the face of a strong 
 head wind without a vestige of sails aroused the 
 superstitious fears of the Japanese. The whole 
 city of Yedo was soon in an uproar. A native 
 writer of the time told of the effects of the news 
 that the barbarians had arrived: "In all direc- 
 tions were seen mothers flying with their children 
 in their arms, and men with mothers on their 
 backs. Eumors of an immediate action, exag- 
 gerated each time they were told, added to the 
 horror of the horror-stricken. The tramp of war 
 horses, the clatter of armed warriors, the noise of 
 carts, the parade of firemen, the incessant tolling 
 of bells, the shrieks of women, the cries of chil- 
 dren, dinning all the streets of a city of more than 
 a million souls, made confusion worse con- 
 founded. ' ' 
 
 From the beginning of the tedious negotiations 
 which followed, Commodore Perry showed a re- 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 157 
 
 markable knowledge of Oriental methods and 
 played his part with firmness and finesse. A 
 Vice-Governor called to see him but he declined to 
 negotiate with any but officials of the highest rank 
 and remained in his cabin while his subordinates 
 communicated this message to the visitor. The 
 latter was told that the squadron had called on 
 a friendly mission, that Commodore Perry carried 
 a letter from the President of the United States 
 to the Emperor, that he desired a conference with 
 officials of the highest rank, that the squadron 
 would not go to Nagasaki and that if the guard 
 boats which were then collecting in great number 
 did not leave they would be fired upon. The boats 
 disappeared at once. 
 
 The following day the Governor of Uruga called, 
 but the Commodore declined to see him owing to 
 the inferior rank of the visitor. He was told that 
 unless the Japanese government appointed a suit- 
 able person to receive the documents. Commodore 
 Perry would be compelled to go ashore with a suffi- 
 cient force to insure their delivery. The governor 
 returned to shore with the promise that an answer 
 would be returned in four days. 
 
 In the meantime surveys of the harbor were 
 made and when the governor objected he was told 
 that unless the letter of the President were an- 
 
158 JAPAN AND AMEEICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 swered on this visit, it would be necessary to oome 
 the following spring with a larger fleet and the 
 surveys were being made to locate the best anchor- 
 age available. There was further delay and at- 
 tempts to transfer the negotiations to Nagasaki, 
 but the American skipper finally gained all of his 
 contentions. A pavilion was erected on shore for 
 the reception of the messages which were delivered 
 with a ceremony made as elaborate as possible 
 in order to impress the Japanese. Commodore 
 Perry arranged his forces so as to make the best 
 showing and, after being preceded to the shore by 
 sailors and marines, marched to the pavilion be- 
 tween two large and gaudily costumed negroes. 
 The documents were delivered to two princes and 
 Conunodore Perry explained that he would leave 
 in a few days but would return the following 
 spring for an answer. "Will you return with all 
 your ships?" asked an official. "All of them," 
 replied the American, "and probably more, as 
 these are only a portion of the squadron. ' ' 
 
 The expedition then returned to the Chinese 
 coast to make preparations and await the time for 
 the return to Japan. The return was hastened by 
 the fact that Russian and French squadrons were 
 then in the Far East and it was feared they might 
 precede the Americans to Japan and reap the 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 159 
 
 fruits of the former visit. Accordingly Perry 
 waited only a few months and started for Yedo 
 early in the following year, arriving at his former 
 anchorage on February 12, 1854. Passing this he 
 steamed further up the bay and anchored nearer 
 the city. At once the Japanese officials tried to 
 change the scene of the negotiations to another 
 point and so much time was spent ia discussing 
 this trivial matter that it was not until March 8 
 that the first conference was held. Three days 
 later the presents brought by the commodore were 
 delivered. They were many in number, some- 
 thing being provided for every one, from the Em- 
 peror down to the minor commissioners connected 
 with the negotiations. 
 
 In these days of prohibition and wineless state 
 banquets, it is interesting to note that all of the 
 presents included large quantities of spirits. 
 Among the many things given to the Emperor 
 were : Quarter cask of Madeira, barrel of whis- 
 key, case of champagne, case of cherry cordial, 
 ease of Maraschino. The commissioners were 
 given five gallons of whiskey each, in addition to 
 other presents of revolvers, clocks, lithographs, 
 perfumery, etc. The presents for the Emperor 
 included a miniature railway with engine, ears, 
 etc., all complete, and a set of telegraph instru- 
 
160 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ments and several miles of wire. These toys were 
 set up and operated to the great astonishment and 
 amusement of the Japanese. The severe formal- 
 ity which had attended the previous meeting was 
 abandoned and, with cordial relations stimulated 
 by champagne and American whiskey, negotiations 
 for a treaty proceeded with satisfactory swiftness. 
 
 The document as finally signed provided for the 
 protection of shipwrecked sailors, the opening of 
 two ports in addition to Nagasaki where ship sup- 
 plies might be secured, goods be purchased and 
 supplies of coals stored. Japan soon thereafter 
 signed similar treaties with other powers. 
 
 The first agreement or treaty did not provide 
 for the residence of Americans in treaty ports nor 
 did it allow unrestricted trade in these ports. The 
 task of securing these rights by the negotiation of 
 a new treaty was entrusted to Townsend Harris, 
 America's first consul-general to Japan. He 
 reached Japan two years after the first treaty was 
 signed, being the first accredited agent of a for- 
 eign power to take up his residence in that country 
 outside the restricted port of Nagasaki. In fact, 
 for more than a year after his arrival he and his 
 secretary were the only white people in the coun- 
 try and they were without communication from 
 home. Their stock of provisions ran out and they 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 161 
 
 were compelled to live for months on Japanese 
 fare. Spied upon at every turn, his movements 
 hampered and obstructed, himself the object of 
 suspicion and distrust, the life of the consul-gen- 
 eral was by no means a happy one. Yet by perse- 
 verance and tact and a display of abilities cer- 
 tainly not second to those of Commodore Perry, 
 he managed to negotiate a new treaty which gave 
 Americans the right to reside in the treaty ports, 
 be subject to trial only by their own consuls, and 
 fixed the value of American currency. Tariff and 
 trade regulations were agreed upon and, in fact, 
 almost every detail of the relations which were to 
 exist between Japan and the foreign powers for 
 nearly half a century were fixed in this treaty 
 which was negotiated by Harris before the diplo- 
 matic representative of any other power had ar- 
 rived in Japan and at a time when he and his secre- 
 tary were the only foreign residents of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 In the disturbed years which followed, the tol- 
 erant attitude of the United States toward Japan 
 stood out in sharp contrast to that of other pow- 
 ers. This attitude has been persisted in to this 
 day and though inspired by friendliness has often 
 been interpreted by the warlike sons of Nippon 
 as a sign of weakness. The record of diplomatic 
 
162 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 relations between the two countries is full of ex- 
 amples of this. One of the earliest occurred a 
 short time after foreigners took up their residence 
 in Yokohama. An Englishman was riding on a 
 highway near there when he was attacked and 
 killed by a retainer of the Prince of Satsuma. 
 The Japanese have always contended that the 
 Englishman deliberately tried to ride through the 
 state procession of this proud nobleman, an act 
 which in that time of feudalism was an unpardon- 
 able affront to one of the most powerful princes 
 of the empire. At any rate the death of the Eng- 
 lishman was immediately followed by a demand 
 by the British minister for an. indemnity of 
 $500,000 from the central government and of 
 $125,000 from the Prince of Satsuma. After pro- 
 longed negotiations the first sum was paid, but 
 the Prince of Satsuma refused to comply with the 
 demands and finally paid the indemnity only after 
 a British squadron had bombarded and burned his 
 capital, Kagoshima. 
 
 Negotiations for the settlement of this incident 
 were still being carried on when in one of the nu- 
 merous anti-foreign outbreaks which rent the coun- 
 try, the American legation at Yedo was burned and 
 at about the same time the Secretary of the Lega- 
 tion was killed. For this gross affront to its dig- 
 
POINTS OP CONTACT 163 
 
 nity the United States demanded only $20,000, 
 half of that sum to be paid to the mother of the 
 murdered secretary and half to cover the actual 
 loss occasioned by the burning of the legation. It 
 is interesting to note that the Japanese govern- 
 ment was little more prompt in the settlement of 
 this claim for actual damages than it was in the 
 settlement of the punitive claim made by the Brit- 
 ish government. 
 
 A short time after the burning of the American 
 Legation the powerful Prince of Choshu who, 
 with his neighbor, the Prince of Satsuma, led the 
 anti-foreign movement, made an attempt to close 
 the Straits of Shimonoseki, through which vessels 
 from the Inland Sea enter the Yellow Sea en route 
 to China. An American merchant vessel was the 
 first to be fired upon by forts which the prince had 
 erected and later vessels of other nationalities re- 
 ceived the same treatment. After an ineffectual 
 attempt by an American war vessel to reduce the 
 Shimonoseki forts, combined action was taken by 
 nine British, three French, four Dutch, and one 
 American war vessel. After a three days' attack 
 by the combined fleet the Straits were opened and 
 negotiations for an indemnity begun. This was 
 finally fixed at $3,000,000, an amount which was 
 paid and equally divided between the four nations. 
 
164 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Soon after the downfall of the Shogunate gov- 
 ernment and the restoration of the Emperor to his 
 ancient theoretical powers, the Japanese began 
 efforts for the revision of the treaties they had 
 signed. "With their increasing knowledge of in- 
 ternational usage they discovered that in these 
 treaties they had surrendered a degree of their 
 sovereignty and independence, for foreign resi- 
 dents could be tried on criminal charges and sued 
 in civil cases only in their own consular courts and 
 were not amenable to Japanese laws except in so 
 far as the foreign consuls or judges saw fit to 
 recognize and enforce the laws. Also the treaties 
 bound Japan to a certain fixed import and export 
 tariff which vjould not be changed without the 
 consent of the powers. In 1871 an embassy set 
 out from Japan to accomplish this great task, pro- 
 ceeding first to America where it was received 
 with extraordinary honors and courtesies. Japan 
 was still a strange country and the natural inter- 
 est in the queer customs of the people was height- 
 ened by a sentimental regard for the country 
 which had been introduced to the world through 
 the efforts of America. A certain sense of re- 
 sponsibility for Japan, and a regard for the coun- 
 try as for a foster child were shown in the attitude 
 of America at that time as it has been shown many 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 165 
 
 times since then. Japanese statesmen very early 
 in their intercourse with us learned to appreciate 
 this fact and to take advantage of it. Every move 
 which Japan has ever made to secure complete 
 recognition of her equality has been initiated by 
 approaches to the United States as the nation 
 most likely to be swayed by quixotic ideas and 
 most amenable to sentimental appeals. This was 
 true in that early day ; we see an example of it in 
 the present day in the California question. 
 
 The mission which visited the United States was 
 interested not only in making efforts for the revi- 
 sion of the treaties but also in studying phases of 
 Western institutions, knowledge of which would 
 be useful in the reformation of Japan which was 
 then contemplated, and with these two objects in 
 view the embassy visited the principal countries 
 of Europe before returning to Japan. Only in 
 the United States did the members of the party 
 receive any encouragement regarding treaty re- 
 vision. They were assured by President Grant 
 and by Secretary of State Fish that the United 
 States was prepared to take up the subject in the 
 most liberal spirit toward Japan. In Europe 
 they were very sensibly told that jurisdiction over 
 foreign subjects and citizens would not be surren- 
 dered until the Japanese courts had abolished tor- 
 
166 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ture, adopted a civilized code of laws and reformed 
 the system of jurisprudence. 
 
 Though in this, the main object of their mission, 
 they had completely failed in every country but 
 the United States, in the other object of the mis- 
 sion, the discovery of institutions which could be 
 advantageously adopted by Japan, they were more 
 successful in Europe, Prince Iwakura, who was 
 at the head of the embassy, looked with disap- 
 proval on the democratic institutions of America, 
 and Prince Ito, a member of the party, found in 
 Prussia that system of imperialism and autocracy 
 which he later engrafted on Japan. The police 
 system, posts, army, navy, etc., were all later re- 
 modeled on the European systems. Our schools 
 alone met with the approval of the Japanese be- 
 cause their cheapness and their democratic at- 
 mosphere offered to Japanese students an ideal 
 opportunity to learn the ways of the foreigner. 
 Prince Iwatura later sent his three sons to school 
 in America and they have been followed by a 
 steady stream of Japanese students since that 
 time. 
 
 The failure of the first attempt to revise the 
 treaties was followed by feverish activities to 
 adopt all of the Western ideas necessary to bring 
 Japan up to the standards of the "West. With the 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 167 
 
 progress of the country and the increased expendi- 
 tures necessary, the old tariff proved a great im- 
 pediment. It had been negotiated by Mr. Harris, 
 who had placed on the free list or at a duty of 
 five per cent, all raw products, food supplies and 
 building materials; manufactures at a duty of 
 20 per cent, and liquors at 35 per cent. It was 
 his idea that the tariff would be revised at the 
 end of ten years, but an arbitrary construction 
 placed on the treaties by European powers made 
 this impossible. Lord Elgin, who had negotiated 
 the British treaty, succeeded in having placed in 
 the five per cent, class all manufactures of woolen 
 or cotton, the articles which Great Britain ex- 
 ported to the Far East in the largest quantities. 
 Under the "most favored nation" clause of the 
 treaties, all nations shared in this reduction, which 
 had the effect of ruining Japan's native cotton 
 industry and throwing thousands out of employ- 
 ment. 
 
 The extra-territorial provisions of the treaties 
 put the construction of the tariff in the hands of 
 the foreign consuls, who were not always fair and 
 were inclined to give decisions in the interest of 
 their own nations. A British merchant was once 
 discovered in an attempt to smuggle opium into 
 the country, was tried by the British consul and 
 
168 JAPAN AND AMEEICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 acquitted in a decision which, placed opium in the 
 same class as medicines which might be imported 
 into the country on payment of a duty of 5 per 
 cent. This is an extreme example of the difficul- 
 ties under which Japan labored because of the 
 terms of the treaties. With her advancement in 
 the knowledge of medicine, Japan on several oc- 
 casions attempted to enforce quarantine regula- 
 tions, but the attempts were frustrated by the 
 British and German authorities, who refused to 
 admit the right of the Japanese officials to issue 
 regulations affecting ships flying the British or 
 German flags. A cholera epidemic of 1879 in 
 which 100,000 Japanese lives were lost has been 
 charged with some justice to the refusal of the 
 representatives of European governments to co- 
 operate with the Japanese authorities in quaran- 
 tine measures. 
 
 In this quarantine question as with other mat- 
 ters affecting the sovereignty of Japan the policy 
 of America remained consistent with its earlier 
 acts. American vessels, by order of the American 
 consul, were compelled to obey Japanese quaran- 
 tine restrictions ; and in trials which involved the 
 interpretation of the treaties, the decisions of the 
 American courts were invariably liberal toward 
 Japan. Indeed, this attitude often aroused the 
 
POINTS OP CONTACT 169 
 
 criticism of American merchants and skippers who 
 saw themselves denied the privileges which courts 
 of other nations upheld for their nationals; and 
 also caused the resentment of the European pow- 
 ers which saw America in many cases back up 
 Japan instead of making pressure on the country 
 unanimous. 
 
 The Japanese continued their attempts to secure 
 revision of the tariffs but met with such little en- 
 couragement on the part of the European powers 
 that they soon centered their efforts on the United 
 States. Disregarding the interests of American 
 commerce in Japan and acting on the higher plane 
 of justice, the American Minister in 1878 nego- 
 tiated a treaty with Japan in which the United 
 States agreed to the annulment of the existing 
 tariffs and conceded to Japan the full right to 
 establish whatever tariffs were deemed necessary. 
 Encouraged by this recognition of her rights, Ja- 
 pan persisted in her attempts to bring the Euro- 
 pean nations to the same action but without suc- 
 cess, and it was not until twenty years later that 
 the country was finally freed and able to take inde- 
 pendent action in regard to tariffs. The friendly 
 action of the United States in this as in the small 
 amount of indemnity demanded for the burning 
 of the legation served chiefly to arouse the sus- 
 
170 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 picion and enmity of the other treaty powers 
 which viewed with natural concern America's in- 
 dependent actions. 
 
 In the early eighties a movement was begun for 
 the return of America's share of the $3,000,000 
 indemnity which had been paid by the Japanese 
 government for the attack on merchant vessels in 
 the Straits of Shimonoseki. This money, amount- 
 ing to $785,000, had lain in the treasury all that 
 time and had not been appropriated to any use. 
 It was finally returned to the Japanese govern- 
 ment in 1883. This act is generally represented 
 as having been a voluntary act on the part of Con- 
 gress, inspired purely by motives of friendship. 
 The real facts of the case are interesting and also 
 important in that they show the keen percep- 
 tion of the Japanese for American weaknesses. 
 Learning that the money was unexpended, the 
 Japanese government employed a shrewd Ameri- 
 can lawyer to lobby through Congress a bill for 
 the return of the indemnity, paying him a fee 
 generally reported to have been $40,000. At that 
 early date Japan had learned the effectiveness of 
 a press campaign in America and the readiness 
 with which Americans respond to sentimental ap- 
 peals. None know so well as the Japanese the 
 uses of sentiment and publicity. 
 
POINTS OF CONTACT 171 
 
 "With every advance made in the Europeaniza- 
 tion of the country Japan renewed efforts to re- 
 gain her sovereignty by the negotiation of new 
 treaties. As in all previous efforts of this kind, 
 the greatest encouragement came from the United 
 States, which in 1887 negotiated a treaty abolish- 
 ing extra-territoriality and placing American resi- 
 dents under the jurisdiction of Japanese courts 
 and Japanese laws. This treaty remained inop- 
 erative for a number of years because of the re- 
 fusal of other powers to negotiate similar agree- 
 ments. 
 
 It was not until Japan had proven her prowess 
 in arms in the war with China that Great Britain 
 recognized the claims Japan had been pressing for 
 a quarter of a century and negotiated a new treaty 
 in 1894. In this treaty it was agreed that extra- 
 territoriality should be abolished, the entire coun- 
 try opened to the residence of foreigners, and 
 Japan be allowed to regulate her own tariffs. 
 The signature of other nations to similar treaties 
 followed immediately. In order to give time for 
 all concerned to adjust themselves to the new con- 
 ditions, these treaties were to come into force five 
 years later, and in 1899 Japan came into full pos- 
 session of those rights which the United States had 
 agreed to grant to her many years before. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 
 
 IT was only natural that the relations between 
 Japan and the United States should undergo 
 a certain modification during the closing years 
 of last century. Japan had come into her estate 
 and was no longer the minor nation on which we 
 could look with fondly paternal albeit pleasantly 
 superior regard. Through the victory over China 
 she had established herself as the leading Oriental 
 power and by the full recognition of her sover- 
 eignty had removed from herself the stigma of 
 Asiatic inferiority. The century was closing in a 
 blaze of glory for the Emperor, his prestige estab- 
 lished in the Far East, his right to a voice in world 
 politics acknowledged. His ministers were al- 
 ready looking forward to a wider stage for Japa- 
 nese activities and dreaming of the time when 
 Japan would dominate the Pacific and rule China 
 just as England dominated the Atlantic and ruled 
 India. The day when we could patronize Japan 
 was passing. The country had come of age and no 
 
 172 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 173 
 
 longer asked for the paternal aid which for half a 
 century the United States had so liberally be- 
 stowed. 
 
 No blame need attach to the Japanese that they 
 then began and have since continued to demand a 
 place in the world to which they are entitled neither 
 by their achievements nor their needs. There are 
 always a great many people to whom the exotic, 
 the dramatic, the artistic, the unusual appeal with 
 such fascination as to cloud their judgment. To 
 these the advancement of Japan was the most won- 
 derful thing in the history of human achievements, 
 the Japanese, the most wonderful people; they 
 were the modern Greeks ; they possessed the sub- 
 tlety of the Orient, the utility of the Occident. 
 Into the not unwilling ears of the Japanese they 
 poured such an enthusiastic measure of praise that 
 even a less conceited people might have had their 
 heads turned. The Japanese were easily con- 
 vinced of their own superiority and looked for- 
 ward with confidence to an aggressive imperial- 
 istic program which would be as brilliantly suc- 
 cessful as had been the accomplishment of their 
 domestic reforms. Japanese ambitions suddenly 
 expanded in the warm sunshine of this praise and 
 the pride of the victory over China. Having so 
 easily attained first place in the Far East it was 
 
174 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 quite logical to begin to look forward to a domi- 
 nant position in the Pacific as well. 
 
 The wounded veterans of the war with China 
 were scarcely convalescent before Japan began 
 making plans to drive out Eussia, her most threat- 
 ening rival. As one of the rewards of victory over 
 China, Japan had secured the lease of Port Arthur 
 and the Liaotung Peninsula. Eussia, backed up 
 by France and Germany, sent a note in which 
 Japan was advised not to demand this cession from 
 China, and Japan, in the face of this protest, was 
 reluctantly compelled to give up the lease. Eus- 
 sia immediately took over the lease of Port Arthur 
 herself and Eussian statesmen were then bending 
 their energies toward advancing Eussian power 
 in Manchuria. They were planning an extension 
 of the Muscovite Empire to the south by the an- 
 nexation of Korea, an ambition on which the 
 Japanese looked with distrust and alarm. 
 
 Eelations between Japan and Eussia were de- 
 veloping toward that crisis which was to precipi- 
 tate war a few years later when America, through 
 the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, appeared on the 
 Pacific as a potential rival for Japan, at once 
 changing the attitude of Japan toward her old 
 friend. The various dangers through which the 
 unhappy Hawaiian Empire had passed illustrate 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 175 
 
 in an interesting way tlie changing currents of 
 political influence on the Pacific, the appearance 
 and disappearance of powers from this great ocean 
 which is destined to be the scene of conflicts of the 
 future, France, Great Britain and Eussia had at 
 various times considered the acquisition of the 
 islands. As early as 1794 Captain Vancouver 
 visited the islands and at a council of chiefs in- 
 duced them to acknowledge themselves as subjects 
 of Great Britain and cede the island of Hawaii to 
 his Britannic Majesty. British statesmen being 
 occupied with weightier matters, no steps were 
 taken by the British government to confirm this 
 cession. In 1815 a Eussian commander buUt a 
 stone fort on the islands, hoisted the Eussian flag 
 and entered into an agreement whereby the Ha- 
 waiians placed themselves under the protection of 
 Eussia, but his act, like that of the British com- 
 mander, did not receive the sanction of the home 
 government. In 1839 similar attempts were made 
 by a French commander to bring the islands under 
 the sovereignty of France. In 1843 the British 
 flag was again hoisted over the islands by the 
 commander of a British war vessel, and remained 
 there four months until the admiral of the British 
 Pacific fleet arrived and after an investigation re- 
 pudiated the act of his subordinate. 
 
176 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 With the acquisition of California by the United 
 States and the growth of American commerce in 
 Hawaii the European powers abandoned any am- 
 bitions they may have had in regard to this beau- 
 tiful group of islands. When a commission of 
 Hawaiians visited London in 1850 they were ad- 
 vised by Lord Palmerston, the premier, to look 
 forward to becoming a part of the United States, 
 Annexation to the United States had been so long 
 foreshadowed by reciprocity treaties and by the 
 openly expressed desire of the Hawaiians them- 
 selves that its final consummation in 1898 came as 
 a surprise to no one. Yet when discussion of the 
 terms of annexation was begun in 1897 Japan pro- 
 tested vigorously, declaring the independence of 
 the country was necessary to maintain the good re- 
 lations of the powers on the Pacific; that aimexa- 
 tion might injure the rights of Japanese subjects 
 living in Hawaii. This protest against annexa- 
 tion by the United States bore some resemblance 
 to the protest against the Japanese lease of the 
 Liaotung Peninsula which had been made by Eus- 
 sia, Germany and France only a few years before. 
 
