Japanese Young Men in War and Peace By Galen M. Fisher Secretary National Union of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of Japan 1 I Published by The International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations 3 West Twenty-ninth Street New York Fujiyama, the Peerless From Stereograph, Copyright 1904, by Underwood & Underwood, New York Japanese Young Men Japanese Attitude Toward Russia In the war with Russia, Japan has made such a plucky, well-planned fight that even the few who question her mo- tives are compelled to admire her spirit and sagacity. The Japanese themselves, to a man, believe that they are fighting the world’s battle for justice and liberty. Premier Count Katsura recently declared : “With differences of race or religion the war has nothing to do. It is carried on by Japan in the interests of justice, humanity, and the com- merce and civilization of the world. In saying this I am not speaking as an individual only ; I aVn speaking as Prime Minister also ; and more than that I am expressing the mind of His Majesty, the Emperor. It may be said that such statements are diplomatic, and that diplomatic statements have the reputation of being inscrutable. But this is not true of those of the Secretary of State of the United States; and there is no evidence that it is true of those of the Prime Minister of Japan.” It is a noteworthy fact that every one of the eighteen English newspapers pub- lished in Hongkong, China and Japan has corroborated the Prime Minister’s declaration by espousing the cause of Japan. Furthermore, the missionaries of Japan, China and Korea, with rare exceptions, regard Japan as a champion of righteousness, as an ally, unconscious as yet, in the Chris- 3 884 tianization of the East, as a Galahad deserving the sympathy and calling for the increasing cooperation of the Christian West, in order that she may become a conscious and more potent agent for the emancipation of her neighbors. The Japanese declare that they hate, not the Russians, but the principles the Russian Government has applied in the Far East. They even hope that the war may help to liberal- ize and purify Russia. When the Russian battleship Petro- pavlovsk and all her crew were destroyed by a mine, the wife of the Chief of the Japanese General Staff, in tears, said to an American friend ; “Oh, the pity of it ! All the wives and children and parents bereft by it!” A kindred spirit moved the Empress of Japan to offer artificial limbs to crippled Russian prisoners. The Japanese Young Men’s Christian Association has procured from St. Petersburg a box of Russian literature to give to Russian prisoners. Patriotism in Action The war has intensified patriotism. Mothers gladly give up their oldest boys to go to the deadly firing line. School- boys are fasting once a day to give their mites to the war relief funds. Officials throughout the country have seen from one-tenth to one-fifth of their salaries lopped off into the war fund and not a murmur has escaped their lips. Householders gracefully submit to having soldiers billeted upon them for days or even weeks. Girls and women knit day after day to make socks, mittens and ear protectors against the bitter Manchurian winter. The war is begin- ning to convince the West that the Japanese have the en- durance, the sacrifice and the courage of which heroes are made. It kindles the imagination to think what a power for good they will become when they have been more deeply touched by the spirit of Christ. 4 Off for Manchuria From Stereograph, Copyright 1904, by Underwood & Underwood, New York War Minister Welcomes the Association in the Army A regiment of the soldier lads in trim uniforms just start- ing for the front is a fine sight. But before they have em- barked from Japan and again upon disembarking in Man- churia, they will have to pass through a fierce fire of tempta- tion. The harpies of vice haunt the barracks and camps. The sentiment against immorality is very weak among both officers and privates, and when off duty the men have no other attractive way to pass the time. Even in time of 5 peace, in one military hospital, one-third of all cases are venereal. The prohibitions of the army orders have proved ineffective. But just here the Japanese Young Men’s Christian Association believes it has a better way — running out vicious attractions with wholesome attractions. With the hearty approval of the Premier and of the Ministers of War and the Navy, the Association representatives in Man- churia are setting up tents for recreation, correspondence, religious and patriotic addresses, and general headquarters for the soldiers. There are already several strong Japanese and American secretaries in charge of this field work, but more should be sent out soon. Significance of the Work Among the Soldiers The tents, supplies, transportation and salaries will cost several thousand dollars. Most of the money must come from America, because of the many other extraordinary demands upon benevolent Japanese. It is expected that the success of the undertaking during the war will lead to a permanent Army Department of the Young Men’s Christian Associa- tion in Japan, calling for special secretaries, funds and equipm.ent. The work already undertaken will be of in- calculable help to the Christianization of Japan in two ways : directly, by improving the character and efficiency of the soldiers ; indirectly, by inclining the higher officers favorably toward Christianity, and by dispelling the ignorant prejudice against Christianity in the minds of the peasant lads who form the