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FRONTISPIECE

LIFE OF JAPAN

BY
MASUJI MIYAKAWA, D.C.L.,LL.D.
Author of "Powers of the American People," etc.
PREFACE
By The Prince of Nijo
Chairman in Chief of Imperial Japanese House of Peers, etc.
INTRODUCTION
By Viscount Kentaro Kaneko
His Japanese Mtgesty's Privy Councillor and Framer of
Imperial Japanese Constitution, etc.

Second Edition, Completely Revised
NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1910

Copyrighted, 1907, by
MASUJI MIYAKAWA

Copyrighted, 1910, by
MASUJI MIYAKAWA

All rights reserved. Including that of translation into
foreign languages, including the Japanese.

To
Hon. Perry Belmont,
A Grandson of
COMMODORE MATTHEW CALBRAITH PEBRY,
V. 8. N.
The National Redeemer of Japan,
This work
is
Most Respectfully Dedicated
by
The Author

*

A

iff*

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION TO SECOND
EDITION
Although much that may be called phenom
enal has happened since the publication of the
first edition in July, 1907, nothing has occurred
which seems to the author to require any altera
tion in the substance of the work, though he has
occasionally modified the form and expression and
amplified somewhat the views stated in the first
edition. Viscount Kaneko has kindly written the in
troduction to this edition, so the author will say
but little. The American lovers of literature on
Japan will remember the last and perhaps the
greatest work of the American writer, Lafcadio
Hearn, "Japan," which created a sensation in
its exposition of the so-called confidential letter
written by Herbert Spencer to Viscount Kaneko,
— a confidential letter aimed at the late Prince
Ito. This incident has nothing to do with this
work, though prefaced by the receiver of the Spen
cer letter, according to Lafcadio Hearn. The
Viscount's relation to the book is that of a critic
and not that of a writer of any portion of it.

viii AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
The author gladly takes this opportunity of
thanking the press of the United States, Europe
and Japan for their interest in the book. Nor
can he let this opportunity pasis of expressing his
gratitude to his American friends, not only to those
whose names were mentioned in the first edition,
but also to others, especially Hon. Wil
liam H. Taft, Senator H. C. Lodge, Mr. Jus
tice Harlan, Mr. Justice Brewer, Judge W. W.
Morrow, Judge Henry M. Clabaugh, Judge
Stanton Peelle, Mr. Justice Brown, Mr. Charles
L. Magee, Rev. Dr. William L. Griffis, Rev. Dr.
Richard D. Harlan, Miss Mabel T. Boardman,
Hon. William J. Bryan, Hon. P. C. Knox, and
Speaker Joseph G. Cannon of the U. S. House of
Representatives, the latter for writing the special
letter calling upon the people; of the United
States to read " Life of Japan." All of the above
have manifested a very helpful appreciation of the
author's work.
The author tenders his thanks to many Japa
nese friends, particularly Count Koken Tanaka,
Minister of State for the Imperial Household,
on account of the presentation of "Life of
Japan " to His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan.
He must thank Chief Secretary Kametaro Haya-
shida of the Imperial Diet for his advocacy of
this publication to Prince Ito, General Oyama,
Admiral Togo, and others. The author also

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION ix
thanks Count Shigenobu Okuma, ex-Premier of
Japan, for writing the introduction to his " Pow
ers of the American People," and Speaker Teiichi
Sugita of the Imperial House of Representatives,
for writing the preface calling upon the people of
Japan to read the book. He must also add his
sincere thanks to the Vice-President of the Tokyo
Chamber of Commerce, Hon. Shintaro Ohashi,
Midori Komatsu, Secretary to the Resident Gen
eral of Korea, Secretary Tsugataro Kaku of the
Japanese Government of Formosa, and Inspector
Keiichi Hattori of the Department of Education.
Last and best he tenders his deep-felt apprecia
tion for the writing in Japanese of the name
" Life of Japan " or Yamato-koltoro, by the
Prince of Nijo, which with the Prince's literary as
well as official seals, is placed on the page pre
ceding the Author's Introduction.
This second edition, although revised, is the
same in form and substance, so the author would
say as he said in the first edition:
" This work is written, not in the least to prove
the author's English literary excellence, or to get
fame for admirable lucidity of style, for he was
brought up in a language wholly unlike the one
in which he is writing, and it often being diamet
rically opposite in expression, he therefore feels
satisfied with the most humble degree of success.
There is consolation, however, in the fact that he

x AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
can write out what he thinks, and express his ideas
without revision as to literary form or as to the
English, asking no other's idea, suggestion or as
sistance. If, happily, as he aims, there is found
no self-conceit, no egotism, no arrogance, no as
sumption, no doubting, no blundering, but true,
concise and impartial treatment in this work, and
if these aims invoke some sympathy, and in conse
quence thereof the West can understand the East
and the East can understand the West, the author
will be most happy. In conclusion he begs to
say: If thou lovest, help me with thy blessing; <_.
If otherwise, mine shall be for thee.
If thou approvest, heed my words;
If otherwise, in kindness be my teacher."
Masujt Mitakawa
Washington-, D. C, 1910.

INTRODUCTION
BY VISCOUNT KENTARO KANEKO
The maintenance of our place in the Civilized
Universe and of the good will and fellowship of
other nations depends upon an intimate knowledge
of the condition of affairs within that membership
which constitutes the unity of the world's civiliza
tion. But there is a still more prominent cor
relative fact, that is, we must succeed in letting
our condition and affairs be known intimately by
mankind. After the restoration of peace with
China and Russia, Japan appears elevated above
the horizon in the eyes of the world and therefore
mankind is entitled to impose upon Japan a
higher responsibility in the direction of its na
tional affairs. However, a natural hesitancy on
the part of Japan in appreciating the dignity of
her new position culminated in an unpleasant at
titude on the part of the other nations as
shown by their secretly imposing upon Japan
their ideas of her duty, not knowing the
exact condition of affairs in Japan. If the
Japanese international position was unpleasant,

xii INTRODUCTION
it was largely due to the influence of Japan's
backwardness in the realization of her own posi
tion. We are not without regret over our own
delay in informing the civilized world of the state
of our affairs, through books or by speeches.
The Japanese are characteristically imbued
with the spirit of their hereditary code of eti
quette which considers it immodest to praise any
thing relating to themselves and their institutions.
When feudalism was in flower in Japan, her rep
resentatives, when in conference with those of
other nations, depreciated themselves and sang the
praise of the others. It is a relic of the feudal
customs, and even after the restoration of the
Imperial era, our governmental attitude, we
might say, appears to have been one of wilful
negligence in failing to impart a knowledge of
our national condition to other countries, being
content to praise Europe and America. Thus
there was no one in the wide world who under
stood the cause and stimulus of the material evo
lution of the last fifty years that has brought
about the Japan of To-day as well as the hope
and inspiration based upon its present experience
which will make the Japan of To-morrow. As a
result these matters were left to the imagination
of the other nations and they sought to under
stand Japanese affairs by spying. No wonder
that in the last several years there are certain

INTRODUCTION xiii
features that the world has attributed to Japan
with which Japan does not care to be credited.
Just at this remorseful moment Dr. Miya-
kawa's work, " Life of Japan " was submitted to
us for our criticism. I have read it and find that
the author's evidently painstaking research into
Japanese history in getting the material for his
book makes it a most thorough and authorita
tive work. It contains what I myself have long
wanted to say.
Any work on Japan whose author is not a com
petent authority, a thorough scholar and one who
possesses a most intimate understanding of
the country, tends to induce tiresomeness and
the desire to set it aside before completing it.
" Life of Japan," however, contains material so
abundant, yet so plain, simple and concise and
above all so intelligently interesting, that when
the reader starts reading it he reads through with
pleasure and inspiration. Moreover, the author
has selected from among a vast number of facts,
the essential facts, religious and political, per
taining to the western nations, both ancient and
modern and has set them side by side with the like
institutions of Japan, making the book one for
Europeans and Americans to take home with
them and assisting them to comprehend the minu
test details of Japanese life in the shortest poss
ible time. I believe any one in the Western hemis-

xiv INTRODUCTION
phere who wants to learn the real Japan need
search no further than this book, "Life of
Japan." In 1890, while I was in London under Imperial
order, in an interview with that distinguished
philosopher, Mr. Herbert Spencer, his strongest
solicitation and last prayer to me was this state
ment : " I have met several Japanese gentlemen
and listened to them. They have told me of
European and American knowledge, but as to
Japan and Japanese institutions I have not yet
learned anything. This may be due to their
hereditary modesty, or to the lack of deductive
understanding of their own institutions. In any
event, the imminent need of the Japanese is to in
vestigate their own country and to distribute the
results of their investigations to the people of
Europe and America. If Japan does not do this,
she might be misunderstood by the western
nations to the unrecoverable injury to the future
course of the Japanese Empire."
I have since then been persuading Japanese
scholars to publish Japanese affairs in the West
ern vernaculars. However, much to my disap
pointment, there has not previously been one who
had the confidence of the people as well as the
ability to undertake this work in response to my
solicitation, but in Dr. Miyakawa's " Life of
Japan " there is such a thorough carrying out of

INTRODUCTION xv
my desire that it compels my gratitude and ad
miration. Before the peaceful termination of the late war
with Russia, I went to the United States, In con
ferring with my intimate friend, President Roose
velt, the President said to me that, in order to
arrive at a thorough understanding of Japanese
history and institutions, he had collected almost
all the pamphlets and articles which appeared in
magazines and papers and the books concerning
Japan, and that nearly all of them were the prod
uct of foreign travelers, which, while touching
upon Japanese history, are limited to a surface
view of Japan, and that as yet he had not found
just what he wanted. For a superficial study of
Japan he said there is plentiful material; but
that he regretted that of books showing the real
nature of the Japanese people in a way compre
hensible to Europeans and Americans, there are
hardly any. He added that he would be pleased
to hear from me if there were any books such as
the kind he was looking for. I recommended the
English translation of Dr. Inazo Nitobe's " Jap
anese Bushido." Again meeting the President,
he told me that he had ordered and secured thirty
copies of this translation and had distributed
them among his friends as well as to his four
children. In reading Dr. Masuji Miyakawa's "Life of

xvi INTRODUCTION
Japan," the portions on Japanese Bushido, char
acteristics, Japanese women's education, home
conditions, educational and religious affairs, and
other important topics, for page after page,
chapter after chapter, inform one iof the most
vital truths regarding Japan. Any foreigners
who read it will undoubtedly acquire the real
facts both material and moral about Japan and
the Japanese. Particularly convincing is the last
chapter, " A Japanese- American War." It is sub
lime, and its reasoning shows the ridiculousness
of the idea of Japan's going to war against the
United States.
If this book, " Life of Japan," had been pub
lished six or seven years ago there would not have
been such a misunderstanding in the United
States about Japan. Although I heartily regret
that the book was not thus early enough in its ap
pearance, I believe it is not yet too late. As the
necessity for the introduction of Japan to the
world is pressing now, the result of the book will
be to inculcate a better understanding of Japan
by the members of the civilized world, particu
larly a better understanding of the future Japan
ese-American relations. Thus its reward will be
abundant. In critically perusing " Life of Japan " myself,
I should say that my opinion, of course, is inade
quate to add a maximum value to it, for the book

INTRODUCTION xvii
itself now has world-wide recognition and fame
due to the author's high sense of duty and his
scholarship. Therefore, I beg leave to state that
I have written this criticism as the introduction
of " Life of Japan."

CONTENTS
PAGE
Author's Introduction to Second Edition ... vii
Introduction by Viscount Kentaro Kaneko ... xi

PART I
CHAP. PAGE
I New Japan as Old as Ever  2
II Religion of Japan  9
III The Japanese Moral Ethics  21
IV The Japanese Woman  33
V Japanese Customs and Habits .... 46
VI Topography of Japan  61
VII Feudalism in Japan  67
VIII Causes of Feudalism's Overthrow ... 79
IX Japanese Medieval Foreign Intercourse . 88
PART II
X Japanese Constitutional Grovernment . . 99
XI Japan Under the Reign of Law . . . 114
XII Journalism in Japan  129
XIII Present Emperor's Ascension to the Throne 138
XIV Financial and Industrial Reforms . . . 145
XV The Army and Navy of Japan .... 156
XVI Education in Japan  169

xx CONTENTS PART III
CHAP. PAGE
XVII Japan's Romantic Relation to the United
States  179
XVIII Triumphs of American Diplomacy . . . 193
XIX An American-Japanese War  223
Index  261

PART I

LIFE OF JAPAN
CHAPTER I
NEW JAPAN AS OLD AS EVER
In recent years Japanese institutions have
been studied by Americans and Europeans, and
many books have been written about them. Yet
how little is really known of the Japanese people.
It is said by almost every American and Euro
pean that Japan is progressing so rapidly, and
her people changing, and losing their old mode
of life, thought, ideas, and conceptions so fast,
that those who wish to see and study old Japan
must speed their journey across the ocean, or the
old Japan will be lost as a source of information
and study to historians and other observers.
What an extravagant stretch of imagination!
What a sign of ignorance of the laws governing
the growth of a nation or its people! Rome was
not built in a day, nor did her power and influ
ence decline so fast, nor in one generation. Japan
has been introducing great changes, adapting
Western institutions to her wants as far as con-

9 LIFE OF JAPAN
sidered necessary, both in the departments of war
and peace, yet the results which have really fol
lowed such an evolution are as yet more super
ficial than real. No nation can attain to a civilized
state until it gains all the elements of civilization.
The so-called civilization of to-day, East or West,
was evolved out of the civilization of the past.
The present day civilization as such, may seem to
be vast, rapid, and brilliant. Yet it can not be
said to be proportionately so great as to over
shadow the contributions of the past and render
them comparatively insignificant. Before the
Japanese ascended to the present degree of their
development they were primitive as regards the
nature of their advancement; their inventions
were simpler and closer to their primary wants;
their national institutions were directed nearer
and nearer to the elemental forms of human
society. Though they then stood at the bottom
of the scale they were potentially all they have
since become. Our ancestors had more difficulties
than 'our own proud generation in that, being
surrounded by a primitive environment they had
to compass even the simplest invention out of noth
ing, or with next to nothing to assist their mental
efforts. If Darwin, Kepler, Newton, and Spencer
had been born in the time of the Odyssey, such a
thing as the doctrine of evolution would not have
been thought of by them. The ancestors of the