 In reply to the Japanese protests it was pointed 
 out that annexation had been foreshadowed by the 
 treaty of annexation negotiated in 1893 hut re- 
 pudiated later by President Cleveland and that 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 177 
 
 Japan had not protested at that time. The answer 
 was given that Japan's expanding activities in 
 the Pacific since that date had changed the situa- 
 tion, an acknowledgment of ambitions with which 
 the extension of American interests clashed. On 
 being given assurances by the United States that 
 Japan's rights would be fully protected the protest, 
 although never withdrawn, was not pressed. At 
 that time the Japanese population of Hawaii 
 amounted to 61,000, more than twice the native 
 population and almost 40 per cent, of the total 
 population of the islands. It is reasonable to be- 
 lieve that if the United States had definitely aban- 
 doned ideas of annexation the ultimate domination 
 of the islands by Japan would have been inevi- 
 table. , 
 
 The American occupation of the Philippines 
 coming soon after the annexation of Hawaii was 
 another blow to Japanese ambitions. Actual pos- 
 session of the Philippines may not have been con- 
 templated as a part of Japan's scheme for ex- 
 pansion. Japan was already in possession of the 
 island of Formosa and if her statesmen did not 
 then know, they soon learned that there are many 
 difficulties in tropical colonization. Japan has 
 now been in possession of Formosa for twenty 
 years and though the island has been developed to 
 
178 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 a certain extent for the benefit of Japanese capi- 
 talists, the soothing effects of Japanese civiliza- 
 tion as applied to the Formosan aborigines have 
 been so slight that Japanese troops are stiU en- 
 gaged in "subduing the natives." But Japan 
 looked with a jealous* eye on the advancement of 
 any power in that sphere which she had marked 
 out for her future domination and concealed her 
 resentment at the encroachments of the United 
 States only because Eussia was a more threaten- 
 ing rival in the north. 
 
 Another event of about this period was Secre- 
 tary Hay's proposal to guarantee the Open Door 
 and the integrity of China. The immediate ef- 
 fects of the policy proposed by Mr. Hay and car- 
 ried by him to a brilliant conclusion fitted well with 
 Japan's aims and ambitions, as they were affected 
 by conditions of the time, and Japan was one of 
 the first to assent to the proposal. Unfortunately 
 for the peace of the Pacific and the faith which 
 some trusting people stiU place in solemn interna- 
 tional agreements, Japan's assent was not dictated 
 by regard for China's rights and th6 spirit of the 
 policy was contrary to aims at the domination of 
 China which Japan had long cherished. In other 
 words, Japan gave assent to a policy which was 
 temporarily expedient, but which sh« planned to 
 
THE AMEEICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 179 
 
 repudiate later when an opportune moment ar- 
 rived. 
 
 In order to understand Japan's policy toward 
 China, how her attitude toward the United States 
 is affected by that poUcy, and what were her rea- 
 sons for assenting to the Open Door agreement, it 
 is necessary to review a little history which seems 
 to have been forgotten. Japan has for centuries 
 aspired to the suzerainty of China and Korea. 
 The great Japanese warrior Hideyoshi several 
 centuries ago proposed to the King of Korea an 
 alliance for the purpose of invading China and 
 bringing it under the rule of Japan, but this am- 
 bitious scheme was frustrated by the Korean mon- 
 arch who replied that for Japan to attack China 
 would be like a bee trying to sting a turtle. Korea 
 had once been a tribute paying nation to Japan 
 and the latter country had barely emerged from 
 her seclusion when the old relationship was re- 
 newed. There was then begun a Japanese in- 
 trigue for the domination of Korea which eventu- 
 ally led to the war between China and Japan. 
 
 In this, the first of her modern wars, Japan's 
 attitude toward China was clearly revealed. The 
 war had been in progress but a few months when 
 the Chinese, their land forces thoroughly whipped, 
 sent commissioners to Japan to arrange for terms 
 
180 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 of peace. Japan was not yet ready, however, 
 though China was willing to concede the inde- 
 pendence of Korea, the only issue over which the 
 war had been fought. Accordingly the Japanese 
 made technical objections to the credentials of the 
 peace commissioners and refused to enter into ne- 
 gotiations, although the commissioners offered to 
 have their credentials corrected by telegraph. 
 The commissioners were sent home and Japan 
 continued the war against a foe already whipped 
 until China's navy was destroyed. She then ex- 
 acted onerous terms. The treaty of peace gave 
 her the Liaotung Peninsula, Formosa, the Pesca- 
 dores and an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels (about 
 $150,000,000). China also withdrew all her claims 
 to the sovereignty of Korea. It was Japan's pur- 
 pose then as it has been since to prevent in every 
 way possible the growth of China, 
 
 If Japan had been allowed to keep the Liaotung 
 Peninsula her program for the absorption of China 
 would have been progressing very satisfactorily. 
 But the European conspiracy robbed her of this 
 and at the time Secretary Hay made his proposal 
 for the Open Door China was threatened with dis- 
 memberment by the European powers. The par- 
 tition of the country which was threatened at that 
 time would have given Japan but a small share of 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 181 
 
 the spoils and would have shut off the final avenue 
 for expansion on the western side of the Pacific. 
 Only the small and comparatively unimportant 
 province of Fukien had been marked out for 
 Japan's share, while Great Britain was to take the 
 Yangtze Valley, Germany take Shantung, and 
 Eussia secure Manchuria and Mongolia. It was 
 expedient for Japan that China be saved for a time 
 from the rapacity of the European powers and the 
 dismemberment postponed until Japan was in posi- 
 tion to secure a larger share, or preserve the integ- 
 rity of China by taking over the entire country. 
 Hence her ready assent to the proposal of the Open 
 Door policy. 
 
 Japan soon gained this more favorable position 
 by success in the war against Eussia — a success 
 which made possible the consummation of two of 
 her ambitious projects : the annexation of Korea 
 and the domination of South Manchuria. She had 
 adopted the same policy toward Korea as toward 
 China, that is, to sign pledges guaranteeing the 
 independence of Korea as a means of preventing 
 the aggression of others, but with no intention of 
 keeping them herself. Thus in the first Anglo- 
 Japanese alliance, signed in 1902, the preamble 
 states: "The high contracting parties, having 
 mutually recognized the independence of China 
 
182 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 and Korea, declare themselves to be entirely un- 
 influenced by any aggressive tendencies in either 
 country." This declaration, as well as other 
 pledges Japan made then and later to safeguard 
 and respect the independence of Korea, was made 
 solely for the purpose of warning Eussia off. A 
 few years later when Russia had been defeated, 
 the threatening Muscovite wave driven back across 
 the plains of Manchuria, and the independence 
 of Korea no longer threatened, Japan showed al- 
 most indecent haste in making Korea a part of the 
 Japanese Empire. The same policy governed 
 Japan in assenting to the proposal to guarantee 
 the Open Door in China. 
 
 The part played by America in securing peace 
 between Eussia and Japan is well known. The 
 proposal by President Eoosevelt for peace nego- 
 tiations came at a time when Japan was in a highly 
 advantageous position, and it is generally ad- 
 mitted now that the timeliness of his proposal had 
 a great deal to do with Japan's success in the nego- 
 tiations which followed. Though Japan had been 
 successful her strength had been exhausted in the 
 struggle. It was then not known outside official 
 circles in Tokyo that a number of naval vessels 
 of importance had been blown up by mines, and 
 that the losses to the land forces had been much 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 183 
 
 greater than was known to the Kussians, who then 
 had on its way to Manchuria an army not only 
 stronger than any Japan had in the field but 
 stronger than any Japan could raise or equip. If 
 the war had continued for a short time it is highly 
 probable that it might have turned into a Eus- 
 sian victory.^ 
 
 The United States was keenly interested in the 
 conclusion of peace not only because of the senti- 
 mental interest it has always taken in the welfare 
 of China, but also because the war was being 
 fought on one of America's richest trade fields. 
 Though the products of the British cotton mills 
 had always led in the southern Chinese markets, 
 American goods predoaninated in colder Man- 
 churia and our trade there at one time amounted 
 to $20,000,000 a year. Most of this trade had 
 been handled through the port of Newchwang, but 
 just before the beginning of hostilities between 
 Russia and Japan, the United States succeeded in 
 having Moukden opened as a treaty port. This 
 was but one of a number of moves the United 
 States was undertaking for the development of 
 
 1 The author makes no pretense to knowledge of military af- 
 fairs. The conclusions given here have been reached by com- 
 petent military critics. Many Japanese who are in a posi- 
 tion to know have told the author: "Colonel Koosevelt won 
 the war with Bussia for us." 
 
184 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Manchuria — plans which now have only a histori- 
 cal interest since the victory of Japan caused 
 them all to come to naught. 
 
 On its face, the treaty of peace which was signed 
 at Portsmouth, September 5, 1905, was quite satis- 
 factory to American interests. Japan secured 
 from Russia the leases of Port Arthur and Dalny 
 and the South Manchuria Railway. What was 
 of more importance to the United States was the 
 fact that both Russia and Japan agreed to the 
 principle of equal opportunity in the development 
 of Manchuria and they also agreed "to exploit 
 their respective railways in Manchuria exclusively 
 for commercial and industrial purposes and in no 
 wise for strategic purposes." Russia had been 
 attempting by every means of intrigue to create a 
 sphere of influence in Manchuria. Japan had fal- 
 len heir to Russian prestige, but, apparently, in 
 this treaty was content to give all others a free 
 hand in the trade and development of the rich 
 province. 
 
 It was some time before the many Americans 
 who had rejoiced in the victories of Japan came to 
 realize that their sympathies had been misplaced. 
 Under the Russian domination of Manchuria our 
 goods had found a ready sale there with no dis- 
 crimination by Russian authorities. But America 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 185 
 
 waited in. vain, and is still waiting, for a resump- 
 tion of this trade after Japan took over the rail- 
 ways and ports. After the conclusion of peace 
 American and other traders were kept out of the 
 province because of the presence of troops and the 
 alleged necessity of guarding military secrets. 
 On this pretext they were not allowed to enter for 
 more than a year. When they did finally gain ac- 
 cess to the province it was only to find that Ameri- 
 can brands and trade marks, had been artfully 
 copied by Japanese manufacturers and that native 
 dealers had been stocked with these counterfeit 
 goods. Free access had been given to Japanese 
 traders in the months when all others had been 
 kept out, and the province had been so thoroughly 
 deluged with Japanese goods as to give reason for 
 the belief that the Japanese government had been 
 active in the promotion of trade. Since then 
 there has been a continued and successful dis- 
 crimination in favor of Japanese goods on the 
 Japanese railways and in the Japanese controlled 
 ports, with the result that traders of other nations 
 have thrown up their hands in despair and have 
 abandoned to Japan a market which she gained 
 and has held at the point of the bayonet. After 
 a lingering decline, the final death of American 
 trade in Manchuria was marked in the early part 
 
186 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 of 1915 by instructions from the State Department 
 at Washington to the American consul at New- 
 chwang to close up his office. 
 
 American capitalists shared with American mer- 
 chants the mistaken belief that treaties are signed 
 with the idea that they are to be observed, for soon 
 after the conclusion of peace they prepared to take 
 advantage of the opportunities apparently offered 
 for the development of Manchuria. The signa- 
 tory powers, Japan and Eussia, had bound them- 
 selves "not to obstruct any general measures, com- 
 mon to all countries, which China may take for the 
 development of commerce and industry in Man- 
 churia." British and American capitalists had 
 had in mind for some years plans for the con- 
 struction of additional railways in the proAdnce 
 and they proceeded with their negotiations only 
 to find that the ink was scarcely dry on the Ports- 
 mouth treaty before Japan had negotiated a secret 
 agreement with China by virtue of which she was 
 able to bar all other enterprises from Manchuria. 
 One by one the American proposals for the build- 
 ing of new lines or the purchase of old ones were 
 thwarted through Japanese opposition and Ameri- 
 can capitalists in 1910 finally withdrew from the 
 Manchurian field. In the meantime Secretary 
 Knox had made his famous proposal for the neu- 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 187 
 
 tralization of the Soutli Manchuria Eailway, a pro- 
 posal which, like the efforts of Americans to secure 
 railway concessions in Manchuria, was doomed not 
 only to failure but to arouse the suspicions of the 
 Japanese and add to their hostility for us. 
 
 With Eussia out of the way, it was necessary 
 for the war clans of Japan to pick out another 
 probable enemy. With no possible foe in sight 
 their prestige and power would be weakened and 
 rival parties in Japan might be able to replace 
 them. This unenviable selection fell on the 
 United States, a selection dictated by many rea- 
 sons which from the Japanese point of view were 
 perfectly sound. The Anglo-Japanese alliance 
 bound Japan to the other great power in the Far 
 East and made improbable any conflict with an- 
 other European power. In fact with Eussia out 
 of the way there were no conceivable causes of 
 difference between Japan and any country of Eu- 
 rope. China, never a menace, was now known to 
 be helpless. On the other hand, no matter in 
 what direction Japanese statesmen looked for 
 avenues of further expansion, the giant form of 
 the United States stood in the way. We pos- 
 sessed Hawaii, the Philippines and Alaska, all 
 logical avenues for Japanese growth and places 
 which would doubtless have been the objective of 
 
188 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Japanese activity if the country had emerged from 
 seclusion a little earlier. From the Japanese 
 point of view it appeared that they had been de- 
 prived of their natural destiny in the Pacific 
 merely because the United States had preceded by 
 a few years their entrance into the affairs of that 
 ocean. 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine cut off any opportunity for 
 a Japanese foothold in South or Central America, 
 while the policy of the Open Door in China served 
 a similar purpose there. To be sure, the United 
 States was not the only power to guarantee the 
 open door, but the other signatory powers would 
 always be amenable to reason in the shape of a 
 division of the spoils. The well-defined policy of 
 the United States made a bargain with that power 
 impossible, and the fact that the United States had 
 initiated and carried to a successful conclusion the 
 policy of the Open Door made that country its 
 chief guarantor. It was a strange trick of fate 
 which in a few short years had changed the posi- 
 tion of the United States from Japan's greatest 
 aid in her domestic development to Japan's great- 
 est obstacle in the accomphshment of her imperial- 
 istic plans. After the annexation of Korea there 
 remained, outside New Zealand and Australia, not 
 one desirable foot of territory in the waters 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 189 
 
 washed by the Pacific which Japan could appro- 
 priate without running foul of the United States. 
 Japan at once attacked this problem with char- 
 acteristic oblique methods. One of her first moves 
 was to attempt to divert the attention of the United 
 States from the Far East by a cautious attack on 
 the Monroe Doctrine. By pursuing this policy 
 with sufficient caution, and with the usual anchors 
 to windward, Japan had little to lose and a great 
 deal to gain. It might result in a great many 
 things which would be advantageous to Japan. If 
 found necessary Japan could always step out from 
 under with the usual explanation that Japanese 
 enterprises on the American continent were purely 
 private and without governmental sanction. On 
 the other hand an attack on the Monroe Doctrine 
 might elicit European sympathy or aid which 
 would greatly strengthen Japan's position. In 
 that event the United States might be forced into 
 a bargain in which Japan would agree to keep 
 hands off on the continent of America while the 
 United States would give Japan a free hand in 
 China. Or, if the worst came of this project and 
 it became necessary to fight the United States, 
 Japan would certainly enter the conflict with great 
 advantage to herself if she could make the Mon- 
 roe Doctrine a part of the issue and thus ensure 
 
190 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the sympathies of Europe. Japan's first objective 
 was the west coast of Mexico as a point nearest to 
 her own shores, and the Eussian war was scarcely 
 over before she began negotiations to secure a 
 foothold there. These negotiations were not suc- 
 cessful and Japan has since then, while not giving 
 up hope of securing a colony in Mexico, turned her 
 attention to Chile and Peru. 
 
 Only for a short time was the military party of 
 Japan compelled to create anti-American senti- 
 ment, for the immigration question reached a 
 crisis about the time the Eussian war closed. As 
 early as 1900, when the renewal of the Chinese 
 exclusion act was under discussion in San Fran- 
 cisco, demands were made that the act be renewed 
 as an Asiatic exclusion act so that it would exclude 
 Japanese as well as Chinese. For a number of 
 years this immigration had been unrestricted and 
 Japanese had been coming at the rate of one to 
 three thousand yearly. In 1900 the number sud- 
 denly increased to 12,000. Though the number 
 was not so great in the following years, the con- 
 stant additions to the Asiatic residents of the 
 Pacific Coast States was enough to arouse the fears 
 of the white population and create a demand for 
 some kind of restriction. The immigration to the 
 United States from Japan has never been so large 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 191 
 
 that it need become a serious problem were it 
 widely distributed. But the same causes which 
 have prevented Japanese settlement of the north- 
 em parts of their own islands have prevented the 
 settling of Japanese in large numbers in any but 
 the Pacific Coast States where the mild climate 
 more nearly approximates that of their own coun- 
 try. They favor California above all other parts 
 of the country and their extensive settlement there 
 encysted on that State a large alien population and 
 forced Califomians to take actions which any 
 other State would have taken if faced by the same 
 conditions. 
 
 Agitation on the west coast continued and 
 brought the question to a crisis in 1907 when 
 parties and interests which were opposed to Japa- 
 nese immigration were in control of the municipal 
 government of San Francisco. They established 
 a separate school in that city for Asiatics, plan- 
 ning to compel Japanese to leave the regular pub- 
 lic schools and attend the new institution. Japa- 
 nese residents, following their usual custom, pro- 
 tested to the Japanese government and there arose 
 a threatening crisis. As a result of the agitation, 
 the famous "gentleman's agreement" was entered 
 into between Japan and the United States. This 
 agreement provides "that the Japanese govern- 
 
192 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ment shall issue passports to the continental 
 United States only to such of its subjects as are 
 non-laborers or are laborers who, in coming to the 
 continent, seek to resume a formerly acquired 
 domicile, to join a parent, wife, or children re- 
 siding here, or to assume active control of an al- 
 ready possessed farming enterprise in this coun- 
 try. ' ' This agreement has served to stop the flood 
 of immigration, for the Japanese government has 
 acted in good faith in carrying out its provisions. 
 As a matter of fact, since the agreement went into 
 effect more Japanese have left than have entered 
 this country. 
 
 Effective as the arrangement has been in solving 
 the question of Japanese immigration, it is im- 
 portant to remember that the Japanese have al- 
 ways looked on it as a temporary measure to be 
 endured as patiently as possible until an oppor- 
 tune moment arrives for a solution of the question 
 which will remove all discrimination against them. 
 Arguments against any restriction of Japanese im- 
 migration have been constantly advanced in Jap- 
 anese newspapers and in the publicity campaign 
 which Japan has carried on in the United States. 
 The constant aim of the Japanese government and 
 of the Japanese people since the modern era of 
 their history began has been to secure from the 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 193 
 
 world complete recognition of the Japanese as the 
 equals of any other people. So long as restric- 
 tions on the immigration of the Japanese to the 
 United States exist, no matter how cleverly the 
 agreements may be arranged so as to save face for 
 Japan, the issue will remain and the Japanese may 
 be expected to retain their resentment. ' They will 
 not endure discrimination of this sort any longer 
 than they have to. 
 
 Unfortunately for the good relations of the two 
 countries, the immigration of the Japanese had 
 scarcely been stopped when agitation arose over 
 the question of Japanese landownership. Legis- 
 lation designed to prevent or restrict the acquisi- 
 tion of land by Japanese and other Asiatics had 
 been enacted in Idaho, Washington, and Arizona 
 without precipitating any diplomatic dispute. 
 Several California legislatures had proposed legis- 
 lation of this sort which would affect large num- 
 bers of Japanese, but its passage was always pre- 
 vented by pressure from Washington. But with 
 the growing acreage in the control of Japanese, 
 pressure for such legislation became so strong 
 that the California legislature in 1913 disregarded 
 the protests of the Washington government and 
 passed the Webb bill. This law inhibits the pur- 
 phase or lease for a period of longer than three 
 
194 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 years, of agricultural land by any alien not eligible 
 to citizenship. The law also provides that such 
 aliens ineligible to citizenship may hold land which 
 they now own or on which they hold liens, but it 
 cannot be sold to or descend to aliens of similar 
 status. The same limitations apply to corpora- 
 tions in which a majority of the stock is held by 
 ineligible aliens. 
 
 Even with the restrictions placed upon Japanese 
 through this law, they still enjoy in California 
 greater privileges than are enjoyed by Americans 
 and other foreigners in Japan. No alien in Japan 
 is allowed to own any kind of real estate. Al- 
 though Japanese in California are allowed to own 
 land and houses for residential and commercial 
 purposes, and in most of the other States are al- 
 lowed to own agricultural land as well, no one of 
 the many Americans in Japan is allowed to pur- 
 chase his own home, or to own one scrap of land 
 which he can call his own. Of course these re- 
 strictions in Japan apply to all foreigners and are 
 not discriminatory. However, the spirit which 
 prompted the enactment of the California legisla- 
 tion is exactly the same as that which prompted 
 the similar legislation in Japan. There is an- 
 other similarity between the San Francisco school 
 regulation providing a separate school for Asi- 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 195 
 
 > 
 
 atios, and the Japanese school system of Korea, 
 where separate schools are provided for Japanese 
 children so that they may not be compelled to asso- 
 ciate on terms of equality with the ''inferior" 
 Koreans. Indeed, the attitude of Japanese to- 
 ward aliens of competing classes and particularly 
 toward other Asiatics on whom they look as inferi- 
 ors is in every respect the same as the attitude of 
 the people of California toward the Japanese. 
 This fact has no particular bearing on the diplo- 
 matic dispute between the United States and 
 Japan, but it is interesting in showing the hypoc- 
 risy of Japanese aspersions on Califomians as 
 "narrow-minded and blinded by race prejudice." 
 The California land law has been the subject 
 of prolonged diplomatic correspondence and of 
 constant recrimination in Japan. There the issue 
 has been greatly exaggerated in the native press 
 and, coupled with the immigration agreement and 
 the other points of conflict with the United States, 
 it has grown into a grave international issue. 
 The army and the navy parties which dominate 
 Japan and divide the wealth and the power of the 
 country between them have made the most of the 
 opportunity for it fitted well with their program, 
 and greatly strengthened their prestige in Japan. 
 The idea of a possible conflict with the United 
 
196 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 States has become so firmly fixed that for several 
 years it has been quite frankly stated ia the Diet 
 and in the semi-official publications of the coun- 
 try that Japan's naval program was prepared with 
 the idea of a possible conflict with the United 
 States. 
 
