984k K.22. j UC-NRLF Efi O ^t C\J LO O j PUBLISHER'S NOTE. The articles in the following pages were originally published in the New Year's edition of the Japanese American Daily News. They have been so highly com- mended that we think it worth while to preserve them in pam- phlet form. We take this oppor- tunity to acknowledge the gen- erosity of our friends who favored us with articles. We are also in- debted to Mr. Lindsey Russell and Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, editor and publishers, respec- tively, of the book " America to Japan" for the permission to re- print a few articles from that book. The Japanese American \e\vs. If/C K INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. By K. K, Kawakanii. Author of "American- Japanese Relations," "Asia at the Door," etc. It is with great pleasure that we present in this issue of the Japanese American Daily News a symposium of views on American-Japanese relations, and more especially on the ques- tion, if question it may be called, of the Japanese in America. We take occasion to thank our American friends who have so promptly and generously responded to our request and fa- vored us with statements which we believe are as frank as they are sincere. In writing the following introductory remarks it is not my intention to criticise or dispute the views expressed by our contributors. We presume, however, that our American friends and critics are just as desirous to know our views on the question as we are anxious to hear their opinion. We believe in free and unreserved exchange of views as a means of establishing mutual understanding. No question can be settled right without presenting both sides of the case before. the tribunal of public opinion. What I am going to say in the following few paragraphs, therefore, is simply to let our American friends know how we foel about the question, not to enter into any controversy with them. fnnn)f Occidental civiliza- tion. Nor will Japan forget the sympathy and support she received from America in her days of greatest stress. America lias always entertained a feeling of real admira- tion for the people of tin- Island Kingdom and has regarded their progress with something of a godfather's pride. Such a tradition and such a relationship constitute for either people a definite national asset, and cannot be lightly t In-own by the board. We appreciate the wisdom of Japan's consent to the practical exclusion of Japanese laborers through the device of withholding passports under what is known as the 'gentlemen's agreement", and we recognize the honorable- ness with which Japan has carried out her part of the con- tract. This would seem to be a fair example of one nation's appreciating the difficulties inherent in the situation of the other, i. e., of seeing things as the other sees them. We ask for a continuation of that attitude of sympathy. The Japanese people surely understand that it is not on merely arbitrary grounds that we insist on the necessity of deny- ing admission to their laborers. If for any reason the C 13 ) "gentlemen's agreement" should be abrogated, we should find it extremely difficult to agree upon a treaty which would accomplish the purpose. Japan is one of the Great Powers of the world, her people represent one of the high- est types of the world's civilization. They are not un- naturally jealous of their position and sensitive regarding any apparent infringement of their claim. They would not welcome American legislation discriminating against them and they certainly would not agree to a treaty which by their very acceptance of it would constitute or seem to constitute a documentary confession on their part of oddity, if not of inferiority. We know these things are facts, and these facts make up the chief difficulty of our position a dif- ficulty for which we have as yet found no solution, a dif- ficulty regarding which we earnestly solicit the sympathy of the Japanese people. The main reason why none of the measures looking toward exclusion have been adopted by recent Congresses is to be found in the unwillingness of our Government to offer what might be interpreted as an af- front to the Japanese people. "We are hoping, however, that with the passage 'of time the Japanese people may come to recognize that our exclus- ion policy is by no means directed against them as a people, nor against any people, but concerns a world-area wherein economic 'conditions through age-long training and compact- ing have come to be essentially different from those pre- vailing in the sparse-settled lands of the frontiersmen. There could be no more convincing proof of this than that British Columbia and Australia, constituent parts of an Empire with which Japan is allied, agree entirely with California, Oregon and Washington as to the absolute neces- sity of exclusion and have adopted more drastic measures thereto, than have the United States. As regards California and other Pacific States, I beg one item of tolerance. These States are not made up of perverse, rude people, slaves of labor unions who have arbitrarily conceived a malicious pleasure in misrepresent- ing and opposing people from the other side of the sea. They are rather to be thought of as being the Americans who have had practical experience with the problems in- volved in the contact of East and West and have arrived at the most sensible view regarding these problems; and it will be safe and reasonable to estimate that other Ameri- cans, as fast as they come to a full understanding of the C 14 ) situation, will take the same view. So much for my prayer that the Japanese may regard with sympathetic eye our difficulties; now I have to admit that in one chief point the Japanese have good reason to ask a return of the favor. I can see that in spite of all good will the Japanese Government finds it increasingly difficult to explain to its people our apparent discrimina- tion against them. It appears as if we ranked them among the secondary people. It is not our intention, but if we look at the matter from the eyes of the Japanese, I think we cannot fail to see how the national pride is affected and how we are inevitably convicted in their minds of un- fairness. They are a strong, proud people, naturally con- scious of their achievement, rightfully ambitious of full re- e'.gnition as a civilized nation. We shall have to listen to their desire and give it full weight. It is no specific thing that they ask but only equal treatment among the nations. In this connection there commends itself to our attention the proposal of Dr. (J ul irk (The American Japanese Prob- lem), which admits from any land, Asiatic or European, a certain fixed percentage of those from the same land who are already naturalized American citizens. This pro- posal lias the double merit of avoiding a sudden change in the proportions of immigrants from different countries ami of treating all on a common basis. I am surprised to see how little attention has thus far been devoted to this re- markable suggestion. More will surely be heard of it in the days to come, in close conjunction therewith will be considered the problems of naturali/ation now forcing them- selves to attention, but whatever we consider and what- ever we do. we must go to our work with the plain under- standing that in one way or other we must get on together. For we an- neighbors. From "America to Japan," G. P. Putnam's Sons. C 15 ) 3. JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES. Especially written for the Japanese-American News. By Ray Lyman Wilbur, President Leland Stanford Junior University. The broad and idealistic aspirations of the Japanese make them natural co-workers with the best sentiment of the United States in trying to bring about more wholesome international relationships between all nations. Difference in ancestry and race need be no bar to the creation of the friendliest feeling on both sides of the Pacific. The rapid progress of modern transportation facilities is bringing Japan and the United States nearer together each year. Both countries are bound to have some clashing of interests, some differences in ideals, some misunderstandings. Both must live and both must live honorably. Both certainly can by mutual understanding and agreement live amicably together. A greater