LIFE OF JAPAN 8
Japanese believed in witchcraft; so did the an
cestors of the people of the West. The latter
furnish even more evidence than the Japanese
that they took witchcraft f or jgranted,, as* far back
as prehistoric times, and as near the present as
the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The
Japanese record in song and poetry the day of
thanksgiving, when by striking a spark from a
stone the kindling of fire was discovered. So do
the ancestors of the Western people, classing the
one who brought to them the good gift of fire,
with their god who taught them how to ferment
their drinks. The closer we follow human pro
gress, as presented to us by the untiring efforts
of scientists and philosophers, in inventions, dis
coveries, or statesmanship, the nearer do we reach
the opinion that these efforts were not chaotic or
unrelated, but were the results of the discernment
of an intelligible course followed from one stage
to another. By the so-called rapid progress of
Japan, the original Japanese have not been
thereby much affected. What else should be ex
pected? One would be mistaken if he thought
that any race could be so readily transformed.
There is nothing to be wondered at in this. It is
only an example illustrative of the general law of
evolution. Were this mistaken supposition a fact,
it would not be possible for the Japanese to re
main as a nation, for then their original vitality

4 LIFE OF JAPAN
must be gone. No national life can rise or fall in
one day. Every nation must work out its own
destiny, either for growth or decay, in the proper
course of time.
The progress of Japan, therefore, is no mush
room growth. It is not a chance turn of fortune's
wheel. It rests upon the mental, spiritual, and
material growth of a slow, constant, and per
fectly coherent discipline; and to consider it as
a sudden and unforeseen intrusion, as that of a
thief in the night, is the grossest misconception.
The Japanese, like a spider at the center of its
web, look eagerly in all directions, and from each
direction receive every intimation of oppor
tunity. Japan has kept in the forefront, however
rapidly it may have been progressing, the words,
" Let there be light." This motto has been the
cry of men in Europe and America from pre
historic times to the present day.
If we turn to the history of the West we shall
find one law to which there is absolutely no ex
ception. Any nation, no matter what its con
stitution, form of government, race or nationality
may be, will prosper only so long as it keeps
itself swimming with the great current of human
evolution and obeys the law of natural selection;
to lose sight of this law involves national ruin.
The Athenians, eternal teachers of the fine arts,
architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and the

LIFE OF JAPAN 5
philosophy of virtue, what became of them? Bor
rowing the expression of Holmes, " the Greek
young men were of supreme beauty. Their close
curls, their elegantly-set lips, firm chins, deep
chests, light flanks, large muscles, small joints,
were finer than anything we ever see. It may be
questioned whether the human shape will ever pre
sent itself again in a race of such perfect sym
metry." But what became of them? The loss of
their nation's life was as complete as was their
attainment of physical perfection! The Spar
tans, whose warlike characteristics were the great
est the ancestors of the West have ever known,
and who carried out to perfection the doctrine
of self-denial and sacrifice for the glory of mili
tarism, what became of them? They were com
pletely wiped from the face of the earth! What
became of Rome, the immortal teacher of law?
She was lost — though proclaiming the eternal or
der of political evolution the world over, first the
license of anarchy, which brings on tyranny,
which in turn brings on revolution, and this
liberty, and then license again. Spain and Por-
tugal, because of their most vigorous adventurers,
the discoverers of America, were feared and com
manded respect, but maintained their power
scarcely two centuries. Their power fell as
quickly as it rose. The same phenomenon may
be observed in the case of Holland. Turkey was

6 LIFE OF JAPAN
a great power when she destroyed the Western
Roman Empire and took Constantinople. She is
to-day like a sick man in a hospital, and is only
saved from final dissolution by the disagreements
of European powers. China and Russia, the two
largest nations on earth, of whom Napoleon once
said " the world would be trodden down at some
time in the future under the horseshoes of the
Cossacks, or would come under the control of
China," did they not imitate the bad examples of
other nations? Have they not knowingly turned
back from modern civilization and enlightenment,
trying to swim against the great current of in
ternationalism and world-wide betterment? And
were they not prostrated, one even more fatally
than the other, by a single stroke of the small
Island Empire? But it would be wrong in the
case of any of these countries to lay the blame
for their decay upon the shoulders of the people.
In every case, a grossly superstitious form of
religion, administered by avaricious ecclesiastics
and an ignorant hierarchy, had combined with
the ostentatious courts and despotic aristocracy
to poison the wells of national life.
If you will now turn to the history of Japan
you will be able to see at once why it is that this
empire has been so successful in all her under
takings and brought herself up to the present

LIFE OF JAPAN 7
eminence she occupies. It is because Japan has
acted on the national principle of " adopting
what is best from every country and entering into
an honorable rivalry in culture and civilization
with all the nations of the world." Herein lies
the secret of Japanese progress. However, the
Japanese understand that their land is a portion
of God's universe which is no inhospitable wan
dering place. The moment their heads swell like
that of an ostrich, the moment they become for
getful of their land being the home of the world's
humanity and philanthropy, in that moment will
they descend to the level where history's ebbing
echo is their only solace. Spencer made the habit
ual observation, " thus you see it is ever so ;
there is no physical problem whatever which does
not soon land us in a metaphysical problem that
we can neither solve nor elude." If Japan in
tends the working out of a cosmic drama she
must hold to the belief in an endless manifesta
tion of one all pervading creative power. The
new life of Japan which we have seen to lie in the
direction of the higher and the broader, is far
sweeter, more wholesome, and more hopeful than
the old. Yet the belief in nature as an organic
whole is the essence of her progress. As in the
past, this belief is the breath of the conscious
soul of Japan, showing us that Japan is as old

8 LIFE OF JAPAN
as ever. Japan is thus laid 'open to us as a
dynamic, living, spiritual product, as a portion
of a creation that compacts the world within the
scope of a single purpose, — a creation which is
the embodied wisdom and love of God.

CHAPTER II

RELIGION OF JAPAN

As science gives the sensuous facts and se
quence of the world, and philosophy the rational
ideas of the phenomena, it is the office of religion
to disclose the spiritual affections and actions
which are incident to insight. Each in its rela
tion to the other, whether in Japan or in Europe
and America, is subjected in the same way, to
modification by human progress ; and the truths
of each are revealed by the comparison of events.
Let us concentrate our mind upon the move
ment of human events till history assumes the
form of prophecy with the force of a sensible
conception and experience. Make the Reforma
tion of Christianity, as accomplished by the
transition from the Old to the New World, as
exclusive as can be, still there creep in from be
yond it new influences. These influences we see,
whether we know or do not know whence they
come and whither they go. The first introduc
tion of Christianity to Japan in the sixteenth
century, its interdiction, and the new introduc
tion, two and a half centuries later, g^ve a strik-
9

10 LIFE OF JAPAN
ing illustration of religion in evolution. The
fact that the Japanese like the people of the
West, implies their belief in God and in the West
ern conception of life, and that they have been
influenced perhaps almost inperceptibly by the
incentives which promote and secure spiritual
development. The eight million gods, so-called,
which are the result of the Japanese ancestor wor
ship and of the Shinto theory that the dead are
gods and guard the welfare of the home and
country, have asserted their godly presence every
where, from the shelf of the jinrikishamen's
kitchen to the castle of the nobles. Yet in their
untaught way the people have nevertheless found
a way to work out an active, loving, flexible
spiritual life by means of direct communion with
the one true God. Whether eight million gods or
one, " Ask, and it shall be given you," is the first
and last explanation. Our Western conception
of God in the present age is that the Almighty is
one, that He is within and without, above and
below, and nowhere is it different from the Japa
nese conception, except in expression. The fear
as well as the love of God, the Old and the New,
are ruling forces in faith and are one and the
same thing, although certain confusions may in
terplay. The primary religions in Japan are Shintoism
and Buddhism. Let us see them as they are pre-

LIFE OF JAPAN 11
sented. in their outward manifestations. Shintoism
and Buddhism are inseparably woven together, the
former being the warp and the latter the filling.
Shintoism literally means " the ways of God."
From its annals we learn that at first all was with
out form and void; that the confused nebula
began to move and condense, and the heavens
separated from the earth. In both heaven and
earth gods were evolved, among which was Iza-
nagi, who separated the land from the waters, and
from whose left eye emanated the Sun Goddess
Amaterasu. This Goddess is the center of Japan's
Shintoism, and the ancestor of the Japanese race.
Amaterasu, seeing that disorder prevailed among
the earth gods, sent down her grandson, Ninigi,
who was the great-grandfather of Emperor
Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan. Every'
Japanese from his birth is placed by his parents
under the protection of some Shinto deity, whose
foster child he becomes. However, Shintoism
imposed no distinctive moral code or duty, and
the teaching or professing of any theory of the
destiny of man, or of moral obligation, was left
to the priests of Buddha. Buddhism, in view of
its Nirvana, promulgated a code of morals
against stealing, lying, intemperance, murder
and adultery, purely upon spiritual motives.
Funeral rites are conducted, with few exceptions,
according to the ceremonial of the Buddha sect.

12 LIFE OF JAPAN
It is only in recent years that burial according
to the ancient ritual of Shintoism has been re
vived, after almost total disuse during some
twelve centuries. Burial by interment and cre
mation are both practiced in Japan, the choice
being left entirely to the option of the parties
concerned. Since the United States opened Japan,
a short half century ago, Christianity has again
been introduced, and is making such great prog
ress that it threatens to eventually become the
religion of the Japanese people. It is beginning
to be appreciated among the Japanese people,
that the highest ideals of civilization accompany
Christianity. The singular success of American Christianity
in Japan, however, has its co-relative cause.
Japan, during her feudal seclusion from inter
course with th« Western countries, by providen
tial forces, perfected her physical and spiritual
evolution within herself. It was over two cen
turies from the interdiction of Christianity to the
time of its free admission. But it cannot be said
to have been too long an interval when we
consider a single epoch of religious history in
America, not speaking of the religious evolutions
in Europe. It took over two centuries from the
coming of the Pilgrim Fathers to Plymouth Rock,
till their rights became assured by an amendment
to the American Constitution. When the Ameri-

LIFE OF JAPAN 19
cans began to introduce their newty conceived
Christianity into Japan, the latter was then
spiritually ready, ready to accept the newest
religion of the New World. When the old Chris
tianity was being introduced during the sixteenth
century, Japan accepted it in the same spirit as
Shogun Iyeyasu, the then reigning Head of the
Nation, when he said, " If devils from hell visited
my realm, they shall be welcomed like angels
from heaven as long as they behave like gentle
men." If, however, the great Shogun had lived
at the present day, he would surely judge religion
in a different way, for he would say in the modern
sense that individual behavior is a matter amen
able to law, and a man's religious belief is a
matter between his God and himself. Any way,
let us go back to the sixteenth century and see
the activity of Spain, Portugal and Holland, and
their relation to each other as well as to the
Japanese, in the propagation of the old Chris
tianity in Japan.
In the sixteenth century, when Spain, Portugal
and Holland opened intercourse with Japan, they
brought with them their Christian faith. The
most famous of the Jesuit missionaries, St. Fran
cis Xavier, tells us in his memoirs that though
the Spaniards interested themselves in the propa
gation of their faith, wherever they went they
had found no country in which it was embraced

U LIFE OF JAPAN
so readily and willingly as in Japan. In the
course of some forty years, over two million
converts had been made, and there had been n'o
hostile collision between the promoters of the new
religion and the defenders of Shintoism or Bud
dhism. In the so-called persecution of Chris
tianity, the blame was not upon the Japanese,
but upon the conduct of those who professed
Christianity. It may be interesting to note the
fact that the dreadful tales about Christianity
were told by the Dutchmen, who were ambitious
to monopolize the Japanese trade. They were
endeavoring by every means in their power to
accomplish this end, whether by driving other
foreigners from the land or by courting the favor
of the Shogun. According to the annals, the
Dutchmen had convinced the government with
plausible arguments that Spain, Portugal, Eng
land, and other European countries were not
propagating the Christian faith for the sake of
religion, but with the primary motive of pro
moting their territorial aggrandizement. When
the Shogun was about to heed the awful tale, the
Dutchmen lost no time in causing their own coun
try to send a special ambassador to the Shogun.
That official brought a royal message besides a
token of rtoyal good will consisting of costly pres
ents. Meantime, competition and jealousy were
progressing among the foreign traders.

