Japanese jviejsr 
 
 $ 
 
 \ 
 
 By 
 
 0Ht,ejV JM. flSRCR 
 
 foreign Department 
 of the 
 
 International Committee of Young Jilen’a 
 Christian Hssociations 
 124 Cast 28th Street, JNew Yorh 
 
 ds r<f 7 -, 
 
The National Committee and Staff of Young Men’s Christian Associations of the Japanese Empire 
 Five college presidents, eleven college professors, one M. P., one lawyer, two government officials, 
 and two business men compose the committee. 
 
I. AN OLD EMPIRE 
 Second Youth 
 
 Japan s history runs back as far as England’s, and 
 the evolution of the two races has been not unlike; for 
 Japan, too, was settled by successive invaders — 
 Mongols, Malays, and Koreans, who blended with 
 the still older Ainu. Ethnologists say there was also 
 an infusion of Aryan blood. The versatility and 
 nimble-mindedness of the Japanese may have come 
 from this rich blend; likewise the two contrasted types 
 of face, the one oval, and the other broad and flat- 
 nosed. 
 
 Authentic history begins in the fifth century, about 
 the time of King Arthur. It was then that Chinese 
 scholars came bearing gifts — Confucian, social and 
 moral teaching; Buddhist, religion and art — much as 
 St. Augustine took Christian civilization to the Angles. 
 
 Feudalism later grew up and flourished almost ex- 
 actly on the lines of medieval Europe. There were 
 castle and border forays, and single combat; deeds 
 of daring and self-sacrifice; but the Japanese knight 
 paid scant courtesy to women, for the spirit of Christ 
 had never touched the chivalry of the Orient. 
 
 Then from the time of the Pilgrim Fathers until 
 just before the American Civil War — 240 years — 
 Japan lay bolted and barred. The only contact with 
 the outside world was through the one Dutch trading 
 ship which was allowed to visit Nagasaki each year. 
 
 The 
 
 England 
 of The 
 Orient 
 
 Arousing 
 Rip Van 
 Winkle 
 
 3 
 
Japan 
 Joins the 
 Proces- 
 sion 
 
 The 
 
 Cost 
 
 Diagno- 
 sis and 
 Prescrip- 
 tion 
 
 Finally, in 1854, Admiral Perry of America induced 
 Japan once more to unbar the door. Straightway 
 the nation turned its face from the setting to the rising 
 sun. The Emperor was restored to full power in 
 1 868, and, under the guidance of sagacious statesmen, 
 the nation was transformed in thirty years from a mori- 
 bund and disjointed kingdom into a united, enlightened 
 empire. Old things verily have passed away; all 
 things are becoming new — whether for good or for ill 
 will be considered later. 
 
 The die has been cast: Japan has determined to 
 join the main procession of modern civilization. Her 
 adoption of occidental arts and crafts, learning and 
 laws, has been genuine. But she is trying to crowd 
 into two generations the evolution which in England 
 required five centuries. 
 
 It is an herculean task. Strong men are bending 
 under the strain; the financial burden alone is terrific; 
 taxation for armament, education, and improvements 
 is absorbing thirty per cent, of the average man’s in- 
 come. The nervous tension is high. More and more 
 the machinery of life moves at the American pace. 
 
 Ask Japanese men of affairs what Japan most needs 
 to-day and nine out of ten will reply “More wealth.” 
 This is in a measure true; but Baron Shibusawa, him- 
 self a leader in the financial world, showed deeper 
 insight into the situation in a speech made upon his 
 return from America in 1 909. The Baron said he 
 had traced the cause of American prosperity to two 
 sources: First, the rich natural resources, and second, 
 the character of the people, and he added that the 
 
 4 
 
character had far more to do with it than the resources. 
 He sought whence came the enterprise, the self- 
 reliance, the public spirit of the American character; 
 and decided that they had all sprung from Christian 
 institutions, “and,” he concluded, “that is why I want 
 to see the Young Men’s Christian Association ex- 
 tended in Japan, for Japan needs men of such char- 
 acter.” 
 
