Mi? 
 
 Q 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION ON CHINA 
 
 AND THE CHINESE 
 
 t ^ 
 
 4 
 
 - 2. 
 
 
DR.. MASVJI MIYAKAWA'S 
 •POWERS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" 
 
 Translated from English Into Japanese and French 
 
 Prominent Members in tlie Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Departments, 
 and the Statesmen of Japan and the United States write Intro- 
 ductory Prefaces to the forthcoming Second Edition. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY pre:face: 
 
 by 
 THE HONORABLE TEIICHI SUGITA 
 
 Speaker of the Imperial House of Representatives 
 
 The governmental structure founded and reared on the Con- 
 stitution of the United States shows many distinguished features 
 from those of Europe and other Repubhcs in the American Con- 
 tinent. For a foreigner to thoroughly master the knowledge of the 
 structure is, in no wise, an easy task. This difficulty is the chasm 
 which separated us from securing a good work on the subject by 
 foreigners. I have felt and regretted this for years past. 
 
 Although a great and famous work, "American Common- 
 wealth," written by Mr. James Bryce, the English Ambassador in 
 America, surprises us with its thorough investigation, we, in the 
 Orient, whose governmental organization and national character 
 are so dissimilar, were forced to remain with deficient knowledge. 
 One, and the only solution for us, an Oriental nation, was to wait 
 for the publication of a book by an Oriental, known to us as a 
 scholar, who should succeed in investigating the American char- 
 acteristic peculiarities. Now comes a book that rewards our long 
 wait, wiping out our regret and bridging the chasm that separate 
 us from intimacy with the American institutions; that is, the publi- 
 cation of your great work, "Powers of the American People." And 
 for this it is my duty, which I owe to my country of Japan, here 
 to tender to you, with respect and reverence, my heartfelt thanks 
 and gratefulness. At the same time, I believe and affirm that when 
 you made the comparative investigation you had a fixed purpose 
 to provide for our need. 
 
 In reading your book I am satisfied that it gives us invaluable 
 benefit, and I also come to the conclusion that your treatise on 
 naturalization, the American national and international posi 'ons, 
 the jurisdiction of the courts, and other diverse features, are ^st 
 concise, scholarly, and comprehensive. 
 
 Wherefore, I invite and persuade the people of Japan to 
 the work, — a work that discloses the institutions of the people \, . 
 whom it is and must be instrumental in impelling us to closer and 
 friendlier relationship. 
 
 I have the honor to be. Sir, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 The Official Residence of Speaker of the I^TJ-TTr^TTT Qrir^T^A 
 
 Imperial House of Representatives, J. £<Xi>_ni vJUljllA. 
 
 Tokyo, May 31st, 1907. 
 
 To Masuji Miyakawa, Esq. 
 
 (Translation of oppoaite page.) 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 DS 821.M68 
 
 Life of Japan / 
 
 3 1924 023 493 236 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
/ti^4*/^ vvz^^< 
 
 r^c-ZTit^-ht:^ 
 
^o^l^^T 
 
 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/cu31924023493236 
 
Life of Japan 
 
 BV 
 
 MASUJI MIYAKAWA 
 
 Author of "Powers of the American People, Etc." 
 
 " The Mighty Island E^mpire of Japan ; that 
 Empire, which, in learning from the West, has 
 shown that it had so much, so very much, to 
 teach the West in return." 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 $ 
 
 mvjh iTiTn 1 .1 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE BAKER 6; TAYLOR COMPANY 
 
 rffl 
 
Copyright, August. 1907 
 
 BY 
 
 Masuji Miyakawa 
 
 THE WILKENS-SHEfdV PRE89 
 WABHtNOTON, D. C, 
 
 EMBELLIBMMENT6 BY 8. MORITA, JAPANESE ARTieT, SENT ABROAD BY THE JAPANESE OOVERNMEW 
 AND R. 8. HAYATA, JAPANESE ARTIST 
 
 *, 
 
TO THE HONORABLE 
 
 PERRY BELMONT 
 
 A GRANDSON OF 
 
 Commodore fflathew Calbraith Perry 
 
 The National Redeemer 
 of Japan 
 
 THIS WORK 
 
 IS 
 
 MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 

 =^ite~ 
 
 ('Or', 
 
 :fr- 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 "West is West and East is East, never the 
 twain shall meet" ; Oh, what a remarkable 
 specimen of self-conceited and egotistic epi- 
 gram ! If the words of Kipling and other emi- 
 nent writers of his rank continued to play on 
 the passions of the American populace, where 
 would be landed the millions of diligent stu- 
 dents of modern applied sciences, of arts, of 
 Bible, of pedagogue, of humanity, and of civili- 
 zation ? West shall be East and East shall be 
 West, and both must stand till the end of earth 
 and sky, side by side "at God's great judgment 
 seat !" 
 
 Well-established economic reasons and natu- 
 ral forces indicate that in the case of the United 
 States and Japan only amity, good feeling or 
 mutual respect should prevail, for each can be 
 most helpful in the development of the other, 
 and the interests of both can be best subserved 
 by unrestricted intercommunication and trade. 
 To that end Americans must not dwell in ig- 
 
 [7] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 norance of Japan and Japanese conditions and 
 Japanese must have intelligent ideas of Amer- 
 ica and American institutions. And herein 
 comes the indispensableness of books on Japan 
 to be studied by American patriots and at the 
 fireside of millions of the American homes. 
 
 An American cannot understand all Japan 
 any more than he can all America. Japanese 
 ccnnot learn all America any more than he can 
 all Japan. But it is certainly the duty of every 
 citizen to know the First Emperor, Jimmu, as 
 v\-ell as the first President, Washington; to 
 take notice of the Imperial Diet no less than 
 the Congressional records; to make debate on 
 the Imperial constitution and law and discuss 
 the spirit and letter of the American charter of 
 liberty; to understand the causes and outcome 
 of the American revolutionary, civil, and Span- 
 ish wars, also the American expedition to 
 Japan and subsequent overthrowing of Feud- 
 alism and the ascension of the present Em- 
 peror and Japanese wars with China and Rus- 
 sia ; not only Philadelphia ship yards, but those 
 of Yokosuka and Kure; American yellow 
 journals and Japanese journalism; West Point 
 
 [8] 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 and Annapolis and Etajima and Tokyo; the 
 great industrial progress of the United 
 States and that of Japan; the Japanese must 
 never be arrogant but courteous and fair, and 
 the American should be bound by the same 
 rule; each must meet the other half way; to 
 lose sight of this common quality of citizen- 
 ship or stray from this common-sense standard ^y^ 
 would work to the detriment of both peoples. 
 
 However, we must be aware that there are 
 many kinds of books on Japan largely circu- 
 lated in this country. One class of these books 
 tell that Japan has quaint tea houses, weird 
 temples, lantern fetes, that rikishia men are 
 very convenient human horses in Tokyo; that 
 you pay a few yen for a beautiful Japanese 
 maiden for housekeeper and concubine for 
 many months; that the Japanese in kimonos 
 look becoming, pretty and fascinating, and 
 other bits of trivial things. And often outcast 
 Japanese immoral women are exploited in pho- 
 tographs as illustrations of typical Japanese 
 ladies. These in his wisdom he has collected 
 at vast expense of time and money. 
 
 Another class of books on Japan is that in 
 
 [9] 
 
"N^ 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 which an author is devoted simply to the dis- 
 covery of anything beautiful, of exquisite views, 
 picturesque coloring, scenery and landscape of 
 the hills, mountains, seas, cities, towns, vil- 
 lages, shrines, temples or bamboo cottages, all 
 that interest and delight his curiosity or artis- 
 tic senses. This kind of book is quite harmless, 
 for it is merely the making of a picture gallery 
 or conemetograph. But there is another class 
 of these books, whose writer has but one object 
 in view, and that is to lay bare the life and soul 
 of the people and nation. Whatever he sees 
 and writes is in a philosophical vein and in itself 
 that tends as all honest writing does, to make 
 the two distinct civilizations nobler, and the 
 two distinct people closer, friendlier and hap- 
 pier. 
 
 In "Life of Japan" the author has divided 
 the volume into three parts. In the first part 
 he intended to substantiate the well-settled 
 principle that a man, physically, mentally, and 
 morally, is vastly influenced by his environ- 
 ments. Hence the reader will see such subjects 
 as religion, moral ethics, idea of homes, cus- 
 toms and habits, topography, feudalism. Spe- 
 
 
 
 «cl3 
 
/^ 
 
 m,(/y 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 cial emphasis must be given to the causes of 
 the overthrow of feudalism, and also added to 
 it the ancient and medieval intercourse of Japan 
 vifith foreign countries. 
 
 With the second part will come one of the 
 main objects of this work. Herein, thoughtful 
 readers are sought to be convinced of the great 
 possibilities of the future of American- Japanese 
 Intercourse. To follow the footsteps of the 
 historical events that have been represented 
 herein will be the guide post to the success of 
 the American and Japanese. Here to the read- 
 ers are revealed the romantic relations of the 
 United States and Japan; how the famous 
 American expedition under Commodore Perry 
 was conducted, how the Emperor and Presi- 
 dent first made exchange of courtesies ; how 
 humanity and civilization is indebted to the 
 American people; how the present Emperor 
 ascended the throne, what are the causes of the 
 Japanese War with China and Russia, and 
 what are the Japanese national principles, 
 around which grew the financial reforms, in- 
 dustrial development, military, naval, and civil 
 education, and with these national principles 
 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 how Japan emerged from obscurity into the 
 forefront of modern nations. 
 
 Among many questions, one put to the 
 Japanese, whether here or in Europe, and with 
 comparatively scanty reply, is the question in 
 reference to the administration of Justice, and 
 the administrative system of government in the 
 present Japan. No national life is better tested 
 than to know what the laws and judiciary are 
 like. It is but natural for the Americans and 
 their related teutonic races to so anxiously ask 
 the question, for they are brought up to believe 
 that law, or reign of law, is or should be the 
 goal of modern progress. In the third part, 
 therefore, the author discussed the origin and 
 growth of the Japanese constitution and law, 
 not exhaustively, but perhaps amply enough to 
 permit the general reader to correctly under- 
 stand the legal institutions. Also, in this part, 
 readers are invited into a separate representa- 
 tion that is the least written about, and which 
 is, nevertheless, one of the most indispensable 
 ingredients of Japanese progress; namely, 
 journalism in Japan. And at last, the readers 
 are brought to the critical stage or very hot- 
 
 [12] 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 bed of the timely discussion, — Shall it be war 
 ^r shall it be peace ? The author has attempted 
 to put forward the ten reasons against the 
 possibility of an American-Japanese War. 
 
 The author must here add affectionate ac- 
 knowledgment for the encouragement he has 
 received in writing a book on Japan, from many 
 kind and sympathetic American friends. He 
 will here express his appreciation, individually, 
 for the encouragement coming from personal 
 acquaintance, and, collectively, for the encour- 
 agement coming from institutions, before 
 whom the author had the honor to deliver a 
 series of lectures on Japan. Among many 
 others, the author wishes to thank the members 
 of the Fortnightly Club, of Bloomington, Ind., 
 of which Prof. Enoch G. Hogate, the Dean of 
 the Law School of the University of Indiana, 
 was then President ; to the members of the 
 Historical Club of the same place, of which 
 Prof. James Albert Woodburn, Professor of 
 History in the Universities of Indiana and Wis- 
 consin, was President; to the members of the 
 Young Women's Christian Association, also 
 of the same place; the Century Club of San 
 
 [13] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Francisco, of which the Hon. James G. Ma- 
 guire, then U. S. Representative, presided; to 
 the members of the Women's Literary Associa- 
 tion of San Francisco; to the members of 
 Grace M. E. Church, and the Fourth Presbyte- 
 rian Church, both of Chicago ; the First Presby- 
 terian Church, of Bloomington, Ind. ; to the fac- 
 ulty and students of the IIHnois College of Law, 
 Chicago; Mr. Oscar H. WiUiams, of Alexan- 
 dria, Indiana ; Mr. Thomas J. Taylor, of Wash- 
 ington; Mrs. Langille, of Kensington Club of 
 Maryland; Miss Julia L. Langille, a teacher of 
 Chevy Chase School, District of Columbia ; Mr. 
 and Mrs. Walter B. Wooden, of Washington ; 
 Prof. Oliver W. Brown, of the University of 
 Wisconsin ; Prof. x\mos Hershey, Indiana Uni- 
 versity ; the faculty of Indiana University ; Hon. 
 Joseph R. Knowland, U. S. Representative, 
 Alameda, Cal. ; the late Judge George L. Rein- 
 hard, of Indiana; Prof. Simon Newcomb, 
 President of the International Congress of Art 
 and Science, the World's Fair, St. Louis, and 
 Hon. Wm. Loeb, Jr., of Washington. 
 
 This work is written, not in the least to prove 
 the author's English literary excellence, or to 
 
 [14] 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 get fame for admirable lucidity of style, for he 
 was brought up in a language wholly unlike the 
 one in which he is writing, and which often 
 being diametrically opposite in expression, he 
 feels satisfied with the most humble degree of ( 
 success. There is consolation, however, in the 
 fact that he can write out what he thinks, and 
 express his ideas without revision as to the 
 literary form or as to the English, asking no 
 other's idea, suggestion or assistance. If, hap- 
 pily, as he aims, there is found no self-conceit, 
 no egotism, no arrogance, no assumption, no 
 doubting, no blunder, but true, concise and im- 
 partial treatment in this work, and if these aims 
 invoke some sympathy, and in consequence 
 thereof the West can understand the East and 
 the East can understand the West, the author 
 will be most happy; and in conclusion he begs 
 to say : 
 
 "If thou lovest, help me with thy blessing; 
 If otherwise, mine shall be for thee. 
 If thou approvest, heed my words ; 
 If otherwise, in kindness be my teacher." 
 
 Masuji Miyakawa. 
 
 Washington, D. C, July 4, 1907. 
 [15] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory 7 
 
 part 11 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 New Japan as Old as Ever 
 
 Section i. The Wonderful Progress of Japan 35 
 Sec. 2. Secret of the Japanese Progress. . . 37 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Religions in Japan 
 
 Sec. 3. Introduction of Christianity 40 
 
 Sec. 4. The Interdiction of Christianity. . . 42 
 
 Sec. 5. Justification of the Christian Inter- 
 diction 43 
 
 [17] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 6. Japan Isolated from the Rest of the 
 
 World 45 
 
 Sec. 7. Christianity Never Died 46 
 
 Sec. 8. The Japanese Native Religion 47 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Japanese Moral Ethics 
 
 Sec. 9. Bushido 50 
 
 Sec. 10. Suicide as the Highest Conception 
 
 of Japanese Individuality 52 
 
 Sec. II. Justification of the Suicide Custom 53 
 
 Sec. 12. Fruit of the Japanese Character- 
 Making 54 
 
 Sec. 13. Bushido in Olden Time as Well as 
 
 in New Era 55 
 
 Sec. 14. The Japanese Swords 57 
 
 Sec. 15. Analogy of Bushido 58 
 
 Sec. 16. The Japanese Moral Ethics Never 
 
 Die 59 
 
 [18] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Japanese Woman 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Sec. 17. Influence of Buddhism, Confucian- 
 ism and Bushido 61 
 
 Sec. 18. Woman's Education in Old Japan. 64 
 
 Sec. 19. Ideals of the Japanese Woman of 
 
 To-day 65 
 
 Sec. 20. Ideals of the Japanese Happy Home 68 
 
 Sec. 21. The Japanese Wife 69 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Japanese Customs and Habits 
 
 Sec. 22. Japanese at Home 72 
 
 Sec. 23. Peculiar Habits of the Japanese. . . 74 
 [19] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Topography of Japan 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 24. The Sacred Lake Biwa 78 
 
 Sec. 25. The Sacred Mountain Fuji 80 
 
 CHAPTER Vn 
 
 Feudalism in Japan 
 
 Sec. 26. Japan's First Emperor 84 
 
 Sec. 27. Commencement of FeudaHsm 85 
 
 Sec. 28. The Caste System 87 
 
 Sec. 29. The Periclean Age of Medieval 
 
 Japan 88 
 
 Sec. 30. Instance of a Beggar Who Became 
 
 Shogun 90 
 
 Sec. 31. The Bloodiest Civil War in the 
 
 Middle Ages 91 
 
 Sec. 32. Working of the Feudal System. . . 93 
 
 Sec. 33. The Famous Samurai Caste 95 
 
 Sec. 34. The Emperor's Position 96 
 
 [20] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Causes for Overthrow of Feudalism 
 
 PAGE 
 Sec. 35. The Foreign Influence 99 
 
 Sec. 36. Japan was in Favor of War with 
 
 the United States 100 
 
 Sec. 37. li Kamon, the Roosevelt of Japan. 102 
 
 Sec. 38. Outside Causes for the Fall of the 
 
 Shogunate 105 
 
 Sec. 39. The Inside Correlative Causes. .. . 106 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Japanese Medieval Foreign 
 Intercourse 
 
 Sec. 40. Ancient Foreign Intercourse 1 1 1 
 
 Sec. 41. Semitic and Hamitic Civilization 
 
 Transplanted in Japan 112 
 
 [21] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 42. The Japanese May Have Dis- 
 covered America 113 
 
 Sec. 43. Early Japan in the Eyes of Euro- 
 peans 114 
 
 Sec. 44. Coming of Confucianism and Bud- 
 dhism 116 
 
 Sec. 45. Introduction of European Learning 
 
 During the Sixteenth Century. . . 117 
 
 Sec. 46. Reciprocal Treaty Between Japan 
 
 and England in the Middle Ages 120 
 
 part IFfl 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Romantic Relation to the United States 
 
 Sec. 47. Perry's Historical Expedition to 
 
 Japan 125 
 
 Sec. 48. The First Visit of Commodore 
 
 Perry 127 
 
 [22] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 49. The Instruction of American Gov- 
 ernment to Commodore Perry. . . 131 
 
 Sec. 50. Perry's Biography 133 
 
 Sec. 51. Perry's Visit and the Confusion and 
 
 Excitement of the Japanese 134 
 
 Sec. 52. Japan Did Not Want Perry 135 
 
 Sec. 53. Attitude of Perry Worked Miracles 136 
 
 Sec. 54. Perry's Prehminary Commission. . 137 
 
 Sec. 55. Perry as the National Redeemer of 
 
 Japan 139 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Triumphs of American Diplomacy 
 
 Sec. 56. Twenty Years Before the Perry 
 
 Expedition 143 
 
 Sec. 57. Most Astute Diplomatic Sagacity. . 144 
 
 Sec. 58. Mr. Harris, the First U. S. Minister 146 
 
 [23] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 59. Assassination of the American 
 
 Diplomatic Agent 147 
 
 Sec. 60. The American Legation Set on Fire 149 
 
 Sec. 61. Japanese Foreign Relation More 
 
 Confounded 150 
 
 Sec. 62. Gift of $750,000 from United 
 
 States 152 
 
 Sec. 63. The United States as Japan's 
 
 Foster-Mother 153 
 
 Sec. 64. The Causes of Chino- Japanese 
 
 Wars 154 
 
 Sec. 65. The Declaration of Chinese-Jap- 
 anese War 158 
 
 Sec. 66. The Termination of War 160 
 
 Sec. 67. The Causes of the Russian- Jap- 
 anese War 162 
 
 Sec. 68. The Declaration of Russian-Jap- 
 anese War 164 
 
 Sec. 69. Result of the War 164 
 
 [24] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 70. America's Relation to Japan's Na- 
 tional Calamities 168 
 
 Sec. 71. American Women at the Beginning 
 
 of Russo-Japanese War 169 
 
 Sec. 72. American Sympathy with Progress 
 
 of War 169 
 
 Sec. 73. The American Square Deal Diplo- 
 matic Policy 171 
 
 Sec. 74. The Greatest Battles on Land and 
 
 Sea 172 
 
 Sec. 75. The World Sees End of War 174 
 
 Sec. 76. President Roosevelt's Relation to 
 
 the Peace Conference 175 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Present Emperor to the Throne 
 
 Sec. JT- The Historical Event 177 
 
 Sec. 78. Declaration of National Principles. 178 
 [25] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Reform of the Financial System 
 
 PAGE 
 Sec. 79. The Financial Systems in Pre- 
 
 Restoration Time 180 
 
 Sec. 80. How Taxes Were Paid in the 
 
 Feudal Ages 181 
 
 Sec. 81. How Reforms Were Brought About 183 
 
 Sec. 82. Local Revenue 184 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Japanese Industrial Development 
 
 Sec. 83. Communication and Transportation 186 
 
 Sec. 84. Silver and Gold Standards 187 
 
 Sec. 85. Growth of Japan's Foreign Trade. 188 
 
 Sec. 86. The Future of Japanese-American 
 
 Foreign Trade 190 
 
 Sec. 87. Future Development of Japan's 
 
 Foreign Trade 192 
 
 [26] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 The Army and the Navy of Japan 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 88. The Attraction of the World's 
 
 Powers 194 
 
 Sec. 89. How Soldiers Were Trained in the 
 
 Earliest Ages 195 
 
 Sec. 90. The Rise of a Great Man in the 
 
 Last Shogunate Regime ig6 
 
 Sec. 91. Who Are Soldiers in Japan 197 
 
 Sec. 92. Study of the Japanese Soldiers. . . . 199 
 
 Sec. 93. President Roosevelt and General 
 Chaffee Speak of the Japanese 
 Soldiers 201 
 
 Sec. 94. The Navy of Japan 202 
 
 Sec. 95. Most Thorough Training of Naval 
 
 Officers 203 
 
 Sec. 96. The Naval Colleges 205 
 
 Sec. 97. The Authorities of the World 
 
 Speak for the Japanese Navy. . . 206 
 
 [27] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Sec. 98. Origin of the Red Cross Society in 
 
 Japan 207 
 
 Sec. 99. The Red Cross in Chinese- Japanese 
 
 War 208 
 
 Sec. 100. The Red Cross at Opening of Jap- 
 anese-Russian War 209 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Education in Japan 
 
 Sec. loi. Education in the Old Regime. ... 211 
 
 Sec. 102. American Educators in the Educa- 
 tion of Japan 211 
 
 Sec. 103. The Famous Imperial Rescript on 
 
 Education 213 
 
 Sec. 104. The Educational Institution 215 
 
 Sec. 105. The Weather Bureau 215 
 
 [28] 
 
^ 
 
 CHAPTER XVIi 
 
 Japanese Constitutional Government 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Sec. io6. Old and New Constitution 221 
 
 Sec. 107. The Japanese Constitution in the 
 
 Earhest Ages 222 
 
 Sec. 108. Japanese Administration System. 224 
 
 Sec. 109. Beginning of Constitutional Gov- 
 ernment in Japan 227 
 
 Sec. no. Preparing a Written Constitution . 228 
 
 Sec. III. Proclamation of the ImpemLCo^ij-. 
 
 stitution •jSkKS^^I'' ^^9 
 
 Sec. 112. The Japanese Const! 
 
 pared with that of thp ^ IJj 
 
 States 
 
 Sec. 113. Life, Liberty, Property and Pur 
 
 suit of Happiness in Japan. .,,.., . 2, 
 
 Sec. 114. Japanese Cabinet Compared jWith 
 Those of the United States^'^nd 
 England r^, . . . : . 
 
 Sec. 115. King Can Do No Wrong?' 
 
 r^ 
 
 cc 
 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Japan under the Reign of Law 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. ii6. Individual Relation to Society in 
 
 the Primitive Stage 239 
 
 Sec. 117. Old Japanese Laws of Wife, Hus- 
 band, Family, and Succession . . . 240 
 
 Sec. 118. Historical Epoch of the Departure 
 
 from Old Japanese Laws 24^ 
 
 Sec. iig. Japan Studies Laws of Europe 
 
 and the United States 244 
 
 Sec. 120. The Present Japanese Laws 246 
 
 Sec. 121. The Japanese Courts 247 
 
 Sec. 122. The Japanese Woman Under the 
 
 Present Law 250 
 
 Sec. 123. Foreigners Under the Present 
 
 Law 251 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Journalism in Japan 
 
 Sec. 124. Beginning of the Japanese Jour- 
 nalism 256 
 
 [30] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sec. 125. The Japanese Characters and the 
 
 Progress of Journalism 257 
 
 Sec. 126. Most Complicated System of the 
 
 Typesetting 259 
 
 Sec. 127. Woman Journalists in Japan 261 
 
 Sec. 128. Individuality of Journalism 263 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 American-Japanese War 
 
 Sec. 129. What of Universal Peace? 266 
 
 Sec. 130. Improvement of the Law of Na- 
 tions 269 
 
 Sec. 131. Cowardice of the Civilized World 274 
 
 Sec. 132. Military Expansion of the United 
 
 States and Japan 278 
 
 Sec. 133. Japan and the United States in 
 
 Their Relation to San Francisco 280 
 
 Sec. 134. Commercial War Between Japan 
 
 and the United States 289 
 
 Sec. 135. Causes that are Against Japanese- 
 American War 292 
 
 Sec. 136. Prophetic Future 299 
 
 [31] 
 
PART I 
 
"A single life may give much ease, but far greater 
 are the pleasures of a married life, and so are also the 
 corresponding troubles." 
 
NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 "May our Lord's dominion last 
 Till a thousand years have passed, 
 
 Twice four thousand times o'ertold ! 
 Firm as changeless rock, earth-rooted, 
 Moss of age uncoraputed 
 
 Grow upon it, green and old !" 
 
 — The National Anthem of Japan. 
 
 New Japan as Old as Ever 
 
 Section i. The Wonderful Progress of 
 Japan: In recent years Japanese institu- 
 tions have been studied by Americans and Eu- 
 ropeans, and many books have been written 
 about them. Yet how Httle is really known of 
 the Japanese people. It is said by almost every 
 American and European that Japan is pro- 
 gressing so rapidly, and her people chang- 
 ing, and losing their old mode of life, thought, 
 ideas, and conceptions so fast, that those who 
 wish to see and study real Japan must speed 
 
 [35] 
 
BB^nMBS^ 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 their journey across the ocean, or the old Japan 
 will be lost as a source of information and 
 study to historians and other observers. What 
 an extravagant stretch of imagination ! What 
 a sign of ignorance of the laws governing the 
 growth of a nations or its people! Rome was 
 not built in a day, nor did her power and influ- 
 ence decline so fast, nor in one generation. 
 Japan has been introducing great changes, 
 adapting Western institutions to her wants 
 as far as is considered necessary, both in 
 the departments of war and peace, yet 
 results which have really followed such an 
 evolution are as yet more superficial than 
 real. The original Japanese have not been 
 thereby much affected. What else should 
 be expected? One would be mistaken if he 
 thought that any race could be so readily trans- 
 formed. There is nothing to be wondered at 
 in this. It is only an example illustrative of 
 the general law of evolution. Were such a 
 supposition a fact, it would not be possible 
 for the Japanese to remain as a nation, for then 
 their original vitality must be gone. No na- 
 tional life can rise or fall in one day. Every 
 
 [36] 
 
NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER 
 
 nation must work out its own destiny, either 
 for growth or decay, in a proper course of time. 
 
 Sec. 2. Secret of the Japanese Progress: 
 The progress of Japan, as it has been stated 
 at the outset, is no mushroom growth. It is no 
 chance turn of fortune's wheel. It rests only 
 upon a natural law of evolution. It may be 
 explained partly by the characteristics of the 
 Japanese people, and partly by Japan's national 
 principle evolutionized from that of Old Japan, 
 with which they introduce and assimilate the 
 learning and science of the United States and 
 Europe. 
 
 If we turn to European history we shall 
 find one law to which there is absolutely no ex- 
 ception. Any nation, no matter what its con- 
 stitution, form of government, race or nation- 
 ality may be, will prosper only so long as it keeps 
 itself swimming with the great current of 
 human thought; to lose sight of this law in- 
 volves national T^^ Tfiere is no exception to 
 this rule. Spain and Portugal, because of their 
 most -vigorous adventurers, the discoverers of 
 America, were feared and commanded respect, 
 but maintained: their power scarcely two cen-' 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 turies. Their power fell as quickly as it rose. 
 The same phenomenon may be observed in the 
 case of Holland. Turkey was a great power 
 when she destroyed the Western Roman Em- 
 pire and took Constantinople. She is to-day 
 like a sick man in a hospital, and is only saved 
 from final dissolution by the disagreements of 
 European powers. But it would be wrong in 
 the case of any of these countries to lay the 
 blame for their decay upon the shoulders of the 
 people. In every case a grossly superstitious 
 form of religion, administered by avaricious ec- 
 clesiastics and an ignorant hierarchy, had com- 
 bined with the ostentatious courts and despotic 
 aristocracy to poison the wells of national life. 
 Russia imitated the bad example of these coun- 
 tries. She turned her back knowingly on the 
 modern civilization and enlightenment that was 
 surrounding her, and the result could be easily 
 foreseen. Russia was trying to swim against 
 the stream of human enlightenment and civili- 
 zation; she could not well escape from the 
 moral and physical punishment that eventually 
 followed from such a course of action. 
 
 If you will now turn to the history of Japan 
 
 [38] 
 
NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER 
 
 you will be able to see at once why it is that 
 this empire has been so successful in all her un- 
 dertakings and brought herself up to the pres- 
 ent eminence she occupies. It is because Japan 
 has acted on the national principle of "adopting 
 what is best from every country and entering 
 into an honorable rivalry in culture and civili- 
 zation with all the nations of the world." 
 
 [39] 
 
"If devils from hell visited my realm, they should be 
 treated like angels from heaven as long as they behaved 
 like gentlemen." — Shogun lyeyasu. 
 
 Religions in. Japan 
 
 Sec. 3. Introduction of Christianity: In the 
 sixteenth century, when Spain, Portugal and 
 Holland opened intercourse with Japan, they 
 brought with them their Christian faith. The 
 most famous of the Jesuit missionaries, St. 
 Francis Xavier, tells us in his memoirs that 
 though the Spaniards interested themselves in 
 the propagation of their faith,,-wberever they 
 weni thfiiy liad found no country in which it 
 was embraced so readily and willingly as in 
 Japan. In the course of some forty years, over 
 , two millions of converts had been made, and 
 lere had been no hostile collision between the 
 
RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 
 
 promoters of the new religions and the ae=^2 
 fenders of the Shintoism or Buddhism. las 
 the so-called persecutipn of Christianity, the 
 blame was not upon the Japanese, but upon the r , 
 conduct of those who professed Christianity./ 
 It may be interesting to note the fact that the 
 dreadful tales about Christianity were told by 
 the Dutchmen, who were ambitious to monop- 
 olize the Japanese trade. They were endeavor- 
 ing by every means in their power to accom- 
 plish this end, whether by driving other for- 
 eigners from the land or courting favor of the 
 Shogun. According to the annals, the Dutch- 
 men had convinced the government with plaus- 
 ible arguments that Spain, Portugal, England, 
 and other European countries were not propa- 
 gating the Christian faith for the sake of reli- 
 gion, but with the primary motive of promoting 
 their territorial aggrandizement. When the 
 Shogun was about to heed the awful tale, 
 Dutchmen lost no time in causing their own 
 country to send a special ambassador to the 
 Shogun. That official brought a royal message 
 jjbesides a token of royal good will consisting of 
 costly presents. Meantime, competition and 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 jealousy were progressing among foreign 
 traders. 
 
 Sec 4. The Interdiction of Christianity: 
 However, Christianity and the trade also, 
 was freely permitted to go where it pleased in 
 the empire, and to travel by land and sea, from 
 one end of it to the other. The people listened 
 to the teachings of the missionaries, who were 
 friendly and superior men. Had the work be- 
 gun by Xavier — that humble, virtuous, dis- 
 interested, and benevolent man — and his com- 
 panion, been left in the hands of men like them- 
 selves, the history of Old Japan might be vastly 
 different. Very many of the ecclesiastics, 
 mingling with their respective parties, excess- 
 ively indulged their pride, avarice, and extor- 
 tions at the close of the sixteenth century. 
 Even native Christians are said to have been 
 both shocked and disgusted when they saw that 
 their spiritual instructors treated with open 
 contempt the institutions and customs of the 
 country, and insulted the high officials of the 
 government by studied indignities. At last, the 
 Shogun deemed it intolerable to permit the 
 laws and customs of his country to be treated 
 
 [42] 
 
RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 
 
 with contempt by a set of presumptuous for- 
 eigners, who had neither the good feehng nor 
 the goodmanners to repay the kindness they had 
 received with the decency of common civiHty. 
 Nor was this all. The Japanese had found cer- 
 tain treasonable letters from time to time on 
 board of foreign ships, addressed by the natives 
 to foreign kings. It may be difficult to ascer- 
 tain with certainty all the details of the con- 
 spiracy, but of the conspiracy itself there can 
 be no doubt. 
 
 While the matters concerning Christianity 
 were going from bad to worse, it was found 
 that the port of Nagasaki was pledged by trait- 
 orous Japanese Christians as the security for a 
 loan to be used by these Japanese to help put 
 their country into the hands of the foreign 
 countrymen. 
 
 Sec. 5. Justification of the Christian Inter- 
 diction: The result was that toward the end of 
 the seventeenth century the proclamation was 
 decreed that "the whole foreign race, with their 
 mothers, nurses, and whatever belong to them 
 shall be banished forever." Thus the persecu- 
 tions of the Christians began, and was rigor- 
 
 [43] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ously pursued by the Shogun. In this action of 
 the Shogun, the Japanese claim justification on 
 the grounds of the spirit and attitude of the 
 foreigners themselves. While the vigorous 
 persecution was going on in Japan, religious 
 wars were being waged everywhere in Europe. 
 The chief persecutions for difference in Christian 
 faith may be witnessed in the fierce religious 
 war of the Reformation in Germany, the wars 
 of the Huguenots, and the massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew's Day in France, and in the establish- 
 ment of the Spanish Inquisition. The Shoguns 
 have ample justification in asserting that the 
 situation of the country demanded the procla- 
 mation of an interdict determinedly and 
 promptly ; otherwise, it is obvious that the coun- 
 try would have been partitioned among the 
 ambitious foreign powers then represented 
 throughout the land. During the rule of Sho- 
 gun lyeyasu, Christianity as a whole was in- 
 terdicted, and all Christians were summa- 
 rily tried and found guilty of belonging 
 to the evil sect The Samurai could hack at 
 will, and wholesale slaughter was rife in the 
 
 [44] 
 
 WW^"' 
 
 
i-^^'^' 
 
 RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 
 
 land until the close of the seventeenth century, 
 when there was not left a missionary. 
 
 Sec 6. Japan Isolated From the Rest of the 
 World: During the 258 years of this Tokugawa 
 dynasty, the Shoguns' policy was one of inter- 
 diction and exclusion from intercourse with 
 all European nations. European powers 
 sought intercourse, but without avail. They 
 for a time sought patiently ; but at times, man- 
 ifestly sought to awe by a display of national 
 power. Their military demonstrations and 
 naval manoeuvers were frequent and calculated 
 to impress the great importance of their mis- 
 sion, but all in vain. Such terrorizing or 
 threatening processes upon the Japanese people 
 by European power, or by a combination of 
 powers, worked worse and worse, and only 
 served to strengthen the walls of exclusion. 
 The Shoguns fortified the harbor, and grew 
 more and more suspicious of all mankind; 
 meantime, the following decree was kept posted 
 everywhere in the realm : 
 
 "Decreed: Christianity has been prohibited for many 
 years. Therefore, if there is any suspected person, it 
 must be reported. Rewards will be as follows : 
 
 [45] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 "For information against a father or worker of the 
 Christian religion, 500 pieces of silver; for information 
 against an assistant in the work of Christianity, 300 
 pieces of silver; for information against any one who 
 has secretly returned to Christian belief, 300 pieces of 
 silver; for information against a common believer in 
 the same village, 100 pieces of silver. The above re- 
 wards will be given. Even though it be a common in 
 the same village, in some special cases a reward of 500 
 pieces of silver will be given. If any hidden Christian 
 is discovered by some one from another place, the chief 
 of the village, and even the company of five men whom 
 the accused related will be punished as accomplices." 
 
 Sec. 7. Christianity Never Died: Thus Cath- 
 olicism was systematically and vigorously inter- 
 dicted and disappeared from the religious life of 
 Japan. Yet, strange to say, the Christian faith 
 was still found alive, centuries later. When the 
 author was on his way to China from Japan, in 
 connection with the military administration dur- 
 ing the war with China, he was obliged to land 
 on the island of Tsu Shima, in the Korean 
 Straits. In company with a lieutenant and two 
 gendarmes, he entered a house on this dismal is- 
 land. There at once he recognized a Bible and a 
 little crucifix on a small shelf or altar in the prin- 
 
 [46] 
 
RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 
 
 cipal room. Knowing that there had never been 
 a Christian missionary in any of the Japanese 
 possessions since the vigilance of the interdict 
 went into effect, centuries before, he asked the 
 lady where and how she got these things. "The 
 faith," she said, "was handed down from parent 
 to child, by word of mouth, but these religious 
 objects were only brought into view when a 
 person who knew where they were secreted 
 was going to die, and then, soon after, they 
 were again secreted by the one to whom en- 
 trusted. Thus we preserved them." 
 
 Sec. 8. The Japanese Native Religions: 
 Shintoism and Buddhism are inseparably 
 woven together, the former being the warp 
 and the latter the filling. Shintoism literally 
 means "the ways of God." From its annals 
 we learn that at first all was without form, and 
 void; that the confused nebula began to move 
 and condense, and the heavens separated from 
 the earth. In both heaven and earth gods were 
 evolved, among which was Izanagi, who sepa- 
 rated the land from the waters, and from whose 
 left eye emanated the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. 
 This goddess is the center of Japan's Shinto- 
 
 [47] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ism, and the ancestor of the Japanese race, 
 Amaterasu, seeing that disorder prevailed 
 among the earth gods, sent down her grand- 
 son, Ninigi, who was the great-grandfather of 
 Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. 
 Every Japanese from his birth is placed by his 
 parents under the protection of some Shinto 
 deity, whose foster child he becomes. How- 
 ever, Shintoism imposed no distinctive moral 
 code or duty, and the teaching or professing 
 of any theory of the destiny of man, or of 
 moral obligation, was left to the priests of 
 Buddha. Buddhism, in view of its Nirvana, 
 promulgated a code of morals against stealing 
 lying, intemperance, murder and adultery, 
 purely upon spiritual motives. Funeral rites are 
 conducted, with few exceptions, according to 
 ■^' the ceremonial of the Buddha sect. It is only 
 
 ii in recent years that burial according to the an- 
 
 ;'' cient ritual of Shintoism has been revived, after 
 
 7 almost total disuse during some twelve cen- 
 
 '•■' turies. Burial by interment and cremation are 
 
 '' both practiced in Japan, the form being left 
 
 entirely to the option of the parties concerned. 
 1 Since the United States opened Japan, a short 
 i 
 
 [48] 
 
RELIGIONS IN JAPAN 
 
 half century ago, Christianity has been again 
 introduced, and is making such great progress 
 that it threatens to eventually become the re- 
 ligion of the Japanese people. During the last 
 thirty-nine years' reign of the present Em- 
 peror, Christianity has reaped a harvest of 
 about 55,000 Catholics, about 70,000 Protest- 
 ants, and about 27,000 Greek Catholics of the 
 Orthodox Russian Church. It is beginning to 
 be appreciated among the Japanese people, that 
 the highest ideals of civilization accompany 
 Christianity. 
 
 FROM A JAPANESE TYPICAL CHRISTIAN 
 LADY. 
 
 Dear Friend, Dr. Miyakawa : 
 
 "If life were only living, 
 
 And death were only death, 
 Would life be worth the living? 
 
 Would men praise God for breath? 
 
 Ah, No ! Far sweeter, dearer. 
 
 To toil, to pray, and fast. 
 If so the Lord draw nearer 
 
 And lend His grace at last." 
 
 Madam Domoto. 
 
 [49] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 "To rush into the thick of battle and to be slain in it 
 is easy enough, and the merest churl is equal to the 
 task; but it is true courage to live when it is right to 
 live, and to die only when it is right to die." — Mito 
 Koinon. 
 
 TKe Japanese Moral Ethics 
 
 Sec. 9. Bushido : Describing the pecu- 
 liar characteristics of the Japanese, men and 
 women, we see in the Old Japan the castes sys- 
 tem of soldier or samurai class, and the agricul- 
 turists, artisans, merchants, eta, the latter be- 
 ing the lowest, and considered outcasts, whose 
 ancestors must have been traitors or prisoners of 
 war. This class distinction became marked under 
 the feudal government. Yet there was nothing 
 bad about it according to circumstance of the 
 age, as the whole idea was that the good of the 
 state should be the first object. Even the peas- 
 ant of yesterday might become a member of 
 
 [so] 
 
THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 
 
 the favored class of to-morrow by attaining 
 distinction in his individual accomplishment as 
 a soldier. The soldier was an educator of the 
 people as well as a protector of the disfavored 
 classes. 
 
 Emperors Shomu and Kotoku, in their mili- 
 tary conscription, imposed on the whole people 
 the duty of the soldier, and the agriculturists, 
 artisans, or merchants, were made the founda- 
 tion of future nobles, peers, and even Sho- 
 guns. Meanwhile, the ideal and conception 
 of the true soldier took its name of Bushido, 
 or soldier's way, and was inculcated into the 
 unwritten moral codes and transmitted from 
 age to age. The Bushido, the underlying prin- 
 ciple of the physical and moral existence of 
 very Japan itself, with all its peculiar spontanei- 
 ties, is vigorously enforced. The Bushido or 
 soldierly spirit — the creature of all known ele- 
 ments of Japanese character, in turn became 
 the creator of all the teachings of the sobrie- 
 ties, hopefulness, love, kindness, loyalty, faith, 
 truth, politeness, pity, literature, science, arts, 
 religions, education, civilization. It is by no 
 means a national religion, for we have a reli- 
 
 [51] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 gion — Shintoism; also, Buddhism, which to- 
 gether with the Shinto rehgion or ancestor 
 worship, has certain creeds and certain cere- 
 monies necessary to its practice. But the 
 Bushido has none of these characteristics of a re- 
 hgion. It is more than a rehgion. It stimulates 
 and animates the Japanese so that without being 
 a true Bushi, he cannot be a religious person. 
 Nothing was esteemed more disgraceful in a 
 true Japanese than to act contrary to or in diso- 
 bedience to the unwritten code of Bushido. 
 