LIFE OF JAPAN 19
However, Christians, and the traders also, were
freely permitted to go where they pleased in
the empire, and to travel by land and sea, from
one end of it to the other. The people listened
to the teachings of the missionaries, who were
friendly and superior men. Had the work begun
by Xavier — that humble, virtuous, disinterested,
and benevolent man — and his companion been left
in the hands of men Hke themselves, the history
of Old Japan might be vastly different. Very
many of the ecclesiastics, mingling with their re
spective parties, excessively indulged their pride
and avarice through extortions at the close of the
sixteenth century. Even native Christians are
said to have been both shocked and disgusted when
they saw that their spiritual instructors treated
with open contempt the institutions and customs
of the country, and insulted the high officials of
the government by studied indignities. At last,
the Shogun deemed it intolerable to permit the
laws and customs of his country to be treated
with contempt by a set of presumptuous for
eigners, who had neither the good feeling nor the
good manners to repay the kindness they had
received with the decency of common civility.
Nor was this all. The Japanese had found cer
tain treasonable letters from time to time on
board of foreign ships, addressed by the natives
to foreign kings It may be difficult to ascertain

16 LIFE OF JAPAN
with certainty all the details of the conspiracy,
but of the conspiracy itself there can be no doubt.
The result was that toward the end of the
seventeenth century the proclamation was decreed
that " the whole foreign race, with their mothers,
nurses, and whatever belongs to them shall be
banished forever." Thus the persecution of the
Christians began, and was rigorously pursued by
the Shogun. In this action of the Shogun, the
Japanese claim justification on the grounds of
the spirit and attitude of the foreigners them
selves. While this vigorous persecution was
going on in Japan, religious wars were being
waged everywhere in Europe. The chief perse
cutions for differences in Christian faith may be
witnessed in the fierce religious war of the Refor
mation in Germany, the wars of the Huguenots
and the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in
France, and in the establishment of the Spanish
Inquisition. The Shoguns have ample justifica
tion in asserting that the situation of the country
demanded the proclamation of an interdict deter
minedly and promptly; otherwise, it is obvious
that the country would have been partitioned
among the ambitious foreign powers then repre
sented throughout the land. During the rule of
Shogun Iyeyasu, Christianity as a whole was in
terdicted, and all Christians were summarily
tried and found guilty of belonging to the evil

LIFE OF JAPAN 17
sect. The Samurai could hack at will, and
wholesale slaughter was rife in the land until the
close of the seventeenth century, when there was
not left a missionary.
During the 258 years of the Tokugawa dy
nasty, the Shoguns' policy was one of interdic
tion and exclusion from intercourse with all
European nations. European powers sought
intercourse, but without avail. They for
a time sought patiently ; but at times, manifestly
sought to awe by a display of national power.
Their military demonstrations and naval ma
noeuvres were frequent and calculated to impress
the great importance of their mission, but all in
vain. Such terrorizing or threatening processes
upon the Japanese people by European powers,
or by a combination of powers, worked worse
and worse, and only served to strengthen the
walls of exclusion. The Shoguns fortified the
harbor, and grew more and more suspicious of
all mankind; meantime, the following decree was
kept posted everywhere in the realm:
"Decreed: Christianity has been prohibited for many
years. Therefore, if there is any suspected person, it
must be reported. Rewards will be as follows:
" For information against a father or worker of the
Christian religion, 500 pieces of silver; for information
against an assistant in the wbrk of Christianity, 300
pieces of silver; for information against any one who
has secretly returned to Christian belief, 300 pieces of

18 LIFE OF JAPAN
silver; for information against a common believer in the
same village, 100 pieces of silver. The above rewards will
be given. Even though it be a common believer in the
same village, in some special cases a reward of 500
pieces of silver will be given. If any hidden Christian is
discovered by some one from another place, the chief of
the village, and even the company of five men with whom
the accused is related will be punished as accomplices."
Thus Catholicism was systematically and vig
orously interdicted and disappeared from the
religious life of Japan. Yet, strange to say, the
Christian faith was still found alive, centuries
later. When the author was on his way to China
from Japan, in connection with the military
administration during the war with China, he
was obliged to land on the island of Tsu Shima,
in the Korean Straits. In company with a lieu
tenant and two gendarmes, he entered a house on
this dismal island. There at once he recognized
a Bible and a little crucifix on a small shelf or
altar in the principal room. Knowing that there
had never been a Christian missionary in any of
the Japanese possessions since the vigilance of
the interdict went into effect, centuries before, he
asked the lady where and how she got these
things. " The faith," she said, " was handed
down from parent to child, by word of mouth,
but these religious objects were only brought into
view when a person who knew where they were
secreted was going tio die, and then, soon after,

LIFE OF JAPAN 19
they were again secreted by the one to whom en-
entrusted. Thus we preserved them."
These statements of facts must not be inter
preted so as to show a preference for the once
existing barbarism. On the contrary, it is the
best evidence of an eternal power, not of the Japa
nese themselves, that makes for righteousness.
The doctrine of the Trinity, to us the most sacred
of doctrines and upon the real exposition of which
the realization of our civilization depends, is to
all other religious believers the foulest of blas
phemies. That we ought not to play cards on
Sunday, the rule of a Christian life, or not to eat
meat on Friday, the rule of a Catholic life, are to
all Mohammedans and Brahmans most ridiculous
religious rules. The Turk, who does not think
he is committing any sin in practicing polygamy,
would believe it a great sin to eat pork. A Brah
man who might steal a purse, shrinks from eating
cow meat even by accident. A rite which is
observed as sacred in the life 'df the nuns of
Catholicism or those of Shintoism, is considered
the queerest of queer customs by a Chinese who,
however, will most gravely conduct a procession
and cry over the death of some Chinese ancestor
who died more than five hundred years ago. Men
to-day, after all, East or West, are but the ter
minal figures in a long series of developments.
They increasingly insist upon the subordination

SO LIFE OF JAPAN
of material life to spiritual life. Even amid all
the surface differences of religious conduct, and
amid all the confused and disorderly manifesta
tions of religious sentiment, we perceive a belief
in a divine Power, which is something outside of
ourselves, and upon which our very existence
from moment to moment depends. A typical
Japanese Christian lady, Madam Domoto, in writ
ing to the author, said:
" If life were only living,
And death were only death,
Would life be worth the living?
Would men praise God for breath?
Ah, No! Far sweeter, dearer,
To toil, to pray, and fast,
If so the Lord draw nearer,
Ajad lend His grace at last."
Religion claims to be the agency of a divine
Power, and that which perfects religion cannot
destroy morality., While Japanese life was a
gradual process of evolution during Feudalism,
what we believe was a great co-worker with re
ligion, is Bushido, or the moral ethics of Japan.

CHAPTER III
THE JAPANESE MOEAL ETHICS
Bushido, a most interesting institution of Feu
dalism, rejoicing in deeds of daring, guided by
honor and renown, and battling against injustice
and wrong, scorning lies, revering the truth,
teaching devotion to one's master, could not
help elevating Japanese manhood. Divest Japan
of Bushido and you take away from the history
of Japan its glory and its fascination, leaving
the miseries, the hardships, the cruelties and the
injustice of feudal life. The soul of Japanese
chivalry, accurately examined in its influence
over Japanese institutions, will lead us to that
divine Power which throughout all the ages has
been the hope and aspiration of mankind the
world over. Right here, the Japanese should
remember what Longfellow says, "Nature with
folded hands seemed there, kneeling at her even
ing prayer." The Japanese were not made for
Bushido, but Bushido< for the Japanese. Bushido
is not so incomprehensible as some native authors
often lead students to think, by illustrating it too
21

n LIFE OF JAPAN
solemnly and too deeply. This drives away nine
European and American scholars out of ten, and
leads them to think Bushido an incomprehensible
creation of Orientalism, or a fountainhead of the
"yellow peril." In the plain and simple language
which Europeans and Americans so much admire,
Bushido can be made clear. At any rate, if you
take away from the Japanese the practice of
Bushido, the teaching of Bushido would amount to
but an empty dream. Bushido ! It's only a name !
" The face in the mirror is but the shadow and
phantom of yourself."
We do not claim that Feudalism with its hand
maiden, chivalry, was a special gift of God to
Japan alone, for modern European and American
civilization emerged from the Feudalism of the
Middle Ages with chivalry as a new conception
for art, literature, science and religion to work
upon. But we do claim that the motive God of
our universe did not take away from Japan, any
more than from Europe, the guiding star of
chivalry, although it was obscured by darkening
periods of despotism. The great empire of Char
lemagne was divided into France, Italy and Ger
many, and again was divided into France, Na
varre, Provend, Burgundy, Lorraine, Germany,
and Italy, with their subdivisions of twenty-nine
hereditary fiefs. In the same way the Empire of
Japan, after the inauguration of feudalism, was

LIFE OF JAPAN 23
divided into what we call the three hundred princi
palities, or baronial fiefs.
The class system under Feudalism, East or
West, was an inevitable fixture; knights, agricul
turists, artisans and merchants were the four dis
tinct castes. In Europe, the poorest knight took
precedence over the richest merchant; pride of
birth was carried to romantic extravagance. It
was practically the same in Japan! The members
of the European baronial family were looked up
to as superior beings, whose caste was made as
rigid and exclusive as could be by an exclusive
system of marriage and by rules of social inter
course which forbade their having anything in
common with the lower classes. Nor was Japan
spared from these institutions ; yet taking them
according to the circumstances of the age and the
view of the people who lived in it, one cannot say
that they were altogether bad. Let us examine
in more detail this great structure of Japanese
history in the spirit with which the Japanese faced
it. Describing the peculiar characteristics of the
Japanese, we see in the Old Japan the caste sys
tem, made up of the soldier or samurai class, and
the agriculturists, artisans, merchants, and eta,
the latter being the lowest, and considered as out
casts. This classi distinction became marked
under the feudal government. Yet there was

24 LIFE OF JAPAN
nothing bad about it according to the circum
stances of the age, as the whole idea was that
the good of the state should be the first object.
Even the peasant of yesterday might become a
member of the favored class of to-morrow by
attaining distinction in his individual accomplish
ment as a soldier. The soldier was an educator
of the people as well as a protector of the dis
favored classes. Emperors Shomu and Kotoku,
in their military conscription, imposed on the
whole people the duty of the soldier, and the
agriculturists, artisans, and merchants were thus
made the foundation of future nobles, peers,
and even Shoguns. Meanwhile, the ideal con
ception of the true soldier took the name of
Bushido, or " the soldier's way," and was incul
cated into the unwritten moral codes and trans
mitted from age to age. The Bushido, the under
lying principle of the physical and moral existence
of Japan herself, and with all its peculiar spon
taneities, is vigorously enforced. The Bushido or
soldierly spirit — the creature of all known ele
ments of Japanese character, in turn became the
creator of all the teachings of the sobrieties, of
hopefulness, love, kindness, loyalty, faith, truth,
politeness, pity, literature, science, arts, religions,
education, in short, of civilization itself. It is by
no means a national religion, for we have as reli
gions — Shintoism and Christianity; also, Bud-

LIFE OF JAPAN 25
dhism, which together with the Shinto religion or
ancestor worship, has certain creeds and certain
ceremonies necessary bo' its practice. But the
Bushido has none of these characteristics of a
religion. It is more than a religion. It stimu
lates and animates the Japanese so that without
being a true Bushi, he cannot be a religious per
son. Nothing was esteemed more disgraceful
in a true Japanese than to act contrary to' or in
disobedience to the unwritten code of Bushido.
Therefore, Japanese domestic and military
pride and emulation has been the all-absorbing
spirit and ideal of the Japanese social and na
tional character, and the Bushido, or soldierly
zeal and self-sacrificing fidelity of the Japanese
Bushi or soldiers, embodies the highest concep
tion of Japanese individuality. So thoroughly
was and is this Bushido fused into the Japanese
very being that military disgrace of any kind is
atoned for or obviated by hara-kiri, or self-de
struction. Hara-kari is suicide by self-disem-
bowelment, and was resorted to by and in every
military rank as a proof of fidelity or to prevent
disgrace. Even Shoguns committed hara-kari,
for instance, Nobunaga; and when Takatoki, the
last of the Hojio Shoguns, was overthrown, 3000
of his vassals fell upon their swords. Forty-
seven Bushi, the retainers of Lord Asano, when
their master was sentenced to death unjustly

26 LIFE OF JAPAN
through spitework prompted by Yoshio Kira,
performed their famous deeds of revenge upon
Kira. They were afterward granted leave to
commit hara-kari in lieu of other punishment.
In the olden times, criminals were put to death
by the legal executioners, but a Bushi was al
lowed to commit hara-kari. This form of suicide
is different from that of any which has been
usually known in western countries. Hara-kari
is the natural outcome of loyal and honorable
sentiments, and it must be always so recognized in
the Japanese. The meaning of the hara-kari idea
may be somewhat explained by the like deed of
Cato, the younger tribune of the honest Romans,
when he took his own life to escape the reproba
tion of a polluted sovereignty, also by the death
of Aristides the Just, and of Demosthenes, the
first orator of the western world, who withstood
the temptation of Macedonian wealth, and saved
his country by suicide. The immortal teacher of
Grecian philosophy, one of the most shining ex
amples of western virtues, Socrates, committed
suicide by drinking the fatal hemlock; and Han
nibal closed his eyes to his country's woes by
taking his own life.
It was this Bushido spirit that won Japan the
war with the Mongolians, after their devastation
of Europe, which they invaded during the Middle
Ages. By it Japan saved Europe, although

LIFE OF JAPAN 27
Europe did not know who had saved her. To
this spirit the Japanese people attributed their
successive victories in the wars with Korea and
China, during the Feudal Ages, and more recently
in the Chinese-Japanese war. This Bushido
spirit became more and more distinct to the eyes
of everyone in the Japanese war with Russia,
when the Japanese, animated with the spirit of
Bushido, displayed unparalleled human bravery
in the attacks upon Port Arthur. Another ex
ample of this spirit is shown when Captain Saku-
rai and his followers, on board the Kinshumaru
sought voluntary death to prevent military dis
grace, rather than surrender to their enemies.
Commander Shiina, when his transport was fol
lowed by the Russian Vladivostock warships, and
an hour was given them to decide whether they
would surrender or not, told his followers : " My
brave soldiers, our ship is now at the mercy of
the enemy and is now irrevocably doomed. * * *
For us, there remains nothing but to face death
and to fight and die on board. * * * It is then
that we shall show them what manner of men we
Japanese soldiers are." And all went to the bot
tom while humming the national song.
Comparing the Bushido spirit which has so
thoroughly permeated the common soldiers, blue
jackets, and coolies of to-day with that of the
very remotest period in ancient Japan, the zeal

28 LIFE OF JAPAN
of the Japanese soldier is to-day as great as
ever. The head of the Otomo clan when instruct
ing his soldiers in the ancient time, told them:
" You must die by the side of your Great Lord,
and never turn your back to your foe. If you
die at sea, let your body sink in the water; if
you die on the hillside, let it be outstretched on
the mountain grass." In the twelfth century,
when the brave Yoshitsune, the brother of the
first Shogun Yoritomo, was aimed at with an ar
row's point by an ingenious marksman and war
rior of the Heike clan, Sato Tadanobu threw his
body in front of his master and was killed, in or
der to save him. Two centuries later, Nitta
Yoshisada's brave Bushi did the same. Again in
the seventeenth century, Okubo Hikosayemon,
being severely wounded, placed his own body in
a position to shield his lord, Shogun Iyeyasu.
Likewise, many soldiers volunteered their lives
to shield their regiment commander, Ohara, when
he was covered by the Russian fire at the foot of
Nansen Hill. Commander Hirose, when attack
ing Port Arthur, faced death calmly to save the
lives of his comrades. General Nogi, commander-
in-chief at the siege of Port Arthur, rejoiced over
the death of his own son, who so bravely faced
death in an attack on a fort at Port Arthur.
Madam Nogi, upon hearing of her son's death,
sent congratulations to her husband on the self-

LIFE OF JAPAN 29
sacrifice, after the manner of a daughter of
Bushi. The practice of hara-kari has recently been
discontinued and there is now a law against it.
Still the same old characteristic Japanese spirit
survives as in the past, the Bushido, the life of
the Japanese people. Examples of the manifes
tation of this animating characteristic are,
throughout every life in Japanese history, well
known and conspicuous, yet let us cite one more
example which was reported very recently by
the Americans and Europeans accompanying the
Japanese army in Manchuria. After the battle
of Chu-Lien- Cheng, Lieutenant Inouye found
among the heap of dead soldiers a Russian officer,
mortally wounded and tormented by a burning
thirst. He was trying to quench his thirst by
drinking his own' blood. Seeing this, the usual
Bushido spirit prompted Inouye to approach the
Russian, and he spoke kindly to him in the Rus
sian language, and gave him a drink of water
out of his own flask. The Russian tried to thank
him, but he could not speak. All that he could
do was to unbuckle his sword and take out his
photograph, offering them as a mute token to
his benefactor. Inouye took the photograph but
returned the sword, saying that he could not de
prive a dying bushi (the soul of the soldier) of
his sword.