 The Hon. S. Ebara, member of the House of 
 Peers, aptly diagnoses the case thus: “Japan to-day 
 is like the five fingers of the hand; the army and navy, 
 the schools, the courts, and the factories are like the 
 thumb and first three fingers, all long and strong, but 
 religion and morality are like the little finger, short and 
 weak.” Baron Shibusawa has been a life-long Con- 
 fucianist. Mr. Ebara has been for forty years a 
 Christian, and is now head of the Tokyo Young Men's 
 Christian Association. Their contrasted religious faith 
 makes the coincidence of their verdict all the more 
 striking. If further testimony is needed, note the 
 words of Marquis Okuma, written shortly before he 
 became Premier: “Our country is a very sick man. 
 It is hopeless to look to politics or even education alone 
 to cure him.” 
 
 From ancient times Japan has had plenty of re- 
 ligious forms and precepts, but she has desperately 
 lacked the kind of religion that brings the power of 
 the Heavenly Father into the very life of sin-battered 
 men. That supreme contribution to the weal of Japan 
 it has been preeminently America’s privilege to make. 
 American missionaries went over, the moment the bar- 
 
 Another 
 
 Eminent 
 
 States- 
 
 man’s 
 
 Judg- 
 
 ment 
 
 5 
 
The Two 
 Pivots 
 
 riers were down in 1 859. They wrought in peril, 
 toil, and pain. Then when the Church had been 
 planted and the need arose for “applied Christianity” 
 adapted to tempted young men, the missionaries and 
 the young Church alike sought the specialized aid of 
 the Young Men’s Christian Association. 
 
 It was because the whole situation impinged most 
 directly upon young men that the call for the Young 
 Men’s Christian Association was so insistent. The 
 judgment of early Christian leaders is confirmed to-day 
 by the well-nigh embarrassing confidence of men like 
 Dr. Nitobe, Professor of Colonial Administration in 
 Tokyo Imperial University, author of “Bushido,” 
 who has recently written: “I have a strong convic- 
 tion that the Young Men’s Christian Association is 
 the most efficient instrument of doing His will in the 
 East. I have seen its work and my conviction is con- 
 firmed as my observation extends.” 
 
 The Association was summoned to Japan chiefly 
 because it had demonstrated in America and Europe 
 its ability to meet the needs of all sorts and conditions 
 of men; but when the S. O. S. call first went to 
 American Associations in 1 889 it was on behalf of 
 the students, for they constituted alike the most influ- 
 ential and the most accessible class. A little later the 
 rise of modern business and industry brought the needs 
 of city young men to the front, and an equally 
 urgent call went out on their behalf. 
 
 6 
 
II THE STUDENT ARMY 
 Destination Unknown 
 
 Dean Shailer Mathews, speaking in Tokyo, said: 
 “We have in Chicago what I suppposed was the larg- 
 est body of students possibly in the world, but I find 
 that Chicago is not in the same class with Tokyo.” 
 Thirty thousand college men and 70,000 high school 
 boys constitute the student army of Japan’s intellectual 
 capital. 
 
 Student life in Tokyo resembles in many ways stu- 
 dent life all around the world, but there are certain 
 striking differences. One is that young men in Japan 
 have almost no opportunity for wholesome social inter- 
 course. Professors hold aloof from their students; 
 there is no co-education ; and intercourse between men 
 and women is narrowly restricted. Another difference 
 is that only a small fraction of them have any oppor- 
 tunity to engage in recreative sports. Still another is 
 the tremendous schedule which many of them carry, 
 thirty to thirty-five hours of lectures a week. On the 
 other hand, the city is plentifully supplied with cheap 
 and alluring resorts of vice; continental literature and 
 Japanese imitations have an immense vogue; and, 
 finally, 30,000 students live in public boarding houses, 
 which are too often gateways to immorality and at 
 best are calculated to make men careless and irre- 
 sponsible. 
 
 Out- 
 
 classing 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Handi- 
 caps and 
 Allure- 
 ments 
 to Evil 
 
 7 
 
The Twenty-sixth Annual Summer Conference Held at Gotemba, the New Association Conference 
 
 Place at the Foot of Mount Fuji 
 
Surely, in face of such perils, men should have all Adrift 
 the resources of a living religion. Yet what are the 
 facts? A rough census of the religious inclination of 
 the students in Tokyo Imperial University shows that 
 of the 5,000 men, 3,000 are indifferent, 300 are 
 sceptics, 700 are Buddhists, 500 Shintoists, 100 
 Confucianists, and 250 Christians. 
 
 These proportions are typical of students through- Leaven 
 out the Empire. The Church itself and the missionary prom 
 body are doing a great work among the students, but 1 m 
 the Church looks to the Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
 ciation to tackle the student situation from within. 
 