 Sec. io. Suicide as the Highest Conception 
 of Japanese Individuality: Therefore, Japanese 
 domestic and military pride and emulation has 
 been the all-absorbing spirit and ideal of the Jap- 
 anese social and national character, and the Bush- 
 ido, or soldierly zeal and self-sacrificing fidelity 
 of the Japanese Bushi or soldiers, embodies the 
 highest conception of Japanese individuality. So 
 thoroughly was and is this Bushido fused into 
 the Japanese very being that military disgrace of 
 any kind is atoned for or obviated by hara- 
 kiri, or self-destruction. Hara-kiri is suicide 
 by self-disembowelment, and was resorted to 
 by and in every military rank as a proof of 
 
 [52] 
 
THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 
 
 fidelity or to prevent disgrace. Eveti Shoguns 
 committed hara-kiri, for instance, Nobunaga; 
 and when Takatoki, the last of the Hojio Sho- 
 guns, was overthrown, 3,000 of his vassals fell 
 upon their swords. Forty-seven Bushi, the re- 
 tainers of Lord Asano, when their master was 
 sentenced to death unjustly through spitework 
 prompted by Lord Moronao, performed their 
 famous deeds of revenge upon Moronao. They 
 carried his head to the grave of their master 
 Asano, where the forty-seven Bushi committed 
 hara-kiri. 
 
 Sec. II. Justification of the Suicide Custom : 
 In the olden times, criminals were put to 
 death by the legal executioners, but a Bushi 
 was put to hara-kiri. This form of death is 
 different from any suicide which has been 
 usually known in western countries. Hara- 
 kiri is the natural outcome of loyal and honor- 
 able sentiments, and it must be always so rec- 
 ognized in the Japanese cases. The meaning 
 of the hara-kiri idea may be somewhat ex- 
 plained by the like deed of Cato, the younger 
 tribune of the honest Romans, when he took his 
 own life to escape the reprobation of a polluted 
 
 [S3] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 sovereignty. So also was the death of Aris- 
 tides the Just, and of Demosthenes, the first 
 orator of the western world, who withstood the 
 temptation of Macedonian wealth, and saved 
 his country by suicide. The immortal teacher 
 of Grecian philosophy, one of the most shining 
 examples of western virtues, Socrates, com- 
 mitted suicide by drinking the fatal hemlock; 
 and Hannibal closed his eyes to his country's 
 woes by taking his own life. 
 
 Sec. 12. Fruit of the Japanese Character- 
 Making: It was this Bushido spirit that won 
 Japan the war with the Mongolians, after their 
 devastation of Europe, which they invaded 
 during the Middle Ages. By it Japan saved 
 Europe at last, when Europe did not know who 
 saved them. To this spirit the Japanese people 
 attributed their successive victories in the wars 
 with Korea and China, during the Fuedal Ages, 
 and more recently, the Chinese-Japanese war. 
 This Bushido spirit became more and more dis- 
 tinct to the eyes of every one in the Japanese 
 war with Russia, when the Japanese, animated 
 with the spirit of Bushido, displayed an unpar- 
 alleled example of human bravery in the attacks 
 
 [54] 
 
THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 
 
 upon Port Arthur. Another example of this 
 spirit is shown when Captain Sakurai and his 
 followers, on board the "Kinshimaru" sought 
 voluntary death to prevent military disgrace, 
 rather than surrender to their enemies. Com- 
 mander Shiina, when his transport was fol- 
 lowed by the Russian Vladivostock warships, 
 and an hour was given them to decide whether 
 they would surrender or not, told his followers : 
 "My brave soldiers, our ship is now at the 
 mercy of the enemy and is now irrevocably 
 doomed. * * * por us, there remains 
 nothing but to fight and die on board and face 
 death. * * * It is then that we shall show 
 them what manner of men we Japanese soldiers 
 are." And all went to the bottom while hum- 
 ming the national song. 
 
 Sec. 13. Biishido in Olden Time as Well as 
 in Nezv Bra: Comparing that Bushido spirit, 
 which has so thoroughly permeated the common 
 soldiers, bluejackets, and coolies of to-day with 
 that of the very remotest period in ancient 
 Japan, the zeal of the Japanese soldiers is to-day 
 as great as ever. The head of the Otomo clan 
 when instructing his soldiers in the ancient time, 
 
 [55] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 told them : "You must die by the side of your 
 Great Lord, and never turn your back to your 
 foe. If you die at sea, let your body sink in 
 the water; if you die on the hillside, let it be 
 outstretched on the mountain grass." In the 
 twelfth century, when the brave Yoshitsune, 
 the brother of the first Shogun Yoritomo, was 
 aimed at with an arrow's point by an in- 
 genious marksman and warrior of the Heike 
 clan, Sato Tadanobu threw his body in front 
 of his master and was killed, in order to save 
 him. Two centuries later, Mitta Yoshisada's 
 brave Bushi did the same. Again in the seven- 
 teenth century, Okubo Hikosayemon, being se- 
 verely wounded, placed his own body in a posi- 
 tion to shield his lord, Shogun lyeyasu. So 
 many soldiers volunteered their death to shield 
 their regiment commander, Ohara, when he was 
 covered by the Russian fire at the foot of Nan- 
 sen Hill. Commander Hirose, when attacking 
 Port Arthur, faced death calmly to save the life 
 of his comrades. General Nogi, commander-in- 
 chief in the siege of Port Arthur, rejoiced over 
 the death of his own son, who so bravely faced 
 death in an attack on a fort at Port Arthur. 
 
 [56] 
 
THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 
 
 Madam Nogi, upon hearing of her son's death, 
 sent congratulations to her husband on the self- 
 sacrifice, after the manner of a son of Bushi. 
 The practice of hara-kiri has recently been dis- 
 continued and there is now a law against it. 
 Still the same old characteristic Japanese spirit 
 survives now as in the past, the Bushido, the 
 life of the Japanese people. 
 
 Se:c. 14. The Japanese Szvords: Examples of 
 the manifestation of this animating character- 
 istic are, throughout every life in Japanese his- 
 tory, well known and conspicuous, yet one more 
 example which came in very recently from the 
 Americans and Europeans accompanying the 
 Japanese army in Manchuria. After the battle 
 of Chu-Lien-Cheng, Lieutenant Inouye found 
 among the heap of dead soldiers a Russian offi- 
 cer, mortally wounded and tormented by a burn- 
 ing thirst. He was trying to quench his thirst by 
 drinking his own blood. Inouye, seeing this, the 
 usual Bushido spirit prompted him to approach 
 the Russian, and he spoke kindly to him in the 
 Russian language, and gave him a drink of 
 water out of his own flask. The Russian tried 
 to thank him, but he could not speak. All that 
 
 [57] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 he could do was to unbuckle his sword and take 
 out his photograph, offering them as a mute 
 token to his benefactor. Inouye took the photo- 
 graph but returned the sword, saying that he 
 could not deprive a dying bushi (the soul of the 
 soldier) of his sword. 
 
 Sec. 15. Analogy of Bushido : The teachings 
 of the Bushido are an unwritten system of 
 thought and therefore cannot be classified or 
 analyzed. But we can set forth the main teach- 
 ings of the Bushido, an honest observance of 
 which will make a man a tolerably good Bushi. 
 
 1st. A Bushi must be loyal to his sovereign 
 and faithful to his master. He must cultivate 
 personal courage and be well trained in fenc- 
 ing, archery, and horsemanship and their mod- 
 ern ec[uivalents. 
 
 2d. A Bushi must be honest and chaste, 
 simple and temperate, a keeper of faith and true 
 to his word. He shall be polite in his behavior 
 and never intentionally rude to others. 
 
 3d. A Bushi shall be pitiful and ever ready 
 to help the weak and those who are in distress. 
 He shall cultivate a literary taste and never 
 despise the claims of learning. 
 
 [58] 
 
THE JAPANESE MORAL ETHICS 
 
 We cannot attempt to detail fully the teach- 
 ings of Bushido in this book, but even with 
 these three rules, if the reader will give him- 
 self the trouble to think out the full meaning, 
 he will come to the conclusion that there is 
 in the English language an exact equivalent 
 for the Japanese word "Bushi" and the word is 
 "Gentleman;" "The American Gentleman," in 
 the fullest sense of the word, is a Japanese 
 Bushi. 
 
 Sec. 1 6. The Japanese Moral Ethics Never 
 Die: We have many a time read predictions 
 made by distinguished and reputable scholars 
 in Europe and America that the moral ethics of 
 Old Japan will decay into oblivion as its castles, 
 temples, and shrines have done. Even promi- 
 nent Americans, being very intimate friends 
 of the author, have often declared : "You wait 
 fifty years or so, and these Japanese character- 
 istics will change, and reach the same stage 
 where we Americans are." While desiring the 
 realization of such a prediction, we must re- 
 member that a pyramid rises only from its own 
 ashes. "The kingdom of God is within you." 
 The seeds of the kingdom, permeating the 
 
 [59] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Japanese heart, blossomed within the Bushido. 
 It may be said that the worship of Christ and 
 the worship of the almighty dollar will divide 
 the world between them. On which side will 
 Bushido enlist? In the language of 
 Nitobe, "As there is no dogma or form- 
 ula to defend it, it is willing to die at the 
 first gust of the morning breeze. But a total 
 extermination — never." The system of Stoic- 
 ism is dead, but its virtue is alive; its energy 
 and vitality are felt through many channels of 
 life in the philosophy of western nations. So 
 with Bushido. Ages after, its odor will come 
 floating as the benediction of the air. 
 
 [60] 
 
THE JAPANESE WOMAN 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 "The Samurai-wife must be chaste as Lucrece, faith- 
 ful as Penelope." — Mrs. Hugh Fraser. 
 
 The Japanese Woman 
 
 Sec. 17. Influence of Buddhism, Confucian- 
 ism and Bushido: The oldest records of Japan 
 invariably relate that the underlying principle of 
 the Japanese woman is her spiritual training. 
 Respect for the deities, purity, resoluteness, 
 faithfulness, and loyalty make up the backbone 
 of Japanese womanhood. Buddhism and Confu- 
 cianism have exercised a very strong influence 
 in the moulding of character. We admit that 
 they have done a great deal of good in the train- 
 ing of the women, but they have done a 
 great deal of evil as well ; for they infuse the idea 
 that women are sinful by nature, and that 
 they are inferior by birth. They teach that 
 women to be virtuous must be represented as 
 
 [61] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ignorant and that any appearance of possessing 
 knowledge or activity is criticised as a blot on 
 her womanhood and so condemned. This evil 
 influence is in a way counteracted by the 
 chivalry or Bushido spirit, which acts to check 
 and balance the demoralization of the Japa- 
 nese women. In fact, the Bushido spirit 
 permeates both sexes of the Japanese people. 
 Each of the wives and daughters of the military 
 nobility carries a halberd in her belt. She is 
 taught to use it either in defense of her honor 
 or to commit self-destruction. 
 
 The author's family is of the military nobil- 
 ity, or Samurai caste. It may not be out of 
 place to state a little personal incident. When 
 a school boy in Tokyo, only six years old, his 
 most faithful schoolmate received a medal, and 
 he got none. His dear mother then told him 
 he had better commit hara-kiri, which even at 
 .that young age he thought strongly of doing. 
 The Japanese regarding their women in their 
 relation to Bushido, observe that Bushido 
 being primarily a teaching intended for the 
 masculine sex, the virtues it prized in women 
 were naturally far from being feminine. 
 
 [62] 
 
9 
 
 THE JAPANESE WOMAN 
 
 Young girls, therefore, were trained to repress 
 their feelings, to indurate their nerves, to 
 manipulate weapons, especially the long- 
 handled sword called Naginata, so as to be able 
 to hold their own against unexpected odds. Yet 
 the primary motive for the exercise of this mar- 
 tial character was not for use in the field; it 
 was two-fold — personal and domestic. Woman 
 owning no suzerain of her own, formed her 
 own bodyguard. With her weapon she 
 guarded her personal sanctity with as much zeal 
 as her husband did his master's. The domestic 
 utility of her war-like training was in the edu- 
 cation of her sons. The accomplishments of 
 our women were not acquired for show or so- 
 cial ascendancy. They were for home diversion ; 
 and if shown in social parties, they were as the 
 attributes of a hostess ; in other words, as a 
 part of the household contrivance for hospital- 
 ity. Domesticity guided their education. It may 
 be said without fear of contradiction that the 
 accomplishments of the women of Old Japan, 
 :i)e they martial or pacific in character, were 
 ainly intended for home; and, however far 
 ey might roam, they never lost sight of the 
 
 [63] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 hearth the center. It was to maintain its 
 honor and integrity that they slaved, drudged, 
 and gave up their Hves. Night and day, in 
 tones at once firm and tender, brave and plain- 
 tive, they sang to their little nests. A man's 
 character is formed and moulded when he is 
 young, principally while at home under the 
 care of his parents. Home education is the 
 ground-work; no man can escape without 
 more or less of its influence, and this education 
 is the predominant work of the mothers. It 
 may be stated without fear of contradiction 
 that the Bushido spirit of the Japanese is the 
 work of the mother. 
 
 Sec 1 8. Woman's Education in Old Japan: 
 In this connection let us investigate the Jap- 
 anese ideas regarding woman's education in 
 both old and new Japan. Even under the 
 regime of the feudal system, many books had 
 been written about woman's education, and 
 among them the "Onna Daigaku," or Great 
 Learning for Women, is conspicuous. The im- 
 portant requirements for girls in ancient times 
 were the arts of spinning, weaving, sewing, 
 washing, and preparing food. It was the chief 
 
 [64] 
 
THE JAPANESE WOMAN 
 
 duty of a girl living in the parental home to 
 practice filial piety toward her father and 
 mother. But after marriage her chief duty 
 was to honor her father-in-law and mother-in- 
 law, to honor them beyond her own father and 
 mother, and to tend them with every practice 
 of filial piety. 
 
 A woman has no particular lord. She must 
 look to her husband as her lord, and must serve 
 him with all worship and reverence, not despis- 
 ing or thinking lightly of him. The lifelong 
 duty of a woman is obedience. The foremost 
 maladies that affect the female mind are in- 
 docility, discontent, slander, jealousy, and silli- 
 ness. Without doubt, these five maladies in- 
 fest seven or eight out of every ten women, 
 and it is from these that arises the inferiority 
 of women to men. A woman should cure them 
 by self-inspection and self-reproach. 
 
 Sec. 19. Ideals of the Japanese Woman of 
 To-Day: Regarding woman's morals, a recent 
 native work, written in Japanese, of the late Mr. 
 Fukuzawa, on "Shin-Onna-Daigaku," literally 
 "Revised Great Learning for Women," is a 
 good reference. About ideals of the Japanese 
 
 [6s] 
 

 woman of to-day the author would like to 
 state to you, as he states to the young ladies of 
 his native country : That the great responsibility 
 of educating children devolves upon both 
 parents. The mother should give her own milk 
 to her child, and never leave it to the hands 
 of a nurse, unless for urgent reasons. When 
 a girl is growing up the best attention should 
 be given to her physical development. To re- 
 strain her from taking fuller exercise for fear 
 of getting her fine clothes soiled is wrong. 
 
 Give your daughter plain, neat clothing, and 
 let her indulge in exercise freely. To give food 
 to a girl is necessary, but to expect her to de- 
 velop on that only is a mistake. On the con- 
 trary, good food without proper exercise is 
 rather injurious. For girls of all standing, rich 
 or poor, high or low, language, letter-writ- 
 ing, calculation, the keeping of accounts, and 
 needlework should be indispensable and taught 
 together with the arts of housekeeping and 
 cooking. As to higher education, it is just as 
 useful as- to boys. Physics ought to be the 
 foundation for all other learning. Strictly 
 speaking, there is no study that it is useless for 
 
 [66] 
 
< b 
 
 THE JAPANESE WpMAN 
 
 girls to follow, except military science. But 
 there are burdens peculiar to women, and on 
 that account they have less time to devote to 
 learning than have men. Moreover, the educa- 
 tion of the sex has been comparatively neglected, 
 and it may be all too sudden to expect from 
 them the same accomplishments that are ob- 
 tained by the other sex. What is wanted at 
 the present stage of our national progress is all 
 that is practicable, and this consists in impart- 
 ing general knowledge on physics, physiology, 
 geography, and history, besides some knowl- 
 edge of law and economy. This last knowledge 
 may sound rather strange, but the lack of it, it 
 should be remembered, is the real cause of the 
 lack of influence possessed by women in society. 
 Grace is the first virtue of the sex ; and, there- 
 fore, any conduct or manner savoring of rough- 
 ness, rudeness, pride, and contentiousness 
 should be carefully avoided. For the moral cul- 
 "Fiifevof girls, there are proper books to read, 
 and good stories to hear, but the conduct and 
 example of their parents in daily life will re- 
 
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LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 agent in making a home cheerful and happy. 
 They lead, and the daughters follow. Thus 
 great are the duties of parents, and so submis- 
 sive is the nature of young maidens. 
 
 Sec 20. Ideal of the Japanese Happy Home: 
 One of the elements that constitutes a happy 
 home is frankness among the members of the 
 family. What children say to their mother 
 should not be concealed from their father ; and 
 what the father says to them should be made 
 known to their mother. Concealment destroys 
 straightforwardness and is apt to foster a 
 scheming character, which is to be avoided by 
 all means. When a girl has attained to a 
 proper age she marries, and this is the greatest 
 event in her life. In foreign countries the par- 
 ties marry upon their own choice after some 
 time of mutual acquainance. But in Japan it 
 becomes the duty of the parents to find suit- 
 able matches for their children. Much time 
 is spent in making investigations and in delib- 
 erate consideration. When the parents have 
 come to a decision, they ask their daughter's 
 will. The right to decide remains with the 
 latter. The parents simply seek out a suitable 
 
 [68] 
 
THE JAPANESE WOMAN 
 
 consort, and propose him to their child. It is 
 for the daughter or son to accept or reject. The 
 parents have no right to compel, and if the pro- 
 posal is rejected they can only seek another. 
 Though it would be very convenient if men 
 and women had free social intercourse and 
 made their own selections, yet at the present 
 stage of our social life there are far greater dis- 
 advantages than advantages in following such 
 a course. Let these developments remain for 
 some years to come before they are realized. 
 Marriage is the union of man and woman, in 
 which they solemnly contract with each other 
 for sharing all the pleasures as well as all the 
 pains of life. A single life may give much ease, 
 but far greater are the pleasures of a married 
 life, and so are also the corresponding troubles. 
 Sec 21 . The Japanese Wife: The wife should 
 know what her husband is doing outside and 
 what is his situation in business, so that in any 
 emergency she can settle his affairs without 
 trouble and loss. Hence, necessity arises that she 
 should have a knowledge of finance and econ- 
 omy. No amount of mere accomplishment will 
 make women ladies if they have not higher 
 
 [69] 
 
^f^iSy-. 
 
 •-^ 
 
 
 LIFE' 
 
 ideals and intellect. Even in their every-day be- 
 havior and words, they should be very careful. 
 A single word that cannot be properly uttered 
 with self-respect will degrade their womanhoodv-s^** 
 To maintain her position high, there is only one 
 way, and that is for woman to respect herself 
 and not to look down upon others, whoever they^ ' 
 may be. A happy homeis the joint work of hus- 
 band and wife, and there can be no question of 
 difference in the relative rights and positions. 
 Mutual love, respect, assistance, and confidence 
 should find them together all through their life. 
 It is part of the wife's grace to be obedient to her 
 husband in all things right and reasonable. But 
 if the husband is at fault, it is her duty to res- 
 cue him and turn him right by mild and ef- 
 fective means. 
 
 Such is the life of a Japanese woman. It is 
 well said that the worth of a State is the worth 
 of the individuals composing it. The great 
 drama which Japan has been destined to play 
 in the world's theatre with such unprecedented 
 success may be largely credited to the Japanese 
 women. 
 
THETAPANESE WOMAN 
 
 "HUSBAND AND WIFE.' 
 Wife :— 
 
 "Though other women's husbands ride 
 
 Along the road in proud array, 
 My husband, up the rough hillside 
 On foot must wend his weary way. 
 
 "The grievous sight with bitter pain 
 My bosom fills, and many a tear 
 
 Steals down my cheek, and I would fain 
 Do aught to help my husband, dear. 
 
 "Come ! Take the mirror and the veil, 
 My mother's parting gifts to me ; 
 
 In barter they must sure avail 
 To buy an horse to carry thee." 
 
 Husband : — ■ 
 
 "And I should purchase me an horse. 
 
 Must not ray wife still sadly walk? 
 No, no ! though stony is our course, 
 
 We'll trudge along and sweetly talk." 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ^y" CHAPTER V 
 
 "I've seen the bogie's veritable shape : — It's merely 
 withered grass." — Bassio. 
 
 Japanese Customs and Habits 
 
 Sec. 22. Japanese at Home: It is the custom 
 of the Japanese people to keep their famous col- 
 lections of pictures, potteries and other bric-a- 
 brac in their storehouse or Kura. These are ex- 
 hibited on different occasions and according to 
 the personal tastes of their guests, or to the sea- 
 sons, or even the changes of the weather. They 
 are ever anxious to arrange the colors of the 
 various objects in the room in conformity with 
 the tints of the exterior, strictly observing har- 
 monies and contrasts. The Japanese are very 
 fond of gardens. With the garden it is indis- 
 pensable to have ponds and rustic bridges, little 
 mountains and hills, diminutive waterfalls, 
 meandering paths, ball-like trimmed shrubs, 
 
 [72] 
 
JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS 
 
 root-lifted pines, and stationary lamps made of 
 stone. The dimensions of the grounds may be 
 larger or smaller according to circumstances, 
 and so are the landscapes, but they always have 
 the gardens. The poorest Japanese in the 
 crowded city, either at the corner of the entrance 
 space or even in the room, will have his minia- 
 ture garden fixed up in a box. 
 
 At the table, or zen, the grandfather and 
 grandmother must in every case be served first, 
 'there is no exception to this custom. Next 
 come the mother and father, lastly the children. 
 It is the custom of the Japanese always to ob- 
 serve as much formality as possible between 
 elder and younger sisters or brothers. Elder 
 sisters or elder brothers must always be con- 
 sulted as to their wishes and conveniences. The 
 younger ones always give way before the older 
 ones and pay due respect, either in or out of the 
 household. And the Japanese parents have a 
 jealous care of their boys and girls. Restriction 
 is far better than unlicensed liberty, and poverty 
 with purity better than wealth with infamy. 
 Then they have not many chances to sing: 
 
 "Where is my wandering boy to-night?" 
 [73] 
 
tes. 
 
 "''^^'^t--,. 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Sec. 23. Peculiar Habits of the Japanese: 
 To state all the peculiar habits of the Japa- 
 nese would take too long; therefore, we will 
 have to mention some of them that do not quite 
 conform to those of the Americans. For in- 
 stance, Japanese merchants display their wares 
 on mats, and both vendors and purchasers sit 
 and drink tea while trading. They use the bead 
 frame or abacus for calculating. The left is the 
 side and seat of honor. In walking they will take 
 the left side to make a passage for the parties 
 coming toward them. Japanese family names 
 precede individual names, for instance they say : 
 Bryan, Jennings William Mr., and not Mr. 
 William Jennings Bryan. White and not black 
 is the color for mourning and funerals. They 
 have the habit of depreciating their own and 
 praising what belongs to others, for example, 
 "This dinner is neither nice nor plentiful, but 
 please partake;" "My wife is an ugly dunce;" 
 "My son is a stupid fellow." "Your wife is an 
 honorable lady." "Your son is a fine boy." 
 When the Japanese go out on strike, show your 
 ^Jiearty kindness and prove your sincerest sym- 
 pathy and profound truth ; but if the Americans 
 
 [74] 
 
JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS 
 
 ^ 
 M 
 
 strike, give them more money. If Japanese 
 are suspicious of your pretentions, the kindness 
 of ostensible sympathy, you will never settle 
 your differences. Especially if you speak or 
 show any intention that you will pay them extra 
 money or increased wages you will make your 
 differences most extreme. However, if they 
 understand your kind heart they will return to 
 work, and work like beavers, night and day, 
 without expecting compensation. The Japa- 
 nese laborers do not care for your rights, your 
 money or your contracts, but your duty, your 
 faith, loyalty, patience, kindness, courtesy, fair- 
 ness, honesty and truth. When invited to din- 
 ner, tea and cake is served first ; the soup, of 
 course, afterward. Americans in speaking with 
 a person look into their eyes, but the Japanese 
 avoid doing that. To call a person to come, or 
 to command him to come, we force our hand 
 from us, palm forward. Men always precede 
 women. Women always take off their hats in 
 the meeting-houses, theatres, and such places. 
 The Japanese ladies object to showing their form, 
 using every possible means to conceal the figure, 
 wearing the large sash or bow in the back with 
 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 the ends extending to the hem of the kimono; 
 whereas American ladies, as a rule, do not ob- 
 ject to showing the form. Japanese writing 
 and printing reads downward, progressing to 
 the left instead of to the right. When striking 
 an antagonist, Japanese give a side "swipe" in- 
 stead of a forward punch. The Japanese do 
 not like curly hair and will try every scheme to 
 straighten it. The Japanese do not kiss, either 
 between parents or children or between hus- 
 band and wife. The Japanese people believe 
 that early to bed and early to rise makes them 
 healthier, wealthier and wiser. Theatres com- 
 mence early in the morning, about eight o'clock, 
 and close after sunset, families taking their 
 children and lunches with them. When meet- 
 ing or saluting each other, the Japanese bow 
 submissively two or three times instead of shak- 
 ing hands. In using a plane or saw the Japanese 
 force it toward them instead of pushing it for- 
 ward. Japanese ladies turn their toes toward 
 }*ijr each other, while walking. They lift the front 
 
 of the dresses instead of the rear. You are ac- 
 customed to think the Japanese habits are pe- 
 culiar ; the Japanese also consider your habits 
 
 peculiar. 
 
 [76] 
 
•J^> 
 
 JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS 
 
 Let us add that the custom of undervaluing 
 one another because of the difference of opin- 
 ion or habits is bad. American travelers com- 
 ing back from Japan will inform you about the 
 nudity of the Japanese rural women. Japanese 
 from America also talk about the "exhibition 
 of living pictures" of some American women. 
 An American merchant has informed you that 
 a Japanese trader is apt not to keep his promise 
 if the money market goes against him. Jap- 
 anese traders, too, say that they have a hard 
 time to get out of traps such as sharp "Wall 
 Street" tricks. Americans sometimes criticise 
 Japanese as idolators, but Japanese know that 
 some Americans worship the golden calf. 
 Americans from Japan will talk to you about 
 the sexual immorality of the Japanese woman ; 
 the Japanese, too, will say to you, not mention- 
 ing many large cities, that New York City alone 
 has over 60,000 prostitutes, and the City of Chi- 
 cago has its revenue of $20,000,000 from the 
 traffic of 10,000 prostitutes. 
 
 [77] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 "Oh ! sacred mountain of Japan ! 
 
 Should your Yamato spirit 
 Strangers seek to scan, 
 
 Say — it's the mountain cherry, 
 Scatt'ring fragrance far and near 
 
 To the golden glow of the morning sun !" 
 
 Narcissa Hayes. 
 
 Topography of Japan. 
 
 Sec 24. The Sacred Lake Biwa: Topo- 
 graphically speaking, the coast line of Japan 
 is much cut into countless bays, inlets, seas, 
 straits, capes, peninsulas, and rugged promon- 
 tories, and the interior comprises numbers of 
 regularly disposed mountain ranges, with in- 
 tervening plains or undulating country. 
 
 Vegetation being everywhere luxuriant, the 
 mountain, valley and island scenery, among 
 these emerald isles of the Orient, is sublime be- 
 yond description. 
 
 The principal lake is Biwa, 100 square miles 
 
 [78] 
 
TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 
 
 in area. It is to us a sacred lake, around which 
 nestles many a heart-swelling legend. Fuji- 
 No-Yama, a semi-extinct volcanic crater, 13,- 
 000 feet high, is our highest and most sacred 
 mountain. 
 
 The climate of Japan resembles that of the 
 Eastern States, but is more humid in summer 
 on account of numerous showers. The sum- 
 mer is hot, sometimes sultry, but always whole- 
 some; the winters are cool and often piercing. 
 
 The ocean currents that wash the coast of 
 Japan could not be properly described herein. 
 We will merely mention that the various arctic 
 and equatorial currents that together constitute 
 the Japan Stream, not only give to Japan a 
 most varied climate, but bring to her shores 
 enormous shoals of fish and other sea animals, 
 in such quantities and endless varieties as to 
 make Japan phenomenal in this respect. More- 
 over, the Japan Stream crosses the Pacific and 
 gives warmth to the coast of California. 
 
 The fauna and flora of Japan somewhat re- 
 semble those of America; yet the Japanese 
 have a few animals and plants that are more or 
 less distinctly peculiar to their country. 
 
 [79] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 The vegetation of Japan is exceedingly luxu- 
 riant. Great forests of cedars, lotus, pines, wil- 
 lows, juniper, maple, hydrangea, mulberry, 
 ilex, giant camellias, the laquer and camphor 
 trees, loquats and wistarias, cherries and plums, 
 everywhere abound, the great bamboo groves 
 exist throughout the islands. The chrysanthe- 
 mum, our national flower, has its home in 
 Japan. 
 
 Sec. 25. The Sacred Mountain Fuji: In 
 early times Japan was considerably rocked 
 by earthquakes, and light shocks are still 
 frequent, with an occasional severe one. By 
 far the most noted phenomenon of this na- 
 ture in our annals occurred in the year 286 
 B. C, when the sacred mountain Fuji and Lake 
 Biwa (before mentioned), which is 300 miles 
 from it, were formed. Mount Fuji suddenly 
 rose to its present elevation, of 13,000 feet, and 
 at the same time a great chasm opened and 
 filled with water. This was Lake Biwa. This 
 may appear extraordinary, but it is not compar- 
 atively so, if we search the records of such 
 events. As late as 1759 A. D., and as near 
 here as Mexico, the volcano JoruUo rose sud- 
 
 I80] 
 
TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 
 
 denly to the height of 1,500 feet in the midst of 
 a plain 2,890 feet above the sea level. Mount 
 Fuji has been active for more than 1,850 years, 
 its last eruption occurring in the year 1707. 
 
 This sacred mountain, as everybody who 
 sees it will admit, is a wonder of the world. 
 No mountain in any country surpasses Fuji in 
 sublimity and grandeur. They who see 
 it in the distance, stand in reverence before a 
 most beautiful sight, beyond power of descrip- 
 tion. Fuji's lofty crown, clad with everlasting 
 snow, casts indescribable brilliancies and illu- 
 minations on the surrounding peaks and valleys 
 far and near, under the glorious rays of the 
 rising sun. Its divine and majestic cone is like 
 "a huge white fan, invertedly hanging in the 
 heaven." Around Fuji nestle many legends 
 and traditions. Even at the present day, under 
 the light of environment of the twentieth cen- 
 tury civilization, tens of thousands of pious 
 Japanese worship the gods of the mountain. 
 The author would like to state a little personal 
 experience. When in August — that is the time 
 the temperature on the summit of Fuji can be 
 tolerated when it is reached — he succeeded in 
 
 [81] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 climbing to the top. From Gatemba he as- 
 cended the gradually undulating path among 
 the clumps of trees. There are ten stations 
 where one can rest for a little while and write 
 a sign of his passage at what is called the 
 Eastern Gate, or at some station eat cakes, 
 rice soup or plums, and drink tea. Blankets 
 and fires are provided to mitigate the piercing 
 cold wind up on the summit stations. The author 
 had, of course, many fellow-travelers, among 
 whom, as usual, were large numbers of Fuji 
 worshippers, who climb the mountain once a 
 year. He has many a time engaged in interest- 
 ing conversation with them. One of them said to 
 him : "I had a hard experience last year, for some 
 ungrateful person was with me, whose presence 
 ofifended the mountain, causing a fierce wind 
 and storm halfway up. Whenever any impious 
 individual is near, or about to climb the holy 
 and divine mountain, surely then the guardian 
 spirits of the mountain are enraged and warn 
 us with the fierce wind and storm." The author 
 could not then resist the force of argument of 
 his fellow-traveler, the Fuji worshipper, al- 
 though it is his habit to reason with any person 
 
 182] 
 
TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 
 
 upon matters of superstition, but having in front 
 of him the grand sight of this mountain, the 
 heart-rending figure which exalts itself to 
 command and put down, with a feeHng of 
 awe and reverence, he meekly submitted to the 
 point of argument of the Fuji worshipper. 
 
 SPRING. 
 "Amid the branches of the silv'ry bowers 
 
 The nightingale doth sing ; perchance he knows 
 That spring hath come, and takes the later snows 
 For the white petals of the plum's sweet flowers." 
 
 Sosei. 
 SUMMER. 
 
 "In blossoms the wisteria tree to-day 
 
 Breaks forth, that sweep the wavelets of my lake. 
 When will the mountain-cuckoo come and make 
 The garden vocal with his first sweet lay?" 
 
 Hitomaro. 
 AUTUMN. 
 
 "Can I be dreaming? 'Twas but yesterday 
 We planted out each tender shoot again ; 
 
 And now the autumn breeze sighs o'er the plain, 
 Where fields of yellow rice confess its sway." 
 
 WINTER. 
 "When falls the snow, lo ! ev'ry herb and tree, 
 That in seclusion through the wint'ry hours 
 Long time had been held fast, breaks forth in flow'rs 
 That ne'er in Spring were known upon the lea." 
 
 Tsurayuki. 
 [83] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 "Oh ! that that ancient bridge, 
 
 Hanging 'twixt heaven and earth, were longer still! 
 Oh ! that yon tow'ring mountain-ridge 
 
 So boldly tow'ring, tow'red more boldly still ! 
 Then from the moon on high 
 
 I'd fetch some drops of the life-giving stream — 
 A gift that might beseem 
 
 Our Lord, the King, to make him live for aye !" 
 
 Feudalism of Japan 
 
 Sec. 26. Japan's First Emperor: In stating 
 to intelligent and educated American people it 
 seems fitting for a few moments to dwell on the 
 study of history as an important part of a use- 
 ful and well-spent life. 
 
 To begin with, history, as you well know, is 
 the written record of the past; it is also such 
 written study of the present as enables us to 
 reveal the unwritten past ; the great pyramid is 
 not history, and until Herodotus wrote, and 
 
 [84] 
 
FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 
 
 Champollion deciphered it, it was but an artifi- 
 cial mountain. So were the old relics and re- 
 mains until the Japanese ethnologists, anthro- 
 pologists, archeologists, and philologists studied 
 them giving aid to the historians. Kojiki, or 
 "Book of Ancient Tradition," and Nihonki, or 
 "Record of Japanese Events," are some of the 
 important keys to unlock the secrets of the 
 historical events during the ancient and 
 medieval ages. 
 
 Japanese history dates from the middle of 
 the seventh century, B. C, giving the Japanese 
 people now the 2,565th year of the Japanese 
 era. About the year 660 B. C, Jimmu con- 
 quered all petty chiefs, united the whole coun- 
 try under his sway, organized a form of gov- 
 ernment and ascended the throne in Yamato, 
 as Japan's first emperor. During the 2,565 
 years of United Japan, therefore, there has 
 been but one imperial dynasty, comprising 126 
 emperors in all. 
 
 Sec 27. Commencement of Feudalism: 
 Prompted by the subjugation of the aborig- 
 inal tribes, and the barbarian invasions during 
 the early ages of Japanese history, a well-de- 
 
 [85] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 vised politico-military system was organized, 
 and soon developed into a powerful feudalism 
 for good and for evil. The country having 
 been frequently ravished by barbarians from 
 distant lands, the Emperor parted with his mili- 
 tary functions and conferred them upon a gen- 
 eralissimo, or Shogun. 
 
 The title of Shogun was first conferred by 
 the Emperor on a general-in-chief in the sixth 
 century, A. D., to whom was entrusted the sub- 
 jugation of the aborigines, and defense from 
 the barbarian invasions. 
 
 The Shogun was vested in a noble family as a 
 heredity, and soon antagonistic families — all 
 off-shoots from royalty — were competitors for 
 the important office. With the military the 
 Emperor virtually divested himself of his polit- 
 ical influence as well, from which it may be in- 
 ferred that the relation between Emperor and 
 Shogun were not always amicably reciprocal. 
 Their respective governments were distinct and 
 remote from each other in their individualistic 
 emulations as well as in their respective capi- 
 tals. 
 
 The Emperor's government removed from 
 
 [86] 
 
FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 
 
 Nara to Kyoto in the eighth century. The 
 Shogunate fixed their capital at Kamakura, re- 
 sulting in a Western and an Eastern capital, or 
 Kyoto and Kamakura. The Shogunate, for the 
 nine centuries of its existence, concentrated 
 their wealth, power, arts, influence and com- 
 merce of the empire within their capital, which 
 soon far surpassed in importance the imperial 
 or Western capital, Kyoto. For a time during 
 the Middle Ages, the rivals Taira and Mina- 
 moto or Heike and Genji clans exhausted the 
 resources and vitality of the nation in their per- 
 sonal conflicts, the Taira dynasty prevailed 
 until 1 1 59, when the Minamoto family gained 
 the ascendancy and remained in possession of 
 the Shogunate until 12 19, when the clan be- 
 came extinct and was succeeded by the Ho jo 
 dynasty. The Tokugawa was the last of the 
 Shogun dynasties, continuing until 1868, when 
 the Shogunate was suppressed by the instru- 
 mentality of the great national upheaval, which 
 was fortuitous to Perry's opportune expedition. 
 Sec. 28. The Caste System: It was Yoritomo, 
 a Shogun of the Minatomo dynasty, who over- 
 threw the Taira clan just mentioned. In Yori- 
 
 [87] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 tomo civil rule surrendered to military. Thus 
 feudalism practically began about the year i i6o 
 A. D. 
 
 The Shogun parceled the country into fiefs, 
 each under a separate Daimio or feudal baron 
 with concomitant clans, castes, vassals, and 
 feudal tenure. Feudalism has ever been inci- 
 dental to such a military tenure. During the 
 Shogunate each Daimio ruled within his fief as 
 a sovereign. The territory of each Daimio was 
 politically and socially independent from that 
 of every other fief, and the laws and customs of 
 each such territory was often the very antithesis 
 of those adjacent fiefs. The circulating medium, 
 which in most cases was paper money, was also 
 severally distinct, the money of one fief not be- 
 ing current in any other. Various hardships 
 thus grew out of this polyarchial system. The 
 people in each fief were usually classified in 
 five classes or subdivisions — the military or 
 Samurai, the agriculturists, the artisans, the 
 , merchants, and eta or outcaste. 
 V Siic. 29. The Periclean Age of Medieval 
 Japan: Yoritomo had married into the Ho jo 
 family and now the Hojo became the real rulers, 
 
 [88] 
 
FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 
 
 not, to be sure as Shoguns, but they worked the 
 wires both at Kyoto and Kamakura. During 
 this Hojo dynasty of double rule, Japan was 
 twice invaded by Mongols under Kublai Kahn, 
 the grandson of the great Genghis Kahn, who 
 swarmed and devastated Europe. These events 
 rendered the name of the Hojo clan memorable 
 in Japanese history. Arts and literature were 
 encouraged during this era, which may safely 
 be called the Periclean Age of Medieval Japan. 
 
 The Ashikaga dynasty began during the Ashi- 
 kaga rule, and the imperial power was reduced 
 to nil ; civil wars and earthquakes wrecked the 
 empire, and devastation, starvation, and pesti- 
 lence cast a gloom over the nation. It was the 
 darkest period of Japanese history. The com- 
 ing of the Portuguese and Spaniards in the mid- 
 dle of the sixteenth century modified this state 
 of affairs. It was then that Christianity was 
 introduced by some Jesuits and Franciscans, 
 among whom was that extraordinary man, 
 Francis Xavier. 
 
 This terrible Ashikaga age of civil war was 
 remarkable for discovery and invention, and a 
 revolution in the arts of peace as well as of 
 K I ■ war. 
 
 V ^ ■ [89] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Se;c. 30. Instance of a Beggar Who Became 
 Shogun: Toward the close of the Ashikaga 
 Shogunate three great men of Japan rose into 
 prominence, two of which, Hideyoshi and 
 lyeyasn, merited the highest distinction accord- 
 ing to Japanese ideals of celebrity. Hideyoshi's 
 case shows that in Japanese national economy 
 a man of low rank may ascend to the highest au- 
 thority in the realm, next to the Emperor. Hide- 
 yoshi, when a mere child, deserted the parental 
 roof, became an apprentice, next a sexton in a 
 Buddhist temple, and then a beggar. He became 
 a tramp, living anywhere, and sleeping where 
 night overtook him. On one occasion he slept 
 on the Takechiyo-Bashi bridge, and before he 
 arose in the morning he was roughly picked 
 up and ordered out of the way by one of the 
 attendants of a retinue that accompanied a 
 young nobleman, Tokugawa lyeyasn. Hide- 
 yoshi noticed that the young nobleman was a 
 mere lad, even younger than himself, and he 
 said to himself, "Why should I get out of the 
 way. He is rich and I am poor, to be sure, but 
 that makes no difference. I have heard of the 
 rich becoming poor and the poor becoming 
 
 [90] 
 
FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 
 
 rich. Some day I will rise to a higher posi- 
 tion than he has, and then I will make him tie 
 my shoe." Hideyoshi, after some deeds of 
 valor, received from the Emperor the title of 
 Kwampaku, or premier. Therefore, he was 
 general-in-chief of all the armies, and thereby 
 had an authority over the princely Daimios, 
 some of whom rebelled. He, by great military 
 skill, suppressed these rebellions, and then in- 
 vaded Korea and China in two decisive cam- 
 paigns. The first expedition to Korea, in the 
 year 1591, was preliminary to a further enter- 
 prise against China. He advanced as far as 
 Nagoya. He there sent an army to Fusan, 
 which reached that place a few days later. The 
 Japanese army was victorious everywhere, and 
 soon captured Seoul, the capital of Korea. The 
 King of Korea took refuge in China and there 
 he asked the Chinese Emperor (Mins dynasty) 
 to support him. The Japanese general, Koni- 
 shi had pursued the King to Phog-Yang. The 
 ambitious Chinese Emperor acceded to the re- 
 quest of the fugitive king and sent a vast num- 
 ber of soldiers to fight with the Japanese and 
 endeavored to restore the king to his rightful 
 
 [91] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 place in Seoul. But the Chinese armies were 
 utterly defeated in every campaign before the 
 victorious armies of Konishi and Kobayakavvfa. 
 The vanquished sued for peace, which was 
 granted. Hideyoshi recalled his armies to 
 Japan. However, the conditions offered for 
 the peace were not satisfactory to Hideyoshi, 
 so he refused the ambassador from China and 
 Korea, and renewed the expedition. But this 
 time, while the victorious Japanese warriors 
 were marching on everywhere in Korea toward 
 China, Hideyoshi fell sick. The further ad- 
 vance of the Japanese was hindered and the 
 sudden recall of the armies was consequently 
 inevitable, according to the circumstances of 
 the time. 
 
