litJAMNESLCRiaS • iti. ,;; .y)iiW;J>i|iii JAMESA.B,SCHERER Cb4,n7S "Igipe thefe. B'S6ki '..fprthefamiimgif g, ColUgftnrihis^CqlorLJV Eought with the income of the Henry W. Scott, Jr. Fund III THE JAPANESE CRISIS THE JAPANESE CRISIS BY JAMES A. B. SCHERER, Ph.D., LL.D. PEESIDENT OF THEOOP COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY Author of "Japan To-da-y" and "Young Japan" NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Cop-yright, 1916, h-y Feederick A, Stokes Company All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages. TO A. H. F. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 3 California and the Opening of Japan . . 9 The Coming of the Japanese to California 21 Is Japan Militant? 41 Are the Japanese Assimilable? .... 67 Is Agricultural Competition Safe? ... 89 The Alien Land Law ; Conclusion .... 97 APPENDICES Translation of the Japanese Land Law Text of the California Land Law . The American-Japanese Treaty of 1911 An Argument for Non-Discrimination Index 119125 131 139 143 TEE JAPANESE CRISIS THE JAPANESE CRISIS Influenttai, California citizens have urged me to prepare these pages, on the ground that opportunities imply an obliga tion. The personal experience to which they al lude includes a residence of five years among the Japanese (1892-1897), in the educa tional service of the Imperial government, studying the language and learning some thing of oriental history and outlook; a citi zenship of seven years in California (1908 to the present), with attendance — as a visitor — on two sessions of the legislature, includ ing that which passed the Alien Land Law; and a prolonged familiarity with race prob lems as they exist in the South, resulting in an appreciation of their difficulty and a sus picion of offhand solutions. The obligation, once pointed out, seems 4 THE JAPANESE CRISIS plain. That there is a Japanese- American problem is indicated not only by the inter mittent eruptions of the "yellow press" in both countries, — none the less mischievous because irresponsible and frequently menda cious, — but by the publication of serious and thoughtful volumes of well tempered discus sion, by the organization of such mutual ben efit associations as the Japan Society and the Asiatic Institute in New York and the Nichi Bei Doshi Kwai ("Japan- America One Aim Society") in Tokyo, and by the concem which the two governments manifest when periods of agitation recur. In view of the immense mass of grotesque misrepresenta tion with which the public is intermittently deluged, it becomes the duty of all those who have had experience with both sides of the problem to contribute toward a just balance of view. Few things could please the pres ent writer more than the ability to assist, even in the remotest degree, in bringing about a better understanding between sin cere and earnest groups of friends on both INTRODUCTION 5 sides of the Pacific, whose chief need is pre cisely this of mutual comprehension. My pupils in the old feudal city of Saga used to be fond of recounting the quaint fa ble of The Two Frogs — one hving in Kyoto, the other in Osaka — who set out each to see the other's city. When they met on the top of the hiU between the two towns they sa luted, and then stood up and took a look, whereupon each frogship remarked: "Huh! I have seen nothing new nor in teresting nor different! Your city is ex actly Mke my own" — and hopped back to his former habitudes of thought and action, not a bit the wiser. Unfortunately for their better under standing, frogs' eyes are so placed that these two upstanding travelers, thinking to look forward, really looked backwards ; the Osaka frog saw Osaka, but thought he had seen Kyoto, while the Kyoto frog hopped com placently homeward and became an author ity, ever afterwards, on the thesis that there was no need in trying to get the view-point 6 THE JAPANESE CRISIS of Osaka, seeing it was just exactly like home. The point of this fable, of course, is in its apphcation. Japan and America are in finitely more different than these two Japanese cities. Shall we who look across the Pacific see with understanding, eye to eye, or envisage each the problem of the other in terms of backward-looking provin- ciahsm? CALIFORNIA AND THE OPENING OF JAPAN CALIFORNIA AND THE OPENING OF JAPAN A WRONG impression is conveyed by the usual account of Commodore Perry's famous entry into the Bay of Yedo. Missionary books and addresses frequently emphasize the story of a Sunday morning with the capstan draped in an American flag and the ship's company singing Old Hundred, as if this were the chief device adopted for open ing the gates that had been shut for two hundred and sixty-eight years. But in Hawks's vivacious "Narrative" it is another story. "The next day was Sunday (July 10th), and, as usual, divine service was held on board the ships" — that is the only reference to the first Sunday service.^ 1 Hawks, F. L., "Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, per formed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the Com mand of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy; by Order of the Government of the United States, com piled from the Original Notes and Journals of Commodore 9 10 THE JAPANESE CRISIS On the other hand, we get vivid items like these : "As the ships neared the bay, signals were made from the Commodore, and instantly the decks were cleared for action, the guns being placed in position and shotted, the ammunition arranged, the small arms made ready, sentinels and men at their posts, and, in short, all the preparations made, usual be fore meeting an enemy.^ . . . The question of landing by force was left to be decided by the development of succeeding events ; it was, of course, the very last measure to be re sorted to, and the last that was desired; but in order to be prepared for the worst, the Commodore, caused the ships constantly to be kept in perfect readiness, and the crews to be drilled as thoroughly as they are in time of active war." ^ A contemporary native writer declared that "the popular commotion in Yedo at the Perry and His OfScers, at his request, and under his super vision": New York and London, 1857; p. 240. 2 Hawks, F. L., as cited, p. 331. 3 Hawks, F. L,, as cited, p. 235. THE OPENING OF JAPAN 11 news of 'a foreign invasion' was beyond de scription. The whole city was in an uproar. In all directions were seen mothers flying with children in their arms, and men with mothers on their backs. Rumors of an im mediate action, exaggerated each time they were communicated from mouth to mouth, added horror to the horror-stricken." * The Japanese made a virtue of necessity, and friendly relations were estabhshed with out bloodshed. The Perry Narrative goes on to show that when reluctant native ofli cials at length visited the ships, the consola tions extended to them were of a spirituous rather than spiritual character, as the fol lowing comment indicates : "In receiving the hospitalities of their hosts, it may be remarked that they partook freely, and seemed to rehsh particular^ the whisky and brandy wliich formed part of the entertainment. The governor especially * Nitobe, I., "The Intercourse between the United States and Japan," cited in Larned's History for Ready Refer ence, under Japan, 1852-1888: Springfield, 1895, vol. ui, p. 1877. 12 THE JAPANESE CRISIS appeared to appreciate the foreign hquors, particularly when mixed with sugar, and smacked his hps with great gusto, as he drained his glass to its last sweetened dregs. His interpreters, in the growing freedom of convivial enjoyment, made merry over his highness' bacchanalian prochvity." ^ The combination of fire arms and fire wa ter looms very large in the list of official gifts afterwards presented by the Americans to the Japanese. FoUowing are the first items mentioned : 1 box of arms, containing — 5 Hall's rifles, 3 Maynard's muskets, 12 cavalry swords, 6 artillery swords, 1 carbine, 20 army pistols, 2 carbines, cartridge boxes, and belts, containing 120 cartridges. 10 HaU's rifles. II cavalry swords. 6 Hawks, F. L., as cited, p. 248. Emperor THE OPENING OF JAPAN 13 1 carbine, cartridge box and belts, and 60 cartridges. I box books. Emperor. 1 box dressing-cases. Emperor. 1 box perfumery, 2 packages. Emperor. 1 barrel whisky. Emperor. 1 cask wine, Emperor. I box for distribution. 