bulk of the army. These two classes, the peasants and the higher officers and nobles, have been comparatively untouched by Christianity. It is therefore the greatest single opportunity opened to friends of Japan by the war. 6 Mile-Posts of Progress This vigorous entrance into effort among soldiers was possible because the Young Men’s Christian Association was on the ground with workers, prestige and backing. The rise of the Association to its present status may be sum- marized thus : In 1889 Mr. J. T. Swift, who had been teaching in a gov- ernment school in Tokyo for a year, returned to America and urged the American Associations to extend their ac- tivity to Japan. Mr. Swift’s appeal, seconded by influential Japanese and by missionaries, resulted in his being sent back by the International Committee as the pioneer secretary. He was soon joined by Mr. S. Niwa, who has ably served the Tokyo Association for the past fourteen years. The policy has been to build up strong Associations at a few im- portant points, to raise up trained Japanese secretaries and to send from America only as many men and as much money as would make possible a firm and self-supporting movement. The result has been that there are now as many Japanese as American secretaries (six of each) ; the National Union embraces sixty-two Associations with a to- tal of 2,900 members ; and the public in both America and Japan has shown its confidence by giving $75,000 for build- ings in six cities. The late Hon. Alfred E. Buck, American Minister to Japan, 1897-1902, said of the Tokyo Young Men’s Christian Association building: “There is perhaps no building in Tokyo that stands more prominently as an index of organized Christianity than that of the Young Men’s Christian Association.” Japanese Self-Reliance The American International Committee has no authority over the Japanese National Committee, but its fostering 7 A National Conference of Leaders— The Tokyo Building care and its contributions of secretaries, methods and money have, according to the Japanese themselves, been in- dispensable during the formative period. The settled policy of the International Committee, to throw the Japanese as fast as possible upon their own resources in secretaries and in finance, has been justified by results. The number of Japanese secretaries has increased from two to six within the past two years. The Tokyo Association raises $1,700 a year in Japan, the largest budget probably of any religious institution in the Empire. At the present time, the total expense of the local and national work is over $5,500, and only one-sixth of this amount comes from America. The supervision of the National Union is in the hands of a representative committee of twenty-three Japanese busi- ness and professional men and students, and five American and British missionaries. The unifying influence of the As- sociation is indicated by the fact that the committee in- cludes leading Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians. The committee arranges national and district conventions, sends its two traveling secretaries to visit each of the more than sixty Associations at least once every year, plans lecturing and evangelistic tours by eminent speakers, and forms the connecting link between the young men of Japan and the world-encircling chain of the Association brotherhood. The City the Storm Center The vortex of Japanese life is in the cities. The cities are growing fourteen times as rapidly as the national population, and a large percentage of this growth is due to the influx of young men. Japanese cities are called upon 9 to assimilate this great, crude mass, and they have next to no facilities for asepticizing, peptonizing and digesting it. In other words, the forces that make for manhood in America — strong churches, clean amusements and sports, free libraries, well-equipped Young Men’s Christian Asso- ciations, the open homes of good people — are almost en- tirely lacking in Japan. Here is evidence enough of the need of the city Young Men’s Christian Association. So impartial a judge and so large an employer of young men as Baron Shibusawa, the J. Pierpont Morgan of Japan, said: “I believe that by its broad and practical methods the Association can accomplish a work that no other organization is doing, and that it deserves the hearty support of business men and of all interested in the welfare of young men.” Responding to such confidence, and to the united appeals of missionaries and Japanese Christians, the Association has already taken root at Tokyo (1,800.000), the Berlin of the Empire; at Osaka (1,000,000), the Japanese Chicago and Pittsburg; at Kyoto (350,000), a Buddhist Rome; at Kobe, Yokohama and Nagasaki, ports like Boston or Baltimore: and at Nagoya and Okayama, commanding inland centers. Inside the Tokyo Association With meager equipment and in face of heavy obstacles a strong work has been built up in these cities. For ex- ample, if one should enter the Tokyo Association building almost any afternoon or evening, he would find a busy crowd of kimonoed and foreign dressed clerks, business men, and students, — here a group around the game tables, and there another group reading Japanese and English papers and magazines, and from the parlor v/ould come the sound of a class learning English hymns, or studying the 10 Bible Class of Japan Mail S. S. Company Employees Bible. Upstairs would be found a hundred men mastering the irregularities of our mother-tongue. And on Satur- day, in the auditorium, the finest in the city, would be seen several hundred men listening to an eminent