 The strategy of the student Associations centers on two 
 points. First, the organization of Associations inside 
 the chief government and private colleges, and the 
 setting of students to work among their fellows in much 
 the same fashion as in the student movement in western 
 lands. So aggressive have the Christian students been 
 in evangelism, Bible study, and Sunday school teach- 
 ing that Buddhists have been spurred to imitation. 
 
 Second, the establishment of hostels or homes, where 
 the leaders of student Associations may live. Twenty 
 such hostels, given largely by American friends, have 
 already been planted beside as many government col- 
 leges. At the Tokyo and Kyoto Imperial Universi- 
 ties there are also excellent Association buildings, 
 which provide headquarters for the social and religious 
 activities. 
 
 An offshoot of the student movement is the corps Unique 
 of twenty-five American and British teachers of Eng- By- 
 lish who have been secured for government schools by Prot * ucl 
 
 f) 
 
Kyoto Imperial University Association Building and Hostels, 
 Typical of Eighteen Other Hostels in Student Centers 
 
 Thou- 
 sands 
 of Open 
 Minds 
 
 the Association. They are, first of all, teachers of 
 the English language; but in their own homes and in 
 the churches they are exerting a powerful Christian 
 influence, having 500 men in Bible classes. 
 
 An illustration of the facility with which the Asso- 
 ciation can gain access to students was afforded by the 
 fact that in one year the national student secretary was 
 invited into government school assembly rooms to ad- 
 dress 20,000 students on moral and personal themes. 
 Every year several thousands of Testaments and por- 
 tions are sold to students, and Fosdick’s “Manhood 
 of the Master,” in Japanese, has gone through two 
 editions in six months. A frankly Christian paper has 
 reached the phenomenal circulation of 52,000 copies, 
 all of which are distributed in 1 ,028 non-Christian 
 schools and with the consent of the principals. 
 
 The student movement in Japan is still young, but 
 already it has put its imprint upon hundreds of men 
 who have gone forth as lay leaders in religious and 
 social work. In a country which exalts learning as 
 
 10 
 
Japan does, where the bureaucracy is so potent and 
 every important civil servant must have a college di- 
 ploma, it is hard to overstate the possibilities of the 
 student movement for fruitfulness during the coming 
 years. 
 
 11 
 
Cabinet Making — One of Many Trades Taught in the Korean Association Industrial School at Seoul 
 
III. THE CITIES 
 Money vs. Manhood 
 
 Japan is a small country, but she has some big 
 cities. Tokyo ranks next to New York and London 
 in population, Osaka has a million and a third popula- 
 tion, Kyoto, Kobe, Yokohama, and Nagoya have all 
 passed the half million point, and ten other cities have 
 over a hundred thousand each. And they are all 
 growing fourteen times as fast as the population of 
 the whole Empire. Publicists are alarmed at the 
 suddenness and seriousness of city problems. Two of 
 the prolific sources of danger are the factory system 
 and the rush to make money in trade. And these 
 two lines, industry and trade, employ two-thirds of 
 the young men in the cities. The factory system has 
 come in with a rush, till there are now over 900,000 
 employes. Sidney Webb of London said, after per- 
 sonal inspection, that conditions in Japan were as bad 
 as in English factories in 1 840. Until 1916 there 
 had been no factory laws, and the law which has re- 
 cently gone into effect, although far better than noth- 
 ing, is pitifully full of loopholes. 
 
 In old Japan money was held in contempt, and the 
 merchant stood at the bottom of the social scale. In 
 new Japan the lust for money is spreading to all ranks. 
 In a word, the city men of Japan to-day are fighting 
 against the same odds as the city men in America, but 
 
 Big 
 
 Cities 
 
 and 
 
 Bigger 
 
 Problems 
 
 The 
 
 Money 
 
 Fever 
 
 13 
 
Old 
 
 Props 
 
 Rotting 
 
 Where 
 
 the 
 
 Associa- 
 
 tion 
 
 Comes In 
 
 with this exception — in America there are ten protect- 
 ing influences to one in Japan. 
 