1 box containing II pistols, for distribu tion. A quantity of cheny cordials, distribution. A quantity of cherry cordials. Emperor. A number of baskets champaigne. Em peror. A number of baskets champaigne, com missioners, etc., etc." Perry's primary object, on the occasion of his first visit, was to secure respectful con sideration for a letter directed to the Em peror by President Fillmore. When the Japanese governor first came on board the flag ship, "the original letter of the Presi dent, together with the Commodore's letter 8 Hawks, F. L., as cited, p. 356, note. 14) THE JAPANESE CRISIS of credence, incased in the magnificent boxes which had been prepared in Washington, were shown to his excellency, who was evi dently greatly impressed with their exquisite workmanship and costliness." The Commodore quite properly refused to deliver this letter until assured that it would be presented to the Shogun himself — whom he always mistook for the Emperor. The Narrative's description of the final proces sion of presentation is a delicious bit of writ ing: "The marines led the way, and the sailors following, the Commodore was duly escorted up the beach. The United States flag and the broad pennant were borne by two ath letic seamen, who had been selected from the crews of the squadron on account of their stalwart proportions. Two boys, dressed for the ceremony, preceded the Commodore, bearing in an envelope of scarlet cloth the boxes which contained his credentials and the President's letter. These documents, of f oho size, were beautifuUy written on vellum. THE OPENING OF JAPAN 16 and not folded, but bound in blue silk velvet. Each seal, attached by cords of interwoven gold and silk with pendant gold tassels, was incased in a circular box six inches in di ameter and three in depth, wrought of pure gold. Each of the documents together with its seal, was placed in a box of rosewood about a foot long, with lock, hinges, and mountings, aU of gold. On either side of the Commodore marched a tall, well-formed negro, who, armed to the teeth, acted as his personal guard. These blacks, selected for the occasion, were two of the best looking feUows of their color that the squadron could fumish. AU this, of course, was but for effect." ' It is important for all Americans, but es peciaUy for Califomians, to recall and con stantly to bear in mind the principal con tents of this Presidential letter, presented at the barred gates of Japan with a fleet to en force its acceptance if pomp and meUow con- viviahty should fail. 7 Hawks, F. L., as cited, pp. 254r-255. 16 THE JAPANESE CRISIS "Our great State of California," wrote President Fillmore, "produces about sixty milhons of dollars in gold every year, besides silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and many other valuable articles. ... I am desirous that our two countries should trade with each other." « Again:"I have directed Commodore Perry to mention another thing to your imperial maj esty. Many of our ships pass every year from California to China; and great num bers of our people pursue the whale fishery near the shores of Japan. It sometimes hap pens, in stormy weather, that one of our ships is wrecked on your imperial majesty's shores. In aU such cases we ask, and ex pect, that our unfortunate people should be treated with kindness, and that their prop erty should be protected, till we can send a vessel and bring them away. We are very much in eamest in this. "Commodore Perry is also directed by me 8 Hawks, F. L„ as cited, p. 256. THE OPENING OF JAPAN 17 to represent to your imperial majesty that we understand there is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Empire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great ocean, bum a great deal of coal, and it is not convenient 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. . . . We are very de sirous of this." ^ There can be no doubt that the extension of Cahfornia commerce, made suddenly im portant in consequence of the recent discov ery of gold, was the chief argument used with Japan in our successful effort to open the gates that lyeyasu had barred. ^*,^ It was California commerce that opened Japan's gates to the world, and fair play, as weU as self interest, forbids that any ill- considered act of ours should write the name of Janus across them. Seward once elo quently declared that "the Pacific Ocean, its » Hawlss, F. L., as cited, p. 257. 18 THE JAPANESE CRISIS shores, its islands, and its adjacent territories will become the chief theater of human events and activities in the world's great hereafter." With such a vision in their eyes, Japan and America should be sagacious enough to per ceive that the Pacific must ever be kept true to its name if their argosies are to weave back and forth across its breast a cloth of gold. TEE COMING OF TEE JAPANESE TO CALIFORNIA TEE COMING OF TEE JAPANESE TO CALIFORNIA CoMMODOEE Perey, acting for the United States, signed (in 1854), conjointly with the representatives of the Japanese government, the first treaty Japan had ever made with any westem power. The first article in that treaty read as follows : "There shall be a perfect, permanent, and universal peace and a sincere and cordial amity, between the United States of Amer ica, on the one part, and the Empire of Japan on the other, and between their people, respectively, without exception of persons or places." ^ Friendship between the two nations and peoples was steadily fostered from this time forward. The excellent influence of early American teachers resident in Japan can hardly be overestimated. Through one of these the Great Embassy of I87I was in- 1 Hawks, F. L., as cited, p. 378. 21 22 THE JAPANESE CRISIS spired, foUowing the route he outlined, sub mitting to his judgment in the matter of ap pointments, and, by acquainting Japan at first hand with the nations of the outside world, bringing an appreciation of America that led to its characterization, in the com mon parlance of the populace, as the Dai On Jin, or Great Friendly People. And the Americans, by their warm and generous sympathy, fairly earned the title. From the days of Townsend Harris to the period of the Russian War, America almost uniformly took the part of Japan as against European aggressiveness, admiring the independence and ability of this plucky and open-minded little nation, which we marveled to see ad vancing, within a short half -century, from the snug seclusion of a fascinating but im practicable curio-box to a position of modern world-leadership . Cahfornia joined in this admiration no whit less heartily than the other states of the Union so long as, hke them, she could JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 23 view Japan from afar. It ought to be un derstood at the outset that the jar of physical contact alone, due to Japanese immigration, ' beginning in 1885, reaching a climax in 1900, and steadily localizing in Cahfornia, so that three-fifths of all the Japanese in this country are now living within the bor ders of this single state-^that is the sole ex planation of the diminution, as respects California, of mutual friendly regard. In the first stages of such physical con tact, racial antipathy is inevitable; being cleverly hit off by the overheard conversa tion of two British hod-carriers reported by Punch, as follows: "BiU, there goes a furriner!" " 'Eave 'arf a brick at 'im!" As Baron Kaneko learnedly remarks, "racial antipathy is only a spontaneous phe nomenon of human psychology. But, nev ertheless, the progress of man, of civiliza tion, is, in a sense, a systematic restraint of his innate propensities, and if so, the racial 2* THE JAPANESE CRISIS feehng, among others, must be controlled and suppressed by all means." ^ In California the Japanese, notwithstand ing exceptional quahties and genuine like- ableness, encountered accidental misfortune : they inherited the deeply seated California prejudice against the Chinese. Now, few contrasts are more striking than that between Japanese quarters and the "Chinatowns" of Pacific coast cities. Mr. Chester Rowell has drawn this comparison effectively. "There is no law in Chinatown. The slave traffic is open and notorious, and slave pens, with bought slave girls peering through the barred windows, are a familiar sight. The most respected occupations of the leading Chinese citizens are gambling and lottery. . . . The governing bodies of Chinatown are the rival companies or 'tongs,' which enforce their decrees and settle their feuds by murder. . . . Chinese gambhng joints are actual fortresses, with steel doors, 2 Kaneko, K., in "Japan's Message to America"; Tokyo, 1914; p. 9. JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 25 sentries, and a labyrinth of secret exits. They are an open, fortified defiance of law, and are a source of almost universal police graft. . . . Sanitary conditions are unspeak able and sanitary regulations are unenforce able. . . . The Japanese in the beginning congregate on the borders of Chinatown, but they build better and cleaner houses and ad mit some air to them. They adopt Ameri can clothing at once, and American customs very rapidly. . . . The general aspect of life is cheerful and attractive, and the Japanese themselves, from the highest to the lowest, are a delightfully polite and genial people. . . . They develop a civic sense, pubhc spirit, and moral leadership." ^ At the time when the Japanese began to enter California in noticeable numbers this marked distinction, however, could naturally not be appreciated. Coming from the same quarter of the globe as the Chinese, whom they superficially resemble, and coming, too, 3 "Annals of the American Academy of Political and So cial Science," vol. xxxiv, no. 2: Philadelphia, 1909; pp. 226-327. 26 THE JAPANESE CRISIS precisely at the time when San Francisco was demanding a re-enactment of the Chi nese exclusion law, the Japanese naturally fell heir to the anti-Chinese prejudice. At the mass meeting of May 7, 1900, San Fran cisco citizens passed a resolution urging Congress not only to re-enact the Chinese ex clusion law, but also to adopt such measures as might be necessary for the total exclusion of all classes of Japanese other than mem bers of the diplomatic staff.* Professor Millis, whose study of the ques tion has covered about a dozen years, believes ^ that this unlucky inheritance of anti-Chinese prejudice, due to coincidence in time and ito superficial racial resemblance, has colored the whole history of the Japanese in this country, especially in California.® In spite of the San Francisco mass meet ing, scant popular interest was felt through out the state in the exclusion or restriction * Millis, H. A., "The Japanese Problem in the United States:" New York, 1915; p. 12. Derived from "Reports of Immigration Commission," vol. 23, p. 167. 