lecturer or to a concert of half western, half Japanese music. On Sun- day the same auditorium would be found in use for an apologetic or evangelistic address by the best Christian speakers in the city. Dr. D. C. Greene has characterized these Saturday and Sunday addresses as the most notable gatherings for young men in the capital. Bible study cir- cles and inquiry groups would be found before or after the 11 addresses on both days, and through them men are con- stantly being led from doubt and defeat to faith and vic- tory and affiliation with the Church of Christ. In brief, the Association buildings in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, and other cities are Christian club houses run by young men for young men. Student and professor, employer and employee find there on a common footing the friendship, the recreation, the instruction or the inspiration that they crave. As Seen by Men of Affairs The substantial character of the activity of the Associa- tion has commended it even to cautious non-Christian men of wealth, as is shown by the fact that last year three of the largest firms in the country contributed liberally to its support. Equally striking is the fact that a millionaire having no connection with Christianity offered to give as high as $2,500 for an Association building, if other citi- zens would give $1,250. Count Okuma, educator, formerly Premier and Minister of Finance, said recently: “I hope that young men will more and more take advantage of the opportunities for religious, social, intellectual and physical improvement which your Association affords.” Even in conservative Kyoto, the chairman of the municipal council and a member of parliament, both shrewd business men, have led the agitation for a building for the Association. Cost of Buildings for an Empire It is in face of such need and such confidence that the Associations in every one of the large cities find one hand tied for lack of proper buildings. The whole sum needed is less than the amount often put into a building for a 12 Christian Association in an American or British city of 100,000. America and Britain need all the fine buildings they have, but surely $145,000 cannot be deemed extrav- agant for the equipment of eight of the chief cities of an Empire. A carefully pruned statement of the amounts needed in the near future is as follows : Kyoto, for building, $25,000 Kobe, for building, 25,000 Osaka, for remodeling and additions, 25,000 Nagasaki, for balance of building fund of $16,000, 5,000 Tokyo, for additions for gymnasium and boys’ department, 25,000 Yokohama, for building, 20,000 Okayama, for building, 10,000 Nagoya, for building, 10,000 $145,000 Eminent Leaders A guarantee of the permanence of the work already established is the character of the Japanese who are at the head of it. Few, if any, other enterprises are directed by men of higher character than the Association movement. The presidency of the Tokyo Association, for example, has been held by Chief Justice Miyoshi, by Admiral Serata of the Imperial Navy, and by Hon K. Kataoka, four times Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament. At present, Hon. S. Ebara, a Member of Parliament and a successful educator, fills the office. The Chairman of the National Union, President Y. Honda, is at the head of a Christian college, and he is supported by four vice-chairmen dis- tinguished in educational or religious circles. 13 DENSITY or r4tjf^&E.R OF Stude-Mt BoARoii^c Housed STUDENTS. n 8 S'! « Ino^hcfSec To^al BOfo STUDENT POPULATiON IN TOKYO 1&e.Ai.e I Ml'-S- STLJDE.N X V, M,C,A C3 Y.M.C.A Student B'oc. Houses. r \ R.R.Statsom 4 -^r 44-1 279 i 07 102 The Gibraltar of Christianity in Japan 14 Japanese Limitations The local boards of directors are composed of busy law- yers, business men, and educators, but they cheerfully give time and expert attention to the financial and re- ligious problems of the work. What they cannot give is large amounts of money, for they are comparatively poor, and the drain of the war added to the support of the Church makes it impossible for them to do more than pay for the running expenses of Associations and for the land on which to erect buildings. The funds for buildings they give brothers in America the privilege of contributing. Students, Their Power and Perils The buildings referred to above are chiefly intended to provide a base of operations among young men in business or industrial pursuits. Another class, smaller but of equal importance, is the students. Even so long ago as 1879, President Grant, while visiting Japan, declared that as a system the Japanese schools were the best in the world. The past thirty years have brought great advances, so that in 1900 the percentage of attendance to children of school age was 81 as against 68.93 in the United States. But the flower of the nation is the 240,000 young men in the high schools and colleges. They will be the captains of Japan’s political, moral and intellectual life. President Ibuka has stated that within ten years ninety per cent, of the positions of influence in the country will be held by graduates of higher schools. John R. Mott declares that the student body of Japan “is likely to play a larger part in our generation than the students of any other country in the Orient No students are so eclectic or cosmo- politan It is not too much to say that as go the gov- ts ernment schools of Japan so goes Japan.” They are marked men : society offers them power ; the forces of evil concentrate their fire upon them. The higher schools are all in the large cities, and