 So far Japanese have not attempted to settle the 
 controversy over the California land law, or the 
 other question over the right of Japanese to natu- 
 ralization, in the courts of the United States. If 
 any treaty right has been violated iu the California 
 land legislation, or if Japanese are possessed of 
 the right of naturalization, a very simple manner 
 of establishing these rights would be through a 
 trial before a federal court. If the land law is in 
 violation of treaty rights, the decision of the fed- 
 eral court would nullify the act. Some months 
 after the law went into effect a Japanese resident 
 of California made preparations for a legal test 
 of this sort. A number of prominent citizens who 
 wished to see the issue settled peacefully and with- 
 out further diplomatic wrangles came to the assist- 
 ance of the Japanese so that he was enabled to 
 carry on the litigation at a minimum of expense 
 and was assured of means to carry it to the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States if necessary to 
 obtain a final decision. It appeared that the suit 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 197 
 
 would be pressed to a conclusion, but it was sud- 
 denly dropped. It developed later that the Jap- 
 anese plaintiff had dropped the suit at the bidding 
 of the Japanese consul-general in San Francisco, 
 who for some reason did not want to see the ques- 
 tion settled in this way. 
 
 The truth of the matter is that the Japanese 
 statesmen are by no means anxious to have the 
 California land question settled. By keeping the 
 issue constantly alive it enables them the more 
 easily to carry on programs of military and naval 
 expansion at home, and it weakens any protests 
 we might make against the Japanese domination 
 of China. Indeed, China is the important issue, as 
 was recently admitted by a semi-official representa- 
 tive of the Japanese government. Dr. T. lyen- 
 aga, at the Japanese-American banquet held in 
 New York on May 19, 1915, expressed the views 
 of official Japan when he said: "Unless America 
 stops trying to interfere with the policy of Japan 
 in China and comes to a clearer understanding of 
 what Japan is trying to do in China, I indulge in 
 the prediction that there will be more serious dis- 
 turbances in the relations between Japan and 
 America than was caused by the California affair. 
 We are going to remain the firm and best friend 
 of China, but the United States must leave to us 
 
198 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the procedure." The present California issue 
 serves the same purpose the Japanese earlier 
 sought to attain by attacks on the Monroe Doc- 
 trine. It serves to divert attention from aggres- 
 sion in China and to make a popular pretext for 
 war. 
 
 With a foreign policy which is dictated solely by 
 expediency, in which there are no restraints of 
 morality and principle, in which details are tor- 
 tuously changed to take advantage of every fleet- 
 ing opportunity, it is difficult and hazardous to 
 make any predictions about Japan's future course. 
 However, one phase of the complicated American 
 issue in Japan seems to stand out rather clearly. 
 Japanese statesmen have made the most of the 
 California land law and other discriminatory legis- 
 lation in America to work up an anti-American 
 feeling in Japan and to create a sentiment which 
 would be favorable to war with America. Taking 
 advantage of the threatening situation they are 
 able to proceed with more assurance in their plans 
 for aggression in China, feeling certain that the 
 United States will not, by effectively protesting on 
 behalf of that unhappy country, add another to 
 the long list of causes of grievance. However, if 
 it should become necessary to go to war with the 
 United States to remove obstacles to Japan's im- 
 
THE AMERICAN QUESTION IN JAPAN 199 
 
 perialistic progress, tlie California land law and 
 the immigration restrictions will form a pretext 
 for war wMcli wonld doubtless be popular both at 
 home and abroad and, mirahile dictu, would even 
 gain the support of the Chuiese who are subject 
 to the same restrictions. If in the meantime 
 Japan be able to involve the Monroe Doctrine in 
 the controversy, so much the better for Japan. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 WHAT JAPAN THINKS OP US 
 
 JUST as there are two Japans which disclose 
 themselves to the view of the student when 
 he investigates the country, so are there two 
 opinions of America and Americans held in Japan.** 
 There is as much difference between these two 
 views as there is between official and unofficial 
 Japan, or, to go farther afield for a simile, as much 
 difference as there is between what we think the 
 Filipinos ought to think of us and what they really 
 think. One is the view for home consumption, the 
 other the view held for export to our fair Repub- 
 lic where we charge no customs duty on imported 
 flattery. It is of the latter view we know the most, 
 for it has been very persistently brought to our 
 attention. It has become eonventionahzed, like 
 other things Japanese, so that, though it is often 
 expressed by many different people and under 
 many different circumstances, it never varies far 
 from the original which I fancy must be filed away 
 in the archives of the Japanese Foreign Office and 
 taught to all of Japan's diplomatists. One of 
 
 200 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OP US 201 
 
 the most recent expressions of this conventional 
 Japanese view of the United States was made by 
 the Japanese consul-general at New York. It is 
 worth quoting in full as it appeared in the Japan 
 Review, a New York periodical supported indi- 
 rectly by the Japanese government in the aid of 
 Japan's foreign relations: 
 
 "Neither are there any two nations on the face 
 of the earth with such romantic relations and af- 
 fections as those of Japan and the United States. 
 The United States, on the shore of Kurihama, 
 where now in imperishable marble stands the 
 statue of Commodore M. C. Perry, importuned 
 Japan to yield and open her door to trade and 
 commerce. The United States smilingly and gal- 
 lantly brought up Japan in the practice of mod- 
 ern commerce, to which the bashful Eastern 
 maiden, who for centuries kept herself free, sweet 
 and pure from anything in the shape of bargain- 
 ing, trafficking and trickery of trade relations with 
 the world, submitted in fraternal vows. Now that 
 Japan has reached full age, her natural geographi- 
 cal advantage makes it inevitable that she should 
 have the mastery in vast Asian affairs and hold 
 China in her sphere of commercial interest and 
 political influence.^ The United States, proud 
 
 1 The statement of Japanese determination to gain the mastery 
 
202 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 and trusted, Japan's spouse, unsullied and de- 
 voted, shares the progress and prosperity of the 
 foster child. Alike in open door policy, in inter- 
 national relations to China; alike in the policy 
 of sustaining Chinese national integrity intact; 
 alike desirous of opening up the vast resources and 
 utilizing and commercializing them, — Japan and 
 the United States hold fast to their exclusively 
 advantageous positions, unrivaled by any in the 
 world. 
 
 "In co-operation with each other the American 
 and Japanese men of business and industry, each 
 helping the other — if not in supplying capital, then 
 in supplying labor — in turn they supply the vast 
 and fast-growing needs of humanity. Even in her 
 own national demand for raw materials for her 
 factories and manufactories, Japan is largely sup- 
 plied by foreign countries. For herself and for 
 her industrial outlets in China, Japan, in the 
 nature of things, reciprocates vast trade with the 
 American States, whose people share in the Jap- 
 anese trade and industries, in capital investment 
 
 in Asiatic affairs and dominate China has been made so often 
 by Japanese publicists that it is remarkable that it was not, 
 until very recently, recognized generally as a part of Japan's 
 foreign policy. This speech was made some months before the 
 outbreak of the European war which made Japan's recent raid 
 on China possible. 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 203 
 
 and in mutual gain. Thus the commerce on the 
 Pacific has awakened. It has revealed its won- 
 ders. The ndghtiest of the oceans, instead of be- 
 coming like unto the old Mediterranean, where the 
 East and the West — Carthage and Eome — met in 
 the one hundred years ' war for decisive battle for 
 supremacy, Japan and the United States have 
 made it man's theater of supreme achievement of 
 peace and prosperity for mankind." 
 
 This is the sentiment we hear expressed day 
 after day, year after year. It has formed the text 
 of a hundred, of thousands of after dinner speeches 
 by Japanese on those occasions when Americans 
 and Japanese meet on some common project. 
 There is not a Japanese diplomatist who does not 
 know it by heart in a dozen different forms. 
 True, the same things are said to England, because 
 of the Anglo- Japanese alliance; the same things 
 are said to China, because of the supposed common 
 interest on the ground that both are Asiatics ; simi- 
 lar expressions of affection are voiced for Eussia, 
 because Russia and Japan have the same common 
 plan to rob China; I have even heard similar ex- 
 pressions of friendship for Mexico, though the 
 only common interest between Mexico and Japan 
 was at that time a common dislike for the United 
 States. But it is for us that the most ardent ex- 
 
204 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 pressions of affection are made — and most often 
 made. The sentiment is rather pretty, despite its 
 mawkishness. But how much truth is there in it? 
 The traveler who goes to Japan in a private ca- 
 pacity and expects to find there any reflection of 
 this regard for America is certain to be disap- 
 pointed. That is, he will be disappointed if he ex- 
 pects to find it expressed in Japanese newspapers 
 or by the Japanese people. Instead of these 
 flattering comments on America, there is always, 
 or at least has been during the past few years, a 
 steady outpouring of vilification and abuse of the 
 United States throughout nearly all of Japan's 
 numerous publications — abuse scarcely less vio- 
 lent than that which has recently been exchanged 
 between the German and British press. Even 
 during the time that Japan was actively engaged 
 in war with Germany, the Japanese press was 
 more bitter in its comments on the United States 
 than in its comments on the country against which 
 its soldiers were fighting. No event has been too 
 trivial to call forth abuse of America, no falsehood 
 too glaring for use if by its utterance the United 
 States could be made to appear in an ignoble light. 
 No diplomatic action has been taken by the United 
 States without the basest of motives being at- 
 tributed to it by the Japanese press, and by the 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 205 
 
 most audacious misstatements and most specious 
 reasoning, every action is given a sinister and un- 
 worthy aspect. 
 
 Every European criticism of America has been 
 echoed in Japan, but with a maliciousness of 
 phrase one rarely sees in Europe. During the 
 entire period of the Panama Canal controversy, 
 the bitterest criticism of the action of the United 
 States was not found in England but in Japan. 
 "Hypocritical, cowardly, arrogant, designing, 
 double-faced," these are only a few of the adjec- 
 tives which appear almost daily in the Japanese 
 press, as descriptive of Uncle Sam. In the Tokyo 
 comic papers Uncle Sam always appears in the 
 villain's part, and there are few issues when he is 
 not pictured in the role of a bully, a hypocrite, 
 or a thief. 
 
 During the entire trouble with Mexico there has 
 never been a time when the Japanese did not throw 
 all of their sympathies with the Mexicans, express 
 doubts as to the sincerity of President Wilson's 
 actions, and exult over every insult offered to the 
 United States by irresponsible Mexican chieftains. 
 The Kokumm (a popular Tokyo paper) expressed 
 its regret that Mexico had given the United States 
 an opportunity to attain her object, that is, the an- 
 nexation of Mexico. The Niroku in a number of 
 
206 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 leading articles urged action by Japan, saying, "it 
 is not merely imaginary or improbable tbat in co- 
 operation with, the Mexicans, we can destroy the 
 arrogance of the Yankees." The Osaka Asahi 
 observed that the arrest of American marines at 
 Tampico was a "pretext for the Americans to seize 
 the chance for the realization of some far-reaching 
 objfict." The Tokyo Asahi found that the reason 
 the United States did not prosecute war against 
 Mexico was only because of her inadequate mili- 
 tary strength which would make the issue of the 
 contest doubtful. The less violent papers found 
 that the United States was planning to annex 
 Mexico and cam.e to the conclusion that if the 
 United States would not interfere with Japan's 
 ambitions in China, Japan might not interfere in 
 Mexico ! 
 
 Wben at the beginning of the European War, 
 President Wilson made his offer of mediation, 
 Japan had not yet begun to take part in the con- 
 flict, but the only expressions of opinion in the 
 Tokyo papers on President Wilson's attitude were 
 decidedly uncomplimentary to him and to America. 
 A large part of the press, after searching carefully 
 for possible motives, decided that the offer was 
 made out of sympathy for Germany, for, they said, 
 President Wilson saw that Germany was sure to 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 207 
 
 be beaten and out of regard for German-American 
 votes desired to bring the war to an end and save 
 Germany from defeat. The papers which did not 
 express that view ridiculed the offer as only an- 
 other of America's hypocritical efforts to appear 
 humanitarian and peace loving. It was taken for 
 granted that there was some sinister motive behind 
 the act, just as it is taken for granted that there 
 is some sinister motive behind every official act of 
 the United States. About the time of this offer 
 of mediation the Sino- American arbitration treaty 
 was negotiated and this was greeted in Japan as a 
 base design to undermine Japanese influence in 
 China. 
 
 At the time this is written the European War 
 has been in progress for about one year and during 
 all of that time the Japanese papers have been full 
 of inuendos, insinuations and false charges against 
 the United States. It has been assumed that 
 American neutrality is hypocritical and that she is 
 secretly aiding the Germans. The papers have 
 been fuU of false statements ; charging the United 
 States government with allowing German war- 
 ships to find refuge and take on food and coal in 
 Philippine waters and at Honolulu, that Ameri- 
 cans with the knowledge of the Washington gov- 
 ernment were surreptitiously supplying German 
 
208 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 warships with coal and provisions, that America 
 was planning an alliance with Germany in order 
 to attack Japan, etc. Pacts well-known in Japan 
 which would prove these assertions to be false are 
 ignored. 
 
 All these false and unfair statements and ex- 
 pressions of malicious opinion pass unchallenged 
 in the Japanese press. To be sure there are a few 
 of the more conservative and solid journals which 
 do not indulge in the constant abuse of America, 
 nor do they take the trouble to controvert the false 
 statements of their less responsible journalistic 
 brethren. Even the conservative journals some- 
 times forget their caution and join the anti- Ameri- 
 can chorus. The Japan Times, which is owned by 
 a Japanese company consisting of some of the 
 most influential men in Japan, on last Independ- 
 ence Day remarked: "It would seem that there 
 are Americans who, no longer dreaming of con- 
 quering territory through missionary enterprises, 
 would think nothing of plunging a neighboring 
 state into internecine struggles for purposes of 
 commercial conquest. This is an ominous state of 
 things. We should be on guard lest war may be 
 sprung on us when they get through with Mexico 
 and begin to look round for more commercial con- 
 quests or at least for more international money- 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 209 
 
 making opportunities, regarding war as a business 
 proposition. ' ' 
 
 Japanese opinion of America, everywhere ex- 
 pressed outside of official circles, exhibits this con- 
 ception of American aims and American character. 
 It never gives credit to America for honest ia- 
 tentions or humanitarian motives no matter what 
 may be the subject under discussion. This con- 
 stant stream of abuse against America continues 
 in spite of the censorship which places all news- 
 papers under police control. 
 
 Peace advocates who are always anxious to mini- 
 mize any international differences readily explain 
 away these attacks on the United States by saying 
 that it is only the driveling of the yellow press 
 and that it should be held of no more importance 
 than similar utterances of the yellow jingo press 
 of America. The explanation is plausible but not 
 convincing. Anti-Japanese articles seldom ap- 
 pear as editorial utterances in American papers. 
 On the other hand, American editors show a great 
 amount of friendliness for Japan. Several of our 
 most prominent weeklies can always be counted on 
 to defend and approve everything Japan does. 
 Anyone who will take the trouble to sift through 
 the comment on Japan which appears in American 
 publications will find that three-fourths of it is all 
 
210 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 that official Japan could wish. It is a reflection, 
 of the press campaign with which Japan manages 
 so successfully to impress on us her views. No 
 American publication maintains its circulation by 
 constant attacks on Japan, for there is not enough 
 interest in this country either for or against Japan 
 to make that possible. But anti- American articles 
 constitute the chief stock in trade of at least a few 
 of the Japanese papers. No American paper 
 maintains a constant campaign of abuse and ridi- 
 cule against Japan, yet that is what several Jap- 
 anese papers continually do and there are few Jap- 
 anese publications which do not occasionally join 
 in the chorus. American comment, even of the 
 most violent and bitter kind, is usually in defense 
 of what are believed to be American institutions. 
 Japanese comment appears to be inspired by noth- 
 ing more than blind hatred. 
 
 It is the wide distinction between the two opin- 
 ions of America that is so striking. For no other 
 country do the Japanese statesmen profess so 
 much friendship; for no other country do the 
 Japanese press and a large part of the Japanese 
 people express so much hatred and contempt. 
 Many of them appear to share the sentiment of the 
 powerful Osaka Maiwichi which recently said : "It 
 is high time that we ended forever the arrogance 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 211 
 
 of these ten thousand times ten thousand half- 
 beast Yankees ! ' ' 
 
 During recent years several peace societies have 
 been established with the idea of promoting 
 friendly relations between Japan and the United 
 States, and as a result of the efforts of these or- 
 ganizations a number of visits have been ex- 
 changed between the two countries. Distinguished 
 American publicists have visited Japan and re- 
 turned to the United States to explain to their fel- 
 low citizens the attitude of the Japanese people, 
 and visits by Japanese have been paid to the 
 United States with, ostensibly, a similar end in 
 view. The American visitors have done their 
 work conscientiously. Nearly all of them have be- 
 come enthusiastic admirers of Japan and on every 
 occasion when it has seemed necessary have come 
 to the defense of Japanese policies and people. 
 It might be said that they have fulfilled their mis- 
 sion entirely too well, for their devotion to the 
 cause of peace has led them into an approval of 
 Japan's imperialistic program. For America to 
 approve this program might secure peace between 
 America and Japan, but the carrying out of the 
 . program will as certainly mean future conflicts in 
 the Far East, either between Japan and China or 
 between Japan and some other power. During 
 
212 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Japan's recent diplomatic raid on China, the ap- 
 prehensions of Americans were allayed by the as- 
 surances of these peace advocates. Even after 
 the coup had been accomplished and China had 
 been forced into signing a treaty which gives away 
 valuable concessions and threatens the open door 
 policy, the peace advocates in their enthusiasm for 
 peace justified Japan's ruthless diplomacy and 
 minimized the results of the raid. 
 
 With the laudable aim of preventing a possible 
 war the peace advocates have done much to pro- 
 mote American friendship for Japan. They have 
 advertised the virtues of the Japanese and have 
 sought to discredit those who write frankly about 
 the Japanese people or Japanese policies. In 
 their efforts to allay the suspicions of their fel- 
 low countrymen they have constantly talked of 
 Japanese friendship and striven to create the im- 
 pression that the Japanese hold for us an affection 
 as unreasonable as it would be unprecedented. 
 
 One may search in vain for a similar group of 
 Japanese whose enthusiasm for peace leads them 
 into a defense of the acts of the United States. 
 Those who have come to this country on missions 
 of peace have always been active in the United 
 States, but on their return home have made 
 a few colorless addresses and then relapsed 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 213 
 
 into silence. From their superior knowledge 
 of America they would be able to refute the many 
 obviously false statements made in the Jap- 
 anese press. They should be able to assure 
 their countrymen that we are not a nation of 
 monsters such as we are often pictured, that we 
 do not aspire to subjugate Japan, control China 
 or set up a trade monopoly on the Pacific. There 
 are a large number of Japanese publicists who 
 are prominent at meetings of an international 
 character and are prodigal in their assurances of 
 friendship when there is an American audience. 
 Among their own people, where much good work 
 could be done in quieting suspicions and removing 
 false ideas, they remain strangely silent. While 
 many Japanese writers and lecturers have gone 
 to great trouble to set forth Japan's views to the 
 United States, there are none who have shown 
 equal energy and enterprise in the more important 
 task of explaining the aims and ideals of the 
 United States to their own countrymen. 
 
 One might be justified in doubting the sincerity 
 of most of the Japanese peace advocates. Per- 
 haps they are sincere but certainly they do not con- 
 ceive of peace programs as we conceive of them. 
 Count Okuma has for many years been the presi- 
 dent of the Japan Peace Society and has been the 
 
214 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 most outspoken Japanese advocate of peace. Yet 
 he is also the strongest advocate of an increase in 
 Japan's already large standing army, although 
 there is no hint from any quarter that Japan 
 is threatened by aggression. In Japan there is no 
 pretense that the army increase is for any purpose 
 other than to carry out the program of Japan's 
 aggression in China. An insight into what I be- 
 lieve to be a common Japanese conception of peace 
 propaganda was furnished a few months ago in the 
 official organ of the Japan Peace Society. The 
 Mexican situation was then at an acute stage and 
 the Mexican chieftains were more than usually de- 
 fiant. A writer, in an article which appeared in 
 the official organ of the Japan Peace Society, dis- 
 cussed this situation with a keen appreciation for 
 the difficulties of the United States and with rather 
 undisguised joy at Uncle Sam's embarrassments. 
 He said this was the opportune time for Japan to 
 settle all outstanding questions with the United 
 States. "Without saying so in so many words, his 
 inference plainly was that an alliance between 
 Japan and Mexico would force the United States 
 into a recognition of the rights of both countries. 
 Suggestions such as this have been common, but it 
 is rather remarkable that the official organ of a 
 peace society should give publicity to such a war- 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 215 
 
 like plan. The Japanese have taken advantage 
 of the peace propaganda to quiet our fears and 
 in the meantime they go on with their own im- 
 perialistic schemes and continue their cultivation 
 of a warlike spirit in the youth of the land. 
 
 The frequent references made by Japanese pub- 
 licists to Japanese gratitude toward the United 
 States are usually convincing. The fact that Com- 
 modore Perry opened up the country to foreign- 
 ers and the frequent references to the aid which 
 the United States gave Japan in achieving her 
 modernization have led many Americans into the 
 error of believing that the United States, more 
 than any other country, has been the model which 
 Japan has always had before her. Nothing could 
 be further from the truth, for in the employment 
 of those foreign experts who have played such 
 an important part in the making of new Japan, 
 the authorities have turned more frequently to 
 England, Germany, and France than to the United 
 States. In only one department, education, have 
 Americans played an important part, the depart- 
 ment on which there has been the least money 
 spent, to which there is the least attention paid. 
 The organization of the Japanese navy was the 
 work of a group of Englishmen. The French be- 
 gan the organization of the army and the work 
 
216 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 was later completed by Germans. The same is 
 true of the codification of the laws, which was 
 begun by the French and completed by Germans. 
 The first telegraph instruments ever brought to 
 Japan were among the presents Commodore Perry 
 gave to the Shogun. But when Japan decided to 
 build telegraph lines of her own, the work was 
 done under the superintendence of an English 
 engineer. The railways were buUt by the British. 
 The constitution is on the Prussian model. The 
 police system is German. The method of legal 
 procedure is French. Germans were employed 
 for many years to teach foreign medical practice 
 to the Japanese. The originator of the Japanese 
 newspaper press was an Englishman. The first 
 dockyards were built by the French. It is only in 
 education that Americans have been employed and 
 even there the highest positions were denied them. 
 When the Imperial University was established, 
 the foreign staff of eighteen was composed of 
 two Americans, eight British and eight Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 The part played by Americans, at the invita- 
 tion of the Japanese, has been a very small one. 
 On the other hand, no nation has thrown itself so 
 energetically or so liberally into the work of aid- 
 ing the Japanese. American missionaries were 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OP US 217 
 
 the first to go to Japan and to-day they outnumber 
 those of all other nationalities. For many years 
 the schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc., maintained 
 from funds contributed by Americans were far 
 more important than similar native enterprises. 
 It was from American missionaries that the Jap- 
 anese youth first learned to speak English. In 
 thousands of cases it was the American mission- 
 ary who educated the Japanese youth to a point 
 where he could secure a lucrative position and in 
 most eases when he reached that point the Jap- 
 anese kicked away the ladder by which he had 
 climbed. It is America to-day which comes most 
 readily to the relief of Japanese distress when 
 flood or famines threaten. It is America which 
 is doing more than any other country, through the 
 efforts of her missionaries and teachers, to aid 
 Japan. It is America which has always sympa- 
 thized with Japan's struggles for progress, and 
 which has paid her the most generous amount of 
 praise for her success. 
 