5 Millis, as cited, pp. 240-241. JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 27 of Japanese immigration until the San Francisco Chronicle opened, in 1905, a cam paign which proved highly successful. At that time an enlarged stream by way of Honolulu was emptying itself into the bay of San Francisco, "where it was made con spicuously evident by aU the circumstances connected with disembarkation, boarding and lodging, and subsequent employment." ® No less than thirty-six "emigration com panies" were engaged at this time in export ing Japanese laborers, with capital assets ranging aU the way from 20,000 to 1,000,- 000 yen.'^ In opening its attack, the Chron icle pointed out that the Japanese population of California had grown from eighty-six in 1880 to 35,000 in 1905, with immigration rapidly increasing. It claims to have based its opposition not on race prejudice, but on the economic doctrine of the danger of com petition between American labor and that of a race "fully as capable as our own and hav- « MiUis, as cited, p. 13. -! Yoshida, Y., "Sources and Causes of Japanese Emigra tion," in "Annals," as cited, p. 165, note. 28 THE JAPANESE CRISIS ing the added advantage of being inured by centuries of self-denial to a mode of life to which we do not wish to conform, even if we had the ability to do so." ^ The Chronicle opened its campaign in February, 1905. On March I the legisla ture unanimously requested Congress to re strict the further immigration of Japanese laborers, and in May the Asiatic Exclusion League was organized in San Francisco. The constituency of this League was at that time infiuential in control of the municipal government, with the result that on May 6 the Board of Education declared its deter mination to establish separate schools for oriental pupils. After the great fire of 1906 this "separate school order" was passed, and the Japanese-California problem became an international issue. This whole agitation led ultimately (in 1907) to the "Gentlemen's Agreement" brought about by President Roosevelt with the Japanese government, 8 Young, J. P., an editor of the Chronicle, in "Annals," as cited, pp. 333-234. JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 29 which undertook to prevent a further emi- gi'ation of laborers, or, rather, to limit the is suance of passports to non-laborers, and to those laborers "who, in coming to the conti nent, seek to resume a formerly acquired domicile, to join a parent, wife, or children residing here, or to assume active control of an already possessed interest in a farming enterprise." In the same year the President issued an order directed against a large immigration of Japanese by way of Mexico, Canada, and Hawaii; passports having been obtained for entrance to these countries, in order to effect ultimate entrance to the continental United States^ — ^"lawfuUy previous to the issue of the President's order of March 14, 1907, sur reptitiously ever since." ^ Opponents of Japanese immigration find a vjilnerable point in the "Gentlemen's Agreement" in the understanding which al lows "non-laborers," that is to say, women, 9 "Reports of the Immigration Commission," vol. 23, p. IS, quoted by Millis, as cited, p. 11. 30 THE JAPANESE CRISIS to come in unhindered as "Picture Brides." "If there are 55,000 Japanese men in the state (or 100,000, as the Exclusion League guesses) the privilege of each to send his photograph to Japan and marry it to a wife means a possible immediate increase of the population to 110,000 (or 200,000) with the potential permanent increase of the progeny of these marriages. These wives, of course, also increase the tendency of the Japanese to seek more fixed occupations. The picture bride is not permitted to leave Japan until her photograph husband has provided a place for her. 'Catch 'em wife' is one of the mo tives commonly assigned by Japanese for taking up land leases. To these must be added whatever Japanese slip in from Mex ico. The Exclusion League insists that there is a constant stream of Japanese im migration to insignificant Mexican ports near the border, with no increase in the Japa nese population of those ports and no sign of its absorption elsewhere in Mexico." ^" 10 Rowell, C. H., "The Japanese in California," in The World's Work: New York, June, 1913. JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 31 Americans unacquainted with Japanese customs have branded these quaint transac tions in "Picture Brides" as being merely a cunning device for evading the spirit of the "Gentlemen's Agreement." As a matter of fact, however, marriages are often arranged by this means in Japan, and sometimes with out even a photograph acquaintance. The present writer knew a young Japanese who, according to the weU-known naka-dachi or "go-between" system, asked an elderly friend to go up the river and find a wife for him. On returning, the "go-between" re ported to the groom-elect that he had found two suitable sisters, and asked which one was preferred. The j^oung man expressed a preference for the younger. But the older man, on further consideration, decided that the elder girl would suit better. "Oh, aU right," replied the groom; "it's a matter of no consequence to me." To us such methods of matrimony may seem amusing, but manj'^ of our own customs are equaUy amusing to the Japanese. The 32 THE JAPANESE CRISIS point is, that the "Picture Brides" system is merely an adaptation of Japanese marriage customs to new and strange conditions, and it is difficult to see how those critics who so strongly oppose racial intermarriage can consistently object to an arrangement with the opposite tendency. Dr. Gulick not only sees nothing to criticize in this procedure, but, on the contrary, regards it as exceed ingly wise, and well calculated, in the cir cumstances, to secure the best possible re sults. The marriages, as a rule, are success ful, only about one per cent having thus far ended in divorce." The "Gentlemen's- Agi'eement," which is still in force, seemed to the majority of Cali fornia citizens entirely satisfactory in its operation until, in 1913, by a complication of extraordinary circumstances, the legisla ture passed the Alien Land Law, which will be considered in its place. Meanwhile it is interesting to remember that of the 95,000 11 Gulick, S, L,, "The American Japanese Problem": New York, 1914; p. 95. JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 33 Japanese in the United States, 55,000 are found in California, or about three-fifths of the whole; Washington ranking next with one-sixth, and the matter being neghgible elsewhere, except, of course — and this is a large exception ! — as it affects the nation po Utically. Not only is the Japanese population heav ily localized in Cahfomia, but, within the state itself, large masses are concentrated in restricted communities. Los Angeles county, the home of the writer, contains 11,- 500, or more than one-fourth of the total; 8,000 living in the city of Los Angeles, and 7,000 in San Francisco. As Mr. Rowell says, there is very little organized anti-Japa nese sentiment in Southern Cahfornia, as this is the non-union section of the state, the opposition being strongest in the closely unionized northern cities. Moreover, Japa nese landholdings in the southern section are relatively insignificant, whereas in certain narrowly circumscribed northern locahties may be found "a miniature of Hawaiian so- 34 THE JAPANESE CRISIS cial conditions," from which "the most in tense feeling" arises.^^ This is due largely to the aU-important fact that the immigrants have tended to con centrate not only in a few restricted locali ties, but in a single occupation, that of farm ing; 65 per cent of the Japanese in Cah fornia being engaged in agriculture, 15 per cent in domestic service and 15 per cent in various services to their feUow countrymen, and the remaining 5 per cent as officials, professionals, and students.^^ Rowell shows — and this is most important — that the principal production of the state is really dominated by the Japanese. On the farms operated by Japanese, practicaUy all the labor (96 per cent) is also Japanese. On the farms operated by white farmers, ac cording to the investigation made in 1909, of the total labor employed, 54 per cent was white, 36 per cent Japanese, and the remain ing 10 per cent Japanese, Mexicans, Hin- 12 Rowell, C. H,, in The World's Work, as cited, p. 198. 13 "Special State Investigation of 1909," given as Appen dix B by Gulick, as cited. JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 35 dus, and Indians. But the most striking fact is the classification of occupations. For instance, counting the farms of white farm ers alone, nearly nine-tenths of the berries, two-thirds of the sugar-beets, more than half of the grapes and nursery products, 46 per cent of the vegetables, and more than one- third of the citrus and deciduous fruits, were raised by Japanese labor. At the other ex treme, of hops only 8 per cent and of hay and of grain only 6 per cent were raised by Japanese labor, and of misceUaneous crops less than 20 per cent. On farms where whites were employed exclusively, no berries nor nursery products were grown, and few vegetables, except beans. In other words, whUe the Japanese do an inconsiderable part of the entire business of Cahfornia, and very little of those sorts of farming which Cah fornia has in common with other states, they practicaUy dominate the labor of the charac teristic and horticultural productions of Cal ifornia.