 Japanese culture owes a lasting debt to Buddhism, 
 and philosophic Buddhism even to-day contains lofty 
 and beneficial teachings, but popular Buddhism is so 
 corrupt that the late Baron Kato, himself an agnostic 
 and no lover of Christianity, wrote in 1912: “Budd- 
 hist priests are rotten and worse than useless. Chris- 
 tianity I dislike as an anti-national doctrine, but Chris- 
 tian men I admire. They are noble and unselfish.’’ 
 Buddhism was once the light of the East, but now its 
 light is too often darkness. Japan has created a re- 
 markable public school system and through it has at- 
 tempted to build up a national patriotic cult intended 
 to be itself a religion, but even the champions of this 
 policy are now compelled to admit that neither educa- 
 tion nor patriotism can give the motive power and un- 
 selfishness needed. In their distress men are increas- 
 ingly wondering if Christianity may not be the remedy. 
 
 No one has put his finger on the place of the Asso- 
 ciation in national economy more exactly than that 
 keen business man, Baron Shibusawa, who made this 
 statement: “As a business man I believe it is better 
 policy to make buildings fireproof from the start than 
 to put up frame structures and pay high insurance, 
 and even then frequently lose the whole structure. It 
 is on that principle that I believe in the Young Men’s 
 Christian Association. It is a powerful preventive 
 agency. It keeps young men from going wrong instead 
 of waiting until they are corrupted and then trying to 
 reform them. It provides moral fireproofing, and in 
 
 14 
 
Kyoto Association Building 
 Gift of Hon. John Wanamaker 
 
 Japan that is the greatest need of our young men. 
 Considering the youth and the limited resources of the 
 Young Men’s Christian Association in Japan, it has 
 accomplished much already and I believe it deserves 
 the hearty backing of all good men so that it can extend 
 its activities.” 
 
 The Association is planted squarely in the center How It 
 of ten of the great cities. Buildings put up by the ,s Done 
 gifts of Americans and Japanese are rallying centers 
 
 15 
 
Indirect 
 
 Approach 
 
 Opposi- 
 
 tion 
 
 Yields 
 
 for young men and for co-operative Christian enter- 
 prises. Among the most productive lines of activity 
 are the employment bureau, the addresses on moral 
 and religious topics, the physical education movement, 
 and the Bible and educational classes. During the 
 recent lean years thousands of men have applied to 
 the Association employment bureaus. Last year the 
 Association in Tokyo found positions for 815 men 
 out of 6,300 applicants. The bureau is called “De- 
 partment for Counsel on Personal Problems” and 
 many of the applicants are helped in more than getting 
 a living. For three successive years the Department 
 of the Interior has made the Bureau in Tokyo an 
 unsolicited grant. 
 
 The lectures and religious addresses given by Chris- 
 tian educators and publicists are reaching thousands of 
 men who at first shy at the Church. The Post Office 
 authorities in Tokyo had for years depended upon 
 Buddhist priests to give moral instruction to the 2,700 
 postal clerks, but they found the Buddhists didn’t 
 “deliver the goods” and decided to give Christianity 
 a trial. They turned to the Tokyo Association and 
 within three days a corps of twenty-three able volun- 
 teer speakers had been enlisted. The plan has been 
 tried two years. It works. It has delighted clerks, 
 officials, and speakers, and has opened unexpected 
 doors of service. 
 
 Nagasaki, with its terraced hillsides and picturesque 
 bay, only fifty years ago was the scene of bitter per- 
 secution of Christianity, and 300 years ago was the 
 place where hundreds of the Christians won by the 
 
 16 
 
Some of Osaka Association’s 2,056 Day and Night 
 School Students 
 
 Jesuits were exiled or crucified. It was to such a city 
 that Dr. Sasamori, a De Pauw University man, sum- 
 moned the Association twelve years ago. In 1 906 a 
 building was put up, and evangelistic meetings, con- 
 certs, educational classes, a weekly Bible school of a 
 hundred, and lectures attended by the best men in the 
 city, have drop by drop worn away the stone of con- 
 tempt and opposition until to-day it is hard to find a 
 prominent citizen who does not approve the Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 Osaka Association’s barn-like hall, costing about 
 $6,000 and erected in 1 887, was the very first Asso- 
 ciation building in the Orient. To-day it might be 
 dangerous in a heavy earthquake, but in it and the 
 chain of sheds around it has grown up an educational 
 work enrolling 2,056 pupils, a number exceeded by 
 few American Associations. Every new class means 
 a new Bible class; for the Associations in Japan make 
 
 Poor 
 Plant — 
 Rich 
 Output 
 
 IT 
 
A Rich 
 
 Man’s 
 
 Son 
 
 T rade 
 and 
 
 Religion 
 in Seoul 
 
 a point of Bible teaching and religious talks for all 
 their educational pupils. It was to make possible such 
 achievements that Mr. Sajima left a professorship of 
 physics nine years ago, to give himself to the secretary- 
 ship in Osaka. 
 