 But it is only our national vanity which would 
 lead us to believe that Japan looks to us for lead- 
 ership. There is nothing about Japan's modem 
 life that is American. It is all European. Her 
 leaders look to Europe, not to us. European ra- 
 tionalism has a far greater hold on the Japanese 
 
218 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 than has any idea taught by the American mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 Why should there be any close friendship be- 
 tween the two peoples ? What is there in common 
 between Japanese and Americans that makes 
 friendship possible? Friendship between Amer- 
 ica and England is reasonable. We have the same 
 history, read the same books, worship the same 
 heroes. Many of us can go to England and find 
 the parish churches where our great-grandparents 
 were married, pick out on street signs and on old 
 gravestones our own family names, and feel a 
 sense of kinship even though it be removed 
 through several centuries. In spite of the super- 
 cilious attitude which our British cousins are stUl 
 inclined to take toward us, there is a lot of gen- 
 uine affection between the two countries, affection 
 not of the maudlin sort based on a few isolated 
 incidents of history, but strong enough to with- 
 stand the occasional jars which incidents of his- 
 tory have given it. Between America and France 
 there are real reasons for friendship, for the two 
 great republics have much in common, and their 
 citizens some traits of mental alertness and 
 vivacity which seem to be peculiar to them alone. 
 There is scarcely a spot in Europe to which Amer- 
 icans cannot go and find there an ancestral birth- 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 219 
 
 place. There is scarcely a spot in America to 
 which Europeans cannot go and find there some- 
 thing which has been brought over from Europe 
 and taken root in American soil. There is a bond 
 between America and all Christendom — the bond 
 of common ancestry, common religion, common 
 civilization. 
 
 There is no such bond between Japan and Amer- 
 ica, in spite of recent efforts to create one. Our 
 history has nothing in common with that of Japan, 
 nor does a knowledge of each other's history bring 
 us any closer together. Japanese history has a 
 strange sound to American ears. We search it 
 in vain for her Patrick Henry, Washington, Jeffer- 
 son or Lincoln. Our own history is equally in- 
 comprehensible to the Japanese. It is to him a 
 record of much bloodshed for ideals and princi- 
 ples without producing a Hideyoshi, or any one 
 man strong enough to rule the country, an achieve- 
 ment which has always been the objective of Jap- 
 anese ambitions. We see in Japanese loyalty to 
 their rulers a docility which is inconceivable to 
 most of us. They see in our refusal to be ruled 
 by any one man an entire lack of that loyalty 
 which is the supreme virtue in Japan. 
 
 Search as we may, we can find nothing in com- 
 mon between the two peoples. American political 
 
220 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ideas would be most dangerous to the Japanese 
 state as it is at present organized. A Japanese 
 who would publicly express the political ideas 
 which are aired in any political campaign in Amer- 
 ica would be denounced as a socialist and thrown 
 in jail. An American who tried to apply to 
 America the political ideas of Japan would doubt- 
 less retire from public life besmeared with the ref- 
 use with which a disgusted public would pelt him. 
 There is a wide gulf which separates the indi- 
 vidual Japanese from the individual American. 
 It is doubtless the experience of all Americans 
 who have lived a great deal abroad that they have 
 made friends from among many nationalities, and 
 that in some cases these attachments become 
 strong enough to obliterate all differences as to 
 nationality and language. Such friendships exist, 
 in isolated cases, between Americans and Japa- 
 nese, but an insuperable bar of social usage usu- 
 ally prevents these friendships from becoming in- 
 timate. If there were no other reason for this, 
 the difference in our regard for women would be 
 enough to prevent the growth of intimacy between 
 families. The American's liberal treatment of his 
 wife, his deference to her and his manifestations 
 of affection for her strike a Japanese as not only 
 incomprehensible but as actually indecent. The 
 
WHAT JAPAN THINKS OF US 221 
 
 American tourist who has ever walked down the 
 street of a Japanese city with his wife on his arm 
 must remember the surprised stares of the Japa- 
 nese. Indeed, to the average Japanese conception 
 of the relations between the sexes, this picture 
 could mean but one thing — a drunken man with a 
 prostitute. 
 
 After all, what does international friendship 
 amount to in governing the policies of countries? 
 We have only to look at the record of Japan to 
 confirm any cynicism regarding the existence of 
 international friendship. A few years ago Japan, 
 after offering and being refused an alliance with 
 Germany, offered the alliance to Great Britara. 
 The latter entered into the alliance because of 
 suspicions of Russia's plans for expansion. 
 Strengthened by this alliance, Japan went to war 
 with Eussia, which had conspired with Germany 
 and France to rob Japan of the rewards of her 
 war with China. Following the war Japan an- 
 nexed Korea for which country she had always 
 expressed the most solicitous regard, having 
 fought a war with China in order to insure the 
 independence of the Korean kingdom. Now we 
 find the cards all shuffled anew and Eussia, Japan 
 and England fighting Germany. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 IT has always been a favorite political theory 
 of Americans that small and weak nations 
 should be protected from the strong by inter- 
 national agreements and allowed to work out their 
 own destinies. "We have become accustomed to 
 that idea through the success of the Monroe Doc- 
 trine which has left the weak South and Central 
 American States free to pursue their own careers 
 without danger of being gobbled up by the Euro- 
 pean powers. We can point with some degree of 
 pride to Cuba as a practical manifestation of this 
 theory. Our unkind critics sometimes say it is a 
 very comfortable theory for us to expound, for, 
 having all the territory that we desire, it deprives 
 us of nothing that we need or greatly want, thus 
 enabling us to maintain an agreeably virtuous atti- 
 tude at no cost of self-denial. Lack of covetous- 
 ness, they say, is not so great a virtue in one who 
 cannot easUy take care of more than he already 
 possesses. 
 However that may be, the idea is firmly fixed in 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 223 
 
 America and many Americans believe in the sound- 
 ness of the policy for the old-fashioned reason that 
 it is just. The programs of the many peace 
 organizations which are supported by American 
 members and dollars contemplate no further 
 changes in international boundaries unless it be 
 the voluntary dissolution of ties which bind colo- 
 nies and over-seas dominions to the mother coun- 
 try, or the peaceful resumption of sovereignty by 
 people now under alien rule. With universal dis- 
 armament there could be little further acquisition 
 of colonies and there might be a loss of some. 
 Without militarism, or, more properly, navalism, 
 there would no longer be any but sentimental rea- 
 sons for New Zealand and Australia to remain in 
 the British Empire. They would no longer need 
 the protection of the British navy for their shores 
 and their trade routes, for with no fighting ships 
 cruising the seas, the danger of attack would dis- 
 appear. It is easily conceivable that with mili- 
 tarism discarded and every people guaranteed the 
 secure possession of the territory they occupy the 
 ties which brad Australia (k» give but one ex- 
 ample) to Great Britain would become weaker 
 with the passage of peaceful years. With the 
 present military necessity of allegiance removed, 
 dominions an<i mother country would in their 
 
224 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 natural progress grow apart until the connection 
 between them would be only nominal. Some 
 American theorists dream of a day of universal 
 peace when existing countries and colonies, no lon- 
 ger coerced by military necessity or diverted from 
 their natural destinies by passion for conquest, 
 would be attracted or break up peacefully into 
 groups bound together only by common interests 
 and ideals, and thus find a higher and happier de- 
 velopment than is possible to-day. 
 
 Practical expression of these ideals has been 
 made in the Monroe Doctrine and in the similar 
 policy of the open door in China. Neither was 
 dictated solely by sentiment. Both were founded 
 on the sound logic of political necessity, but in 
 their effects they have tended to accomplish in part 
 the ideal of substituting justice for might in in- 
 ternational affairs. 
 
 Whether or not this idea of protection of the 
 weak and backward nations and peoples is a sound 
 one, it is diametrically opposed to the ideas which 
 have dominated Japanese statesmen for a genera- 
 tion. Theirs has been an imperial ideal and they 
 have always looked on their weaker neighbors 
 as fit objects of aggression. They have perhaps 
 been franker than the English or the Americans, 
 for they look on the presence of weak neighbors as 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 225 
 
 offering providential opportunities for increasing 
 the greatness of Japan, a result which in Japanese 
 eyes needs no ethical justification. Unlike the 
 Americans and the English, they make no pretense 
 that they take up the rule of alien people with a 
 reluctance overcome only hy their sense of duty. 
 Where we talk of the white man 's hurden they re- 
 joice in the hrown man's opportunity. 
 
 That Japan should ultimately dominate Korea 
 and China was believed by the Japanese more than 
 a generation ago when foreigners were still look- 
 ing on the Japanese as an amusing race of little 
 brown men who made pretty fans and possessed 
 many queer customs, but need not be taken very 
 seriously. The teachings of Spencer very early 
 found approval in Japan and during his lifetime 
 he was frequently asked for advice by the Japa- 
 nese statesmen. They applied the law of the sur- 
 vival of the fittest to their own imperial ideas and 
 readily came to the conclusion that as Japan was 
 the fittest in the Far East, others should succumb 
 and Japan survive. Throughout the writings of 
 Japanese statesmen and publicists is to be found 
 this idea of the ultimate survival of the strong 
 military nation accepted as an established fact and 
 with it the corollary that the weaker nations are 
 destined to absorption by the strong. A dozen 
 
226 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 utterances from official or semi-official sources 
 might be quoted to illustrate this view. One of 
 the latest is from the pen of Count Okuma, a Japa- 
 nese statesman who has led in peace movements 
 and has been looked on as the least military of all 
 Japanese leaders. In December, 1914, the Tokyo 
 magazine, Shin Nihon, published an exhaustive re- 
 view of current political questions by Premier 
 Count Okuma. After discussing in some detail 
 the Malthusian theory of population and some 
 principles of evolution, he said: 
 
 ''Thus those who are superior will govern those 
 who are inferior. I believe within two or three 
 centuries the world will have a few great govern- 
 ing countries and others will be governed by them, 
 will pay homage to the mighty. In other words, 
 about four or five great countries, each having a 
 population of five hundred millions will be de- 
 veloped, and the other countries will be attached 
 to these great ones. For instance England, Eus- 
 sia, Germany and France may be such countries 
 and there may be one or two other independent 
 countries. In that event, woe to the nations which 
 are governed. We should from now on prepare 
 ourselves to become a governing nation and not a 
 nation governed." 
 
 A little farther on in this lengthy but remark- 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 227 
 
 able article, the Premier frankly indicated the de- 
 termination of Japan to settle differences with the 
 United States, which, it will be noticed, was not 
 included in the list of great nations which would 
 survive the next few centuries. He said : 
 
 "But we must at all costs fight against the 
 Kaiser's spirit of conquest until we shall have 
 crushed it. But when the spirit of conquest is 
 crushed, the German people shall not be crushed 
 with it. They wUl only free themselves from the 
 wrong leaders, or be governed by those who have 
 mended their ways. They will be able to show 
 their worth in the future by developing a new 
 civilization. 
 
 ' ' Our attitude toward the American people will 
 be the same. We shall attack any mistaken ideas 
 or principles without mercy. We do not, of 
 course, hate individuals. The time, now has come 
 when humanity should awaken. The present 
 war has brought about the opportunity. We 
 should free ourselves from the mistaken racial 
 competition which has arisen from prejudice. 
 This is the great lesson to be learned from the war 
 and we hope that the United States, which is our 
 good, friendly neighbor, will at once forget its un- 
 reasonable anti-Japanese sentiment which is based 
 on prejudices." 
 
228 JAPAN AND AMEEICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Within less tlian a month after the publication 
 of this exposition of the aims and needs of Japan, 
 that country undertook in China one of the most 
 audacious attempts to coerce a peaceful and 
 friendly neighbor that is to be found in a day's 
 journey through volumes of history. The de- 
 tails of this remarkably sordid and conscienceless 
 business will be gone into in a later chapter, but ia 
 order to understand thoroughly Japan's aims and 
 the ruthlessness of her policies, it is necessary to 
 review some interesting but little known history 
 which led up to the coup of 1915. If the story of 
 Japan's encroachments in China and of America's 
 attempts to save that country from dismember- 
 ment concerned only the rival aspirations of 
 American and Japanese capitalists and merchants 
 it would not be worth the typewriting. But it has 
 a much wider significance than that, for it reveals 
 in a way that cannot be mistaken — or explained 
 away — the ambitions of Japan, the methods to 
 which she will stoop to accomplish these ambitions, 
 and the strange psychology of a people who justify 
 any crime if committed in the name of the Em- 
 peror. 
 
 It is important that Americans know this. We 
 have been cajoled into a sense of security from 
 Japanese ambitions and deluded by pleasing pic- 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 229 
 
 tures of a Japan which exists only in the imagina- 
 tion of Japanese press agents. We have de- 
 pended in the past and must depend in the future 
 on the promises and pledges of Japan and it is im- 
 portant that we know what they are worth. We 
 are constantly assured of Japanese friendship and 
 it is worth while to enquire into the value of that 
 friendship which she has expressed in equally re- 
 sounding phrases to China. We stand in the path 
 of her ambitions as did China and we should know 
 what to expect if the conquest maddened war party 
 of Japan should turn their attention to us. Those 
 who have recently been appalled at the dangers 
 of the imperialistic policy of Germany and shocked 
 at the wickedness of German plans to dominate 
 Europe should give at least a passing glance to 
 Japan, for her ambitions more seriously threaten 
 us than do any ever hatched in Europe. 
 
 Few men are now living who were alive when 
 plans for the dismemberment of China were first 
 formulated. Fifty years ago Anson Burlingame, 
 American Minister to China and later a special 
 commissioner sent by the Chinese government to 
 negotiate new treaties with foreign powers, said 
 of his undertaking: "I hope to procure some 
 mitigation of those aggressive steps and tend- 
 encies which are rapidly bringing nearer the par- 
 
230 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 celing out of China among the greedy monarchies 
 of Europe." Neither the brilliant efforts of Mr. 
 Burlingame nor of other friends of China pre- 
 vented the parceling out which was then threat- 
 ened, but rather it was held in abeyance only be- 
 cause there was some doubt in Europe as to the 
 ability of European troops to cope with the mil- 
 lions which it was believed China might put into 
 the field. When, much to the surprise of the 
 world, Japan easily defeated China the long de- 
 ferred plans went forward rapidly. 
 
 Though not the first nor the only aggressor, 
 Germany's action in seizing Tsingtau in 1897 
 precipitated the scramble. As the late Empress 
 Dowager of China said in one of her characteristic 
 proclamations: "The various powers cast upon 
 us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other 
 ia their endeavors to be the first to seize upon our 
 inmost territory." The pretext on which Ger- 
 many seized this desirable and undeveloped port 
 and later "leased" the colony of Kiaochau was 
 the murder by a mob of Shantung coolies of two 
 German Catholic missionaries. The other powers 
 while less brutal than Germany in their diplomacy 
 immediately began plans to secure portions of 
 Chinese territory. On various pretexts, none of 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 231 
 
 which contained an iota of justice, Eussia leased 
 Port Arthur and Dalny, Great Britain secured 
 Weihaiwei, France extended her territories in the 
 south, and even Italy, which had little trade and 
 no political interests in the Far East, prepared to 
 get in on the game and asked the powers to sup- 
 port her request for a slice of Chinese territory. 
 The European powers were rapidly coming to 
 complete understandings in regard to the share 
 each country should have. England and Eussia 
 were at that time on terms by no means friendly, 
 yet they negotiated an agreement whereby Eussia 
 recognized the Yangtze Valley as the special 
 sphere of Great Britain and the latter country 
 conceded the territory north of the Great Wall as 
 within Eussia 's sphere of influence. Germany re- 
 served to herself Shantung and Japan marked out 
 Fukien. AU of the powers were busy taking what 
 they could get at once and also staking out sections 
 of the territory of China to be disposed of as op- 
 portunities of the future made dismemberment 
 possible. 
 
 The United States was invited to share in this 
 spoliation but declined to do so as contrary not 
 only to enlightened public opinion in America, 
 but also as contrary to a well-established policy to- 
 
232 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ward China. Several years before the Civil War 
 China voluntarily gave to the United States a piece 
 of land which is now one of the most valuable sec- 
 tions of Shanghai. On this was maintained for a 
 few years an American settlement, ruled by 
 America and really a part of the territory of the 
 United States. But retention of the land was con- 
 trary to American ideas and the United States 
 surrendered its rights and with the British settle- 
 ment which adjoined formed the present Interna- 
 tional Settlement of Shanghai. At various other 
 times it was proposed that the United States se- 
 cure concessions or establish spheres of influence 
 in China, but no serious moves in that direction 
 were ever undertaken. Instead the government 
 has always insisted that all nations be allowed to 
 trade in China on terms of equality and that 
 Chinese territory remain unmolested. 
 
 The proposed dismemberment of China, then as 
 now, was a matter of serious importance to the 
 United States, affecting us in many ways. The 
 most immediate effect is on our commerce, always 
 important and holding vast opportunities for fu- 
 ture development. The division of the country 
 intp spheres of influence, colonies, or concessions 
 means the building of railways which would grant 
 preferential rates and rebates. It means harbor 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 233 
 
 dues, taxes and customs, levied and collected in 
 the interest of the country in power so as to shut 
 off competition by any other power. 
 
 It threatens the welfare of American mission 
 work in China, an enterprise of vast proportions 
 and incalculable good, for every act of foreign ag- 
 gression, no matter from what country it comes, 
 serves to intensify the opposition to foreign mis- 
 sions. It threatens us in a military way, for with 
 the establishment of powerful colonies on the 
 western shores of the Pacific by European nations, 
 our shores can be the more easily attacked. Fi- 
 nally, it is a violation of the American ideals sug- 
 gested at the beginning of this chapter. 
 
 The problem of preserving China confronted 
 John Hay who was then Secretary of State and he 
 solved it successfully and brilliantly by his pro- 
 posal of the Open Door policy. He was not the 
 originator of the policy. It had always been the 
 policy of the United States toward China, but to 
 Hay is due the credit of crystallizing the policy 
 into a definite statement and securing for it the 
 adherence of the European powers. In his pro- 
 posal Mr. Hay asked the European powers to 
 agree not to take advantage of their "spheres of 
 influence" to levy preferential harbor rates or 
 railway rates, not to interfere with the existing 
 
234 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 treaty rights, and not to disturb the existing ar- 
 rangements for the collection of customs duties by 
 the Chinese government. Compliance with these 
 conditions would, of course, remove the desire for 
 colonies and spheres of influence by depriving the 
 holder of the greatest advantages to be derived 
 therefrom. 
 
 Acceptances of this proposal were slow in com- 
 ing in, for agreement to the principles Hay had set 
 forth meant the abandonment of plans which 
 diplomats had discussed for half a century and 
 whose fulfilment was now about to be accom- 
 plished. Mutual jealousies and suspicions pre- 
 vented any favorable replies except those which 
 were carefully guarded and predicated on an ac- 
 ceptance by other powers. But using these pro- 
 visional acceptances of one power to bring others 
 into line. Hay at length secured definite and final 
 acceptances by all the powers and China's life as a 
 nation was saved for the time at least. Despite 
 the Boxer madness which broke out only a few 
 months after the final acceptance of this plan to 
 guarantee the integrity of China, the country was 
 enabled to emerge with territory intact. It was a 
 severe strain, but, having passed it safely, the 
 policy of the Open Door was accepted by the world 
 as sufficient to guarantee the integrity of China, 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 235 
 
 just as the Monroe Doctrine guarantees the inde- 
 pendence of South and Central American republics. 
 It may be noted, in passing, that there is no ma- 
 terial difference in the effect of the Monroe Doc- 
 trine and the Open Door policy. The two policies 
 were brought forth under similar conditions and 
 though presented in different ways, they were in- 
 tended to have the same result, that of protecting 
 weaker powers against the aggressions of the 
 stronger. The policy of the Open Door in China 
 is, in its effects, the "Monroe Doctrine of the Far 
 East." 
 
 In subsequent years the principle of the Open 
 Door was strengthened by a number of formal 
 treaties between some of the great powers, Japan 
 leading the way in thus making the policy even 
 more permanent and giving it a fuller and more 
 binding recognition than was implied by the mere 
 acceptance of the conditions proposed in Hay's 
 letter. The reason for Japan's original accept- 
 ance of the plan has been explained and, having 
 once accepted it, she was compelled on a number 
 of subsequent occasions to reaffirm the principle, 
 for the time when she could openly or covertly 
 repudiate it had not yet arrived. On January 30, 
 1902, following prolonged negotiations, Great 
 Britain and Japan concluded their first formal 
 
236 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 alliance. The preamble to this document reads: 
 
 "The governments of Great Britain and Japan, 
 actuated solely by a desire to maintain the status 
 quo and general peace in the extreme East, being, 
 moreover, specially interested in maintaining the 
 independence and territorial integrity of the Em- 
 pire of China and the Empire of Korea, and in se- 
 curing equal opportunities in those countries for 
 the commerce and industry of all nations, hereby 
 agree," etc. 
 
 Three years later this agreement was replaced 
 by a new document in which the principle of the 
 Open Door was made even stronger than in the 
 first alliance. In the treaty of 1905 the following 
 were set forth as the reasons for which the alliance 
 was formed : 
 
 "(a) The consolidation and maintenance of 
 the general peace in the regions of Eastern Asia 
 and India ; 
 
 "(b) The preservation of the common inter- 
 ests of all powers in China by insuring the inde- 
 pendence and integrity of the Chinese Empire and 
 the principle of equal opportunities for the com- 
 merce and industry of all nations in China." 
 
 These objects were restated in identical terms 
 in the latest treaty of alliance, negotiated in 1911. 
 
 In the agreement relating to China signed by 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 237 
 
 Eussia and Japan in 1907, tlie second article 
 reads : 
 
 "The two high contracting parties agree to 
 recognize the independence and territorial integ- 
 rity of the Chinese Empire, and the principle of 
 equal opportunity for the commerce and industry 
 of all nations in the said Empire, and they engage 
 to uphold and defend the maintenance of the 
 status quo and the respect of that principle by all 
 peaceful means possible to them." 
 
 The same principle is found stated in the agree- 
 ment between Japan and the United States made 
 on November 30, 1908. The following is one of 
 the clauses : 
 
 "The policy of both governments, uninfluenced 
 by any aggressive tendencies, is directed to the 
 maintenance of the existing status quo in the 
 region above mentioned (the Pacific Ocean) and 
 to the defense of the principle of equal oppor- 
 tunity for commerce and industry in China." 
 
 The principle is reafifirmed in another clause : 
 
 ' ' They are also determined to preserve the com- 
 Bion interests of the powers in China by support- 
 ing by all pacific means at their disposal the inde- 
 pendence and integrity of China and the principle 
 of equal opportunity for commerce and industry 
 of all nations in that Empire." 
 
238 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 In the Franco-Japanese agreement of 1907 there 
 is the following phrase: 
 
 ' * The governments of Japan and France, being 
 agreed to respect the independence and integrity 
 of China, as well as the principle of equal treat- 
 ment in that country for the commerce and sub- 
 jects or citizens of aU nations," etc. 
 
 Japan had been particularly lavish in her 
 pledges not only to respect the principle of the 
 Open Door, but to actually defend that principle 
 against others who might wish to violate it. Yet 
 at the time Japan was signing some of these 
 pledges she had already made assaults on the "in- 
 dependence and integrity of China," and she has 
 continued to violate the pledges and agreements, 
 her long list of transgressions finally culminating 
 in the impudent demands on China presented in 
 the early part of 1915. Before taking up this 
 latest attack on the Open Door, it will be illuminat- 
 ing to consider some of Japan's earlier aggres- 
 sions — ^violations of treaty promises less dramatic 
 and less important than her most recent viola- 
 tion. 
 