 Sec. 31. The Bloodiest Civil War in the 
 Middle Ages: Shogun Nofunaga paved the way 
 for his successor, Hideyoshi, and the latter laid 
 the foundation for the last and greatest Shogun, 
 lyeyasu. His family name was Tokugawa. As 
 Hideyoshi saw his end nearing, he called to 
 him, lyeyasu, and said, "I foresee great wars 
 after my death; I know there is no one but 
 you that can keep the country quiet ; I therefore 
 
 [92] 
 
FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 
 
 bequeath to you the whole country." lyeyasu 
 had to fight his way to the Shogunate, because 
 many Dairaios openly opposed his supremacy, 
 especially those of the southwestern provinces. 
 They were subdued in the battle of Sekigahara, 
 near Lake Biwa, in October, 1600. This was 
 the bloodiest and most decisive battle in Jap- 
 anese history. 
 
 Sec 32. Working of the Feudal System: 
 The seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate was 
 at Yedo (now Tokyo), the city which lye- 
 yasu had fixed upon as his capital. It will 
 perhaps not be unprofitable to inquire into the 
 nature and working of the ingenious system 
 of lyeyasu, which was imposed on the fifteen 
 generations and also served to prolong the 
 medieval period of Japan for over two centu- 
 ries. 
 
 The Tokugawa family has three branches 
 or houses, the heads of which were the wealthy 
 princes of Owari, Kii and Mito, respectively; 
 the successor to the Shogunate always being 
 chosen when the Shogun had no son, from one 
 of these three families. This system was 
 founded by the three sons of lyeyasu himself. 
 
 [93] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Next to them in rank came sixteen territorial 
 lords of Koku-Shiu, feudal barons of great 
 power. They were allies rather than subjects. 
 Next to them in rank came the nobles known by 
 the title of Kamon. There were nineteen 
 Kamon families, who were descended from 
 some of the numerous progeny of lyeyasu him- 
 self, therefore, that comprise all subsidiary 
 branches of the three families. Next in rank 
 and power were the Fudai and the Tozama 
 nobles. They were eligible to the government's 
 important offices. These privileges were at- 
 tached to these ranks for the token of ancestral 
 submission at the decisive war, in favor of 
 lyeyasu. There were about fifty-six noble fam- 
 ilies who carry the name of Matsudaira, that 
 being the name of lyeyasu's birthplace. This 
 was a reward given to nobles for signal ser- 
 vices to the Shogun's house. The Shogunate 
 government was carried on for these nobles by 
 the vassals who held fiefs of them. These vas- 
 sals constituted the Samuri, and the more pow- 
 erful members of this class owned larger es- 
 as well as greater powers than the lesser 
 nobles. 
 
 [94] 
 
FEUrlAiriSM OF J-APaU' 
 
 Sec. 33. The Famous Samurai Caste: There- 
 fore, next to the Fudai and Tozama in rank 
 comes this Samurai nobility, who by virtue of 
 their position played such a large and important 
 part in the history of Japan. It may be worth 
 while keeping the name of this class in mind. 
 The Samurai, or the middle class, were the bar- 
 rier against the despotic ; and virtually acted as 
 agents of the government and the governed for 
 good and evil. The number of families of this 
 class exceed 400,000, comprising over i ,600,000. 
 They were from their official position the gentry 
 of the country. It was the pride of the Samurai 
 to be privileged to carry two swords as a token 
 of their military purposes. It is true that, in 
 the long peace which the Tokugawa Shogunate 
 brought to the country, the Samurai had no 
 eal opportunity of showing their mettle, but 
 the spirit of the profession was there. The 
 Samurai formed a caste of their own, despising 
 commerce or other means of gaining wealth, 
 and proud of an honorable poverty. They 
 Spent their time in the service of their lords, 
 [fl the profession of fencing, Jiujitsu, arts and 
 
 [95] 
 
 i!K«: 
 
 ^ 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 literature, as well as the intangible contribu- 
 tion to the nation's moral code or Bushido. 
 
 One of the essential features of the system of 
 lyeyasu was its caste. The different castes were 
 the Samurai, farmers, artisans, merchants, and 
 eta. There was no intermarraige between mem- 
 bers of different castes. Artisans or merchants 
 traded in the same way that their fathers had 
 done. The Eta, or lowest class, had a commu- 
 nity of its own. Life was as fixed and un- 
 changeable as human ingenuity could make it. 
 
 Sec 34. The Emperor's Position: The Em- 
 peror or Mikado, of course, still existed during 
 the Shogunate as supreme ruler, but his for- 
 feiture of the military authority to a Shogunate ; 
 the distinct political powers essentially inherent 
 in the Daimios in relation to their respective ter- 
 ritories, and the frequent usurpation of his very 
 prerogative by the Shoguns, left the Emperor a 
 mere figurehead in his empire. The subsequent 
 lapse of the Shogunate left him absolute mon- 
 arch of the realm. 
 
 Before the investment of the first Shogun, 
 the country was peaceful and prosperous and 
 the people intuitively submitted to authority. 
 
 [96] 
 
FEUDALISM OF JAPAN 
 
 The respect for royalty was so evident during 
 the early centuries of the monarchy, when the 
 Mikado exercised full power, that people never 
 dreamed of questioning the authority of even 
 the minister of the Emperor. The system of 
 employing the military as mere tools to satiate 
 the personal propensities of a new ambitous 
 prince, either as his private bodyguards or to 
 further the usurpation of political power and 
 suffrage that naturally vests in the people and 
 the Emperor, could not in the nature of things 
 last forever. Since Yoritomo supplanted the 
 civil power and placed the whole country under 
 fuedal sway the rulers and the ruled were in- 
 termittently changing places, especially during 
 the Hojo, Ashikaga, Ota Nobunaga, and Toy- 
 otomi Hideyoshi dynasties. Throughout this 
 period the country was a cauldron of inter- 
 necine strife. 
 
 War and duelistic combat was the all-ab- 
 sorbing occupation of the people, especially of 
 the Sumarai. Such was really the internal con- 
 dition of the country for the first 682 years of 
 the Shogunate and until Takugawa Shogun's 
 death in 1616. After his death his descendants 
 
 [97] 
 
for fifteen generations bore aloft the escutcheon 
 of the Shogunate, nntil the squadron of the 
 United States, under Commodore Perry, 
 steamed into the hitherto undisturbed waters 
 of Yedo Bay in 1853. 
 
 "I will kill her if the nightingale sings not in time." 
 
 Nobunaga. 
 
 "I will force her to sing for me." 
 
 "I will wait till she opens her lips." 
 
 Hideyoshi. 
 
 lyeyasu. 
 
 [98] 
 
A: 
 6 
 
 CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW 0? FEUDALISM 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 "Who carried foppery to extremes 
 Alas ! now wears a paper coat." 
 
 Causes for Overthrow of 
 Feudalisni 
 
 Sec. 35. The Foreign Influence: On the 
 14th of July, 1853, the Shogunate government 
 received President Fillmore's letter. It was 
 confronted with the necessity of a more or less 
 diplomatic interview with the Black Fleet. The 
 presents from the American people must be 
 examined, the whole matter debated, and the 
 reply prepared before the return of the ob- 
 5J~X3roxious fleet. There were ten months to the 
 good. Should it be war or should it be peace ? 
 Whichever was to occur, the Daimios, under the 
 feudal system, would have to be consulted as 
 they, ex officio, would have to shoulder the rt- 
 
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 M 
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 ^ -I- 
 
 39) 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 sponsibility. A translation of the brief re- 
 ceived from Perry was duly made and a copy 
 was sent to each of the Daimios requesting their 
 unreserved opinions in terms as follows : "The 
 document delivered from the American ships, 
 of which a translation is hereto attached, is a 
 matter of vital importance to the nation. Ask 
 not concerning the past nor for a reason why 
 we could not refuse to accept the letter from 
 the American ambassador, but cast your eyes 
 to the immediate future, where omens threaten 
 the overwhelming of the country." 
 
 Sec. 36. Japan Was in Pavor of War With 
 the United States: To this demand replies were 
 rapidly composed and sent to the Shogunate. 
 The replies were in substance all of the same 
 tenor, one of which, from Prince Mito, is as 
 follows : 
 
 "There are ten reasons in favor of war. 
 
 "First — The annals of our history are replete with 
 the exploits ot the Great who planted our banners on 
 alien soil, but never was the clash of foreign arms 
 heard within the precincts of holy ground. Let not our 
 generation be the first to permit the disgrace of a 
 barbarian array treading on the land where our fathers 
 rest. 
 
 [100] 
 
CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 
 
 "Second — Notwithstanding the strict interdiction of 
 Christianity, there are those guilty of the heinous crime 
 of professing the doctrines of this evil sect. If now 
 America be once admitted into our favor the rise of the 
 faith is a matter of certainty. 
 
 "Third — What ! Trade our gold, silver, copper, iron 
 and sundry useful materials for wool, glass, and similar 
 trashy little articles ! Even the limited barter with the 
 Dutch factory ought to have been stopped. 
 
 "Fourth — Many a time recently have Russia and other 
 countries solicited trade with us, but they were promptly 
 refused. If once America be permitted the same privi- 
 lege, what excuse can there be for not extending the 
 same to other nations ? 
 
 "Fifth — The policy of the barbarians is, first to enter 
 a country for trade, then to introduce their religion, 
 and afterwards to stir up strife and contention. Let us 
 be guided by the experience of our forefathers during 
 the past centuries. Despise not the lessons of the 
 Chinese opium war. 
 
 "Sixth — The Dutch scholars say that our people 
 should cross the ocean, go to the other countries and 
 engage in active foreign trade. This is all very desir- 
 able, provided our people be as brave and as strong as 
 were their ancestors in olden time. But at present the 
 long-continued peace has incapacitated them for any 
 such activity. 
 
 [lOl] 
 
LIFE ,0F JAPAN. 
 
 "Seventh — The necessity of vigilance against the re^S 
 turn of the American ships has brought the vigilant 
 Samuris to the capitol from distant quarters of the 
 realm. Is it wise to disappoint them? 
 
 "Eighth — Not only the naval defense of Nagasaki, 
 but all things relating to foreign powers have been en 
 trusted to the two clans of Kuroda and Nabeshimagij^; l' 
 To hold any conference with a foreign power outside' 
 of their port of Nagasaki, as has been done this time at 
 Kurihama, is an encroachment upon their rights and 
 trust. These powerful families will not thankfully ac- 
 cept any intrusion into their vested authority. 
 
 "Ninth — The haughty demeanor of the barbarians of 
 the United States, now at anchorage in our sacred har- 
 bor, has provoked even the illiterate populace. Should 
 nothing be done to show that the Government shares 
 the indignation of the people, they will lose all fear or 
 respect for or confidence in it. 
 
 "Tenth — Peace and prosperity of long duration have 
 enervated the spirit, rusted the armor and blunted the 
 swords of our men, and lulled them to ease. When 
 shall they be aroused? Is not the present the most 
 auspicious moment to quicken their sinews of war?" 
 
 Sec. 37. li Kanion, the Roosevelt of Japan: 
 Some forty replies from Daimios, received 
 subsequent to that of the Prince Mito, just 
 
 uoai 
 
CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM: 
 
 quoted, unanimously declared against opening 
 up the country to foreign trade, whatever 
 might be the consequence. There were conflict- 
 ing opinions among the counselors of the 
 Shogunate, which together with the positive 
 martial tone of the epistles from Daimios and 
 other princes, coupled with the condition of the 
 Samurai or army, presented quite a tangled 
 state of affairs to the Shogunate, and left it a 
 most intricate problem to solve. To make mat- 
 ters worse the Russians with a strong naval and 
 land force were skirting other ports of the 
 country and a British fleet was in the Sea of 
 Japan. In this state of national uproar and 
 ominous forebodings did the year 1853 close. 
 The common people, permeated with the pecu- 
 liar spirit and prejudices of past centuries, and 
 now deluged with superstitious fears, began to 
 neglect agriculture; internal commerce was at 
 a standstill and the artisan lost his ambition. 
 Meanwhile, the man who was the Prime Min- 
 ister of the Shogunate's Cabinet was Baron li 
 Kamon, Lord of Hikone. A man of most con- 
 spicuous figure of the progressive parties and 
 /q^ great insight and vigor, but, like many far- 
 
 ■ ■ I 103] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 seeing men, impatient of delays and swift in 
 action. li was not a man so easily deterred as 
 to compromise from what he considered to be 
 the right course. Surrounded by enemies op- 
 posed to his policy, he boldly entered into the 
 treaty with the foreign powers. His determined 
 and wise attitude saved Japan from the fate of 
 other Oriental countries. However, actuated 
 by intrigue and prompted by suspicion, li, the 
 most progressive man of his time, as a reward 
 for his great work contributed to his country, 
 was assassinated at the gate of Sakurada. The 
 exclusive policy which permeated the Shogun- 
 ate party, coupled with the murder of li, 
 started civilized strife against the Shogun- 
 ate. The first aggressive move against the 
 Shogunate power was made in Satuma, but the 
 bombardment of Kagoshima by the British 
 fleet quelled the excitement. For this affair the 
 British demanded an indemnity of $625,000. 
 At Shimonoseki some Chosiu Samurai fired 
 upon an alleged fleet of nine English, three 
 French, four Dutch, and one American men- 
 of-war, whereupon this foreign fleet bom- 
 
 [104] 
 
CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 
 
 barded the town and the Shogunate govern- 
 ment had to foot the bill of $3,000,000. 
 
 Sec 38. Outside Causes for the Fall of the 
 Shogunate: Meanwhile, Perry's squadron, con- 
 siderably augmented, returned to the Bay of 
 Yedo and completed the treaty between Japan 
 and the United States. Then followed other na- 
 tions demanding equal treaty rights, among 
 which were England, Russia, Holland, France, 
 Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, 
 Scandinavia, Peru, Hawaii, and Siam. Thus 
 besieged from without by numerous fleets, 
 and wrecked from within by the insurrec- 
 tions and jealousy of irresponsible Daimios 
 and Samurais, the Shogunate succumbed after 
 an almost uninterrupted reign of 938 years, 
 and with it ended feudalism in Japan, and then 
 the Emperor again assumed fully military and 
 political sway as of old. Thus out of a calam- 
 itous condition of internecine chaos and con- 
 flict, order and equity were born and the ap- 
 parently outraged nation suddenly broke the 
 fetters of torpor and despair — the accumulated 
 thraldom of centuries — and leaped to the full 
 possession of her pristine rights and glory and 
 
 [los] 
 
joined the family of nations. It is therefore 
 manifest that the lapse of the Tycoon or Sho- 
 gunate government and the extinction of feud- 
 ahsm in Japan was a sequel adventitious to 
 Perry's propitious expedition. 
 
 Sec 39. The Inside Correlative Causes: 
 These, however, were not the incipient ante- 
 cedents of the fall of the Shogunate. What- 
 ever may be the trend of events, there is no 
 effect without a correlative cause. Such a 
 convulsive though beneficial cataclasm, as led 
 to the extinction of the Shogunate and feudal 
 systems of Japan, so as to interrupt and revo- 
 lutionize the continuity of a persistent course of 
 events, must have a concomitant precedent, and 
 result from an accumulated predisposition, just 
 or unjust. The Japanese have never evinced a 
 revolutionary spirit. Unusually they acquiesce 
 in existing conditions. But, by a posthumous 
 delving among the archives of the feudal sys- 
 [very document manifests some insidious 
 encroachment upon the natural rights of the 
 people and the inherent prerogative of the Em- 
 peror. Apart from the sequel to Perry's ef- 
 
 [106] 
 
^'CAUSES FOR OVERTHROW OF FEUDALISM 
 
 fective visit and otliers, a few causes of this 
 important revolution are subjoined. 
 
 I. When Tokugawa lyeyasu became Sho- 
 gun he at once began to oppose the imperial 
 power and to make such disposition and distri- 
 bution of his authority and friends as would 
 ultimately effect the suppression of the imperial 
 dynasty. By the annihilation of his rivals he 
 firmly secured the government as an heredity 
 in his family. He sent his most potent repre- 
 sentative to Kyoto, the imperial capital, pre- 
 sumably as a bodyguard to His Majesty, but, 
 in reality, to extend his influence at the expense 
 of the imperial power, and at the same time 
 to watch the inner workings of the royal court. 
 He kept one of the royal princes at his capital, 
 Yedo, apparently as a mark of homage and re- 
 spect to the supreme authority, but, insidiously 
 as an hostage and efficient means of intimida- 
 tion to any antagonist that might otherwise 
 brew at Kyoto. All influence, power, arts and 
 internal commerce were accumulated at Yedo, 
 and Kyoto was, in effect, but a distant western 
 suburb. 
 
 Such wily artifice presaged hostility and' ; 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 voked the Imperialists to be vigilant and to 
 seize the first opportunity to overthrow the 
 powerful Shogun government and re-establish 
 the monarch on an insuperable basis. This zest 
 for reprisal had been steadily ripening into fer- 
 vent zeal for two centuries, and was evidently 
 at hand when the ambassador of a powerful 
 nation sought an interview with a commis- 
 sioner of the Emperor, and not with that of 
 Tokugawa. 
 
 2. The administration, which all along ap- 
 peared to be the inalienable property of the 
 Shogun, gradually became estranged by the in- 
 fluences above related, until generation after 
 generation his very family ties became severed 
 to augment the power of his rivals. 
 
 3. The Shogunate administration enacted 
 that the families of all the Daimios, except 
 those of the administration, should reside at 
 Yedo to facilitate the extinction of all refrac- 
 tory Daimios and sway the whole country at 
 the back of the Shogun. The descendants of 
 those who had suffered extinction were for 
 centuries biding their time for an opportunity 
 to overturn the Shogun government. 
 
 [108] 
 
v^ 
 
 CAUSES FOR OVERTHSOW OF FEUDALISM 
 
 4. The administration created the Daimio- 
 ship heredity, placing no premium on merit, 
 but rather discrediting valor, so that the wise 
 could not evince nor exercise their wisdom, and 
 the snob and puppet had equal authority and 
 was as highly esteemed as the most astute 
 philosopher ; thus the office of Daimio was de- 
 graded and became mere jumping-jacks to ag- 
 grandize the influence of the administration. 
 The wise and just were likewise biding their 
 time for reprisals. 
 
 5. The edict of the Shogunate interdicting 
 all foreign relations, and inhibting the egress 
 of the Japanese, hoodwinked the people to im- 
 agine that the strictures were imposed for the 
 mutual good and safety of themselves and the 
 country. They thus came to dream the dreams 
 of false peace and to bask at ease on the very 
 crater of a rapidly developing catachysmic 
 political volcano, when suddenly they were 
 aroused, though stupefied, by the first quake 
 and eruption incident to the apparently omin- 
 ous visit of the American squadron, casting 
 anchor at the eastern capital. 
 
 6. The centralization of the wealth, finances, 
 
 [109] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 national treasures and resources of the coun- 
 try in the Shogun capital; the depletion of the 
 finances of the Daimios by exorbitant de- 
 mands ; and the luxury and consequent licen- 
 tiousness of the Samurai, together with the 
 consequent degradation of their pride, valor 
 and patriotism, all tended to inspire universal 
 dissatisfaction and contempt and evinced a des- 
 perate condition of national dissipation and im- 
 potency. 
 
 The fall of the Shogunate, therefore, was a 
 case of felo de se, the inevitable consequence of 
 undue power, maladministration, avarice and 
 prodigality. 
 
 [no] 
 
JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 "What then! What are his million bales? 
 Mere dewdrops on the bamboo grass." 
 
 Issa. 
 
 Japainese Medieval Foreign 
 Intercourse 
 
 Sec. 40. Ancient Foreign Intercourse: Under 
 any form of government it is highly improbable 
 that a keen, spirited people of mixed race and 
 varied foresight and ambitions, inhabiting an 
 archipelago embraced by diverse seas and com- 
 mercial highways, could remain, like a great 
 family of hermit crabs, forever isolated from a 
 mutual intercourse with other nations. 
 
 We find that even when the government of 
 Japan formed with the first Emperor Jimmu, 
 about the year 660 B. C, amiable relations 
 were established between the Japanese and the 
 rest of the ancient nations. 
 
 [Ill] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Sec. 41. Seinetic and Hamitic Civilisation 
 Transplanted in Japan: Students of history 
 know that the people of olden time were char- 
 acteristically fearless. They also know that the 
 history of ancient civilization was written upon 
 the construction and destruction of governments 
 from the ashes of the funeral pyre of the nations. 
 But they are abruptly cut short from information 
 of great facts of human events which transpired 
 along the shores of Japan before the Christian 
 era — facts which call into play all emotions of 
 the soul of man — the assimilation of the two 
 races and civilization — the Phenician civiliza- 
 tion of the Semetic race by way of India and 
 the Indo-Aryan civilization of the Hamitic 
 race. 
 
 To the people of the plains of the Nile, of 
 the Tigris, Euphrates, and of the Indus, which 
 you consider, if not the cradle of the human 
 race, at least the cradle of human civilization, 
 the Japanese trace their ancient ancestry. They 
 believe that the transmigration of these ancient 
 civilizations are amply proved by ethnological 
 and geological facts. 
 
 The sea is the principal factor in the mythi- 
 
 [112] 
 
h 
 
 JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 
 
 cal narratives, the written languages or hiero- 
 glyphics of sea fishes, the sacrifice of human 
 flesh, the distinctive manners and customs of 
 marriage, ideals of maidens, the worship of 
 the sun and the moon, all tend to prove the 
 assertion as safely as if you set a ship adrift 
 on the Southern Current, running one hundred 
 miles per hour, it reaches the shores of Kyu- 
 shiu, of Osumi, of Bungo, of Sanyodo, and to 
 the Sea of Ise — the unmistakable facts that the 
 characteristically progressive current of the 
 Semetic and the Hamitic civilizations and two 
 races brought to the shore of Japan before the 
 Christian era, and therein the fittest survived, 
 there can be no doubt. 
 
 At present the highest authorities in Ethnol- 
 ogy in Europe and America enlist the Japanese 
 race as "Allophylic," a branch of the great 
 white race which consisted of Allophylic, Fin- 
 nic, Semetic and Hamitic. Whatever decision 
 the authorities had rendered, and the scientists 
 of all the ages all so agree, yet we have pre- 
 sented the Japanese view. 
 
 Sec. 42. The Japanese May Have Discovered 
 America: Some of the earliest people appear to 
 
 [113] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 have been highly imbued with the dominating 
 nomadic propensities. In some of the great 
 temples, carvings of undisputed Japanese origin 
 adorn the walls. Numerous other relics of the 
 Japanese have been found from time to time on 
 the Columbian continent, between Alaska and 
 the Rio de la Plata. All these appear to be 
 proof positive that the Japanese people were 
 among the earliest discoverers of America, 
 perhaps even the ancestors of the aborigines. 
 
 It is possible that the Hawaians are degen- 
 erated kinsmen of the Japanese, although they 
 are aware of Nanaula's voyage from Tahiti in 
 the sixth century. Among the records of Jap- 
 anese antiquity, there appears to be a strong 
 proof that some of the warriors of the Shogun, 
 Taira-Kiyomori, who was vanquished at the 
 battle of the Danno Ura, A. D. 1185, had been 
 fugitives in the western continent. 
 
 Sec. 43. Early Japan in the Byes of Buro- 
 peans: The great Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, 
 during a voyage along Japanese shores in the 
 thirteenth century, learned from the Japanese 
 people of a great continent that lies still further 
 to the east. May not the inspiration of the 
 
 [114] 
 
JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 
 
 great Genoese in the fifteenth century, have 
 been partly derived from these records of 
 Marco Polo, and thus the most memorable of 
 all voyages projected? The great Venetian 
 after he returned to Europe, describing Japan, 
 said in a somewhat exaggerated way: 
 
 "Chipangn (or Japan) is an island towards the east 
 in the high seas, 1,500 miles distant from the continent, 
 and a very great island it is. The people are white, 
 civilized, and well-favored. They are idolaters, and are 
 dependent on nobody. And I can tell you the quantity 
 of gold they have is endless, for they find it in their 
 own islands ; few merchants visit the country because 
 it is so far from the main land, and thus it comes to 
 pass that their gold is abundant beyond all measure. I 
 will tell you a wonderful thing about the palace of the 
 lord of that island. You must know that he has a great 
 palace which is entirely roofed with fine gold, just as 
 our churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it 
 would scarcely be possible to estimate its value. More- 
 over, all the pavement of the palace and the floors of its 
 chambers are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of 
 stone, a good two fingers thick; and the windows are 
 of gold, so that altogether the richness of this palace 
 is past all bounds and all belief. They have also pearls 
 in abundance, which are of a rose color, but fine, big 
 
 [IIS] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 and round, and quite as valuable as the white ones. 
 When a body is buried they put one of these pearls in 
 the mouth, for such is their custom." 
 
 However, Columbus was doubtless influ- 
 enced by these accounts of the great Venetian, 
 and determined to reach Japan and India by 
 a western route, or perhaps explore an interven- 
 ing continent. Columbus, however, was denied 
 the privilege of visiting Japan. 
 
 Sec. 44. Coming of Confucianism and Budd- 
 hism: Meanwhile, the Japanese Empress Jingo's 
 noted expedition to Korea, in the year 200 
 A. D., established Japanese influence in that 
 country. Japan then introduced the Korean 
 arts and literature into Japan. The relations 
 of the two countries became so close as to cause 
 each to patronize the other's skilled workmen. 
 Trade and commerce expanded between the 
 two. 
 
 In the reign of the Emperor Ojin, about 300 
 A. D., Chinese learning was introduced into the 
 country and adopted by the Japanese. Internal 
 commerce flourished, markets and fairs were 
 held in many centers. The transportation in 
 the interior and coastwise trade were inaugu- 
 
 [116] 
 
JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 
 
 rated and the ports of the country were con- 
 stantly visited by Korean and Chinese ships. 
 The Koreans brought with them the magnifi- 
 cent styles of architecture, gardening, car- 
 riages, music, poetry and important weapons 
 of war, while the Chinese introduced into 
 Japan the balance, and standards of weights 
 and measures. During this period the Teu- 
 tonic tribes, still in a state of barbarism, were 
 overrunning the Roman empire, while the 
 Mohammedan religion was just arising in 
 Arabia. Next to the Korean and the Chinese, 
 the people of the Philippine Islands and India 
 were the first who had intercourse with the 
 Japanese. About the year 654 A. D., priests 
 from India introduced Buddhism in Japan. 
 
 Sec. 45. Introduction of European Learning 
 During the Sixteenth Century: Musketry was 
 introduced for the first time in the reign of the 
 Emperor Gonara, A. D. 1530, by the Portu- 
 guese. Until then Japanese people did not know 
 the art of making or using what were then called 
 "mysterious" weapons. Half a dozen years 
 later, the Japanese were sent to Portugal for the 
 purpose of studying the important art of cannon 
 
 [117] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 founding and upon their return, the manufacture 
 of guns and gun-powder as well as their use 
 were the dominating interests of the Japanese 
 people. Soon after their acquisitions of the man- 
 ufacture of musketry and gunnery, a number of 
 Japanese leaders contemplated the seizure of the 
 Philippine Islands and other Asiatic coast coun- 
 tries. Surely then the complaints from Annam, 
 Siam, Luzon, Korea, China and other Malay 
 countries, requesting the Japanese government 
 to restrain its turbulent behavior, were justifi- 
 able. The Japanese people at this time had at- 
 tained widespread prosperity. Medical science 
 was first introduced into Japan by the mission- 
 aries of Christianity, to be used as an instrument 
 to substantiate the theory of saving the life and 
 the soul. Missionaries came in numbers, 
 among whom the immortal disciple of Christ, 
 the famous Francis Xavier, was chief, in order 
 to propagate the religion of the King of Kings. 
 Medical schools were established by the Chris- 
 tian teachers, which soon took the Japanese by 
 a storm of enthusiasm, and this science added 
 to its principles of learning the Dutch medical 
 
 [ii8] 
 
JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 
 
 system, from the Dutch who came to Japan on 
 the heels of the Portuguese. 
 
 The Shogunate government advocated open- 
 door policy and foreign trade and encouraged 
 and licensed the merchants. Even the barons 
 and warriors joined in the work of shaping up 
 the country's commercial condition and sought 
 commercial advantages with other countries. 
 The government issued an annual license to the 
 trading ships to Luzon, Amoy, Macas, An- 
 nam, Tanpuin, Cambodia, Siam, Malacca, etc. 
 At one time the ocean liners actually numbered 
 one hundred and seventy-nine engaged in for- 
 eign trade. The Japanese believers in Chris- 
 tianity often visited Europe, even their ambas- 
 sadors were sent to Rome, and there presented 
 one hundred pieces of gold to Pope Gregory 
 XIII. In the year 1584, the Japanese ambassa- 
 dors were allowed an audience with Phillip II 
 of Spain. Many Japanese have studied in 
 Europe and brought back with them European 
 arts and products, terrestrial and astronomical 
 globes, clocks and watches, together with the 
 desire for European civilization, architecture, 
 shipbuilding and customs. In 1600, the arts of 
 
 [119] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 shipbuilding and gunnery were rigorously car- 
 ried on, and among the workingmen were 
 Spaniards, Dutch, Portuguese and Enghsh. 
 Some of them married Japanese women. 
 
 Sec. 46. Reciprocal Treaty Between Japan 
 and England in the Middle Ages: About this 
 time trade between Japan and America was 
 seriously contemplated. Acapulco in Mexico, 
 and Nagasaki in Japan, were mutually known 
 as the centers of Japanese-American commerce. 
 As to Japan's open market policy of olden time it 
 may be clearly observed that when King James 
 I of England sent the agent of the East India 
 Company to Japan for commercial extension, 
 Japan entered readily into the treaty. By the 
 terms of the agreement both the contracting 
 parties were permitted to engage in foreign trade 
 freely and unrestrainedly. The people of the two 
 countries were to have privileges to sail along 
 the coast of both empires, and subjects of either 
 country could reside and build houses and en- 
 joy the privileges of trading in the capitals of 
 each country. So Englishmen came to Japan, 
 and the Japanese in turn went to England ; and 
 the people of all trading countries, in their 
 
 [120] 
 
JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE 
 
 critical comparisons of various noted cities in 
 Europe and America, asserted that Yedo sur- 
 passed all the others in point of health, wealth, 
 prosperity, and magnificence. In the main, 
 Japan vv^as flooded with the midway light of 
 civilization and joined England, Holland, 
 Spain and others that were most progressive 
 in Europe, as harbingers of culture, knowledge 
 and civilization. But the manifest destiny took 
 other ways in its march to the ultimate comple- 
 tion. Political and religious reasons went in 
 and shielded the country, the forces of which 
 are altogether superhuman. The Japanese peo- 
 ple who constitute only a human unit had to 
 submit to the hand of Providence in shutting 
 the ever-open policy, and shunning traditional 
 history like a nightmare. She went into a pro- 
 longed slumbering state and enforced a rigid 
 policy of excluding foreign intercourse, until 
 after about two and one-half centuries of sleep, 
 in 1853, she was awakened by the arrival of the 
 United States expedition at the forbidden door 
 of Japan. 
 
 f\ i 
 
 "Awake ! Awake ! I'll make of thee 
 My comrade, sleeping butterfly." 
 
 Bashio. 
 [121] 
 
/ 
 
 ~m' 
 
 PART II 
 

 ^^H:^:^^;^ 
 
 " He advises you to consult your own safety by de- 
 parting from our shores and not to again appear on 
 our coast. " 
 
Rn?i-i A A,' 
 
a-'-..^^ 
 
 I- < k'DU to r-on-.-uit voiir i.m-, ■■■ ';.i!'!i.i by ,-:• 
 
ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord ; and 
 the people whom He hath chosen for His own inherit- 
 ance. The Lord looketh from heaven, He beholdeth 
 all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation 
 He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth." 
 
 — Psalm S3- 
 
 Romantic Relation, to the 
 United States 
 
 Sec. 47. Perry's Historical Expedition to 
 Japan: We are coming to perhaps the most in- 
 teresting part of the discussion on the "Life of 
 Japan," and it will reveal how far and how 
 much the American people — nationally and in- 
 dividually — participated in and are credited 
 with the dramatic progress of Japan during 
 the last half century. 
 
 The fifteenth President of the United States, 
 Millard Fillmore, in his annual message to 
 Congress, dated April 6, 1852, says : 
 
 [125] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 "Our settlements on the shores of the Pacific have 
 already given great, extensive, and in some respects a 
 new direction to our commerce in that ocean. A direct 
 and rapidly increasing intercourse has sprung up with 
 Eastern Asia. The waters of the northern Pacific, even 
 into the Arctic seas, have of late years been frequented 
 by our whalemen. The application of steam to the 
 general purposes of navigation is becoming daily more 
 common and makes it desirable to obtain fuel and other 
 necessary supplies at convenient points on the route 
 between Asia and our Pacific shore. Our unfortunate 
 countrymen who from time to time suffer from ship- 
 wreck along the shores of the Eastern seas are entitled 
 to protection. Besides these specific objects, the general 
 prosperity of our States on the Pacific require that the 
 attempt be made to open the opposite regions of Asia 
 to a mutually beneficial intercourse. It is obvious that 
 this attempt could be made by no power to so great an 
 advantage as by the United States, whose constitutional 
 system excludes every idea of distant colonial depen- 
 dencies. I have accordingly been led to order an ap- 
 propriate naval force to Japan, under the command of 
 ■a discreet and intelligent officer of the highest rank 
 down to our service. He is instructed to endeavor to 
 obtain from the government of that country some relaxa- 
 tion of the inhospitable and anti-social system which it 
 has pursued for about two centuries." 
 
 [126] 
 
 >J 
 
.9 
 
 ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Sec. 48. The First Visit of Commodore 
 Perry: In the month of March, 1852, Commo- 
 dore M. C. Perry was appointed to command the 
 expedition to Japan, and in the following No- 
 vember, aboard his flagship, Japan's political 
 redeemer signaled "Weigh anchor and proceed" 
 on that historical voyage. He was accom- 
 panied by as many vessels as the importance 
 and safety of the expedition demanded, and in- 
 vested with "full power to negotiate and sign 
 a treaty of amity and commerce between the 
 United States and Japan," and with "a copy of 
 the general instructions," which were to be con- 
 sidered "in full force and applicable to his com- 
 mand." He bore with him from the President 
 of the United States to the Emperor of Japan 
 a sealed letter of great importance, of which 
 the immortal Daniel Webster was the com- 
 L poser,' and, Webster dying soon after, it was 
 countersigned by his successor, Edward Ever- 
 rett, and which is as follows : 
 
 'XEft' "Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of 
 - .' America, to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of 
 / Japan. Great and Good friend : I send you this public 
 '^ letter by Commodore Mathew C. Perry, an officer 
 
 [127] 
 
 ^W', 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, 
 and commander of the squadron now visiting your 
 Imperial Majesty's domain. 
 
 "I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your 
 Imperial Majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings 
 toward your Majesty's person and government, and 
 that I have no other object in sending him to Japan 
 but to propose to your Imperial Majesty that the United 
 States and Japan should live in friendship and have 
 commercial intercourse with each other. 
 
 "The constitution and laws of the United States for- 
 bid all interference with the religious and political con- 
 cerns of other nations. I have particularly charged 
 Commodore Perry to abstain from every act which 
 could possibly disturb the tranquility of your Imperial 
 Majesty's dominions. 
 
 "The United States of America reach from ocean 
 to ocean, and our territory of Oregon and State of 
 California lie directly opposite to the dominion of your 
 Imperial Majesty. Our steamships can go from Cali- 
 fornia to Japan in eighteen days. Our great State of 
 California produces about sixty million of dollars in 
 gold every year, besides silver, quicksilver, precious 
 stones, and many other valuable articles. Your Imperial 
 Majesty's subjects are skilled in many of the arts. I am 
 desirous that our two countries should trade with each 
 other for the benefit of both Japan and the United 
 States. 
 
 [128] 
 
ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 "We know that the ancient laws of your Imperial 
 Majesty's government do not allow of foreign trade, 
 except with the Chinese and the Dutch ; but as the 
 state of the world changes and new governments are 
 formed, it seems to be wise from time to time to make 
 new laws. There was a time when the ancient law of 
 your Imperial Majesty's government were first made. 
 
 "About the same time America, which was sometimes 
 called the New World, was first discovered and settled 
 by Europeans. For a long time there were but few 
 people, and they were poor; they have now become 
 quite numerous ; their commerce became very extensive ; 
 and they think that if your Imperial Majesty were so 
 far to change the ancient laws as to allow a free trade 
 between the two countries, it would be extremely bene- 
 ficial to both. 
 
 "If your Imperial Majesty is not satisfied that it 
 would be safe altogether to abrogate the ancient laws 
 which forbid foreign trade, they might be suspended 
 for five or ten years, so as to try the experiment. If 
 it does not prove as beneficial as was hoped, the ancient 
 laws can be restored. The United States often limit 
 then renew or not, as they please. 
 
 "I have directed Commodore Perry to mention an- 
 other thing to your Imperial Majesty. Many of our 
 ships pass every year from California to China; and 
 great numbers of our people pursue the whale fishery 
 
 [129] 
 
^ 
 
 near the shores of Japan. It sometimes happens, in 
 stormy weather, that one of our ships is wrecked on 
 your Imperial Majesty's shores. In all such cases we 
 ask and expect that our unfortunate people be treated 
 with kindness and that their property should be pro- 
 tected till we can send a vessel and bring them away. 
 We are very much in earnest in this. 
 
 "Commodore Perry is also directed by me to repre- 
 sent to your Imperial Majesty that we understand there 
 is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Em- 
 pire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great 
 ocean, burn a great deal of coal, and it is not conven- 
 ient to bring it all the way from America. We wish 
 that our steamships and other vessels should be allowed 
 to stop in Japan and supply themselves with coal, pro- 
 visions and water. They will pay in money or any- 
 thing else your Imperial Majesty's subjects may prefer; 
 and we request your Imperial Majesty to appoint a 
 convenient port in the southern part of the Empire, 
 where our vessels may stop for this purpose. We are 
 very desirous of this. 
 
 "These are the only objects for which I have sent 
 Commodore Perry with a powerful squadron to pay a 
 visit to your Imperial Majesty's renowned city of Yedo ; 
 friendship, commerce and supply of coal and provisions 
 and protection for our shipwrecked people. 
 
 "We have directed Commodore Perry to beg your 
 
 [130] 
 
ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Imperial Majesty's acceptance of a few presents. They 
 are of no great value in themselves; but some of them 
 may serve as specimens of the articles manufactured in 
 the United States, and they are intended as tokens of 
 our sincere and respectful friendship. 
 
 "May the Almighty have your Imperial Majesty in 
 His great and holy keeping! 
 
 "In witness whereof, I have caused the great seal 
 of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and have 
 subscribed the same with my name, at the City of 
 Washington, in America, the seat of my government, 
 on the thirteenth day of the month of November, in the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 
 
 "(Seal attached.) Your good friend, 
 
 "MlI,I,ARD FlLLMORfi. 
 
 "By the President, 
 Edward EvEerETT, 
 
 "Secretary of State." 
 
 t 
 t 
 
 Sec. 49. The Instructions of American Gov- 
 ernment to Commodore Perry: The great com- 
 modore carried with him useful implements and 
 inventions as presents from the United States^^T 
 to the Emperor of Japan, including a small com-p; 
 plete railway and equipments, a telegraphingS 
 outfit, etc. Perry was under instructions to ap^^ 
 proach the Emperor in the most friendly man--? 
 
 i< .- ... - ,.. .. . .... „. U 
 
 i :^ {L n li iiji feu y ft«W,:'^*, U « D8 *i * iki, 
 
 •c t i 
 »STt: E 
 
 
 « t -C 11 it 7/ y,. ji fi^S'S-JriT: 
 
 fc -c ^ fr u s ti ffi V >^ A 
 
 p. 'mX^ 
 
 ft * Sft W^ 'I 7' -t i ± t iC-M 
 
 L 
 
 ■n ii ± assyo H .4fi :^ V mA fc ^i'* i- 
 
 ^4) - « g; jj^t f 
 
 Mi T 
 
 m k a;: ,4 «^, 
 
 'I-. W^^l i 
 
 &. A '^ ,5'| ^^j;i 
 4: IS #;0f 1- 
 
 
 Ji ft :« ^ * $:-f 
 
 
 n X 
 
 i> u o u 
 
 fa; 
 
 If 
 
 (t t si <!$ t 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ner, and to use no violence unless attacked. He 
 delivered his letter and credentials to the Sho- 
 gun government after about ten days delay, and 
 then set sail on a voyage among the East Indies, 
 promising to return the following spring, and in 
 the meantime he surveyed the Loo Choo is- 
 lands. This portentious expedition of M. C. 
 Perry was soon destined to make Japan a world- 
 power. 
 