^* 1* Rowell, C. H., in The World's Work, as cited, pp. 36 THE JAPANESE CRISIS In justice to Cahfornia it should always be clearly remembered that no arrogant prej udice against the Japanese as of inferior quality contributes to the concem of our thoughtful people in this problem. The most vehement statement of opposition to all forms of Japanese immigration ever brought to the writer's notice contains the words: "We know that in many respects they are racially superior to us." Another 198-199. He adds: "The explanation is found in the pe culiarly migratory conditions of California farm labor. The fruit crops are seasonal. They require a great deal of labor for a short time every year, and very little labor the rest of the year. Fortunately, the seasonal demand varies with the different fruits. There is a harvest of some sort going on somewhere in California practically every month of the year. Oranges, for instance, ripen in midwinter, grapes in the fall, deciduous fruits in the summer, and berries in the spring. There is plenty of work, but not continu ously in any one place. If farms are large, producing much fruit and few human beings, this work can only be done by migratory labor. Much of the work, also, like thinning sugar beets, or cutting raisin grapes, must be done squatting. Oriental labor adapts itself to both these con ditions, and since the Chinese have grown old and few, the Japanese have taken their places." (Their habit of sitting on the floor has inured the Japanese to squatting, so that in the squatting occupations they greatly surpass white labor in efficiency. White labor, moreover, vnth its devo tion to home, is non-migratory. — j. a. b. s.) JAPANESE IN CALIFORNIA 37 strong statement of a similar character closes with the significant language, — "I am not at all satisfied in my own mind that the Japa nese are not as a people potentially superior to us. However, we have the lead in the de velopment of democracy and should keep at this work, without actual hindrance, for the good of the world." Enough has already been written to show that there was a California-Japanese prob lem previous to the enactment of the Alien Land Law in I9I3. Before we consider that law it may be weU to examine three ques tions — ^nationahstic, sociological, and eco nomic — which Califomians who are brought into daily contact with the Japanese are con stantly asking, and which contain the gist of the problem as seen from the Cahfornia view point. IS JAPAN MILITANT? IS JAPAN MILITANT? California is little given to "war scares," being inclined to laugh at the fulminations of perfervid Merrimac heroes and to froAvn on the misrepresentations of Hearst newspapers as malicious and mischievous.^ But she in creasingly reads Japanese history, and ob serves current events in the Orient. She knows the old Japanese proverb, "Among flowers, the cherry, among men, the war rior," and wonders whether the military ideals oi Bushido, "the Way of the Warrior," are ascendant in modem times as in ancient. She has learned that the institution of hara- kiri originated in an age-long military drill; the highest test of physical courage being the willingness to yield one's own life, and this ceremonial of suicide at behest of a superior being so schooled by constant rehearsal into the minds of young samurai that when fac ing the test of supreme surrender they were 1 "If one dog barks a falsehood, ten thousand others spread it as a truth." — Japanese proverb. 41 42 THE JAPANESE CRISIS able to meet the bloody reality without a tremor and with perfect composure.^ This elaboration of suicide into a national institution, practised and belauded for cen turies, is the classic example of militaristic drill; has it inscribed an ineffaceable char acter, or are the Japanese, hke the Ameri cans, now would-be patrons of peace? It is by no means an idle curiosity that prompts this question. Japanese genius has appropriated to such purpose occidental les sons in hygiene and medicine, sanitation and surgery, that Japan's population has doubled since westem civihzation was adopted.^ Only one-twelfth, or thereabouts, of the na tive territory is arable, and the people must live. As this pressure of population pushes out into unoccupied territory here and there on the surface of the globe, at such points as Hawaii and Mexico and South America, will 2 Murray, D., "Japan": New York, 1901; p. 286. A. B. Mitford, in the Appendix of his "Tales of Old Japan" (London, 1888), has given a most graphic and impressive account of this remarkable ceremony and its effects. 3 Gulick, S. L., as cited, p. 236. IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 43 the colonists become poUtically acclimatized, or will these lands hecome Japanese colonies? WiU the home government be content to see its subjects happily assimilated by foreign govemments, or wiU it insist on a "benevo lent assimUation" of its own? In other words, is Japan bent on the ambition of be coming a world-wide colonial power, by mil itary domination Uke that of the greater European governments, or will it cast off its samurai armor and join America as a Dai On Jin ("great friendly nation") in quest of the day when, as Victor Hugo eloquently prophesied, the only battlefield will be the market opening to commerce and the mind to new ideas? My own experience in contact with the mind of young Japan was not encouraging. I shaU not soon forget the result when I once assigned to an advanced class of students an essay on the subject, "Why I Study Eng hsh," and the naive conclusion of one of the brightest lads appeared as follows: "The Enghsh is the language of the most 44 THE JAPANESE CRISIS strongest nations. Whosoever wish to con quer any country, he must know the coun try and get the people's confidence. But this will not be done without he understand the language. Now we will leam the Eng lish. And then our navy shaU sail across the sea, we will conquer England, we will con quer also our dear Teacher's country, and the flag of Great Japan will wave above the aU world." Of course I should not cite this emanation of a single youthful mind if it were not typ ical of much of the thought of young Japan as I knew it. On the other hand, it is also a matter of fact that the two greatest construc tive leaders that Japan has developed from among its common people have been distin guished not so much for martial prowess as for supreme achievements that could not have come about except by and through peace. The first was lyeyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, whose splendid tomb is the central shrine of beautiful Nikko. He IS JAPAN MILITANT? 45 was the last and greatest of a medieval triumvirate. Like his two predecessors, lyeyasu was an able general. Unhke them, he knew the value of peace for the real development of a people. His first act was to found Yedo — now Tokyo — as his capital. Foreseeing the future great ness of this "door of the bay," he set an army of three hundred thousand labor ers to work in the sunken marshes or upon the towering hiUs, grading streets and cutting canals. His faith was justified within a half-century, for the new capital by that time held a quarter-million inhabitants. Further, he estabhshed easy communication between the new capital and the old, at Kyoto, building a great road of over three hundred miles (it is still a good road) with fifty-two stations for shelter and supplies. Indeed, he marked out the width of all the roadways of the Empire, arranged ferries, and provided for the regulation of society. Then, having shut out the disturbing influ ence of meddlesome foreigners by the drastic 46 THE JAPANESE CRISIS enforcement of an uncompromising Act of Exclusion, he brought about a revival of let ters and assiduously sent all of his subjects to school, having founded for this purpose a peace that lasted unbroken for two hundred and sixty-eight years, or until Perry knocked at his "door of the bay" in 1853. There was nothing magical about Perry's performance whatsoever. The Japanese were ready for his coming, because they had enjoyed two and a half centuries of assiduous, unbroken schooling. And the Japanese are prouder of lyeyasu to-day than of any of the mighty warriors who preceded him. Their chief feudal hero was a peacemaker. The second greatest name in Japanese popular history is perhaps that of Ito — every whit as great among moderns as lyeyasu among feudal leaders. He fell (in 1909) at the hands of an assassin, but no hand can strike down his monument, which, through the patronage of his master, the Meiji Em peror, is nothing less than Japan of to-day. In his country they said of him, Hito- IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 47 tabi ashi agureba, tenka ugoku ("when once he hfts his foot, the universe trembles") ; and yet his chief weapon was not the sword, but the pen. It was he who inspired the death-warrant of feudalism, which meant the restoration of the Emperor to actual power, and it was Ito who wrote the Japanese constitution and then secured its estabUshment. His name is hnked with al most every great work of constructive states manship in the history of new Japan.