IN JAPAN. 
 
 The Situation and Oppor:tunities for Friends. 
 
 WALTER W. HAVILAND. 
 
 During the weeks spent in Japan by William H. and Julia 
 Cope Collins and myself, as members of the “Delegation” 
 from the Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of Phila- 
 delphia, we studied carefully and conferred constantly with our 
 friends there concerning the present situation and its needs 
 and their hopes and plans for the future. 
 
 We gratefully acknowledge the blessing which has attended 
 the gradual development of the Japan work, from its beginning 
 in the concern of a Friend a generation ago, and we are thank- 
 ful for the faithful devotion of the comparatively few who 
 have carried the burden of the work in their hearts and on their 
 shoulders during the years. 
 
 The situation in Japan is critical, never so critical. The 
 leadership of y^ia seems to be in her hands. The forces of 
 reaction and of progress are actively working against each 
 other. On the one hand selfishness, greed and ambition are 
 lined up for a military oligarchy, and on the other liberal 
 thinking, altruism and a spirit of brotherhood have their faces 
 set toward a real democracy. Many Japanese are finding out 
 that their old religions, Shintoism and Buddhism, are not suited 
 to their new conditions. The worship of the emperor and his 
 ancestors, which seems to have a stronger popular hold than 
 all other types of religious devotion put together, cannot long 
 
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 survive. Christianity has not only not yet become thoroughly 
 established, but due partly perhaps to the forms in which it 
 has for the most part been presented has not gained the 
 following that in earlier years was hoped for. 
 
 Some of the best thinkers fear that new Japan will develop 
 into an Asiatic Prussia, and that the result may be a world 
 catastrophe, centering in Asia, which will parallel and perhaps 
 exceed in horror the recent world war in Europe. It is a time 
 when the forces of righteousness and love should league to- 
 gether in a campaign to prevent the threatening danger. 
 
 One of the Quaker laments in connection with the late war 
 has been that we had done so little in the line of preventive 
 measures. One ounce of preventive love and foresight is worth 
 a ton of remorse and reparation. 
 
 What Friends have done in Japan is but a drop in a bucket, 
 but it has been something and it has set in motion spiritual 
 forces which have effected results of such significance and value 
 that it is worth while, perhaps infinitely worth while, to at- 
 tempt to multiply^these forces. 
 
 We have read much lately of “ Quaker outposts,” and Friends 
 in England are hoping to plant them all over the world. We 
 already have two such outposts well established in Japan, the 
 first in the great city of Tokio and the second in Ibaraki Ken, 
 a province to the north of Tokio, with a million-and-a-half 
 inhabitants, which other denominations are leaving largely 
 to the influence of Friends. What we want and ought to do is 
 to so man and equip these outposts that they can accomplish 
 with maximum efficiency the work set for them to do. 
 
 The work of the eleven American Friends now stationed as 
 
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 missionaries in Japan is along broad lines. It does not aim 
 merely “to convert the heathen” and to build up a Japanese 
 branch of the Society of Friends, but also and mainly to set 
 forth Christian standards in all phases of life — political, in- 
 dustrial, intellectual, social. The best of what the missionaries 
 do is not reducible to statistical tables, yet they have, as they 
 are bound to have, a powerful influence in moulding the ideals 
 of those among whom they live toward the Christianization 
 of life. 
 
 In Tokio our work may be considered as in two general 
 divisions. The first comprises the Friends’ School for Girls, 
 a boarding and day school, planned for 125 pupils of high school 
 age, but which has been enlarged by encroaching on the living 
 . apartments of the teachers to accommodate 150 girls. The 
 second division includes the social, educational and religious 
 work for the neighborhood. It centres in the meeting with its 
 various activities, and tries to minister to the needs of a great 
 variety of people, from little children of Kindergarten age up 
 to the oldest. It has been a special concern for years to do 
 something for the religious inspiration and help of the univer- 
 sity students, with whom Tokio is swarming. Keio University, 
 with 10,000 students, is less than five minutes’ walk from the 
 Friends’ Mission compound. 
 
 These two classes of activities which are in so many ways 
 different from each other are housed on the same premises, 
 without a clear line of demarcation between the precincts 
 properly belonging to each. The situation is sometimes em- 
 barrassing and occasionally impossible. All are agreed that the 
 Girls’ School ought to be by itself and that the other work 
 
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 could be conducted to far better advantage if suitably ac- 
 commodated entirely apart from the grounds occupied by the 
 School. 
 
 Fortunately the “lay of the land” in the compound be- 
 longing to the Friends’ Mission is such that the two branches 
 of our work may be entirely separated by means of certain 
 changes and additions. 
 