 In February, 1854, Perry returned to the 
 Bay of Yedo, and the first treaty between the 
 United States and Japan was negotiated, which 
 secured for the United States limited commer- 
 cial privileges — coal supplies and hospitality 
 to Americans. But, due to a misunderstanding 
 as to residential rights, a readjustment was 
 made in i860 under the administration of Pres- 
 ident Buchanan. This "wonton" intercourse 
 with "barbarians" met with great opposition in 
 Japan and civil war ensued. Good even re- 
 sulted from this internecine mix-up, for a rapid 
 change now marked public opinion in Japan, re- 
 sulting ultimately in cordial, social and closer 
 commercial relations between the United States 
 and Japan, with results wonderfully beneficial 
 to both countries. 
 
 [132] 
 
ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Sec 50. Perry's Biography: Matthew Cal- 
 braith Perry, brother of the renowned Commo- 
 dore Oliver Hazard Perry and son of Christo- 
 pher Raymond Perry, a distinguished naval 
 officer, was born at South Kensington, R. 
 I., on the loth of April, 1795, and died 
 in New York March 4, 1858. In his early 
 youth he evinced promising signs of emi- 
 nent seamanlike ability that afterward signal- 
 ized his great career. At the age of fourteen 
 he was a cadet in the United States navy, and 
 he served under Commodore Rogers and De- 
 catur. Early in life he distinguished himself 
 by founding a colony in lyiberia, as commander 
 of the African squadron, and in cajituring 
 pirates along the west coast of India. Later 
 we find him in the president's chair of the 
 School of Gun Practice. As commodore of the 
 Gulf of Mexico squadron he did telling service 
 at the famous battle of Vera Cruz. Pie had 
 been entrusted with sundry commands, and 
 numerous valuable services are gratefully re- 
 corded to his credit in the arnals of his nation. 
 And now, to a commander of suck ability, was 
 naturally entrusted the momentous expedition 
 
 [133] 
 
heroic war-"""'^'^^;_ 
 
 to Japan. A'mSi^.Q¥siMMi^^^MM:&r-^ioWSt- 
 ful, though mild and gentle; great in adminis- 
 trative and executive capacity; a 
 rior, a diplomat and a statesman ; the right marissss^' 
 in the right place — such was Perry. -^^^' 
 
 Sec. 5 1 . Perry's Visit and the Confusion an(j^'^^'^ 
 Excitement of the Japanese: A special dispatch*"" 
 dated July 3, 1853, was sent by the officials of 
 Uraga to the Shogunate government, at Yedo, 
 informing it that "Black ships of evil sects" ap- 
 peared on the horizon. The news spread like 
 wildfire through the city and soon everything 
 far and near was topsy turvy. Frenzied excite- 
 ment swayed the populace, and vehement broth 
 belched forth in showering imprecations on the 
 heads of the barbarian intruders. Soon mothers 
 with their children in their arms and tied to their 
 backs were flying aimlessly in every direction. 
 Exaggerated reports and fancies swallowed the 
 very souls of the horror-stricken people. Soon 
 was heard the clipperty-clip of the warhorse, 
 and the clatter of armed warriors ; the rattlety- 
 bang of carts, artillery and all sorts of rolling 
 stock ; the parade of firemen ; the incessant toll- 
 ing of bells and thumping of gongs, mingled 
 
ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 with the shrieks of women, screaming of child- 
 ren, barking of dogs, and the very denizens 
 of the wilds re-echoed the howl. 
 
 Sec. 52. Japan Did Not Want Perry: 
 Promptly the Shogun government sent a 
 letter in to the Uraga officials with instruc- 
 tions to deliver it to the black ships. This 
 communication was to the effect that, "the hab- 
 its of the Japanese whenever foreigners asked 
 to trade with us is to positively refuse. We 
 make no distinctions between different foreign 
 nations. We treat them all alike. We are 
 aware that our customs are different from those 
 of other nations, but every nation has a right to 
 manage its own affairs in its own way. In con- 
 clusion we beg to say that the Emperor posi- 
 tively objects to your entering the Holy Bay. 
 He advises you to consult your own safety by 
 departing from our shores and not to again 
 appear on our coast." In the meantime hurried 
 dispatches were sent to the various Daimios or 
 feudal barons, commanding them to summon 
 their warriors to arms, to reinforce the ports, 
 to provide necessary money and munitions of 
 / -yvar, and to call on the priests to obtain the 
 
 [I3S] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 favor of the gods. This for some days was 
 the state of affairs at the city of Yedo, the seat 
 of the Shogun government. 
 
 Sec. 53. Attitude of Perry Worked Miracles: 
 But this tremendous state of confusion soon 
 became immensely confounded, for despite all 
 remonstrances to the contrary, the far-seeing 
 and intrepid Perry coolly entered the sacred 
 harbor to the accompaniment of the most soul- 
 stirring music from the bands of his fleet and 
 the melodious throats of his hardy seamen. On 
 the afternoon of the 8th of July, 1853, the 
 United States squadron anchored off Uraga, in 
 the Bay of Yedo. The signal guns were 
 promptly fired, followed by the discharge of 
 rockets. These were signals of good will and 
 peaceful purport. On shore there was no sign 
 of peace nor good will, for the warriors were 
 ready to maintain their country free from all 
 foreign intrusion until their ears were struck 
 by the wonderful music that again broke forth 
 from the fleet. This time it was purely vocal, 
 unaccompanied by drum or bugle. It was a 
 music so sublimely melodious, so heavenly, that 
 for a time it dispelled the bloody passions of 
 
 [136] 
 
ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 the army and populace on shore, smoothed 
 their fiery hearts and assuaged their thirst for 
 the blood of the barbarian intruders. Yet the 
 majority of the inhabitants on shore had no 
 faith in the Christians, and the time seemed yet 
 some distance off for the complete fulfillment of 
 the fear-dispelling hymn that was then so 
 sweetly breathed by the fleet : 
 
 "Before Jehovah's awful throne 
 Ye nations bow with sacred joy." 
 
 Yet let it be perpetuated in the memory of 
 generations to come and to the credit of the 
 Spirit that inspired them, that these words of 
 the hymn then sung breathed forth God's 
 sacred providence and wrought miracles in the 
 history of the two nations. 
 
 Sec. 54. Perry's Preliminary Commission: 
 The officials of Uraga delivered to Commo- 
 dore Perry a second message from the Shogun- 
 ate, this time asking that the squadron leave 
 the forbidden bay. This had no immediate ef- 
 fect, neither did the demand of the governor of 
 Uraga avail, requesting that the squadron 
 move to the port of Nagasaki, whereat, if any 
 successful conference could be had, it could as 
 
 [137] 
 
'^'S.-Sfe, 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 well be effected there and the continuance of 
 the fleet in the sacred harbor was endangering 
 
 , .J'j,,^, ... mutual safety. The squadron remained se- 
 curely anchored to the very foundation of Dai 
 Nippon, and the dauntless Perry calmly dis- 
 played the plenipotentiary authority vested 
 in him as ambassador of the President of the 
 United States, and insisted upon handing to 
 the Emperor the important brief, for this was 
 the specific function of his present commission. 
 The Shogunate were now at their wit's end, 
 and marshaling all their ingenuity, a conference 
 was convoked at Kurihama, and on July 14, 
 1853, Perry's preliminary commission was 
 transacted, not by the clangor of steel, the roar 
 of musketry and the groans of the dying, as 
 was expected by the Japanese, but quietly and 
 peaceably, amid the sublime music of the 
 American bands. Thus the President of the 
 United States and the Emperor of Japan be- 
 .|j^-i44tJanie first introduced and great has been the 
 consequences. His mission accomplished, the 
 mysterious commander and his obnoxious fleet 
 now left the forbidden bay, with the promise that 
 he would return the ensuing spring for the an- 
 
 [138] 
 
'llOlilifANWe IfeLATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 swer, leaving behind him a panic-stricken peo- 
 ple and a much more confounded government. 
 Thus ended the prehminaries of Perry's mem- 
 orable expedition. 
 
 Sec 55. Perry as the National Redeemer of 
 Japan: Right here let us say that all the stupend- 
 ous advancement, the intellectual, commercial 
 and national progress of Japan is the sequel of 
 this memorable expedition. To-day the name of 
 Matthew Calbraith Perry is emblazoned in im- 
 perishable marble at Kurihama, where he 
 landed, in token of Japan's gratitude. 
 
 The 14th of July, 1901, is noted in the his- 
 tory of Japanese-American relations, for on 
 that day Perry's monument was unveiled. With 
 tears of pride and gratitude, the millions of 
 people scattered over the 137,081 square miles 
 of the earthquake-rocked Japan celebrated, 
 with grateful recollections, the incalculable good 
 done Japan by the United States. The Amer- 
 ican squadron and American diplomats partici- 
 pated in this memorable day at Kurihama, and 
 accepted the illustrious Perry as Japan's na- 
 tional redeemer. On this side of the ocean, 
 too, your great citizens voiced their sentiment 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 and hailed this glorious day in the spirit with 
 which forty-eight million patriotic people, par- 
 taking of their morning feast and donning their 
 best, did honor to the revered American whose 
 propitious visit to Japan's shores was to be per- 
 petuated in a fitting statue. Among letters ad- 
 dressed to the author at that time by great 
 Americans, he has a few here to produce, of 
 which the personality and characteristic Amer- 
 ican sincerity will suffice for historical pur- 
 poses : 
 
 "Masuji Miyakawa, Esq., Dear Sir: I beg to ex- 
 press my great gratification at the progress made by 
 Japan. The manner in which she has developed since 
 the adoption of Western ideas shows the beneficent in- 
 fluence of a good example. 
 
 "I trust that the relations now existing between the 
 United States and Japan may continue harmonious, and 
 that the two nations may vie with each other in friendly 
 and honorable rivalry. Very truly yours, 
 
 Wm. J. Bryan." 
 
 "Mr. Masuji Miyakawa, Dear Sir; Permit me to ex- 
 press the pleasure I have in hearing of the celebration 
 of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, which 
 opened that interesting country to the influences of 
 
 [140] 
 
. '-^?T,.. 
 
 ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Western civilization, and which no doubt has resulted 
 in the upbulding of the Japanese Empire to-day, mak- 
 ing its position honorable and respectable in the eyes of 
 the world. Yours respectfully, 
 
 James D. Phelan, 
 Mayor of San Francisco." 
 
 Were it possible for this great harbinger of 
 countless blessings to Japan to awake and com- 
 pare the miserable islands of yore with the 
 Japan of to-day and stand where he once stood 
 at the foot of this memento and view the prints 
 of his diplomacy he would doubtless exclaim, 
 "Well ! My earnest, unselfish efforts have pro- 
 duced a thousand-fold!" One of the fruits pre- 
 saged by Perry's commission to Japan was 
 manifested not long ago, when this compara- 
 tively small group of isolated islands of forty 
 millions of souls humiliated and subdued a 
 veritable continent of four hundred millions of 
 people, in the short space of ten months, in spite 
 of the collossal genius of the haughtiest and 
 most skilled of modern leaders — Li Hung 
 Chang. Those Europeans who then prophesied 
 Japan's defeat were fully prepared to admire, 
 if not even to fear, her prowess during the re- 
 cent victorious march of the allies to Tiensin 
 
 [141] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 and then to Pekin. And more recently, in the 
 war with Russia she, as the champion of the 
 rights of nations, has paralyzed the Russian 
 navy and army, and secured the command of 
 the Eastern lands and seas. 
 
 Father Perry ! The phenomenal, almost in- 
 spired course pursued by you in our sacred Bay 
 of Yedo, a half century ago, has rendered the 
 bay and soil you touched much more sacred by 
 your miraculous visit. May your sacred dust 
 rest in peace, with that of your fathers, and 
 may your soul be with God ; but your name 
 shall remain emblazoned in imperishable 
 marble in Japan. Whatever were the motives 
 that prompted your timely voyage to the shores 
 of Japan, the Japanese people care not, the 
 salutary effect shall live in grateful and loving 
 memory while God spares Dai Nippon. 
 
 The desire of the Japanese people to show their ap- 
 preciation of Commodore Perry by erecting a monu- 
 ment to his memory to commemorate his entrance into 
 Japan in the year 1853, was expressed through the 
 medium of the Japanese- American-Friend Society; 
 therefore success is largely due to President Baron 
 Kentaro Kaneko and members of the Society. The 
 Japanese characters were inscribed on the monument 
 by Marquis Ito, and read as follows : 
 
 "Monument commemorating the landing of Commo- 
 dore Perry, of the United States Navy. 
 
 "By Marquis Hakubumi Ito, the Grand Order of 
 Merit." 
 
 [142] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 "The spiritual light of our essential being is pure, and 
 is not afifected by the will of man. Spontaneously 
 springing up in our mind, it shows what is right and 
 wrong ; it is then called conscience ; it is even the light 
 that proceedeth from the God of heaven." — Miwa 
 Shissai. 
 
 Triumphs of American 
 Diplomacy 
 
 Sec 56. Twenty Years Before the Perry Bx- 
 pedition: On July 23, 1832, Mr. Edward 
 Roberts was commissioned by President An- 
 drew Jackson to obtain certain scheduled infor- 
 mation concerning Japan — its laws, customs, in- 
 ternal revenue, constitution, etc. Again, in 1845, 
 Mr. Alexander Everrett was similarly commis- 
 sioned by the United States government to as- 
 certain by thorough investigation the details 
 of the apparently complicated system of gov- 
 ernment in vogue in Japan. The sundry re- 
 
 [143] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ports thus obtained were compiled among sim- 
 ilar records in Washington, as initial steps to- 
 wards the ultimate reciprocation between the 
 two governments, Japan and the United States. 
 From these records President Fillmore was 
 able to judge of the various equities, natural or 
 acquired, respectively inherent in the Emperor, 
 the Shogunate, and in the Japanese people, sev- 
 erally and combined, and of the wishes of the 
 majority. 
 
 Sbc. 57. Most Astute Diplomatic Sagacity: 
 Therefore, the important brief committed to 
 Commodore M. C. Perry by President Fill- 
 more and delivered to the officials at Kurihama 
 on the 14th of July, 1853, was the result of 
 thorough investigation and mature judgment, 
 and President Fillmore's instructions to deliver 
 the letter to the Emperor instead of the then 
 existing government, manifested most astute 
 diplomatic sagacity, and was an effective peb- 
 ble to the terrific eruption of a mighty geyser. 
 He judiciously insisted that the response should 
 be from imperial authority, as being the only 
 treaty-making power of the realm, all inter- 
 national negotiations with the Shogun govern- 
 
 [144] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 ment and the governed being shrewdly 
 eschewed for the express purpose of avoiding 
 future diplomatic complications, inasmuch as 
 the Shogun government was virtually inimical 
 to the imperial rule. The fact that the Sho- 
 gunate exercised absolute authority, and, on 
 previous occasions, treaty powers, as in the 
 case of the Portuguese and Dutch in the six- 
 teenth century, did not influence President Fill- 
 more to treat with it and ignore the Emperor. 
 On the contrary, he expressly demanded that 
 all treaty stipulations should be negotiated with 
 the Emperor and his cabinet. It was manifest 
 to the United States authorities, from a knowl- 
 edge of the past history of Japan, that the Sho- 
 gun government was too uncertain in its sta- 
 bility and too capricious in its diplomacy with 
 which to attempt to ratify any permanent com- 
 pact, and therefore negotiations were sought 
 with the Emperor and his Ministers. It was 
 further evident to the United States authorities 
 that an absolute contempt of the Shogun gov- 
 ernment would be tantamount to assuming the 
 responsibility of a protectorate over the de- 
 fenseless imperial authority and would evi- 
 
 [I4S] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 dently incur the antagonism of the Shogunate. 
 Therefore, the first treaty was transacted with 
 the commissioners of the Shogun government 
 by the sanction of the Emperor. 
 
 Sec. 58. Mr. Harris the First U. S. Minister: 
 This first treaty was concluded at Kanagawa 
 on March 31, 1854, during Commodore Per- 
 ry's second visit. In August, 1856, Mr. Town- 
 send Harris was sent as minister to Japan. He 
 took up his residence at Shimoda, but later on, 
 contrary to the custom of centuries, the United 
 States Minister was permitted to reside at 
 Yedo. Mr. Harris had spent his whole life in 
 intercourse with the Orientals. He was 
 familiar with their commerce, their whims, 
 their race tendencies, their emulations, their 
 pride, and their traditions. He fully antici- 
 pated that any moment the slightest hitch 
 might result in a tremendous burst of pent-up 
 energies, and he shaped his policy to hold back 
 as long as possible the ultimate inevitable. His 
 administration, therefore, was peacefully politic 
 and prudently conservative. Pre-eminently 
 was Mr. Townsend Harris the right man in the 
 right place. He frequently assuaged the retali- 
 
 [146] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 atory ire of his great nation, that on several 
 occasions would have demanded reprisals if it 
 were not for his marvellous conciliatory sagac- 
 ity. His precocious adjustment of most intri- 
 cate issues during this hazardous period was an 
 excellent object lesson in international law, 
 and inculcated in the minds of Japan's future 
 political leaders the genuine value of prudent 
 diplomacy. 
 
 Certain flaws were found in the treaty of 
 1854, which Mr. Harris promptly adjusted, re- 
 sulting in the revised treaty of July 27, 1858, 
 and which was proclaimed at Washington on 
 May 22, i860. 
 
 Sec. 59. Assassination of the American Dip- 
 lomatic Agent: On the 15th of January, i860, 
 Mr. Heusken, Secretary of the United States 
 Legation, was waylaid and assassinated in the 
 streets of Yedo, now Tokyo. Had it not been for 
 the greatness and diplomatic sagacity of Min- 
 ister Harris, this extraordinary event might 
 have been the cause of far greater complications. 
 The Minister not only prevented a misunder- 
 standing on the part of the American people, but 
 also persuaded his superiors in Washington that 
 
 [147] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 the unpleasant responsibility lay on his shoul- 
 ders, and finally shielded Japan from blame. The 
 following dispatch which was sent by Secretary 
 Seward indicates the character of Mr. Harris 
 as well as the outcome of the event : 
 
 "The Japanese government has made no sat- 
 isfactory explanation of this great violation of 
 the rights of the United States, and on the 
 other hand, has virtually confessed its inabil- 
 ity to bring the offenders to punishment. 
 
 "It was argued by me in the aforesaid notes 
 that the Japanese government would infer that 
 we are unwilling or unable to vindicate our 
 rights, if, leaving that transaction unpunished 
 and unexplained, we should frustrate the effect 
 of the treaty stipulation for the opening of the 
 City of Yedo." 
 
 The tone of the government at Washington 
 changed, however, by the arguments of Min- 
 ister Harris. The following was sent to him 
 from Washington : 
 
 "Your dispatch has been received. The 
 President has, therefore, concluded to confer 
 upon you the discretion solicited by you. * * * 
 
 [148] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 We leave the form and mode of that satisfac- 
 tion to your own discretion." 
 
 Again, a month later : 
 
 "It affords the President sincere pleasure to 
 know that the government of the Tycoon has 
 exerted so much diligence to bring the assas- 
 sins of Mr. Heusken to punishment, and that 
 you are satisfied that those exertions have been 
 made with good faith. It is expected that the 
 government will not abate its efforts until the 
 end so important to a good understanding be- 
 tween the two countries shall have been at- 
 tained. 
 
 "The punishment of the delinquent Yako- 
 nines, who were in attendance on the decease 
 when the crime was committed, is regarded by 
 this government with high approbation." 
 
 Sec. 6o. The American Legation Set on Fire: 
 Again, on the 24th of May, 1863, the Amer- 
 ican Legation at Yedo was set on fire, and at 
 the same time, American merchants and min- 
 isters were either assaulted or threatened. This 
 disturbed condition was maintained until the 
 foreign legations were removed to Yokohama. 
 Again, Mr. Harris' great pacific conservatism, 
 
 [149] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 patient good-heartedness, and statesmanly 
 skill, averted a crisis, and manifested to the 
 people of Japan the unselfish philanthropy and 
 conscientious fidelity of the American people. 
 He convinced the Japanese that this govern- 
 ment aimed at peace, friendship and commer- 
 cial intercourse with Japan, and that it had no 
 colonial or dominating motives. Mr. Harris 
 explained to his govei-nment that the whole 
 trouble in Japan was due to the revolutionary 
 tendency of an anti-foreign faction of semi- 
 barbarians, and that it was the desire of all in- 
 telligent, progressive Japanese, from the Em- 
 peror down, to break the fetters of fossil con- 
 ditions and to rise to the highest plateau of 
 civilization possible, and to continue in the very 
 van of the nations. Mr. Harris, therefore, 
 asked the influence of his government to aid 
 the well-disposed in suppressing the turbulent 
 element and in sundering the cordon that re- 
 sisted the nation's progress. 
 
 Sec. 6i. Japanese Foreign Relations More 
 Confounded: Despite Mr. Harris' great diplo- 
 matic efforts during his benign administration, 
 such was still the condition of the factions in 
 
 [150] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 Japan at the time of his resignation that in the 
 dispatch sent by the Secretary of State, Mr. Sew- 
 ard, to Mr. Robert H. Prugn, who succeeded 
 Mr. Harris, we read the following rather dis- 
 couraging suggestion: "I fear you (Mr. R. H. 
 Prugn) will find embarrassment in your mis- 
 sion, which will make j'ou regret its honors and 
 undervalue its power." The dispatch goes on to 
 say that : "Japan is a semi-enlightened and iso- 
 lated country, only recently induced into treaty 
 relations with the United States. A favorable 
 impression towards the United States has been 
 evinced by the government of Japan, granting 
 special treaty stipulations in favor of our gov- 
 ernment, as compared with other nations. The 
 sentiments of the Japanese in our favor is 
 mainly due to the great patience and political 
 sagacity of Commodore Perry and your prede- 
 cessor, Mr. Harris. But it is notorious that 
 the people of Japan, and especially its existing 
 government, have not yet reconciled them- 
 selves to a complete commercial revolution and 
 to national emancipation from an obsolete tra- 
 ditional prestige, as is essentially incidental to 
 our treaty stipulations with them. Old customs 
 
 [iSi] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 have remained unchanged for many centuries 
 and there remains a superstitious sacredness re- 
 specting their perpetuity, a mistrust of enhght- 
 enment and a suspicion of the motives of for- 
 eigners. Hitherto, as we have good reason to 
 beheve, the Japanese people and government 
 have been kindher disposed towards us than to- 
 wards the European nations with whom they 
 have similar commercial intercourse under 
 similar conditions." 
 
 Sec. 62. Gift of $250,000 Prom United 
 States: By the wishes of the American people, 
 the United States remitted its share in the $3,- 
 000,000 indemnity for the Shimonoseki affair, 
 mentioned elsewhere. This share of $750,000 
 was to be devoted to education in Japan. From 
 the Act of Congress remitting this share we 
 glean this motive : "It is believed that such a 
 policy will result in the establishment of more 
 intimate relations with the government of 
 Japan, will ultimately prove of great import- 
 ance in furthering the commerce of the two na- 
 tions, and will accelerate the progress of civil- 
 ization." The government of Japan accepted 
 
 [IS2] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 this beneficient donation of $750,000 for the 
 purpose specified in the bequest. 
 
 Sec. 63. The United States as Japan's Fos- 
 ter-M other: Judge John A. Bingham, a native 
 of the same State that gave to the United States 
 the late President McKinley, Ohio, and for 
 thirteen years Minister to Japan, did much to 
 advance the intellectual and national progress 
 of that country. Of him, President Grant justly 
 said : "Judge Bingham has taught the people of 
 Japan that they are a nation, and has taught 
 the nations of the earth to respect them as 
 such." Had it not been for Mr. Bingham's 
 determined shrewdness, Russia and other na- 
 tions of the wforld would have taken advantage 
 of Japan's paralyzing vicissitudes to coerce her 
 into damaging relations. As soon as Japan 
 issued her custom regulations she at once ex- 
 posed herself as a prey to avaricious nations. 
 The United States, with Japan's approval, 
 morally obliged the other interested countries 
 to follow the system of philanthropic civiliza- 
 tion pursued by the United States. The Jap- 
 t anese then began to look upon America as 
 
 Japan's moral ally, regardless of race or color 
 
 
 [153] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of the American people, and they appreciated 
 deep in their hearts that America and humani- 
 tarianism were synonymous terms. 
 
 Before entering into a descriptive narrative 
 as to the extent of the triumphs of American 
 diplomacy when Japan engaged in a life and 
 death struggle with Russia, while in the mean- 
 time the interest of the civilized world was per- 
 haps unprecedently centered in the international 
 drama, it may be not only interesting to give a 
 brief account of the causes and effects of the 
 wars Japan had with China and Russia, but it 
 would also serve the historical purpose of the 
 present work. 
 
 Sec. 64. The Causes of Chmo-Japanese 
 Wars: It goes without saying that the geogra- 
 phy of Korea places her strategically in a posi- 
 tion where it might be possible to strangle 
 Japan at will. If Korea were as stable and pro- 
 gressive as Japan, it would be but natural that 
 there should be either alliance or annexation of 
 the two countries. It is providential. This natu- 
 ral and economic reason, as far back as the 3d 
 century A. D., necessitated the sending by Japan 
 of an expedition under the famous heroine. 
 
 [IS4] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 Empress Jingo. The same reasons impelled 
 the sending of the expedition of Hideyoshi 
 during the i6th century. A large part of Japan's 
 medieval history tells of the continual homage 
 that was paid to her by Korea and of Japan's 
 suzerainty over Korea. With the isolation 
 policy of the Takugav^^a Shogunate, temporary 
 severance of political ties between Japan and 
 Korea became the inevitable sequence. But the 
 reawakening of Japan once more brought forth 
 the consciousness of the predestined political 
 common cause with Korea. Therefore, in the 
 year of 1876 the Japanese forced open the com- 
 mercial door of Korea, which was so closely 
 shut against the rest of the world as to cause 
 her to be appropriately named by the commer- 
 cial nations the "Hermit Kingdom." The 
 method Japan employed for opening Korea 
 was somewhat analogous to that of Commo- 
 dore Perry in dealing with Japan herself. The 
 Japanese fleet sailed up within sight of Seoul, 
 the capital, and by a display of men of war 
 and guns forced the government to sign a 
 treaty opening the country to trade through 
 
 [iSS] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 the port of Fusan, and four years afterwards 
 the port of Chemulpo. 
 
 Unfortunately for Korea and Japan, and no 
 less for China, the Korean kingdom was al- 
 ways unstable in the organization of her gov- 
 ernment, and very unreliable in the observance 
 of a treaty compact. Her international agree- 
 ment of yesterday has been unconsciously and 
 openly disregarded, and is a useless paper of 
 to-day. Moreover, Korea lacked in moral 
 principle, in that, for instance, while she pro- 
 fessed the sincerest friendship for a nation, 
 ostensibly, yet she proved a decided enemy to 
 that nation, and was industriously intriguing 
 against while professing warmest friendship. 
 In the meantime, European powers were slowly 
 but surely working out the scheme actually 
 to be ended in the partition of China. And de- 
 fenceless China, conscious or not conscious, 
 yet ambitious, was attempting to acquire sov- 
 ereignty over defenceless Korea. China, and 
 more especially Korea, defenceless and help- 
 less to cope with foreign aggression, Japan 
 must take measures not only to save herself 
 from being weakened by the weakening condi- 
 
 [156] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 tion of Korea and China, but also must take 
 decided means to make an end of the continued 
 disorderly condition of her neighbors, and 
 if possible to develop the Asiatic countries for 
 the world, open the door of commerce for any 
 nation — European or American — no less than 
 Japan herself, to enter and realize the fruits 
 of its own industry, merit and civilization. 
 
 In 1885 the famous treaty of Tentsin was 
 entered into between China and Japan, which 
 provided that in case insurrection or internal 
 disorder arose within Korea and became 
 serious to the extent of demanding military 
 help from without, in order to restore peace 
 and tranquility, China and Japan shall be mu- 
 tually consulted beforehand as to the amount of 
 such help, and both nations were to take com- 
 mon action. If the contract were observed to 
 the letter of the law, the history of Asia might 
 have been different. But, for reasons known 
 to China alone, when the insurrection of the 
 Tong Haks reached the stage where it was 
 necessary for outside interference in Korea, 
 the Chinese government, without warning or 
 consultation with Japan, and openly disregard- 
 
 [157] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ing the Tentsin treaty, not only equipped her 
 military forces, but actually established her 
 military supremacy in Seoul. Thus challenged 
 by China, what could Japan do but meet the 
 situation as it demanded? 
 
 Sec. 65. The Declaration of Chinese- Japa- 
 nese War: On July 25, 1894, the three Japa- 
 nese men of war, cruising in the Yellow Sea, 
 sighted two ships of the Chinese navy convey- 
 ing a transport which had on board about 
 twelve hundred troops to reinforce the Chinese 
 regiments at Asan. Naniiua, the Japanese 
 flagship, now approached the transport, a char- 
 tered British vessel named the Kowshing and 
 flying the British flag, and made examination 
 of her papers. The captain of the Japanese 
 warship ordered the Kowshing to follow her. 
 The Chinese generals and British officers, not 
 accustomed to instantaneously obey the coni- 
 
 ands of Japanese, hesitated. The Japanese 
 officers, seeing the hesitation, gave the second 
 command. This time it was "Fire" ! And 
 before half an hour elapsed the Kowshing went 
 the bottom, carrying down with her over one 
 
 'ousand souls. This was practically the decla- 
 
 [158] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACYiftl 
 
 ration of war. This was followed by the naval 
 battles in the Eastern waters, where some of 
 the most astounding events in the records of 
 the navies of the world took place; for iron- 
 clad battleships of the present day for the first 
 time in history were put to proof, and the naval 
 inventions made in Europe and America had 
 their first trial in the conflicts between the Chi- 
 nese and the Japanese, which latter proved be- 
 fore all maritime nations her ability to handle 
 these powerful engines of war — and this, too, 
 when only a half-century previous her natives 
 were hardly beyond the bow and arrow stage 
 of warfare. While naval battles were prac- 
 tically brought to an end by the final destruc- 
 tion or capture of all the Chinese war vessels 
 in the Japanese attacks on the Port of Wei- 
 hai-wei; the Japanese land forces commenced 
 'their operations along Seoul, Asan, Chao- 
 Yung, then passing the boundary of Korea 
 into China (here the author had the honor and 
 ^^leasure of joining the imperial army in the 
 capacity of an official interpreter) on to Chin- 
 Chio, Port Arthur, Tai Ping San, Neu Chang, 
 ^'\ and, lastly and decisively, to finish at Tenshio- 
 
 [IS9] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 dai. The warring nations commenced hos- 
 tilities on July 25, 1894; they continued until 
 the Chinese sued for peace on April 17, 1895. 
 This war was as great a war as the late war 
 with Russia, if not more disastrous to Japan. 
 China, with 400,000,000 population, her land 
 forces, with many European volunteers in her 
 army, almost every ship manned with Euro- 
 pean gunners and officers, with her determina- 
 tion to win, and also having at her back the 
 sympathy and assistance of Russia, Germany 
 and France, together with the world's en- 
 couraging prophecy that China's superior war 
 materials would bring her victory, vigorously 
 prosecuted her war against Japan, who had no 
 single European or American soul helping her 
 either in the army or in the navy, or in her 
 economy. The outcome of the war is well 
 known — Japan lost not a single campaign on 
 land or on sea. 
 
 Sec 66. The Termination of War: By the 
 treaty of peace signed at Shimonoseki, China 
 ceded the islands of Formosa, besides giving 
 an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels, and agreed 
 to the occupation of the Port Arthur and Lio 
 
 I160] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 Tung Peninsula, and for the independence of 
 Korea, which was to be virtually under Japa- 
 nese protection. But the signal victory of 
 Japan over China gave no less trouble than be- 
 fore the war. The cowardice of the world cer- 
 tainly causes poor Japan to keep busy for her 
 self-defence! The European powers became 
 alarmed and fearful that Japan, so powerful 
 a nation and neighbor of China and Korea, 
 might eventually frustrate the deep-rooted 
 scheme so ingeniously devised, namely, the 
 partition of China, the oldest and most popu- 
 lous nation, but now practically moribund. 
 France and Germany, by the request of Russia, 
 who was impelled by so-called "labor of love" 
 to maintain integrity of the Eastern nations, 
 joined her in the united protest against Japan, 
 and demanded the evacuation of Port Arthur 
 and the Lio Tung Peninsula, which she, by the 
 Shimonoseki treaty, was rightly entitled to 
 own. But confronted by this overwhelming 
 odds of the European powers, Japan was forced 
 to forfeit these rights, and was humiliated by 
 seeing, before the ink was scarcely dry on the 
 notice to the Chinese government of the evacu- 
 
 [i6i] 
 

 'ation, Russia had secretly taken possession of 
 Port Arthur from China, which fact, by treaty 
 of March 23, 1898, was made pubhc. Herein 
 lie some of the important elements that slowly 
 but surely evolved the later war — a war with 
 perhaps the greatest bloodshed ever recorded 
 in the history of the world. 
 
 Sec. 67. The Causes of the Russia and Jap- 
 anese War: To freely open the vast continent 
 of Asia to the commerce of the world ; to enter 
 into honorable rivalry with all the nations of 
 the world, and to vie freely and honorably in 
 the development and the exploitation of the 
 great territories of China, these are, briefly 
 stated, the national pohcies of Japan before the 
 commencement of the war with Russia. 
 
 Russia as a great power perennially sought 
 an adequate outlet for her commerce to the 
 ocean, in Europe, which has been, however, re- 
 peatedly thwarted by her neighbors. Finally 
 she directed her energies towards the comple- 
 tion of a marvelous five-thousand-mile march 
 across northern Asia to the Pacific, or the 
 Trans-Siberian Railway from St. Petersburg 
 to Vladivostock. However, it must be remem- 
 
 [162] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 bered that the terminal of'hef trans-Asian 
 
 march has always been, and must be of neces- 
 sity, other than Vladivostock, for the latter was 
 known to her as ice-bound before she acquired 
 the port. As to Russia's ulterior purposes, the 
 strategical geography unreservedly reveals 
 that. The cardinal object was to acquire either 
 Port Arthur, Dalny, or Korean ports, for with- 
 out such ports the Russian-Asian-march and 
 her presence in the East is a splendid failure. 
 Her "labor of love" in the maintenance of Chi- 
 nese territorial integrity, and her drastic meas- 
 ure taken against Japan, resulting in the evac- 
 uation of Port Arthur and the Lio Tung Pe- 
 ninsula, which China by her national right 
 transferred to Japan in the Shimonoseki treaty, 
 are self-evident. The fixed aim of Russia in 
 China and Korea necessarily included the ques- 
 tion of how to safeguard them even after she 
 was successful. The answer is plain — that she 
 
 must, Jix5t,__iortify the ports; second, Rus- 
 
 sianify, or, rather, absorb the surrounding 
 countries into the Russian Empire, and, to in- 
 sure the permanency of her acquisition, she '■ 
 
 ^- !j{ itjust necessarily exclude the interest or influ- /^ 
 
 ±' a h \ :. ^ 
 
 fi B &. ^ X L lijK^ii'i"- tfM.-.i-.Wf i-i,U M U ffi a S 1^ ' 
 
 <^ A IS]:; -I- Q?a-L b ry I, B ^'M'sfi]^m [>. u m Bi'^'f.'^^ 
 
 ■^ t o m b AK-& V] Bi^h i ±':mo J& ^"M M ^ tm 
 m L -c \i m ■';. '^ a m^S' &"».': Kf -c o ;«;;;jii ^? >- ff^ 3* 
 
 k -t ^ ^ U 6 ^ ^ v: t^ ^ ^rA n'] - CO S: m'i r IH^' 
 (»' a * iS g *: Sft rt ^ 7- X t ± t :kim - mi r ^ ± 
 n i>ixm Eg, jii m i- ti-^-y />- *k *i «<• ■& ^irs p=p ->■ f i 
 
 14 f sfe ln]>'> HI 6 ■b.*, r '- < m ts^s*f i w:o -i- ±\1^ 
 
 St A « n fi,'B|?i« t ')vi > '^i(X 'fi -fi- t> -i ^ i m ^ 
 k m mm u- mm ^ x -^ mx:kz/L (^ m ^ \z co \t 
 a u miR u h dii % n-^ * ^.'-mt ?•<*:% a- isj -c 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ence of all other nations therein ; third, to clear 
 the waterways between the acquired ports and 
 her land possessions, to bring about free navi- 
 gation of her gunboats or merchantmen; 
 fourth, and lastly, she had to acquire and for- 
 tify the Korean Straits. The well-fixed aim 
 and purpose of Russia was proven beyond 
 doubt when Russia actually fortified Port Ar- 
 thur and Dalny in the best manner of modern 
 engineering and military art and science, when 
 she had garrisoned the Chinese territories with 
 the fearful Cossacks, when she had established 
 her ports of duty and custom, and when she 
 had excluded other nations from trading in 
 northern China, and in the summer of 1903 
 invaded northern Korea. 
 
 Sec. 68. The Declaration of Russian-Japa- 
 nese War: Japan in view of the circumstances 
 had only one course to pursue : On August 
 20, 1903, a note was sent to St. Petersburg re- 
 questing Russia to sign an agreement with 
 Japan to respect the integrity of China in Man- 
 churia, and also the Korean Empire, and to 
 uphold in both the principles of the open door 
 to the trade of all nations. However, through- 
 
 [164] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 out the negotiations which followed, Russia 
 refused to discuss her intentions in Manchuria, 
 and also declined to agree that she would not 
 control Korea. After six months of fruitless 
 negotiations the civilized world became con- 
 vinced that there would be no agreement. 
 
 Right here let us produce from among the 
 American dailies what the author said in dis- 
 cussing the situation before the audiences of 
 the American-Asiatic Society in this country, 
 which may serve to show the spirit with which 
 Japan faced the crises. 
 
 Dr. Miyakawa, discussing "Eastern Ques- 
 tion," said: 
 
 "Civilization, we have been told, rides on a gun 
 carriage. However, in the case of the Anglo-American, 
 the gun carriage is followed by the schoolhouse and the 
 printing press. The history of the acquisition of 
 India by Great Britain is written in pages of blood, but, 
 as a consequence, the India of to-day is an India of 
 liberty, whose native press may say what it thinks, and 
 whose people may worship according to the dictates of 
 their hearts. 
 
 "The United States wrote history in Japan and is 
 now writing history in the Philippines in the same way. 
 Its advent-courier is the gun carriage, but behind the 
 
 [i6s] 
 
IIFE OF JAPAK 
 
 guns march the American ''fcndOT' tM'3fiers";'''^kh the . 
 same be said of Russia? In what manner can it profit 
 Manchuria and Korea to be under the yoke of the Czar? 
 Can he be expected to give aliens what he denies to his 
 own people ? In what part of Russia can there be found 
 a free press, where civil and religious rights are vouch- 
 safed and where the little red school house is in evidence 
 and where freedom of thought and speech is guaranteed 
 to the public. .* '.^ 
 
 "This is the civilization of the great white Czar which 
 was being forced upon the weaker nations — China and 
 Korea — owing to the cowardice of the powers of the world. 
 Was it in the least to be wondered at, after more than 
 a century's experience of Russian perfidy, duplicity and 
 malicious designs, not only against her neighbors but 
 against hereself, Japan at last resolved to put her own 
 quarrel to the arbitrament of heaven and her own 
 sharp sword." 
 
 Japan, on February 6, 1904, severed her 
 diplomatic relations by recalling Minister Ku- 
 rino from St. Petersburg. The Russian army, 
 on the following day, that is, February 7, in- 
 vaded Korea, which virtually served as the Rus- 
 sian declaration of war against Japan. And on 
 the 9th, Admiral Togo attacked Stark's squad- 
 ron at Port Arthur and gave the quick strokes 
 
TRIUMPHS 
 
 AMERICAN 
 
 DIPLOMAS 
 
 m, 
 
 which disabled the Russian battleships Czare- 
 vitch and Retizan, and protected cruiser Pal- 
 lada; on the following day Admiral Ureu de- 
 stroyed the Variag and Kovietz at Chemulpo, 
 Korea. And on this day, February lo, the 
 Russian Emperor formally issued a declaration 
 of war, which was followed by Japan on the 
 next day, viz., February ii, 1904. Thus the 
 greatest of the world's hostilities commenced. 
 
 Sec. 69. Result of the War: The horror of 
 war continued until Komura and Takahira, for 
 Japan, and Witte and Rosen, for Russia, met 
 in the storeroom of the Kittery Navy Yard at 
 Portsmouth ; until the Treaty of Peace was en- 
 grossed in English and French and signed by 
 the respectively Commissioners of Peace at 3 145 
 P. M., September 5, 1905, and until they uttered 
 the words of courtesy : "We shake the hand of 
 an old friend, and now a new friend." Japan, 
 in her Peace Treaty with Russia, secured all she 
 wanted to and for what she fought. The great 
 instrument stipulated that, "His Majesty, the 
 Emperor of Russia, recognized the preponder- 
 ant interest, from political, military, and eco- 
 / pomic points of view, of Japan in the Empire 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of Korea" ; Russia will not oppose any meas- 
 ures for its government, protection or control 
 that Japan will deem necessary, to take in Ko- 
 rea ; that "the right possessed by Russia in con- 
 formity with the lease of Port Arthur and 
 Dalmy, together with the land and waters ad- 
 jacent, shall pass over in their entirety to 
 Japan," and that, "the government of Russia 
 and Japan engage themselves reciprocally not to 
 put any obstacles to the government measures 
 (which shall be alike for all nations as the se- 
 curity for the open door in Asia) that China 
 may take for the development of the commerce 
 and industry of Manchuria." And on Novem- 
 ber 1 8, 1905, Japan assumed the political con- 
 trol of and suzerainty over Korea. 
 
 Sec. 70. America's Relations to Japan's 
 National Calamities: It is impossible to over- 
 look the characteristic attitude of the United 
 States towards Japan during this war. 
 
 The attestation of American sympathy to- 
 wards Japan in the recent war has been unpre- 
 cedented in the international records of any 
 two nations, even with Great Britain, Japan's 
 ally in law. 
 
 [168] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 From the beginning to the end of the war, 
 one and the same characteristic thought poured 
 in upon the hearts of the Japanese soldiers, as 
 if to assure the fighters : "If the Russians ever 
 conquer the Japanese, we are the next ones they 
 will have to dispose of." And in the foremost 
 of this attitude, rich and poor, young and old, 
 men and women — all stood ready in line. 
 