hence tens of thousands of students are compelled to leave home and live in lodging houses, too often gateways to vice. Obscene story tellers, dancing girls, low theaters, and houses where vice is cheap and “safe” lure them to right and left. They must have recreation and amusement and companionship, but the clean club, the institutional church and even the society of good women are denied these young fellows away from home. Old anchors of religion, whether Buddhist or Con- fucian, have been cast off : a census of 409 students in three schools showed that only twenty-one, or five per cent, acknowledged any faith, and of these fifteen were Bud- dhist, one Confucian, one Shintoist, and four Christian. Sowing wild oats is the common thing to do. The prin- cipal of a large normal school said, not long ago, that he not only patronized houses of ill fame himself, but that he advised all his teachers to do so, and that he even gave them tickets, so that, at the end of each month, all the hills would be sent to him for payment, and deducted from their salaries. It is therefore small wonder that man after man yields to the temptation of his own passions within and to the seductions of evil men and women without, to liesmirch himself in the mire. But the most encouraging fact is that these students are so anxious to seize chances of wholesome recreation and companionship. It would be hard to find anywhere a more accessible, responsive body of 240,000 men. The Way Out It is with a clear realization of all these conditions that the students themselves have taken the initiative and chosen i(i the student Young Men’s Christian Association as the provi- dential agency through which to cope with these evil forces and accomplish the regeneration of the educated classes. Its genius is to work from within like leaven, not from without like a jack-screw. It is composed of 1,500 stu- dents in fifty-four different institutions, whose aim is to bring the life and teachings of Jesus to bear upon the temptations and ambitions of themsehcs and their fellow students. An eminent educator, while holding the folio of Minister of State for Education, declared: “Your Student Christian Association is a good movement ; indeed, I do not see how the moral and religious conditions of our stu- dents can be met without such an organization.” These student Associations are cooperating in many ways with the eight city Associations for the commercial classes, with whom they are bound into one National Union. The study of the Bible is magnified, and goo students are enrolled in weekly classes ; evangelistic and social departments are active and successful. But they find that the peculiar con- ditions of students call for special adaptations. The out- standing need of students in the large cities of Japan is for the things that “home” signifies to us, — sociability, re- laxation, ownership, woman’s influence, friendship and wor- ship. Value of Christian Student Clubs The homes established by the student Christian Asso- ciations are dormitory, reading and recreation and meeting place all combined, a sort of Christian college settlement. Thirteen homes have already been opened as a small be- ginning. They have been almost without exception self- supporting, and have met just the need for which they were intended. In one case the Association home drew this endorsement from the president and dean of the college. 17 The_First Christian Student Club-house in Osaka neither of them a Christian : “We consider the Association one of the most useful organizations among our teachers and students, and testify that its moral influence is being felt among the student body.” The urgent demand now is for the multiplication of such homes. One Association has made such a success of its home, in a tumble-down house accommodating only seven men, that a professor in the college made this appeal for a new, larger house : “The Association has already accomplished much, but to make it more effective we must have a hall, with an auditorium, and a dormitory to accommodate at least thirty or forty young men. A dormitory under Christian influence is not only one of the most effective means of leading young men to Christ and building up Christian characters, but the most urgent need of the students in Japan.” Mission- aries, as well as Japanese, of nearly every denomination have put themselves on record that there is great need for homes and that the Association is the best agency to establish them. One missionary, after fifteen years’ ob- servation, wrote us : “I consider the scheme an excellent one, and think that much [not all] of what was formerly attempted in mission schools can now be as well or better accomplished by boarding houses filled with students of government schools and run under Christian management.” Small Investments: Large Returns The cost of erecting a home accommodating from twenty- five to forty is from $2,000 to $4,000. After erection each home will pay its own running expenses from the dor- mitory rentals, so that an investment of two or three thou- sand dollars will give a home to generation after generation of students, and will provide a center of Christian activity in a college or group of colleges. One would search long 19 Association Building, Imperial University, Tokyo to find another non-assessable investment of $2,500 yielding such quick and large and continuous returns. One home in Osaka within a year resulted in five out of thirteen lodgers becoming Christians and in the formation of student Chris- tian Associations in two colleges. The number of homes that