 One of the phrases of the Portsmouth treaty 
 Which was signed September 5, 1905, provided that 
 the signatory powers would not "obstruct any gen- 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 239 
 
 eral measures, common to all countries, which 
 China may take for the development of commerce 
 and industry in Manchuria. ' ' This clause was ex- 
 pected to provide an opportunity for China to de- 
 velop Manchuria and to recover the power and 
 prestige which she had lost through the aggres- 
 sions of Eussia and Japan. Yet within a few 
 months after this treaty was signed Japan nego- 
 tiated another agreement with China in which 
 the latter country was coerced into agreeing that, 
 prior to the recovery by China of the South Man- 
 churia railway, she would not build any main line 
 in the neighborhood of and parallel to that rail- 
 way, or any branch line which might be prejudicial 
 to the interest of that railway. China insisted 
 that this agreement be made in definite terms, pre- 
 scribing a certain distance from the South Man- 
 churia railway, but the Japanese declined to make 
 the agreement so specific. It developed later that 
 Japan intended to use this agreement to block all 
 railway development in Manchuria except that un- 
 dertaken by Japanese capitalists. That was the 
 beginning of Japan's long and steady campaign to 
 dominate the railway situation in Manchuria, re- 
 cently brought to a successful close by the 1915 
 treaty with China. The agreement made earlier 
 
240 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 lias been used on several occasions not only to 
 block the building of Manchurian railways by for- 
 eign capital but by Chinese capital as well. 
 
 The proposal made later by Secretary of State 
 Knox would have made effective the promises and 
 pledges of the Portsmouth treaty, but it was op- 
 posed and frustrated by Japan. Indeed the only 
 purpose it served was to draw Japan and Eussia 
 closer together and increase Japanese resentment 
 at the interference of America. Japan and Eus- 
 sia, alarmed at what they believed to be American 
 aims for encroachments in Manchuria, at once con- 
 cluded a secret agreement in which the two coun- 
 tries divided between themselves Manchuria and 
 Mongolia, each pledging support to the other in 
 aggressive plans to be carried out in these regions. 
 Both repudiated the agreement made in the Ports- 
 mouth treaty not to use their Manchurian railways 
 for strategical purposes and, Japan taking the 
 lead, began a slow encroachment on the very rights 
 which the Portsmouth treaty was designed to pro- 
 tect. 
 
 This treaty between Japan and Eussia was 
 signed on July 4, 1910, following a number of con- 
 versations in which a rather definite understand- 
 ing was reached. Since then Japan has pursued 
 an aggressive policy toward China, constantly 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 241 
 
 seeking to find cause for a quarrel and to impress 
 on China the futility of opposing Japan. This 
 policy found expression in a series of incidents, 
 each one trivial in itself, but all revealing a defi- 
 nite aggressive policy in which Japan has insisted 
 upon treating with China as with an inferior and 
 subject state. 
 
 On September 11, 1911, some Japanese soldiers 
 at the railway station in Changli (on the South 
 Manchuria railway) stole some fruit from a 
 Chinese pedler. They were detected in the act 
 by a Chinese policeman who compelled them, after 
 the usual wordy argument, to restore the stolen 
 goods. The soldiers then left with threats of 
 vengeance. That night they returned and pro- 
 voked a quarrel with another pedler, persisting in 
 their abuse until the policeman again interfered. 
 A few minutes later forty armed Japanese sol- 
 diers appeared and surrounded the station, the of- 
 ficer at the head of the squad demanding from the 
 Chinese officer at the station the surrender of the 
 policeman who had detected the theft of the fruit 
 in the morning. The Chinese officer attempted to 
 prevent inunediate trouble by asking the Japanese 
 to return the following morning when the police 
 superintendent would be on duty. Enraged by 
 this reply the Japanese officer cut down the 
 
242 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Chinese with his sword and then emptied a re- 
 volver into him. He then ordered his men to fire 
 three volleys into the group of Chinese policemen 
 and civilians, as a result of which four policemen 
 and one civilian were killed. The railway station 
 was then searched and looted. From there the 
 Japanese went to the Chinese police station, which 
 was also looted, afterward retreating to their bar- 
 racks. When a Chinese magistrate arrived and 
 conducted the usual inquest over the dead, he was 
 seized by the Japanese soldiers, taken to their bar- 
 racks, and threatened with death unless he signed 
 a report of the proceedings which they had writ- 
 ten. This he refused to do. 
 
 There was such a divergence between the re- 
 ports of the incident as presented by the Chinese 
 and the Japanese that both sides appointed mem- 
 bers of a commission, which investigated the mat- 
 ter and confirmed the report of the Chinese as 
 given above. China then made four moderate de- 
 mands for compensation, but these were ignored 
 by the Japanese government until nearly a year 
 later, when they grudgingly agreed to pay $13,000 
 (Mexican currency) to the families of the five mur- 
 dered policemen and to order their railway guards 
 at Changli to apologize to the Changli magistrate. 
 
 In June, 1912, a band of Japanese was engaged 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 243 
 
 in smuggling arms and ammunition into Mongolia 
 from Korea, by way of the dense forests and hills 
 of the Upper Yalu Valley. The Japanese had a 
 large caravan of military supplies and it is incon- 
 ceivable to one who knows the efficiency of the 
 Japanese police that the existence of this expedi- 
 tion was not known to the Japanese officials. As 
 they traveled through a sparsely settled and 
 poorly policed part of Manchuria the smugglers 
 terrorized and robbed a number of villages and for 
 a long time met with no resistance. At length a 
 company of Chinese soldiers who had been search- 
 ing for them came up with the party about night- 
 fall. That night the smugglers attacked the sol- 
 diers' camp, and in the fighting which followed 
 nineteen soldiers were killed and eighteen 
 wounded. Three Japanese smugglers were killed, 
 two wounded and thirteen captured. In addition 
 the soldiers captured twenty-five Mongolian and 
 Chinese camp followers and took possession of the 
 caravan consisting of forty-five carts loaded with 
 arms and ammunition, 298 boxes in all. When 
 taken before a Chinese magistrate, the members of 
 the party confessed its object, the Japanese admit- 
 ting their leadership in the enterprise, the Chinese 
 and Mongolians being merely employees who had 
 been added to the caravan along the way. 
 
244 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 In accordance with the provisions of extraterri- 
 toriality the Japanese smugglers were turned over 
 to a Japanese consul for trial and punishment. 
 The Chinese officials were prepared to prosecute 
 the case with the irrefutable evidence of the arms 
 and ammunition which they had captured. To the 
 surprise of all who knew the circumstances the 
 Japanese consul declined to take any action in the 
 matter, advancing the original and interesting con- 
 tention that the Japanese under arrest belonged 
 to the lowest classes in Japan and were therefore 
 beneath his notice. The Japanese Minister in 
 Peking upheld his subordinate and nothing was 
 done until two years later, the Japanese in the 
 meantime being allowed to go free. When Japan 
 did take action she presented China with a de- 
 mand for the payment of a large indemnity for the 
 captured and confiscated arms, pensions for the 
 families of the dead outlaws, and the transfer or 
 dismissal of all the Chinese officials connected with 
 the incident. China complied with the demands 
 for payment as Japan had at that time stationed a 
 body of troops in Liaoyuan and declined to dis- 
 cuss their removal until these conditions had been 
 complied with. 
 
 In August, 1913, soon after the outbreak of the 
 rebellion against President Yuan, Colonel Ka- 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 245 
 
 wasaki of the Japanese army arrived at the city of 
 Yenchow, the headquarters of General Chang 
 Hsun, the well-known leader of the loyal troops. 
 Yenchow was then under martial law and as a 
 number of Japanese had been found to be enrolled 
 with the rebels, who, it was believed, were receiv- 
 ing support from Japan, the presence of a Jap- 
 anese near this important military camp was 
 enough to arouse suspicion. Colonel Kawasaki 
 exhibited a great deal of curiosity as to the mil- 
 itary establishments in the neighborhood and 
 was promptly arrested. When he explained his 
 identity he was released, but as his presence there 
 was likely to lead to other troubles, he was es- 
 corted by a guard to the Tsinanfu station. Japan 
 insisted that this was an insult and immediately 
 presented China with the following demands : 
 
 (1) That the officers directly responsible for 
 the incident be punished. 
 
 (2) That the commandant in charge of the 
 troops at Yenchow be dismissed from the serv- 
 ice. 
 
 (3) That the general in command of the Chinese 
 army should proceed to Tientsin and make a per- 
 sonal apology at the headquarters of the Japanese 
 garrison. 
 
 (4) That the Chinese government should send 
 
246 JAPAN AND AMEEICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 a note to the Japanese legation at Peking expres- 
 sing regret for the incident. 
 
 China complied with all of these demands. 
 
 When Nanking was surrendered by the rebels 
 on September 3, 1913, there followed several days 
 of disorder, during which shops were looted and 
 there was some bloodshed. Two Japanese bar- 
 bers and two shopkeepers who got in the line of 
 fire were killed. The Japanese government imme- 
 diately demanded: 
 
 (1) The execution in the presence of the Japa- 
 nese consul of the soldiers who killed the Japa- 
 nese and looted the Japanese shops; and also the 
 execution or severe punishment of their immediate 
 superior officers. 
 
 (2) That General Chang Hsun and his officers 
 be severely reprimanded immediately after the 
 execution. 
 
 (3) That General Chang should proceed in per- 
 son to the Japanese consulate and express his re- 
 grets. 
 
 (4) That an indemnity be paid to the families of 
 the dead and to the proprietors of the shops which 
 were looted. 
 
 (5) That the entire regiment to which the guilty 
 soldiers belonged should march to the Japanese 
 consulate and salute with their arms. 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 247 
 
 (6) That the Chinese government should apolo- 
 gize to the Japanese government. 
 
 Though these demands were excessive and un- 
 necessarily humiliating, the Chinese government 
 accepted them as it was then facing a serious revo- 
 lution in the south which seemed to derive a large 
 part of its support from Japan. The indemnity 
 was fixed at $641,845 (Mexican currency, or ahout 
 $300,000 United States currency). It is interest- 
 ing to compare this indemnity of ahout $75,000 for 
 each man killed with that paid by the Japanese 
 for the murdered policemen at Changli. In the 
 one case there was no proof that the Japanese had 
 not been killed accidentally ; in the other, Chinese 
 policemen on duty were deliberately killed by 
 Japanese soldiers acting on the orders of superior 
 officers. Japan paid about $1250 each for the 
 Chinese policemen killed and collected $75,000 for 
 each man killed at Nanking. 
 
 The story of the incident would not be complete- 
 without the sequel. General Chang Hsun, with 
 true Oriental guile, robbed the Japanese of any 
 satisfaction they might have received from his 
 apology and the salute of his troops. When he 
 started out to do his apologizing he made a day of 
 it, going to all the foreign consulates in Nanking, 
 saluting all and apologizing to all. 
 
248 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 On August 17, 1914, some reserve Chinese police 
 were engaged in a fight with bandits in a Man- 
 churian forest near Changtu when a company of 
 Japanese troops arrived. Thinking they were be- 
 ing attacked, they opened fire on the Chinese 
 police, killing three and wounding ten. Two Japa- 
 nese were wounded, though it was impossible to 
 determine whether they had been hit by shots fired 
 by the police or by the bandits. However, six of 
 the police were taken in charge by the Japanese 
 troops and a detachment of Japanese troops was 
 sent to Liaoyuan, which is well outside the zone 
 where Japan is allowed by treaty to station her 
 "railway guards." The Chinese complied with 
 demands that the police be punished, the officer in 
 command of the police reprimanded, that the gar- 
 rison commanders at Liaoyuan and Taoanfu be 
 changed and paid an indemnity of $12,000 to the 
 wounded soldiers. As in the other incident, the 
 presence of troops at Liaoyuan was used to coerce 
 China into this settlement, but the troops there 
 have never been removed. 
 
 This list of incidents might be lengthened in- 
 definitely, for there have been many of them, in all 
 of which Japan has either demanded indemnities 
 and apologies which were without justification, or 
 has made her demands excessive and severe. One 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 249 
 
 more incident may be mentioned. In 1912 China 
 proposed to tlie signatory powers that her tariff 
 schedule should be revised, for it is regulated as 
 was the tariff of Japan before 1899. China's 
 tariff is a nominal 5 per cent, on both exports 
 and imports, but this is collected on an established 
 valuation of goods made ten years ago for imports 
 and fifty years ago for exports. Prices of com- 
 modities have changed a great deal in that time 
 and the result is that China is not receiving the 
 revenue to which she is entitled from her customs 
 tariff. Her loss on imports alone is estimated at 
 $5,000,000 yearly, her present collections being 
 that much less than the amount which would be 
 collected if duty were paid on the present valua- 
 tion of goods. 
 
 There could be no reasonable objection to this 
 proposal. In fact, it is provided in the treaties 
 that the schedule is to be revised every ten years. 
 Great Britain and the United States assented to 
 the proposal at once. France, Germany, and Eus- 
 sia assented after a little preliminary dickering. 
 But Japan delayed, evaded, and succeeded in pre- 
 venting this revision by the presentation of 
 counter proposals to China. One of these counter 
 proposals to which Japan firmly adhered was that 
 China give to Japanese goods the same privileges 
 
250 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 as are accorded to goods of Chinese manufacture 
 or origin. As the treaties of the powers with 
 China all contain the "most favored nation" 
 clause, this would have meant the complete stagna- 
 tion of China's manufactures and the country's 
 hankruptcy for it would cut off a very large part 
 of the customs revenue. By this and other equally 
 unjust proposals Japan managed to prevent the 
 revision of the tariff and the project was still un- 
 der discussion when the European War broke out. 
 But one conclusion can be drawn from this series 
 of incidents. It is the conclusion held by all im- 
 partial students of affairs in the Far East, that 
 Japan is determined to prey on the weakness of 
 China and to take every possible advantage of 
 her neighbor for her own good. She has not once 
 but many times violated the spirit of the treaties 
 she has signed and presented to the Chinese gov- 
 ernment demands more humiliating and more un- 
 just than the Austrian demands on Serbia. China 
 has always complied because of the knowledge 
 that to refuse to do so would only precipitate the 
 quarrel for which Japan has been anxious. Any 
 act on the part of China which could be interpreted 
 as hostile would give Japan the opportunity to de- 
 mand still more, or furnish the pretext for in- 
 vasion of the country and its military subjugation. 
 
JAPAN'S AIMS IN CHINA 251 
 
 In her long relations with China, there is not 
 one single incident in which Japan has shown any- 
 thing hut a selfish and hrutally aggressive spirit. 
 Japan has never failed to take advantage of an 
 opportunity to humiliate the Chinese government, 
 assert Japanese superiority, and flaunt her 
 greater military and naval power before the 
 Chinese. She has sought consistently to prevent 
 the regeneration of China, to weaken the prestige 
 of the Peking government and encourage internal 
 disorder. All of this has been a violation of the 
 spirit if not the letter of the Open Door policy, 
 for like its mate, the Monroe Doctrine, it holds that 
 stronger powers shall not take advantage of 
 weaker ones. But Japan holds steadfastly to the 
 opposing theory — the Bemhardi theory — that it is 
 the destiny of the strong to oppress and dominate 
 the weak. 
 
CHAPTEE Xn 
 
 THE EAID ON TSINGTAtT 
 
 THE large number of people wlio share 
 with the Chinese the hope that China may 
 some day be able to regaui her complete 
 sovereignty, recover her lost territory, and be- 
 come a stable and progressive country found some 
 cause for gratification and encouragement in the 
 wording of Japan's ultimatum to Germany which 
 preceded her attack on Tsingtau and her entry 
 into the world war. The declaration was deliv- 
 ered on August 15, 1914. It contained two de- 
 mands, which were to be complied with within one 
 week if Germany wished to avoid the entry of 
 Japan into the war. The first demand concerned 
 the withdrawal of German warships from the 
 Far East. The second demand read: 
 
 "The German government, with the object of 
 its return to China, shall hand over the leased ter- 
 ritory in Kiaochau to the Japanese government 
 on or after September 15, without condition and 
 without compensation. ' ' 
 
 It was generally known on the Chinese coast 
 that at the outbreak of the war in Europe a move 
 
 , 252 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 253 
 
 had been made by China to neutralize Tsingtau 
 and prevent the spread of the conflict to the Far 
 East. This move, it was also generally known, 
 had been frustrated by Japan. It was argued in 
 some quarters that Japan recognized the imprac- 
 ticability of neutralizing a place so well fortified 
 and so admirably suited for use as a naval base. 
 Japan preferred, it was said, the certain success 
 of a military action against Germany which would 
 enable her to pay off the old and half forgotten 
 grudge against that country for aiding Eussia in 
 depriving Japan of the fruits of victory in the 
 war against China. The return of Tsingtau to 
 China, it was said, would cement the friendly re- 
 lations with that country and enable China to make 
 much progress in her campaign for ' ' rights recov- 
 ery." Japan, besides the satisfaction of having 
 performed a virtuous act, would benefit by the 
 friendship and confidence of China and increased 
 trade in that country. 
 
 Tsingtau is one of two places in Shantung held 
 by foreign powers. The other is the British port 
 of Weihaiwei which was taken over seventeen 
 years ago at a time when Great Britain and Eus- 
 sia were at daggers ' points. In fact, the hostility 
 of the two countries was clearly revealed in the 
 terms of the lease of Weihaiwei which provided 
 
254 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 that it should be held by Great Britain for so 
 long a time as Port Arthur was held by Russia, 
 Though Port Arthur was later taken by Japan, 
 England's ally, the British still retain Weihaiwei. 
 However, no permanent improvements have been 
 made there which would indicate an intention to 
 hold the place permanently. Ambitious plans for 
 its fortification were abandoned years ago and 
 there is every reason to believe that at a favor- 
 able opportunity in the future the place will be 
 returned to China. This favorable opportunity 
 would be provided by the return of Tsingtau, for 
 the elimination of the near-by German base would 
 remove the principal if not the only reason for 
 the retention of Weihaiwei. In the light of sub- 
 sequent events these speculations of the time were 
 vain and foolish, but they were justified by the 
 wording of Japan's ultimatum. The ultimatum 
 was especially pleasing to Japan's friends and 
 well-wishers who, have long felt that her aggres- 
 sive policy in China was both unjust and unwise. 
 "At last," they said, "Japan is going to abandon 
 her old policy toward China, will become the 
 champion of China's rights and by binding her big 
 neighbor to her by ties of gratitude and friend- 
 ship, will really become the leader in Far Eastern 
 affairs." 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 255 
 
 The plain wording of the ultimatum was enough 
 to justify this optimism, but as if this were not 
 enough, the Japanese Foreign Office, Premier 
 Okuma and the Japanese official press bureaus 
 made every effort to give wide publicity to this 
 interpretation, advertising abroad Japan's vir- 
 tuous statecraft. The Japanese government has 
 a very efficient press bureau with ramifications in 
 all parts of the world and is always able to present 
 its views of a question in an effective way. On 
 this occasion the press campaign was unusually 
 vigorous and unusually transparent. 
 
 On the day that the ultimatum was presented to 
 Germany the following message from Count 
 Okuma, the Premier of Japan, was circulated 
 through the East and "West News Bureau, a New 
 York organization founded to disseminate news 
 and views pleasing to official Japan and main- 
 tained at Japanese expense : 
 
 "Japan's proximity to China breeds many ab- 
 surd rumors; but I declare that Japan acts with 
 a clear conscience, in conformity with justice, and 
 in perfect accord with her ally. Japan has no 
 territorial ambition, and hopes to stand as the 
 protector of peace in the Orient. ' ' 
 
 Three days later in a speech in Tokyo he said : 
 
 "Japan's warlike operations will not extend 
 
256 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 beyond the limits necessary for the attainment of 
 the object of the defense of her own legitimate 
 interests. 
 
 "The Imperial government will take no such 
 action as could give to a third party any cause 
 for anxiety or uneasiness regarding the safety of 
 their territories or possessions." 
 
 On August 24 he cabled to the editor of the 
 Independent, New York, a statement in which he 
 said: 
 
 "It is my desire to convince your people of the 
 sincerity of my government and of my people in 
 all their utterances and assurances connected with 
 the present regrettable situation in Europe and 
 the Far East. 
 
 "Every sense of loyalty and honor obliges 
 Japan to co-operate with Great Britain to clear 
 from these waters the enemies who in the past, the 
 present and the future menace her interests, her 
 trade, her shipping, and her people's lives. 
 
 ' ' The Far Eastern situation is not of our seek- 
 ing. 
 
 "It was ever my desire to maintain peace, as 
 will be amply proved; as President of the Peace 
 Society of Japan I have conscientiously so en- 
 deavored. 
 
 "I have read with admiration the lofty message 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 257 
 
 of President Wilson to his people on the subject 
 of neutrality. 
 
 "We of Japan are appreciative of the spirit 
 and motives that prompted the head of your great 
 nation, and we feel confident that his message wUl 
 meet with a national response. 
 
 "As Premier of Japan, I have stated and I now 
 again state to the people of America and of the 
 world that Japan has no ulterior motive, no desire 
 to secure more territory, no thought of depriving 
 China or other peoples of anything which they now 
 possess. 
 
 "My government and my people have given 
 their word and their pledge, which will be as hon- 
 orably kept as Japan always keeps promises." 
 
 The public was quite justified in believing in the 
 sincerity of Count Okuma's statement that China 
 had nothing to fear from Japan's entry into the 
 war and that his reference to a pledge referred to 
 the promise to restore Kiaochau to China, the only 
 pledge or promise Japan had made. This state- 
 ment, it should be noted, was cabled to the Inde- 
 pendent on the day after the provocative ulti- 
 matum to Germany had expired and at a time 
 when it was apparent that Tsingtau would not be 
 surrendered peacefully. 
 
 On the following day when the blockade of 
 
258 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Tsingtau had been begun, a remarkable semi-of- 
 ficial statement regarding Japan's policy was sent 
 out by the Kokusai Tsushin-sha, a Japanese news 
 agency which has close official connections with the 
 Japanese Foreign Office and is allied with Eeuter 's 
 and the Associated Press. This message which 
 was cabled to many papers in America and Europe 
 read: 
 
 "On the highest authority Renter's correspond- 
 ent is able to state that it is the settled policy of 
 Japan, approved by the Emperor, the Genro, the 
 Privy Council, the Cabinet, and the leading busi- 
 ness men, that Japan under all future conditions 
 will act strictly in accord with the terms of the 
 alliance with England and the treaties and agree- 
 ments with America and her pledge to China. 
 She will restore Kiaochau and will preserve the 
 territorial integrity of China. The ultimatum will 
 be adhered to, whether Tsingtau is taken by force 
 or otherwise." 
 
 Any one who lives in Japan or who has kept in 
 touch with recent events there knows the peculiar 
 relationship which exists between the Kokusai- 
 Eeuter news agency and the Japanese government 
 and needs no assurance that a statement like this, 
 made by Renter's, is officially inspired. It may 
 also be pointed out that at this time there was a 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 259 
 
 very strict censorship on all cables from Japan, 
 and that all press messages not acceptable to the 
 Japanese government were refused transmission. 
 While press cables assuring the world of Japan's 
 good faith in the promise were allowed transmis- 
 sion, others which expressed doubt as to Japan's 
 motives in entering the war found their way to the 
 censor's waste basket. 
 