 Sec. 71. American Women at the Begin- 
 ning of Russia- Japanese War: Shortly after 
 the declaration of war, on February 11, 1904, 
 American ladies volunteered their self-denying 
 services to nurse the wounded soldiers : Miss 
 Minnie Cooke, Miss Ella King, Miss Eliza- 
 beth Kratz, Miss Alelaide Mackereth, Miss 
 Adele Neeb, of Pennsylvania; Miss Mary 
 Baldwin, of Massachusetts; Miss Sophia 
 Newell, of New York ; Miss Genevieve Russell, 
 of Minnesota; Miss Alice Kemmer, of Indiana; 
 with Mrs. Anita Newcomb McGee, M. D., as 
 their leader, a most intelligent, accomplished 
 and benevolent lady. Meantime, the war went 
 on, on, and on. 
 
 Sec. 72. American Sympathy with Progress 
 of War: As the war progressed there was in- 
 
 [169] 
 
creased American encouragement and favorit- 
 ism for the Japanese soldiers, which in a most 
 cordial manner was attested to by the Taft 
 party. Irrespective of the official protest of 
 Russia, that great lawyer, statesman, and Sec- 
 retary of War, William H. Taft, and Afiss 
 Mabel T. Boardman, a representative of the 
 National Red Cross, highly cultured, amiable 
 and sympathetic, a woman of great executive 
 ability, and at the same time characteristically 
 kind and gentle in manner, together with hosts 
 of other great Americans, in company with a 
 daughter of the President of the United States, 
 Miss Alice Roosevelt, now Mrs. Nicholas 
 Ivongworth, of Ohio, paid a visit to Japan. 
 
 In this connection we should not overlook an 
 official act done for Japan as a neutral nation to 
 a belligerent nation, which we now reproduce in 
 the language of the official records. The Jap- 
 anese government made the following request 
 of the American government, through its min- 
 ister at Washington : 
 
 "See the Secretary of State as soon as possible and 
 ask him whether the United States Government, if 
 Russia consents, will permit its embassy in St. Peters- 
 
 [170] 
 
";;%•• 
 
 ^RITOJ^ OF AMEEIcfA'f "Dl'rfoSr^ 
 
 burg and its consulates in various places in Russia, to 
 assume charge and protection of the Japanese subjects 
 and interests in Russia. 
 
 "You will add that the Imperial government retain 
 lively appreciation of the friendly offices extended to 
 them by the United States during the China- Japan war, 
 "and they venture to hope that nothing will prevent the 
 United States from acting for them in a similar ca- 
 pacity in the present instance." — Komitra. 
 
 And from this governmental request the offi- 
 cial reply came only two days later : 
 
 "Mr. Japanese Minister : I learn from our ambas- 
 sador at St. Petersburg that the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs has informed him that the Emperor of Russia 
 sees no objection in the way of our representatives 
 looking after interests upon the withdrawal from Rus- 
 sia of all diplomatic and consular representatives of 
 Japan. The necessary instructions will be issued at 
 once. Very sincerely yours, John Hay." 
 
 Sec. 73. The American Square Deal Diplo- 
 matic Policy: We must not lose sight of the fact 
 that the United States has achieved one of the 
 signal victories of modern diplomacy. It was 
 the limitation of the sphere of hostilities, in the 
 beginning of the gigantic war Those Europea^ 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 powers who were not in the habit of acknowl- 
 edging the American "square deal" diplomatic 
 policy had but to applaud this bold, wise, and 
 astute diplomacy. Having tested by results, the 
 United States stands abreast in the esteem of 
 all nations, as she by that move has not only 
 lessened the hardships which must of necessity 
 jeopardize China, but also prevented China 
 from having been drawn into the war, and com- 
 mercial interests of all nations to having been 
 worse confounded than that already well nigh 
 complicated. 
 
 Sec. 74. The Greatest Battles on Land and 
 Sea: Meantime, Kuroki's army safely passed 
 Yalu, and the famous Port Arthur fell in 
 the hands of Nogi's army. A force of Jap- 
 anese troops landed on the Island of Sakalin, 
 and practically all the Russians were either 
 killed or captured. L,io Tung peninsula and 
 Korea were declared to be Japanese territory 
 by right of conquest; then came the greatest 
 battles on land and sea — the bloodiest ever 
 fought in history — the battles of Mukden and 
 the Sea of Japan. 
 
 The battle of Mukden was the battle in 
 
 [172] 
 
icv' 
 
 TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 which, in the language of General Chaffee, 
 "over one million men on the Russian side" and 
 three-quarters of a million men on the Japanese 
 side in a battlefield extending over eighty miles 
 of frontier, through trackless mountains, 
 across snow^-covered plains, engaged in mortal 
 combat for eighteen days and nights — corpses, 
 corpses, and corpses ! — only to be ended by the 
 Russian losses of over 200,000 prisoners, 
 wounded and killed. And when on March 
 1 6th, the Japanese relentlessly pursuing the 
 Russians, surrounded and captured them at 
 Tiding, as a finishing stroke to a victory of the 
 battle of Mukden, and when the news of the 
 disastrous defeat at Mukden reached St. Pe- 
 tersburg, the temper of the Russian people rose 
 to a fever heat, slaughtered, discouraged, dis- 
 heartened, disappointed, and humiliated. 
 
 The battle of the Sea of Japan was the battle 
 when, on the 27th of May, the great Czar's 
 armada, the most formidable fleet ever gath- 
 ered together in the history of naval battles, 
 steamed into the Straits of Tsushima with 
 fixed aim, and a determination to annihilate the 
 navy of Japan, but contrary to the expectations 
 
 [173] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of the Czar and the rest of the world, it was 
 completely wiped out, while the startled world 
 stood aghast at the immensity of the disaster 
 to the Russian empire, with the loss of all their 
 warships, valued at over $100,000,000, which 
 were either sunk or captured; 15,000 Russian 
 seamen, officers, and admirals killed or taken 
 prisoners; while the Japanese fleet came out 
 practically with no damage. 
 
 Sec 75. The World Sees End of the War: 
 Meantime, the newly raised foreign loan, 
 and the passing of the War Fund appropriation 
 bill by the Japanese House of Representatives 
 — the war to be fought upon the systematic 
 trade expansion policy — assured the immensity 
 of the national resources. International sta- 
 tisticians already had before them the cold facts 
 that the expenditure of war and the indebted- 
 ness resulting from the war amounted to very 
 little to Japan in the world's credit, and in an 
 industrial sense with the Japanese people. The 
 bill which Japan had to foot after victory upon 
 victory was approximately $900,000,000 
 which apportioned among 48,000,000, inhabit- 
 ants, amounts to about $19.00 per capita. After 
 
 [174] 
 
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 all, Japan's debt was then little more than that 
 of the United States, less than Cuba, less than 
 Australia, less than Belgium, less than Hol- 
 land, less than Germany, less than Spain, less 
 than Portugal, less than the United Kingdom, 
 less than France. 
 
 Sec. 76. President Roosevelt's Relation to 
 the Peace Conference: Japan was then, with 
 ever-increasing international credit, and with 
 careful preparation and redoubled courage, 
 ready to push the campaign to the end; 
 marching on, they would push the Russians 
 to the deserts of Asia, there to finish the last 
 stroke; Generals Kuroki, Oku, Noju, Nogi, and 
 Oyama, watching the land, and Togo, Urieu, 
 and Kamimura, the sea. The world recognized 
 that the end had come, but it needed some one 
 to say so. Then came Theodore Roosevelt, 
 "the Rough Rider," and President of the 
 United States, to say so — the right man, in the 
 right place, at the right time. To this inter- 
 mediation Japan, the American's foster-child, 
 meekly submitted, which resulted in the conclu- 
 sion of the Treaty of Portsmouth. And the 
 author believes he is justified in asserting the 
 
 [175] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 sentiment of the whole civiHzed universe when 
 he says that in ages to come, humanity, philan- 
 thropy, and civilization owe eternal debts to the 
 American President. 
 
 "It is a pleasure to be able to say that never for a 
 moment was there, as between the Government of the 
 United States and the Government of Japan, the slight- 
 est departure from perfect good temper, mutual confi- 
 dence, and kindly consideration." — Blihu Root. 
 
 [176] 
 
PRESENT EMPEROR TO THE THRONE 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 "When Jimmu fixed the Imperial throne, 
 
 Justice and Mercy to stone, 
 He laid its bases broad and deep, 
 A throne that should forever keep : 
 Oh, happy day for me and mine 
 That gave us our Imperial line." 
 
 Takasaki. 
 
 Present Emperor to the Throne 
 
 Sec. yy. The Historical Bvent: Rich indeed 
 has been the harvest of the American people in 
 achievement, as reaped by them, in Japan's na- 
 tional life. The spirit of right thought and edu- 
 cation once having entered the head of Japan, 
 through the patient, generous and humanita- 
 rian efforts of the revered republic, the v^rhole of 
 Japan has been changed and blessed. 
 
 On October 9, 1868, the Shogunate glided 
 into history by the resignation of the last Sho- 
 gun of the then reigning Tokugawa dynasty. 
 
 [177] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 This, then, is rightly celebrated as the most 
 peculiar national event in all the history of 
 Japan. Throughout twenty-five centuries of 
 unbroken lineage the Mikado has been looked 
 upon by his people as holy, imperial and divine. 
 For seven centuries previous to the above date, 
 1868, through the power of the Shogunate, 
 partly vested and partly usurped, the Emperor 
 was in effect but a monarch of a very limited 
 authority, if not even a mere figurehead. But 
 on the above date cited, the Shogunate became 
 obsolete, the Daimios lost their fiefs, the feudal 
 system was at an end, and the Emperor once 
 more reigned supreme over a contented and 
 happy people. 
 
 In the year of 1868, or the first year of 
 Meiji, the present Emperor ascended to the 
 throne. His Majesty is the one hundred and 
 twenty-sixth emperor, being the direct de- 
 scendant of the first Emperor Jimmu. 
 
 Sec. 78. Declaration of National Principles: 
 Soon after the Emperor ascended to the 
 throne, the famous Decree of Five Articles, or 
 "Gojo-no-Gosei-in," was issued by His 
 Majesty, viz. : 
 
 [178] 
 
-rr 
 
 PRESENT EMPEROR TO THE THRONE 
 
 "ist — Deliberation assemblies shall be established on 
 a broad basis in order that governmental measures may 
 be adopted in accordance with public opinion. 
 
 "2d — The concord of all classes of society shall in all 
 emergencies of the State be the first aim of the Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 "3d — Means shall be found for the furtherance of the 
 lawful desire of all individuals without discrimination 
 as to persons. 
 
 "4th — All purposeless and useless customs being dis- 
 carded, justice and righteousness shall be the guide of 
 all actions. 
 
 "Sth — Knowledge and learning shall be sought after 
 throughout the whole world, in order that the status 
 of the Empire of Japan may be raised ever higher and 
 higher." 
 
 From these national principles the Japanese 
 as a nation or as individuals have not for a 
 moment swerved. 
 
 "Fair are thy blossoms, O lily of hope, 
 Bringing to mortal their message of joy. 
 That worldly strivings for greed or for gain, 
 Never can quite blot from the heart or destroy.' 
 
 [179] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Reform of the Financial System 
 
 Sec 79. The Financial Systems in Pre-Re- 
 st oration Time: When the Imperial Govern- 
 ment was restored to its proper place in the 
 economy of Japan it was at once confronted with 
 the financial difficulty. In the transfer of the 
 government from the Feudal to the Imperial 
 systems, there was no revenue attached to it. 
 Worst of all was the public sentiment which had 
 been so bitterly against the Imperial regime. 
 It was, indeed, an indescribably hard task for the 
 new and unwelcomed government to straighten 
 out the many intricate problems of finance. 
 
 Under the feudal system, the feudal central 
 government was in no better condition in the 
 matter of revenue than that of the feudal lord, 
 for the feudal central government had the right 
 of levying taxes only in its own dominion, and 
 the people of those fiefs had no obligation to 
 
 [180] 
 
REFORM OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 
 
 support the Shogunate government. And on 
 the other hand, the feudal local government 
 often was better off in the financial situation, 
 than the Shogunate. The revenue of the local 
 government was for the purpose of maintain- 
 ing military administration and supporting the 
 Samurais or retainers, which was its only obli- 
 gation in their relation to the Shogunate gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Under such a financial system, the farmers 
 and merchants were always obliged to work 
 hard and to support often very extensive and 
 luxurious unproductive classes, or feudal 
 barons and retainers. When the author writes 
 this he is indicting his own ancestors, but such 
 is the fact of the case. 
 
 Sec. 8o. How Taxes Were Paid in the feudal 
 Ages: In the pre-restoration periods, rice was 
 the principal medium of exchange. Taxes were 
 paid by the farmers to the feudal government 
 with rice — the system of levying being based 
 on the harvest of the crop. As we have stated 
 the feudal barons were the owners of lands 
 within their respective dominions, and they did 
 not allow the people to purchase or sell the 
 
 [i8i] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 land. Since rice was the medium of exchange 
 and the principal medium for the payment of 
 taxes, and collection of taxes for revenue, the 
 feudal government interfered and issued 
 orders to the farmers as to what land should 
 be and what land should not be cultivated; the 
 result of such interference and orders often 
 seriously embarrassing the farmers, as the soil 
 was not adapted as suitable for cultivation, 
 great mistakes and miseries were created 
 among the merchants as well as the farmers. 
 Even to-day we speak and read of the miseries 
 and agonies in songs and stories. Sakura 
 Sogoro was a chief of the farmer's council. He 
 was honest, truthful, and most beloved by the 
 villagers. He took steps to appeal from the un- 
 bearable hardships of the farmers, not to the 
 feudal government but to the Shogunate, or 
 central government directly. Hidden under 
 Uyeno Bridge, in wait for the Shogun to pass 
 over it, as he could not approach the military 
 dignitary in any other manner, owing to the 
 numerous guards around the Sedan carriage of 
 the Shogun. The time came when the Shogun 
 was just passing over the bridge. Out he 
 
 [182] 
 
REFORM OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 
 
 jumped and succeeded in placing the complaint 
 of his followers' grievances in the Sedan car- 
 riage in which the Shogun rode. However, 
 under the system of the central and feudal gov- 
 ernments, he could get no result. His courage 
 and effort was rewarded by crucifixion on the 
 cross. According to the popular novel, the only 
 way poor Sogoro could then see to convince 
 the baron of the injustice was for him to appear 
 night after night in the presence of the feudal 
 baron and his family after he had been cruci- 
 fied. This method he finally resorted to after 
 his death and secured the remedy for his fellow 
 farmers at last. 
 
 Sec. 8i. Hozv Reforms Were Brought About : 
 In the countries of Europe, as you know, 
 when they got the transfers of the governments 
 from their feudal barons, they paid the fiefs 
 with money. But the almost bankrupted packet 
 of the Japanese newly restored government 
 could only pay it by means of bonds. Three 
 years after the restoration, for the first time it 
 was decided that all financial matters should 
 be controlled by the treasury, and this was 
 succeeded in 1873 by the new order that the 
 
 [183] ' 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 receipts and payments must be regulated. In 
 the year 1880, the Board of Audit was created 
 and 1882 was a memorable period in the re- 
 form of the financial history, for in that year 
 the Treasury was empowered to control the re- 
 ceipts and the payments of government money, 
 and in the same year, the Bank of Japan was 
 established, to act as the government cashier. 
 A new epoch was introduced in the history of 
 finance when the constitution took full charge 
 of the present Imperial regime, in 1889. Since 
 then, as at present, the government alone could 
 not and can not make its own compilation of 
 budgets, and the reporting of settled accounts. 
 All must wait until the representatives of the 
 people in the Diet sanction them. 
 
 Sec 82. Local Revenue: Local finances, too, 
 owing to the development of self-government 
 conditions and to the progress of the times, are 
 exercising the most modern principles of 
 finance ; and the nation and central government 
 are strictly preventing any undue expansion 
 of the local expenses. On the other hand, the 
 local finance, in the same way as the national 
 system, must be sanctioned by the respective 
 
 [184] 
 
REFORM OF THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM 
 
 local legislatures. This departure for the better 
 may be traced to the enactment of the Law of 
 Districts and Prefectures in 1889, and the L,aw 
 for Cities, Towns, and Villages, in 1888. 
 
 It may be encouraging to observe the in- 
 crease made in the national and local revenues, 
 according to the official reports. For example : 
 Annual local revenue in 1890, nearly $36,000,- 
 000, but in 1900, nearly $70,000,000. The Im- 
 perial National Government had, when it as- 
 sumed the responsibility from the Feudal Cen- 
 tral Government, an annual revenue of $16,- 
 000,000, and in 1903, it reached the huge 
 amount of about $126,000,000. 
 
 [185] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Japanese Industrial 
 Development 
 
 Sec, 83. Communication and Transportation: 
 In this connection, we should not lose sight 
 of the fact that the Japanese Government and 
 public are pushing on with great strides the 
 shipping trade and shipbuilding in Japan. It 
 goes without saying that the coming trade be- 
 ing inseparably connected with shipbuilding 
 work, the expansion of the one depends upon 
 the activity of the other. With these objects 
 in view, the Japanese Government is contin- 
 ually extending its protection policy in the 
 shape of subsidies to steamers, insular or for- 
 eign, according to the Law of Encouraging 
 Navigation. 
 
 The postoffices numbered 5,485 by the last 
 census, which with the postal money order, 
 postal savings, telegraph and telephone offices, 
 
 [186] 
 
JAPANESE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 are controlled by the Bureau of Communica- 
 tion. Every year, about 600,000 foreign tele- 
 grams are carried in Japan ; the world's trade 
 will have nothing further to desire while Japan, 
 as at present, occupies a central position linking 
 together the two hemispheres, and furnishing 
 a well-equipped medium of communication. 
 According to the last census, not counting the 
 insular possessions, but only Japan proper, we 
 have 10,000 miles of railroad lines. 
 
 Sec. 84. Silver and Gold Standards: A few 
 words about Japan's monetary reform. In the 
 coinage history of modern Japan, you will notice 
 four periods. The first period extends from 
 1868 to 1871, in which the beginning was made 
 of the establishment of the new currency sys- 
 tem by the promulgation of the new coinage 
 regulations of 187 1. The main effect of the 
 finance ministers of these days was directed to 
 the adjustment of the disordered condition of 
 finance and coinage, created by the complicated 
 and confounded state of affairs during the Sho- 
 gunate regime. 
 
 The second period extends from 1872 to 
 1879. This period is marked by the founding 
 
 [187] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of the government mint and the issue of new 
 coinage, but more marked for the enormous 
 issues of inconvertible paper money, which 
 brought about all the evils of inflation. 
 
 The third period extends from i860 to 1885, 
 in which the efforts of the government were 
 directed toward replacing the inconvertible 
 paper money with the convertible notes, which 
 prepared the way for the final inauguration of 
 the gold standard system, though for a time it 
 resulted in the establishment of a de facto silver 
 standard. 
 
 The fourth period extends from 1886 to 
 1898, in which the silver standard was changed 
 into a gold monometallic system. 
 
 Sec. 85. Growth of Japan's Foreign Trade: 
 Prior to the abolition of the Shogunate re- 
 gime, owing to the autonomical local govern- 
 ments, and defectiveness of communication and 
 transportation facilities, freign trade — even 
 home trade — was in an insignificant state, only 
 being carried on with China, Korea, Nether- 
 lands, and Portugal, and was limited between 
 them and local cities, under a strict exclusion 
 policy. It was only after the Imperial restora- 
 
 [i^ 
 
MENT 
 
 iqn in 1868, a new era began in the matter of 
 foreign trade. To begin with, in 1868, Japan 
 had only about $10,000,000 of foreign trade, 
 -bafcqt^SaS: already developed to the enormous 
 amount of $500,000,000 in 1902. The United 
 States has a large share of this, as a natural re- 
 sult of their relations with Japan. 
 
 Secretary Straus, of the Department of 
 Commerce and Labor, when interviewed by the 
 author, gave him the following statement in re- 
 gard to the American- Japanese trade : "Our 
 trade with Japan has shown a remarkable 
 growth in recent years, during which time a 
 feeling of deep friendship has developed be- 
 tween that wonderful race and our own. Her 
 people have been welcomed to all the privileges 
 and immunities enjoyed by the most favored n; 
 tion. The privileges of Americans residing 
 Japan, the number of whom has been nearly 
 doubled in the past decade, have corresgoadingl 
 increased." 
 
 »Qoac 
 
 The Secretary went on to quote the items 
 the trade of the respective countries, and said : 
 "Our great silk manufacturers, which employ 
 thousands of workmen and disburse over thirty 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 millions a year in wages, have drawn largely 
 for their raw material upon Japan, sending her 
 nearly forty million dollars for raw silk in the 
 year just ended. In turn, Japan has purchased 
 freely of the products of our farms and facto- 
 ries, so that our exports to that country have 
 grown over thirty-eight millions in 1906." 
 
 Sec. 86. The Piiture of Japanese- American 
 Foreign Trade: It is said that Japan, if she 
 marches on her commercial expansion as she 
 has marched, will, like John Bull did with the 
 American merchantmen of the Atlantic, drive 
 out the American oceanic carriages from the 
 Pacific. It is also said that Japan, with her ad- 
 vantageous cheap labor and untiring industry, 
 within the near future will not only control the 
 traffics of the countries and islands washed by 
 the Pacific, but also supplant American people 
 in their occupations, placing them in the mean- 
 time at the mercy of the Japanese commercial 
 flag. All this scare is based upon an entirely 
 erroneous theory. Well studied and true eco- 
 nomic principles are known to take a different 
 course. 
 
 We admit that 50 per cent of the population 
 
 [190] 
 
JAPANESE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 of Japan belong to the farming class. It is a 
 national policy to encourage agriculture. If 
 the rice crop be all sent out for commercial arti- 
 cles to a foreign market, she may realize an 
 annual income of over $150,000,000. But we 
 must admit at the same time in Japan the con- 
 sumption of all the rice crop does not supply 
 even half of the demand within her own terri- 
 torial boundary. The remaining demand must 
 be imported from the country that can supply 
 the foodstuff. 
 
 We admit that Japan has large deposits 
 of coal and iron within her borders. She 
 has discovered coal and iron in Manchuria, 
 Korea and Sakaline Island, and is getting from 
 such discovery large quantities of coal and iron. 
 On the other hand, the empire has over 1,700 
 shipyards, where all warships or merchantmen, 
 as far as she needs, can be built. Recently, the 
 battleships, Satsuma and Aki, which were con- 
 structed by native labor alone, were launched. 
 The Satsimia, their largest battleship, is as large 
 as the Dreadnatight of the British navy, and ac- 
 cording to American expert opinion, is superior 
 in her fighting strength to the British Dread- 
 
 tipi] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 naught. We admit that Japan builds 
 steamers which are now being used as intern 
 national carriers between Japan and Eurcig^j, 
 Australia, Bombay, Eastern Siberia, China, 
 Korea, Sagaline, the Philippines, Formosa, and : 
 the inland seas, while at the same time, her • 
 steamers are lining up between herself and 
 San Francisco, Puget Sound ports, Canada^' 
 and South America. And the steamship com- 
 panies are preparing for her extension of 
 oceanic lines to Panama, hoping for a speedy 
 completion of the construction of the Panama 
 Canal. 
 
 Sec. 87. Future Development of Japan's 
 Foreign Trade: But we must also admit that 
 the mineral materials, such as coal and iron, etc., 
 which are needed by Japan are short, approxi- 
 mately 60 per cent. The more Japan struggles 
 in her commercial expansion, the more she feels 
 the need that Japan in herself cannot provide all 
 the essentials. The more her people extend 
 their traffic to other countries under the ad- 
 vantage of cheap labor and industry, the more 
 she demands the supply of the vitally import- 
 ant materials, foodstuffs, minerals, machinery, 
 
 [192] 
 

 tools, etc., all the essentials to the life of the 
 people. Suppose the Japanese do drive out 
 American merchantmen from the Pacific as 
 John Bull did in the Atlantic; yet Americans 
 will still have an exclusive and continuous op- 
 portunity to supply the necessary demands, if 
 they wish; the United States extends from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to 
 the Gulf, within which abound all necessary 
 foodstuffs and minerals ; its people are not only 
 able to supply the demands of their own coun- 
 try's internal industry, but also to supply more 
 than enough of all the materials that are 
 wanted every day by industrial Japan. Their 
 national resources are practically inexhaust- 
 ible; it makes even a scientist superstitious 
 about America as a country in manifest des- 
 tiny. Does every American realize these facts 
 and carry out such realization ? The future of 
 the prosperity of the Japanese-American trade 
 is self-evident. 
 
 "Japan entertains nothing but good will toward our 
 nation. Steam has narrowed the Pacific and made us 
 neighbors ; let Justice keep us friends." — Wni. J. Bryan. 
 
^</^|/^2^ 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 "Does my way lead me over the sea, 
 Let the waves entomb my corpse ; 
 Does my destiny lead me over the mountains, 
 Let the grass cover my remains ; 
 Where'er I go, I shall by my Lord's side expire; 
 'Tis not in peace and ease that I shall die." 
 
 Otomo, A. D. 724. 
 
 The Army and the Navy 
 of Japan 
 
 Sec. 88. The Attraction of tJie World's Pow- 
 ers: When the Japanese soldiers safely passed 
 Yalu River, which the Russian army named as 
 "an impregnable fortification" and to pass it 
 "a human impossibility;" where the Russian 
 soldiers were in wait after years of preparation 
 and determination, the great powers became 
 doubtful and uncertain as to the degree of Jap- 
 anese strength. Battle succeeded battle. The 
 
 [194] 
 
;>«RK>im>l 
 
 THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 pygmy nation fought against and won from the 
 giant of Europe and Asia. The mere mention 
 of a cossack is the terror of Europe, according 
 to Napoleon. Yet the Russian soldiers — de- 
 feated, defeated, and defeated — finally saw the 
 futility of their early boast that they would 
 wipe out the Japanese from the face of the 
 earth. With the progress of their defeat, they 
 finally began to complain of the maladministra- 
 tion of their government, so that they would 
 not fight. 
 
 Since then the army of Japan became the star 
 attraction of the military powers. When the 
 attention of the first powers are thus directed 
 to it, if we spend a few moments in learning 
 how the soldiers have been trained and are now 
 being trained, we hope it will not be uninstruc- 
 tive to the reader. 
 
 Sec. 89. Hozv Soldiers Were Trained in the 
 Barliest Ages: The treacherous aborigines were 
 a constant menace to the peaceful Imperial rule. 
 It was these barbarians, for the suppression of 
 whom the Emperor Keiko, the twelfth Emperor, 
 is noted in the ancient military annals for the 
 deputation of his only son, Prince Yamatodake. 
 
 [I9S] 
 

 > \ 
 
 BBmmBsm 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 In the reign of Emperor Tenchi, the con- 
 scription law was made known and then mili- 
 tary institutions were everywhere established. 
 The Emperor Tenchi transformed the military 
 system of the times and the soldiers were or- 
 ganized into different regiments, battalions, 
 brigades, companies, and sections. According 
 to the rule, one-third of the adult male inhab- 
 itants were conscribed as soldiers and they were 
 subjected to rigorous military training. About 
 one hundred years later, 740 A. D., Emperor 
 Shomu made still further changes, so that the 
 young men of promising marksmanship and 
 good horsemen were chosen and sent to dif- 
 ferent military schools of the land. 
 
 However, after feudalism ushered in a class 
 of professional or hereditary soldiers, they 
 trained their sons in their own professions until 
 the dawn of the present era. 
 
 Sec 90. The Rise of a Great Man in the Last 
 Shogunate Regime: The unique system of Jap- 
 anese military training had its germs in the last 
 Shogunate government. li, a conspicuous figure 
 of progressive parties under the regime of the 
 last Shogun, was not only famous in taking de- 
 
 [196] 
 
THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 cided steps in admitting the foreigners, for 
 Japan's trade, but also in re-organizing the mili- 
 tary system. It was in a way the last dying effort 
 to preserve the existence of the Shogunate gov- 
 ernment. His scheme, however, was compari- 
 tively modest as it did not contemplate a total 
 effective force of more than 13,000 men whose 
 drill and equipment was far from perfect. This 
 number or even a greater number of men could 
 have been well equipped if li had been given a 
 free hand, as he was a very capable and far- 
 seeing person. In spite of opposition not only 
 within his own party but also from without, he 
 opened the country to foreigners. Let us re- 
 member the force of his character. 
 
 Sec. 91. Who Are Soldiers in Japan: 
 The idea of the ,.,present Japanese system 
 when compared with the last one mentioned 
 is, as a matter of course, seen to be a great (Jeal 
 more effective. In the first year of Meiji, or 
 1868 A. D., the year in which the present Em- 
 peror came to the throne, further changes were 
 made in the Department of the Army and the 
 Navy. Military conscription was published by 
 the Imperial Edict of 1871, and in the foUow- 
 
 .J_, 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ing year the navy and the army was separated, 
 and each had an independent department. Six 
 mihtary divisions were organized in the eigh- 
 teenth year of the present Emperor, in 1855 ; 
 these were further increased to twelve divi- 
 sions after the war with China of 1894-5, and 
 quadrupled after the Russian-Japanese war. 
 
 The present government conscribes all citi- 
 zens of Japan to do their military duty for a 
 certain number of years. It is the pride of the 
 Japanese people to fulfill this reciuirement. At 
 the present time the population of Japan is over 
 48,000,000, and continues to increase very rap- 
 idly. Obeying the rule that every male citizen 
 over twenty years of age shall bear arms, the 
 government would have more soldiers at any 
 one time than is needed. Therefore to check 
 the ever-increasing applicants and to meet the 
 requirement of the peace footing great discrim- 
 inations are made, and each applicant is sub- 
 mitted to most rigorous physical examinations. 
 The result is that only those who are physically 
 perfect can enter the army. The Japanese 
 army, therefore, comprises a living and intelli- 
 
 [198] 
 
THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 gent fighting force of the very greatest per- 
 fection. 
 
 Sec. 92. Study of the Japanese Soldiers: 
 Senator Tillman, when speaking to the 
 author about the Japanese, said : "The best 
 goods come in small packages." While appre- 
 ciating the kind remarks made to him by Sen- 
 ator Tillman, he would like to add that in in- 
 dividual strength to stand hard study, and the 
 power of willingness to obey orders, the Jap- 
 anese may be larger than others. 
 
 In the barracks the officers share in all the 
 exercises of the soldiers and they are always on 
 duty so that there exists complete harmony be- 
 tween the officers and the soldiers. Every 
 officer has to receive rigorous military train- 
 ing in the colleges. One that is commonly 
 known as the Tokyo Military College, is lo- 
 cated at Ichigai, Tokyo. The military college 
 has the departments of infantry, cavalry, for- 
 tress artillery, field artillery, engineering, and 
 training. 
 
 The students must take the requirement irre- 
 spective of his choice of arms, which are : 
 Tactics, science of artillery, fortification, topog- 
 
 [199] 
 

 LIFE OF JA(K«m^ 
 
 raphy, military administration7~Seld liygieiliev 
 the care of horses, foreign languages, and sur- 
 veying. In addition to the above subjects they 
 are required to take exercise in drilling, gym- 
 nastics, fencing, sabre use, shooting, riding, 
 and jiujitsu. This is followed by annual mili- 
 tary manceuvers at the end of October. In 
 order to attain higher military training the 
 graduate officers enter the Military Staff Col- 
 lege. The lieutenants and sub-lieutenants are 
 eligible to admission to the college when they 
 satisfy the faculty of their physical health, in- 
 tellectual qualifications, morals and diligence. 
 An applicant to the Military Staff College 
 must have been in all cases in the regiments 
 or battalions for a period of not less than 
 two years. The college course is three years 
 in length. There are, in addition to the 
 above named college, the following, all of 
 which are/open to the military officers: College 
 ii of Artillery and Eiigineering, College of Gun- 
 ', nery and Field Artillery, College of Gunnery 
 and Fortress Artillery, College of Cavalry 
 Training, Toyama Military College, College of 
 
— K 
 
 THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPA> 
 
 Military Administratioh, ' 
 and Veterinary Surgeons. 
 
 Sbc. 93. President, Roosevelt and General 
 Chaffee Speak of the Japanese Soldiers: Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt, speaking about the Japanese 
 soldiers, said : "The Japanese have given jl's 
 a good lesson by the way they handled tfeir,- 
 army in the recent war. One of the rea- 
 sons why their medical department did well — 
 the main reason — was the fact that they had 
 been practiced in time of peace in doing the 
 duties they would have to do in war." Such an 
 utterance from the lips of the American Presi- 
 dent and the famous "Rough Rider," is the 
 greatest compliment to the Japanese soldiers. 
 General Chaffee, too, among good things about 
 them of which the Japanese can be proud, said : 
 "There are certain lessons which the armies of 
 the world might study with profit, and which 
 are also of interest to the public." The Amer- 
 ican military commander went on to state that 
 "the most important is the manner in which the 
 Japanese army is recruited and the ease with 
 w^iiich the government was able to place three- 
 -quarters of a million of trained men in the field 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 within a few montlis after the declaration of 
 war. Every one of them was an educated sol- 
 dier, who understood his duty and was able to 
 perform it. It was not necessary for the re- 
 cruiting or mustering officers to break in awk- 
 ward squads at any recruiting station. The 
 Japanese soldier demonstrated from the mo- 
 ment he put on his uniform that he not only 
 knew the manual of arms, but was familiar 
 with the duties of a soldier and knew how to 
 take care of himself in the field, in camp and 
 in battle. This is due to the thoroughness of 
 the Japanese system. More than in any other na- 
 tion is the army a part of the people of Japan 
 and the people a part of the army." General 
 Chaffee further said that in his opinion the 
 number of Russian troops in Manchuria has 
 been very much underestimated. "There 
 were," said General Chaffee, "more than a mil- 
 lion men on the Russian side before the battle 
 of Mukden." 
 
 Sf;c. 94. The Navy of Japan: Although there 
 was naval warfare — in the second century, when 
 Empress Jingo invaded Korea ; in the eleventh 
 century when Genji and Heike clans fought at 
 
 [202] 
 
THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 Danno-Ura ; in the following century when the 
 Mongolian crusade invaded Japan ; in the thir- 
 teenth century when the Japanese took aggres- 
 sive action against China ; in the following cen- 
 turies, when Japan renewed her attacks against 
 Korea and China — their warships were not such 
 as we understand them in the modern sense of 
 the word. They were in the shape of armed 
 merchantmen, including fishing junks. As we 
 have already learned, the navy became inde- 
 pendent from the army in 1872. In the same 
 year, rules relating to the Levy of Seamen were 
 promulgated and the system of conscription ser- 
 vice begun, which in 1885 was put in force ; and 
 in 1899 the voluntary service system was also 
 inaugurated. 
 
 Sec. 95. Most Thorough Training of Naval 
 Officers: The naval colleges are open for every 
 young man between the ages of fifteen and 
 twenty years. Entrance to the college is by com- 
 petitive examinations. All married applicants 
 and all those who have any blemishes of char- 
 acter whatsoever are never admitted. The gov- 
 ernment defrays all necessary expenses of the 
 students who are admitted to this college. The 
 
 [^03] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 first examination is physical, and only those 
 who are successful in this are qualified to take 
 the educational examination. The educational 
 examination as it exists at the present time in- 
 cludes the following subjects : Algebra, plane 
 geometry, plane trigonometry, Japanese liter- 
 ature, composition, English grammar and 
 translation, physics, chemistry, history, geog- 
 raphy, hand sketching, and mechanical draw- 
 ing. The French, German, and Russian lan- 
 guages are optional. The college course, which 
 is three years in length, comprises the following 
 lines of work : In the first year, gunnery 
 course requires four hours a week ; seamanship, 
 four; engineering, one; English, five; physics 
 and chemistry, five and one-half; mathematics, 
 six and one-half; making a total of twenty- 
 eight hours of study each week. The second 
 year's course comprises for gunnery, four 
 hours a week; for seamanship, three; for tor- 
 pedo instruction, one; for engineering, three; 
 for mathematics, five. The third year course 
 comprises three hours a week for gunnery; 
 four for seamanship", four for torpedo instruc- 
 tion; seven for navigation; one for engineer- 
 
iS^??5 
 
 THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 ing; six for English; three for mathematics 
 and statistics. The course in seamanship com- 
 prises the international law of the high seas; 
 signalling; shipbuilding; preservation of ships 
 and their construction; provisioning. In the 
 course of navigation, the studies of meteorologi- 
 cal observation and surveying are both in- 
 cluded. In addition to these courses there are 
 lectures on international law and naval history. 
 The cadets who have passed the final examina- 
 tions are promoted to midshipmen. The mid- 
 shipman first serves on a special training-ship, 
 then in the ships of the standing fleet. In both 
 of these capacities they are rigorously required 
 to put in practice what they have been taught 
 in the colleges. 
 
 Sec. 96. The Naval Colleges: There are two 
 naval colleges, one in Etajima and the other in 
 Tokyo. The latter is the higher naval college 
 and is established for the purpose of training 
 lieutenants and sub-lieutenants. Admission to 
 this college is also competitive. The college 
 course is two years in length, and has four dif- 
 ferent courses. The subjects taught in these 
 courses are strategy, tactics, naval history, mili- 
 
 [205] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 tary administration, political economy, gun- 
 nery, torpedoes, navigation, ship-building, en- 
 gineering, etc. In addition to the two most im- 
 portant colleges already named above it may be 
 proper to add the College at Yakosuka, the 
 Naval Medical College, Paymasters Training 
 School, and the Nautical College at Tokyo. In 
 conclusion, those Japanese who claim that their 
 navy is as complete if not better than that of 
 any other nation, had better leave this problem 
 to the solution of the world's naval experts. 
 
 Sec. 97. The Authorities of the World Speak 
 for the Japanese Navy: However, it may be 
 justice to add a few words as to the causes of 
 their success in the practical engagements with 
 the navy of Russia. You know of the rapidity 
 with which the Japanese officers and sailors 
 struck the first blow at Chemulpo and Port Ar- 
 thur, and the phenomenal success which at- 
 tended those daring naval operations, involving 
 as they did the paralysis of the Russian navy, 
 and the final success in the Sea of Japan, secur- 
 ing at the same time the full command of the 
 Eastern seas, have served not only to raise the 
 prestige of Japan enormously, but also has 
 
 [206] 
 
THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 caused them to become the subject of the ad- 
 miration of the whole world. "Japan won," 
 says a French naval expert, a well known 
 deputy who had been Minister of Marine, 
 "because from the first to the last they fought 
 in obedience to the eternal principles of 
 naval war, because they knew that the com- 
 mand of the sea meant nothing but the security 
 of maritime communications; without it they 
 could do nothing, with it they could do every- 
 thing, and that the only way to obtain it was to 
 destroy or render impotent all the available 
 naval forces of the enemy. That is one of the 
 great lessons." 
 
 After all, as all the authorities agree — the 
 United States, England, Germany, France, 
 Russia, Italy — -it must be admitted that the war 
 was decided, as naval wars always have been 
 decided, not by the ships and fleets engaged, but 
 by the men of Japan who handled the ships 
 and who fought with the guns. 
 
 Sec. 98. Origin of the Red Cross Society in 
 Japan: Perhaps the best institution as an integral 
 part of the navy and the army, and as a philan- 
 thropic and humanitarian establishment, is the 
 
 [207] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Red Cross Society of Japan, which the author 
 believes to be entitled to your brief comment. 
 The Red Cross Society owes it origin to the 
 southwestern civil war, in 1877, which was the 
 last that ever occurred in Japan. It was then 
 named the Universal Benevolent Society or 
 "Haku-ai-sha." This philanthropic organiza- 
 tion amended its articles of association in 1887, 
 and joined the Red Cross Convention of Ge- 
 neva, changing its name to the Red Cross Soci- 
 ety of Japan or "Seki-jiu-ji-sha." The mem- 
 bers then enlisted were about 2,100, but in 1902 
 it had grown to no less than 796,045. 
 
 Sec 99. The Red Cross in Chinese-Japanese 
 War: The work undertaken by the society made 
 a creditable record on the occasion of the 
 Japan-China war. The officials and nurses of 
 the society took charge of and cared for loi,- 
 423 invalids, including 1,484 prisoners of war. 
 The society has also undertaken several times 
 to nurse the wounded in calamities, accidental 
 and natural. Among the principal cases we 
 may mention, the eruption of Mount Bandai 
 in 1888, the shipwreck of the Turkish man-of- 
 war in 1890, the disastrous earthquake of Mino 
 
 [208] 
 
THE ARMY AND THE NAVY OF JAPAN 
 
 and Owari, in the following year, the tidal 
 waves in Sanriku, and the earthquake at Akita 
 in 1898, the fire at Hachoji in 1897, and the 
 famine of the Northern provinces in 1906, not 
 mentioning the benevolent work the local 
 branches of the society undertook at every time 
 of flood or other disaster which overtook the 
 provinces near them. 
 
 Sec. 100. The Red Cross at Opening of Japa- 
 nese-Russian War: There were many defective 
 points in the internal arrangement of the society, 
 but they have been completely removed since the 
 Japanese-Chinese war of 1894, and the society 
 as well as local branches are no longer subject to 
 inconvenience as regards materials and person- 
 nel. The society, the head office and branches 
 as well, maintains a regular system of train- 
 ing nurses which was begun in 1890. The 
 term of training at the head office extends over 
 a period of three years, and that of the branches 
 one year. When the Russian- Japanese war 
 broke out the society discharged its duty with 
 signal efficiency. In September, 1905, the 
 members of the society numbered 1,035,000. 
 
 To conclude, it is perhaps most fair, from 
 
 > [209] 
 
^if^mwmm 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 the nature of the subject, to say in the words 
 of an American lady and representative of the 
 American National Red Cross, Miss Mabel 
 T. Boardman, during a conversation with the 
 author : "The Japanese Red Cross is the most 
 efficient of all." 
 
 "When others blame thee, blame them not; 
 When others are angry at thee, return not anger, 
 Joy Cometh only as Passion and Desire part." 
 
 Kumazawa. 
 