SO LIFE OF JAPAN
The entire condemnation of the hara-kari insti
tution as idiotic or fanatical by some Europeans
and Americans seems to be rather superfluous, and
altogether too much a commercializing of the un
written law. Self-destruction is the taking of life
in the negative sense, but for the taking of life
in the positive sense, we do not need to go to
Japan to search. The flower of European knight
hood often blossoms in America, and many South
ern States of the American Union furnish
examples in abundance. The American people
in the South, whether there is a law against it or
not, when the happiness of life appears to be
jeopardized, will itake the law into their own
hands. Please do not misunderstand the author
that he is endorsing such an institution whether
in America or Japan. As an attorney, he doubts
if a human life can rightly be destroyed, not
withstanding the reason of a state's authority to
the contrary. However, to those who so commer
cialize the honorable sentiment back of the hara-
kari idea of old Japan, we, wish to say that it is
not the altogether idiotic or fanatical action of
savages. The teachings of the Bushido are an unwritten
system of thought and therefore cannot be classi
fied or analyzed. But we can set forth the main
teachings of the Bushido, an honest observance
of which will make a man a tolerably good Bushi.

LIFE OF JAPAN 31
1st. A Bushi must be loyal to his sovereign
and faithful to his master. He must cultivate
personal courage and be well trained in fencing,
archery, and horsemanship and their modern
equivalents. 2d. A Bushi must be honest and chaste, sim
ple and temperate, a keeper of faith and true to
his word. He must be polite in his behavior and
never intentionally rude to others.
3d. A Bushi must be pitiful and ever ready
to help the weak and those who are in distress.
He should cultivate a Hterary taste and never de
spise the claims of learning.
We cannot attempt to detail fully the teach
ings of Bushido in this book, but even with these
three rules, if the reader will give himself the
trouble to think out their full meaning, he will
come to the conclusion that there is in the Eng
lish language an exact equivalent for the Jap
anese word " Bushi " and that equivalent is " Gen
tleman." " The American Gentleman," in the
fullest sense of the word, is a Japanese Bushi.
We have many a time read predictions made by
distinguished and reputable scholars in Europe
and America that the moral ethics of Old Japan
will decay into oblivion as its castles, temples,
and shrines have done. Even prominent Ameri
cans, very intimate friends of the author, have
often declared: "You wait fifty years or so, and

32 LIFE OF JAPAN
these Japanese characteristics will change, and
they will reach the same stage where we Ameri
cans are." While desiring the realization of such
a prediction, we must remember that a pyramid
rises only from its own ashes. " The kingdom of
God is within you." The seeds of the kingdom,
permeating the Japanese heart, blossomed into
the Bushido. It may be said that the worship
of Christ and the worship of the almighty dollar
will divide the world between them. On which
side will Bushido enlist? " As there is mo dogma
or formula to defend it, it is willing to die at the
first gust of the morning breeze. But a total
extermination — never." The system of Stoicism
is dead, but its virtue is alive; its energy and
vitality are felt through many channels of life
in the philosophy of western nations. So with
Bushido. Ages after, its odor will come floating
as the benediction of the air.
The distinguishing gjory of European chivalry'
was devotion to woman, while the Japanese
knight lived and died on account of his devotion
to his master and his country. Let us next take
up the Japanese woman, and see what her real
position is.

CHAPTER IV
THE JAPANESE WOMAN
" Love of God and the ladies " was enjoined
upon the European knight as a single duty, as
" Love of master and the country " was enjoined
upon the Japanese Bushi. The comparison, how
ever, should not be taken as an exclusion of
woman from an important place in ancient Jap-'
anese society. Just as the veneration of woman
was born in the Germanic forest in the days of
the Roman Empire, so was adoration and worship
of woman born in the beginning of Japan. In
the European case, it may be said that the idea
was the embodiment of the " deification of
woman." But in the Japanese instance, the prac
tice went much further, in that Amaterasu, the
" Great Goddess of the Celestial Light," in an
cient time established the Imperial throne, becom
ing the originator and founder of Japan itself.
This reduces the European deification, or the
" regina Angelorum " idea to comparative insig
nificance. True, Queen Phillippi, in the absence
of her husband, stationed herself in the castle of
Bamporoughi and defied the whole power of
33

34 LIFE OF JAPAN
Douglas; but it is no less true that Empress
Jingo in the year 200 a.d., at the head of the
Imperial Army in a " God-Jike Exploit,1" invaded
and conquered Korea. And as( late as the year
1630 Empress Meisho ascended the throne of her
fathers. Should there be found any difference in
the attitude of Japan and other countries toward
woman in the later days of Feudalism, it is due
to the differences of religion. An attitude toward
women might be derived from the doctrine of
Christianity quite different from that derived from
Buddhism and Confucianism.
The oldest records of Japan invariably relate
that the underlying principle of the Japanese
woman is her spiritual training. Respect for the
deities, purity, ; resoluteness, faithfulness, arid
loyalty make up the backbone of Japanese
womanhood. Buddhism and Confucianism have
exercised a very strong influence in the moulding
of character. We admit that they have done a
great deal of good in the training of women,
but they have done a great deal of evil as well;
for they infuse the idea that women are sinful
by nature, and that they are inferior by birth.
They teach that women to be virtuous must be
represented as ignorant, and that any appear
ance of possessing knowledge or activity is a
blot on her womanhood and so to be condemned.
This evil influence is in a way counteracted by

LIFE OF JAPAN 35
the spirit of chivalry or Bushido, which acts to
check and balance the demoralization of the Jap
anese women. In fact, the Bushido spirit perme
ates both sexes of the Japanese people. Each
of the wives and daughters of the military nobility
carries a halberd in her belt. She is taught either
to use it in defense of her honor or to commit
self-destruction. The author's family is of the military nobility,
or Samurai caste. It may not be out of place
to state a little personal incident. When a school
boy in Tokyo, only six years old, his more faith
ful schoolmate received a medal, and he got none.
His dear mother then told him he had better
commit hara-kari, which even at that young age
he thought strongly of doing. The Japanese,
regarding the relation of their women to Bushido,
observe that Bushido being primarily a teaching
intended for the masculine sex, the virtues it
prized in women were naturally far from being
feminine. Young girls, therefore, were trained
not only to repress their feelings and to indurate
their nerves, but also to skill in the use of weap
ons such as the Nagmata, which is a long-han
dled sword, or the kama, a long chained sickle.
The idea may be fairly gathered from the ability
of American women to hold their own on unex
pected occasions with their hat-pins. However,
in the Japanese case, the reason is a decidedly

36 LIFE OF JAPAN
positive one. But the exercise of martial train
ing is not intended that women may take their
place in the field, except under pressure of unusual
circumstances, but rather for purposes of
physical culture, personal protection and pre
paredness in the education of their sons. Having
this means ready to their hand, through it they
beautified their physique, and also used it to
guard their personal chastity, purity, and sanc
tity, to those things energetically applying them
selves with the same lofty conception which their
husbands had of their duty to their masters and
country. Mothers gave their sons leave during
certain hours to suddenly attack and overwhelm
them if they could, at any time and place, whether
they were at domestic work or at sewing. Thus
they applied their martial training for the edu
cation of their sons. Therefore, it cannot be
said that the Japanese woman made herself ac
complished for purposes of show or of social as
cendancy. All through the education of the Japa
nese woman, domesticity has pushed all other rival
ideas asidte. Japanese women may have possessed
knowledge superior to that of the other sex, but
they never lost sight of the hearth stone as the
center of their activities. It was to maintain
purity, chastity, sanctity, that they accomplished
so much in knowledge, and slaved and drudged

LIFE OF JAPAN 37
to the last of their lives. Day in and day out,
cheerfully, contentedly, and happily, yet ten
derly, bravely and plaintively, the Japanese
women did their appointed work and died like the
unassuming flowers which enjoy the air they
breathe. A man's character is formed and moulded
when he is young, principally while at
home under the care of his parents. Home edu
cation is the ground-work; no man can escape
without more or less of its influence, and this
education is the predominant work of the mothers.
It may be stated without fear of contradiction
that the Bushido spirit of the Japanese is the
work of the mother.
In this connection let us investigate the Jap
anese ideas in both old and new Japan regarding
woman's education. Even under the regime of
the feudal system, many books had been written
about woman's education, and among them the
" Onna Daigaku," or Great Learning for Women,
is conspicuous. The important requirements for
girls in ancient times were the arts of spinning,
weaving, sewing, washing, and preparing food.
It was the chief duty of a girl living in the paren
tal home to practice filial piety toward her father
and mother. But after marriage her chief duty
was to honor her father-in-law and mother-in-

38 LIFE OF JAPAN
law, to honor them beyond her own father and
mother, and to tend them with every manifesta
tion of filial piety.
A woman has no particular lord. She must
look to her husband as her lord, and must serve
him with all worship and reverence, not despising
or thinking lightly of him. The lifelong duty
of a woman is obedience. The foremost maladies
that affect the female mind are indocility, discon
tent, slander, jealousy, and silliness. Without
doubt, these five maladies infest seven or eight
out of every ten women, and it is from these that
arises the inferiority of women to men. A woman
should cure them by self-inspection and self-
reproach. Yet woman in former years was happier and
far more contented in many respects than she is
to-day. Let no one here misunderstand my view.
I am not exalting the ignorance and brutality
of the olden time. I only state that ignorance
and brutality were the necessary sequence of the
incessant wars and disorders among the princi
palities of Feudal days, but this very ignorance
and brutality was accompanied by virtues and
humanity studies of home which partially amelio
rated the evil of the dark days; from out the de
spair over the ignorance and brutality were born
the hopes and inspiration of future happiness.
How impossible in the dark days of Washington

LIFE OF JAPAN 39
would it have been for a negress to have super
intended an Anglo Saxon household, even if she
had been exalted to the position! Who would
have found a Rousseau among the people in the
time of Louis VII? Knowledge may break the
fetters of the people if they are educated enough
to shake them off, but the virtue accompanying
ignorance may enable them to bear those fetters
with happiness and contentment. Where is the
happiness of devouring books with no attempt to
profit by them, except in the pleasure of tempo
rarily satisfying an appetite? May not the
highest opportunity of happiness become a savor
of death unto death when unimproved? It seems
to me that the lot of a poor farmer's daughter in
the olden time was one of more contentment and
happiness than that of the pale-faced, languid,
envious girl of to-day. The former was absorbed
in the duties of home and in filial piety. She
gained her knowledge of humanity studies in a
local institution and spent her time in the society
of equals. The latter, graduated from a modern
normal school at a cost beyond her parents' means,
despises the helplessness and ignorance of her
father, mother, and brother. Under the stimulus of
ambition, she has worn herself thin in exhausting
studies, which, after all, but reveal her own insig
nificance. She is courted by her uneducated rural
beau whom she considers most undesirable.

40 LIFE OF JAPAN
Poverty, imrest, and aspirations for unattainable
society are eating out her very soul. Does not
our reader sometimes think that society, from a
moral point of view, thrives better under hard
restraint than when exposed to the danger of the
irreligious, superfluous, material, and dried-up
civilization of our own day?
Be that as it may, there are to-day, not less
than three million girls compelled to' attend the
educational institutions of Japan. Every morn
ing and afternoon, this army of thoroughly up-
to-date maidens' is scattered! among the grade and
high schools, in the Peeress School where the girls
of the topmost layer of the upper class belong,
as well as in the University of Women, a demo
cratic educational institution where all the rank"
and file attend. The girls of the new Japan are
fully-awake, thriving, and pushing forward in
the study of ethics, psychology, pedagogy, physi
ology, economics, law, science, and the Japanese,
Chinese, American and European literature and
art. The women's dormitories in the educational
institutions which are particularly well furnished
with conveniences, are but the sign of the times,
being supplied with every conceivable athletic and
gymnastic apparatus of Europe and America.
These are used as well as their own national
system of offensive and defensive physical cul
ture. The Japanese college girls are publishing

LIFE OF JAPAN 41
not only their journals, but they also pay atten
tion, through their several Alumni Associations,
to the statements of what the students or gradu
ates are doing all over the country. These state
ments often show the record of marriages, fur
nishing proof of the fact that the higher educa
tion of women is not a bar to matrimony.
The Japanese woman of to-day appreciates
that the great responsibility of educating chil
dren devolves upon both parents. The mother
should give her own milk to her child, and never
leave it to the hands of a nurse, unless for urgent
reasons. When a girl is growing up the best
attention should be given to her physical develop
ment. To restrain her from taking fuller exer
cise for fear of getting her fine clothes soiled is
wrong. Give your daughter plain, neat clothing, and
let her indulge in exercise freely. To give food
to a girl is necessary, but to expect her to de
velop on that only is a mistake. On the con
trary, good food without proper exercise is rather
injurious. For girls of all standing, rich or poor,
high or low, language, letter-writing, calculation,
the keeping of accounts, and needlework are in
dispensable and should be taught together with the
arts of housekeeping and cooking. As to higher
education, it is just as useful as to boys.
Physics ought to be the foundation for all other