* To do his stupendous task he required and de sired peace, being driven to the side of war only when western nations had convinced Japan that the sole way to secure just recog nition was through war. Is war, then, the chief ideal or ambition of the Japanese people? lyeyasu, not Nobu- naga or Hideyoshi, is their feudal hero. Ito, not Nogi or Togo, is their hero to-day, next to the late Emperor, whose name (Mutsu- hito, "the meek man") symbolizes the peace 4 Brinkley, F., "Japan": Boston and Tokyo, 1902; vol. iv, p. 236. 48 THE JAPANESE CRISIS which was undoubtedly his cherished de sire. Certainly it is true to-day, however, that a large number of Americans, especially on the Pacific coast, believe that the ideals and ambitions of Japan are concerned chiefly with war. Even so sane and thoughtful a Californian as George H. Maxwell, in a book attacking American mihtarism and suggesting a noble substitute for it, con jures — with the aid of Homer Lea — ^vivid pictures of Japanese military aggressive ness.^ He says, however, that there are no people on earth who more richly deserve and merit the good will of other nations;® and adds the noteworthy words: "The present European war is the result of primary causes that were so deeply rooted in wrong and injustice, that no human power could eradicate them. It is different with Japan. We have no long standing or deeply rooted 5 Maxwell, G. H., "Our National Defense, or, the Patri otism of Peace": Washington and New Orleans, 1915; chapters vi, vii, x. 8 p. 136. IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 49 controversy with Japan and we need never have if we meet the economic prob lem." ' The writer believes that Japan's most seri ous economic problem — namely, the pres sure of an already dense and rapidly increas ing population within a narrowly restricted and largely unarable territory — ^may well be solved on the adjacent mainland of Asia. Mr. Y. Takekoshi, M.P., discussing his Em pire's colonial policy, has said: "Korea has room for ten million immi grants, and Formosa for two million. So we have to-day both colonies and colonists, like England. We do not need any more colonies than we already have. Any one who attempts to acquire more would act con trary to the sound Imperial policy, and for his own private adventure. Japan's Im perial pohcy to-day calls for the develop ment of Korea and of Manchuria, as well as of Formosa, and Japan's colonial policy 7 Maxwell, G. H., as cited, pp. 155-156. (Italics, the present writer's.) 50 THE JAPANESE CRISIS should not be otherwise than to fulfil her re sponsibility toward these lands." * As for the frequently bruited alarums about Japan's desire to colonize and after wards control the Philippine Islands, a glance at the map will show that Korea and Manchuria lie far north of the tropical Philippines. The Japanese, like ourselves, are acclimatized to the temperate zone, and do not thrive in the tropics. Their expe rience evfen in Formosa has been disastrous. Professor Story of Harvard says of Jap anese settlers: "They have never been a strong element in the Philippines, even in the long period of Spanish rule. Japan's surplus population is just now expanding in the direction of the mainland, chiefly into Korea and its hinterland. From the Japa nese element of the immigration into the Phihppines, the United States and the Philippine government need not expect any 8 Japan's Colonial Policy, in "Japan's Message to Amer ica": Tokyo, 1914; pp. 110-111. IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 51 serious problem."^ Dr. Murray Bartlett, formerly President of the University of the Phihppines, is willing to be quoted to the same effect. Journalists and other people who talk ghbly of Japan's engaging in expensive for eign wars should famiharize themselves with the disastrous sequel of the "glorious vic tory" over Russia. When the Japanese troops returned they were everywhere ac claimed by immense multitudes; meats and drinks and garlands were lavished on them, while the Emperor himself paid homage to his illustrious servants; but — to follow a European eye-witness who has poignantly described what ensued when the shouting and the tumult died, — it happened that when these triumphant and feted warriors retumed to their homes and their domestic duties, they found themselves face to face with the most sordid cares of life; and that, 9 Story, R. M., "Oriental Immigration into the Philip pines," in "Annals," as cited, p. 170. 52 THE JAPANESE CRISIS in many cases, the old soldier had to seek vainly for so much work as would fill even the thin larder of a Japanese household ; and to go starving from the home of a starving wife and starving children. M. Naudeau, in his brilliant work on Modem Japan, which was "crowned" by the French Academy,^" has cited some startling figures. The war with China, in 1894, brought the Japanese budget up from to 83,- 000,000 yen" annually to 168,000,000, while the war with Russia in 1904 lifted it to 505,000,000, and the public debt had risen enormously during the same period, — that is to say, from 4.40 yen per capita in 1893 to 46 yen thirteen years later, a ten-fold in crease ! This gigantic burden involved, of course, equally gigantic taxes. Everything, says M. Naudeau, is taxed in Japan. There are taxes not only on liquors of all kinds, but also on such articles as sugar, medicines, and 10 Naudeau, L., "Le Japon Moderne; Son Evolution": Paris, 1911. 11 A yen is fifty cents. IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 53 railway tickets, while tobacco, salt, and cam phor have been taken over as govemment monopolies, and exorbitant prices affixed to them. In addition to an import duty of 15 per cent on manufactured articles, native manufactures are also heavily mulcted ; while every citizen with an annual income of more than $150 pays income tax. Chancellor Jordan, of Stanford University, said in a re cent address that whereas in America his an nual direct taxes amount to about $120, with an equal sum in indirect taxes, if he lived in Japan he would have to pay $4,500 a year on the same property and income.^^ "Japan pays very dearly for her glory," declares the French writer; "she pays in sufferings for which she can foresee no remedy. Japan grows in power and in prestige, but she im molates herself, and the pyre on which she writhes is built of piled-up miseries." " Sympathy, and not suspicion, should we give her at this time, leading her thoughts 12 California Outlook, October, 1915. 13 Naudeau, L., as cited, p. 256. 64 THE JAPANESE CRISIS from the altar of militarism toward the shrine of a friendly peace. M. Naudeau, who witnessed the amazing outburst of wrath that occurred in Tokyo in 1904 when the people beheved that their gov ernment had concluded at Portsmouth a peace which robbed them of their dues, has depicted more clearly than any other writer the volcanic ebullitions of a people — di rected at that time against their own govern ment — who habitually wear a crust of smil ing cahn. Stirred by this vivid French pic ture, Mr. T. P. O'Connor has written: "There is in individual as well as in national character, one type which is always liable to give us some unpleasant surprises. You nieet a man or a woman who is apparent^ soft, yielding and self-controUed. You may try them with a certain want of con sideration for their feelings ; and finding that you are met with nothing but the same agree able smile and unquestioning docility, you rush to the conclusion that they are incapable of a moment of fierce anger or volcanic pas- IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 55 sion. But you find yourself suddenly and unexpectedly awakened. What you have not realized is that what you have said or done has been profoundly resented, and that though the resentment has not been ex pressed, it has deepened in consequence ; and that some fine day it bursts forth with all the rage and devastation of a volcano. I have seen that happen among my own people; I have seen it happen even more frequently among French people. There is no kindlier people in the world than the Irish; no more forgiving; no more pohte; but there comes a moment when they feel themselves touched in some point of honor or self-respect; and then they burst into fury. . . . And when a broad-minded Japanese discusses with you, in the confidence of private conversation, the character of his people, this is also the view he takes. Count Okuma, for instance, dis cussing this very question with the author of this book, summed up the character of his people in these words: 'The Japanese are not cruel but they are turbulent, vindictive 56 THE JAPANESE CRISIS and irascible' ; a portrait which, though terse, is sufficient to reveal to the Europeans how little they have grasped the depths in Japa nese life." " This fact of the Japanese temperament is the focal point of importance in this whole discussion. All Europeans or Americans that have lived among Japanese and had even a modicum of sympathetic discern ment will agree with Mr. O'Connor. Elihu Root,^^ then Secretary of State, grasped this point as the center of possible trouble when he said with reference to the San Francisco "separate school order": "There was one great and serious question underlying the whole subject which made all questions ... as to whether the resolution of the school board was valid or not — seem temporary and comparatively unimportant. It was not a question of war with Japan. 1* O'Connor, T. P., in T. P.'s Weekly: London, Jan, 10, 19)3; p, 34. 15 In an address delivered in Washington City, April 19, 1907; quoted in "America to Japan": New York, 1915; pp. 178-179. IS JAPAN MILITANT? 