 [210] 
 
EDUCATION IN JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 I am never easy, when handling a thought, till I have 
 bounded it north, and bounded it south, and bounded 
 it east, and bounded it west. — Lincoln. 
 
 Education in Japan 
 
 Sec. ioi. Bducction in the Old Regime: 
 There exists ample evidence that even in an- 
 cient times culture and learning attained a 
 high degree of development. However, the 
 system of education in vogue prior to the re- 
 storation of the Imperial Government in 1868, 
 and its scope and operation was narrow and 
 limited. It was more of the humanity studies 
 than anything else, in the modern sense of the 
 term. It has been only since Perry's expedi- 
 tion to the hitherto forbidden see of Uraga that 
 modern education has flourished in Japan. 
 
 Sec. 102. American Educators in the Educa- 
 tion of Japan: The gift by the United States of 
 
 [211] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 $750,000 for Japanese education did not exhaust 
 the interest taken by American people toward 
 the educational advancement of Japan. The best 
 educators in the United States thoroughly dis- 
 cussed the matter, made lists of the best educa- 
 tional standards in every branch of science, lit- 
 erature, art and law, and many competent 
 teachers went to Japan to personally inspect, es- 
 tablish and superintend the educational inter- 
 ests of that country, and Christian mission- 
 aries took a leading part in this magnanimous 
 work. Some of the most prominent scientists 
 were also in the van of disseminating the ad- 
 vantages of education among the Japanese 
 youth. By the advice of the first United States 
 Minister Harris the Shogunate, in the spring 
 of i860, equipped a large number of young 
 aspirants for governmental honors, and sent 
 them abroad to pursue various courses of 
 learning and to familiarize themselves, each 
 in his own specialty, with every branch of mod- 
 ern civilization. Sixty-five of these Japanese 
 students after completing their respective 
 courses returned permeated with the best learn- 
 ing of the age, as the standard bearers of mod- 
 
 [212] 
 
EDUCATION IN JAPAN 
 
 ern enlightenment in their country. In 1872 
 the Emperor sent abroad, for a Hke purpose, a 
 similar embassy of forty-nine young men. In 
 all due haste this Imperial embassy gathered 
 their various stores of information and 
 promptly returned to augment the first fruits 
 of the Shogun's embassy. Many members of 
 both these embassies are now in the highest 
 positions of trust in the realm. Thenceforth 
 the stream from Japan of ambitious youth in 
 search of foreign lore has been continuous, 
 until at the present day Japan is pushing well 
 to the front in every branch of modern ad- 
 vancement. Christian institutions, mechanical 
 and mercantile establishments, colleges, and 
 universities, founded by Americans or by Jap- 
 anese from America, through the length and 
 breadth of Japan, have all contributed to a re- 
 sult unprecedented in the history of any nation. 
 Sec 103. The Famous Imperial Rescript on 
 Education: Before entering into a brief observa- 
 tion of the educational institutions, let us in- 
 scribe here, as a matter of historical importance, 
 the much commented upon and criticised "Kio- 
 iku-Choku-go" or "Imperial Rescript on Educa- 
 
 [213] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 tion," which was issued by His Majesty in 
 1890, and reads as follows : 
 
 "Our ancestors founded the State on a vast basis, 
 while their virtues were deeply implanted, and our sub- 
 jects by their unanimity in their great loyalty and filial 
 affection, have in all ages shown them in perfection. 
 Such is the essential beauty of Our National Polity, 
 and such, too, is the true spring of Our Educational 
 System. You, our beloved subjects, be filial to your 
 parents, affectionate to your brothers, be loving hus- 
 bands and wives, and truthful to your friends. Conduct 
 yourselves with modesty, and be benevolent to all. 
 Develop your intellectual faculties and perfect your 
 moral powers by gaining knowledge and by acquiring 
 a profession. Further, promote the public interests and 
 advance the public affairs; ever respect the national 
 constitution and obey the laws of the country; and in 
 case of emergency, courageously sacrifice yourselves to 
 the public good. Thus offer every support to Our Im- 
 perial Majesty, which shall be lasting as the universe. 
 You will then not only be our most loyal subjects, but 
 will be enabled to exhibit the noble character of our 
 ancestors. 
 
 "Such are the testaments left us by our ancestors, 
 which must be observed alike by their descendants and 
 subjects. These precepts are perfect throughout all 
 ages and of universal application. It is our desire to 
 
 [214] 
 
EDUCATION IN JAPAN 
 
 bear them in our heart in common with you, our sub- 
 jects, to the end that we may constantly possess these 
 virtues." 
 
 Sec. 104. The Educational Institutions: The 
 government makes compulsory the educa- 
 tion of children of school-going age ; yet the 
 parents appear more anxious than the govern- 
 ment in this respect, which is demonstrated by 
 the establishment of kindergarten schools, both 
 public and private. There is scarcely one in- 
 corporated city without the kindergarten. 
 
 The institutions maintained by the Depart- 
 ment of Education are called government in- 
 stitutions, while those maintained at the local 
 district or corporation expense are called pub- 
 lic or communal schools. According to the of- 
 ficial records there are 29,335 public and pri- 
 vate schools, consisting of Primary, Blind and 
 Deaf and Dumb, Normal, Higher Normal, 
 Middle, Girls' High, High, Universities, Girls' 
 Universities, Special, Technical. Professors 
 and teachers number 118,104, allotted to 
 5,265,000 students and pupils. 
 
 Sec 105. The Weather Bureau: In the main, 
 the Japanese government is ever attentive in 
 
 [215] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 the affairs of education ; the Japanese have all 
 necessary institutions founded upon the most 
 modern principles of education. The students 
 are very earnest, diligently devoting themselves 
 to literature, to arts, to sciences, and to all other 
 subjects of learning, to cope with students of 
 any country. 
 
 Outside of the schools, and the students who 
 devote themselves to study as we have above 
 enumerated, there are other institutions that 
 are worthy of notice in connection with the 
 education of Japan. They are the institutions 
 wherein the farmers, miners, and other common 
 mass of millions are receiving the benefit of in- 
 structions in the application of the most modern 
 of science and art to their daily labor. For in- 
 stance : There are thirty-eight agricultural ex- 
 periment stations in Japan. They are impress- 
 ing the common farmers with the importance 
 of scientific knowledge of farming, as the three 
 essential ingredients of fertilizers, the selection 
 of seeds and so forth. In these stations are 
 conducted scientific researches into the theory of 
 agriculture, agricultural chemistry, entomology, 
 vegetable pathology, tobacco culture, horticul- 
 
 [216] 
 
EDUCATION IN JAPAN 
 
 ture, stock-breeding, etc. On the other hand 
 the miners are individually brought in contact 
 with the most advanced mining engineers, geo- 
 logical surveyors, etc. This is being done to 
 encourage the development of mining industry 
 along scientific methods. 
 
 A meteorological observatory was estab- 
 lished at Hokkaido as early as 1875, and to-day 
 there are 134 meteorological stations. The 
 daily weather map, the monthly weather re- 
 view, the monthly report, and the annual re- 
 port are being published and circulated at large 
 and they are reputed as the most trustworthy of 
 their kind in the world. And at the Central Me- 
 teorological Observatory the observers are 
 taught and trained in meteorology, seismology, 
 physics, the use of instruments and methods, etc. 
 Japan indeed has struggled in discovery and ap- 
 plication of the theory and practice of the sci- 
 ences, and her people having contributed greatly 
 to the dynamics and physics of earth's intellec- 
 tual atmosphere and to the allied sciences in gen- 
 eral, she stands to-day pre-eminently in the sci- 
 entific civilization of the world. 
 
 [217] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 From a typical American educator to the author : 
 "Two cities of about the same size and relative im- 
 portance are Paris and Tokyo. No two could show 
 a greater contrast in spirit. Both are, in a sense, cities 
 of pleasure. Tokyo is a city of continuous joyousness, 
 little pleasures drawn from simple things which leave 
 no sting. Paris is feverish and feels the 'difference in 
 the morning,' the 'hard, fierce lust and cruel deed.' 
 
 "No one who catches the spirit of Paris can fail to 
 miss the underlying sadness, the pity of it all. The 
 spirit of Tokyo — not of all Tokyo, but of its life as a 
 whole — is fresh as the song of birds, as 'sweet as chil- 
 dren's prattle is,' and it is good order to be under its 
 spell." — David Starr Jordan. 
 
 [218] 
 
w 
 
 PAR.T III 
 
" How glorious would it be if some day we may be 
 fortunate enough to establish a Congress of the United 
 States of Japan and America. " 
 
-^TSPSttese constitutional government 
 
 "And when, on this our Festival day, 
 
 Spontaneous mercy to display, 
 Our Emp'ror gave us, frank and free. 
 
 Constitutional Liberty, 
 Was ever nation blest as we? 
 
 Oh, happy day for me and mine 
 That gave us our Imperial line.' 
 
 Takasaki. 
 
 Japanese Constitutional 
 Government 
 
 Sec. io6. Old and New Constitution: If 
 constitutional government means certain fixed 
 rules and principles, under which a gov- 
 ernment is carried on, the most important of 
 which is that the people have a voice in all de- 
 liberations prior to the making of any new law, 
 then Japan has, from time immemorial, pos- 
 sessed it in some measure. If it means "Gov- 
 ernment by the people, for the people," then 
 Japan never possessed anything of the kind 
 
 {2f2l] 
 
 ccr d 
 
 ,// # 
 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 until the Japanese constitution was promul- 
 gated on February ii, 1889. 
 
 A brief examination of the Constitution of 
 Old Japan is not only of historical interest, but 
 also essential to show clearly the contrast be- 
 tween the old and new constitution. 
 
 The Japanese during the twenty-five and a 
 half centuries they have lived in one archi- 
 pelago, consisting of about 4,000 islands, 
 hemmed in by the natural boundaries of the 
 seas, have evolved a system of government 
 peculiar to themselves — a system of mutual 
 independence and yet of confederation among 
 the different islands. The early history of the 
 Japanese before the Christian era, like that of 
 Greece and Rome, is a history of incessant 
 warfare and conflict between the different 
 tribes. This constant warfare and conflict 
 finally resulted in the consolidation of the Jap- 
 anese people into one political unit and the birth 
 of a national consciousness. 
 
 Skc. 107. The Japanese Constitution in the 
 Earliest Ages: The progress of political fusion 
 in the early history of Japan was slow and al- 
 ways limited by the necessities of the case. It 
 
 [222] 
 
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 progressed only through necessity, or the new 
 statesmanship which the new order demanded. 
 
 The incessant conflict among the different 
 tribes — either in the suppression of tribal 
 uprisings or in the defense of the islands against 
 foreign invaders, caused the rise of the middle 
 class. The rise of the middle class means the 
 entering wedge against despotism and the pre- 
 vention of national ruin. 
 
 When a country is in its infancy the scepter 
 and the sword must follow each other, there- 
 fore the king decides quarrels, declares customs 
 and leads the people in war. But after a while 
 the community extends by absorbing others in 
 contest or by natural progress of growth, and 
 can no longer assemble in its entirety to express 
 its assent or dissent on matters of common in- 
 terest. The various duties of the King pass 
 into the hands of ministers, sometimes with 
 the result, noticeable in the English Constitu- 
 tion, that the King comes to be regarded as in- 
 capable of discharging the duties for himself. 
 
 The ideals of the middle class naturally in- 
 cline toward a military spirit. The soldiery 
 
 [223] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 and the middle class in ancient Japan were ope 
 and the same thing. 
 
 Sec io8. Japanese Administrative Systeift: 
 During the Feudal age the Emperor was re-, . 
 duced to a mere figurehead. Still, he was the, ' 
 sovereign just the same. The preseri't constitjii'' 
 tion of Japan construes the position of Sril- 
 peror during the Feudal ages in the following 
 few words : 
 
 "The unity of political powers weakened 
 during the middle ages, by a succession of civil 
 commotions." 
 
 As it was written elsewhere, during the 
 Feudal age Japan was parcelled out into fiefs, 
 each under a separate Daimio or Feudal baron. 
 The territory of each Daimio was politically 
 and socially independent from that of every 
 other fief, and the laws and customs of each 
 territory were often the very antithesis of those 
 of adjacent fiefs. 
 
 The Shogunate family has in every case 
 three or more branches or houses; the succes- 
 sor to the Shogunate, being always chosen 
 when the Shogun had no son, from one of these 
 families. Next to them in rank came the 
 
 [224] 
 
Feudal barons, wRb were of great power. They 
 were allies rather than subjects. Next to them 
 in rank came the nobles, who were descended 
 from some of the numerous progeny of a Sho- 
 gun. Next in rank and power were the Feudal 
 barons who were eligible to membership in the 
 Central Council of the Feudal government. 
 These privileges were attached to these ranks 
 for the token in return for ancestral submission 
 in the decisive feudal war of the country. The 
 Feudal barons must send their representatives 
 who establish their headquarters in the seat of 
 the Shogun's government; the representatives 
 may change from time to time, but their head- 
 quarters and offices remain the same. 
 
 The Shogun government was carried on for 
 these nobles by the vassals who held fiefs of 
 them. These vassals constituted the Samurai 
 or military retainers. In short, these retainers 
 of the Feudal barons were eligible to the of- 
 fices of the administration within the limit of 
 the territory of the particular baron. 
 
 The judges, legislatives, executives and offi- 
 cers of respective provinces were chosen from 
 the Samurai and the Samurai alone. 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Such was really the form and relation to each 
 other of the parts of the Feudal government 
 and the rulers who regulated the various ad- 
 ministrative affairs. 
 
 In theory the Japanese people autocratically 
 ruled under the Feudal system; they have 
 always been able to make their wishes known to 
 the authorities about them. The peasants and 
 farmers of the country villages had access to 
 the local retainers, the retainers in their turn 
 had access to the government of the Feudal 
 lord, so that the history of every clan teems 
 with instances in which the policy of the 
 Feudal government was shaped by the will, 
 deferentially expressed, of the retainers. In 
 the same way the Government of the Shogun 
 was always accessible to the counsels, deferen- 
 tially tendered, of the Feudal barons. When 
 some great crisis threatened the Empire, as for 
 instance, the question of the introduction of 
 foreign residents and merchants into the coun- 
 try, the Great Councils of the Feudal barons met 
 for the purpose of deliberating with the govern- 
 ment on the needs of the empire. 
 
 [226] 
 
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 Sec. 109. Beginning of Constitutional Gov- 
 ernment in Japan: But constitutional govern- 
 ment, or government by the people, for the peo- 
 ple, in the modern sense of the term, was quite 
 unknown. The first glimmering of the idea may 
 be seen in the oath which his present majesty 
 took on the occasion of the resumption by the 
 crown of executive powers at his accession. The 
 imperial oath was published on the i6th of April, 
 1868, in which his majesty declared that "Men 
 should meet in council from all parts of the 
 country, and all affairs of State be determined 
 by public opinion." 
 
 In September of the same year Imperial 
 notifications were issued in which it was de- 
 clared that "Public sentiment as expressed by 
 the councilors selected from all parts was to 
 be the directing power in the future, because 
 the private caprice of any one individual should 
 not be allowed to control the empire." In 
 April of the following year (1869), another 
 imperial notification was issued, which an- 
 nounced that his majesty would shortly proceed 
 to the eastern portion of his empire, that is, to 
 Tokyo, when he would summon together his 
 
 [227] 
 
BBIfllBSlt 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ministers and the chiefs of the people in order 
 that pubhc opinion might be consulted, that the 
 foundations of the nation might be laid upon 
 a basis which should secure national tranquil- 
 ity. The history of the Meiji era, from the ac- 
 cession of his present majesty to the final pro- 
 mulgation of the constitution in 1889, shows 
 us how constantly the Imperial Government 
 kept before its eyes the principles laid down 
 in the oath of accession and subsequent notifi- 
 cations. 
 
 Sec. 1 10. Preparing a Written Constitution. • 
 In the meantime every effort was put forth 
 to gather the experience and wisdom necessary 
 for the undertaking. A special mission, headed 
 by the late Prince Iwakura, left Japan for the 
 United States and Europe in 1871, its main ob- 
 ject being to secure, if possible, the revision of 
 the treaties in which Japan was made to recog- 
 nize the extra-territorial rights of foreign resi- 
 dents in Japan, and the embassy was also in- 
 structed to pay special attention to the political 
 institutions of the countries they visited. In 
 addition to Prince Iwakura, the embassy includ- 
 ed, Kido, Okubo, Ito, Yamaguchi— all men 
 
 
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 who exercised great influence over the subse- 
 quent destinies of their country. It was a 
 period then, as now, when many Japanese were 
 abroad for the purpose of study; and many 
 forms of constitutional government were 
 brought home for discussion. The great diffi- 
 culty was in selecting a model for imitation. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States, the 
 time-honored Constitution of Great Britain, the 
 Charter of the then newly organized French 
 Republic, and the conservative part of the Ger- 
 man Constitution, were some of the models pre- 
 sented. 
 
 In 1 88 1 his majesty proclaimed that he 
 would, in the year 1890, summon a parliament 
 to meet for the transaction of government busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Sec. III. Proclamation of the Imperial Con-] 
 stitution: The promise to summon a parliament: 
 in 1890 involved the draftyig of a constitution' 
 previous to that date. Tl^ leight years which 
 followed the imperial promise were therefore 
 years of great activity, both in and outside the 
 government circles. Outside the government, 
 influence the political parties 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 and reorganized with a view to the exigencies 
 of parliamentary activity. In the government 
 circles the departments of education and of the 
 interior were busy with reforms, and prominent 
 lawyers were employed in connection with the 
 department of justice. A special department 
 of the household was created, called the Seido- 
 tori Shirabe Kioku, or Bureau for the Investi- 
 gation of the Constitution. And at last, on 
 February ii, 1889, on the festival of Kigen- 
 setsu, long celebrated in Japan in memory of 
 her first Emperor, Jimmu, but now doubly dear 
 by reason of this later event, was promulgated as 
 a free gift from the Emperor — the constitu- 
 tion which forms the precious charter of Jap- 
 anese liberty. 
 
 The Constitution of Japan is not like the 
 Magna Charta, wrung by rebellious subjects 
 from an unwilling king, but it is an imperial 
 gift, voluntarily bestowed upon the grateful 
 Japanese by the present Emperor. The Jap- 
 anese Constitution gives to the country a Diet, 
 with an upper and lower house. In the upper 
 house of the Japanese parliament sit the royals, 
 nobles and peers, and members appointed by 
 
 1230] 
 
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 the crown. In the lower house of the Japanese 
 Diet, Hke that of the United States Congress, 
 sit representatives of the people, freely elected 
 by those who are citizens of the country. 
 
 The Imperial Diet must be convoked every 
 year, and its session lasts three months. The 
 duration of a session may be prolonged, or an 
 extra session may be convoked if necessary, by 
 imperial order. Both houses of the Imperial 
 Diet may respectively present addresses to the 
 Emperor, and may also receive petitions pre- 
 sented by subjects. 
 
 In Japan no person can be a member of' both 
 houses at the same time. Freedom of speech 
 and debate, or proceedings in parliament, 
 are not to be impeached in any court. 
 Whatever matter arises in either house of par- 
 liament is to be examined in that house to 
 which it relates, and not elsewhere. The ad- 
 journment of either house takes place at its 
 own discretion, unafifected by the proceedings 
 of the other house. Prorogation, or dissolu- 
 tion, takes place by the exercise of the royal 
 prerogative. 
 
 [231] 
 
LIFE OF JAI 
 
 Sec. 112. The Japanese Constitution CofiP- 
 pared With That of the United States: Ameri- 
 can lawyers treating the Japanese constitu- 
 tion must bear in mind that the sovereignty 
 of the empire was always with the Emperor. 
 From the establishment of the state, down 
 through the feudal ages, the emperors ac- 
 knowledged no legal rule binding upon them. 
 
 Speaking comparatively of the constitutions 
 of Japan and the United States, it may be 
 asserted that in Japan the sovereignty is as- 
 scribed to the Emperor; in the United States 
 it rests with the people ; in Japan the sovereign 
 actually administers the government; in the 
 United States never in a single instance. The 
 Japanese Emperor has personal power, dignity 
 and pre-eminence, as well as official ; the Ameri- 
 can ruler has none but official, nor does he par- 
 take in the sovereignty otherwise than as a pri- 
 vate citizen. 
 
 The. Japanese constitution provides that the 
 ■'Emperor is the sovereign, sacred and invio- 
 lable. His sovereignty and legislative power 
 is to be concurrently exercised with that of the 
 t-j!. Diet. Laws are sanctioned by him and their 
 
JAPANESE conct,;tutional 90V^RNMENT 
 
 promulgation follows' accomingly. Tlie^rn--' 
 peror may issue, or cause to be issued, decrees 
 for the better execution of the laws, the main- 
 tenance of public peace and order, and the fur- 
 therance of the welfare of his subjects. While- 
 he may not alter the laws he may issue the im- 
 perial ordinance from time to time if he-'Sees- 
 fit, and if absolutely necessary in order to guard 
 the public safety and peace, or to provide 
 against public disorder and calamity. The Em- 
 peror's ordinance, according to the constitu- 
 tion, must be sanctioned at the next session of 
 the National Diet or its further operation 
 lapses. 
 
 Sec. 113. Life, Liberty, Property, and Pur- 
 suit of Happiness in Japan: The constitution 
 further provides that no person shall be arrested, 
 detained, tried or punished without due process 
 of law, or be deprived of his right to be tried by 
 the judicial tribunal. The Emperor is allowed 
 the full right to issue amnesties, pardons or 
 commutations of sentence. No Japanese sub- 
 ject shall be deprived of freedom of speech or 
 f^. writing. No special rights were given by the 
 constitution — the rights already existing were 
 
 ■j^ 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 expressed and defined. With regard to writ- 
 ing, the courts of justice take no notice of any 
 matter intended for the press, but confine their 
 legal jurisdiction to that which actually ap- 
 pears in print. It will be clearly seen that the 
 framers of the great Japanese charter embraced 
 in it all the important constitutional safeguards 
 of popular liberty. The Japanese officers ex- 
 ercise their duties by the methods and within 
 the limits marked out and prescribed by the 
 constitution. The people rely upon the consti- 
 tution when they make a claim against the 
 government or sue it in a court of law, but 
 the constitution limits their rights, and pre- 
 scribes the methods by which those rights may 
 be obtained. The constitution guarantees that 
 all public meetings and social gatherings 
 shall not be molested. A subject of Japan 
 may live wherever he choses, and engage 
 in whatever vocation he desires to follow. 
 He is never to be deprived of his life, 
 liberty, property and pursuit of happiness; the 
 right of the subject to be secure in his person, 
 house, papers, and effects shall not be inter- 
 fered with. It is understood to mean that 
 
 [234] 
 
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 every man's house is his castle, and that he, 
 under the protection of the laws, may close the 
 door of his habitation and defend his privacy 
 in it, not only against private individuals 
 merely, but against the officers of the law and 
 the state itself, when acting without due process 
 of law. According to the constitution all re- 
 ligions are equally respected; one is prohibited 
 from being favored or discriminated against 
 at the expense of the other. It further pro- 
 hibits restraint upon the free exercise of re- 
 ligion according to the dictates of conscience, 
 and the state is not to inquire into or take 
 notice of religious belief or expression so long 
 as the subject performs his duty to the state 
 and to his countrymen. No religious test shall 
 ever be made as a requirement for appointment 
 to any office or position of public trust under 
 the Japanese Government. The constitution 
 provides that each chief of the several execu- 
 tive departments may be allowed to attend any 
 debates in the National Diet and to take part in 
 them, and he is not responsible to the par- 
 liament, as in Englind, but directly to the sov- 
 ereign, as in Germany and Denmark. 
 
 1235] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Sec. 114. Japanese Cabinet Compared With 
 Those of the United States and England: In 
 the United States for all the official acts done by 
 the Cabinet, ministers or secretaries, the re- 
 sponsibility is on the President of the United 
 States and not on the Cabinet members, but in 
 Japan any official act done by the Emperor is, 
 in contemplation of the constitution, done by 
 the ministers of state, and the responsibility 
 is upon them. To determine the responsibility 
 in the United States the President is impeached 
 by the Congress, judgment shall not extend 
 further than to removal from office, and 
 disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
 honor, trust or profit under the United States, 
 but the party convicted shall nevertheless be 
 liable and subject to indictment, trial, judg- 
 ment and punishment according to law. In 
 England, virhen a minister is tried for a wrong 
 committed, it is determined that the King's 
 command is no excuse for a wrongful act. For 
 a ci ime, or civil wrong, the person acting under 
 such command would be amenable to the or- 
 dinary courts of law. The English constitu- 
 tion has never recognized any distinction be- 
 
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 tween those citizens who are and those who are 
 not ministers of the state in respect of the "law 
 which governs their conduct or punishment 
 which deals with them." Not only is the 
 King's command of no avail, but a pardon, 
 however formally expressed, is no defence at 
 the bar of the house of lords. 
 
 Sec. 115. King Can Do No Wrong: The 
 Japanese constitution, Article 55, says in that 
 respect that the "minister of state subordinates 
 the King and shall be responsible thereby," and 
 does not provide, like Article i, Section 3, of 
 the United States constitution, nor like the Act 
 of Settlement in England. Yet let us construe 
 the term "responsible" within the meaning of 
 the Japanese constitution. The legal responsi- 
 bility of the crown, which finds expression in 
 the maxim that "the King can do no wrong," 
 means, in Japan, that the law presumes that 
 he would never willingly infringe its provi- 
 sions. The result is a curious instance of con- 
 flicting practice and theory. The sovereign 
 is a party to every important act of state; he 
 opens and prorogues, summons and dissolves 
 parliament ; makes peace, war and treaties, etc. 
 
 [237] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 For every act which the King must do in re- 
 spect to these functions he is legally responsible. 
 The result would seem to point to a grinding 
 and unmitigated despotism; in fact, it effects 
 a strict restraint upon the crown. For some 
 one must be responsible, and the servants of 
 the crown are liable for advice given as well as 
 for acts done. They suffer by loss of place and 
 power for unwise advice. They may suffer 
 at the hands of the law for unlawful acts. So 
 this combination of irresponsibility in the King 
 and responsibility in his ministers has a curious 
 effect — that of clipping his independent action 
 and checking up correctly the balance of gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 In the main the Japanese people have a writ- 
 ten constitution. Their charter of liberty will 
 never yield itself to treaty or enactment; it 
 neither changes with age nor bends to the force 
 of circumstances. It is a law for ruler and 
 people, equally in war and in peace, and pro- 
 tects all men at all times and under all circum- 
 stances. Therefore the Japanese have a con- 
 stitutional go\sernment by the people, for the 
 people, in the fullest sense of the word. 
 
 [238] 
 
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Japan Under the Reign of Law 
 
 Sec 1 1 6. Individual Relation to Society in 
 the Primitive Stage: In the primitive stage the 
 individual relation to society was as simple 
 and submissive as the society itself, so the 
 people avoided invoking the aid of the law. 
 When a man had to go into litigation he first 
 laid the facts before the family council, so when 
 the matter was brought up in the court the 
 arguments were reduced to a bare statement of 
 the material facts, simply to have the matter 
 adjusted, and not by rigid rules of law. Do 
 not suppose, however, that the great com- 
 munity century after century, with the con- 
 tinuous growth of the arts of life of every 
 kind — architecture, sculpture, trade and agri- 
 culture — was left without any jurisprudence. 
 Special protection was given to the artisans, 
 and the wage-earners were always afforded 
 
 [239] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 protection by the rigid enforcement of justice. 
 All the necessary arrangements were in prac- 
 tice for the protection of the mercantile com- 
 munity. Agriculturists, wholesale dealers, 
 brokers, and carriers from one end of the coun- 
 try to the other, were peacefully engaged in their 
 ever prosperous avocations, entirely satisfied 
 with the system of law and equity then in vogue. 
 Sec 117. Old Japanese Lazvs of Wife, Hus- 
 band, Family, and Succession: Meanwhile the 
 primitive law of family and succession under- 
 went legal evolution. In the earlier days the 
 family meant the organized family like the 
 Roman conception of the family. The idea was 
 that all those who constitute the family were 
 bound together by paternal power. So that 
 in the strictest sense, when the wife passed 
 into the manus of her husband, she immediately 
 submitted to a potestas, and united with her 
 children as the agnatic sister. So also would 
 a man's grandchildren, when deprived of his 
 daughter, fall under the paternal power of their 
 father. The family included only those who 
 were related to the father's side. The theory 
 of it all rested upon the legal relationship, so 
 
 [240] 
 
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 the artificial creation or adoption which has no 
 real tie of blood was received by the juristic 
 bond. When later, the legal period was a step 
 further advanced, the people entertained the 
 theory of the conception of cognation, or 
 the mother, representing the cognatic, con- 
 stituting the relationship on both sides, 
 based upon the natural consciousness. In brief, 
 she advanced to mother from the legal posi- 
 tion of sister. The doctrine of succession in 
 old Japan was based upon the dominant idea that 
 the family must always be preserved. The 
 family must survive although the head master 
 and patriarch lived and died. At all events the 
 idea that the common family, with its ancestral 
 tablets, family records, estate and obligation 
 should be continued, was an idea so well es- 
 tablished that it dominated all the rival con- 
 ceptions. At all times an heir of some sort 
 should represent the family for all legal pur- 
 poses, and his rights were strictly guarded 
 by the law. The eldest son was always given 
 the honor of the heirship, which he could not 
 refuse. By succession he was generally en- 
 titled to one-half of all the property left 
 
 [241] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 by the deceased, and became the head of the 
 family with ah its pecuhar privileges to accept 
 or nullify marriage, adoption, divorce, and to 
 exclude members from the family, and with au- 
 thority over all other matters pertaining to the 
 home affairs. Recently, in this country, a Cali- 
 fornia superior judge, in a divorce case, the alle- 
 gation being non-support by the husband, de- 
 cided that it is as much the duty of the wife to 
 support the husband as it is for the husband to 
 support the wife, and ordered accordingly. This 
 was the idea of the Japanese people in that re- 
 spect. Such was the policy of the courts of law 
 and justice and their administration, and if 
 Japan had not been disturbed by the exigencies 
 of the times, she would have to-day this same 
 continuous principle of jurisprudence. But the 
 decree of God ordered otherwise. 
 
 Sec. ii8. Historical Epoch of the Departure 
 From Old Japanese Laws: The empire was 
 threatened by the immigration of foreigners. 
 The restoration of the Emperor bound the 
 various fiefs into one national unit under the 
 direct control of the central government. Five 
 hereditary classes or castes, the Samurai or 
 
 [242] 
 
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 military retainers, the agriculturists, the arti- 
 sans and merchants, as well as eta, were 
 abolished, and all were given equal rights be- 
 fore the law. Each member of the family be- 
 came directly responsible, not to a Daimio, but 
 to the national government. This historical 
 epoch of the departure from Japan's histori- 
 cal jurisprudence dates from the arrival of the 
 United States expedition to Japan. The laws 
 of Japan are now very well compiled and codi- 
 fied. The codes of laws are made up of rights 
 rather than of duties. In Europe and America, 
 where the laws are comparatively uniform and 
 equally developed, the codification is more a 
 question of form and arrangement. But in 
 Japan the laws were codified from the stand- 
 point of substance rather than of form and ar- 
 rangement. The sudden opening of the coun- 
 try and the unexpected intercourse with other 
 countries made it absolutely necessary that the 
 laws be codified, and so the work was hastily 
 done, and as thoroughly as practicable. Codi- 
 fication was necessary to meet the social and 
 political reform of the time. The advance in 
 the remedial branch of the law has not kept 
 
 [243] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 pace with the advance in the substantive law. 
 Soon after the sudden change of old into new 
 Japan, and before the code of laws was com- 
 pleted, the courts were in a difficult position. 
 The judiciaries appointed a commissioner to 
 investigate the laws of foreign countries, and 
 to try and get help from those laws. The 
 judges administered justice according to the 
 exigency of the moment, and according to their 
 own arbitrary views of the law. Their views 
 resembled somewhat the equity jurisprudence 
 of this country, until they were superseded by 
 the promulgation of the code of laws, as the 
 Edictum Perpetuum of Julianus in the reign of 
 Hadrian. 
 
 Skc. 119. Japan Studies Laws of Bur ope 
 and the United States: A bureau was estab- 
 lished for the investigation of judicial institu- 
 tions in 1870, and the work of codification be- 
 gan with it. A distinction between the courts 
 of law and executive offices was established two 
 years later, and in the following year the rules 
 of pleading, providing how a cause of action 
 should be prosecuted, was promulgated. The 
 statutes were enacted in 1875, to decide the 
 
 [244] 
 
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 petitions or complaints and the customary or 
 equity laws supplied the deficiency which the 
 statutes had not provided. The French codes 
 and the eminent French jurists were consulted 
 and the penal code and code of criminal pro- 
 cedure were adopted from them. The civil 
 code, commercial code, and other auxiliary 
 laws were also taken from the French juris- 
 prudence. That system of law was followed 
 because the laws of the code were tabulated to- 
 gether in so many articles, adequate to the 
 needs of the time, although a large number of 
 the gentlemen on the committee thought that 
 the Anglo-American laws were as systematic 
 and scientific as the French laws. In 1879 ^ 
 draft was submitted to the council of the Gen- 
 roin, the deliberative assembly then existing, 
 the members of which were appointed by the 
 Emperor, and the council, in turn, appointed 
 the members of the codification committee to 
 draft laws and make a report, and their report 
 was approved by that council in 1890. When 
 the codes were published they were subjected 
 to severe criticism by the public; some of the 
 people favored the laws and others insisted on 
 
 [245] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 a revision. In March, 1893, a commission con- 
 sisting of members of both the upper and lower 
 houses, professors of law, members of the bar 
 and the bench, and prominent financiers and 
 merchants, was appointed by an imperial edict 
 to investigate the laws of the land. Three years 
 later the commission submitted a report which 
 was adopted by the Imperial Diet, and the 
 whole went into operation on the i6th of July, 
 1898. Thus, the present code of laws has con- 
 summated the social and political evolution, ex- 
 tending over the two decades of the present 
 progressive Japan. The present system of 
 judicature is uniform — established throughout 
 the whole empire — and is concurrently and in- 
 dependently operated with full force. 
 
 Sec. 120. The Present Japanese Laws: It 
 may be stated that the Japanese have all their 
 laws written in a legal order. Some of the prin- 
 cipal Japanese laws are the constitution, the civil 
 and commercial, criminal and administrative 
 laws, the law of application, and the law for the 
 organization of the courts, the laws regulating 
 special tribunals for administrative claims, the 
 laws governing municipalities, the laws of civil 
 
 [246] 
 
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 procedure, and criminal procedure, the civil ser- 
 vice lavif, election law, the imperial house law, 
 state finance law, public land law, naval and mili- 
 tary law, general municipal law, pref ectural law, 
 village and town law, tax law, postal, telegraph 
 and telephone laws, mining law, fishery law, 
 navigation law, forestry law, hunting law, 
 banking law, insurance law, railroad law, nat- 
 uralization law, bankruptcy law. 
 
 Sec. 121. The Japanese Courts: There are 
 four grades of courts of law. Their jurisdic- 
 tions, both civil and criminal, are concurrently 
 exercised, differing according to the subject- 
 matter, either in respect of the amount involved 
 in civil matters, or in extent of penalties in crimi- 
 nal cases. Appeals lie from the lower courts 
 to the higher ones, either on points of law or of 
 fact, as well as on errors in the conduct of the 
 trial. The Precinct Court and the District Court 
 are the trial courts, while the Court of Appeals 
 and the Supreme Court are the review courts. 
 All matters not exceeding the value of lOO yen 
 come under the jurisdiction of the Precinct 
 Court. The jurisdiction of the Precinct Court 
 extends to all cases arising between houseowner 
 
 [247] 1 ' 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 and tenant, or controversies arising under the ir- 
 rigations and boundaries, or construction of a 
 new building, making of the windows or dig- 
 ging wells, or disputes over the payment of 
 wages between employer and employee under 
 contract of not more than one year, and also 
 matters between the guest and the hotel, board- 
 ing or lodging house, restaurant, or between 
 the passengers and the transportation company, 
 and between the shippers and the express com- 
 pany. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the District Court ex- 
 tends to all cases involving the value of more 
 than loo yen, and such other matters than 
 those enumerated coming under the jurisdic- 
 tion of the lower court. The District Court is 
 composed of three judges — one presiding and 
 the others associated. 
 
 The Court of Appeals is the court where the 
 appeal from the District Court is heard, and it 
 is the court of last resort for appeals from 
 the lowest court, or Precinct Court. However, 
 all cases which involve the royal family shall 
 be first instituted in this court. 
 
 The Supreme Court hears the appeals or 
 
 [248] 
 
I 
 
 JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 writs of error brought in from the Court of 
 Appeals, and it is the highest court of the land. 
 
 The Japanese courts are, generally speaking, 
 much like the courts of chancery; the practice 
 like chamber practice. The judges do not sum 
 up the case nor deliver the legal opinion of the 
 courts. They simply read the terms and 
 orders of judgments. There are no such im- 
 posing or exciting scenes in the Japanese courts 
 as we have here in the courts of this country. 
 The judges are appointed for life, either by 
 the Erwperor or by the Minister of Justice. The 
 judges are appointed, not from among the 
 most experienced lawyers, but from among 
 the schools directly. In Japan the judges are 
 judges, and the lawyers, lawyers — unlike the 
 system in this country. The lawyers in Japan 
 have no business to anticipate judges by keep- 
 ing track of their fellow-members of the bar; 
 they have no business to indorse or condemn 
 judicial aspirants upon their merits ; they have 
 no business to prevent objectionable candidates 
 from attaining the bench, nor to work for the 
 election of the best men. 
 
 The Japanese have no jury nor did they ever 
 
 [249] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 have one. Judges make all inquiries into 
 the truth, the reality, the actuality of all things. 
 They inquire into the rules or standards. 
 They determine the exact meaning and scope 
 of laws and mode of their enactment, so there 
 is no question left for the jury to determine. 
 
 Sec. 122. The Japanese Woman Under the 
 Present Law: During the feudal ages, Con- 
 fucianism and Buddhism placed the Japanese 
 woman in a state of dependence. She then ob- 
 served the triple obedience: "Obedience, while 
 yet unmarried, to a father; obedience, when 
 married, to a husband; obedience, when wid- 
 owed, to a son." She was practically excluded 
 from the enjoyment or exercise of almost all 
 rights. She had not the right to become the head 
 of a house ; she had not the right to hold prop- 
 erty; she had not the right to make any con- 
 tract ; she had not the right to act as a guardian. 
 
 However, the introduction of the American 
 and European civilization into Japan changed 
 the entire fabric of the legal contemplation of 
 tkj Japanese woman. It has changed from the 
 dependent state to that of independence. She 
 can now become the head of a house; she has 
 
 [250] 
 
...rm, 0^-% W 
 
 JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 the right to exercise parental authority over 
 her own child; she can enter into contracts, 
 acquire or dispose of real or personal property 
 in her own name; she can be a party to any 
 legal proceeding whenever and wherever she 
 sees fit to do so. Even after she is married, if 
 she obtains permission from her husband, she 
 can contract debts, acquire or relinquish mov- 
 able or immovable properties; she can engage 
 in business ; she can institute legal proceedings ; 
 she can accept or renounce succession. Even 
 if she did not obtain her husband's permission, 
 her acts are not void but only voidable ; and 
 until or unless her husband applies himself to 
 annul them, her acts are quite legal. In short, 
 the Japanese woman's status has been promoted 
 from an abnormally inferior position to one of 
 equality of the sexes. As to the property 
 of married women, the Japanese law-drafts- 
 men leaped at one bound from the system of 
 unity of conjugal property to the system of 
 separate property. ; 
 
 Sec 123. Foreigners Under the Present' 
 Law: When we examine the jurisprudence of 
 any country with reference to the position of 
 
 [251] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 foreigners, we will find at once the four dis- 
 tinct periods of progress from its primitive state 
 up to the present period. 
 
 1. The barbarous principle that all foreign- 
 ers are enemies, so that they have absolutely 
 no rights. 
 
 2. By reason of commercial civilization, 
 foreigners cannot be regarded as enemies, but 
 from egoism or disdain they are placed in an 
 inferior position. 
 
 3. Giving the foreigners the enjoyment of 
 their rights as much or less as their own people 
 receive, or the principle of reciprocity. 
 
 4. The principle of equality, which is the 
 most advanced system of law relating to for- 
 eigners, at the same time showing an unmis- 
 tr.kable evidence of high civilization, irrespec- 
 tive of race or nationality. 
 
 The present written law of Japan is based 
 upon the principle of equality, and the for- 
 eigners in Japan enjoy equal rights. Even 
 those foreigners whose countries are not in 
 amicable relations with Japan, or those who are 
 not citizens of any country with which Japan 
 has a treaty, have equal rights with the citizens 
 
 [252] 
 
LAW 
 
 _3q|_. the treaty powers. Thus has the Japanese 
 jurisprudence, not only been evolutionized 
 from the stage of enmity to the. principle of 
 equality, but this has been done in a compara- 
 tively short space of time, the accomplishment 
 of which, in their own case, took even the most 
 progressive nations of Europe many centuries. 
 
 However, let me say that the gift of codes 
 at this early stage of the Japanese progress is 
 not the assurance of a great advantage to 
 Japan. Every human institution, like man, 
 must grope its way in the dark labyrinth of a 
 mental and moral wilderness, struggling its 
 way against arbitrary power. Arbitrary power 
 is that power which is uncontrolled by reason 
 and morality. It is not necessary to point out 
 the precise location of arbitrary power in the 
 Japanese government. It is just as obnoxious 
 when wielded by the many as when it is wielded 
 by one or by the few. It is just as obnoxious 
 when it is exercised by the Diet as by the Em- 
 peror. " -1^; 
 
 There are no native sages of law'in Japan 
 such as Marshall, Miller, Waite, Chase, Field, 
 Strong, Story, Bradley, Gray, Harlan, Brewer, 
 
 [253] 
 
 CC d-^ 
 
 _<1L 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Fuller, Taney, Mathews, or judicial opinion 
 from whom to ascertain the right mean- 
 ing of the code. Nor has it as yet been 
 possible for the Japanese to produce men of 
 such original and creative power and character, 
 by whom alone even the most perfect code can 
 be successfully constructed and administered. 
 I cannot say of my native country, as Tenny- 
 son said of his mother country, whence Ameri- 
 cans derived their law and their spirit of liberty, 
 that it is a land 
 
 "Where freedom broadens slowly down, 
 From precedent to precedent." 
 