43 LIFE OF JAPAN
learning. Strictly speaking, there is no study
that is useless for girls to follow, except mili
tary science. But there are burdens peculiar to
women, and on that account they have less time
to devote to learning than have men. Moreover,
the education of the sex has been comparatively
neglected, and it may be all too sudden to expect
from them the same accomplishments that are
obtained by the other sex. What is needed at
the present stage of our national progress is all
that is practicable, and this consists in impart
ing general knowledge on physics:, physiology,
geography, and history, besides some knowledge
of law and political economy. This last knowledge
may sound rather strange, but the lack of it, it
should be remembered, is the real cause of the lack
of influence possessed by woman in society. Grace
is the first virtue of the sex; and, therefore, any
conduct or manner savoring of roughness, rude
ness, pride, and contentiousness should be care
fully avoided. For the moral culture of girls,
there are proper books to read, and good stories
to hear, but the conduct and example of their
parents in daily life will remain most effective.
The attitude of the parents in manners and ideas
is the most effective agent in making a home
cheerful and happy. They lead, and the
daughters follow. Thus great are the duties of

LIFE OE JAPAN 43
parents, and so submissive is the nature of young
maidens. One of the elements that constitutes a happy
home is frankness among the members of the
family. What children say to their mother should
not be concealed from their father; and what
the father says to them should be made known
to their mother. Concealment destroys straight
forwardness and is apt to foster a scheming char
acter, which is to be avoided by all means. When
a girl has attained to a proper age she marries,
and this is the greatest event in her life. In
foreign countries the parties marry upon their
own choice after some time of mutual acquaint
ance. But in Japan it becomes the duty of the
parents to find suitable matches for their chil
dren. Much time is spent in making investiga
tions and in deliberate consideration. When the
parents have come to a decision, they ask their
daughter's will. The right to decide remains
with the latter. The parents simply seek out a
suitable consort, and propose him to' their child.
It is for the daughter or son to accept or reject.
The parents have no right to compel, and if the
proposal is rejected they can only seek another.
Though it would be very convenient if men and
women had free social intercourse and made their
own selections, yet at the present stage of our

44 LIFE OF JAPAN
social life there are far greater disadvantages
than advantages in following such a course. Let
these developments remain for some years to come
before they are realized. Marriage is the union
of man and woman, in which they solemnly con
tract with each other for sharing all the pleasures
as well as all the pains of life. A single life
may give much ease, but far greater are the
pleasures of a married life, and so are also the
corresponding troubles.
The wife should know what her husband is do
ing outside of the home and what is his situation
in business, so that in any emergency she can
settle his affairs without trouble or loss. Hence
necessity arises that she should have a knowledge
of finance and economy,. No amount of mere
accomplishment will make women ladies if they
have not high ideals and intellect. Even in their
every-day behavior and words, they should be
very careful. A single word that cannot be prop
erly uttered with self-respect will degrade their
womanhood. To maintain her position high,
there is only one way, and that is for woman to
respect herself and not look down upon others,
whoever they may be. A happy home is the
joint work of husband and wife, and there can
be no question of difference in the relative rights
and positions. Mutual love, respect, assistance,
and confidence should find them together all

LIFE OF JAPAN 45
through life. It is part of the wife's grace to be
obedient to her husband in all things right and
reasonable. But if the husband is at fault, it is
her duty to rescue him and turn him right by
mild but effective means.
Such is the life of a Japanese woman. It is
well said that the worth of a State is the worth
of the individuals composing it. The unprece
dented success of the great drama which Japan
has been destined to play in the world's theatre
may be largely credited to, the Japanese women.
From the creation of Japan to this day divina
tion seems heightened and raised to its highest
power in woman. The West gives us through Vol
taire, what we believe is true of the Japanese
woman, " All the reasonings of men are not worth
one sentiment of women." From the day of Eve
to the day of admission to equal suffrage, we see
that woman's love, in the words of Milton, " grows
by giving." Home is the resort of love, joy,
peace, and plenty, for the making of which woman
has her heaven-bestowed faculty. To man, the
whole world, without woman and home, is nothing
but a prison of larger room.

CHAPTER V
JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS
Human selection gives way to natural selec
tion, in that all hving things from birth to death
are placed under the sway of selective processes.
The differences in customs and habits, although
plentiful as well as amusing, can not fail to be
come subject to unavoidable changes. Customs
and habits are not stationary and immovable
things. A modern blacksmith handles hammer
and anvil with great skill. But if some barbarians
of ancient time had not discovered the native
metals and learned to melt them in the crucible,
and if later some other barbarians had not begun
to cast them, then, without such pre-existing con
ditions modern advancement might not have had
its material basis. We commenced our existence
at zero in customs, habits, knowledge, and experi
ence, without speech and without art. An old
common law report of about two centuries ago,
exhibits the fact that the judges of England used
to hang persons on the charge of witchcraft.
Does this then customary law hold good with us
now? It is a Japanese custom to keep their
46

LIFE OF JAPAN 47
famous collections of pictures, potteries and other
bric-a-brac in their storehouse. They exhibit them
on different occasions according to the taste of
their guests, the seasons, or even the changes of
the weather. They are ever anxious to arrange
the Ws of the various objects in the room in
conformity with the tints of the exterior, strictly
observing harmonies and contrasts. Their artis
tic arrangements and underlying ideas are all
very deep, and to all intents and purposes it is
commendable to preserve them. But how long
could they continue this taking out and storing
away, in this day and age? Are they not in a
transition period, where soon, like among the
Americans, all collections of household things
will be exhibited in reception-room, parlor, dining-
room, and even in the hall? The Japanese are
very fond of gardens. With the garden it is
indispensable to have ponds, and rustic bridges,
little mountains and hills, diminutive waterfalls,
meandering paths, ball-like trimmed shrubs, root-
lifted pines, and stationary lamps made of stone.
The dimensions of the grounds may be large or
small according to circumstances, and so are the
landscapes, but they always have the gardens.
The poorest Japanese in the most crowded city,
either at the comer of the entrance space or even
in the room, will have his miniature garden fixed
up in a box.

48 LIFE OF JAPAN
In America the trust system is in fashion,
not only in labor and capital, but in churches
and families. Presbyterians, Methodists, Con
gregationalists, and all known sects under Christ,
are now working hand in hand under a grand
association, or trust. Apartment houses are
now being built in America more than private
residences. This trust system among families
is removing the housekeeper farther and farther
from the back yard. Here again, nature's law as
manifested in Japanese gardening in the room, is
manifested in the same way by American wives
utilizing their apartment windows for a similar
purpose. Thus they satisfy their natural appe
tite. The prevailing custom in Japan of making
fire and producing heat is from a box about twelve
inches square, with charcoal in the center. This
is appreciated by the Japanese in the same spirit
as the wood fire around which the American
family gathers with happy feelings and pleasure
over their favored life. Neither of these customs,
however, can be said to withstand the forces of
the progressive age, because we know it to be a
fact that the Japanese are beginning to appreci
ate the stove, and the Americans the furnace.
The difference in Japanese and American cus
toms and habits is largely due to the individual
training and thought, or conception of life, which
are of course constantly subject to environmental

LIFE OF JAPAN 49
and economic changes. This needs no emphasis.
Briefly, the Americans' symbol of life is an angel,
and so they look to their moral and spiritual
ascension. The Japanese devote their lives to
the avoidance of evil, and they place emphasis
therefore upon the condemnation of the devil. The
Americans are generally frank and open-hearted,
while the Japanese generally hold back their feel
ings, being reserved and unfathomable. Both
peoples, when provoked or angered, jump madly
about, being of equally high temper ; but the Jap
anese reflect upon the causes of the provocation
or insult, while the Americans generally forget
an injury when done, and make up among them
selves without reflection. The Japanese and
Americans equally love money, but the Japanese
are rather inclined to deeds of daring and ignore
or undervalue their passion for money. The
Americans' love of money is positive. The Ameri
cans admire the beautiful in the same way as the
Japanese, but the Americans enjoy the beautiful
in its full brilliancy, while the Japanese mystify
it and enjoy it in its secretiveness. The Ameri
cans place emphasis upon the practical utility of
intellectual accomplishment; while the Japanese
admire it for its own sake. The Americans enjoy
the society of persons who are frank, open and
plain in what they are talking about, they want
everything understood; but the Japanese enjoy

50 LIFE OF JAPAN
the resourcefulness of a man who keeps people
guessing. The Japanese incline toward restraint
or control of the display of affection or feeling,
while the Americans hke naturalness in the dis
play of affection or feeling, and are not as strict
as the Japanese in restraint or control in these
respects. In illustrating the prevailing Japanese
and American habits we will necessarily see many
things that do not quite conform to each other.
For instance, some Japanese native traders sit
and drink tea while trading. They use the bead
frames or abacus for calculating, also the West
ern system of mathematics. The left is the side
and seat of honor, while the Americans observe the
right. Japanese family names precede individual
names, for instance, they would say: Bryan
Jennings William Mr. or Beveridge J Albert Mr.,
while they seldom, if ever, abbreviate the name,
except when it is necessary for making trade
marks of family seals. They do not have any
middle names like the Americans, but without
them they have plenty for all practical purposes.
Americans often attribute inferiority to the Jap
anese rikisha system, classing the rikisha men
with horses. Perhaps some do not know that
the pattern was taken from the American baby
carriage, to push which affords fashionable jobs
for American young ladies. Even a man may
have been seen pushing the rikisha in America

LIFE OF JAPAN 51
at such places as Palm Beach, Florida, long
before the Japanese ever knew of the rikisha.
The race course in America exists almost entirely
for gambling, while the Japanese support it for
the improvement of the breed of horses. The
idea of gambling on the horse race has been invad
ing Japan from America, and the Japanese are
having a time to prevent this habit becoming
assimilated into their country's institutions. Of
course the taste for cigarette and cigar smoking,
also for brandy, whiskey, and other strong drinks
has already been assimilated by the Japanese,
and are considered by some of the natives quite
as fashionable as they are in the country from
which they have come.
White and not black is the color for mourning
and funerals. The Japanese have the habit of de
preciating their own and praising what belongs to
others, for example, " This dinner is neither nice
nor plentiful, but please partake " ; " My wife is
an ugly dunce " ; " My son is a stupid fellow."
" Your wife is an honorable lady." " Your son
is a fine boy." When the Japanese go out on a
strike, show your hearty kindness and prove your
sincerest sympathy and profound truth; but if
the Americans strike, give them more money. If
the Japanese are suspicious of your pretensions,
the kindness of ostensible sympathy, you will
never settle your differences. Especially if you

59 LIFE OF JAPAN
speak or show any intention that you will pay
them extra money or increased wages you will
make your differences most extreme. The Japan
ese laborers do not care for your rights, your
money or your contracts, but for your faith,
loyalty, patience, kindness, courtesy, fairness,
honesty and truth.
When invited to dinner, tea and cake is served
first; the soup, of course, afterward. Americans
in speaking with a person, look into their eyes,
but the Japanese avoid doing that. To call a
person to come, or to command him to come, we
force our hand from us, palm forward. Men
always precede women. Women always take off
their hats in the meeting-houses, theatres, and
such places. The Japanese ladies object to show
ing their form, using every possible means to con
ceal the figure, wearing the large sash or bow in
the back with the ends extending to the hem of
the kimono; whereas American ladies, as a rule,
do not object to showing their form. Japanese
writing and printing reads downward, progress
ing to the left instead of the right. When strik
ing an antagonist, Japanese give a side " swipe "
instead of a forward " punch." The Japanese
doi not like curly hair and will try every scheme
to straighten it. The Japanese do not kiss, either
between parents or children or between husband
and wife. The Japanese people believe that early

LIFE OF JAPAN 53
to bed and early to rise makes them healthier,
wealthier and wiser. Theatres commence early
in the morning, about eight o'clock, and close
after sunset, families taking their children and
lunches with them. When meeting or saluting
each other, the Japanese bow submissively two or
three times instead of shaking hands. In using
a plane or saw the Japanese force it toward them
instead of pushing it forward. Japanese ladies
turn their toes toward each other, while walking.
They lift the front of the dresses instead of the
rear. You are accustomed to think the Japanese
habits are peculiar; but you should remember
that the Japanese also consider your habits
peculiar. Tea-making and the care of flowers are two of
the important institutions of the Japanese home
life. For purposes of pleasure and in times of
leisure, the people turn their attention to them.
They by no means resemble such enjoyments as
receptions, balls, parties, or picnics. Tea-making
and the care of flowers look to the resultant en
joyment of ease, rest, and peace in the souls of
those who participate therein. Step out of the
home, and you will find the Japanese hustling in
realization of their motto, " time is money." But
once in the home, the people are found quite at
ease, engaged in the indulgence of their peculiar

54 LIFE OF JAPAN
tastes above mentioned. Who in the West would
ever think it possible in common with his every
day hfe, to study three or four years the arts of
tea-making and horticulture, or that the Japanese
even set aside a tea-making room, or build an in
dependent structure for the purpose of either tea-
making or arranging flowers ?
Let us add that the custom of undervaluing
one another because of differences of opinion
or habits is bad. American travelers coming back
from Japan will inform you about the nudity of
the Japanese rural women. Japanese from Amer
ica also talk about the " exhibition of living
pictures" of some American women. An Ameri
can merchant has informed you that a Japanese
trader is apt not to keep his promise if the money
market goes against him. Americans sometimes
criticise Japanese as idolators, but the Japanese
know that some Americans worship the golden
calf. The Japanese like or dislike the people of the
West just as the people of the West Hke or dislike
the Japanese. Many of the foreign residents in
Japan have formed close friendships among the
men and women of Japan. There is, however, a
continual and bitter competition among the com
mercial representatives of the Western nations in
Japan, and singularly enough, the ports of
Japan produce the great mass of Western people

LIFE OF JAPAN 55
who speak unkindly of the Japanese. Unfortu
nately, kind words do not travel as fast as un
pleasant words. Naturally, the Japanese do not
take kindly to the men who persistently and con
sistently speak of their faults and their vices but
never of their virtues or the good things in them.
Yet there are shining examples where the Ameri
can business man, who understands the value of
patience, kindness, and consideration, has done,
and is doing business with as much satisfaction
as if he were trading with his own people in
America. These are the men who are really build
ing up the trade for America. It is often said
that the Japanese are commercially dishonest.
The accusers' best evidence is that Chinese are
employed in Japanese banks. The Japanese do
use the Chinese in the ports where much Chinese
business is going on, but the banks are very few
there. If you visit the Japanese banks number
ing over 2,000, transacting the Japanese business,
you cannot find even a shadow of a Chinese. Let
us apply the logic in another way. There are
over twenty thousand Chinese laundries in
America. Can the Japanese therefore say that
all American laundrymen and laundrywomen are
dishonest? There are many negroes who may be
dishonest, but the negroes are permitted to hold
office. Can the Japanese therefore say that just
because there are negro lawyers, the other Ameri-