knowledge of Japan on the part , of America and a clearer perception on the part of Japan of the attitude of the American laborer towards his desired standard of living will help much to keep both ready and willing to be patient, considerate and forebearing. America has welcomed those immigrants that are readily assimilated into its life, has regretted the forced immigration of the African races, and now looks askance, particularly while almost gorged with its present raw material, at the possi- bility of additions from Asia. The modern rise of the Japanese made possible by the secure foundations of the past has been too rapid to be grasped by the outsider. Patience, time, mutual knowledge, frankness, the striving for high ideals, will gradually settle problems that will only be accentuated by haste, bitterness or displays of force. C 16 ) 4. OUR RELATIONS WITH JAP AN, X, Especially written for the Japanese- American News. By Arthur I. Pope, Professor of Philosophy, University of California. For more than fifty years America enjoyed from the Japanese people and government a degree of good will that lias rarely been accorded to one nation by another. Next to their own country, the Japanese people honored and loved America, and they enthusiastically expressed this friendship on many occasions. On their side the American people in turn profoundly admired the rapid and easy mastery of West ci'ii civilization which the Japanese displayed, our gov- ernment lost no opportunity to show its friendliness, our artists and cultivated people made almost a cult of Japanese art, and when Japan fought with Russia, the Americans as a people hailed each victory with enthusiasm, deploring each reverse, honoring every hero almost as if their very own. These happy relations have been painfully and need- lessly marred. In place of the unanimous friendliness and admiration on the part of the Japanese we find among them despite forbearance and determined hopefulness considerable subdued hostility, and an annoyed perplexity. In place of the concord of unqualified admiration and good will from America, we find in many (piarters thought frequently more noisy and conspicuous than representative the same suspicion, plus a more active and determined hostility. This situation, although not nearly so fundamental and serious as it is often pictured, is none the less sufficiently deplorable to call for determined diagnosis and equally determined remedy. There is too little international good will in the world for any of it to be wasted. There should be continued searching of hearts until all the causes for this mutual an- noyance and suspicion be discovered and removed and a noble national friendship completely restored. In the discussion of this rather delicate matter there has been a "vnerally praiseworthy demand for frankness. But frankness has generally been most popular when it is at the expense of the other fellow. Too often frankness is but a virtuous cloak assumed to enable one to say a lot of dis- agreeable things about a neighbor, which if undisguised would be forbidden by common politeness. But frankness like charity ought to begin at home, and I have accordingly C 17 ) thought it worth while to call attention again to some of the well known but not yet universally acknowledged failings of the Americans in their dealings with the Japanese. There was one unstable feature about the rather idyllic early friendship between America and Japan. It did not rest upon any clear or comprehensive knowledge of one another. That indispensable basis for a sound and perma- nent friendship was pretty much lacking. Enthusiasm and sentiment are too fragile and temporary to ensure perma- nent regard surviving every strain. Perhaps out of the present annoyance will issue a fuller knowledge that shall ultimately guarantee a maturer and more solid friendship. The fact that the anti-Japanese agitation was in- augurated by a criminal in co-operation with a lunatic furthered by labor agitators and sustained by a yellow press ought in itself have been enough to damn it; but the few sparks of legitimate difficulty and annoyance fell into the tinder of ignorance; hence all the trouble. Accurate, im- partial, well diffused knowledge would have rendered this entire propaganda abortive. For the American hostility to the Japanese, such as it is, is in the main traceable to ignorance and misinformation; not only ignorance of Japan itself, its wonderful history, its unsurpassable art, its charm- ing and poetic people and the many things that they do better than we do, but very frequently to actual dense ignorance of the very things complained of. The whole story of the controversy shows how dangerous ignorance is, how upon .the slightest provocation such as for example legitimate competition ignorance breeds prejudice, while prejudice in its turn fosters a stupid and hideous brood of falsehood and hatred. Such a situation is always rendered the more alarming, because of the number of persons ready to profit by such misunderstandings, who through malice or hope of personal advantage or both seek to inflame the needless quarrel, some by crawling innuendo, some by deliberate fabrication, such as the recent newspaper yarns about the Japanese Bernhardi. There are still certain newspapers that industriously spread lies, and play upon fear; there are still unscrupulous or ignorant politicians that have not hesitated to make the most silly and insulting remarks. Would that these false prophets and faithless servants who have sown the seeds of hatred and misunderstanding alone might reap the whirl- wind. C 18 ) Let us take a few examples of dangerous trouble-breed- ing- ignorance. The word was pretty generally passed about at the time of the Anti-Alien Land Legislation that, despite the "gentlemen's agreement," hordes of Japanese were still ferreting their way into the country. No shred of evidence has ever been cited in behalf of this assertion, chiefly for the simple reason that there isn't any, for, as .everyone knows who has made any effort to inform himself, there has been a steady decrease of Japanese in California since 1908, the total reduction, according to the official figures, bring 4408. The preposterous charge that wicked Japanese men were flooding the primary schools of San Francisco and corrupt- lie morals of our children turned out to be ridiculous, not to say contemptible calumny; but the weird tale was and is still believed by many, and unjustly created much hard feeling. That the Japanese are paupers, that they are dirty and shiftless, has been charged and believed in some quarters, although the truth is wholly to the contrary. The accusa- tion of extreme sexual immorality was almost as ill-founded, and has been well refuted by Dr. (Julick, as well as Mr. Woehlke's reckless charges about the dishonest failures of the Japanese banks. That the Japanese were everywhere underbidding American laborers was sufficiently refuted in the Macken/ie report, yet the many union laborers in the building trades and shops who have never felt any competi- tion from the Japanese seem violently possessed of devils whenever the subject is mentioned. Americans are not sup- posed to be gullible, but when, since the age of hobgoblins and witches, have so many supposedly intelligent people been taken in by a wild tale as have been by the stories of the thousands of Japanese reservists drilling at night in secret places. Yet this really comical story has been re- peated with solemn face in halls of legislation and thousands of Americans have believed it. Surely this shows a de- termined eagerness to believe anything bad or alarming about the Japanese. Again ignorance bred suspicion and hostility. More plausible but equally unfounded has been the general conviction that a race, particularly an Oriental race, is a mysterious unchanging entity, incapable of permanent and happy adjustment, utterly incapable of assimilation to C 19 ) American ways and ideals. But Ethnology and Race Psy- chology long ago consigned this prejudice to limbo along with theory that any particular race has any innate superior capacity. The charge that Japan has closed the door in Marichuria to American trade originated with some disappointed Amer- ican traders who Jiad not the energy to make the adjust- ments