can be filled and well managed is not less than thirty in the next five years. Tokyo with its 47,000 students, of whom 30,000 live in 2,000 more or less immoral board- ing houses, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Kumamoto, and the other ten or twelve cities having large numbers of governmental college students call for twenty homes in the next three years. In nearly every case the Christian students them- selves will secure the money for the lot. But without gifts from friends in America, the erection of homes, as of city Association buildings, must be left undone. Gifts Safeguarded Property given to the Japanese Associations will be se- curely held in trust. The Tokyo Association is already in- corporated as a trust, pledged to use its property forever for the spiritual, mental and physical welfare of young men according to the principles of evangelical Christianity. Henceforth, every other Association receiving gifts through the International Committee will embody the same safe- guard in its articles of incorporation. Literature as an Auxiliary There are several valuable methods of influencing young men which do not depend upon having a home or building. One of these is the publication of well-written books. The Association is following the American and British pre- cedent in issuing text-books for the study of the Bible. It has also reached a large audience through the biographies 21 of great Christians like Chinese Gordon, .David Living- stone, Henry Drummond and Phillips Brooks. Evangelis- tic and devotional literature, particularly intended for young men, like the writings of John R. Mott, H. Clay Trumbull and K. Uchimura, has lodged truth where the preacher’s voice never penetrates. The Association Nominates Government Teachers Another significant development is the supplying of American college graduates to teach English in Japanese government schools. The request came unsought to the secretaries of the International Committee in Japan, and they have of course taken pains to secure men who unite positive Christian character with teaching ability. The demand for men has grown until now twenty-one schools are kept supplied. The influence of these “Association teachers’’ can scarcely be overestimated. Their earnestness and sympathy have increased the high regard in which teachers have always been held in Japan until they have a unique hold on the hearts of their students. There is no hindrance put in the way of their holding Bible classes and doing other Christian work out of school hours. The result is there are twenty-one auxiliary secretaries, as it were, whose salaries are paid from the public treasury. They are teaching 300 men in Bible circles at their homes every week, and their influence in breaking down prejudice among students and the people at large is incalculable. In two rigidly anti-Christian towns their life and teaching have resulted in one case in the founding of a church, and in the other in the conversion of several students. In the words of Dr. DeForest in his “Sunrise in the Sunrise King- dom,” this plan may be called “a unique phase of work which is having great success.” 22 Salient Results of Seven Years A survey of the period since 1896, when the movement, under the stimulus of Mr. Mott’s visit, began to assume national scope, shows that : The number of student Associations has grown from eight to fifty-four, and their membership from about 250 to 1,500. Then there was one active city Association with 500 members; now there are eight with 1,400 members. In 1903 the city and student Associations combined to form the National Union. The government and non-Christian schools may be called the Gibraltar of Christianity in Japan. In 1896 there were five Associations in such schools ; to-day there are over forty. The ignorance and indifference of 1896 toward Christian student movements in other lands have been replaced by an Interest so keen that the Japanese Union will in 1906 be the host of the World’s Student Christian Federation. Bible study is a fair thermometer of Association progress. The average attendance at classes has grown from about ISO to over 1,000. Evangelistic lectures managed by students were then few and spasmodic; now they are held frequently by most of the Associations. The evangelistic campaigns conducted by the secretaries and leaders of the movement in response to an eager demand from young men are having a far-reaching influence. Coupled with this is an emphasis upon individual work for individuals which is leading inquirers constantly into discipleship. It is this movement which made possible the remarkable evangelistic meetings of Mr. Mott in 1901, which resulted in 1,100 students becoming earnest inquirers and in 250 of 23 these joining the church. To conserve and extend Mr. Mott’s work ten of the best speakers obtainable were sent to important points for series of meetings. Christian student homes under Association management now number thirteen as against four then. The Association Secretaries in Japan In 1896 the Tokyo city Association received $500 from America. Since 1902 it has raised its budget of over $1,500 entirely in Japan. The amount contributed in Japan for national supervision has grown from nothing in 1896 and $45 in 1898, to $600 in 1903. The Student Summer Conference has been changed from a school of negative ethical and religious discussion to a positive factor in Christian thought and training. 