56 LIFE OF JAPAN
can lawyers are all dishonest? Not speaking of
the sharp American Wall Street "tricks and
traps," it is about time to ask leniency of those
who single out the Japanese on the ground of
commercial dishonesty as compared to other
nations. One of the most frequently asked questions in
the West is: Do not the Japanese gentlemen cus
tomarily discriminate against the other sex, as
compared to the Western idea? The Japanese
woman, however, says to her Western sister: Do
not judge me according to what appears on the
surface of our society, for such is mostly the re
verse of actual conditions. For instance, when
my husband and myself are seen walking on the
streets, I am often a parcel-bearer and my hus
band goes freehanded, generally a few steps ahead
of me, as if I were his servant. Again, going
into a house or room, it is the husband who enters
first and I follow him. My Western sister is apt
to infer, therefore, that my sex in Japan is not
duly respected, and is under the iron hand of
man. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The model type of Japanese woman is she who
exerts her influence by the mute eloquence of God
given duties well performed. There are some
Japanese women who are just as outspoken and
demonstrative of their influence over men as some
of their Western kinsfolk, but such women in Ja-

LIFE OF JAPAN 57
pan belong only to the lower classes. The higher
their station in hfe, realizing that the Japanese
woman should be full-grown, self-supporting, and
proudly independent, the higher they aspire to
the carrying out of the true idea of the evolution
of monogamy, the more humble and modest will
be the demeanor of the Japanese women. The
mannish woman receives just as much contempt
as the effeminate man. The Japanese woman
who is inclined to society life as it is understood
in the Western countries, is sure to become a sub
ject of remark by her sisters. The Japanese
women with their mute eloquence, without the
least outward manifestation of their rights, have
changed the whole fabric of their legal and social
status. While in some portions of the so-called
civilized West, women are yet bound by the unity
of conjugal property, the so-called subdued Jap
anese women are now guaranteed their separate
property under the law. In short, the legal sta
tus of woman in Japan is based upon the legal
equality of the sexes. The higher the Japanese
community advances, the more highly uplifted
Japanese civilization becomes, the lower bows the
head and the more mute and subdued becomes the
Japanese woman.
Are the Japanese habitually immoral? If the
foreign travelers single out Japan from the rest
of the nations on this specific charge, mainly

58 LIFE OF JAPAN
because of the Yoshiwara and concubinage sys
tem in Japan, we are compelled to ask in behalf
of justice, how do they know of their existence?
Did they try Yoshiwara or concubinage? Per
sonally the author does not wish to discuss this
question for it is a question most difficult of solu
tion. Ever since the day of Adam, down through
Sodom, Rome, Paris, Chicago, and New York,
it bas been the question that has never been
solved. The Japanese should not accuse the
Americans on such charges as this ; if they do,
they are not justified in doing so. They are not
justified in asking why every state in the Ameri
can Union, which is the highest nation in Chris
tian civilization, has so many Red-light-districts?
They are not justified in asking the American
why nearly, if not fully half of the American
negrqes are mulattoes? We believe the same
rule governs the Americans as the Japanese in
the existence of social evils.
Are the Japanese spy-like? We noticed after
the school question of San Francisco arose, that
a great number of spys from Japan were dis
covered and captured in the American newspaper
columns. But we have not yet been able to find any
record of court-martial proceedings against them.
Have all these Japanese spies evaporated from
much use like the ink in a printing shop? At any
rate, the cause of such misunderstandings is due

LIFE OF JAPAN 59
to the difficulty of communication through speech
and writing. One of the principal reasons that
the Japanese people, in the beginning hesitated
to open up their country, was that the people of
the West in Japan talked in their native tongues,
with the result that the Japanese naturally in
dulged in the thought that the lack of a univer
sal language was suspicious, and believed it best
not to be complicated with the aggressive world,
and therefore, remained isolated, peaceful, and
contented by themselves. But when the Japanese
were forced to open their country, their only self-
protection, they thought, was to try to understand
the foreign language. The result is that now
more than one-third of the present generation are
able to read English, if not able to converse in
it. Histories and biographies of great men and
women of Europe and America are read in the
original. When the author wrote in English
" Powers of the American People," for the people
in America, there was not a leading newspaper in
Japan which did not translate it into Japanese.
There is not a public school in Japan where the
English language is not taught. On the other
hand, in how many schools and universities in the
West is the Japanese language taught? How
many newspapers are there in the western coun
tries where Japanese books and histories and
biographies could be translated? As almost the

60 LIFE OF JAPAN
entire essence of oriental history and civilization
has its authoritative records written and pre
served in the Japanese language, the learning of
the Japanese cannot be said to be unnecessary
education. We admit that the Japanese lan
guage, to the beginner, is the hardest language
in the world, but when we go on to a certain
stage of comprehension, we are convinced, that
if anything, the English language is harder than
the Japanese.
Whatever diversities there may be in the civil
ized or semi-civilized people of East or West, at
bottom humanity is the same from century to cen
tury. Whatever difference there may be in customs
and habits at a given time and place, we all know
that the natural law of development applies to the
succession of phenomena in the world's cosmic
drama. The surface diversities are not the causes
but are the accidents of human progress. The
unification of all nature is endlessly progressing
through a selective process. Whether customs
and habits are eternally diversifying or uniformly
generalizing, they have no bearing at all upon
the general current of advancement toward the
ultimate end of human society, which is the amal
gamation of an ever renewing civilization and
humanity in which the best and fittest shall sur
vive.

CHAPTER VI
TOPOGRAPHY OF JAPAN
Topographically speaking, the coast line of
Japan is much cut into countless bays, inlets,
seas, straits, capes, peninsulas, and ragged prom
ontories, and the interior comprises numbers of
regularly disposed mountain ranges, with inter
vening plains or undulating country.
Vegetation being everywhere luxuriant, the
mountain, valley and island scenery, among
these emerald isles of the Orient, is sublime be
yond description.
The principal lake is Biwa, 100 square miles
in area. It is to us a sacred lake, around which
nestles many a heart-swelling legend. Fuji-
No-Yama, a semi-extinct volcanic crater, 13,000
feet high, is our highest and most sacred moun
tain. The climate of Japan resembles that of the
eastern United States, but is more humid in sum
mer on account of numerous showers. The sum
mer is hot, sometimes sultry, but always whole
some; the winters are cool and often piercing.
The ocean currents that wash the coast of Ja-
61

62 LIFE OF JAPAN
pan could not be properly described herein. We
will merely mention that the various arctic and
equatorial currents that together constitute the
Japan Stream, not only give to Japan a most
varied climate, but bring to her shores enormous
shoals of fish and other sea animals, in such quan
tities and endless varieties as to make Japan
phenomenal in this respect. Moreover, the Japan
stream crosses the Pacific and gives warmth to
the coast of California.
The fauna and flora of Japan somewhat re
semble those of America ; yet the Japanese have a
few animals and plants that are more or less dis
tinctly peculiar to their country.
The vegetation of Japan is exceedingly luxu
riant. Great forests of cedar, lotus, pine, wil
low, juniper, maple, hydrangea, mulberry, ilex,
giant camellias, the lacquer and camphor trees,
loquats and wistarias, cherries and plums, every
where abound, while the great bamboo groves
exist throughout the islands. The chrysanthe
mum, the national flower, has its home in Japan.
In early times Japan was considerably rocked
by earthquakes, and light shocks are still fre
quent, with an occasional severe one. By far the
most noted phenomenon of this nature in our an
nals occurred in the year 286 B. C, when the
sacred mountain Fuji and Lake Biwa (before
mentioned), which is 300 miles from it, were

LIFE OF JAPAN 63
formed. Mount Fuji suddenly rose to its pres
ent elevation of 13,000 feet, and at the same time
a great chasm opened and filled with water. This
was Lake Biwa. This may appear extraordi
nary, but it is not comparatively so, if we search
the records of such events. As late as 1759 A.
D., and as near here as Mexico, the volcano Jo-
rullo rose suddenly to the height of 1,500 feet in
the midst of a plain 2,890 feet above the sea level.
Mount Fuji has been active for more than 1,850
years, its last eruption occurring in the year
1707. This sacred mountain, as everybody who sees
it will admit, is a wonder of the world. No
mountain in any country surpasses Fuji in sub
limity and grandeur. They who see it in the dis
tance, stand in reverence before a most beautiful
sight, beyond one's power of description. Fuji's
lofty crown, clad with everlasting snow, casts inde
scribable brilliancies and illuminations on the sur
rounding peaks and valleys far and near, under
the glorious rays of the rising sun. Its divine
and majestic cone is Hke "a huge white fan, in-
vertedly hanging in the heavens." Around Fuji
nestle many legends and traditions. Even at the
present day, under the light of the environment
of the twentieth century civilization, tens of
thousands of pious Japanese worship the gods of
the mountain. The author would like to state a

64 LIFE OF JAPAN
little personal experience. In August — which is
the time the temperature on the summit of Fuji
can be best tolerated — he succeeded in climbing to
the top. From Gatemba he ascended the gradually
undulating path among the clumps of trees.
There are ten stations where one can rest for a
little while and write a sign of his passage at
what is called the Eastern Gate, and at some sta
tions he may eat cakes, rice soup or plums, and
drink tea. Blankets and fires are provided to
mitigate the piercing cold wind up on the summit
stations. The author had, of course, many fellow-
travelers, among whom, as usual, were large num
bers of Fuji worshippers, who climb the mountain
once a year. He many times engaged in interest
ing conversation with them. One of them said
to him : " I had a hard experience last year, for
some ungrateful person was with me, whose pres
ence offended the mountain, causing a fierce wind
and storm halfway up. Whenever any impious
individual is near, or about to climb the holy and
divine mountain, surely then the guardian spirits
of the mountain are enraged and warn us with
the fierce wind and storm." The author could
not then resist the force of the argument of his
fellow-traveler, the Fuji worshipper, although it
is his habit to reason with any person upon
matters of superstition. But having in front of
him the grand sigjit of this mountain, the heart-

LIFE OF JAPAN 65
rending figure of which exalts itself to command,
he meekly submitted to the argument of the Fuji
worshipper with a feeling of awe and reverence.
In all its discoveries and inventions, from the
history of the animal and plant evolution of Von
Baer, Spencer's forerunner, to the present, sci
ence agrees that every animal is adapted to the
environment in which it lives, for otherwise it
would at once become extinct ; but in order to de
termine whether it is best adapted to that en
vironment, it remains to be seen whether it can
maintain itself in it against all comers. The
scientists of the West will have ample ground
to confirm their researches into this principle in
that Japan, with all its special creations under
nature's selection, has not only adapted herself
to her environment, but has survived for centuries
in her efforts to maintain herself against all ob
stacles. With Japan the story of the sacred re
gent is not a fairy tale but the inspiration of one
age to another. The Japanese people and their
children will preserve and sing in song and poetry
the name of their God who so abundantly be
stowed on them this idea which scientists might
say is the result of human prejudice in favor of
the soil of one's heritage. Whatever explanation
might be given it, — to the Japanese it is their
thanksgiving to their Nature's God, the inspira
tion of their patriotism. They sing, borrowing

66 LIFE OF JAPAN
Narcissa Hayes' translation of the native poem
on the Japanese thanksgiving:
" Oh ! sacred mountain of Japan !
Should your Yamato spirit
Strangers seek to scan,
Say — it's the mountain cherry,
Scatt'ring fragrance far and near
To the golden glow of the morning sun ! "

CHAPTER VII
FEUDALISM in japan
In writing for intelligent and educated Amer
ican people it seems fitting for a few moments to
dwell on the study of history as an important
part of a useful and well-spent life.
To begin with, history, as we well know, is the
written record of the past; it is alsoi such written
study of the present as enables us to reveal the
unwritten past. The great pyramid is not his
tory, and until Herodotus wrote, and Champol-
lion deciphered it, it was but an artificial moun
tain. So were the old relics and remains of Japan
until the Japanese ethnologists, anthropologists,
archeologists, and philologists studied them and
gave aid to the historians. Kojiki, or the " Book
of Ancient Tradition," and Nihonki, or the " Rec
ord of Japanese Events," are some of the im
portant keys which unlock the secrets of the his
torical events during the ancient and medieval
ages of Japan.
Japanese history dates from the middle of the
seventh century, B. C, showing the Japanese
people now to be in the 2,570th year of the
6T

68 LIFE OF JAPAN
Japanese era. About the year 660 B. C, Jimmu
conquered all petty chiefs, united the whole coun
try under his sway, organized a form of govern
ment and ascended the throne in Yamato, as
Japan's first emperor. During the 2,565 years
of United Japan, therefore, there has been but
one imperial dynasty, comprising 126 emperors
in all.
Prompted1 by the subjugation of the aborig
inal tribes, and the barbarian invasions during
the early ages of Japanese history, a well-de
vised politico-mihtary system was organized, and
soon developed into a powerful feudalism with
all its possibilities for good and evil. The coun
try having been frequently ravished by barbar
ians from distant lands, the Emperor parted with
his military functions and conferred them upon
a generalissimo, or Shogun.
The title of Shogun was first conferred by the
Emperor on a general-in-chief in the sixth cen
tury, A. D., to whom was entrusted the subjuga
tion of the aborigines, and the matter of defense
from the barbarian invasions. The Shogun ate
was vested in a noble family as a heredity, and
soon antagonistic families — all off-shoots from
royalty — were competitors for the important of
fice. With the military the Emperor virtually
divested himself of his political influence as well,
from which it may be inferred that the relations