necessary to succeed in that rather difficult market. But discrimination there is none, nor has there been any. But it seems that in some quarters a charge against the Japanese has only to bg made to be believed and passed on with interest. Could anything be more grotesque than an American complaint of the Japanese business morals? America, the home of graft, the country where municipal corruption has been brought to a fine art, where there is a lucrative profes- sion devoted to instruct business how to evade the law, where state supreme courts have sold verdicts, where gigan- tic public utilities like the New Haven, Eock Island, St. Louis & San Francisco railroads were ruthlessly burglarized, where widows and orphans have been defrauded through notorious insurance scandals, where legislatures have been bought and sold and franchises stolen can such a country with such a beam of unrighteousness in its own eye afford to look for a mote of dishonesty in any neighbor's eye? In truth our business morality has made us a hissing and a byword among the nations, and if humiliation does not suffice to stop the mouth of our complaint against others who in a retail way may exemplify our wholesale sins, at least our sense of humor ought to silence us. Indeed had they chosen to take it, the Japanese could have found ready to hand a fearful retort. Would we who have had to bear so much false witness against our neighbor have over- looked or refrained had we a similar opportunity? Not to review the innumerable examples of misinforma- tion and prejudice, such as the repeatedly exposed fake about the Chinese tellers in Japanese banks, how many Amer- icans who have glibly condemned the recent Japanese nego- tiations with China have taken the trouble to accurately inform themselves concerning those demands and the history behind them. They are in fact surprisingly innocent when examined apart from headlines. How many have stopped to consider that a corrupt, inefficient, tyrant-ridden, rebellion- torn China is an extreme menace to the safety of Japan, C 20 ) particularly in view of the quite unscrupulous and un- justified aggressions of European nations who have not hesitated to use China as a basis for trouble making. Only with a developed, fortified and wisely guided China can there be permanent peace in the Orient. We who made war on Spain because of the injustice and chronic disorder at our doors, we who proclaim the Monroe Doctrine and cry "America for the Americans," how could we do otherwise if we were fair-minded, than approve of the Japanese policy of "Asia for the Asiatics"? And yet even the display of force necessary to carry out the Japanese program was so repugnant to the majority of the Japanese people that the ministry was nearly overthrown. Yet if there are many essential conditions of the prob- lem which the average American is ignorant of, if his ignorance has been a receptive and productive soil for un- founded charges with their consequent train of suspicion and hostility, culminating as they did in an unjust, dis- criminatory, unnecessary land law a law, by the way, quite at variance with the spirit of paramount treaty obligation there are also some features of the question which the average Japanese may overlook. If it is a mystery how the average level-headed Americans could become so agitated over a mythical race issue, the Japanese should remember that we have not yet recovered from all the bitter waste and con- fusion of a dreadful conflict over a race issue. In the be- ginning there were only a few thousand negroes, yet from apparently innocent beginnings came forth a monstrous problem that well nigh wrecked the nation and even now sorely perplexes us. To the clear minded there is no analogy between the two situations, yet the memory of the first is still too agitating to permit of general clear think- ing on the subject of a race issue. There is one other source of uneasiness perhaps not so readily dispelled. It is reported here in America, how justly it is not easy to determine, that there is a strong and growing party in Japan who profess admiration for the militaristic philosophy that has of late been associated with the name of Germany. Whether this still numerically small group is relatively any more powerful than a similar group in this country is not clear. At any rate one thing is pn-tty certain. The average American hates militarism and all its works with utter loathing. While it is true that C 21 ) America has in the last century, owing to very special con- ditions, largely increased her territory, none the less the Americans are not an aggressive people. They have no taste for conquest. They regard aggrandizement by force, oppor- tunism, chauvinism, real politik, the will to power, and all the hateful paraphernalia of violence and scheming with abhorrence. Military power we as a people think of as a last resource, and the mere glorification of force for its own sake we regard as the pastime of fools and .lunatics, or, at best, of narrow minded, dehumanized specialists. If there is a growing militaristic sentiment in Japan, and certain natural causes favor it, the knowledge of this sentiment is bound to make Americans uneasy. I do not now refer to the doctrine of defensive preparedness though some of our vociferous and fanatical advocates of preparedness might reasonably cause concern in Japan but rather to the ap- proval of a certain set of unprincipled methods which are generally known as militarism. For this dragon there should be no quarter anywhere in the world. Less justifiable, but equally real, is the fantastic dread among the less intelligent classes of Asia's millions of ^potential soldiers. That there is no motive for Asia to try to overrun and conquer the Western world, that there is nothing in the character or history of the Chinese or Hindus or Japanese to suggest that they would ever want to at- tempt such a thing, even if they could see any prospect of success; these are potent considerations quite lost to those who are agitated by mere numbers. Again it is ignorance that harbors this folly, and a really enlightened acquaint- ance with the Orient, and a more honorable and generous policy on the part of the European nations having business in the Orient, will suffice to lay this ghost forever. ^As Com- missioner Harada well said at a recent dinner given to the apanese Commissioners at the University of California, The only Yellow Peril is the peril of Yellow Journalism/jJ If ignorance is the root evil of the whole issue, knowledge will be the radical cure, and an unremitting campaign of education for both nations, but more especially for America, will lay a basis for a sound and permanent friendship that can never be disturbed by innuendo or falsehood. Sur- prising as it may seem to many complacent Americans, America has a great deal to learn from and about Japan. In proportion as we do learn in just that proportion will the silly and mendacious stories about the Japanese cease ( 22 ) to have currency, and will ceas to breed needless suspicion and hostility. In proportion as we know Japan will we respect and honor her. With mutual good will, born of mutual knowledge, every difficulty can be settled readily Mini prejudice dispersed. Profitable co-operation will take the place of jealousy and distrust, and an interchange of material and cultural goods be promoted which shall favor- ably affect the destinies of both nations. f. THE JAPANESE QUESTION IN AMERICA. Especially irriiffH for the Japam x/ -American News. By Walter Macarthur. (Mr. Macdrthiir was for several utrs editor of the Coast Scannn.'s Journal and is i>ron\incannot but discern an especial grace in the act of the Japanese in participating so heartily in the Exposition, and in giving from their exhibit so gen- erously to the University of California. Such acts show a spirit as admirable as it is rare in the intercourse of nations. The world needs that there shall pass across its govern- mental boundaries acts of so true gentility. It is to be hoped most earnestly that my own State of California will in due time reveal a like quality of conduct. I cannot but feel that in restricting the privileges of the Japanese freely to acquire land, her act, under the circum- stances, was entirely without justification. The