 The Japanese press campaign had its effect, for 
 newspapers all over the world commented on the 
 magnanimity of Japan's actions, and a number of 
 officials in Europe and America made statements 
 in praise of her disinterested motives. As I write 
 this I have before me a file of Tokyo newspapers 
 for the autumn of 1914 and it contains column after 
 column of praise for Japan reprinted from Ameri- 
 can and European newspapers, most of which was 
 cabled to Tokyo by Japanese diplomatic agents 
 and made public by the Japanese Foreign Office. 
 There is in none of this comment a hint from a re- 
 sponsible quarter that Japan's participation in 
 the war was prompted by any motive other than a 
 desire to carry out what she believed to be her ob- 
 ligations under the terms of the Anglo-Japanese 
 Alliance, secure peace in. the Far East, and re- 
 store to China a territory which had been stolen by 
 Germany. Japan's rewards would be found in 
 
260 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the friendship of China and in the awards appor- 
 tioned to her at the peace conference at the end 
 of the war. 
 
 At the beginning of the war in Europe China had 
 declared her neutrality, which was respected by all 
 the combatants, who withdrew their warships from 
 Chinese waters and interned the Yangtze Eiver 
 gunboats. But with the certainty of fighting at 
 Tsingtau it became apparent that it would be im- 
 possible to maintain a strictly neutral position, 
 that is, to prevent fighting on Chinese territory. 
 Tsingtau was so fortified as to make attack by sea 
 alone a long and hazardous undertaking. It was 
 evident that Japan, in order to secure an early 
 victory, must make a land attack as well, and to 
 do that would have to move troops over Chinese 
 territory. The situation was much the same as in 
 the Eusso-Japanese War, which was fought out 
 on Chinese territory. 
 
 At the suggestion of one of his foreign political 
 advisers, a Japanese subject. President Yuan 
 Shih Kai followed the precedent established in 
 that war. He marked out a zone which, accord- 
 ing to all neutral opinion, was big enough for any 
 operations which Japan might carry on against 
 Tsingtau. It included the port of Lunkow at 
 which Japan landed troops, and extended far 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 261 
 
 enough west of Tsingtau to afford Japan perfect 
 freedom in her military operations. Germany 
 protested against the establishment of the zone, in- 
 sisting that if Japan was to attack Tsingtau she 
 should do so without violating China's neutrality. 
 China's establishment of the zone offered every 
 advantage to Japan and none to Germany, as the 
 position of the latter would have been greatly 
 strengthened if Japan had been compelled to con- 
 fine her operations to a sea attack. 
 
 China's position was exactly the same as that 
 of Belgium. She had no part in the quarrel and 
 was not even suspected of sympathy for either 
 side, but it was expedient for Japan to cross her 
 territory in order to attack Tsingtau just as it had 
 been expedient for Germany to cross Belgium to 
 attack France. China was not able to enforce her 
 neutrality and, unlike Belgium, could look to no 
 powerful friends for help. Candidly admitting 
 th^ situation, she sought to escape from it as 
 quickly and as easily as possible. The war zone 
 was established as a means to that end; and in 
 order to avoid any possibility of a clash, all 
 Chinese troops were at once withdrawn from the 
 zone. 
 
 The first Japanese troops who landed on Chi- 
 nese soil at once took possession of a section of 
 
262 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the German railroad wMoh connects Tsingtau with 
 Tsinanfu, the capital of Shantung province. This 
 force, instead of advancing on Tsingtau, faced the 
 opposite direction and proceeded west. It soon 
 reached Weihsien, the location of a large Chinese 
 garrison, one hundred miles west of Tsingtau and 
 well outside the war zone as marked out hy China. 
 The Japanese troops occupied the Weihsien rail- 
 way station, and rather ostentatiously located 
 their camp in easy gunshot distance of the Chi- 
 nese garrison. The encampment of Japanese 
 troops on Chinese soil under the noses of a Chi- 
 nese garrison was such a patent challenge that it 
 appeared for a time that trouble could not be 
 avoided. Soldiers on each side were itching for 
 a fight, but China averted trouble by removing a 
 large part of her troops. 
 
 The Chinese government at once called the at- 
 tention of Japan to the fact that troops had been 
 sent outside the war zone. Japan's reply was 
 that she did not recognize the war zone and would 
 not be bound by it in any way. She contended 
 that China's neutrality had already been violated 
 by the Germans who had used the Shantung rail- 
 way for the transportation of supplies to Tsing- 
 tau. The contention was a bit of sophistry, for 
 the Shantung railroad had been used only as any 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 263 
 
 railroad in the United States might be used to 
 ship supplies destined for combatants. 
 
 Japan continued to push her troops farther 
 west and some time before the main attack on 
 Tsingtau was begun had occupied the entire line 
 of the Shantung railroad, had stationed troops in 
 Tsinanfu 260 mUes from Tsingtau and had taken 
 possession of the German coal mines in Shan- 
 tung. In all these military operations, as well 
 as in her diplomatic dealings with China, Japan 
 exhibited none of that spirit of friendliness to- 
 ward China the existence of which was suggested 
 by the promise to restore Kiaochau, and pro- 
 claimed by Premier Okuma and other responsible 
 spokesmen for Japan. She in no case showed any 
 appreciation of the painful position in which 
 China was placed, but on the contrary her actions 
 were brusque and provocative. During the entire 
 time of the operations against Tsingtau, clashes 
 between the Chinese and Japanese troops were 
 averted only by the great caution of the Chinese 
 commanders who were carefully instructed by 
 Yuan Shih Kai to avoid the conflict which Japan 
 seemed to be inviting. 
 
 When Tsingtau fell into the possession of the 
 Japanese, they lost no time in making the most 
 of their new property. They at once claimed 
 
264 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 ownership of tlie Shantung railroad and of the 
 German coal mines in the province. In fact, ex- 
 perts to operate the railroad and to work the coal 
 mines had accompanied the expeditionary forces 
 and the coal mines (which were under private 
 German ownership) had been operated by the 
 Japanese for some time before the fall of Tsing- 
 tau. Before the outbreak of war the coal mines 
 and railway had been operated by a few German 
 executives, all the other employees being Chinese. 
 When the Japanese took possession of these prop- 
 erties they replaced the Chinese with workmen of 
 their own nationality. Formerly all the train- 
 men on the Shantung railroad and all the foremen 
 in the coal mines were Chinese, but now no Chi- 
 nese are employed ia any way except as coolies. 
 In passing it may be remarked that this is one 
 feature which differentiates Japanese colonization 
 from the colonization of any other power. Ger- 
 man occupation of Tsingtau, like British occupa- 
 tion of Hongkong, created employment for the 
 natives and added to native prosperity. The 
 benefits of Japanese enterprise fall to the Japa- 
 nese alone, for wherever Japanese sovereignty 
 has been extended Japanese have crowded out the 
 native artisan, the small merchant and often the 
 coolie laborer as well. 
 
THE EAID ON TSINGTAU 265 
 
 In Tsingtau the street names were changed at 
 once, the German street signs being taken down 
 and Japanese street names put up. A large and 
 beautiful monument which had been erected to 
 commemorate German occupation of the place was 
 defaced. Even the name of the place, in its Ro- 
 manized version was changed and is now referred 
 to in all Japanese official publications as Sei-tou. 
 
 It was announced that the German non-com- 
 batants would not be interfered with in any way 
 and would be allowed to continue in business as 
 before. The usual methods were used to give this 
 announcement wide publicity. However, in a 
 short time after their occupation the Japanese 
 officials began announcing the discovery of evi- 
 dence that certain business men had taken part 
 in the defense of the place, and these, a few at a 
 time, were sent to Japan as prisoners of war. 
 Out of a former population of several thousand, 
 less than one hundred Germans remained in the 
 place four months after its surrender, and most 
 of the business enterprises they had built up by 
 years of labor passed into Japanese hands. 
 
 A similar procedure was followed in regard to 
 German factories, residences and real estate. In- 
 vestigations carried on by the Japanese officials 
 purported to disclose the fact that certain build- 
 
266 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTEAST 
 
 ings had been used for military purposes and 
 these were confiscated. A popular tourist hotel 
 was confiscated because it was the residence of 
 German officers during the siege and is now in the 
 possession of a Japanese. The confiscated prop- 
 erty includes the principal buildings and factories 
 of Tsingtau, the Shantung railroad, the German 
 bank, and the German coal mines in Shantung. 
 For several months after the surrender of the 
 place none but Japanese steamers were allowed to 
 call at the port, and severe restrictions were 
 placed in the way of any foreigner who attempted 
 to go to Tsingtau. On the other hand, the Japa- 
 nese were allowed free entry and a Japanese 
 steamship line was at once established with regu- 
 lar sailings between Kobe and Tsingtau. So 
 great was the rush to secure the rich pickings af- 
 forded by the confiscation of German property 
 and the ruin of German business establishments 
 that more than five thousand Japanese took up 
 their residence there in less than two weeks after 
 the surrender of the place. The cost of Japan's 
 war operations was about $25,000,000, probably 
 less rather than more, for it was an operation of 
 little more difficulty than the annual fall military 
 maneuvers which it replaced. At the very lowest 
 estimate the value of the confiscated property is 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 267 
 
 easily twice that amount. The German govern- 
 ment had spent $100,000,000 in the improvement 
 of the place, and much of this money was spent on 
 public buildings, etc., which are now the property 
 of Japan. 
 
 The world at large, despite many circumstances 
 which gave it reason to be skeptical, had continued 
 to believe in the sincerity of Japan's promise to 
 restore the colony to China, until the first part 
 of December, when a new statement was made. 
 The Japanese Diet was then in session and Baron 
 Kato, the Foreign Minister, was bombarded with 
 Opposition questions regarding Japan's war 
 policy. A report of these interpellations was 
 sent out on December 9, by the Kokusai news 
 agency, the same institution which had, less than 
 four months before, assured the world "on the 
 highest authority" that Japan would restore 
 Kiaochau no matter under what circumstances the 
 place was secured. The opening paragraphs of 
 the Kokusai report of December 9 were as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "The first interpellation in the new session of 
 the Japanese Diet referred to the subject of the 
 return of Kiaochau to China. The Opposition 
 asked whether Kiaochau would be returned, 
 whether the government was pledged to China or 
 
268 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 any other power in tlie matter of the final disposi- 
 tion of the territory, and whether the clause in the 
 Japanese ultimatum to Germany referring to the 
 final restitution of Kiaochau to China did not bind 
 the action of Japan. 
 
 "Baron Kato, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 replied that the question regarding the future dis- 
 posal of Kiaochau could not at present be an- 
 swered, but it could be definitely stated that Japan 
 had never committed herself to any foreign power 
 on this point. 'The purpose of the ultimatum,' 
 he continued, 'was to take Kiaochau from Ger- 
 many and so restore peace in the Orient. The 
 restitution of Kiaochau after a campaign was not 
 thought of, nor was it referred to in the ulti- 
 matum.' " 
 
 At this time the Japanese were in secure pos- 
 session of Tsingtau. The German combatants 
 had surrendered, and all except the wounded in 
 hospitals had been removed to Japan as prisoners 
 of war. There had been no German war vessels 
 in the Far East for several months, and there 
 were no German troops nearer than Poland. Ap- 
 parently the Tsingtau campaign was a closed inci- 
 dent. China's futile war zone, which had never 
 existed except on paper, no longer had any rea- 
 son for existence even there. Accordingly early 
 
THE EAID ON TSINGTAU 269 
 
 in January a Chinese government proclamation 
 announced that it had been abolished. Japan was 
 at this time in exactly the same position as Ger- 
 many was at the time the attack on Tsingtau was 
 begun. She was in secure possession of the place, 
 and it was to her advantage, as it had been to the 
 advantage of G-ermany, to remove any possibility 
 of attack by land. From a military standpoint 
 the abolition of the war zone was to the advantage 
 of Japan and to no one else, just as its establish- 
 ment had been. 
 
 It will be remembered that when the war zone 
 was established Japan had refused to recognize 
 it, and all her actions had been taken without any 
 consideration of the zone. She had carried out 
 her military operations on the assumption, ap- 
 parently, that she might use any part of Chinese 
 territory that she wished, with or without the 
 consent of China. She had even established a 
 garrison at Tsinanfu, the capital of Shantung, and 
 , exercised a censorship over telegrams sent from 
 that place. But it soon developed that though she 
 had refused to recognize the zone, she would not 
 overlook the fact that it had been abolished. A 
 few Japanese soldiers remained within its boun- 
 daries, and it was assumed that the action of 
 China in abolishing the zone was a hint that these 
 
270 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 soldiers were to be removed. This was construed 
 as an insult to Japan. It was the first act on the 
 part of China which could possibly be regarded 
 as unfriendly, and that portion of the Japanese 
 press which is in close touch with the Foreign 
 Oflfice raged and raved over the incident. They 
 insisted that China pay dearly for the insult and 
 pay at once. 
 
 China, alarmed at this unexpected development, 
 immediately canceled the order abolishing the 
 war zone, but this failed to mollify Japan. She 
 had been seeking cause for a quarrel too long to 
 overlook the opportunity and the result was the 
 presentation of the now well-known demands, 
 which revealed for the first time the program with 
 which Japanese statesmen entered the war.^ It 
 was the opportune time for Japan's ambitious 
 plans to assault the policy of the Open Door. 
 With Russia, France, England and Germany fight- 
 ing, Japan was left with practically a free hand — 
 Germany powerless, England silenced by Japan's 
 pretensions of sacrifice in support of the alliance, 
 
 1 After the conclusion of the negotiations on these demands 
 it was divulged in a Japanese official publication that the de- 
 mands on China were embodied in a note of instruction given to 
 the Japanese Minister to Peking on December 3, 1914. Obvi- 
 ously the demands must have been prepared some time before 
 that date and the occasion of their preseitation was merely a 
 pretext which had been rather impatiently awaited. 
 
THE RAID ON TSINGTAU 271 
 
 Russia satisfied by a secret agreement which gives 
 Eussia a free hand in Mongolia, and France too 
 hard pressed at home to give any attention to af- 
 fairs in China. There remained only the United 
 States as a possible champion of China's rights, 
 but Japan counted on the peace policies of Secre- 
 tary of State Bryan to prevent any effective inter- 
 ference from that quarter. They believed that 
 with such a renowned advocate of peace in the 
 chair of Secretary of State they might with safety 
 break their pledges to the United States and fear 
 nothing worse than a mUd protest. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII 
 
 japan's tobtuous diplomacy 
 
 HAVING began the attack on Tsingtau 
 with the oblique idea of provoking China 
 into warlike action, having all through 
 the attack sought to deceive the world as to her 
 real motives, it was not to be expected that Japan 
 would in the discussion of the demands on China 
 show any consideration for the spirit of fair play 
 and regard for truthfulness which one would ex- 
 pect of her much boasted civilization. In her 
 mode of presenting the demands, she sought to in- 
 sult China, for the note embodying them was not 
 presented to the Chinese Foreign Office, but, in de- 
 fiance of diplomatic usage and good taste, was 
 handed direct to President Yuan Shih Kai by the 
 Japanese Minister at Peking. Unprecedented dip- 
 lomatic action like this would be an insult to any 
 country; its offensiveness is manifold to a coun- 
 try so devoted as China to forms and usages. Ac- 
 companying the presentation of the demands was 
 a warning that they should be kept strictly secret, 
 accompanied by a threat that demands of even 
 
 272 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 273 
 
 greater import would be substituted in the event 
 that China made any disclosures regarding them. 
 At the same time that Japan sought to close the 
 mouths of Chinese officials in regard to the nature 
 of the demands, she gave out to the foreign powers 
 interested, what purported to be a memorandum 
 of the demands presented. It was a desperate- at- 
 tempt to deceive the powers and keep them silent 
 until the program in China had become a fait 
 accompli. 
 
 In the two following documents the actual de- 
 mands and the memorandum given to the powers 
 have been arranged in parallel colurons for com- 
 parison. Both translations are official. 
 
 Translation of the note Memorandum handed to 
 handed to Yuan Shih. Kai the powers purporting to 
 on January 18, 1915. give Japan's demands on 
 
 China. 
 
 GROUP I. 
 
 The Japanese government In relation to the province 
 and the Chinese govern- of Shantung, 
 ment, being desirous of 
 maintaining the peace of 
 Eastern Asia and of fur- 
 ther strengthening the 
 friendly relations existing 
 between the two neighbor- 
 ing nations, agree to the 
 following articles: 
 
274 JAPAN AND AMEEICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Article 1. 
 
 The Chinese government 
 agrees that when the Jap- 
 anese government here- 
 after approaches the Ger- 
 man government for the 
 transfer of all rights and 
 privileges of whatsoever 
 nature enjoyed by Ger- 
 many in the province of 
 Shantung, whether se- 
 cured by treaty or itt any 
 other manner, China shall 
 give her full assent there- 
 to. 
 
 Engagement on the part of 
 China to consent to aU 
 matters that may be agreed 
 upon between Japan and 
 Germany with regard to 
 the disposition of all 
 rights, interests and con- 
 cessions, which in virtue 
 of treaties or otherwise 
 Germaay possesses in rela- 
 tion to the province of 
 Shantung. 
 
 Article 2. 
 
 The Chinese government 
 agrees that within the 
 province of Shantung and 
 along its sea border no ter- 
 ritory or island or land of 
 any name or nature shall 
 be ceded or leased to any 
 third power. 
 
 Engagement not to alien- 
 ate or lease upon any pre- 
 text the province of Shan- 
 tung or any portion there- 
 of and any island lying 
 near the coast of the said 
 province. 
 
 Article 3 
 
 The Chinese government 
 consents to Japan build- 
 ing a railway from Che- 
 foo or Lungkow to join 
 the Tsinan-Kiaochau rail- 
 way. 
 
 Grant to Japan the right of 
 constructing a railway con- 
 necting Chefoo or Lung- 
 kow and the Tsinan-Kiao- 
 chau railway. 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 275 
 
 Article 4. 
 
 The Chinese government Addition of open marts in 
 agrees that for the sake of the province of Shantung, 
 trade and for the resi- 
 dence of foreigners cer- 
 tain important places shall 
 be speedily opened in the 
 province of Shantung as 
 treaty ports, such neces- 
 sary places to be jointly 
 decided upon by the gov- 
 ernments by separate 
 agreement. 
 
 GROUP II. 
 
 The Japanese government In relation to South Man- 
 and the Chiaese govern- churia and Eastern Inner 
 ment, since the Chinese Mongolia. 
 government has always ac- 
 knowledged the specially 
 favorable position enjoyed 
 iy Japan in South Man- 
 churia and Eastern Inmer 
 Mongolia, agree to the fol- 
 lowing articles: 
 
 Article 1. 
 
 The two contracting pow- Extension of the terms of 
 ers mutually agree that the lease of Kwantung, 
 the term of lease of Port the South Manchuria rail- 
 Arthur and Dalny and the way, and the Antung- 
 term of lease of the South Moukden railway. 
 Manchuria and Antung- 
 
276 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Moukden railways shall 
 be extended to a period of 
 ninety-nine yews. 
 
 Article 2. 
 
 Japanese subjects in South Acquisition by Japanese 
 Manchuria and Eastern of the right of residence 
 Inner Mongolia in erect- and ownership of land, 
 ing buildings for the pur- 
 pose of trade and manu- 
 facture or for farming 
 shall have the right to 
 lease or own land so re- 
 quired. 
 
 Article 3. 
 
 Japanese subjects shall be 
 free to reside and travel 
 in South Manchuria and 
 Eastern Inner Mongolia 
 and to engage in business 
 and in manufacture of any 
 kind whatsoever. 
 
 Article 4. 
 
 The Chinese government Grant to Japan of the min- 
 agrees to grant Japanese ing rights of mines speci- 
 subjects the right of open- fied by Japan, 
 ing all mines in South. 
 Manchuria and Eastern 
 Inner Mongolia, such min- 
 ing places to be jointly de- 
 cided upon by the two gov- 
 ernments. 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 27? 
 
 Article 5. 
 
 Obligation on the part of 
 China to obtain in ad- 
 vance the consent of Japan 
 if she grants railway con- 
 cessions to any third 
 power, or procures the 
 supply of capital from 
 any power for railway 
 construction or a loan 
 from any other power on 
 the security of taxes. 
 
 The Chinese government 
 agrees that in respect of 
 the two following subjects 
 mentioned herein below 
 the Japanese government's 
 consent shall be first ob- 
 tained before action shall 
 be taken: 
 
 (a) "Whenever permission 
 is granted to the subject 
 of a third power to build 
 a railway or make a loan 
 with a third power for the 
 purpose of buUding a rail- 
 way in South Manchuria 
 and Eastern Inner Mon- 
 golia. 
 
 (b) When a loan is to be 
 made with a third power 
 pledging the local taxes of 
 South Manchuria and 
 Eastern Inner Mongolia 
 as security. 
 
 Article 6. 
 The Chinese government Obligation on the part of 
 
 agrees that if the Chinese 
 government in South Man- 
 churia or Eastern Inner 
 Mongolia employs advisers 
 or instructors for political, 
 financial or military pur- 
 
 China to consult Japan be- 
 fore employing advisers or 
 tutors regarding political, 
 financial or military mat- 
 ters. 
 
278 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 poses the Japanese govern- 
 ment shall first be con- 
 sulted!. 
 
 Article 7. 
 
 The Chinese government 
 agrees that the control and 
 administration of the Kir- 
 in-Changchun Railway 
 shall be handed over to the 
 Japanese government to 
 take effect on the signing 
 of this agreement, the term 
 to last for ninety-nine 
 years. 
 
 Transfer of the manage- 
 ment and control of the 
 Kirin-Changehun Railway 
 to Japan. 
 
 GROUP III. 
 
 The Japanese government 
 and the Chinese govern- 
 ment, seeing that Japa- 
 nese financiers and the 
 Hanyehping Company 
 have close relations with 
 each other at present, and 
 also desiring that the com- 
 mon interests of the two 
 nations shall be advanced, 
 agree to the following ar- 
 ticles: 
 
 Agreement in principle 
 that, at an opportune mo- 
 ment in the future, the 
 Hanyehping Company 
 should be placed under 
 Japanese and Chinese co- 
 operation. 
 
 Article 1. 
 
 The two contracting pow- 
 ers mutually agree that 
 
JAPAN'S TOKTUOUS DIPLOMACY 279 
 
 when the opportune mo- 
 ment arrives the Hanyeh- 
 ping Company shall be 
 made a joint concern of 
 the two nations and they 
 farther agree that without 
 the previous consent of 
 Japan, China shall not by 
 her own act dispose of the 
 rights and property of 
 whatsoever nature of the 
 Hanyehping Company, 
 nor cause the said company 
 to dispose freely of the 
 same. 
 
 Article 2. 
 
 The Chinese goverwm.eni 
 agrees that all mines in 
 the neighborhood of those 
 owned by the Hcmyehpmg 
 Company shall not be per- 
 mitted, without the con- 
 sent of the said compamy, 
 to be worked by other per- 
 sons outside of the sa4d 
 company, and further 
 agrees that if it is desired 
 to carry out any undertak- 
 ing which it is appre- 
 hended may directly or in- 
 directly affect the inter- 
 ests of the said company 
 the consent of the said 
 
^80 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 company shall first be ob- 
 tained. 
 
 GROUP IV. 
 
 The Japanese government Engagement in accordance 
 
 and the Chinese govern- with the principle of the 
 
 ment with the object of ef- maintenance of the terri- 
 
 feetively protecting the torial integrity of China, 
 
 territorial integrity of not to alienate or lease any 
 
 China agree to the follow- ports and bays on or any 
 
 ing special article: island near, the coast of 
 
 The Chinese government China, 
 agrees that no island, port 
 and harbor along the coast 
 shall be ceded or leased to 
 any third power. 
 