57 All the foohsh talk about war was purely sensational and imaginative. There was never even friction between the two Govern ments. The question was. What state of feehng would be created between tlie great body of the people of the L'l^nited States and the great body of the people of Japan as a result of tlie treatment given to the Japa nese in tliis comitrj'? "What was to be the effect upon that proud, sensitive, liighly civUized people across the Pacific of the discourtesy, insult, imputations of inferiority and abuse aimed at them in the columns of American news papers and from the platforms of American pubhc meethigs ? What would be the effect upon our own people of tlie responses that natural resentment for such treatment would ehcit from tlie Japanese f If the writer has dwelt long upon this sub ject, and cited lengtliy quotations, it is be cause of his conviction that herein is some thing for American pohticians and jour nalists to ponder over. Not only are the 68 THE JAPANESE CRISIS Japanese one of the most high-spirited and sensitive people in the world, but the danger of sudden and irresistible popular explosions is greatly heightened by the existence of a peculiar class known as soshi. These are the hoodlum heirs of those medieval heroes called ronin, or "wave men," who turbulently roUed about the country wreaking revenge for any insults offered to their lords. ^^ Soshi have made themselves felt in recent years, during times of international resentment, not only against foreigners (as in the attack on Li Hung Chang at Shimonoseki in 1895), but in murderous assaults on supposedly pro- foreign Japanese statesmen, such as Count Okuma, who escaped with the loss of a leg, and Viscount Mori, successfully assassi nated. The Japanese government itself is one of the wisest and most cool-headed govern ments in the world: being constituted, by a rigorous selective process, of men inured to 16 See Mitford, A, B., as cited, pp. 1-24; and John Mase- field in "The Faithful": New York, 1915. IS JAPAN MILITANT? 69 iron self-control, trained to a broad and sym pathetic vision of foreign affairs as well as to keen insight into domestic perplexities, and anxious, with the wisdom of a far per spective, to lighten the already heavy social burdens of the muttering people, to say nothing of the avoidance of piling up the crushing weight of added armaments. The peace of Japan is safe if left in the hands of her statesmen. But the elements repre sented by the soshi have more than once forced the hand of the government into an impetuous war. The danger of some sensi tive popular explosion is the only menace to our peace with Japan. He who lightly ap phes a match to this tinder is, however ig norant or thoughtless, a criminal against the human race. Like other sensitive and high-spirited races and individuals, the Japanese have a delightful converse side of generous respon siveness to just and kindly treatment. What more striking illustration could be offered of this than the early incident in the 60 THE JAPANESE CRISIS hfe of the now aged Ebara, which deter mined him as the life-long friend of America, so that, when a commission was sent from Japan in 1913 to allay the bitter feelings of the Japanese in California roused by the Alien Law discussion, he was naturally chosen as one of three? The incident is this : When, in the 'sixties, all the other foreign ministers left Toky5 because of the fear of assassination, our American minister. Town- send Harris, alone remained, saying that he would trust the Japanese government and people. It was his habit to ride out daily on horseback, unarmed and unattended, an extremely dangerous thing at that time. Young Ebara was so impressed by the cour age and spirit of the man that he procured an appointment from the Shogun to act gratuitously as Mr. Harris's personal guard. From that time to this Mr. Ebara has been an ardent admirer of America; ^^ just as Baron Shibusawa says of Harris's gallant 17 Gulick, S. L,, as cited, p, 105. IS JAPAN MILITANT.? 61 conduct in another critical circumstance, "This incident won for Anierica the good will of Japan." ^^ Another of these 1913 commissioners of concihation, the Hon. J. Soyeda, prepared, on his retvu'n to Japan, a "Suney of the Japanese Question in Cahfomia," compre hensive and statesmanlike, and lu'ging better mutual acquaintance as the proper solution. He coimseled his people residing in America to "strive more and more for assimilation with the people and obsen^ance of the laws and customs of the land. . . . They must work strenuously to remedy their faults and do nothing to startle or irritate the people with whom they are hving." On his people at home he urged "patience and careful con sideration," with "campaigns of education along permanent and broad Unes with the aim to enhghten the pubhc opinion, not only in the two countries concemed, but all the world over." 18 "Japan's Message to America," as dted, p. 21. 62 THE JAPANESE CRISIS Mr. Soyeda is a graduate of the Imperial University at Tokyo, and has also studied at Cambridge and Heidelberg. He came to the United States in 1913 representing the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Japan. The San Francisco Examiner of October 2, 1913, dealt with his friendly and courteous pamphlet in the following impu dent terms: "It is with thankfulness, gratitude, humil ity and a deep sense of being properly re buked that we receive this fulmination of the Hon. Juichi. We shall not selfishly enjoy this feast of reason and flow of language alone. At least half of it shall be fed to the office cat — may his venerable whiskers flour ish forever! The other moiety will be for warded to a noted pro-Japanese American statesman, who engages in lectui'ing, breed ing doves, and Secretarying of State with equal grace, facility and financial success. In a general way. Honorable Pamphlet in forms us that Honorable Japanese is truly morally superior to unfortunate American IS JAPAN MILITANT? 63 inhabitableness, being truth, firmness, up rightness and faithfulness in gentlemen's agreement, therefore is perfectly agreeable to naturalization and intermarriage, which afford happy solution to Honorable Immi gration Question not yet impacted upon yel low American press." ^^ It is a far cry from this sort of impudence to the gaUant character that attracted Mr. Soyeda's fellow commissioner to a life-long friendship for America. Townsend Harris never truckled to the Japanese; they would have despised him if he had. On the con trary, he was one of the firmest representa tives we have ever had at a foreign court. He was brave and firm, but he was also con siderate and just. Our Japanese problem will vanish into thin air if we substitute in dealing with it the spirit of Harris for the spirit of Hearst; the spirit of the gentle man and statesman for that of the journal ist one of whose writers was actually auda cious enough to boast in a published book 19 See Gulick, S. L., as cited, pp. 107-108. 64 THE JAPANESE CRISIS that his paymaster brought on the Ameri can war with Spain.^° 20Creelman, J,, "On the Great Highway": Boston, 1901, ch, ix.. Familiar Glimpses of Yellow Journalism. For re cent exEunples of grotesquely mendacious attempts to fo ment strife with Japan, see files of the Los Angeles Ex- amiruer, etc., October, 1916. ARE TEE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLEl ARE TEE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? Racial antipathy does not arise in the cool seclusion of the study, but in the warmth of mass contact. There are numerous in stances of northem doctrinaires who, going to live in the South, have tumed from "ne- grophiles" into "negrophobes," becoming infected with race prejudice to a greater degree than their already well inoculated Southern neighbors. Regarding our pres ent problem, I would like to offer a contrast ahnost dramatic: that of a New England poet and a Cahfornia farmer, the poet lec turing (but not on the Japanese question) before the Lowell Institute in Boston, the farmer coming straight from his sweaty con tact with Japanese laborers to a hearing be fore the 1913 legislature in Sacramento. Said Professor Woodberry: "It belongs to a highly developed race to become, in a true sense, aristocratic — a treas ury of its best in practical and spiritual 67 68 THE JAPANESE CRISIS types, and then to disappear in the surround ing types of men. So Athens dissolved hke a pearl in the cup of the Mediterranean, and Rome in the cup of Europe, and Judea in the cup of the Universal Communion. . . . Nay, if the aristocracy of the whole white race is so to melt in a world of the colored races of the earth, I for one should only re joice in such a divine triumph of the sacri ficial idea in history." ^ And the Boston audience applauded. Said the gaunt farmer at Sacramento: "Up at Elk Grove, where I live, on the next farm a Japanese man lives, and a white woman. That woman is carrying around a baby in her arms. What is that baby? It isn't white. It isn't Japanese. I'll tell you what it is — "It is the beginning of the biggest problem that ever faced the American people!" Mr. RoweU, who was present, reports that the Assembly committee withdrew, without 1 Woodberry, G. E., "The Torch ; Eight Lectures on Race Power": New York, 1905; pp. 3, 6. ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 69 waiting for the hearing to end, and "unani mously reported out one of the very bills against which we were protesting" ^ — a biU, needless to say, inimical to Japanese inter ests in Cahfomia. Doubtless the Assembly committee was precipitate; conceivably. Professor Wood berry was poetically depicting some "far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves"; but, just as farmers and politicians ought to read more philosophy and poetry, so the Atlantic Coast critics of the Pacific Coast, and our Japanese critics as well, ought to try to catch their neighbor's point of view. Perhaps Farmer Newman was mistaken and excited, but there can be no sort of doubt that he was sincere; nor can there be any doubt whatever that if con ditions were reversed, so that the Japanese became excited with the notion that the pearl of Yamato-damashii was about to be dis solved in the sacrificial cup of history, and their race lost in the white man's melting 2 Rowell, C. H., in The World's Work, as cited, p. 195, 70 THE JAPANESE CRISIS pot, they would speak in terms of prose rather than poetry, and enact an ahen land law. Have they not already done so? Per haps the most vigorous alien law ever en acted was that by which Japan in 1624 ban ished all Europeans utterly from the Em pire, except a handful of Dutch traders in sulated at Deshima, to whom only two ships were permitted to enter from Holland in a year, and from whom Japan exacted costly tribute; all because they believed their gov ernment to be threatened by intrigues of the Roman Catholics. This is the law which, rigorously enforced, endured for 268 years, or until Perry forcibly annulled it in 1853 for the sake of California commerce. It would not be fair to cite the persecu tions inflicted during this period on natives who had merely ventured to embrace an alien religion — persecutions which, accord ing to Japanese records themselves, equaled in ferocious intensity those of the Roman Empire or the Spanish Inquisition.^ Mod- 3 Gubbins, J. H., "Asiatic Society Transactions," vol. vi. ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 71 ern Japan is totally different from medieval Japan. But the racial and nationalistic passion exists now just as it did then, and no one with the slightest actual knowledge of the Japanese can doubt that if intrigue against their govemment in the seventeenth century produced the alien laws of lyeyasu and lyemitsu, a sincere (albeit perhaps mis taken) conviction that their race itself was in danger of dissolution, and their best land of absorption, and their economic opportuni ties of annihilation, by white settlers, some thing would happen in the twentieth century equally as drastic as the passage of the Cali fornia Land Law, to say the least. This is not to say that the California Land Law is right. It is merely to point the homely Enghsh proverbs, that pots should not call kettles black, and that we should al ways try to put ourselves in the other fel lows' shoes. Some of the most intelligent opponents of part i, p. 35. See also citations in Murray's "Japan": New York, 1901; pp. 246-249. 72 THE JAPANESE CRISIS oriental immigration base their opposition frankly on race difference, and assume the non-assimilability of the Japanese. Walter Macarthur opens his argument with the statement: "The opposition to oriental im migration is justified upon the single ground of race" ; and closes with the startling asser tion: "The conclusion of the whole matter then is that exclusion is the only alternative of race degeneracy or race war." * Chester H. Rowell says: "We know what could happen, on the Asiatic side, by what did hap pen and is happening on the European side. On that side we have survived, and such of the immigration as we have not assimilated for the present we know is assimilable in the future. But against Asiatic immigration we could not survive. The numbers who would come would be greater than we could encyst, and the races who would come are those which we could never absorb. The permanence not merely of American civiliza- * Macarthur, W., "Opposition to Oriental Immigration," in "Annals," as cited, pp. 239, 246. ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 73 tion, but of the white race on this continent, depends on our not doing, on the Pacific side, what we have done on the Atlantic Coast." ® — "The bitterest anti- Japanese agitation in California has never once suggested that they are an inferior race. They are of a different, and physically unassimilable race; that is all. . . . Whether ten thousand acres of Japanese farms shall become twenty thou sand is not overwhelmingly important. That the two chief races of mankind shall stay each on its own side of the Pacific, there to conduct in peace and friendship the com merce of goods and ideas, and of the things of the spirit, but without general interpene tration of populations, or comminghng of blood — that is precisely the greatest thing in the world." « Senator Newlands of Nevada may also be cited. He says: "History teaches that it is impossible to make a homogeneous people by the juxtapo- 6 "Annals," as cited, p. 230. 8 World's Work, as cited, pp. 199, 201. 74 THE JAPANESE CRISIS sition upon the same soil of races differing in color. . . . Our friendship with Japan, for whose territorial and race integrity the American people have been in active sympa thy in all her struggles, demands that this friendship be not put to the test by bringing two such powerful races, of such differing views and standards, into industrial compe tition upon the same soil. . . . Japan can not justly take offense at such restrictive domestic legislation upon our part. She would be the first to take such action against the white race, were it necessary to do so in order to maintain the integrity of her race and her institutions. She is at hberty to pursue a similar course. Such action con stitutes no implication of inferiority of the race excluded ; it may even be a confession of inferiority by the excluding race, in its abil ity to cope economically with the race ex cluded. ... I am opposed to terms of op probrium and of insult. Japan deserves from us only respect and admiration, and we ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 75 deserve from her a proper regard for the in tegrity of our race and institutions." '' These writers all assume as indisputable that the Japanese are not assimilable and that amalgamation would result in degen eracy. In this they have the high authority of Herbert Spencer, whose opinion is all the more impressive because he approaches the subject from the standpoint of the pres ervation and protection of the Japanese people themselves. Under date of August 26, 1892, he wi-ote to Baron Kaneko: "To your question respecting the inter marriage of foreigners and Japanese, which you say is 'now very much agitated among our scholars and politicians' and which you say is 'one of the most difficult problems,' my reply is that, as rationaUy answered, there is no difficulty at all. It should be positively forbidden. It is not at root a question of social philosophy. It is at root a question of biology. There is abundant 7 Newlands, F. G., "A Western View of the Race Ques tion," in "Annals," as cited, pp. 270-271. 76 THE JAPANESE CRISIS proof, alike furnished by the intermarriages of human races and by the interbreeding of animals, that when the varieties mingled di verge beyond a certain slight degree the re sult is inevitably a bad one in the long run. I have myself been in the habit of looking at the evidence bearing on this matter for many years past, and my conviction is based on numerous facts derived from numer ous sources. . . . By all means, therefore, peremptorily interdict marriages of Japa nese with foreigners. "I have for the reasons indicated entirely approved of the regulations which have been established in America for restraining the Chinese immigration, and had I the power I would restrict them to the smaUest possible amount. ... If they mix they must form a bad hybrid. . . . The same thing wiU hap pen if there should be any considerable mix ture of European or American races with the Japanese. "You see, therefore, that my advice is strongly conservative in all directions, and I ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 77 end by saying as I began — keep other races at arm's length as much as possible." ® The study of biology and sociology has proceeded far since Spencer's day, with the result that many scholars now attach great importance to social heredity in contrast with biological. They conceive of the physical organism, indeed, as being chiefiy determined by biological heredity, although even here such investigations as those of Boas and Fishberg^ show the most starthng physio logical changes due to a new environment; whereas, on the other hand, the age-long social traditions of a people form an intangi ble but exceedingly influential spiritual en vironment which may completely transform, in immigrants themselves but more especially in their children, the attitude of the indi vidual toward morality, patriotism, and, in fact, the whole body of social behavior. 8 London Times, Jan. 18, 1904. Printed as Appendix in Heam's "Japan; an Attempt at Interpretation": New York and London, 1904. 9 Boas, F., "Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants": Washington, 1912. Fishberg, M., "The Jews; A Study of Race and Environment": New York, 1911. 