Japanese government had already agreed and, I think, with wis- dom, to control the amount and kind of its emigration to America. And Professor Millis, in his recent and able study entitled ' ' The Japanese Problem in the United States, ' ' finds no reason whatever to doubt the fidelity with which Japan has kept her agreement with our government. Indeed in her desire to observe this agreement beyond its mere letter, she has also controlled her emigration to Canada and Mexico, lest her people might thus indirectly enter our land. The result of this care is that fewer Japanese are entering than are leaving the United States. Now this check was in operation before the passage of the California land-law, and consequently that law cannot with any justice be judged necessary to prevent the State from being "flooded" with Japanese. The needlessness of the act is already recognized by many Calif ornians ; and it is my earnest hope that their number will increase until the State government will finally retrace its unfortunate step. For California is in a false position, and one that needlessly irritates the Japanese both here and in their own country. There are other ways, as I shall point out, C 26 ) in which the act of the California Legislature may possibly in time be made of no effect; but for the honor of the State, in which as a native I take an especial pride, I hope that she will of her own free choice repeal her unhappy legis- lation. Our National Congress freely and without pressure from without annulled its own act regarding the tolls of the Panama Canal, because it seemed to many Americans to be of doubtful propriety in view of our treaty with England. And even so we must hope that in the end the Legislature of California will see a higher honor in the repeal of its own unjustified act. ( The time, the great war, is educating us all to a sense of international responsibility, to a greater readiness to give weight to the claims of those without. The times make us aware that each nation, and each portion of the nation, such as the State of California, must work with a will for the great ends of justice and order and the respect of nations beyond our own. A repeal by California herself, as I have already said, would be most desired by those who are jealous of her honor. But if by some blindness the State should stand doggedly where she is. then there are at least two possi- bilities which may bring relief. The one is, the plan sug- d by Dr. (Julick: For the limitation of immigration according to the number of persons foreign born already in our country; and for the admission to citizenship of all those personally fit for the privilege, without regard to race. By making it possible for the Japanese to acquire citizen- ship, this WMU Id meet the difficulty created by the Cali- fornia law. For this law restricts the privilege merely of those not eligible to citi/enship ; and should the Japanese once be made eligible, then by that very fact they would escape the prohibitions of the law. Another mode of relief is being urged by ex-President Tal't, who would have all matters affecting the rights of aliens within the various States of the Union taken from the control of the States and placed under the care of the National government. Such a change is greatly needed; for as matters are at present, the foreign relations of the entire country may be imperilled by some local legislation and local feeling. Questions that vitally affect the nation as a whole, as do those of the rights of aliens, should be decided by the nation, and not by a particular State. C 27 ) In a situation such as this, with all its legal complica- tions, the American friends of Japan appreciate the self- control which she has shown. Wise indeed are the recent words of Baron Shibusawa when, in speaking of this prob- lem in California, he said: "In my judgment all that is needed there is mutual concession and a measure of patience on the part of both." The continued patience, the continued expectation that soon or late the sense of justice of the Americans will find expression, this on the part of the Japanese seems to me in every way worthy of a high- minded nation. Japan's readiness to act with courtesy and good will even to the particular State that had been least careful of Japanese sensibilities, must gain for her a still larger friendship. She has been wise, too, in not pressing upon us, in season and out of season, her own view of her people's rights. She has trusted to the healing influence, the wisdom-giving influence, of time. The words she has occasionally uttered, as in that notable collection of papers by many of her distinguished men, called "Japan to America," will surely contribute to this healing. Those who have at heart the interest and dignity of the United States cannot but trust that America as a whole, and every part of America, will in all things prove, worthy of the respect of her excellent and great neighbor across the sea. 7. THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN. Especially written for the Japanese-American News. By James W. Mullen, Editor "Labour Clarion," San Francisco. It is the desire of the American labor movement that sincerely harmonious relations be maintained between the governments of the United States and Japan, just as it desires the friendship and co-operation of all other people in the work of lifting all humankind up to a broader, brighter and happier existence. The labor movement is as broad as the earth and wel- comes the opportunity to be of service to the workers of every clime without regard to race, color or creed. It is insistent that improved conditions, once established, shall never be torn down, and that the leveling process in ad- justing inequalities between sections shall always be upward < 28 ) to the altitude of the higher, and never downward to the lower. To this end it directs its energies. The American workers have struggled through long years; of bitter strife in building up the conditions that surround them in their daily life, and very naturally they propose to guard the conditions for which they have paid such a price with zealous care. Out of this feeling has grown the present problem that now clamors for solution. The Japanese workers who came to our shores were willing to work longer hours and for less pay than were the toilers already here, and this had a tendency to break down trade union rules and lower the established standard of living. To this the American worker most strenuously objected and began to call for restriction of the immigra- tion from Japan. The objection of the American worker to the Japanese was not based upon racial ground. It was economic. The racial question, of course, has since been injected into the issue by designing persons, and has caused much bad feeling between the two peoples, but labor's objection still remains an economic one. It has been the experience of the organized workers of the world that the better men know each other the stronger grows the respect of each for the other, and it is the hope of the American toiler that in some such way may be found a solution for the problems that now cause friction and discord between the people of the North American continent and those of Japan. The co m in. cr to Hi is country of the two representatives of the Japanese workers, B. Suzuki and S. Yoshimatsu, as fraternal delegates to our conventions, and the exchanging of views and opinions between these men and representa- tives of American trade unions, has done much to clear the atmosphere and arrive at a better understanding as to the aims and desires of the peoples on both sides of the Pacific. The American worker is constantly confronted with a problem of unemployment and is endeavoring to limit immi- gration, not only from Japan, but from all other countries as well, and this policy will doubtless be continued until such time as conditions have been established here that will provide the opportunity of earning a living to all the workers now here. This, the American worker feels, is a sane, sensible and thoroughly reasonable policy against which no worker can justly complain. As the process of organization of the workers of Japan C 29 ) advances, and improved conditions surrounding them are brought about, wages increased and the length