24 The number of American Christian teachers of English in non-Christian schools has increased through the agency of the Association from five to twenty-five. In 1896 only one Japanese was devoting his life to Christian work in the secretaryship; now there are six, and several more are in training. The United Missionary Judgment Six hundred missionaries of all denominations gathered at the National Missionary Conference at Tokyo in igoo adopted this resolution : Whereas young men in Japan occupy a position of in- creasing importance, and Whereas there is need for special effort to unite young men in Christian work by and for young men, and Whereas the Young Men’s Christian Association, both in the West and in Japan, has successfully faced this need and has conducted its work in harmony with and as an agency of the Church of Christ, Be it resolved, That we commend its efforts in the schools and cities of Japan, and shall welcome a wise ex- tension on a scale adapted to the needs of the young men and to the strength of the Christian Church in Japan. Japan’s Crisis America’s Opportunity One cannot but be moved to gratitude by the above record. But rather than stop to congratulate themselves, the Associations feel driven on to overtake the tremen- dous needs that loom ahead. The student and commercial classes have only been touched on the fringe. The railroad men, skilled laborers, government employees, and boys are 25 utterly untouched. The urgency of prompt extension becomes more apparent when one stops to consider the present moral crisis in Japan. To a man reared in America, where, in spite of some un- belief and more religious indifference, Christian principles penetrate the whole warp and woof of society at large, it may be difficult to grasp the moral condition of Japan. Thirty years ago the moral restraints of the feudal order were struck off at a blow. Since then young men, espe- cially the educated, who have come under the spell of the individualism of the West, have swung loose from all re- ligion and into moral license. This tendency has been ag- gravated by the specious doctrines of a few eminent men like Marquis Ito, and Dr. Kato, ex-President of the Im- perial University, who maintain that religion is a super- stition to be spurned by the educated, and that personal immorality is not only harmless, but to be encouraged among young men. Japan’s most imminent peril — the real yellow peril — is that she shall attempt to rear a great industrial and edu- cational and military superstructure of national greatness upon a foundation of individuals who are morally un- sound and adrift. Japanese statesmen and reformers are realizing it on every hand, but they are at a loss to avert the danger. Some few, beside the Christians, are be- ginning to see that their only hope is Christianity. Of these is the honored former Postmaster General, Baron Maejima, himself a Buddhist and Confucianist by upbring- ing, who says: “We must rely upon religion for our highest welfare; and when I look about me to see what religion, I am convinced that the religion of Christ is the one most full of strength and of promise for the individual and for the nation. The Young Men’s Christian Associa- tion has, therefore, my fullest sympathy.” Confronted by 26 such a crisis in the life of a splendid people and given the fullest freedom of action, the Young Men’s Christian As- sociations of America would be recreant to a sacred trust if they and their supporters did not help the young men of Japan to give their countrymen living, practical Chris- tianity. There is more at stake than the destiny of Japan, mo- mentous as that is. Japan is the rudder of the Far East. Whether she shall guide Korea and China to the path of true civilization depends upon the promptness and the thoroughness of her own Christianization. Korea is al- ready plastic in the hand of Japan; China is summoning scores of Japanese engineers, diplomatic and military ad- visers, and hundreds more are going of their own accord to enter business in China. It is not without significance that a school to teach Japanese youths Chinese is founded in Shanghai, or that 900 mature Chinese students, chosen largely from the official class, are studying the arts and sciences and the Japanese government and army system in Tokyo. One of the most economical ways to modernize and Christianize China and forever banish the yellow peril in that Empire is to bring the young men of Japan rapidly and thoroughly under the sway of Christ. Japan is harden- ing in the mold of materialism with alarming rapidity. What we do, we must dO’ quickly. If the Christianization of Japan and her upbuilding in the principles and institu- tions of a Christian nation are not pressed with mani- fold more energy than at present, it will mean that the final triumph of righteousness in her and in the whole Far East will only be achieved at a fearful cost in time and treasure and men. 27 Foreign Department of the Interna- tional Committee Of Young Men’s Christian Associations COMMITTEE WILLIAM D. Murray, Chairman' Prederick.B. SchencK, Treasurer , , Cleveland H. Dodge Frank K. Sanders William F. McDowell Noah C., Rogers H. B. F, MacfarlaNd E. ,W. Halford Jo3h.ua levering SECRETARIES John R. Mott, General Adminstration P. Andersen . E. T. Colton ’ Associate Secretary Associate Secretary FOREIGN MAIL V Published in the interests of the Foreign Department of the International Committee of Young Men’s Christian AssociatioijS. Issued Quarterly, in January, April, July and October. Price 5 cents per copy; 20 cents a year for single subscriptions; 10 cents in clubs of ten or more. Address all communications to Editoi- Foreign Mail., 3 West Twenty-Ninth Street, New York City. ,