 While power to improve the law is in the 
 judges' hands, the Japanese look to the law 
 draftsmen to cope with the needs of the pro- 
 gressive society. The draftsmen of law, or 
 the code committee, are ever ready to meet the 
 rapidly changing national requirements. This 
 practice seems to us debatable, for such legis- 
 lation may raise expectations on the part of 
 people. Does it foster a depedence upon the 
 legislature for relief and protection from all the 
 troubles of life? Is it destructive of self-help 
 or individual incentive? We have yet to see 
 
 [2S4] 
 
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW 
 
 in the future whether the legislature can satisfy 
 these expectations, or will break down under the 
 weight of a burden which it is unable to carry. 
 The author wishes to state that he has been 
 unable to present the Japanese laws exhaus- 
 tively, but if he has been able to "move the 
 diligent student to doubt," and consequently to 
 suggest to the American student the study of 
 the Japanese laws and their reasons, he shall 
 deem his efforts by no means without reward. 
 
 "No government will be likely to endure unless all 
 rights and controversies between individuals, between 
 the Government and the individual, and between the 
 majority and the minority, are settled by an absolutely 
 independent and honest judiciary." — David J. Brewer. 
 
 [255] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 "I would rather live in a country with newspapers,/' 
 and without a government, than a country with goveri>iV 
 ment but without newspapers." — Jefferson. '"'W^' 
 
 Journalism in Japan. 
 
 Sec. 1 24. Beginning of the Japanese Journal- 
 ism: The recent progress of Japan has been 
 written or else spoken of by many Europeans 
 and Americans, as well as by natives. Yet it 
 is strange that there has never been even a 
 pamphlet discussing the subject of journalism. 
 It is indeed man's ingratitude that the most im- 
 portant and vital part of Japanese progress has 
 received the least notice. 
 
 It is safe to say that all created things must 
 have an origin, just as a primary rule of econ- 
 omy is that one demands and another supplies 
 that demand. Oriental or occidental, the ac- 
 tivity of the human intellect must meet its re- 
 quirements. Journalism in Japan is the crea- 
 
 m [256] 
 
ture of the present regime. In all the boasted 
 history of prerestoration time we are unable 
 to find any trace of journalism or that pecuhar 
 creature, to-wit: "Editor," according to Car- 
 lile, the "ruler of the world." 
 
 Sec. 125. The Japanese Characters and the 
 Progress of Journalism: With the progress of 
 civilization in Japan, the same wants, the same 
 desires, the same hopes, the same aspirations 
 that existed in this country were evolved 
 there. Therefore, Japan imported from this 
 country the idea, the ink, the press, and the 
 paper ; but not the type. In the initial stage of 
 publishing newspapers, the question of type 
 obstructed the way of the enterprise. The ques- 
 tion of type and the setting and making of forms 
 will be the obstruction in the present and fu- 
 ture, as they were in the beginning of journal- 
 ism, for it is a question of the Japanese charac- 
 ters. The written language of Japan is a mix- 
 ture of Chinese characters and the Japanese 
 alphabet, which latter consisted of forty-eight 
 sounds. To write an original letter forty-eight 
 kanas and about 1,000 Chinese characters may 
 be sufficient for the purpose. But to a Japa- 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 nese newspaper, there must be at least 56,000 
 Chinese characters. This enormous number 
 of different kinds of type entail a great diffi- 
 culty in keeping them separate, which is the 
 most time-consuming proposition of the news- 
 paper business. The type cases — each case be- 
 ing about 20 by 15 inches — are along the walls 
 of large rooms, extending from 25 to 30 feet, 
 and the cases are put one upon the other, as high 
 as the type-setter can reach. Thus the im- 
 practicability of employing the linotype ma- 
 chines which are used in this country is shown. 
 It is strange that the printing and writing in 
 Japan are to be thus placed, inconvenient, irk- 
 some, and time-consuming; yet we cannot re- 
 form the evil. Abrupt reform of this difficulty 
 would kill the vitality of the people, for the 
 written language lives with the life of the peo- 
 ple. It takes many generations before some 
 foreign language like English becomes an 
 adopted language. It will also take a long time 
 to Romanise the Japanese language, a thing 
 which has been attempted without success. One 
 consolation is that the spoken language or read- 
 ing the Chinese characters, we read phonetically, 
 
 [^58] 
 
JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 
 
 or understand by the sounds. This is the result 
 of the constant effort of the generation past to 
 elucidate the seeming inconvenience which Chi- 
 nese idiographic characters carry with them. 
 
 Sec 126. Most Complicated System of the 
 Typesetting: One, and perhaps the most ob- 
 structing, thing in the way of Japanese jour- 
 nalistic progress, is the use of Kana along- 
 side the Chinese characters, in order to give 
 the sound of the Chinese words. All Japa- 
 nese are not Chinese scholars. There are 
 some among the readers of the press who 
 may not be able to comprehend the news when it 
 is printed by Chinese characters only. It is 
 necessary to place Kana, or the Japanese sound, 
 of every Chinese character, side by side with 
 the latter. 
 
 Reporters in the American editorial rooms 
 are able to use typewriters more or less. But 
 owing to the complicated system of characters 
 it is not only impossible to seek any application 
 of the machine, but it is necessary to go 
 through tedious processes. Recently an Ameri- 
 can typewriter manufacturer attempted to solve 
 the question by manufacturing the machine 
 
 [259] 
 
HStti riiBft 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 which carries with it only Kanas. We beUeve 
 that the manufacturer is or has been fully con- 
 vinced that the Japanese character question is 
 beyond the power of American invention and 
 ingenuity. The Japanese editorial room pro- 
 vides a blank form, corresponding with the size 
 of the newspaper printed. The form is so ar- 
 ranged that each character is to be written on a 
 small cube or block. The columns extend across 
 the paper horizontally, while the lines extend 
 from the top to the bottom of the column which 
 is read down the line; usually about fifteen or 
 twenty-five characters complete a line. In writ- 
 ing a copy you have many ways of abbreviating 
 the words, such as D. D., for doctor of divinity, 
 Rev. for reverend, D. C. L- for doctor of civil 
 law. In Japan they have no abbreviations. All 
 must be written in full; for example, "Matsu- 
 daira vice-countess mistress," or "Kitashira- 
 kawa princess her Imperial Highness." There 
 is neither capital letter to begin the sentence, nor 
 quotation marks for special designation or ver- 
 batim. The Japanese sentences start without a 
 capital, and verbatim is designated by brackets 
 •or parentheses. 
 
 [260] 
 
 ^ V 
 
JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 
 
 "A nose for news" or the "butt in" quality of 
 a reporter in American newspaperdom may- 
 be one of the first attributes to his success. But 
 in Japan these attributes cut the least figure. 
 The letters of introduction and conventionali- 
 ties or formalities constitute the first important 
 requisites. In America a journalist may often 
 be able to raise himself to eminence by training 
 in the science and art of journalism, even with- 
 out being born with inherent literary genius. 
 In Japan they must know Chinese literature 
 thoroughly, which often requires inborn genius. 
 But at any rate the journalist must be a stu- 
 dent of Chinese literature, otherwise there is 
 no hope for success, no matter how much he 
 trains himself in journalism as an art and 
 science. -.,.^,. _. . , , ., 
 
 Sec. 127. Woiitan Journalists in Japan; In 
 this country we are able to write on the sub- 
 ject of woman in journalism. It is said that the 
 innate peculiarities of an Mraerican woman are 
 apt to fit her for the position of journalist, for 
 she is naturally punctual, reliable, determined, 
 tireless, patient, above all, endowed with femi- 
 nine sympathy which may have an exclusive 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 field in some instances. It may be also said 
 that work on the newspaper in America is like 
 any other business, very respectable, so that 
 women may realize their ambition if they feel 
 this work to be their calling. Viewing prop- 
 erly the advanced state of the American women 
 we may safely assert that fitness for the 
 work, and not sex, raises her to a pre- 
 dominating place in the editorial offices. 
 We regret to say that as yet the women of 
 Japan have not to any great extent invaded the 
 great field of journalism. 
 
 But to-day the Japanese have all classes of 
 newspapers, weeklies, monthlies, and quarter- 
 lies. The press reaches almost every ham- 
 let of the land. The press in Japan is an inte- 
 gral part of the Japanese nation. The public 
 servant and the private citizen alike are honored 
 or condemned, as they are faithful or unfaith- 
 ful to their responsible duties. The press once 
 aroused, the incident of Shibuya Park or the 
 case of the Yokahoma millionaire is a fair evi- 
 dence that a wonderful influence would be 
 exerted. Even the recent war with Rus- 
 sia may be said to have been caused by the 
 
 [262] 
 
JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 
 
 voice of the journalists. It is true as Napoleon 
 once said : "A journalist ! That means a 
 grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a re- 
 gent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations! Four 
 hostile newspapers are more to be dreaded than 
 a hundred thousand bayonets!" 
 
 Sec. 128. Individuality of Journalism: But 
 we must keep in mind that there is such a 
 difference in the individuality of journalism 
 in Japan and this country. For instance, 
 if American journalists, by their individual 
 ideas, approve or disapprove of any man or wo- 
 man's merit or intellectual and moral character 
 or personality they will cause him or her to be 
 the most praised or most humiliated one of the 
 community. But Japanese journalists could not 
 do the same. We have a constitution which 
 guarantees the freedom of the press, and the 
 censorship of the Japanese government over the 
 press is not as strict as that of some Euro- 
 pean nations. Yet there is but one Emperor in 
 Japan. The Imperial Household law or a 
 higher law of Japan provides that the Emperor 
 or his counsellors are smnipotent, and it pro- 
 hibits derogatory comment on whatever is 
 
 [263] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAlit^, 
 
 done, or will be done, by thein. And they 
 ruling Japan as the fountain head of juStie^,-', 
 In this country every one of eighty million in- 
 habitants is an emperor. When you feel funny, 
 you laugh. And you want every emperor to 
 laugh at what you think funny. Hence car- 
 toons about your emperors. Here is the test. 
 Our journalists with their Japanese individu- 
 ality do not understand this strange privilege 
 of being amused by or laughing at your em- 
 perors. "As every one of these edged tools," 
 says the draftsmen of the present Imperial Con- 
 stitution, "can easily be misused, it is necessary 
 for the maintenance of public order, to punish 
 by law and to prevent by police measures dele- 
 gated by law, any infringement by use thereof 
 upon the honor or the rights of any individual, 
 any disturbance of the peace of the country, or 
 any instigation to crime." 
 
 After all I wish to state that-^«" press in 
 Japan occupies an important position in public 
 affairs, and I assert that there is no one thing 
 at the present day in the Japanese nation to 
 which it is so much indebted for the good order 
 of society as the press. The Japanese news- 
 
 [264] :^.. 
 
JOURNALISM IN JAPAN 
 
 papers exercise an overwhelfcing iriflueilce6vef 
 the country and they are essential to the welfare 
 of the Japanese people. Without newspapers 
 the Japanese people could not exist. Yet the 
 time is a long way off before they will reach 
 the state of journalism existing in America at 
 the present time. The mere existence of jour- 
 nalism is not a boon to Japan. We have in 
 Japan no Franklin, no Raymond, no Gordon, no 
 Bennett, no Greeley, no Webb, no Blair, no 
 Weed, no Green, no Brooks, no Bryant. 
 
 Slowly but surely every step for the better- 
 ment of Japan is being bitterly fought. And in 
 that betterment lies the progress of journalism in 
 Japan. "The road winds up hill all the way." 
 Step by step the wav is won, 
 
 "Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
 
 Is our destined end or way; 
 But to act, that each to-morrow 
 
 Finds us further than to-day." 
 
 til 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and its ad- 
 jacent territories will become the chief theatre of hu- 
 man events and activities in the world's great here- 
 after. — IVm. H. Seward. 
 
 American-Japanese War. 
 
 Sec. 129. What of Universal Peace? 
 Substitution of arbitration in place of armed 
 conflict is as old as history. And conflict of 
 opinion as to the substitution of a court of law 
 in place of the arbitrament of the sword is as 
 old as the myths of the prehistoric periods. Yet 
 this arbitration, as well as the conflict of 
 opinion, exists to-day and will exist for ages 
 to come until or unless we determine to put an 
 end to the horror of war. Nothing is a human 
 impossibility, is it? 
 
 It is no news when we state that Thucydides 
 convinced the Spartan king that it was wrong 
 
 [266] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 to treat the wrong-doer as an enemy when the 
 latter was wilhng to arbitrate, even in the ques- 
 tion of Salamis, which was a hfe-or-death con- 
 troversy involving the very existence of 
 Athens. Plutarch gives us record that the im- 
 mortal law-giver Solon left it to five Lacedae- 
 monian arbitrators. An institution perhaps the 
 earliest one within authentic history, viz., the 
 Amphictyonic League, had for its aim the miti- 
 gation of the horrors of war. The state whose 
 champions were winners at the Olympic games 
 was authorized as a prize to act as arbitrator. 
 Then, too, in the middle ages, there was one 
 supreme judge, arbitrator of right, the Pope. 
 Kings and princes have often acquiesced in, 
 but sometimes resisted his authority. For in- 
 stance, when the Pope arbitrated the pretension 
 of Edward II to the sovereignty of Scotland, 
 the Scottish parliament said to the Pope : "You 
 are to be held responsible to God for the loss of 
 life, for as long as a hundred Scotchmen are left 
 alive we will never be subject to the dominion of 
 England." That the Pope was the recognized 
 arbitrator during the middle ages of Christen- 
 dom, there can be no doubt. But the instances 
 
 [267] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of failure were as many as those of success. It 
 was the Pope who arbitrated the celebrated 
 controversy and drew the line from one pole to 
 the other, and by it divided the New World 
 between Spain and Portugal. But it was this 
 Pope of whom the King of France, Francis I, 
 said : "What ! The King of Spain and the 
 King of Portugal quietly divide between them 
 all America, without allowing me to take a 
 share! I should like very much to see the 
 Adam's will which gives them this vast inherit- 
 ance." 
 
 Grotius, the father of international law, in 
 his treatise published in 1625, concentrated his 
 argument for the arbitration process in place 
 of the armed contest. So did Abbe de St. 
 Pierre, at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, who also proposed the scheme for re- 
 organizing the Confederation Army of Eu- 
 rope, to be used as a policeman's club to whip 
 any nation which should disobey the order of 
 the international court. This proposition soon 
 found its advocates in Bentham, and, later, 
 Kent. And most recently, even in the most 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 autocratic of all sovereigns, the Russian Czar 
 himself. 
 
 Sec. 130. Improvement of the Law of Na- 
 tions: We believe, as everybody must believe, 
 that when the curtain of the twentieth century 
 is drawn, the law of nations, as a growing or- 
 ganism, will have attained vast improvement. 
 This improvement may be due either to the prac- 
 tical influence of international congresses and 
 conferences, or to awakened consciences, 
 or to both these influences. And behind 
 the scenes stand those tireless scholars, law- 
 yers, and publicists, to whose incessant in- 
 vestigations and exhaustive researches into pub- 
 lic and private laws, the stability, comfort, and 
 economy of the nations, such improvement is 
 largely to be credited. And as they go on with 
 this great work for the betterment of mankind 
 these workers can have no better watchword 
 than the famous charge of Andrew D. White, 
 who said : "Heed not the clamor of zealots, or 
 cynics, or pessimists, or pseudo-philosophers, or 
 enthusiasts or fault-finders." 
 
 No nation on earth has contributed real in- 
 fluence toward the improvement of the law of 
 
 [269] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 nations more than the United States, although 
 other nations have as many tireless scholars, 
 international lawyers and publicists as America 
 has. The Americans characteristically hate 
 and dread military power and they inbornly 
 love peace. Since the peace of Westphalia, 
 more than half of the international disputes 
 that have been submitted and ended in arbitra- 
 tion are cases of which the American was 
 either on one side or the other of such dis- 
 putes. Every movement of every nation to- 
 ward the horrors of war is most zealously sup- 
 ported and most enthusiastically advocated in 
 America. The American educators are ever 
 foremost in training the American youth in the 
 high ideals of brotherhood of men and arbitra- 
 tion principle, and in inculcating in them this 
 profoundest spirit of American manhood. It 
 may be instructive as well as of historical value 
 here to quote some of the utterances of the 
 famous educators of this country. "History of 
 legal institutions and the development of 
 methods of settling private disputes, ought to 
 be opened to the student. The student who 
 would not draw the desired inferences from 
 
 [270] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 this line of study would not be worth telling 
 categorically that universal peace between na- 
 tions is a certainty of the future and not an 
 iridescent dream," declares Prof. Joseph H. 
 Beale, Jr., of Harvard. "War is a hideous 
 evil ; under no circumstances is it to be en- 
 couraged," insists President Bryan, of Indiana. 
 "The American college and university student 
 does not need to know," joins Prof. W. W. 
 Willoughby, of John Hopkins, "that in very 
 many cases at least, it is an unnecessary evil. 
 To this end college and university instructors 
 in political science should agree to present these 
 facts to their classes." "There is a second 
 service," rejoins President Reese, of Rochester, 
 "which our college instruction ought to render 
 to the community, namely, a closer develop- 
 ment and stronger rooting in the minds of 
 students of the sense of justice." "The method 
 of arbitration would seem to be merely the 
 method of compromise through the agency of 
 a third party, but essentially it is more than 
 this," adds Prof. Elmer E. Brown, the United 
 States Commissioner of Education, "for every 
 well-conducted international arbitration con- 
 
 [271] 
 
\ 
 
 \ 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 tributed to the building up of a higher concep- 
 tion of international obligation of world rela- 
 tions, and is accordingly in its effect the bring- 
 ing of the disputants together on higher and 
 more stable ground than either of them oc- 
 cupied when the strife began. It seems clear 
 that this is the very type of thinking which is 
 characteristic of modern education at the best. 
 It is the type of thinking which should be pro- 
 moted in schools of every grade, in the interest 
 of liberal culture rightly understood. It is 
 by promoting such culture and establishing 
 such modes of thought among our people 
 everywhere that the public schools can lay the 
 surest foundation for the arbitration principle." 
 These utterances represent only a few ex- 
 amples of the American educators training the 
 American youth. Although the figures of 
 speech may be more or less differently ex- 
 pressed, in fact all prominent educators of the 
 prominent colleges and universities, such as 
 Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Indiana, John Hop- 
 kins, Boston, Syracuse, Virginia, New York 
 City, Chicago, Princeton, Pennsylvania, West- 
 ern Reserve, Earlham, Northwestern, Lehigh, 
 
 [272] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 Wisconsin, Cornell, Georgetown, Catholic, 
 Dartmouth, Brown, Ohio, Cincinnati, Illinois, 
 Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Ten- 
 nessee, California, Missouri, Mississippi, Stan- 
 ford, and Maryland, all agree and zealously 
 and enthusiastically foster the spirit of arbi- 
 tration and establish those modes of thought 
 that dispose American men to arbitrate their 
 differences. A last and no less important utter- 
 ance in the improvement of the law of nations 
 must be added here. Prof. James B. Scott, of 
 Columbia, when the legal nature of interna- 
 tional law had been seriously questioned and 
 denied by some continental jurists, and by the 
 analytical school of English jurisprudence, 
 said : "If we point to The Hague as a partial 
 refutation of the objection, the immediate and 
 triumphant reply is that the international 
 sheriff is lacking or powerless to execute the 
 judgment, and necessarily so, for is not the law 
 of nations based upon the equality of states? 
 It is evident, therefore, that neither superior 
 nor inferior can exist. There is doubtless much 
 in this criticism, but in fact as well as in theory 
 international law does exist and is accepted, 
 
 [273] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 applied and observed in its entirety by all civi- 
 lized nations in their constant and common 
 intercourse. We may readily admit that force 
 may be necessary to cause the observance of 
 municipal law, but if we find international 
 law observed as a whole, we must presume 
 that a sanction lies back of it, whether it be 
 physical or moral force, or the force of public 
 opinion. The compelling force is, in any case, 
 a sufficient and satisfactory sanction." 
 
 Sec. 131. Cowardice of the Civilized World: 
 Yet, it is a fact too well known, says the civilized 
 world, that disarmament at the present time 
 seems impossible. Sometimes it is argued that 
 the maintenance of the army and the navy to 
 be used as the policeman's club, as was advocated 
 by Abbe de St. Pierre about two centuries ago, 
 would further its effectiveness if the courts of 
 arbitration were installed instead of the court 
 of the sword. 
 
 The civilized nations of the world realize 
 the truth of the theory that the relation between 
 nation and nation is like the relation between 
 man and man. If this theory counts for any- 
 thing, then the present world bears upon its 
 
 [274] 
 
AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR 
 
 face the unmistakable mark of cowardice ! And 
 civilization, mockery! The ideal of our life 
 is not whipping. Then why must we advocate 
 the bearing of arms ? We have reason to be- 
 lieve in the ascension of the human race. Al- 
 though we are far from angels, the wings of 
 an angel are the symbol of our characteristic as- 
 cendancy. God of Christianity, God of Shin- 
 toism, or God of Buddhism — whichever name 
 the readers may please — God must be or ought 
 to be the highest ideal of our imagination. 
 Franklin once accused our brothers of cow- 
 ardice : "We make daily great improve- 
 ments in natural, there is one I wish to 
 see in moral, philosophy, the discovery of a plan 
 which will induce and oblige nations to settle 
 their disputes without first cutting one an- 
 other's throats." And to-day the sons of the 
 cowards still rule the nations. Sometimes it 
 seems that hereditary cowardice is producing 
 a thousand-fold. The so-called civilized pow- 
 ers of the world fear their own shadow, their 
 own nation and their own race, and they, with- 
 out hesitation, it appears to us, are "beating 
 the funeral march" to "hell." 
 
 I275] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 In the case of Japan the cowardice of the 
 civihzed world is proved. When Japan asked 
 the nations' recognition of her legal autonomy, 
 because she could take care of her own internal 
 affairs, because she believed that she excels 
 in art, literature and the grace of social life, 
 and because she is inherently entitled to this 
 national right, the nations repeatedly denied 
 this recognition and charged Japan with bar- 
 barism and her people as being semi-civilized 
 people. Only after Japan killed more men in 
 her war with China in 1894-5 than were killed 
 in the American civil war and the Napolsenic 
 war of Waterloo put together did, the civilized 
 nations recognized Japan's legal automony. 
 Even after that the present day humanity in- 
 dulged the religious and racial prejudice 
 against Japan. It was only after Japan in her 
 war with Russia proved that she could kill 
 more men in one land battle than in all the 
 land battles of the Crimean war of the English 
 and French, that Japan could send to the bot- 
 tom more ships and seamen in one naval battle 
 than in all the battles in Nelson's Trafalgar 
 and Dewey's Manila Bay that the civilized 
 
 [276] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 world received Japan as a first-class civilized 
 power and her people as a civilized people. 
 
 It was this mock civilization, this warlike 
 humanity that forced and is now forcing the 
 Japanese to expand their army and navy as 
 far and sometimes farther than their national 
 economy can reach. Japan is by no means a 
 warlike nation. The fact that she has for cen- 
 turies secluded herself and refrained from in- 
 terfering with any Western powers, the fact 
 that she supplicated the rest of the world to 
 let her alone, amply proves her peaceful indi- 
 viduality and propensity. If Japan ever be 
 prepared to strike any nation, if Japan ever be 
 skilled in science and art of war, it is not be- 
 cavise Japan is a warlike nation, but because 
 she has to carry out the mandate of the civi- 
 lized world. The cowardice of the world must 
 answer and not Japan before the jury of twelve 
 Apostles under the Mosaic Law. 
 
 We are certainly in need of more scholars; 
 more lawyers, and more publicists in order to 
 bring about a complete transition from the 
 reign of arms to the reign of law. We repeat 
 again that we are in need of more Zorns, more 
 
 [277] 
 
 ' m 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Haltzendorffs, more Calvos, more Bradier-Fo- 
 deres, more Hollands, more Pauncefotes, Halls, 
 Phillimeres, Bryces, Woolseys, Lawrences, Ari- 
 gas, Okumas, Itos, Hayashis, Komuras, Wheat- 
 ons, Choates, Whites, Davises, Snows, Hayes, 
 Olneys, Foster, Strauses, Metcalfs, Carnegies, 
 Bartholdts, Taylors, Roots, Tafts, Roosevelts, 
 and such men as the Justices of the U. S. Su- 
 preme Court. 
 
 Sec. 132. Military Bxpansion of the United 
 States and Japan: It seems paradoxical, yet it 
 is no less true, that the honest expression of 
 Bacon : "Wars are suits of appeal to the tri- 
 bunal of God's justice, where there are no 
 superiors on earth to determine," — survives. 
 So would also survive the strong language 
 of Von Moltke : "War is an element of 
 universal order established by God. The 
 noblest virtues are developed by it — courage 
 and abnegation; duty faithfully accomplished, 
 and a spirit of sacrifice engendered. Without 
 war the world would soon fall into the most 
 sordid materialism." The United States and 
 Japan, are very strange. They have drawn 
 from their industries the huge sum of nearly 
 
 [278] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 $1,500,000,000 as their part of the $10,000,- 
 000,000 which, during the last ten years, rep- 
 resents the amount which has been expended 
 by the world in war or in preparation for war. 
 The United States, according to the interna- 
 tional naval table, stands higher than Japan : 
 First, Great Britain ; second, France ; third, 
 Germany and the United States ; fourth, Japan. 
 Higher in the maritime table, greater in na- 
 tional resources, larger in population, wealthier 
 in treasury, the United States is without ad- 
 vocates of expansion of military strength. "The 
 greater and more efficient the American navy 
 is, the safer and more prosperous is the Ameri- 
 can national and international trade, for mili- 
 tary strength and peace are co-ordinate and co- 
 extensive," are the watchwords of the Ameri- 
 can capital ! Such is also true in the Japanese 
 capital. The giant Satsimia has been launched 
 recently at Yokosuka, where the new armored 
 cruiser Kurama is nearly completed, and five 
 Russian prizes are also being repaired. At 
 Kure the battleship Aki has just been 
 launched and the new armored cruisers Ibuki 
 and Ikoma will soon be completed, while the 
 
 [279] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 repairing of the newly refloated twelve battle- 
 ships captured from Russia is now completed. 
 Besides the battleships, five cruisers have 
 been ordered to be built in foreign countries, ac- 
 cording to the naval expansion programme of 
 1903. "There is no idea of augmenting the 
 naval expansion," says the Japanese present ad- 
 ministration in answer to the question put by 
 the opposition party in the Imperial Diet, "but 
 we have to keep pace with the civilized coun- 
 tries of the West." To this the present im- 
 perial cabinet also adds with regard to the army 
 expansion : "The completion of the Japanese 
 army is in no sense an aggressive preparation, 
 but is solely a guarantee of the world's peace. 
 A military force cannot be created in a day, 
 but without an army a country's prestige and 
 safety cannot be insured." 
 
 Thus the United States and Japan actually 
 face each other, fully armed and prepared for 
 the maintenance of the world's peace. 
 
 Sec 133. Japan and the United States in 
 Their Relation to San Francisco: To begin 
 with, let us understand, and let all the world 
 understand, that the Americans are and must 
 
 [280] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 be the most peace-loving people on earth. Love 
 of peace in the American people is inherent, al- 
 though we are aware of their utterances, "let 
 us have war with Japan," in connection with 
 the trivial local industrial controversies, such 
 as boycotts of the Japanese restaurants or seg- 
 regation of the Japanese children from the pub- 
 lic schools at San Francisco. Such utterances 
 are attributable to a mere passing intoxication. 
 
 His profoundest being is love of peace, no 
 matter how viciously an American may con- 
 duct himself, or how blindly he may be wrapped 
 up in a mistaken understanding of self-preser- 
 vation principle. 
 
 The Japanese, too, are the people of quiet, 
 peace, and self-respect. The industrial or ra- 
 cial conflict in America is as old as pre-inde- 
 pendence periods of the United States, and as 
 extensive as the growth or progress of the 
 American people. Therefore, it is not at all 
 news of interest to know the existence of boy- 
 cott or industrial or racial differences in refer- 
 ence to the Japanese colonies in San Francisco. 
 The United States has for the backbone of the 
 national growth, the conglomeration of poten- 
 
 [281] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 tially local city commonwealths as many and 
 different as the conglomeration of races — Ger- 
 mans, French, Italians, Russians, and all other 
 races or nationalities. Here they come from 
 across the ocean, they with their distinct cus- 
 toms and languages; their wives and children; 
 here they start industrial or racial strifes or at 
 least elements of strife for race against race, 
 city against city, state against state. The racial 
 or industrial conflicts in America are too nu- 
 merous to write down, and their nature too 
 appalling to describe. It may seem paradoxic- 
 ally, yet it is true, that the American civiliza- 
 tion is formed in these innumerable appalling 
 conditions, namely : racial and industrial con- 
 troversies. 
 
 It is a primary principle for the success of 
 colonization, that it avoid the interference of 
 home government, and cultivate individual ini- 
 tiative, patience, and become assimilated into 
 the territory to which such colony has come; 
 especially so when such territory is already 
 colonized and has a government of its own. 
 Suppose, for instance, if ten thousand Ameri- 
 cans went over to Tokyo, London, Berlin, or 
 
 [282] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 Paris, and commenced to establish their right 
 as laborers, they would surely have to en- 
 counter industrial and racial conflicts. Sup- 
 pose, further, if the American government in- 
 tended to help its citizens and settle such racial 
 or industrial warfares with the international 
 coercion dependent only upon the sharp point 
 of bayonet, it would surely expose unreason- 
 ableness on the part of the American Govern- 
 ment before the fair-minded world. Suppose, 
 still further, if the Americans make the treaty 
 concerning laborers which might be even as 
 long as from the south to the northpole, it 
 would not and could not change human minds. 
 The American, as a powerful nation, may op- 
 press by might, but at the same instance, it en- 
 rages the conscience of the civilized world and 
 sins against Heaven. 
 
 Civilization of the present century rides on 
 the reign of law. Should any radical or indus- 
 trial conflict or strife reach to the extent so as 
 to injure life, liberty, property, or pursuit of 
 happiness, the resort must be had in the Court 
 of Justice which has competent jurisdiction 
 over the point in issue. Fortunately, the Jap- 
 
 [283] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 anese colonies in this country have splendid 
 courts composed of splendid judges. No nation 
 on earth has such independent courts as we 
 have in America. From the time of Marshall to 
 Fuller the people virithin and without, looked 
 upon the American Courts as the only friends 
 of aliens or the weak, and in the greater meas- 
 ure, the triumphs of the American system of 
 government are due to them. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States, as 
 early as 1804, rendered a decision that even 
 "Act of Congress ought never to be construed 
 to violate the law of nations." It is not neces- 
 sary to seek far for innumerable instances 
 where the court protected the unprotected par- 
 ties. Often the Presidents of the United 
 States were powerless in adjusting a labor con- 
 flict, boycotts, or interferences of business 
 rights among the Americans and appealed to 
 the courts for protection. For instance, in the 
 famous Chicago strike of 1896, President 
 Cleveland appealed to the Circuit Court of the 
 United States for the district of Illinois, which 
 court issued injunctions and subsequently sent 
 the President of the Labor Union and his three 
 
 [284] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 associates into custody of the law. The appH- 
 cation to the Supreme Court by the writ of 
 habeas corpus was denied and the prisoners re- 
 manded to custody. President Cleveland, in 
 reference to this case, rightly observed : "The 
 Supreme Court of the United States has writ- 
 ten the closing words of this history, tragical 
 in many of its details, and in every line pro- 
 voking sober reflection." 
 
 In the same year when the Chicago industrial 
 controversies were going on there was another 
 famous labor conflict in Cincinnati, where the 
 Labor Union was instigating conspiracies and 
 controlling the boycotts. Then again resort 
 was had to the Circuit Court of the United 
 States of Ohio. Judge Taft, — that William H. 
 Taft, whose name is so familiar to the Japanese 
 populace and to whom so much admiration is 
 given by the Japanese, — was presiding over 
 the court. In pronouncing the sentence of im- 
 prisonment against the Labor Union leader, 
 Judge Taft said : "After much consideration, 
 I do not think I should be doing my duty as a 
 judicial officer of the United States without im- 
 posing on the contemner the penalty of impris- 
 
 1285] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 onment. The sentence of the court is that the 
 contemner be confined in the county jail of 
 Warren County, Ohio, for a term of six 
 months. The m.arshal wih take the prisoner 
 into custody and safely convey him to the place 
 of imprisonment." And as late as 1906 the 
 Circuit Court of the United States, Indiana, 
 has rendered such an imposing decision in be- 
 half of the public against the boycott instiga- 
 tors that the Court is most dear to us Japa- 
 nese. In this connection the reader's attention, 
 especially if he is an alien, is called to a decision 
 of the United States Supreme Court which ut- 
 tered the most sweeping language in the in- 
 terest of the peace of the country as well as of 
 the world, when it said : "International law is 
 part of our law and must be ascertained and ad- 
 ministered by the court of justice of appropri- 
 ate jurisdiction as often as question of right 
 depending upon it are duly presented for their 
 determination." 
 
 So-called anti-Japanese movement in San 
 Francisco, after all, shall never be the cause for 
 nese-American war. It is far from it. In- 
 dustrial or racial conflict in San Francisco is 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 trivial in quantity when comparing any such 
 experience with those other races or national- 
 ities have had. It is insignificant in the scope 
 of the interests involved, for the thinking people 
 of the single city together with all the rest of 
 the state of California are more sympathetic 
 toward the Japanese than the antagonistics. So 
 are also the entire Pacific States. East of the 
 Rockies is filled with the friends of the Jap- 
 anese, who love to see the Japanese prosperity 
 and progress. Should Japanese in San Fran- 
 cisco hope, as a colony, to be successful in this 
 country like the other races or nationalities, 
 they have yet to see their tracks covered with 
 the bones of martyrs who have perished in the 
 struggle, by stone, by fire. If the Japanese ex- 
 pect success in colonization they must say as 
 : their predecessors said : 
 
 ^^^. It is weary watching wave by wave, 
 
 And yet the tide heaves onward ; 
 We climb like corals, grave by grave, 
 And pave a pathway sunward." 
 
 .f..^.^;** :■, j£^ unfortunately, the Japanese, either by 
 racial prejudice or industrial consideration, are 
 to be looted or discriminated against, there are 
 
 [287] 
 
 v^^>?": 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 other means for adjustment; and those means 
 are illustrated by the Americans themselves in 
 Japan. Did not the Japanese at one time, in 
 obedience to anti-foreign sentiment, commit 
 outrages on the American residents in Japan? 
 Did not the Japanese Romines assassinate the 
 American diplomatic agent in the street of 
 Yedo ? Did not the Japanese roughs and hood- 
 lums set fire to the American Legation? Did 
 .not the Japanese, animated by race prejudice, 
 commit violence unimaginable, resulting in 
 driving all the Americans and Europeans out 
 of the city of Yedo? It was only the great 
 benevolence, patience, and self-sacrificing en- 
 thusiasm of the Americans that not only saved 
 Japan from the international rupture with the 
 European powers, but also impelled Japan to 
 march from the state of insignificance to the 
 forefront of the modern nations. Is it not then 
 about time to begin the returning of favors and 
 discharge giri or "rectitude" ; instead of the 
 diplomatic protest or complaint or needlessly 
 fermenting a spirit of hatred of call for war 
 against the United States, the benefactor of 
 Japan? The latter are indeed crimes against 
 
 [288] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 the teaching of rectitude and virtues that were 
 deeply implanted by the Japanese ancestors. 
 
 Sbc. 134. Commercial War Between Japan 
 and the United States: A war that exists at 
 present and will exist in future between the two 
 nations is the war for commercial supremacy. 
 It is interesting to watch the warring strate- 
 gies of the two countries : On the one side, the 
 Japanese government having a partnership in- 
 terest in the manufacture and export of iron, 
 beer, sugar, tobacco, cotton goods, and the 
 milling, oil refining and mining industries ; sub- 
 scribing for shares of stock in shipbuilding 
 and locomotive works and iron foundries ; sub- 
 sidizing the steamship lines that touch the in- 
 sular possessions as well as the foreign ports, 
 and owning and operating the railway, telegraph 
 and telephone lines; and on the other, the 
 American citizen under the American govern- 
 mental statutory limitations — plainly speaking, 
 the Japanese imperial government trust and the 
 American democratic anti-trust. 
 
 This phenomenal difference in the two na- 
 tional economic conditions will undoubtedly at- 
 tract the attention of the reader. But an inves- 
 
 [289] 
 
> 
 
 tigation into the objective or individualistic pro- 
 gress of the American, and the subjective or 
 passive progress of the Japanese, will at once 
 reveal the reason for that difference. The read- 
 er is already aware that the Japan of to-day 
 is the evidence of evolution from the pre- 
 American expedition period, in which the 
 hereditary castes, never conceiving the idea 
 of a social condition different from their 
 own, and entertaining no expectation of 
 ever ranking equally with one another, ac- 
 cepted benefits from such difference without dis- 
 cussing their right, and submitted to their chiefs 
 without resistance, practically assuming author- 
 ity to be providential. In this Japanese national 
 evolution the reader will also take notice of the 
 fact that the divisions which severed the people 
 into castes are now lowered; property is di- 
 vided ; the light of intelligence spreads ; the ca- 
 pacities of all classes are equally cultivated ; the 
 respect for the law, of which they are the com- 
 mon author, is strong; and their self-sacrificing 
 spirit is now not the result of blind ignorance, 
 fetishism, tradition, but is the result of a well- 
 studied philosophy which has been found ap- 
 
 [290] 
 
^ ?!■: 
 
 
 AMERICAN-JAPANESE WA! 
 
 plicable to their conditions, and which appeals 
 to the intelligence of the mass to the extent that 
 it is adopted as the ideal working plan through 
 which the people expect to attain the highest na- 
 tional development. 
 
 Against this Japanese conception, which they 
 believe will be most effective and most success- 
 ful in the interpref ectural and international com- 
 mercial warfare, stands the American people, 
 whose equality of condition has reached the 
 extreme, as its government was founded on a 
 most ancient, a most uniform and a most per- 
 manent system of Anglo-Saxon race. Subjec- 
 tive progress vs. Objective progress, — -Japan 
 and America — : both peoples, in cases of na- 
 tional upheaval, proved and will prove the 
 strongest types of communalists, yet they draw 
 their undercurrent of development from radic- 
 ally different fountains of the philosophy of 
 government. 
 
 - Consequently we observe a remarkable result 
 ■from these individual characteristics of the two 
 peoples, or the backbone and vitality of the com- 
 mercial progress of the nations — that the 
 American citizen has for his incentive the hope 
 
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 Bs: r ■^ 
 
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 6 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 of gain and profit for his individual effort, 
 while the Japanese citizen, imbued with the 
 self-sacrificing spirit or self-denying patriotism 
 for the gain and profit of the Emperor, 
 is ready to sacrifice all effort. Here the two 
 peoples have peculiarly yet distinctly antago- 
 nistic enthusiasm. 
 
 Sec. 135. Causes that are Against Japanese- 
 American War: As to the Japano-American 
 war in arms, there is not a sign of it at present. 
 There are ten reasons which if fostered assure 
 its impossibility. 
 
 First, because the international positions of 
 Japan and the United States in their inter- 
 dependent relations with the civilized powers 
 of the world, act as checks against such a 
 gigantic confiict — a conflict greater than the 
 late Russo-Japanese war — which not only 
 would deteriorate the economic conditions of 
 the world, but also ignore the international 
 consciousness for humanity and civilization. 
 
 Second, because even when the policy of na- 
 tions of the world would have been to turn the 
 table for Japan and the United States to prac- 
 tice the game of war, the two nations are too 
 
 [292] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 deeply interested in the commercial field in 
 Asia — one nation sends raw materials and the 
 other manufactures them — vice versa; and the 
 facts that Japan and the United States enjoy 
 the rich harvest now, and the facts that for the 
 two nations there are greater possibilities in the 
 future as the result of the astute diplomacy, 
 patience and patriotism of over a half century. 
 Would the two nations so abruptly abandon 
 their cherished hope of so rich a harvest to be 
 reaped after years of struggle and activity 
 in order to cut each other's throats? Would 
 Japan and the United States wait, only 
 to see other nations, such as Germany, France 
 or Russia, usurp the fruits of their efforts of 
 over a half-century ? The two nations are cer- 
 tainly not so nonsensical as to tolerate such diplo- 
 macy. 
 
 Third, because Japan and the United States 
 are sensitive, positive and proud nations. The 
 statement which has recently been made, and 
 which has been widely circulated in both coun- 
 tries, that the United States has been converted 
 from a belief in the Bible to that in com- 
 merce and the sword, is, generally speaking, 
 
 [293] 
 
 .^v 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 quite incorrect. And it is also absurdly incor- 
 rect to state that Japan, after her signal vic- 
 tories in war with China and Russia, is enter- 
 taining a "swell head." On the contrary, the 
 two nations hear more and more plainly the ;^ 
 throbbing of humanity, and they observe more _ ^j^"' 
 and more distinctly the guide-posts on the foot-W-' 
 path to peace between them. 
 
 Fourth, because the people of the two coun- 
 tries begin to study each other more seriously. 
 There was a time itn the United States when the 
 scope of the study of Japanese affairs was 
 limited to such silly indulgence as hearing of 
 lectures on Rikishia-men, Sedan or Palakeens, 
 tea houses, gardens, bamboo houses, Geisha 
 girls, or other trivial things, or the read- 
 ing or writing of love stories and similar 
 superfluous things. To-day they are realizing 
 the importance of learning the civilization of 
 Japan. Nations, like individuals, says the 
 United States, can never become real friends 
 until or unless they know each other intellec- 
 tually and iatelligently. 
 