of the work day shortened, there will be less desire on the part of these workers to emigrate to the United States, and with these conditions prevailing in Japan there would be less danger to the American workers' standards if they did come here, because they would then be imbued with trade union ideals and willing to stand up for them. With the intelligent men of the two countries desirous of maintaining friendly and mutually helpful relations there can be but scant satisfaction' in the situation for the jingoes and alarmists on either side of the Pacific, and with such men as Baron Shibusawa taking 'an active and unselfish interest in the problems of labor, both here in the United States and in his own country, it is more than likely some satisfactory adjustment of our difficulties will eventually be reached. i WHAT THE WEST MIGHT LEARN FROM JAPAN. By George Kennan. In a recent editorial on the improved relations between Russia and Japan, the Petrograd Reitch said: "It was easy for us to make friends with the Japanese, after the war of 1904-5, because they always fought us like gentle- men." To the dispassionate observer of wars, nothing is more striking than the difference between the spiritual attitude of the Japanese toward the Russians, in the war of 1904-5, and that of the combatants toward one another in the present conflict. If ever a nation was engaged in a life- and-death struggle for existence, Japan certainly was so engaged ten years ago; and yet, the magnitude of the issue involved never inspired a "Hymn of Hatred" in Japan, nor excited rancorous animosity in the hearts of the Japanese people. They fought the Russians as fiercely as either side has fought the other in Belgium or France; but they never hated their enemies, either nationally or personally, and never failed to do full justice to Russian motives and con- duct. In the course of two years' intercourse with Japanese soldiers and the Japanese people, between 1904 and 1906, I never heard a mean, ungenerous, or bitter remark made about the Russians, their character or their conduct of the war, C 30 ) Soon after I arrived at Port Arthur, in the fall of 1904, I noticed that the Japanese Red Cross hospitals, in the zone of fire, were not flying the Red Cross flag; and when I inquired the reason for this, a Japanese officer told me, quietly and without emotion, that the Red Cross flags seemed to attract the fire of the Russian artillery, and they had therefore hauled them down. He made no comment, and one might have supposed that he regarded the firing on a Red Cross hospital as a natural and normal incident of war. About the same time, I myself saw what seemed to be the deliberate and purposeful shelling of a long train of stretcherbearers, who were carrying Japanese wounded back from the front ; but no Japanese, in conversation with me, ever referred to this crud and dishonorable act as an illustration of Russian barbarity. They simply ignored it. A few weeks later, I was called upon to act as inter- preter in an interview between two Japanese staff officers and three or four Russian prisoners who had just been brought back from the firing line. I feared that the officers might put me in an unpleasant and awkward position by requesting me to ask the Russians questions which, as loyal soldiers, they could not properly answer; but I need have had no such fear. Not a single attempt was made to learn the state of affairs in Port Arthur, and not a question was asked that a loyal Russian soldier might not frankly answer without betraying his comrades, or the interests of his coun- try. The Japanese would doubtless have been glad to know what the real state of affairs in the besieged fortress was; but to obtain the desired information by forcing or tempting a Russian prisoner to disregard his military oath and betray his comrades would have been a violation of the .Japanese code of honor. Evidence of Japanese chivalry and courtesy toward their enemies in Manchuria are' so numerous that I hardly know how to make a selection from them; but every one who paid any attention to that war must remember the Japanese memorial service in honor of the Russian sailors who sank in the cruiser "Variag" at Chemulpo; the monu- ment erected to the Russian soldiers who perished at Port Arthur; the memorial crosses put up over the graves of Russians who died between Liao-yang and Mukden; and/ the letter from the officers of the Japanese army to the of- ficers of the Russian army, congratulating them on having C 31 ) had in their service so heroic a man and so devoted a soldier as the spy Vassilli Liuboff. The Japanese shot the spy, but they paid honor to his brave Russian spirit, and ex- pressed the courteous hope that in the Russian ranks might be found many soldiers equally patriotic and loyal. Does that sound like anything that we have heard from either side in the present conflict? What, then, may the nations of the West, in the turmoil of war, learn from the greatest nation of the Orient? First of all, it seems to me, they may learn to hold their tongues and use their brains; to kill their enemies without insulting them; and to hit hard but fight fairly. them rise in revolt and break away from the present Gov- ernment. Emigration to America, Canada, or Australia will not bring about this desired condition for the Japanese Government, but emigration into her own colonies will. Until twenty years ago the Japanese Empire consisted of one people and peace reigned supreme. Since then the Empire has acquired Formosa, Manchuria, the Liao-tung Peninsula, and Korea, and with the additional territory has come much turmoil in the colonial possessions from, the con- tact of the Japanese with the natives. It has been a difficult question for the Japanese Government to solve, how best to link its added territory to the main empire; and the only practical solution of the matter has. been emigration, sending its citizens from the main islands into Formosa and Korea, tin-re to establish themselves in business and intermarry with the natives. In this way the foreigners would amalgamate in time with the Japanese. But when it came to the emigration of its citizens, there was always tin- Tinted States offering more opportunity than the .Japanese Government could offer, and the natural trend was toward America. Since the first outbreak of the California question, the .Japanese (Jovernnient has reali/ed its mistake, and is now bending all efforts to make its possessions in China and about the Yellow Sen attractive enough to draw citizens of Japan into Japanese possessions rather than to America. At present the Government has been meeting with much opposition in its immigration plans, for the Koreans as well as the natives of Formosa have a bitter hatred for the Japanese and trouble is met with once the peoples inter- mingle. With China still much of an enigma, and with its dissolution as a nation seemingly close at hand, much de- pends upon Japan's ability to solve her emigration ques- tion if she wishes successfully to accomplish her continental expansion in A*ia and in the Pacific. But during the present century, while Japanese emigra- tion has been going ou, and the Japanese war scare has been making the rounds of America, -Japan has advanced, from being regarded by Europe as on the same level with China, to being a first-class Power, allied with Great Britain, and consulted by all nations in matters affecting the Far East. To the Japanese the California land law appears to be a refusal to recognize them as a first-class nation, because our Government has provided nothing to offset that opinion. C 33 ) Great Britain, however, while she, too, has been enacting California legislation in her colonies against the Japanese, has shown that she harbors nothing against them as a nation by signing the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Every foreigner who resides in Japan soon comes to learn that the Japanese are supersensitive. Failure to show little courtesies, which the foreigner would pass by with hardly a notice ; strikes deep into the heart of the Oriental. And so it is with America's Japanese problem. We have struck deep into the heart of the Japanese by seemingly refusing to recognize them. They will remember the action, which to them appears as an insult, until