LIFE OF JAPAN 69
between Emperor and Shogun were not always
reciprocally amicable. Their respective govern
ments were distinct and remote from each other
in their individual emulations as well as in their
respective capitals.
The Emperor's government removed from Nara
to Kyoto in the eighth century. The Shogun
fixed his capital at Kamakura. This resulted in
a Western and an Eastern capital, at Kyoto and
Kamakura respectively. The Shoguns, for the
nine centuries of their existence, concentrated the
wealth, power, arts, influence and commerce of
the empire within their capital, which soon far
surpassed in importance the imperial or Western
capital, Kyoto. For a time during the Middle
Ages, the rivals Taira and Minamoto or the
Heike and Genji clans exhausted the resources
and vitality of the nation in their personal con
flicts. The Taira dynasty prevailed until 1159,
when the Minamoto family gained the ascend
ancy and remained in possession of the Shogun-
ate until 1219, when the clan became extinct and
was succeeded by the Hojo dynasty. The Toku-
gawa was the last of the Shogun dynasties, con
tinuing until 1868>, when the Shogunate was sup
pressed by the instrumentality of the great na
tional upheaval which was contemporary with
Perry's opportune expedition.
It was Yoritomo, a Shogun of the Minatomo

70 LIFE OF JAPAN
dynasty, who overthrew the Taira clan just men
tioned. > In Yoritomo's reign civil rule surren
dered to military. Thus feudalism practically
began about the year 1160 A. D.
The Shogun parceled the country into fiefs,
each under a separate Daimio or feudal baron
with concomitant clans, castes, vassals, and
feudal tenure. Feudalism has ever been incidental
to such a military tenure. During the Shogun-
ate each Daimio ruled within his fief as a sover
eign. The territory of each Daimio was polit
ically and socially independent from that of ev
ery other fief, and the laws and customs of each
such territory were often the very antithesis of
those of adjacent fiefs. The circulating medium,
which in most cases was paper money, was also
severally distinct, the money of one fief not be
ing current in any other. Various hardships thus
grew out of this polyarchial system. The peo
ple in each fief were usually classified in five
classes or subdivisions — the military or Samurai,
the agriculturists, the artisans, the merchants,
and eta or outcasts.
Yoritomo had married into the Hojo family
and now the Hojo became the real rulers, not, to
be sure, as Shoguns, but they worked the wires
both at Kyoto and Kamakura. During this Hojo
dynasty of double rule, Japan was twice invaded
by Mongols under Kublai Kahn, the grandson of

LIFE OF JAPAN 71
the great Genghis Kahn. These were the same
Mongols who had swarmed over and devastated
Europe. These events rendered the name of the
Hojo clan memorable in Japanese history. Arts
and literature were encouraged during this era,
and it may safely be called the Periclean Age of
Medieval Japan.
The Ashikaga dynasty began during the Ashi-
kaga rule, and the imperial power was reduced
to nil; civil wars and earthquakes wrecked the
empire, and devastation, starvation, and pesti
lence cast a gloom over the nation. It was the
darkest period of Japanese history. The coming
of the Portuguese and Spaniards in the middle
of the sixteenth century modified this state of
affairs. It was then that Christianity was in
troduced by some Jesuits and Franciscans, among1
whom was that extraordinary man, Francis
Xavier. This terrible Ashikaga age of civil war was
remarkable for discovery and invention, and for a
revolution in the arts of peace as well as of war.
Toward the close of the Ashikaga Shogunate
three great men of Japan rose into prominence,
two of which, Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu, merit the
highest distinction according to Japanese ideals
of celebrity. Hideyoshi's case shows that in the
Japanese national economy a man of low rank
may ascend to the highest authority in the realm,

72 LIFE OF JAPAN
next to the Emperor, Hideyoshi, when a mere
child, deserted the parental roof, became an ap
prentice, next a sexton in a Buddhist temple, and
then a beggar. He became a tramp, living any
where, and sleeping where night overtook him.
On one occasion he slept on the Takechiyo-Bashi
bridge, and before he arose in the morning he
was roughly picked up and ordered out of the
way by one of the attendants of a retinue that
accompanied a young nobleman, Tokugawa Iye-
yasu. Hideyoshi noticed that the young noble
man was a mere lad, even younger than himself,
and he said to himself, " Why should I get out
of the way? He is rich and I am poor, to be
sure, but that makes no difference. I have heard
of the rich becoming poor and the poor becoming
rich. Some day I will rise to a higher position
than he has, and then I will make him tie my
shoe." Hideyoshi, after certain deeds of valor,
received from the Emperor the title of Kwam-
paku, or premier. Therefore, he was general-in-
chief of all the armies, and thereby had an au
thority over the princely Daimios, some of whom
rebelled. By great military skill he suppressed
these rebellions, and then invaded Korea in two
decisive campaigns. The first expedition to
Korea, in the year 1591, was preliminary to a
further enterprise against China. He advanced
as far as Nagoya. He there sent an army to

LIFE OF JAPAN 73
Fusan, which reached1 that place a few days
later. The Japanese army was victorious every
where, and soon captured Seoul, the capital of
Korea. The King of Korea took refuge in China
and there he asked the Chinese Emperor (Mins
dynasty) to support him. The Japanese gen
eral Konishi had pursued the King to Phog-
Yang. The ambitious Chinese Emperor acceded
to the request of the fugitive king and sent a
vast number of soldiers to fight the Japanese
and endeavored to restore the Korean king to his
rightful place in Seoul. But the Chinese armies
were utterly defeated in every campaign before
the victorious armies of Konishi and Kobayakawa.
The vanquished sued for peace, which was
granted. Hideyoshi recalled his armies to' Japan.
However, the concessions offered for the peace
were not satisfactory to Hideyoshi, so he refused
the ambassador from China and Korea, and re
newed the expedition. But at this time, while the
victorious Japanese warriors were marching on
everywhere in Korea toward China, Hideyoshi
fell sick. The further advance of the Japanese
was hindered and the sudden recall of the armies
was consequently inevitable, according to the cir
cumstances of the time.
Shogun Nofunaga paved the way for his suc
cessor, Hideyoshi, and the latter laid the founda
tion for the last and greatest Shogun, Iyeyasu.

74 LIFE OF JAPAN
His family name was Tokugawa. As Hideyoshi
saw his end nearing, he called lyeyasu to him, and
said, " I foresee great wars after my death ; I
know there is no one but you that can keep the
country quiet; I therefore bequeath to you the
whole country." lyeyasu had to fight his way
to the Shogunate, because many Daimios openly
opposed his supremacy, especially those of the
southwestern provinces. They were subdued in
the battle of Sekigahara, near Lake Biwa, in
October, 1600. This was the bloodiest and most
decisive battle in early Japanese history.
The seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate was at
Yedo (now Tokyo), the city which lyeyasu had
fixed upon as his capital. It will perhaps not be
unprofitable to inquire into the nature and work
ing of the ingenious system of lyeyasu, which
was imposed on the succeeding fifteen genera
tions and which served to prolong the medieval
period of Japan for over two centuries.
The Tokugawa family had three branches or
houses, the heads of which were the wealthy
princes of Owari, Kii and Mito, respectively; the
successor to the Shogunate always being chosen
when the Shogun had no son,, from one of these
three families. This system was founded by the
three sons of lyeyasu himself. Next to them in
rank came sixteen territorial lords of Koku-Shiu,
feudal barons of great power. They were allies

LIFE OF JAPAN 75
rather than subjects. Next to them in rank came
the nobles known by the title of Kamon. There
were nineteen Kamon families, who were descended
from some of the numerous progeny of lyeyasu
himself. Therefore, there were included all sub
sidiary branches of the three families. Next in
rank and power were the Fudai and the Tozama
nobles. They were eligible to the government's
important offices. These privileges were at
tached to these ranks as a token of ancestral sub
mission in favor of lyeyasu in the decisive war.
There were about fifty-six noble families who car
ried the name of Matsudaira, that being the name
of Iyeyasu's birthplace. This was a reward given
to nobles for signal services to the Shogun's
house. The Shogunate government was carried
on for these nobles by the vassals who held fiefs
of them. These vassals constituted the Samurai,
and the more powerful members of this class
owned larger estates as well as having greater
powers than the lesser nobles.
Therefore, next to the Fudai and Tozama in
rank comes this Samurai nobility, who by virtue
of their position have played such a large and
important part in the history of Japan. It may
be worth while keeping the name of this class in
mind. The Samurai, or the middle class, were
the barrier against despotism, and virtually acted
as agents both of the government and the gov-

76 LIFE OF JAPAN
emed. The number of families of this class ex
ceed 400,000, comprising over 1,600,000 people.
They were from their official position the gentry
of the country. It was the pride of the Samurai
to be privileged to carry two swords as a token
of their military prerogatives. It is true that, in
the long peace which the Tokugawa Shogunate
brought to the country, the Samurai had no real
opportunity of showing their mettle, but the
spirit of the profession was there. The Samurai
formed a caste of their own, despising commerce
or other means of gaining wealth, and proud of
an honorable poverty. They spent their time in
the service of their lords, in the profession of
fencing, Jiujitsu, arts and literature, as well as
in their intangible contribution to the nation's
moral code, or Bushido.
One of the essential features of the system of
lyeyasu was caste. The different castes were the
Samurai, farmers, artisans, merchants, and eta.
There was no intermarriage between members of
different castes. Artisans or merchants traded
in the same way that their fathers had done. The
Eta, or lowest class, had a community of its
own. Life was as fixed and unchangeable as hu
man ingenuity could make it.
The Emperor or Mikado, of course, still existed
during the Shogunate as supreme ruler, but his
forfeiture of the military authority to a Shogun-

LIFE OF JAPAN 77
ate, the distinct political powers essentially in
herent in the Daimios in relation to their respect
ive territories, and the frequent usurpation of his
very prerogatives by the Shoguns, left the Em
peror a mere figurehead in his own empire. The
subsequent lapse of the Shogunate left him ab
solute monarch of the realm.
Before the investment of the first Shogun, the
country was peaceful vand prosperous and the
people intuitively submitted to authority. The
respect for royalty was so evident during the
early centuries of the monarchy, when the Mikado
exercised full power, that the people never
dreamed of questioning the authority of even the
minister of the Emperor. The system of em
ploying the military as mere tools to satiate the
personal propensities of a new and ambitious
prince, either as his private bodyguards or to
further the usurpation of political power and
suffrage that naturally vests in the people and
the Emperor, could not in the nature of things
last forever. Since Yoritomo supplanted the civil
power and placed the whole country under feudal
sway the rulers and the ruled were intermittently
changing places, especially during the Hojo,
Ashikaga, Ota Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hide
yoshi dynasties. Throughout this period the
country was a cauldron of internecine strife.
War and duelistic combat was the all-ab-

78 LIFE OF JAPAN
sorbing occupation of the people, especially of
the Samurai. Such was really the internal con
dition of the country for the first 682 years of
the Shogunate and until the Tokugawa Shogun's
death in 1616. After his death his descendants
for fifteen generations bore aloft the escutcheon
of the Shogunate, until in 1853 the squadron of
the United States, under Commodore Perry,
steamed into the theretofore undisturbed waters
of Yedo Bay,

CHAPTER VIII
CAUSES OF FEUDALISM'S OVERTHROW
On the 14th of July, 1853, the Shogunate gov
ernment received President Fillmore's letter. It
was confronted with the necessity of a more or
less diplomatic interview with the Black Fleet.
The presents from the American people must be
examined, the whole matter debated, and the re
ply prepared before the return of the obnoxious
fleet. They were ten months " to the good."
Should it be war or should it be peace? Which
ever was to occur, the Daimios, under the feudal
system, would have to be consulted, as they, ex
officio, would have to shoulder the responsibility.
A translation of the brief received from Perry was
duly made and a copy was sent to each of the
Daimios requesting their unreserved opinions in
terms as follows: " The document delivered from
the American ships, of which a translation is
hereto attached, is a matter of vital importance
to the nation. Ask not concerning the past nor
for a reason why we could not refuse to accept
the letter from the American ambassador, but
79

80 LIFE OF JAPAN
cast your eyes to the immediate future, where
omens threaten the overwhelming of the country."
To this demand replies were rapidly composed
and sent to the Shogun. The replies were in
substance aH of the same tenor, one of which,
from Prince Mito, is as follows :
" There are ten reasons in favor of war.
"First— The annals of our history are replete with
the exploits of the Great who planted our banners on
alien soil, but never was the clash of foreign arms heard
within the precincts of holy ground. Let not our genera
tion be the first to permit the disgrace of a barbarian
army treading on the land where our fathers rest.
" Second — Notwithstanding the strict interdiction of
Christianity, there are those guilty of the heinous crime
of professing the doctrines of this evil sect. If now
America be once admitted into our favor the rise of the
faith is a matter of certainty.
" Third — Shall we trade our gold, silver, copper, iron
and sundry useful materials for wool, glass, and similar
trashy little articles ! Even the limited barter with the
Dutch factory ought to have been stopped.
" Fourth — Many a time recently have Russia and other
countries solicited trade with us, but they were promptly
refused. If once America be permitted the same privi
lege, what excuse can there be for not extending the same
to other nations ?
" Fifth — The policy of the barbarians is, first to enter
a country for trade, then to introduce their religion and
afterwards to stir up strife and contention. Let us be
guided by the experience of our forefathers during the
past centuries. Despise not the lessons of the Chinese
opium war.
" Sixth — The Dutch scholars say that our people should
cross the ocean, go to the 'other countries and engage in

LIFE OF JAPAN 81
active foreign trade. This is all very desirable, provided
our people be as brave and as strong as were their an
cestors in olden time. But at present the long-continued
peace has incapacitated them for any such activity.
" Seventh — The necessity of vigilance against the re
turn of the American ships has brought the vigilant
Samurai to the capitol from distant quarters ,of the
realm. Is it wise to disappoint them?
" Eighth — Not only the naval defense of Nagasaki,
but all things relating to foreign powers have been en
trusted to the two clans of Kuroda and Nabeshima. To
hold any conference with a foreign power outside of
their port of Nagasaki, as has been done this time at
Kurihama, is an encroachment upon their rights and trust.
These powerful families will not thankfully accept any
intrusion into their vested authority.
" Ninth — the haughty demeanor of the barbarians of
the United States, now at anchorage in our sacred har
bor, has provoked even the illiterate populace. Should
nothing be done to show that the Government shares the
indignation of the people, they will lose all fear or re
spect for or confidence in it.
" Tenth — Peace and prosperity of long duration have
enervated the spirit, rusted the armor and blunted the
swords of our men, and lulled them to ease. When shall
they be aroused? Is not the present the most auspicious
moment to quicken their sinews of war?"
Some forty replies from Daimios, received sub
sequent to that of Prince Mito just quoted,
unanimously declared against opening up the
country to foreign trade, whatever might be the
consequence. There were conflicting opinions
among the counselors of the Shogunate, which to
gether with the positive martial tone of the epis-