 GROUP V. 
 
 Article 1. 
 
 The Chinese Central gov- 
 ernment shall employ in- 
 fluential Ja/panese as ad- 
 visers im, political, finan- 
 cial, and military affairs. 
 
 Article 2. 
 
 In the interior of China 
 Japanese shall have the 
 right to ownership of land 
 for the building of Japa- 
 nese hospitals, churches, 
 and schools. 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 281 
 
 Article 3. 
 
 Since the Chinese govern- 
 ment and the Japanese 
 government have had 
 many cases of dispute be- 
 tween the Chinese and Jap- 
 anese to settle, cases which 
 coMse no inconsiderahle 
 misunderstanding, it is for 
 this reason necessary that 
 the police departments of 
 important places {in 
 China) shall he jointly ad- 
 ministered {by Chinese 
 and Japanese) , or that the 
 (Chinese) police depart- 
 ments of these places shall 
 employ numerous Japa- 
 nese for the purpose of or- 
 ganizing and improving 
 the Chinese police service. 
 
 Article 4. 
 
 China shall purchase from 
 Japan a fixed ratio of the 
 quantity of munitions of 
 war (say 50 per cent, or 
 more) or Japan shall es- 
 tablish in China a jointly 
 worked arsenal, Japanese 
 technical experts to be em- 
 ployed and Japanese ma- 
 terial to be purchased. 
 
282 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 Article 5. 
 
 China agrees to grant to 
 Japan the right of con- 
 structing a railway con- 
 necting Wuchang with 
 Kiukiang and Nanchang. 
 Also a line between Nan- 
 chang and Chaochow. 
 
 Article 6. 
 
 China agrees that in the 
 province of Fukien Japan 
 shall have the right to 
 work mines and build rail- 
 ways and to construct har- 
 bor works {including dock- 
 yards) and in case of em- 
 ploying foreign capital 
 Japan shall first be con- 
 sulted. 
 
 Article 7. 
 
 China agrees thai Japa- 
 nese subjects shall have the 
 right to propagate reli- 
 gious (Buddhist) doctrines 
 in China. 
 
 In a very few of tlie articles, it "will be noticed, 
 the two documents are practically the same, but 
 in all where Japan asked for things she knew to 
 be flagrantly in violation of the Open Door policy 
 and likely to arouse the suspicions of the powers, 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 283 
 
 the demands are toned down, offensive phrases 
 left out, or the demands omitted entirely in the 
 version given to the powers. Thus in the note to 
 the powers the significant word "third" is omitted 
 in the provisions pledging China not to lease any 
 of her territory, while there is no mention what- 
 ever of the demands included in group 5. It was 
 later explained semi-ofificially that the articles in 
 group 5 were "desires" rather than "demands" 
 and for that reason were not mentioned in the 
 memora«ndum to the powers. However, they were 
 insisted upon with the same persistence as the 
 others and in the final negotiations one at least of 
 these "desires" was conceded by China. 
 
 Although China for some time timidly kept the 
 demands secret, the very fact of their secrecy led 
 to many suspicions. It was justly believed that 
 if Japan were asking only for things she had a 
 right to ask for, there would be no need for such 
 secrecy and such extraordinary endeavors to pre- 
 vent a discussion of the demands. At the begin- 
 ning of the negotiations the Japanese police issued 
 an order to all newspapers in Japan prohibiting 
 the publication of the text of the demands, or of 
 any purported text, or any message or article giv- 
 ing any idea of what the demands included. This 
 order, supplemented by the vigilance of the cable 
 
284 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 censor, made Peking the only source of news re- 
 garding the negotiations, and the Japanese official 
 press bureaus at once set to work to discredit 
 these reports in advance. Carefully worded des- 
 patches were sent out by the Kokusai agency 
 denying in blanket form the press reports from 
 Peking which were later proven by Japanese offi- 
 cial communications to be correct. It was openly 
 charged by the Japanese that German intrigue 
 was at work in Peking trying to stir up the sus- 
 picions of the powers against Japan and that the 
 alarming Peking messages giving the purport of 
 the demands were of German origin. Tokyo in- 
 sisted that only eleven demands had been pre- 
 sented and the Japanese Ambassador in London 
 was so successful in convincing the British press 
 that this was true that the London Times in a 
 strong leading article sought to allay the suspicions 
 which had been aroused in Great Britain. The As- 
 sociated Press correspondent in Peking had very 
 early in the negotiations sent to his agency a copy 
 of the original demands, but the management of 
 the Associated Press had been so thoroughly con- 
 vinced by the Japanese press campaign that it as- 
 sumed the Peking correspondent to be wrong and 
 suppressed the despatch. 
 But as the negotiations proceeded, the news 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 285 
 
 from Peking continued to be alarming and some 
 American newspapers printed the text of the de- 
 mands as sent out by the correspondent of a Chi- 
 cago newspaper. The silence of Tokyo was sus- 
 picious. It became evident at last to the man- 
 agers of the Japanese press propaganda that a 
 statement of such an authoritative nature that it 
 would not be doubted must be sent out and Count 
 Okuma, who had performed similar services for 
 his country in the past, was called upon. On 
 April 3, the Kokusai agency sent out an author- 
 ized interview with Count Okuma in which that 
 venerable statesman said: 
 
 "Our negotiations in Peking are progressing 
 favorably toward an early and satisfactory con- 
 clusion. It is untrue that the Chinese govern- 
 ment has endeavored unduly to delay the adjust- 
 ment, but misinformation has been scattered 
 broadcast largely by German interests and this 
 has given agitators in China an opportunity. 
 Japan's propositions are in complete accord with 
 the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and with all treaties 
 and engagements with other countries guarantee- 
 ing equal opportunity and the integrity of China. 
 The criticisms and uneasiness in England and 
 America are caused by misinformation. Japan is 
 not seeking to establish any monopoly in China 
 
286 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 or improperly to infringe the rights and interests 
 of other powers. Japan has not demanded the 
 appointment of Japanese advisers ; she is not seek- 
 ing to create a protectorate over China; has not 
 demanded joint policing except at points in South 
 Manchuria where important interests have been 
 threatened by lawlessness. I can assert that de- 
 liberate attempts, mostly of German origin, have 
 been made to misrepresent Japan's attitude, es- 
 pecially in America. But now all points have 
 been cleared up and the interested powers are 
 acquainted with the Japanese proposals which 
 largely constitute an endeavor to settle questions 
 of long standing, some since the Eusso-Japanese 
 War. In Shantung Japan is only asking for what 
 China had already granted to Germany. When 
 the final disclosures are made it will be found that 
 the entire situation has been grossly exagger- 
 ated." 
 
 The denial was not as convincing as might have 
 been wished and had little effect in silencing the 
 protests which were being lodged with the British 
 government. If Count Okuma were right, it was 
 argued, why did not Japan silence her critics by 
 making public the full text of the demands! It 
 may be pointed out that many of Japan's de- 
 fenders have sought to explain this tortuous diplo- 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 287 
 
 macy by saying that following usual Oriental cus- 
 tom she demanded much more than she expected 
 to get, and that while the original demands con- 
 tained many things not included in the conmiuni- 
 cation to the powers, that communication really 
 contained all that Japan intended to force from 
 China. The explanation is plausible, but the fact 
 remains that up to the close of the negotiations 
 Japan continued to insist that China grant all the 
 demands. That Japan finally accepted a tem- 
 porary settlement in which concession of all the 
 demands was not included was due solely to the 
 protests in England. Many embarrassing ques- 
 tions were asked in Parliament and many British 
 patriots wrote letters to the papers denouncing 
 Japanese methods and her encroachments on le- 
 gitimate British interests in China. There was a 
 similar agitation in America, but it was the up- 
 roar in England which Japan heeded. 
 
 The demands were presented on January 18 
 and during their discussion, which lasted over 
 three months, Japan abandoned all pretense of a 
 friendly attitude toward China. The negotiations 
 were carried on as between a victor and a fallen 
 and helpless foe. Complete possession had been 
 taken of the Shantung railroad and a large mili- 
 tary force established at Tsinanfu, the western 
 
288 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 terminus of the road and within easy striking dis- 
 tance of Peking. Here, two hundred miles from 
 the leased territory of Kiaochau, the Japanese 
 took charge of the Chinese telegraphs and for 
 months established a censorship, coerced Chinese 
 local officials and interfered with Chinese mails. 
 Large bodies of Japanese troops were sent to 
 Manchuria, ostensibly to relieve the garrisons 
 there. According to the official record of the con- 
 ference held on the demands, the Japanese Minis- 
 ter to Peking was asked on March 23 when the 
 retiring troops would be withdrawn from Man- 
 churia and significantly replied that they would 
 remain until the satisfactory conclusion of the 
 conference. Later, during the early part of May, 
 when Japan's final ultimatum was delivered to 
 China, I was traveling between Seoul and Mouk- 
 den. Except for the daily passenger train all 
 traffic on the Japanese railways between these 
 cities had been stopped, and large bodies of troops 
 were massed in Korea just below the Manchurian 
 border ready for an immediate attack in the event 
 China did not comply. Japan had gone to war 
 with Germany, and was ready to go to war with 
 China — to preserve the peace of the Orient ! 
 
 On May 9 the long negotiations came to a close 
 with China's acceptance of a part of the demands. 
 
JAPAN'S TOETUOUS DIPLOMACY 289 
 
 As a result Japan has secured the following valu- 
 able rights and privileges, for none of which is 
 there a hint of compensation for China : 
 
 China agrees in advance to assent to any ar- 
 rangement which may be arrived at between Ger- 
 many and Japan regarding Grerman rights and 
 concessions in Shantung province. This debars 
 China from a hearing at the peace conference when 
 the disposition of Shantung will be discussed. It 
 gives to Japan, presuming German defeat and the 
 accomplishment of Japanese ambitions, another 
 strategic railway in China by which Japan would 
 easily be able to send troops into the heart of 
 Shantung province and by easy marches across 
 the broad plains of northern China attack Peking 
 itself. Germany, of course, has held this railway 
 and this strategic advantage, but the nearness of 
 Japan to the western terminus of the road and the 
 existence of Japan's admitted ambitions in regard 
 to China makes her possession much more threat- 
 ening than that of Germany. Though Germany 
 never found the measure necessary, Japan has 
 established troops along the road as raUway 
 guards, and, following the precedent established 
 on the South Manchuria railway, may be expected 
 to keep them there. 
 
 China agrees not to cede or lease to any power 
 
290 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 any portion of Shantung and to give to Japanese 
 capitalists a monopoly of railway building in the 
 province. This debars even the Chinese them- 
 selves from railway building in Shantung which 
 has been plaimed by them and makes Shantung, 
 like Manchuria, a closed preserve for Japan. It 
 gives to Japan greater rights and privileges than 
 were ever held or asked for by Germany. 
 
 New treaty ports are to be opened in Shantung 
 and Eastern Mongolia for the residence of for- 
 eigners. These places are to be selected after 
 consultation with the Japanese Minister to Peking 
 and will naturally be places so located as to be 
 favorable to Japanese trade. 
 
 The leases of Port Arthur and Dalny which 
 were to expire in 1923 are extended to 1997. The 
 lease of the South Manchuria railway is extended 
 from 1938 to 2002 and of the Antung-Moukden 
 railway to 2007. It was possible that China on 
 the expiration of these leases or at some time soon 
 thereafter would have found it possible to redeem 
 this property and thus accomplish one part of her 
 great ambition to regain her complete sovereignty. 
 The new terms put this beyond the possibility of 
 accomplishment in the lifetime of any living man. 
 
 Japanese subjects acquire the right of free resi- 
 dence and travel in South Manchuria, also the 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 291 
 
 right to lease land for business and agricultural 
 purposes. This is one of the most vicious of the 
 agreements wrested from China, for while the 
 Japanese have gained the right of residence and 
 practical land ownership, they also retain the ex- 
 tra-territorial rights possessed by all foreigners 
 in China. Under its terms they will be required 
 only to submit to police ordinances and tax regu- 
 lations which are approved by the Japanese con- 
 suls and in both civil and criminal cases are sub- 
 ject to trial before Japanese officials only.^ This 
 serves to extend the Japanese administrative ma- 
 chinery from the zone of the South Manchuria 
 railway and a few ports where it is now confined, 
 to all parts of South Manchuria. The residence 
 of a single Japanese in a district of the province 
 gives the Japanese oflScials a certain power over 
 the local police and tax system. The residence of 
 Japanese in remote parts of the province where 
 the Chinese police system is not able to protect 
 
 1 It should be noted that though foreigners resident in China, 
 as formerly in Japan, are subject only to the laws of their 
 own country and trial by their own officials, their residence is 
 restricted to a limited number of treaty ports, thus reducing 
 the necessary evils of this system to a minimum. The obvious 
 evils of an arrangement such as that which Japan has made 
 have been so well recognized that the free residence of foreign- 
 ers with extra-territorial privileges has never been insisted on 
 by any other power either in China or Japan. 
 
292 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 them from the hostility of the natives, coupled 
 with the extra-territorial rights the Japanese re- 
 tain and the energy and persistence with which 
 the Japanese government prosecutes injuries to 
 Japanese subjects, makes the constant trouble in 
 South Manchuria unavoidable in the future. 
 With the increase of Japanese residents there it 
 is easy to foresee the development of compHca- 
 tions, which will lead Japan to demand stiU fur- 
 ther rights and privileges and to still further cur- 
 tail China's sovereignty. Taken in conjunction 
 with other rights and concessions, this right of 
 residence goes far toward making South Man- 
 churia what the Japanese hope it will some day be 
 — an actual province of Japan. 
 
 Japanese subjects are to be allowed to open 
 gold, coal and iron mines in nine districts in Man- 
 churia. 
 
 Japanese capitalists are granted a monopoly in 
 all railway construction in South Manchuria and 
 Eastern Inner Mongolia and in all loans with 
 South Manchurian and Eastern Inner Mongolian 
 taxes as security. 
 
 Japanese are to be employed by the Chiaese 
 government as advisers or instructors on political, 
 financial, military, and police matters in South 
 Manchuria. 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 293 
 
 The complete control of the Kirin-Changcun 
 railway (an important feeder of the South Man- 
 churian system) is given to Japan. 
 
 The Japanese are promised ultimate domina- 
 tion of the Hanyehping Company (the Krupps of 
 China). Hitherto Chinese control of this im- 
 portant steel mill with its valuable coal and iron 
 mines has been assured by certain legal restric- 
 tions as to the ownership of stock, and there have 
 been several proposals to make it a state enter- 
 prise. China now pledges herself in advance to 
 consent to any agreement "for co-operation" 
 which may be reached between Japanese capital- 
 ists and the owners of the company. China also 
 agrees not to make the concern a state enterprise, 
 not to confiscate it and not to allow it to use any 
 foreign capital other than Japanese. It is quite 
 conceivable that Chinese revolutionists, some of 
 whom have intimate Japanese connections, might 
 gain possession of this plant and use its vast re- 
 sources against the Chinese government, yet under 
 the agreement wrested from China she would be 
 powerless to retaliate in the most practical and 
 usual way — by confiscation of the property. 
 
 China agrees not to cede or lease any bay, har- 
 bor or island along the coast of China to any 
 power, and agrees not to use foreign capital in 
 
294 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 the construction of a dockyard, coaling station for 
 military use, or a naval base on the coast of Fu- 
 kien province. As in the present state of China's 
 finances she cannot carry on construction of this 
 sort without foreign capital, this agreement com- 
 pels her to leave defenseless the coast of this 
 province whose shores can be reached in a few 
 hours from the Japanese colony of Formosa. 
 This agreement wrested from China is a gratui- 
 tous affront to American interests, for there has 
 been pending for some years a deal for the con- 
 struction by Americans of a Chinese naval base 
 in Fukien. Japanese iutrigae in the past has pre- 
 vented the accomplishment of this deal, which is 
 now made definitely impossible. 
 
 The other demands, which China did not ac- 
 cept, have been, according to the terms of Japan's 
 ultimatum, postponed for future discussion, which 
 doubtless means that they will be brought forward 
 again by Japan as soon as she sees an opportunity 
 to push them through successfully.^ These de- 
 mands include: 
 
 2 Japanese press comment since the conclusion of the negotia- 
 tions shows conclusively that China is expected, sooner or later, 
 to concede all the other demands. There was a great deal of 
 criticism of Baron Kato, the former Foreign 2tlinister, because 
 he did not secure all he asked from China. The Japanese press is 
 especially insistent about the demand for the propagation of 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 295 
 
 Employment of influential Japanese as advisers 
 to the Central Chinese government. 
 
 Japanese churches, schools and hospitals to be 
 granted the right of owning land in the interior 
 of China. 
 
 Joint administration by Japanese and Chinese 
 of the police in important places in China. 
 
 China to purchase 50 per cent, or more of her 
 war munitions from Japan or establish in China a 
 Sino-Japanese arsenal which is to employ Japa- 
 nese technical experts and purchase Japanese ma- 
 terials. 
 
 Japan to have the right to construct railways, 
 which with existing lines would establish a system 
 from the Wu-Han cities (the location of the plant 
 of the Hanyehping Company) with the coast out- 
 lets of Hangchow and Swatow. 
 
 A monopoly for Japanese capitalists in the de- 
 velopment of Fukien province. 
 
 The right of Japanese missionaries to propa- 
 gate Buddhism in China. 
 
 Aside from the actual rights and privileges 
 which Japan has wrested from China in these ex- 
 traordinary negotiations, and the other rights and 
 
 Buddhism in China, pointing out that the success of the Chris- 
 tian missionaries there is undermining Buddhism and lessening 
 the possibilities of Japanese influence in the future. 
 
296 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 privileges for which she is still contending, there 
 is left behind a train of evils of which this genera- 
 tion will probably not see the end. Of the many 
 evils probably the most immediate and most im- 
 portant is the tendency to weaken the prestige of 
 the Chinese government at home just at a time 
 when its position seemed most secure. Under the 
 firm hand of Yuan Shih Kai the disorders which 
 followed China's recent revolutions had disap- 
 peared. White "Wolf and other powerful brigands 
 had been put down and the country had been 
 extraordiaarily peaceful for some months. The 
 work of exterminating the growth of the poppy 
 and the use of opium was going on relentlessly 
 and successfully in spite of the discouraging op- 
 position of powerful foreigners interested in the 
 sale of the drug. The confidence of the Chinese 
 people in their government had been shown in the 
 payment of the new taxes which had been imposed, 
 such as the marriage tax, register of deeds tax, 
 etc. In spite of the deep aversion of the Chinese 
 to the payment of any taxes not established by old 
 custom these new taxes met with slight opposition 
 and brought in an amount of revenue surprising 
 to the most optimistic. Still another remarkable 
 achievement of the government was the successful 
 flotation of a domestic loan of $30,000,000, an 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 297 
 
 achievement unprecedented in the Idstory of the 
 country. All of China's obligations, including the 
 military bonds floated during the republican revo- 
 lution, had been paid when due ; and the old policy 
 of paying off expiring loans by floating new ones 
 abandoned. 
 
 The Chinese, until a few years ago so apathetic 
 regarding their government, were beginning to 
 take a pride in it and to feel that they were being 
 led out of the old hopelessness and helplessness 
 into a new strength which would prevent future 
 encroachments by foreign powers. Now the Japa- 
 nese demands have revealed to the provinces the 
 weakness of Peking and broken the prestige of 
 Yuan Shih Kai's government. It has furnished 
 the discredited revolutionists with new arguments 
 and made easily possible revolts more serious 
 than that which shook the foundations of the gov- 
 ernment a few years ago. 
 
 The evil results do not end there, for Japan has 
 reopened the old game of scrambling for conces- 
 sions and rights and special privileges, which was 
 brought to an end by Hay's Open Door policy. 
 She has upset the nicely adjusted balance of power 
 and reestablished more definitely than ever before 
 the old policy of outlining spheres of influence, 
 setting an example of greed more brazen than 
 
298 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 that which brought on the Boxer outbreaks. Al- 
 ready Eussia, despite the distractions of the Eu- 
 ropean war, has begun negotiations to consoli- 
 date and strengthen her position in Mongolia in 
 order to counterbalance the position which Japan 
 has secured for herself in Manchuria. This is 
 but a prelude to what may be expected when the 
 European powers are able to give their usual at- 
 tention to China. 
 
 In the meantime the old promise to restore 
 Kiaochau, of which so much had been heard at the 
 beginning of Japan's entry into the war, had, ap- 
 parently, been forgotten. At one of the confer- 
 ences between China and Japan, the Chinese sug- 
 gested that Japan show her professed friendship 
 by restoring Kiaochau unconditionally and also 
 by giving compensation for damage to Chinese 
 property and loss of Chinese lives during the at- 
 tack on the place. The Japanese Minister replied 
 that Japan "could not tolerate such demands." 
 Again the promise was referred to after the con- 
 clusion of the negotiations. Baron Kato said in 
 the Japanese Diet that if at the end of the war the 
 peace conference gives Kiaochau to Japan, she 
 wUl return the colony to China under certain con- 
 ditions. What these conditions are to be will be 
 decided on later, but in view of the events which 
 
JAPAN'S TORTUOUS DIPLOMACY 299 
 
 followed Japan's first promise to restore the 
 place, no one can be surprised at the complaint of 
 the Japanese Minister to Peking that "even with 
 regard to the offer of the Japanese government to 
 restore Kiaochau to the Chinese government, the 
 latter did not manifest the least appreciation for 
 Japan's good will and difficulties." 
 
 The entire incident is interesting to Americans 
 because of the revelations it makes of the sordid- 
 ness and ruthlessness of Japanese diplomacy and 
 the value that can be placed on Japanese pledges, 
 even when given by her highest and most re- 
 nowned officials. There is not in the entire rec- 
 ord, from the time Japan entered the war until 
 the conclusion of the new treaties with China, a 
 single act of Japan which does her credit. But 
 the most startling phase of the entire procedure 
 was the attitude of the Japanese people. Know- 
 ing the extent of the demands on China, knowing 
 the entire lack of provocation, and knowing the 
 extent to which these acts violated Japan's treat- 
 ies and pledges, there was not one word of protest 
 from a responsible Japanese quarter. Not one 
 Japanese said a word ia China's behalf or raised 
 a voice in defense of right against might. The 
 criticism of Baron Kato, the Foreign Minister, 
 which followed this incident was enough to cause 
 
300 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 his retirement from the Cabinet and from political 
 life, but the criticism was not because of the ruth- 
 lessness of his methods. The greater part of it 
 was because he did not secure from China all the 
 things that had been demanded. A minor strain 
 of criticism was because he had been clumsy 
 enough to arouse the suspicions of the foreign 
 powers. It has not occurred to any Japanese that 
 the entire attitude of the government is wrong 
 and barbarous. On the other hand eveiy Japa- 
 nese, of high and low degree, has aided to the ex- 
 tent of his abilities the fulfilment of the govern- 
 ment's ambitions, has gloried in the humiliation 
 of China and the exaction of unjust agreements 
 which add to the prestige and power of Japan. 
 Such an exhibition of national callousness, of the 
 complete blindness of a people to the most ele- 
 mentary principles of right and justice, has not 
 been seen in modem history. It reveals the Japa- 
 nese character as nothing before has revealed it 
 and shows that we must throw into the dustbin 
 of discarded ideas all those roseate and imagin- 
 ary conceptions of the Japanese people with which 
 we have been fed by deluded observers. 
 
CHAPTER XIV . 
 
 IS JAPAN A MENACE? 
 