America not Japan does something to wash out the ill-feeling naturally resulting. "I come now to the last important point demanding attention," writes Count Okuma, aged Japanese statesman, in his recent book, "Fifty Years of New Japan." "I mean our aspiration to be recognized by the world as a great nation. There is nothing strange in the demand that our people should be accorded the treatment due to their greatness as a Power, not merely in the Orient, but in the whole world." With reference to the California question he says : "I am well aware that behind this anti-Japanese sentiment there exist various circumstances which deserve consideration. However, in so far as our people are disliked because they are Asiatics, there is nothing reasonable or logical in their hostile feeling. To reason against and to remove these pre- judices and misconceptions is a mutual duty devolving as much on our people as on the Western nations concerned." It is probably true that there are many Americans who dislike the Japanese because they are Asiatics, but these are in the minority; their bark carries with it no bite. On the other hand, the broad-minded men of both Japan and the United States realize that, underlying the California legislation against the Japanese, there are conditions which are proper for California to take note of. The work has been pporly done. The average American and Japanese public have a mis- conception of the California legislation. It has a larger significance than just the question of admitting the Japanese. If the United States should admit the Japanese to immi- gration to this country, what point could you bring out in the Japanese as possible citizens that you could not find in C 34 ) the Chinese or in the Hindu? In fact, the California action is not aimed directly at the Japanese, though the latter may believe the opposite and feel the sting of it more sharply because their name is carried in the acts of legislation. No, the action is an indirect barrier to the immigration of any Asiatics to America. True, it is, there is already a federal regulation against the immigration of the Chinese into this country, but it is mainly because of economic reasons, as it is also the bar against the Japanese. Nevertheless, a great friend- ship exists between the United States and China, the same s there should exist between Japan and this country, and ill exist as soon as America recognizes Japan satisfactorily s a Power. Since Japan's stimulation of emigration to her own Ionics of late, the Japanese war scare in America has been radually subsiding, but jingo press artists from time to inn- continue to heap coal on the dying fire by spreading broadcast the untruthful report that the Japanese are landing troops on the shores of Turtle Bay in Southern California or in some other section of the Americas. In speaking of the improved situation existing between the United States and Japan, Count Okurna said in April, this year: "Practically all the friction that has arisen in America has grown out of one phase or another of the immigration question. That situation is improving somewhat and is one that I hope time will solve satisfactorily to both countries. It is a question which from its nature requires time for solution. "The United States has had other such questions with other nations, which have always been solved by time, and so I hope for a similar solution of this question. There are now about eighty thousand Japanese in the United States that is, in the mainland territory and as many, or perhaps a few more, in Hawaii. "This is a smaller number than were in the United States at the time the so-called gentlemen's agreement was concluded. Since that time more Japanese have come home from the United States than have gone there and the num- ber in your country has been steadily reduced. "This reduction has been slow, it is true, owing to the fact that a good many Japanese in America get married and the birth of children tends to keep up the total number ( 35 ) of Japanese there. But the influx of Japanese has been practically stopped and there is a gradual but steady reduc- tion going on." There is no real ground for apprehension, no real cause for alarm in the relations existing between the United States and Japan. I do not believe that Japan has, or ever had, any desire of warring with the United States. For economic reasons alone this appears to be true. Japan has not as yet recovered from her Russian war. Not one cent of the debt incurred in waging that conflict has yet been paid, and since that time the war operations at Kiao-chau have in- debted the Government still further. Further acquisition of territory necessitating large expenditures to the Gov- ernment in its upkeep, both in Manchuria and Korea as well as in Kiao-chau, have stripped the Japanese treasury. During that period the United States has been Japan's best customer. We have purchased raw silk and tea to the extent annually of more than sixty million dollars, and in so doing have kept thousands of people in Japan in employ- ment in this trade. If war was to be declared between the two countries, this trade would come to a standstill, the Government would lose this income. Great Britain could not be used as the market for the once American tea-trade, for England has cultivated a taste for the better class of teas, either Indian or Chinese. Nor would England take up the importation of Japanese raw silk dropped by America, because they have found the Chinese silk more stable. But the real question existing between Japan and the United States, is the attitude of the two Governments to- wards China. On this point rests the only true apprehen- sion for fear of a war. Count Okuma, and other Japanese statesmen, know that in the California immigration question there are good points to be stated for both sides, and they realize that time alone can settle the matter in the peace- ful way they are desirous that it shall be settled. In the question of China, however, the situation is more serious. C 36 ) THE JAPANESE QUESTION IN AMERICA. Especially written for the Japanese- American News. By Carlos K. McClatchy, of The Sacramento Bee. Unless improper issues and controversies are injected into the relations between the two countries, the United States and Japan should be partners and friends in a com- mon development, the United States as a leader on this continent and Japan as the foremost power of the Orient. On that ground, the relations between the two nations undoubtedly will be friendly and close. Americans admire In pan for her initiative and ability, unreservedly grant her a leadership in the affairs of the Orient, and cheer- fully invite her co-operation in a joint commercial, intel- lectual and humanitarian progress of the Western World as distinguished from the European continent. In that sphere, Americans have nothing but friendli- ness for the Japanese. California was extremely partisan in favor of Japan during the Japanese-Russian war. At that time, all sym- pathy was with the nation of the Orient. There is as much latent friendship and common aims in the breasts of Americans today, only awaiting the removal of certain irritating differences to spring into a full blossom of com- mon understanding and joint benefits. But upon that difference, to grant to Japanese unre- stricted immigration and citizenship, there can be no com- promise, if I judge the temper and convictions of Ameri- cans rightly. The United States never should give Japanese free immigration and citizenship, nor should Japan ask it. The extension of those privileges perhaps, for the moment, might establish a closer international friendship, but would be a certain breeder of trouble for the future. In the past two or three years, California opinion of the Japanese has changed greatly. Where the first influx of Japanese in large numbers, with the consequent Ori- entalization of large areas of fruitful farms, engendered hostility toward all Japanese, closer acquaintance has led to the distinction between the Japanese as an individual and the Japanese in hordes. C 37 ) The last two years, and especially the Exposition, has brought a wider appreciation of the Japanese individual as a scholarly, aggressive man of action and ambition. For that type, the student, the professional