78 THE JAPANESE CRISIS Dr. Guhck has carefuUy studied this subject, both in his "Evolution of the Jap anese" ^° and in his other volume to which this paper has made frequent reference, with the ensuing conviction that "com plete assimilation to our civihzation can take place without intermarriage." ^^ He beheves that patriotism is a psychic trait, communicated or inherited whoUy by social means, and thuiks that those who deny the assimilabUity of the Japanese have based their behef on a theory of race nature which is no longer tenable. In a word, they are obsessed by the biological con ception of man's nature and hfe. They do not recognize the psychic or spiritual factor, nor do they perceive that this psychic factor modifies in important ways even man's phys ical hfe. They think of heredity only in terms of biological analogy and have not a glimpse of social heredity" with laws wholty 10 New York and London, 1903. 11 Gulick, S. L., "The American Japanese Problem'': New York, 1914; p. 147. ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 79 its own.^^ He approves the remark of Pro fessor Commons : "It is not physical amal gamation that unites mankind; it is mental community. To be great a nation need not be of one blood, it must be of one mind" ^^ — and cites numerous instances of Japanese living in America and of their American born children to prove that the Japanese can and do make good American citizens in the fullest sense of the phrase. Certainly every thoughtful man of ad vanced or middle age must have had borne in upon him, by some means or other, the fact of the plasticity of peoples under a changed intellectual molding. The Amer icans themselves, through education and the facilities of intercourse with older and more highly cultivated civilizations, are socially of a distinct order from the Americans of the 'seventies; any one that doubts this need only refresh his recollection by reading, for 12 The same, pp. 164, 165. 13 Commons, J. R., "Races and Immigrants in America" : New York, 1913; p. 30. 80 THE JAPANESE CRISIS example, such a faithful narrative as Mark Twain's and Charles Dudley Warner's "Gilded Age." Who among us has not had to change utterly, during the last year or two, his notion of the Germans ? — the reason being that the supposedly "phlegmatic" Germans themselves have suffered a com plete transformation under the speU of their modem schoolmasters, whereas we had been thinking of them in the terms of Goethe and Schiller. As for the Japanese, the present writer said of them ten years ago that "for quick receptiveness and rapid, thorough assimila tion of mental food they are unparaUeled"; that "the mental soil of the Japanese has had a rapid receptivity without parallel in the history of the world" — ^but he realizes now that he did not allow sufficiently for immediate results from this remarkable endowment; so that, in revising the books written then, he intends to give credit for an appropriation of occidental modes of be havior of which he did not then think that ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 81 even the Japanese could be so rapidly ca pable. Take, for example, the matter of com mercial honesty. In medieval Japan there were four great social classes: samurai or warrior, farmer, artisan, and merchant, ranking in the order named. Next below the guardian warrior class came the farmers, always held in a certain respect because they added to the common wealth, which the warriors defended, by crea tion of the products of the soil. Artisans ranked next, and these were often artists; farmers and artisans, being creators, were worthy of all reverence. But the mer chant or banker lives by merely exchang ing the products of others; so that, by a social philosophy opposed to our own, all who merely dealt with money were ranked at the bottom of the scale as non-producers. By the operation of a human psychology that is the same the world over, this unre- spected mercantile class responded to its treatment, and became unrespectable — that 82 THE JAPANESE CRISIS is to say, dishonest, so that the untrustworth- iness of Japanese in commercial transactions became a long standing byword. Ten years ago the writer characterized "deep-set dis honesty" as a "cancer at the core of the Jap anese character." He also thought, with other foreign students, that Japan had had "a Renaissance, but not a Reformation"; that there could not, in the very nature of the case, have been an inner transformation com mensurate with the outward; and that this inner transformation would be a long time coming. But what has happened? Com mercial dishonesty is rapidly giving way to trustworthiness. The mercantile class, be ing lifted, through the adoption of occidental ideas, to a higher social plane, responds to the new environment. More is expected of them, and they render more in return. The Jap anese business man has come into a new so cial heredity, of which he is rapidly becoming a worthy heir. A California fruit shipper gives the remarkable testimony: "Ten years ago, forty of each fifty tenants were ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 83 dishonest, but now the forty are honest and entirely trustworthy." ^* While this for mula would overstate the case if universaUy apphed, it is nevertheless an index of the general testimony that the Japanese attitude towards business affairs is improving with astonishing rapidity. Commerce is no longer despised. Successful merchants.take high rank in society. Commercial morahty is being rapidly developed. The moral ob hgation adhering to contracts and promises is beginning to be widely recognized and em phasized. The entire Japanese people have entered on a new development of moral hfe because of their new social, industrial, and commercial activities and organization.^' On the basis of his personal knowledge of the Japanese at home, his experience of their behavior under proper conditions in Cah fornia, and his observation of the transform ing influences of American environment on immigrants and the children of immigrants, i*MiLlis, as cited, p. 149, 15 Gulick, as cited, p. 45. 84 THE JAPANESE CRISIS the present writer cannot doubt the capacity of the Japanese to become good citizens. In other words, he believes in their psychic as- similabihty ; but this is a very different mat ter from amalgamation. It seems a great pity that former Presi dent Eliot (of Harvard) is incorrect in his belief that wherever the Japanese have lived in foreign lands they keep their race pure. He says: "They do not intermarry with women of any foreign race, affording thus a strong contrast to the white race when in foreign parts. The inexpedient crossing of unlike races will not be promoted by them in any part of the world. . . , The immigra tion question need not be complicated with any racial problem, provided each of the sev eral races abiding in the same territory keeps itself pure, as the Japanese do wherever they live." ^^ It is difficult to see how Dr. Eliot could make such a mistake. Not only is his judg- 16 Eliot, C. W,, "Some Roads towards Peace"; Report to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Wash ington, 1914; pp, 58, 9 (see also p. 42). ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 86 ment flatly contradicted by the facts in Cal ifornia, but the letter of Herbert Spencer's, already quoted, intimates that the question of intermarriage with foreigners was at one time being much agitated in Japan itself, among scholars and politicians, as a matter of national pohcy.^^ Moreover, the ethnol ogy of the Japanese effectually disproves such a contention. Of Mongolian stock, not only Tartar and Malay elements have been superadded, but Caucasian, — through the Ainu, — and probably Negroid. They are more of a mixture than we are. Indeed, Dr. Gulick seems to imply that an argument for amalgamation might be based on their large infusion of "white blood" ; adding that there is a tendency to striking beauty in Americo- Japanese, and that the mental abil ity of the offspring of these mixed marriages is not inferior to that of children of either race. Nevertheless, he regards mixed mar riages as highly undesirable.^* 17 See page 75. 18 Gulick, as cited, pp. 153, 157. 86 THE JAPANESE CRISIS The present writer believes that while the Japanese may be spiritually assimilated to our manners of thought and action, so as to make good citizens, the question of biolog ical assimilation, involving intermarriage, must wait on a much larger body of scientific facts than are at present available; and that meanwhile the intense feeling ^® engendered in those American communities where Jap anese are strongly concentrated and are prone to intermarriage should be allayed by the enactment of laws by both governments against amalgamation. It is not a question of relative superiority, but of prudential pohcy. 19 See pages 33-34. IS AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION SAFE? IS AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION SAFE? The other day the writer received the fol lowing note from one of the broadest- minded, most thoughtful, and most philan thropic citizens of Cahfornia; a man about as free from race prejudice, he beheves, as one ever gets to be in this world — and this brief note, in the present writer's judgment, expresses the real crux of the Japanese danger in California : "To-day, Sunday, I passed a truck farm on the Foothill Boulevard and saw three Japanese and their wives hoeing a large tract industriously. How can a white farmer compete with them and at the same time inform himself sufficiently to make a good and efficient citizen, and how could his wife rear good citizens?" This pungent V^Vtion is so conclusively ^ " -e womu a unanswerable tht? sh/<^ "" thoughtfuUy dis- T "Is* ¦