 Here are two examples of how the leaven works. 
 A Japanese University graduate inherited a fortune. 
 His father had been neither a Christian nor a philan- 
 thropist, but Christ came into the son’s life at seven- 
 teen and fired him with an unquenchable love for his 
 fellow students and with a determination to consecrate 
 all his property and education to the solution of indus- 
 trial problems. He is still a young man, and is con- 
 sidered the strongest influence for righteousness and 
 civic improvement in Kumamoto, a city of 90,000 
 people. In his own Church and in the Association he 
 is a national leader. He incarnates the Christian solu- 
 tion of Japan’s social problems. In the university and 
 m his home city he has been head of the Association. 
 
 Another graduate of the Imperial University, who 
 was a leader in the Association during his student 
 days, has founded the only workingmen’s union in the 
 Empire and is conducting it on Christian principles. 
 Already it enrolls 1 0,000 members and gives promise 
 of becoming a helpful factor, not only in Japan, but 
 in relation to the Japanese immigration question in 
 America. 
 
 Or go across the channel to Korea, that rapidly 
 developing outpost of the Empire. The Korean peo- 
 ple are in urgent need of industrial development. Seoul 
 Central Association early discerned this need and set 
 
 18 
 
Jiujitsu in Kobe Association Gymnasium 
 
 up a trade school to teach shoemaking, wood and iron 
 working, printing, and photography; at the same time 
 it has many hundreds of men in Bible classes every 
 week, and 270 were led to Christ last year. 
 
 With all their inherited fondness for martial sports, 
 like jiujitsu, the Japanese young men are a fallow 
 field for the Association type of physical education. 
 Kobe, Dairen, and Kyoto have pioneered in physical 
 lines, combining Japanese jiujitsu and fencing with 
 basketball and volleyball. The Third Far Eastern 
 Athletic Association Games, the “Oriental Olympics,” 
 to be held in Tokyo in 1917, will give outdoor sports 
 a tremendous boom. To the Associations they will 
 bring an embarrassingly large task, for the Associa- 
 tion’s national physical director is the Executive Secre- 
 tary of the Games and the Association is the only 
 organization equipped with modern gymnasiums or 
 
 The 
 
 Physical 
 
 Message 
 
 19 
 
The 
 Sinews 
 of War 
 
 During 1916 a Line of 6,300 Men Sought Interviews with 
 the Tokyo Association Employment Secretary 
 
 with leaders in field sports. The scope and sudden- 
 ness of the opportunity, however, make imperative the 
 immediate increase of the American and Japanese 
 physical staff. Upon it will fall the duty of grappling 
 in a constructive way with the curse of impurity. No 
 one who knows how cheap women are held, how 
 prevalent are venereal diseases, or how, without a 
 blush, young men throng the public and private houses 
 of ill fame, can doubt that the power of Christ alone 
 will suffice to cope with this evil. 
 
 Japan’s recent progress has been balked at every 
 turn by lack of money. Compared with Europe and 
 America she is poverty stricken. In face of this diffi- 
 culty it is nothing short of a miracle what the Govern- 
 ment has accomplished. But still more remarkable 
 are the achievements of the Christian body, which has 
 no taxes to fall back upon. The Christian Church is 
 still making a fierce struggle for complete self-support. 
 
 20 
 
It is all the more striking, therefore, that the Associa- 
 tions have been able to attain almost complete inde- 
 pendence of outside aid for their current expenses. 
 Nine-tenths of their combined budgets, totaling 
 $50,000, is raised in Japan, and the one-tenth re- 
 ceived from abroad goes almost wholly to work among 
 students. The secret is that their work, while always 
 controlled by Christians, nevertheless commends itself 
 so thoroughly to non-Christian business men, whose 
 confidence was first won by the ministry of the Asso- 
 ciation to the soldiers in Manchuria during the war 
 with Russia, that they have been constrained to give 
 toward its support. One of the definite contributions 
 of the Association to the Church has been this win- 
 ning of the gifts of non-Christians. In some cases 
 they have first given their money and then followed 
 their treasure by giving their hearts to God. 
 