man, the scientist, the traveler, America extends a hearty welcome. But against the admission of large numbers of Jap- anese, to become residents and citizens of this country, the American people should firmly stand. No comparison of the respective merits of the two races is intended. The plain fact that there are too many differences of various kinds means that throwing open the doors would insure a continual conflict and contest between the two races, which Californians especially are determined shall not arise. Nor need there be any necessity for it. There is the whole Orient for Japanese extension and supremacy. The United States should have this continent unhindered. For the Japanese individual there is the heartiest wel- come to these shores. But there will be no reception for Japanese in large numbers for the colonization of Cali- fornia. Americans ask no more in Japan, nor does the Empire grant more than the United States already gives. In fact, Japanese have many more privileges in this country than Americans in Japan. Friendship and common action in working out joint progress is desired. But neither country should intrude itself upon the do- mestic concerns of another by insisting that its citizens be welcomed in large numbers to precipitate the conflict of two essentially different races that is bound to breed nothing but trouble. C 38 n TREATY OBLIGATIONS. By Hon. Elihu Root, Ex-Secretary of State, ex-United States Senator. These extracts are from an address on the treaty obliga- of the United States with Japan (cited with the per- mission of the author) given at Washington before the American Society of International Law, an the 19th of April, 1907. It is impossible that the human mind should be addressed to questions better worth its noblest efforts, offering a greater opportunity for usefulness in the exercise of its powers, or more full historical and contemporary interest, tli a n in the field of international rights and duties. The change in the theory and practice of government, which has marked the century since the establishment of the American Union, has shifted the determination of great questions of domestic national policy from a few rulers in each country to the great body of the people, who render the ultimate decision under all modern constitutional gov- ernments. Coincident with that change the practice of diplomacy lias ceased to be a mystery confined to a few 1 CM rued men who strive to give effect to the wishes of per- sonal rulers, and has become a representative function answering to the opinions and the will of the multitude of citizens, who themselves create the relations between the states and determine the issues of friendship and estrange- ment, of peace and war. Under the new system there are many dangers from which the old system was free. The rules and Customs which the experience of centuries had shown to be essential to the maintenance of peace and good understanding between nations have little weight with the new popular masters of diplomacy; the precedents and agreements of opinion which have carried so great a part of the rights and duties of nations toward each other beyond the pale of discussion are but little understood. The edu- cation of public opinion, which should lead the sovereign people in each country to understand the definite limita- tions upon national rights and the full scope and respon- sibility of national duties, has only just begun. Informa- tion, understanding, leadership of opinion in these matters, C 39 ) so vital to wise judgment and right action in international affairs, are much needed. It is a pleasure to be able to say that never for a moment was there, as between the Government of the United States and the Government of Japan, the slightest departure from perfect good temper, mutual confidence, and' kindly consideration; and that no sooner had the views and purposes of the Governments of the United States, the State of California, and the city of San Francisco been explained by each to the other than entire harmony and good under- standing resulted, with a common desire to exercise the powers vested in each, for the common good of the whole country, of the state, and of the city. In the distribution of powers under our composite sys- tem of government the people of San Francisco had three sets of interests committed to three different sets of officers their special interest as citizens of the principal city and commercial port of the Pacific Coast represented by the city government of San Francisco; their interest in common with all the people of the State of California represented by the Governor and Legislature at Sacramento; and their interests in common with all the people of the United States rep- resented by the National Government at Washington. Each one of these three different governmental agencies had author- ity to do certain things relating to the treatment of Japanese residents in San Francisco. These three interests could not be really in conflict; for the best interest of the whole coun- try is always the true interests of every state and city, and the protection of the interests of every locality in the coun- try is always the true interest of the nation. There was, however, a supposed or apparent clashing of interests, and, to do away with this, conference, communication, comparison of views, explanation of policy and purpose were necessary. Many thoughtless and some mischievous persons have spoken and written regarding these conferences and communica- tions as if they were the parleying and compromise of enemies. On the contrary, they were an example of the way in which the public business ought always to be con- ducted; so that the different public officers respectively charged with the performance of duties affecting the same subject-matter may work together in furtherance of the same policy and with a common purpose for the good of the whole country and every part of the country. Such a con- cert of action with such a purpose was established by the C 40 ) conferences and communications between the national author- ities and the authorities of California and San Francisco which followed the passage of the Board of Education resolu- tion. There was one great and serious question underlying the whole subject which made all questions of construction and of scope and of effect of the treaty itself all questions as to whether the claims of Japan were well founded or not; all questions as to whether the resolution of the school board was valid or not seem temporary and comparatively un- important. It was not a question of war with Japan. All the foolish talk about war was purely sensational and imaginative. There was never even friction between the two Governments. The question was, What state of feeling would be created between the great body of the people of the United States and the great body of the people of Japan as a result of the treatment given to the Japanese in this country? What was to be the effect upon that proud sensitive, highly civilized people across the Pacific of the discourtesy, insult, imputations of inferiority and abuse aimed at them in the columns of American newspapers and from the plat- forms of American public meetings? What would be the effect upon our own people of the responses that natural resent incut for such treatment would elicit from the Japanese? The first article of the first treaty Japan ever made with a Western power provided: "There shall be a perfect, permanent, and universal peace and a sincere and cordial amity between the United States of America on the one part, and the empire of Japan on the other part, and between their people respectively, without exception of persons or places." Under that treaty which bore the signature of Matthew Calbraith Perry, we introduced Japan to the world of Western civilization. We had always been proud of her wonderful development proud of the genius of the race that in a single generation adapted an ancient feudal system of the Far East to the most advanced standards of modern Europe and America. The friendship between the two nations had been peculiar and close. Was the declaration of that treaty to be set aside? At Kurihama, in Japan, stands a monument to Commodore Perry, raised by the Japanese in grateful appreciation, upon the site where