 IF it had not been for the very persistent and 
 successful publicity campaigns with which 
 Japan has confused and deluded American 
 public opinion, it would probably be unnecessary 
 at this late day to discuss the question which 
 forms the title of this chapter. Every one who 
 has ever studied the Far Eastern question seri- 
 ously has come to realize the threatening aspects 
 of the situation, has seen at how many important 
 points the interests of the two countries conflict. 
 Indeed, the situation is now and has been for 
 years very much the same as that which existed 
 between England and Grermany before the out- 
 break of the European war. To break England's 
 power was necessary for the ultimate fulfilment 
 of Germany's ambitions; to break the United 
 States is necessary for the fulfilment of Japan's 
 ambitions. Indeed, the United States is much 
 more of a hindrance to the growth of Japan than 
 England ever was to the growth of Germany. 
 For every just cause of quarrel Germany had 
 
 301 
 
302 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 against England, Japan has half a dozen against 
 us. Both Germany and Japan are equally confi- 
 dent of the justness of their cause and the superi- 
 ority of their culture. In their hearts the Japa- 
 nese believe themselves the superiors of the 
 Americans in everything except wealth. They be- 
 lieve they are destined to play a very large part 
 in the affairs of the world and to dominate tbe 
 Pacific. The ambitions of the powerful military 
 and naval clans, and what are believed to be the 
 econopiic needs of the country alike call for a 
 program of expansion and aggression which will 
 eventually bring on a clash with the United States. 
 But against every proof that Japanese aggres- 
 sion is directed against the United States, that 
 Japanese statesmen have systematically sought to 
 stir up a bitter anti- American spirit in Japan as 
 a prelude to a possible war, we are told of Japa- 
 nese friendship, assured alike by American peace 
 advocates and Japanese statesmen that Japan en- 
 tertains for us such an ardent and peculiar friend- 
 ship that war against us is unthinkable and im- 
 possible. Even if the Japanese people did hold 
 for us this extraordinary sentiment of friendship, 
 it would not be of very great importance in gaug- 
 ing the possibility of war. Japanese public opin- 
 ion exercises little restraining influence on the 
 
IS JAPAN A MENACE? 303 
 
 acts of Japanese statesmen. In domestic affairs 
 the people may demand a hearing and there may 
 be a limit beyond which the leaders cannot go in 
 their oppressions, but there is no public opinion 
 which would restrain the Japanese leaders from 
 declaring war on the United States or on any 
 other country with which war could be waged with 
 hope of success. Indeed it is this fact, more than 
 any other, which makes Japan a menace, not alone 
 to the United States, but to aU civilization. Here 
 is a great power, with enormous military and 
 naval resources which are under the direction of a 
 handful of ambitious men, who are closely allied 
 with powerful moneyed interests, and are subject 
 to no restraints of public conscience. No matter 
 how this great force is used or who may be the 
 victims of its aggression, we can expect no protest 
 from the Japanese people, for, if their past his- 
 tory teaches us anything, it is that we may expect 
 the Japanese people to support, in every way pos- 
 sible, the ambitions of their leaders. 
 
 Japanese friendship for the United States exists 
 only in the meaningless conventional phrases of 
 diplomatic usage, in the propaganda of Japanese 
 statesmen and American peace-at-any-price advo- 
 cates, and in the wine-warmed sentiments of Japa- 
 nese-American banquets. If it did exist it would 
 
304 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 prove the Japanese to be afflicted with, a most 
 maudlin and senseless sentimentality. Why 
 should they bestow such ardent friendship on the 
 people who stand most squarely in the way of 
 their national ambitions and, by the immigration 
 agreement and the restrictive legislation regard- 
 ing the ownership of land, have done the most to 
 humiliate the Japanese and affront their proud 
 and sensitive spirit? 
 
 The European war and Japan's raid on China 
 have served to clarify the question of relationship 
 between Japan and the United States by definitely 
 removing this unknown equation. If there remain 
 any trusting persons who still believe in the value 
 of artificially propagated friendships between na- 
 tions which have nothing in common, they should 
 study the line-up of the European nations which 
 followed the outbreak of the war, and note the 
 cold-blooded purposes of statecraft which were 
 but imperfectly concealed in the rhetoric of pretty 
 speeches. If they believe, as some seem to be- 
 lieve, that the Japanese are actuated by higher 
 and more chivalrous motives than others, they 
 should note the rapacity with which Japan sprang 
 on her peaceful and helpless neighbor for whom 
 she has always expressed a degree of friendship 
 almost as ardent and certainly more reasonable 
 
IS JAPAN A MENACE ? 305 
 
 than that which she has expressed for us. They 
 may go back a little farther if they like, and ap- 
 praise tlie value of a friendship a thousand years 
 old which did not prevent Japan annexing Korea 
 the moment it was possible safely to do so. 
 
 "Why," some may ask, "is Japan so insistent 
 in her professions of friendship for us, if no such 
 friendship exists?" There are several reasons 
 why she would find it to her interest to impress on 
 us that we have nothing to fear from her, but one 
 is enough to explain it. If she does intend at- 
 tacking us, what would be wiser than tbat she 
 should carefully and persistently seek to impress 
 on us that she is friendly and thus calm our ap- 
 prehensions? In an armament race with us, 
 Japan would soon ,be hopelessly distanced, but by 
 constantly talking of ber friendship she is able to 
 delay or prevent increases in the military and 
 naval power of the United States. Indeed, it is 
 an interesting fact that the half dozen Americans 
 who have done the most to assure their fellow 
 countrymen of the innocence and harmlessness of 
 Japanese ambitions and of the sincerity of Japa- 
 nese friendship are also the most prominent advo- 
 cates of disarmament and peace policies, and — 
 most of them have been decorated by the Japa- 
 nese Emperor. If Japan does go to war with the 
 
306 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 United States these citizens may have the satisfac- 
 tion of knowing that by their efforts to prevent 
 reasonable military preparation, they have fully 
 earned their decorations ! 
 
 The question, unclouded by any considerations 
 of sentiment, stands as one of statecraft and ex- 
 pediency for Japan. Japanese problems and am- 
 bitions may be definitely and confidently summar- 
 ized as follows : 
 
 (1) The repeal of aU legislation which is in any 
 way discriminatory against the Japanese. 
 
 (2) Securing by Japanese of all the rights of 
 immigration and citizenship that are given to any 
 other people. They insist the Japanese are the 
 equals of any other people and that they be treated 
 as such. 
 
 (3) A free hand in China which will result 
 eventually in Japanese attempts to dominate the 
 country. 
 
 (4) They hope for the domination of the Pacific ; 
 that is, to establish such a preponderance of politi- 
 cal influence and military strength in the Pacific 
 that Japan will have the final authority on all 
 questions affecting that part of the world. 
 
 (5) To gain European sympathy and possible 
 aid in a conflict with the United States by including 
 the Monroe Doctrine among the points at issue. 
 
IS JAPAN A MENACE? 307 
 
 It can be stated with equal definiteness and con- 
 fidence that a decisive victory of Japan over the 
 United States would make possible the accomplish- 
 ment of all of these desires and ambitions. To 
 the question: What would Japan gain by war 
 with the United States? can be given the an- 
 swer: She would, if victorious, remove the last 
 barrier to Japanese progress and make possible 
 the accomplishment of the full destiny. of the coun- 
 try. It would give Japan free access to all the 
 desirable openings for expansion in the Pacific 
 and would remove the restrictions to immigra- 
 tion and American citizenship. Possession of the 
 Philippines, Hawaii and the Panama Canal, all 
 of which would doubtless be necessary for the 
 accomplishment of a Japanese victory over us, 
 might be made permanent. It is a prospect which 
 may well dazzle Japanese statesmen, arouse the 
 cupidity of Japanese capitalists, and win the sup- 
 port of every Japanese subject. 
 
 It is of course possible that some of these causes 
 of difference may be removed peacefully. We may 
 give up all our trading rights in China, withdraw 
 the protection of our policies from that country 
 and allow Japan to make any deal she likes with 
 European powers for the division of Chinese ter- 
 ritory. California legislators may be induced to 
 
308 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 annul all legislation which is offensive to Japa- 
 nese. The Supreme Court of the United States, 
 which has never made a decision on the question, 
 may decide that Japanese can be naturalized as 
 citizens of the United States. These are possi- 
 ble solutions of some of the points of conflict. 
 But there remains the immigration issue. A so- 
 lution of that question by withdrawing all restric- 
 tions against the Japanese and allowing a flood 
 of cheap Oriental labor with yellow morals to flood 
 the west coast of America is neither possible nor 
 probable. Let no one delude himself with the 
 idea that because the immigration question has 
 been settled for almost ten years through a peace- 
 ful agreement with Japan, that it is settled' defi- 
 nitely and finally. From the Japanese point, of 
 view, it is but a temporary settlement, to be ob- 
 served only until the time when Japan may settle 
 it by securing equal rights with all others. Until 
 that settlement is secured, the immigration ques- 
 tion remains a serious issue. 
 
 Clear cut as is the issue between Japan and the 
 United States, and definite as are the results and 
 benefits which Japan may secure following a vic- 
 tory over the United States, it does not follow that 
 war between the two countries is a certainty of 
 the immediate future. Indeed, though Japanese 
 
IS JAPAN A MENACE? 309 
 
 may drink to "The Day" and bend every energy 
 toward securing the necessary naval and military 
 strength for victory over the United States, there 
 are many reasons to believe that she must wait for 
 some time before her day of opportunity dawns. 
 Confident as they are of the invincibility of the 
 Japanese army and navy and scornful as they are 
 of the military and naval resources of the United 
 States, the Japanese realize that because of geo- 
 graphical conditions a war on the United States 
 would be a long and expensive undertaking for 
 which Japan is but poorly prepared. There is 
 an old sophism which unthinking people often 
 quote, to the effect that lack of money never pre- 
 vented any nation from going to war. The author 
 of this much quoted statement would have much 
 difficulty in proving it, for neither he nor any one 
 else could number the nations which have remained 
 peaceful because of empty war chests. 
 
 Japan's present financial condition may be 
 counted on to prevent war against the United 
 States for several years to come. She is now al- 
 most bankrupt as a nation and cannot float another 
 issue of national bonds except at ruinous rates. 
 Japanese bonds are now selling at a rate which 
 wiU yield more than six per cent, on the invest- 
 ment and even at that attractive and unprece- 
 
310 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 dented rate for government securities do not find 
 a ready sale. Japan has hoped in the past to 
 augment her financial as well as ndlitary resources 
 by an alliance with some European power which 
 shares the Japanese motives and desires for 
 crushing the United States. It was with the hope 
 of accomplishing this that she began cautiously 
 sparring with the Monroe Doctrine several years 
 ago, and has carefully developed a plan of assault 
 on that doctrine which she will be able to bring 
 to public notice at the proper time. At one time 
 the Anglo- Japanese Alliance was looked on as 
 a document which would bring British aid to 
 Japan in case of a war with us, and there was 
 undisguised disappointment in Japan when the 
 alliance was revised in such a way as to lessen 
 this possibility. 
 
 However, there is no reason to believe that the 
 Japanese are dismayed by their slender financial 
 resources. Threatened by no possible attack 
 from a foreign foe, their big standing army is 
 growing bigger, and their navy is being constantly 
 increased. Considering the resources of the 
 country, there is probably no other in the history 
 of the world which during times of peace spent 
 such a largie amount for military expansion. In 
 spite of the heavy financial burdens with which 
 
IS JAPAN A MENACE? 311 
 
 Japan emerged from the Eusso-Japanese War, 
 Japan is now twice as powerful in a military way 
 as she was when she entered that war. No power 
 but England could hope for success in an attack 
 on Japan in Japanese waters, and, as remarked 
 by the military expert of the London Times, ' ' her 
 home territory is unassailable, not only by any 
 single enemy, but by any reasonable or unreason- 
 able combination of enemies." Yet Japan con- 
 tinues to increase her military and naval strength 
 and hopes soon to be thrice as powerful as she 
 was when she challenged Eussia. In Japan but 
 little attempt is made to conceal the fact that this 
 increase is being made with a view to possible war 
 with the United States. 
 
 It is not impossible that before Japan reaches 
 the point where she can with confidence provoke 
 a quarrel with us, the attention of Japanese states- 
 men will be directed to domestic problems of far 
 more importance than any of foreign aggression. 
 A breaking point must be reached some time. 
 The Japanese people, though they have proven 
 more docile than any other in the payment of 
 taxes, may some day wake up to a realization of 
 the conspiracy of their statesmen and capitalists 
 to keep them in subjection, make the rich richer, 
 and the poor poorer. By constantly keeping be- 
 
312 JAPAN AND AMERICA— A CONTRAST 
 
 fore tlie people a dazzling program of foreign ex- 
 pansion, the leaders have attempted to divert the 
 attention of the masses from the domestic prob- 
 lems which demand solution. But this subterfuge 
 cannot continue forever. Every year the present 
 program is continued brings nearer the certain 
 revolution in Japanese affairs which will delay for 
 at least a generation the further imperial expan- 
 sion of Japan. Japan is a menace, not only to 
 the United States but to all Western civilization, 
 but our protection is found in the inherent weak- 
 ness of the Japanese state. 
 
 THE END 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alcock, Sir Rutherford, 127. 
 Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 181, 
 
 187, 203, 235, 236, 259, 285, 
 310. 
 
 Bernhardi theory, 251. 
 Biddle, Commodore, 153, 154. 
 Brinkley, Captain, 65, 123. 
 British East India Company, 
 
 150. 
 Bryan, Wm. Jennings, 271. 
 Buddhism, 129, 137, 295. 
 Burlingame, Anson, 229, 230. 
 
 California, Japanese in, 191, 
 
 193-198. 
 Canton, 154. 
 
 Chamberlain, Professor, 11, 62. 
 
 Chang Hsun, General, 245-247. 
 
 Changli incident, 241, 242, 247. 
 
 China, 178-183, 186-190, 224, 
 
 245, 228-255, 267-283, 285- 
 
 300, 306. 
 
 Boxer rebellion in, 234, 298. 
 
 Dismemberment of, 229, 232. 
 
 "Open Door" policy in, 178, 
 
 188, 238, 251, 270, 282, 297. 
 "Spheres of influence" in, 233. 
 
 Chinese Exclusion Act, 190. 
 Choshu clan, 41, 48, 110, 163. 
 Cleveland, President, 176. 
 Cooper, Captain, 151, 152. 
 
 Daimyos, 99. 
 Dalny, 184, 231, 290. 
 Deshima, 148. 
 
 313 
 
 Diet, Imperial Japanese, 50, 51, 
 58, 87, 88, 111, 113, 267, 
 298. 
 
 Dutch East India Company, 
 149. 
 
 Elgin, Lord, 167. 
 Emperor, Japanese. 
 
 Divinity of, 102-106, 120, 
 
 152, 159. 
 Restoration to power, 41, 42. 
 Empress Dowager of China, 
 
 230. 
 Empress Dowager of Japan, 
 
 death of, 43^5. 
 European War, 204, 206, 252, 
 
 254, 255, 268. 
 Everett, Mr., 153. 
 
 Foreign Office, Japanese, 76, 
 
 258, 259. 
 Formosa, 9, 12, 22, 23, 177, 178, 
 
 180, 294. 
 France, 158, 174, 175, 215, 216, 
 
 218, 226, 231, 249, 270, 271. 
 Fukien, 181, 231, 282, 294. 
 
 Germany, 174, 181, 206-208, 
 
 230, 231, 252, 259, 270, 288, 
 
 289, 301, 302. 
 Japan's ultimatum to, 252, 
 
 254, 255, 268. 
 Gl3mn, Commander, 154, 155. 
 Grant, President, 165. 
 Great Britain, 148, 181, 215, 
 
 218, 221, 226, 263, 254, 270, 
 
 284, 301, 302, 311. 
 
314 
 
 Gulick, Dr., 35, 118, 132. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hanyehping Company, 278, 279, 
 
 293, 295. 
 Harris, Townsend, 160, 167. 
 Hawaii, 174-176, 307. 
 
 Japanese population in, 177. 
 Hay, John, 178, 180, 233, 234, 
 
 297. 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, 38, 109, 130. 
 Hideyoshi, 6, 179, 219. 
 Hiroshima, 43. 
 Hokkaido, 9, 12, 21. 
 Holland, 148. 
 Hong Kong, 264. 
 Honshu, 8. 
 
 Immigration, Japanese-Ameri- 
 can, 3, 116, 190-193, 306. 
 Inland Sea, 163. 
 Inouye, Viscount, 65. 
 Italy, 231. 
 Ito, Prince, 42, 166. 
 Iwakura, Prince, 166. 
 lyenaga. Dr. T., 197. 
 
 Japan. 
 Agriculture, 10-21, 23, 27. 
 Area, 9, 12, 20, 27. 
 Army, 106, 107, 122, 215. 
 Banks, 28, 124. 
 Chamber of Commerce, 58. 
 Climate, 13. 
 
 Constitution, 31, 58, 102. 
 Cost of living, 91-95. 
 Crown lands, 48, 49. 
 Education, 108, 118. 
 Earthquakes, 25. 
 Exports, 18, 28, 82. 
 Factories, 82-91, 123, 125. 
 Franchise, 98, 111-115. 
 Imports, 17. 
 Mines, 27. 
 National debt, 96. 
 Navy, 122, 215. 
 
 Japan — continued. 
 
 Political parties, 106, 110- 
 
 114. 
 Population, 3, 9, 11. 
 Products, 14, 15, 17, 18. 
 Sumptuary laws, 39, 40. 
 Taxation, 40, 97, 98, 106, 
 
 107. 
 Volcanoes, 24, 25. 
 Wages, 90, 91. 
 Japan-China War, 171, 179, 
 
 180, 221. 
 Japan Peace Society, 37, 213. 
 Jimmu Tenno, Emperor, 42. 
 
 Kagoshima, bombardment of, 
 
 162. 
 Kato, Baron, 267, 268, 294, 
 
 298, 299. 
 Kawasaki, Colonel, 244, 245. 
 Kiaoehau, 230, 252, 257, 258, 
 
 263, 267, 268, 288, 298. 
 Knox, Secretary, 186, 240. 
 Kobe, 266. 
 Korea, 140, 174, 179, 180, 181, 
 
 182, 188, 195, 221, 225, 305. 
 Kublai Khan, 6. 
 Kyoto, 41, 138. 
 Kyushu, 9, 12. 
 
 Liaotung Peninsula, 174, 176, 
 
 180. 
 Liaoyuan, 244, 248. 
 
 Macao, 149-153, 155. 
 Malthusian theory, 226. 
 Manchuria, 174, 182-187, 240, 
 
 275-277, 289-293, 298. 
 South Manchuria Kail Eoad, 
 
 239, 241. 
 Mexico, 190, 203, 205, 208, 214. 
 Missionaries, American, 216, 
 
 217, 233. 
 Mitsui family, 110. 
 Mongolia, 181, 240, 243, 271, 
 
 275-277, 290, 292, 298. 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 Monroe Doctrine, 188, 189, 198, 
 199, 222, 224, 235, 251, 306, 
 310. 
 
 Moukden, 183, 276, 288, 290. 
 
 Mutsuhito (Meiji), Emperor, 
 104, 119, 120. 
 
 Nagasaki, 148, 153, 154, 158, 
 
 160. 
 Nanking, 246, 247. 
 Neesima, Dr., 118, 119. 
 Newchwang, 183. 
 
 Okuma, Count, 213, 214, 226, 
 
 255-257, 263, 285, 286. 
 Ozaki, Mr., 105. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 176. 
 
 Panama Canal, 307. 
 
 Peking, 244, 251, 284, 285, 288, 
 
 289. 
 Perry, Commodore, 54, 69, 70, 
 
 148, 155-161, 201. 
 Pescadores, 180. 
 Philippines, 177, 307. 
 Port Arthur, 122, 174, 184, 231, 
 
 254, 290. 
 Portsmouth Treaty, 184, 238, 
 
 240. 
 Press, Japanese, 125, 144, 259. 
 Asahi, Osaka, 206. 
 Asahi, Tokyo, 84, 206. 
 Censorship, 144, 147. 
 Kokumin, 205. 
 Kokusai-Reuter News Agency, 
 
 258, 267, 284, 285. 
 Mainichi, Osaka, 210. 
 Niroku, 205. 
 Shin Nihon, Tokyo, 226. 
 Times, Japan, 208. 
 
 Eed Cross, Japanese, 140. 
 Rice, 13-16, 17, 18, 93. 
 Roberts, Mr., 152. 
 Roosevelt, President, 182. 
 
 Russia, 145, 174-176, 187, 226, 
 237, 253, 254, 270, 298, 311. 
 
 Russo-Japanese War, 43, 99, 
 183, 184, 221, 260, 286, 311. 
 
 Sakurajima, eruption of, 24. 
 
 Samurai, 57, 133. 
 
 Satsuma clan, 41, 48, 110, 162, 
 
 163. 
 Shanghai, 232. 
 
 Shantung, 181, 231, 253-269, 
 273-275, 286, 287, 289, 290. 
 
 Shantung Rail Road, 263- 
 264, 266. 
 Shikoku, 9. 
 Shimonoseki, Straits of, 163, 
 
 170. 
 Shinto, 32. 
 
 Shogunate, 41, 42, 164. 
 Siam, 152. 
 
 Socialism in Japan, 106, 114. 
 Spencer, Herbert, 225. 
 Steamship lines to Japan. 
 
 Great Northern, 79. 
 
 Nippon Yusen Kaisha, 49, 79, 
 80. 
 
 Pacific Mail, 79. 
 
 Toyo Kisen Kaisha, 79. 
 Stewart, Captain, 148, 149. 
 Subsidies, shipping, 79-82, 99. 
 
 Tamerlane, 6. 
 Tariff. 
 
 Chinese, 249. 
 Japanese, 167, 169, 249. 
 Temmu, Emperor, 38. 
 Tokugawa, 39. 
 Tokyo, 43, 45, 107, 114, 138, 
 
 141-143, 182, 255, 285. 
 Treaties. 
 
 Agreement with U. S., 237. 
 Anglo- Japanese AUianjce, 181, 
 187, 203, 221, 235, 236, 259, 
 285, 310. 
 Franco-Japanese Agreement, 
 238. 
 
316 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Treaties — continued. 
 
 Perr/s, 160-169. 
 
 Portsmouth, 184, 238, 240. 
 
 Simonoseki, 180. 
 
 With China, 239. 
 
 With Great Britain, 171. 
 Treaty Ports, 160, 161, 183, 231, 
 
 253, 254. 
 Tsingtau, 37, 45, 122, 230, 252- 
 269, 272. 
 
 United States, 161, 174, 183- 
 198, 201-215, 227, 231, 249, 
 271, 301-312. 
 Japanese population in, 3. 
 
 University, Imperial Japanese, 
 57, 216. 
 
 Vancouver, Captain, 175. 
 
 Weihaiwei, 231, 253, 254. 
 Wilson, President, 206, 257. 
 Women, position of Japanese, 
 69, 115-120, 220, 221. 
 
 Marriage laws, 117. 
 
 Workers in factories, 83, 91. 
 
 Yangtsze River, 260. 
 Yangtsze Valley, 181, 231. 
 Yokohama, 131, 162. 
 Yoshihito, Emperor, 103, 104. 
 Young Japan Party, 110, 111. 
 Yuan Shih Kai, 244, 260, 263, 
 
 272, 273, 296, 297. 
 Yuraku, Emperor, 34. 
 
iv 
 
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