 One of the charming characteristics of the Japanese 
 Association leaders has been that their laudable zeal 
 for independence has not made them super-sensitive 
 against receiving gifts from abroad, so long as their 
 autonomy was not infringed. They have been quick 
 to appreciate the secretaries sent over as pioneers and 
 coaches by the International Committee, and also the 
 large gifts contributed by Americans for Association 
 buildings and hostels. It has been a happy partner- 
 ship. Impartial judges declare that the investment — 
 the cost of a single metropolitan Association building 
 in America — has already yielded handsome dividends, 
 and the coupons will go on maturing for generations 
 to come. 
 
 An 
 
 Effective 
 
 Partner- 
 
 ship 
 
 21 
 
A Few of the 2,500 Men in Osaka Association Bible Classes 
 
 Not Yet It would be far wide of the mark to infer from the 
 Attained above survey that the Japanese Associations had al- 
 ready attained. In fact, their achievements are paltry 
 when compared with the need and the pressing oppor- 
 tunities. On the roster are eighty-five Associations and 
 
 10.500 members out of ten million young men! The 
 
 2.500 men in the Bible groups, the 3,000 men in the 
 educational classes, and the 5 1 6 led to receive baptism 
 last year are clearly no cause for self-gratulation. 
 The many unentered cities and colleges are a standing 
 challenge. The handful of secretaries — twenty Jap- 
 anese and Koreans and twelve Americans and Cana- 
 dians — what are they to face so vast a task ! No one 
 realizes these things better than the Association leaders 
 themselves. But they are thankful that at least the 
 foundations have been laid; and they face the future 
 with profound hope, because their trust is in God and 
 in His boundless purposes for the men of Japan. 
 
 ao 
 
IV. MEN AT THE HELM 
 
 The London Spectator laments that we are living in 
 the age of first rate events and second rate men. 
 Whether this is universally true or not, Japanese lead- 
 ers are constantly lamenting the lack of men with back- 
 bone, integrity, and capacity. Merchant barons scour 
 the land for men who have conscience as well as 
 cleverness. With rare exceptions, Christianity seems 
 to be the only power that can turn out eighteen karat 
 gold character. The Association's chief reason for 
 being is to give Christ, the great Character Maker, a 
 chance to operate upon young men. The type of 
 leaders already developed in goodly numbers is full 
 of promise for the future. Here are cameos of five. 
 
 Mr. Seijiro Niwa, grad- 
 uate of Doshisha Christian 
 University, interpreter for 
 Luther D. Wishard in 1889. 
 First “native” secretary in 
 the foreign field. Builder 
 with Swift and Miller of the 
 Tokyo City Association, and 
 now for six years pioneer 
 national secretary for all the 
 Japanese work in Korea; 
 trusted as few men are by both Japanese and Koreans, 
 by officials and by missionaries. At the request of 
 the Government he gives half his time to directing the 
 
 Mr. S. Niwa 
 
 Some 
 
 Young 
 
 Leader* 
 
 Japan’s 
 
 Pioneer 
 
 Secre- 
 
 tary 
 
For 
 
 Railway 
 
 Men 
 
 A Friend 
 of 
 
 Verling 
 
 Helm 
 
 welfare work among the 1 0,000 employes on the 
 Korean Railways. 
 
 Mr. M. Masutomi, grad- 
 uate of Presbyterian and 
 Dutch Reformed schools. 
 
 Enlisted in the Japanese 
 work among soldiers during 
 the Russo-Japanese war. 
 
 Pioneer in Association effort 
 for railway men in Tokyo, 
 and now chief secretary for 
 moral and relief work among 
 1 00,000 railway employes 
 throughout Japan proper, 
 magazine having 25,000 subscribers. Founder and 
 eloquent spokesman of the Social Purity League, 
 which has kept up a hot fire against the social evil, and 
 initiator of the Religious Press Bureau and the metro- 
 politan newspaper evangelism. 
 
 Mr. M. Masutomi 
 Editor railway men’s 
 
 Mr. K. Yamamoto, grad- 
 uate of Tokyo Government 
 Commercial College. In ten 
 years rose to a responsible 
 post in the Japan Mail 
 Steamship Company. En- 
 listed as a director of the 
 Tokyo Association as volun- 
 teer executive of the National 
 Committee’s army work. 
 
 Mr. K. Yamamoto 
 
Called to succeed Niwa as secretary at Tokyo, he 
 accepted in face of determined opposition from his 
 employers. He is an indispensable and daring execu- 
 tive in co-operative Church enterprise. 
 