he C 41 ) landed and opened negotiations for the treaty. Was that monument henceforth to represent dislike and resentment? Were the two peoples to face each other across the Pacific in future years with angry and resentful feelings? All this was inevitable if the process which seemed to have begun was to continue, and the Government of the United States looked with the greatest solicitude upon the possibility that the process might continue. It is hard for democracy to learn the responsibilities of its power ; but the people now, not governments, make friend- ship or dislike, sympathy or discord, peace or war, between nations. In this modern day, through the columns of the myriad press and messages flashing over countless wires, multitude calls to multitude across boundaries and oceans in courtesy or insult, in amity or in defiance. Foreign officers and ambassadors and ministers no longer keep or break the peace, but the conduct of each people toward every other. The people who permit themselves to treat the people are surely sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, for a world of sullen and revengful hatred can never be a world of peace. Against such a feeling treaties are waste paper and diplomacy the empty routine of ideal form. The great question which overshadowed all discussion of the treaty of 1894 was the question: Are the people of the United States about to break friendship with the people of Japan? That question, I believe, has been happily answered in the negative. Jl. LEST WE FORGET. By John Foord, It may sound rhetorical, but it may also turn out to be true that "when history shall have placed all the great political events of the nineteenth century in their proper perspective, none will bulk larger in the eyes of posterity than the appearance of Commodore Perry's fleet in Japanese waters". The obvious reason is that this event began a complete revolution in the relation between the West and the East by awakening to a consciousness of its power an Eastern nation which, for the first time in history, has shown itself able to assimilate in great measure the civilization of the West without surrendering its own, and thus to assert a claim to take rank on a footing of equality with the Great C 42 ) Powers of the West in the arts both of peace and war. When, therefore, the Island Empire, whose seclusion for three centuries was broken in upon by the bearer of a letter from the President of the United States, became the d< 'Tender of the principles and policy which this Govern- ment had deliberately adopted and steadfastly maintained in its efforts to conserve the commercial interests of its eiti/ens in Eastern Asia, it was inevitable that the sympathy of the American people should be on its side. The fact was freely recognized that Japan had gone further than this country was prepared to go in submitting her case against Russia to the arbitrament of the sword. This she would hardly have done but for the lessons she had learned after the war with China in 1894 a war whose fruits she was not allowed to reap, although they were gathered in by Russia almost without an effort. It had become an accepted axiom of Japanese statesmanship that Korea was a dagger aimed at the heart of Japan, and it was sufficiently evident that no nation could regard with equanimity the prospect of an easily fortified peninsula, lying almost within stone throw of her shores, being absorbed by an aggressive military power. Hence, in 1904, the world was called upon to contemplate one of the most remarkable situations in all history. The battle of hi mum freedom which was won against the hosts of Persia at Marathon and Salamis was then being waged by a people of unmixed Asiatic blood against an Empire calling itself European, and claiming to be the champion of white men ajrainst the yellow races. This is surely a fact to he remembered by people who are frightened by the l>o'_rey of a regenerated Asia, equipped with the weapons of modern warfare but filled with the lust of conquest. We owe it to Japan that we have not today another Europe facing us, on the other side of the Pacific, garrisoned by hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops bearing modern a r:ns and trained by European soldiers. With the defeat of Japan the dominion of Russia would have unquestionably bem extended to the Yellow River, that of Germany would have he. 11 nlaruvd to meet the Yangtsze, that of France prolonged from Indo-China into Szechuan, leaving that of (ireat Britain to occupy the unclaimed space between. There could have been no stable balance of power between such forces, dividing among them, in the shape of spheres of influence and of sovereignty, a dismembered China. The ("43 ) inevitable conflict for supremacy, sooner or later, would have ensued a conflict envenomed, sanguinary, and destruc- tive beyond all precedent with only this certain issue, that the victor would dominate Asia, and that with this domin- ance would come the reduction of the United States to the rank of a secondary Power on the Pacific. From a standing menace, equally to the peace of the world and the future of the United States, Japan saved us in 1904. Have we so soon forgotten the magnificent prowess and the scrupul- ous honor of the country which performed that feat, as to listen with patience to brainless twaddle about the "yellow peril", and reckless aspersions on the good faith of Nippon? From "America, to Japan/' G. P. Putnam's Sons. 13. THE PACIFIC COAST PERIL. By Francis Butler Loomis, Former Assistant Secretary of State. The campaign against the Japanese in California as it is carried on by professional agitators seems to be based upon misinformation and misunderstanding, some of which is real and some of which is wilfully feigned. There can be no clear comprehension of the questions at issue between the Government of Japan and that of our own country unless certain fundamental facts with respect to Japan become a matter of common knowledge. 1. The Government of Japan earnestly desires peace with the United States and a continuance of the pleasant relations which have marked the intercourse between the two countries for upwards of fifty years. 2. The Japanese people have an historic and sentimental bias in favor of the United States. 3. Japan is not seeking to acquire the Philippines, and there is no reason to think that she wants them. 4. Japan does not want war. She earnestly desires peace with all notions. 5. Great changes have taken place in Japan within the last decade. The pronounced manifestations of radical think- ing and unrest which have been visible in all parts of the civilized world have had their sympathetic responses in Japan. Opposition to the Government and to the established order is stronger and more militant today in Japan than it ever C 44J) was before and this condition has to be taken seriously into account. In short, the making of war or peace in the future, in Japan, may not lie wholly in the hands of the Govern- ment . In 1908 I had several talks with Prince Katsura and with Prince Ito. The day before leaving Japan, where I had discharged a confidential diplomatic mission, Prince Katsura, who was then Prime Minister, sent for me. He discussed for two hours the future of Japan and the plans which were then forming for the development of that country in an industrial way. It was expected that what he told me would be informally communicated to the Goverment of the United States. Early in the following year, a fortnight before Mr. Taft was inaugurated, there was a recrudescence of the- Japanese question in this country, and I put in the form of an interview the salient points of my talk with Prince Katsura. This was published at the instance of the President and of Mr. Knox, who was about to become Si -en -t;i ry of State. The article was given wide publicity by the Associated Press and had a tranquilizing effect, for Prince Katsura made it very plain that Japan had no further military a m bit ions, no desire for conquest, no design upon the Philippines. He said with sincere and convincing emphasis that the future of Japan must be an industrial one. "\Ve must make this island/' he affirmed, "the great workshop and factory for the Orient, and try in a large measure to supply Oriental countries with manufactured -