 The part of the property which fronts on the main street 
 and on which the old meeting-house stands is practically on 
 a level with the street, while the rear half of the property, 
 on which the school buildings and the two mission residences 
 stand, consists of ground situated fifteen or twenty feet higher 
 than the front half of the lot. This section is accessible from 
 a side street. It is proposed to move one of the residences to 
 the lower level, and to build a fence that will completely cut 
 off the school premises from those devoted to the other work 
 of the Mission. The residence left on the school grounds will 
 be the one occupied by the American teachers in the school, 
 and the one to be moved will be that of Gilbert and Minnie P. 
 Bowles, whose work is mainly outside the school. 
 
 It is proposed to alter the school buildings and make some 
 additions so that a total of 200 girls can be accommodated, 
 without disturbing the living arrangements of the teachers. 
 Since the applicants for admission have exceeded the accom- 
 modations for several years and since a school of 200 can be 
 staffed more economically than one for 125 pupils, it is believed 
 that the proposed enlargement is justifiable. The school is 
 the work with which Friends started in Japan, and we want 
 to make it as efficient as possible, remembering Dr. Inazo 
 
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 Nitobe’s words, “Christianity’s greatest gift to Japan is the 
 education of women.” 
 
 Money is in hand for the erection of a new meeting-house 
 to replace the old one. There is need for a building to supple- 
 ment the meeting-house and serve as a sort of “institute,” 
 “ community house,” or centre for religious and social service 
 for the neighborhood and for university students. It is esti- 
 mated that the total cost of the changes and additions neces- 
 sary to fit our Tokio plant for the most effective work, in ad- 
 dition to the 1 1 5,000 generously donated for the meeting- 
 house, will be about 125,000. 
 
 The number of resident workers there ought to be some- 
 what increased. There is special need for an additional teacher 
 in the Girls’ School and for a man who could work with young 
 men of the student class. 
 
 Let us now turn to the needs of the “country” work in 
 Ibaraki Ken. A house should be erected on land already be- 
 longing to Friends for Thomas E. and Esther Balderston 
 Jones, who are beginning important educational and social 
 work in the city of Mito, the capital and chief city of the ken 
 or political district, corresponding to one of our States. This 
 residence would also serve as the nucleus of an institution or 
 organization which it is hoped may develop for the training of 
 religious and social workers, who must be specially trained if 
 they are to be very useful, since the Japanese Christians do 
 not have the background of home training and Christian in- 
 stitutions that we in this country have and perhaps appreciate 
 so little. 
 
 A house must also be provided in the near future for Herbert 
 
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 V. and Madeline W. Nicholson, who feel called to work among 
 the people of the smaller towns and villages, of which there 
 are hundreds in the ken. This house should be in one of the 
 larger towns, centrally located and easily accessible to the 
 outlying districts, perhaps at Tsuchiura, where there is al- 
 ready an established meeting and a substantial group of 
 Japanese Friends. There is need for meeting-houses and 
 working centres in Tsuchiura, Shimodate and one or two other 
 villages. The total cost of the needed housing for the country 
 work will approximate $25,000. 
 
 We owe it to Gurney and Elizabeth Binford, Edith F. 
 Sharpless and the others who have worked and are working 
 so effectively in the country districts that their physical equip- 
 ment should be adequate. 
 
 More workers, too, are needed, young men and young women 
 who feel drawn either to “social service” or to more distinct- 
 ly “ evangelistic” work. 1 will add that there is a great oppor- 
 tunity in Tokio for a young physician to take hold of the 
 Akasaka Hospital, which was established by a Friend and 
 for many years has been assisted by Friends. Though this 
 hospital has never been connected officially with our Friends’ 
 Mission, we are deeply interested in its continuation, and feel 
 that through it much might be accomplished in religious and 
 social service under the direction of some man properly 
 qualified to carry on and develop the hospital on the founda- 
 tion already laid. 
 
 The practical question is: How shall we meet these needs 
 and opportunities in Japan? Shall we leave our faithful 
 workers there to struggle on as best they can with their in- 
 
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 adequate equipment, the meagreness and insufficiency of 
 which prevent the best demonstration possible of our Chris- 
 tian ideals and standards, or will Friends respond to the situa- 
 tion in Japan as generously as they have recently been respond- 
 ing to the needs in Europe with their young people and their 
 money? 'Are we going to spend and be spent in behalf of the 
 physical needs of Europe and fail to be impressed by the 
 spiritual needs of Asia? May we be so open and large-minded 
 that we shall be willing to listen to the calls of opportunity, 
 from whatever direction they come, and to respond to them 
 all in such ways as may be right for us. 
 
Foreign Missionary Association 
 OF Friends 
 
 20 South Twelfth Street 
 Philadelphia