 Fifth, because of that wonderful human 
 document, the Anglo-Japanese alliance treaty of 
 
 =!r-s. 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR- 
 
 1905, which, while lasting for ten years, also 
 provides that, "If either contractor be involved 
 in war the other contractor shall at once come 
 to the assistance of its ally, and both parties 
 will conduct war in common and make peace 
 in mutual agreement with any power or powers 
 involved in such war." Therefore the Anglo- 
 Japanese treaty causes the United States either 
 to form some alliance with a European nation, 
 which is repugnant to the time-honored tradi- 
 tion and policy, or she must fight against Eng- 
 land on the Atlantic and Japan on the Pacific. 
 Sixth, because the relation between the in- 
 dividual Japanese and American is too close — 
 a relation that will not and could not entertain 
 anything else than peace. This friendly relation 
 does not rest upon formal document, nor is it an 
 official and diplomatic sort of friendship. It 
 is still better and far deeper than them all. It 
 is called Girt. Giri is the great reverence that 
 the Japanese feel for their teachers. Never 
 for one moment will the Japanese forget Giri, 
 or the kindness of America in educating the 
 Japanese, and to strictly observe the Giri — the 
 /relation between teacher and disciple — is and 
 
 ■'^' [295] 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 ever has been an essential quality of the Japa- 
 nese individuality. 
 
 Seventh, because the two peoples having in- 
 tellectually understood the special civilization 
 of each other, and having widely awakened to 
 their individual conscientiousness, they will 
 exercise morally responsible action and speech. 
 They will become more and more unselfish 
 and impartial ; they will avoid egotism and self- 
 conceit; they will refrain from indulging in 
 imputations of inferiority and abuse; they will 
 condemn the insult, disdain and discourtesy; 
 and they will maintain broadened views and 
 higher standards of individual responsibility 
 to the general good of the two great nations. 
 
 Eighth, because the people of the two coun- 
 tries have realized that while the international 
 relations between Japan and the United States 
 have hitherto been dependent on and resulted 
 from each other's chivalry, benevolence, ro- 
 mance, enthusiasm, sentiment, emotion and re- 
 ligion, at present and in the future, it must of 
 necessity be dependent upon other profound 
 qualities besides those, namely: self-respect, 
 self-preservation, and mutual respect as the most 
 
 [296] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 essential factors to a prosperous and lasting 
 Peace. 
 
 Ninth, because the two distinct peoples 
 fully realize that individual material comfort 
 and national material development is not the 
 end of human society or human government. 
 On the contrary such a material comfort or de- 
 velopment ever has been the cause of individual 
 and national ruin. The more material com- 
 fort, the more material development, the heav- 
 ier becomes the corresponding duty that such 
 material development be translated into moral 
 effort and achievement. Idle ease, foolish good 
 nature or weak peace, which are twin results of 
 individual material comfort and national ma- 
 terial development, have also to be rooted out. 
 
 Tenth, and lastly, because the governments of 
 the two nations are and must be conscious that 
 it is not the government officials alone that are 
 entitled to the credit for progress and prosperity 
 and international peace, as has been hitherto 
 claimed by the Japanese officials, but it is the 
 common mass of the people that the govern- 
 ment stands upon, the great source of human 
 progress, and it must sink or swim with them. 
 
 [297] 
 
C'^^Slr--.^^^ 
 
 Slfe 
 
 LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 Hence the American Government in transacting 
 business with Japan should first ascertain the 
 wishes of the Japanese people. Special empha- 
 sis to the same principle should be given by the 
 Japanese government, so that in dealing with 
 the United States it may remember that the 
 latter is a government of the people, for the 
 people and by the people in the strictest sense 
 of the term. 
 
 The Japanese, after their war with the Rus- 
 sians, have to write their history of individual 
 and national development by electricity. Every 
 action and speech inade by the American peo- 
 ple relative to the Japanese is recorded in 
 Japan through wires and wireless. Like or dis- 
 like, friendly or unfriendly manner, sympathy or 
 discord, insult or courtesy, all are instantane- 
 ously transmitted through the columns of the 
 press, and their messages flashing over 
 countless wires or wire|lss posts are made 
 known in Japan — multitude calls to multitude, 
 and no peasant can escape from participating 
 in moulding the destiny, no matter in how ob- 
 scure a hamlet he may be found. Do they con- 
 tinue to assemble with tears of gratitude and 
 
 [298] 
 
AMERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 ever thankful heart over the revered American 
 people? or will the wind of wrong be sown, and 
 the whirlwind of sullen and revengeful hatred 
 be reaped ? 
 
 Sec 136. Prophetic Future: It is difficult 
 for us to predict what will be the future condi- 
 tions of the two nations, or to prophesy even 
 what forms of government might in the future 
 be adopted. Yet, it may be safely asserted that 
 the people of Japan and the United States are 
 ever ready to respond to the call of humanity 
 or "jin-gi." During the Japanese-Russian 
 War America said to Japan in the name of 
 humanity, "Let there be peace." Hence the 
 conclusion of peace at Portsmouth. This ap- 
 peal for humanity was potent with the brave 
 Japanese soldiers on Manchuria's battle line, 
 and the swords and bayonets so bravely and 
 skillfully wielded, fell on the ground and they 
 could not raise them again. 
 
 For the matchless progress of enlightened 
 rule during the last half century the world is 
 indebted to the United States and Japan. 
 Parent and child, though separated by a mighty 
 ocean and apparently conflicting emotions, have 
 
 -'1 [299] 
 
 ^ 
 
 
LIFE OF JAPAN 
 
 been co-workers in the great cause of perfect- 
 ing and strengthening hberal government, and 
 thereby they "builded wiser than they knew." 
 Did we not in the past sound a depth in the 
 dechne of our progress that the present age 
 can never reach? "The babbhng echo mocks 
 itself !" How glorious would it be if some day 
 we may be fortunate enough to establish a 
 Congress of the United States of Japan and 
 America, which shall deal with the questions 
 of commerce, of war and of peace between us 
 and the rest of the world. How grand would 
 it be if some day we may be civilized enough 
 to make out of Japan and America monitors 
 for the peace of the world. Although we can 
 safely predict that before the grand and glori- 
 ous idea be realized we will have many sea- 
 sons of war and peace, prosperity and famine ! 
 Let the people of Japan and the United 
 States work shoulder to shoulder in an un- 
 selfish interest for human liberty and pro- 
 gress — the eternal principles of justice and 
 philanthropy — recognizing the rights of all ac- 
 cording to the highest ideals of Christianity 
 and ideals of the two nations. May the Stars 
 
 [300] 
 
ERICAN-JAPANESE WAR 
 
 and Stripes and the Banners of the Rising Sun 
 float side by side in mutual endearment, em- 
 blems of peace and prosperity, justice, and the 
 greatest amount of true liberty to mankind. 
 
 [301] 
 
THE VIEWS AND REVIEWS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Leading Daily Papers and Journals 
 of the United States 
 
 FOR 
 
 DR. MIYAKAWA'S 
 
 "POWERS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" 
 
 (Arranged by date) 
 
 The Baltimore American. 
 
 March ii, 1907. Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Interest in this book is assured from the fact that it is the 
 production of a Japanese, and one who enjoys the exceptional 
 distinction of being the first Japanese admitted to the American 
 bar. . . . The American system of government has called, 
 forth the interpretative opinions of foreigners who have ren- 
 dered with remarkable fidelity the American scheme. Such have 
 been James Bryce, the author of "The American Commonwealth," 
 and Professor Munsterberg, the author of . "The Americans." 
 The work of the present author . . has the unique interest 
 of being an oriental point of view. . . . The titles of some 
 of the chapters will serve as an index to the work : "The 
 People of the United States," "The English People," "The Japa- 
 nese People," "The Sovereignty of the United States," "The 
 
Distribution of Public Functions," "The Legislature of the 
 United States." 
 
 Under these and similar captions are discussed the source 
 and character of sovereignty and the delegated powers and 
 method of exercising them that obtains. As indication of per- 
 spicuous comment may be taken the following with reference to 
 congressmen: "Whatever hopes or projects may be entertained 
 by a few aspiring candidates, it must generally happen that a 
 great proportion of the men deriving their advancement from 
 their influence with the people would have more to hope from 
 the preservation of their favor than from innovation in the 
 government subversive to the authority of the people." 
 
 Speaking of the functions of the chief executive the writer 
 says : "Nationally, as well as individually, the American char- 
 acteristics ever have been and ever will be very peculiar, in that 
 they resist encroachment of every kind. Ambition of one sepa- 
 rate and distinct government counteracts ambitions of another." 
 In discussing the Constitution and the courts, as well as the 
 particular activities of the legislative branches of the govern- 
 ment, the author does so with a wealth of citation of cases passed 
 upon by the Supreme Court that formed the test cases under 
 which the Constitution and the political princijles of the country 
 developed. 
 
 The work is, therefore, from every point of view, valuable alike 
 to the legislator, the student and the man who wants to know 
 the practical workings of the government and the history and 
 spirit of those activities. 
 
 The New York World. 
 
 March i6, 1907. New York City, N. Y. 
 
 We have had from De Tocqueville the French view of our 
 democracy, from Bryce the English and from Munsterberg the 
 German. The Japanese understanding is expressed in a volume 
 
of current publication, "Powers of the American People, Con- 
 gress, President and Courts," by Masuji Miyakawa. 
 
 He presents 
 
 passages of original comment, however, sufficient to give his 
 book a strong individual interest. At the beginning he makes 
 these instructive distinctions : 
 
 "The word the 'people' of the United States in its proper 
 legal acceptation means the whole mass of male and female 
 citizens constituting the political unit. It is identified as the 
 political entity and artificial person, and not a majority of the 
 individuals composing society and those persons who have the 
 right to vote." . . . 
 
 To emphasize a point of difference between our Congress 
 and the Japanese Diet this author reminds his readers that 
 the Diet has no share in the sovereign power — that it has 
 power to deliberate upon laws, but not to determine them. 
 "All the different legislative powers are fundamentally and 
 practically vested in the Most Exalted Personage, His Majesty, 
 the Emperor of Japan, the Creator of the Imperial Constitution, 
 the source and fountainhead of all political life of great Japan 
 herself." 
 
 Mr. Miyakawa is inclined to be idealistic as regards the men 
 who make up the membership of our Congress. Since they are 
 distinguished by the preference of their fellow-citizens it is to 
 he presumed in general that "they will be somewhat distinguished 
 also by those qualities which entitle them to it. Secondly, 
 "they will enter into the public service under circumstances 
 which cannot fail to produce a temporary feeling of affection at 
 least to their constituents." "In the third place, those ties which 
 bind the representative to his constituents are strengthened by 
 motives of a more selfish nature. His pride and vanity attach 
 him a share in its honors and distinctions." A fourth considera- 
 tion is that of frequent elections and the representatives' desire 
 to return to office. "They will be compelled to anticipate the 
 moment when their power is to cease, when their exercise of it 
 is to be reviewed, and when they must descend to the level from 
 which they are raised, there forever to remain unless a faithful 
 
discharge of their trust shall have established their title to a 
 renewal of it." . . . 
 
 The hook closes with an epigram for which its author will be 
 widely envied among native writers. Having given a brief re- 
 view of events leading to the Revolution and noted the survival 
 of such good names as those of Patrick Henry and Samuel 
 Adams, despite contemporary outpourings of wrath and ingrati- 
 tude, Mr. Miyakawa observes : "In politics the Teutonic and 
 related races, then as now, characteristically hated with prompt- 
 ness and forgave with generosity." 
 
 "Powers of the American People" is illustrated with portraits 
 of Presidents, Cabinet members, judges, leaders and the author. 
 
 The Manchester Union. 
 
 March i8, 1907. Manchester, N. H. 
 
 This work was written by a Japanese — a bright one, too — in 
 English, without revision, as to matter or of literary form as 
 to English. The book takes its place not only as a remarkably 
 interesting one from a literary point of view, but also as giving 
 the viewpoint of an Oriental scholar of American institutions. 
 The author is a lecturer of the law school of the University 
 of Indiana, and is the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to 
 the American bar. Not only are the "powers" of the American 
 people and their representatives considered comprehensively, but 
 considerable attention is devoted to England and Japan. The 
 author does not rest content with skimming over his subject in 
 a general way, hut enters boldly and conHdently into details. 
 The hook is interesting in a literary zvay, hut it is also a valuable 
 compendium of useful knowledge. 
 
 The New York Sun. 
 
 March 23, 1907. Neza York City, N. Y . 
 
 A Japanese who has been taking notes among us. Dr. Masuji 
 Miyakawa, has written an intelligent treatise in English on 
 
"Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
 Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction." 
 This study of our Constitution if translated into Japanese 
 . . . would probably lead to a better understanding in Japan 
 of the difficulties involved in certain pending questions. To 
 Americans the chief interest lies in occasional comparisons with 
 Japanese conditions. An essay in an appendix gives a general 
 conspectus of European history as viewed by an Oriental scholar 
 studying its relations to the American Revolution. . . . The 
 author shows a remarkable idiomatic command of the language. 
 
 The Boston Transcript. 
 
 March 27, 1907. Boston, Mass. 
 
 Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
 Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction. 
 By Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., Washington. 
 
 Government problems and systems are discussed in this vol- 
 ume, notable chiefly because it is the work of the first Japanese 
 attorney ever admitted to the American bar. It shows a vast 
 amount of research and careful sifting of a prodigious mass of 
 material. The author takes various phases of the Constitution, 
 sets forth the clauses upon which each of the four Powers rest, 
 presents Supreme Court decisions bearing upon each, and then 
 discusses them in legal and sound, if not always illuminating, 
 style. . . . He explains at length all phases of many ques- 
 tions, and shows the theory and practical character of the power 
 of the various forces that make up and conduct the Government 
 of the United States. Some new views of the much-dis-cussed 
 question of State rights are presented in their relations to many 
 important questions, particularly in the section which relates to 
 the courts. The executive and judicial powers of the United 
 States are very broad subjects, but the author considers them 
 as fully as one man may find time to study such a wide field, 
 and he covers at least all that are applied to the daily affairs and 
 transactions of life. 
 
In the concluding chapter relating to the courts he says : 
 "And at last the legislative, executive and judicial powers are 
 coextensive with each other. They are equal in dignity and of 
 co-ordinate authority. Neither can subject the other to its ju- 
 risdiction, or strip it of any portion of its constitutional powers." 
 Appendix I contains a summary of the history of the United 
 States before the promulgation of the Constitution, and Ap- 
 pendix II includes the Constitution itself. There are several 
 illustrations in the volume, mainly small portraits of presi- 
 dents, members of the Cabinet, the Senate and House. The 
 chief value of the volume is in its carefully digested summa- 
 ries of important Supreme Court decisions, and the opinions of 
 the author himself upon the questions, all these things being 
 carefully placed in sections, and having handy references in a 
 complete index. 
 
 The Seattle Post Intelligencer. 
 
 March 30, 1907. Seattle, Wash. 
 
 The people of the Pacific States long since became familiar 
 with the wonderful progress of Japan in her assimilation of 
 the ideals of Occidental civilization, but it will be a surprise 
 to most of us to learn that there recently has been published a 
 critical work on the Constitution of the United States by a 
 Japanese. The author, Prof. Masuji Miyakawa, was educated 
 in America, was the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to 
 the American bar, and is now a lecturer in the law school of 
 the University of Indiana. The work is characterized by a 
 simplicity and directness that well might be imitated by American 
 •mritersi. The plan of the work is to discuss the constitution 
 only as it defines the powers delegated to the federal government, 
 the powers retained by the states as such, and the powers re- 
 served to the people. Prof. Miyakawa's ivork is an excellent 
 text-book on the Constitution, and is well worth reading by mem- 
 bers of the bar. 
 
The Washington Herald. 
 
 March 31, 1907. Washington, D. C. 
 
 In his "Powers of the American People," Prof. Masuji Miya- 
 kawa, D. C. L., LL. D., has followed in the footsteps of other 
 distinguished foreigners in helping us of America to see our- 
 selves as others see us. From De Tocqueville we got the French 
 view of our democracy; from Ambassador Bryce, the English idea 
 of our commonwealth, and from Munsterberg, the German view. 
 
 Prof. Miyakawa, in his volume, sets forth the clauses of the 
 Constitution upon which each of the four powers of the American 
 government rests, and cites the construction that has been given 
 them by the authoritative exposition of the courts of the estab- 
 lished practice of the government of the United States. In his 
 main argument, the author follows the line of constitutional in- 
 terpretation as it is writ down by our leaders in jurisprudence, 
 but from time to time he indulges in l>assages of original com- 
 ment which are instructive and interesting. . . . 
 
 For instance, discussing "The People," he writes : . . . 
 
 The Komin, or the "people," of Japan is nothing more than 
 the Omitakara or the "public treasure." The distinguished com- 
 mentators, or rather introducers of the Japanese constitution, 
 say : "It is to be noticed that there have been instances of the 
 people calling themselves the Emperor's treasures, as may be 
 seen from the following poem: 'Happy are we, his Majesty's 
 treasure, to have an ample recompense for our earthly existence 
 in having been born at an epoch so full of prosperity and glory.' " 
 
 Mr. Miyakawa also discusses such points of difference as exist 
 between our Congress and the Diet of Japan. He has much to 
 say that is interesting about the men who make up the two 
 bodies of our lawmakers, and is inclined to be enthusiastic about 
 them. The quality of this Americanized Japanese literary style — 
 more than a trifle grandiose — may be judged from the following 
 paragraph in which he discusses the American Chief Executive. 
 He says : 
 
 "The President of the United States, the strictest creature of 
 the constitutional nomenclature, is not obnubilated behind the 
 
mysterious obscurity of counselors. Power is communicated to 
 him with liberality, though with ascertained limitations. To him 
 the provident or improvident use of it is to be ascribed. For the 
 first he will have and deserve undivided applause. For the last, 
 he will be subject to censure, if necessary, to punishment. He 
 is the dignified but accountable magistrate of a free and great 
 people. The tenure of his office, it is true, is not hereditary; 
 nor is it for life; but still it is a tenure of the noblest kind; by 
 being a man of the people, his investiture will be voluntarily and 
 cheerfully and honorably renewed." 
 
 The work is a scholarly and able one; it reflects great credit 
 on its author, and it will be, without doubt, vastly useful to 
 American students of government, as well as helpful, perhaps, 
 to Mr. Miyakawa's own countrymen by aiding them to under- 
 stand us. 
 
 The Columbus Dispatch. 
 
 March 31, 1907. Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 The name of Masuji Miyakawa will not have a famihar 
 sound to many, as an expounder of the American Constitution 
 and governmental regime, but the bearer of it has written an 
 interesting book on "Powers of the American People, Congress, 
 President and Courts." He is the first Japanese ever admitted 
 to the bar in this country, and the work is written by him in 
 English, without revision or editing. . . . That he has grasped 
 the ideal and purpose that animated the writers of our Con- 
 stitution may be judged from the following: "The aim and pur- 
 pose of every political construction is, or ought to be, first to 
 obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern and 
 most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society and, in 
 the next place, to take the most eiTectual precautions for keep- 
 ing them virtuous while they continue to hold their public trust." 
 
 The book forms a useful and convenient constitutional manual, 
 treating each section separately and comprehensively. And in 
 the current discussion as to constitutional pozvers of Congress 
 
and the President, it is refreshing to read this true statement: 
 "The people, who are the only legitimate fountain of power, will 
 be able at any and all times to bring the constitution back to its 
 original forms." Until the people protest, we may cease from 
 troubling as to what the President is doing to the Constitution. 
 
 The Milwaukee Press. 
 
 April 3, 1907. Milwaukee, Wis. 
 
 The writer of this volume is a lecturer of the law school of 
 the University of Indiana and the first native Japanese to be 
 admitted to the American bar. That he is a student of clear 
 perceptions and discriminating judgment of our system of gov- 
 ernment displays not only remarkable familiarity with the tech- 
 nical phases of the subject, but, what is more to the point, a 
 comprehensive grasp of the genius and spirit of our institutions. 
 We know of no other author who has succeeded in presenting a 
 more corn! act review and discussion of the powers intended to 
 be lodged in the three departments of the government, the execu- 
 tive, the legislative and the judicial. The arrangement is sys- 
 tematic and all his deductions are fortiHed by the decisions of 
 the Supreme Court. The work was doubtless intended as a text- 
 book for students of the federal system and for professors em- 
 ployed as the writer is in conducting law cases which it seems 
 well adapted. 
 
 The Indianapolis Star. 
 
 April 7, 1907. Indianapolis, hid. 
 
 The people of the United States have been favored with works 
 on their system of government by English, French, German and 
 other European writers that have been quite useful in the way 
 at least of aiding us to see ourselves as others see us. Now we 
 have one by a Japanese, Masuji Miyakawa, a lecturer at the law 
 school of the Indiana University, and the first Japanese admitted 
 to the bar in his country. It is entitled, "Powers of the Ameri- 
 
can People, Congress, President and Courts, According to Evo- 
 lution of Constitutional Construction." 
 
 Miyakawa's study of the Constitution is made at once vivid 
 and interesting by his comparisons with Japan as well as with 
 European I owers. The book is very well written throughout, 
 the style being clear and luminous. . . . 
 
 In his treatment of the subject Miyahawa is a very thorough- 
 going nationalist. He has never the shadow of a doubt that the 
 Constitution made this a Nation zvith a big "N." His complete 
 ignoring of the old question of the intent of the makers of the 
 Constitution would probably give St. George Tucker a night- 
 mare, but from the practical point of view of fait accompli his 
 view of our Government is hardly open to question. 
 
 The Portland Oregonian. 
 
 April 7, 1907. Portland, Oregon. 
 
 The excellence of this law book is marked when one remem- 
 bers it is written by a Japanese, in English, without revision as 
 to matter or of literary form as to the English. . . . 
 
 It is interesting to read the viewpoint of a noted Japanese 
 scholar of American law and institutions, and in this respect 
 the offering is unique. Dr. Miyakawa is a lecturer of the Law 
 School of the University of Indiana and ... is the first Japa- 
 nese attorney ever admitted to practice in American law courts. 
 
 Dr. Miyakawa divides his book into four portions dealing with 
 the people. Congress, the President and the Courts — to the extent 
 of 207 pages of closely printed matter. Following these are two 
 appendices dealing with the period before the promulgation of 
 the Constitution of this country, emphasis being particularly 
 laid on the historic and economic causes leading to the necessity 
 for this constitution. The constitution referred to and the va- 
 rious amendments passed, are likewise given. In detail, the rea- 
 soning is tempered by wide reading and conservatism. . . . 
 
The Galveston News. 
 
 April 7, 1907. Galveston, Texas. 
 
 The author of this book is the first Japanese attorney ever 
 admitted to the American bar. There are set forth the clauses 
 of the Constitution upon which each of the four powers rests, 
 as well as the construction that has been given them by the 
 authoritative exposition of the courts or well established prac- 
 tice of the Government of the United States, The work should 
 remove the impression that has largely obtained among students 
 of the government and others in the Old World that because of 
 its newness the American system could present little of interest 
 or value to the investigator. The work will prove a manual of 
 instruction for the student as to the theory and practical powers 
 of the people, Congress, the President and courts of the United 
 States. 
 
 The IndianapoUs News. 
 
 April 13, 1907. Indianapolis, Ind. 
 
 Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., lecturer of the Law 
 School of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese 
 attorney admitted to the American bar, is the author of a 
 work entitled "Powers of the American People, Congress, 
 President and Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional 
 Construction." It is a book that shows a considerable amount 
 of research on the part of the author and a careful estimate of 
 the value of the material which he found. Various phases of 
 the constitution are discussed and the clauses relating to the 
 four "powers" are set forth, together with Supreme Court de- 
 cisions concerning them. These, in turn, are subjected to a 
 keen analysis and the consequent deductions, if not always pre- 
 sented in illuminating style, are, in any event, both legal and 
 sound. The author also explains at length various phases of 
 many questions which have come before the American people 
 from time to time and discusses both the theory and the prac- 
 
tice of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the 
 Government. It is probable, however, that the chief value of the 
 book will be found in its carefully digested summaries of the 
 important decisions rendered by the Supreme Court. It has, 
 moreover, a value in discovering the estimate of a Japanese of 
 our constitution. 
 
 The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
 
 April 14, 1907. Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 A rather remarkable work is that of Masuji Miyakawa, lec- 
 turer in the Law School of the University of Indiana, and the 
 first Japanese ever admitted to the American bar. The title of 
 Mr. Miyakawa's book is "Powers of the American People, Con- 
 gress, President and Courts, According to Evolution of Con- 
 stitutional Construction." The volume is intended as a constitu- 
 tional text-book. It seeks to analyze the sections of the Con- 
 stitution that give the powers to the people and to the judicial, 
 legislative and executive branches of government, and to show 
 how these sections have been interpreted by the courts and by 
 the established practice of the American government. The book 
 is written throughout with the keenest insight. It is capitally 
 arranged, and should be of material assistance to the student of 
 constitutional law. 
 
 The Toronto Globe. 
 
 April 20, 1907. Toronto, Canada. 
 
 An interesting and novel addition to the literature of the 
 American Constitution has been published ... in the form 
 of a treatise upon "Powers of the American People, Congress, 
 President and Courts," by Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D. 
 The treatise ... is a scholarly and well represented state- 
 ment of various outstanding features of the constitution of the 
 United States. Mr. Miyakawa is a lecturer at the law School 
 
of the University o£ Indiana, and the first Japanese attorney 
 ever admitted to the American Bar. He is able to speak upon 
 the subject, therefore, with authority, and the views which he 
 takes of the principal constitutional problems have in them 
 something of his own Oriental individuality, which makes them 
 attractive and unique. The prominent feature of the work is 
 the manner in which the author lays stress upon the develop- 
 ment of the constitution from that of Great Britain, and the 
 evolution of the laws of the country from Roman law. 
 The deviations of the American system from that of Great 
 Britain are dwelt upon frequently, and the inherent differences 
 between a monarchical and a republican system of government 
 are discussed incidentally, in such a way as to throw much 
 light upon the subject. To the casual reader as well as to the 
 student, the book will be interesting as a contribution from an 
 Oriental mind upon an Anglo-Saxon constitution. 
 
 The Japanese-American Commercial Weekly. 
 
 (Only Japanese Journal published both in Japanese and English 
 in America.) 
 
 April 20, 1907. New York City, N. Y. 
 
 JAPANESE JAMES BRYCE. 
 
 It is comparatively easy for a foreigner to write a treatise on 
 American institutions in his own language. 
 
 James Bryce's American Commonwealth was written in the 
 author's own language which is the language of this country of 
 America. But Mr. Miyakawa being a Japanese, must of ne- 
 cessity have had some difficulties, unknown to Mr. Bryce, in 
 taking notes of the institutions of the country, and, further, in 
 writing down in English language. His latest work, Powers of 
 the American People, would show to the readers of the book 
 how a Japanese thinks of this country, which is often asked of 
 
us Japanese by our American friends. Read Mr. Miyakawa's 
 book, and you will be able to answer your question. 
 
 Therefore, we recommend to our readers Mr. Miyakawa's 
 Powers of American People, Congress, President, and Courts. 
 
 PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND MR. MIYAKAWA. 
 
 Mr, Miyakawa, who is the author of "Powers of the American 
 People," the book which we have recommended to our readers 
 in a previous issue, has been congratulated by many members of 
 both Houses of Congress and by legal authorities on the work. 
 Most recently President Roosevelt also received him at the White 
 House and interviewed him. 
 
 The Ohio State Journal. 
 
 April 21, 1907. Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 A very unusual book on the United States government has 
 recently been published. It is unusual principally on account 
 of the point of view of its author, a Japanese attorney, who is 
 practicing law in America. Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. E., LL. D., 
 the author in question, is a lecturer of the Law School of the 
 University of Indiana, and is the first Japanese attorney ever 
 admitted to the American bar. 
 
 His book is entitled "Powers of the American People, Con- 
 gress, President and Courts, According to Evolution of Con- 
 stitutional Construction." The literary form, which it is said 
 was not revised by publishers, is exceptional, and as the work 
 of a foreigner is certainly remarkable. But the chief claim 
 to consideration which the volume has is that it represents the 
 viewpoint of an Oriental scholar, and that it represents the in- 
 stitutions as they appear to an Eastern mind, and as compared 
 with foreign laws and governments. 
 
The book is most informing, and it lifill undoubtedly give 
 American students a clearer view to see their institutions from 
 so different a range. 
 
 The Buffalo Express. 
 
 April 21, 1907. Buffalo, N. V. 
 
 This is a unique book from the fact that it was written by a 
 Japanese in English, without revision as to matter or literary 
 form. Moreover, it exhibits so correct an understanding of the 
 American Constitution and system of government that it might 
 well serve as a model for other foreigners who study and write 
 about the American Government. Professor Miyakawa, how- 
 ever, has had ample preparation for his work. He is the first 
 Japanese ever admitted to the American bar and is a lecturer 
 in the Law School of the University of Indiana. It is, there- 
 fore, no new task for him to instruct Americans in the laws of 
 their country, and, except the author's name, there is nothing 
 about the book which would lead one to suspect that it was not 
 written by a native born scholar. It is instructive, clear and 
 
 The Washington Star. 
 
 April 27, 1907. Washington, D. C. 
 
 Prof. Miyakawa, who has the unique distinction of being the 
 first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the American bar, has 
 produced a book peculiarly interesting as the expression of 
 eastern study of government in America. It is not unusual to 
 have access to the comments of the English, French and German 
 minds on American conditions, as, for instance, the volumes of 
 the English ambassador, Mr. James Bryce, whose "American 
 Commonwealth" is now a classic, or Prof. Hugo Munsterberg's 
 "The Americans." . . . Prof. Miyakawa's book . . . is a study 
 
made in a thoroughly philosophic manner and with the patience 
 of scholarship. It aims to make a perfect exposition of the 
 theory and practical character of the powers in the hands of the 
 people and of the three co-ordinate branches of government of 
 the United States, and incidentally has the object of showing 
 that the newness of the American system in no way lessens its 
 interest or value to the student investigator, and is in no sense 
 inimical to old world systems. To find and set forth the clauses 
 in the Constitution upon which the four powers rest, as well 
 as the authoritative interpretation given them by the courts of 
 the established practice, has been the particular purpose of the 
 author's investigations. The scientific spirit in which the work 
 has been done and the method of comparison of English and 
 Japanese codes employed with an oriental viewpoint makes the 
 volume of special value. 
 
 The San Francisco Call. 
 
 April 28, 1907. San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 It should be considered first of all that the book under 
 discussion was written by a Japanese in EngUsh, and was pub- 
 lished without revision as to matter or literary form. Pro- 
 duced under such conditions the book is really remarkable. 
 The author is a lecturer in the Law School of the University 
 of Indiana, and the first Japanese attorney admitted to the 
 American bar. 
 
 We have had a volume on our democracy from the French 
 viewpoint, by De Tocqueville, one from Munsterberg, giving the 
 German idea, and Bryce's English view is one of the best in the 
 language. 
 
 Dr. Miyakawa's opening remarks in his chapter on "The 
 People" are worth quoting: 
 
 "The word 'the people' of the United States, in its proper 
 legal acceptation, means the whole mass of male and female 
 citizens constituting the political unit. It is identified as the 
 political entity and artificial person, and not a majority of the 
 
individuals composing society and those persons who have the 
 right to vote. Turning to Blackstone, people is used in the 
 same sense as subjects and not in the sense of the body politic 
 or a part of it. Nowhere will one find 'the people' as the 
 American will find in the laws of this country." . . . 
 
 Dr. Miyakawa brings up many interesting points of simi- 
 larity and radical difference between the forms of Japanese 
 and American government. Speaking of our Congress and the 
 Japanese Diet he says that the latter has no share in the sov- 
 ereign power ; it may deliberate upon laws, but not determine 
 them. 
 
 "All the different legislative powers are fundamentally and 
 practically rested in the most exalted personage, his Majesty, 
 the Emperor of Japan, the creator of the imperial constitution, 
 the source and fountainhead of all political life of great Japan 
 herself. 
 
 "The President of the United States," says Dr. Miyakawa, 
 "the strictest creature of the constitutional nomenclature, is not 
 obnubilated behind the mysterious obscurity of counselors. 
 Power is communicated to him with liberality, though with as- 
 certained limitations. To him the provident or improvident use 
 of it is to be ascribed. For the first he will have and deserve 
 undivided applause. For the last he will be subject to censure; 
 if necessary, to punishment." 
 
 The closing sentence of the book is likely to be quoted. The 
 author has hastily gone through the clauses of the Revolution 
 and notes that Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams are names 
 more prominent to-day in history and more respected than by 
 their contemporaries. He says : "In politics the Teutonic and 
 related races, then, as now, characteristically hated with prompt- 
 ness and forgave with generosity." 
 
 The Seattle Times. 
 
 April 28, 1907. Seattle, Wash. 
 
 No argument would seem to be necessary to prove the im- 
 portance of instructing the students of government in the theory 
 
and practical character of the powers of the people, Congress, 
 the President, and the courts of the United States. The im- 
 pression has largely obtained among students of government 
 and others in the Old World that because of its newness the 
 American system to the investigator; it has been believed also 
 by many that the American system was inimical to Old World 
 systems. The fact that hitherto no convenient manual of in- 
 struction was to be had may have been largely responsible for 
 such misconceptions, and if this work shall be the means of 
 removing such impressions it will have accomplished its purpose. 
 In preparing it, it has been the endeavor of the author to set 
 forth the clauses of the Constitution upon which each of the 
 four powers rests, as well as the construction that has been 
 given them by the authoritative exposition of the courts, or well 
 established practice of the government of the United States. 
 This work was written by a Japanese in English without revision 
 as to matter or of literary form as to the English, and must be 
 considered quite unique. 
 
 The Oakland Enquirer. 
 
 May I, 1907. Oakland, Cal. 
 
 The versatility of the Japanese is proverbial, but hitherto 
 there have been comparatively few serious works by Japanese 
 authors in English. A recent conspicuous example of the thor- 
 oughly studious bent of the Japanese mind is a volume entitled 
 "Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
 Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction," 
 by Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D. The author is a lecturer 
 of the Law School of the University of Indiana and is said to 
 be the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the American 
 bar. The hook displays a very intelligent comprehension of the 
 fundamental principles of the political system of this country, 
 the constitutional powers of the people and the extent and limi- 
 
tations thereof. At the outset the author says : "The term of 
 'The People,' from the American standpoint is entirely different 
 from the nature of the same title as used in Asiatic and Euro- 
 pean countries. It has a distinct and different meaning which the 
 doctors of law in those countries, no matter how fully versed 
 in the principles of the law, cannot comprehend until they were 
 in the spirit of the American understanding of it. The words 
 'the people,' in the United States, in their proper legal accept- 
 ance, mean the whole mass of the male and female citizens con- 
 stituting the political unit. 'The people' stand as the political 
 entity an artificial person and not a majority of the individuals 
 composing society and those persons who have the right to 
 vote." The writer takes up the interpretation of the various 
 sections of the Constitution and in a comprehensive appendix 
 describes the growth of the constitutional government, the 
 Grecian republics, the Roman constitution, the Teutonic family 
 of nations, liberty as the birthright of Englishmen and other 
 topics relating to the constitution. The work is extensively 
 illustrated and fully indexed. 
 
 The Philadelphia Press. 
 
 May 12, 1907. Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., has the proud distinction 
 of being the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the Ameri- 
 can bar. He is a lecturer in the Law School of the University 
 of Indiana. He has written a sort of text-book entitled "Powers 
 of the American People, Congress, President and Courts, Ac- 
 cording to Evolution of Constitutional Construction." This 
 treatise on civics takes the plan of an explanation of the Federal 
 Constitution as it is found in practice and as it has been inter- 
 preted by the Supreme Court of the United States. The hook 
 is clearly written and the material is presented in a manner which 
 will interest and instruct the reader. 
 
The San Francisco Chronicle. 
 
 May ig, 1907. San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Masuji Miyakawa, doctor of laws, and also doctor of civil 
 laws — and a very young man to possess so much learning — is the 
 first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the American bar, and 
 also lecturer in the Law School of the University of Indiana. 
 Mr. Miyakawa has promptly conformed to the American senti- 
 ment that each university instructor must write a book, and 
 has prepared, evidently for the use of his classes, a book of 260 
 pages, entitled "The Powers of the American People, Congress, 
 President and Courts," which evinces an excellent understanding 
 of the nature of our Government, as well as a good command 
 of idiomatic English. His descriptions, however, are very gen- 
 erally — and very properly — couched in the language of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States employed in delineating the 
 powers of the different branches of our Government, thereby 
 giving to the wort: an authority which the public would hardly 
 accord to any foreign-born student of our institutions. 
 
 If, as will appear from his book, Mr. Miyakawa is a good 
 teacher, his class work must be very interesting, coming, as it 
 does, from one brought up under institutions so radically differ- 
 ent from our own, as can be well expressed in a condensation 
 of a few paragraphs from his book. "The term 'the people,' from 
 the American standpoint, is entirely different from the nature of 
 the same title as used in Asiatic and European countries. No- 
 where will one find 'the people' as the American will find in the 
 laws of his own country. In England there is no such legal 
 entity as the people. Parliament is supreme, which does not 
 necessarily represent even the majority of the inhabitants. The 
 'komin,' which is the nearest Japanese equivalent, means the 
 'public treasure,' thereby implying that they belong to the Em- 
 peror who alone, and not the Diet or any other constitutional 
 body, gives vitality and force to pubhc law." The lectures of 
 a jurist brought up in an environment so utterly diverse from our 
 own must be exceedingly interesting and informing to students. 
 
EXTRACTS 
 
 The London Times, London, England: — 
 
 " 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President, and 
 Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction.' 
 By Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., 9^ x 614, XIV, 260 
 pp. . . . 
 
 "The author of this expository treatise, who writes in excellent 
 English, is lecturer of the Law School of Indiana University, 
 and the first Japanese attorney admitted to the American 
 bar. ..." 
 
 The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, Cal. : — 
 
 "Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., lecturer of the Law 
 School of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese 
 attorney to be admitted to the American bar, has written a 
 discussion of the Constitution of the United States. . 
 Dr. Miyakawa takes up each section of the Constitution, gives 
 its general meaning and quotes from various court decisions 
 referring to the section under discussion." 
 
 The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass.: — 
 
 " 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President and 
 Courts,' by Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., is a fair and 
 impartial presentation of the theoretical and practical working 
 of the U. S. Government, and is of great importance and help 
 to all students of government. It is interesting to note that the 
 author is a lecturer of the Law School of the University of 
 Indiana, and the first Japanese attorney ever admitted to the 
 American bar." 
 
The Washington Post, Washington, D. C. : — 
 
 " 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President, and 
 Courts,' by Masuji Miyakawa. The book is a discourse upon 
 the evolution of constitutional construction, and is written by a 
 Japanese professor of law of the University of Indiana. The 
 work is quite unique, in that it is written by a Japanese in 
 English without revision as to literary form." 
 
 The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Mo. : — 
 
 " 'Powers of the American People, Congress, President, and 
 Courts, According to Evolution of Constitutional Construction.' 
 By Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., lecturer of the Law 
 School of the University of Indiana, and the first Japanese 
 attorney admitted to the American bar. A manual of instruc- 
 tion for students of government. ... It has been the endeavor 
 of the author to set forth the clauses of the constitution upon 
 which each of the four powers rests, as well as the construction 
 that has been given them by the authoritative exposition of the 
 courts on the well established practice of the government of the 
 United States." 
 
 The Courier- Journal, Louisville, Ky. : — 
 
 "Prof. Miyakawa, of the Law Department of the University of 
 Indiana, is the first Japanese to be admitted to the American 
 bar. . . . That while the importance of instructing stu- 
 dents of government in the theory and character of that gov- 
 ernment and its courts admits of no argument, hitherto no 
 convenient manual of instruction was accessible. It is with the 
 thought of supplying this need that he has been led to write 
 the present practical volume." 
 
The Boston Journal, Boston, Mass. : — 
 
 '"Powers of the American People,' by Masuji Miyakawa. 
 This volume, written by the first Japanese attorney ever ad- 
 mitted to the American bar, and written in English, without 
 revision as to matter or of literary form as to English, must be 
 considered quite unique. As shaming the viewpoint of an Ori- 
 ental scholar of our institutions, it is certainly most interesting." 
 
 The Cincinnati Times-Star, Cincinnati, Ohio : — 
 
 "Masuji Miyakawa, D. C. L., LL. D., is the first Japanese at- 
 torney ever admitted to the American bar. He has written a 
 book called "Powers of the American People," in which we get 
 the viewpoint of an Oriental scholar on our institutions. The 
 further fact that the work was written in English without re- 
 vision as to matter or of literary form as to the English, dis- 
 tinguishes it as quite unique." 
 
 The Boston Financial News, Boston, Mass. : — 
 
 "The author, who is a well-known student of American affairs, 
 has made an exhaustive study of our institutions, and in this 
 work discusses them very intelligently." 
 
 The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio: — 
 
 "Mr. Miyakawa's study of our institutions has been character- 
 istically thorough, and students of government will find the 
 work cogently interesting here and there by reason of occa- 
 sional striking novelty in the view expressed." 
 
 The Boston Herald, Boston, Mass. : — 
 
 "The volume possesses a unique interest." 
 
The Pittsburg Dispatch, Pittsburg, Pa.:— 
 
 "Particular novelty." 
 
 The Hartford Courant, Hartford, Conn.: — 
 
 "Book on our government founding his conclusions very prop- 
 erly on 'the evolution of constitutional construction,' and, quite 
 correctly, emphasizing the idea of the sovereignty of the people." 
 
 The Outlook, New York City, N. Y. :— 
 
 "It is a remarkably clear and comprehensive statement of the 
 fundamental principles of our American Constitution, and might 
 well be commended to the lay reader who desires to obtain a 
 nonpartisan impression and scholarly view of the nature of our 
 government and the functions of its various departments." 
 
 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and 
 Social Science, Philadelphia, Pa.: — 
 
 "To the foreign lawyer who wishes to become familiar with the 
 theoretical side of our government the book will be of con- 
 siderable importance." 
 
 Book Review Digest, Minneapolis, Minn. : — 
 
 "A manual of instruction which points out the various powers 
 and duties which are imposed by the Constitution, written by a 
 Japanese attorney — the first to be admitted to the American bar." 
 

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