 Mr. K. Muramatsu, a McBur- 
 commercial clerk, went to ney s 
 America in 1 890 to gain ^ ouc ^ 
 business experience. Attend- 
 ed church on his first Sunday 
 in New York. After service 
 waited at the door for some- 
 one to speak to him. Finally 
 as he was about to leave, 
 disappointed, a kindly man 
 approached and said: “Here 
 is my card. Come to see me next Saturday at my 
 office in the Twenty -third Street Young Men’s Chris- 
 tian Association.” That act made Muramatsu re- 
 solve to give his life to befriending young men in Kobe 
 upon his return. Settled in Kobe, he lived up to his 
 resolve. After struggling for twelve years to get an 
 Association building and giving his own hard earned 
 savings to the building fund, he sees to-day one of the 
 best buildings in the Empire and a work that is touch- 
 ing hundreds of men away from home. Twenty 
 years after that incident in New York he learned that 
 his friend was none other than Robert R. McBurney. 
 
 Mr. I. Fujita, student in Kobe Association night 
 school and Bible class. Interest in Christ thus quick- 
 ened, led him to Church and to Christian faith in Oka- 
 
 Mr. K. Muramatsu 
 
 25 
 
From 
 Night 
 School 
 to Impe- 
 rial 
 
 Univer- 
 
 sity 
 
 Older 
 Men for 
 Counsel 
 
 yama, where he attended col- 
 lege. Paid his way by de- 
 livering milk before day- 
 break. Graduated with 
 honor from Tokyo Imperial 
 University, and became the 
 first secretary of the Asso- 
 ciation in that University, 
 the acknowledged leader in 
 voluntary Christian work 
 among 5,000 students in 
 the highest seat of learning in Asia, a loyal church- 
 man, a magnetic friend. 
 
 But these younger leaders with all their strength 
 depend on the backing of boards of older men who 
 are comparable to the best boards of directors in 
 American Associations. Among them are such men 
 as the president of Tokyo Association, the Hon. S. 
 Ebara, member of the House of Peers by Imperial 
 appointment, and at seventy-six a tireless leader in 
 social reform; Dr. Ibuka, whose principalship of a 
 Christian college has not hindered his serving many 
 years as chairman of the Association National Com- 
 mittee and of other bodies; Dr. Harada, successor to 
 Joseph Neesima as president of Doshisha University, 
 who heads Kyoto Association; Judge Watanabe, 
 Chief Justice of the Korean Court of Appeals, mod- 
 est, steadfast, a tower of strength to Church and Asso- 
 ciation; Dr. Nitobe of Tokyo Imperial University, 
 persuasive interpreter of Japan to America and of 
 
 Mr. I. Futita 
 
 26 
 
The 
 
 General 
 
 Staff 
 
 Open 
 Channel 
 or Reef 
 
 America to Japan, lavish in counsel and in service for 
 the sake of young men; the Hon. Yun Chi Ho, pub- 
 licist and educator, who through great tribulation has 
 become a spiritual leader of the new Korea. Five of 
 the men named have received decorations from the 
 Emperor for meritorious service to their country. 
 
 It is princely men such as these who constitute the 
 General Staff of the Association and of the Church. 
 They know to the dark bottom the doubt and sin of 
 their young countrymen, but they also know to the 
 bright summit the purifying and transforming power 
 of Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 William H. Seward’s prophecy of 1870 — “the 
 Pacific Ocean, with its shores and islands, will be the 
 theater of the world’s great hereafter” — seemed 
 visionary when it was uttered. To-day the actors are 
 upon the stage and the play is in progress. What 
 man of red blood and Christian ambition does not 
 tingle at the sight! Is a tragedy or a Divina Corn- 
 
 media to be enacted there? It is for America to de- 
 termine. To be sure she is not the only actor, but 
 
 whatever may be her place in the last act, to-day she 
 
 holds a leading role. On the fidelity and generosity 
 of American Christians does it preeminently depend 
 whether Japan and China shall be swept irresistibly 
 toward the clear mid-stream of Christianity or shall be 
 allowed to drift into the brackish backwater. A 
 Christianized Japan will be a mighty channel for the 
 Christianizing of the Orient and of the whole Pacific 
 basin; an un-Christianized Japan will be a sunken 
 crag in the fairway of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 28 
 
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 from the 
 
 FOREIGN DEPARTMENT 
 
 of the 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN'S 
 Christian Associations 
 
 124 East Twenty-eighth Street, New York