82 LIFE OF JAPAN
ties from Daimios and other princes, coupled
with the condition of the Samurai or army, pre
sented quite a tangled state of affairs to the Sho
gunate, and left it a most intricate problem to
solve. To make matters worse the Russians with
a strong land and naval force were skirting other
ports of the country and a British fleet was in the
Sea of Japan. In this state of national uproar
and ominous forebodings did the year 1853 close.
The common people, permeated with the peculiar
spirit and prejudices of past centuries, and now
deluged with superstitious fears, began to neglect
agriculture; internal commerce was at a stand
still and the artisan lost his ambition. Mean
while, the man who was the Prime Minister of the
Shogun's Cabinet was Baron Ii Kamon, Lord of
Hikone. He was a man of most conspicuous fig
ure among the progressive parties and of great
insight and vigor, but, like many farseeing men,
impatient of delays and swift in action. Ii was
not a man so easily deterred as to compromise
from what he considered to be the right course.
Surrounded by enemies opposed to his policy, he
boldly entered into a treaty with the foreign
powers. His wise and determined attitude saved
Japan from the fate of other Oriental countries.
However, actuated by intrigue and prompted by
suspicion, Ii, the most progressive man of his
time, as a reward for the great work contributed

LIFE OF JAPAN 83
to his country, was assassinated at the gate of
Sakurada. The exclusive pohcy which permeated
the Shogunate party, coupled with the murder
of Ii, started organized strife against the Shogun
ate. The first aggressive move against the Sho
gunate power was made in Satuma, but the bom
bardment of Kagoshima by the British fleet
quelled the excitement. For this affair the Brit
ish demanded an indemnity of $625,000. At
Shimonoseki some Chosiu Samurai fired upon an
alleged fleet of nine English, three French, four
Dutch, and one American men-of-war, whereupon
this foreign fleet bombarded the town and the
Shogunate government had to foot the bill of
$3,000,000. Meanwhile, Perry's squadron, considerably
augmented, returned to the Bay of Yedo and
completed negotiations for the treaty between
Japan and the United States. Then followed
other nations demanding equal treaty rights,
among which were England, Russia, Holland,
France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bel
gium, Scandinavia, Peru, Hawaii, and Siam.
Thus besieged from without by numerous fleets,
and wrecked from within by the insurrections and
jealousy of irresponsible Daimios and Samurai,
the Shogunate succumbed after an almost unin
terrupted reign of 938 years. With it ended
feudalism in Japan, and with it the Emperor

84 LIFE OF JAPAN
again assumed full military and political sway
as of old. Thus out of a calamitous condition of
internecine chaos and conflict, order and equity
were born and the apparently outraged nation
suddenly broke the fetters of torpor and despair
— the accumulated thraldom of centuries — leaped
to the full possession of her pristine rights and
glory, and joined the family of nations. It is
therefore manifest that the lapse of the Tycoon
or Shogunate government and the extinction of
feudalism in Japan was a sequel to Perry's pro
pitious expedition.
These, however, were not the incipient ante
cedents of the fall of the Shogunate. Whatever
may be the trend of events, there is no effect
without a correlative cause. Such a convulsive
though beneficial cataclysm as led to the extinc
tion of the Shogunate and feudal systems of
Japan, interrupting and revolutionizing the con
tinuity of a persistent course of events, must have
had a concomitant precedent, and must have re
sulted from an accumulated predisposition, just
or unjust. The Japanese have never evinced a
revolutionary spirit. Usually they acquiesce in
existing conditions. But, by a posthumous delv
ing among the archives of the feudal system, ev
ery document manifests some insidious encroach
ment upon the natural rights of the people and
the inherent prerogatives of the Emperor. Apart

LIFE OF JAPAN 85
from being the sequel to Perry's effective visit
and others, a few causes of this important revo
lution are subjoined.
1. When Tokugawa lyeyasu became Sho
gun he at once began to oppose the imperial
power and to make such disposition and distri
bution of his authority and friends as would ul
timately effect the suppression of the imperial
dynasty. By the annihilation of his rivals he
firmly secured the government as an heredity in
his family. He sent his most potent representa
tive to Kyoto, the imperial capital, presumably
as a bodyguard to His Majesty, but, in reality,
to extend his influence at the expense of the im
perial power, and at the same time to watch the
inner workings of the royal court. He kept one
of the royal princes at his capital, Yedo, ap
parently as a mark of homage and respect to the
supreme authority, but, insidiously as an hostage
and efficient means of intimidation to any antag
onist that might otherwise brew trouble at Kyoto.
All influence, power, arts and internal commerce
were centralized at Yedo, and Kyoto was, in ef
fect, but a distant western suburb.
Such wily artifice presaged hostility and pro
voked the Imperialists to be vigilant and to seize
the first opportunity to overthrow the powerful
Shogun government and re-establish the mon
archy on an insuperable basis. This zest for

86 LIFE OF JAPAN
reprisal had been steadily ripening into fervent
zeal for two centuries, and was evidently ready to
break forth when the ambassador of a powerful
nation sought an interview with a commissioner
of the Emperor, and not with a representative of
Tokugawa. 2. The administration, which all along ap
peared to be the inalienable property of the Sho
gun, gradually became estranged by the influ
ences above related, until generation after gen
eration his very family ties were severed to aug
ment the power of his rivals.
3. The Shogunate administration enacted that
the families of all the Daimios, except those of
the administration, should reside at Yedo, this in
order to facilitate the political extinction of all
refractory Daimios and unite the whole country
at the back of the Shogun. The descendants of
those who had thus suffered extinction were for
centuries biding their time for an opportunity
to overturn the Shogun government.
4. The administration created the Daimioship
heredity, placing no premium on merit, but rather
discrediting valor, so that the wise could not
evince or exercise their wisdom, and so that the
snob and puppet had equal authority and was
as highly esteemed as the most astute philoso
pher. Thus the office of Daimio was degraded
and became a mere puppet to aggrandize the in-

LIFE OF JAPAN 87
fluence of the administration. The wise and just
were likewise biding their time for reprisals.
5. The edict of the Shogunate interdicting all
foreign relations, and inhibiting the egress of
the Japanese, hoodwinked the people into im
agining that the strictures were imposed for the
mutual good and safety of themselves and the
country. They thus came to dream the dreams
of false peace and to he at ease on the very
crater of a rapidly developing cataclysmic polit
ical volcano, when suddenly they were aroused,
though remaining partly stupefied, by the first
quake and eruption incident to the apparently
ominous visit of the American squadron, casting
anchor at the eastern capital.
6. The centralization of the wealth, finances,
national treasures and resources of the country in
the Shogun capital, the depletion of the finances
of the Daimios by exorbitant demands, and
the luxury and consequent licentiousness of the
Samurai, together with the consequent degrada
tion of their pride, valor and patriotism, all
tended to inspire universal dissatisfaction 'and
contempt and evinced a desperate condition of
national dissipation and impotency.
The fall of the Shogunate, therefore, was a
case of felo de se, the inevitable consequence of
undue power, maladministration, avarice and
prodigality.

CHAPTER IX
JAPANESE MEDIEVAL FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
Under any form of government it is highly
improbable that a keen, spirited people of mixed
race and varied foresight and ambitions, inhabit
ing an archipelago embraced by diverse seas and
commercial highways, could remain, like a great
family of hermit crabs, forever isolated from a
mutual intercourse with other nations.
We find that even when the government of
Japan was formed with the first Emperor Jimmu,
about the year 660 B. C, amicable relations were
estabhshed between the Japanese and the rest of
the ancient nations.
Students of history know that the people of
olden time were characteristically fearless. They
also know that the history of ancient civilization
was written in the construction and destruction
of governments and amid the ashes of the funeral
pyres of nations. But they are abruptly cut
off from information of the great facts which
transpired along the shores of Japan before the
Christian era — facts which' call into play all
emotions of the soul of man — the assimilation of
88

LIFE OF JAPAN 89
the two races and civilizations — the Phenician
civilization of the Semitic race, by way of India,
and the Indo-Aryan civilization of the Hamitic
race. To the people of the plains of the Nile, of the
Tigris, Euphrates, and of the Indus, which you
consider, if not the cradle of the human race, at
least the cradle of human civifization, the Japa
nese trace their ancient ancestry. They believe
that the transmigration of these ancient civiliza
tions is amply proved by ethnological and archeo-
logical facts.
The sea is the principal factor in mythical nar
ratives. The written languages or hieroglyphics
of sea fishes, the sacrifice of human flesh, the dis
tinctive manners and customs of marriage, the
ideals of maidens, the worship of the sun and
the moon, all tend to' prove the assertion of com
mon origin as safely as if you set a ship adrift
in the Southern Current. It unfailingly reaches
the shores of Kyushiu, of Osumi, of Bungo, of
Sanyodo, and the Sea of Ise. So is the fact un
mistakable that the characteristically progressive
current of the Semitic and the Hamitic civiliza
tions and races reached the shore of Japan be
fore the Christian era. That the fittest sur
vived, there can be no doubt.
At present the highest authorities in ethnol
ogy in Europe and America list the Japanese

90 LIFE OF JAPAN
race as " AUophyUam," a branch of the great
white race which consisted of Allophylian, Finnic,
Semitic and Hamitic. Whatever decision the au
thorities may have rendered, and whatever the
scientists of all the ages may agree upon, yet
we have presented the Japanese view.
Some of the earliest people on the American
continent appear to have been highly imbued with
dominating nomadic propensities. In some of
the great temples, carvings of undisputed Japa
nese origin adorn the walls. Numerous other
relics of the Japanese have been found from time
to time on the Columbian continent, between
Alaska and the Rio de la Plata. All these ap
pear to be proof positive that the Japanese peo
ple were among the earliest discoverers of Amer
ica, perhaps even the ancestors of the aborigines.
It is possible that the Hawaiians are degen
erated kinsmen of the Japanese, although we are
aware of Nanaula's voyage from Tahiti in the
sixth century. Among the records of Japanese
antiquity, there appears to be strong proof that
some of the warriors of the Shogun, Taira-Kiyo-
mori, who was vanquished at the battle of the
Danno Ura, A. D., 1185, became fugitives in the
western continent.
The great Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, dur
ing a voyage along the Japanese shores in the
thirteenth century, learned from the Japanese

LIFE OF JAPAN 91
people of a great continent that lay still further
to the east. May not the inspiration of the great
Genoese in the fifteenth century have been partly
derived from these records of Marco Polo, and
thus the most memorable of all voyages pro
jected? The great Venetian after he returned to
Europe, describing Japan, said in a somewhat
exaggerated way:

" Chipangn (or Japan) is an island towards the east
in the high seas, 1,500 miles distant from the continent,
and a very great island it is. The people are white,
civilized, and well-favored. They are idolators and are
dependent on nobody. And I can tell you the quantity
of gold they have is endless for they find it in their own
islands; few merchants visit the country because it is so
far from the main land and thus it comes to pass that
their gold is abundant beyond all measure. I will tell
you a wonderful thing about the palace of the lord of
that island. You must know that he has a great palace
which is entirely roofed with fine gold, just as our
churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it would
scarcely be possible to estimate its value. Moreover, all
the pavement of the palace and the floors of its chambers
are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of stone, a good
two fingers thick; and the windows are of gold, so that
altogether the richness of this palace is past all bounds
and all belief. They have also pearls in abundance, which
are of a rose color, but fine, big and round and quite
as valuable as the white ones. When a body is buried
they put one of these pearls in the mouth, for such is
their custom."

However, Columbus was doubtless influenced

92 LIFE OF JAPAN
by these accounts of the great Venetian, and de
termined to reach Japan and India by a western
route, or perhaps explore an intervening conti
nent. Columbus, however, was denied the privi
lege of visiting Japan.
Meanwhile, the Japanese Empress Jingo's
noted expedition to Korea, in the year 200 A.
D., established Japanese influence in that coun
try. Japan then introduced the Korean arts and
literature into Japan. The relations of the two
countries became so close as to cause each to
patronize the other's skilled workmen. Trade and
commerce expanded between the two.
In the reign of the Emperor Ojin, about 300
A. D., Chinese learning was introduced into the
country and adopted by the Japanese. Internal
commerce flourished, and markets and fairs were
held in many centers. Transportation in the in
terior and coastwise trade were inaugurated and
the ports of the country were constantly visited
by Korean and Chinese ships. The Koreans
brought with them the magnificent styles of archi
tecture, gardening, carriages, music, poetry and
important weapons of war, while the Chinese in
troduced into Japan the balance, and standards
of weights and measures. During this period the
Teutonic tribes, still in a state of barbarism,
were overrunning the Roman empire, while the
Mohammedan religion was just rising in Arabia.

LIFE OF JAPAN 93
Next to the Koreans and the Chinese, the peo
ple of the Philippine Islands and India were the
first who had intercourse with the Japanese.
About the year 654 A. D., priests from India in
troduced Buddhism in Japan.
Musketry was introduced for the first time in
the reign of the Emperor Gonara, A. D. 1530,
by the Portuguese. Until then the Japanese
people did not know the art of making or using
what were then called " mysterious * weapons.
Half a dozen years later, the Japanese were sent
to Portugal for the purpose of studying the im
portant art of cannon foundrying and upon their
return the manufacture of guns and gun-pow
der as well as their use were the dominating in
terests of the Japanese people. Soon after their
acquisition of the art of manufacture of musketry
and gunnery, a number of Japanese leaders con
templated the seizure of the Philippine Islands
and other Asiatic coast countries. Surely then
the complaints from Annam, Siam, Luzon, Korea,
China and other Malay countries, requesting the
Japanese government to' restrain its turbulent
behavior, were justifiable. The Japanese people
at this time had attained widespread prosperity.
Medical science was first introduced into Japan
by the missionaries of Christianity, to be used as
an instrument to substantiate the theory of sav
ing the Hfe and the soul. Missionaries came in

94 LIFE OF JAPAN
numbers, among whom the immortal disciple of
Christ, the famous Francis Xavier, was chief, in
order to propagate the religion of the King of
Kings, Medical schools were established by the
Christian teachers, which soon took the Japanese
by a storm of enthusiasm, and this science added
to its principles of learning the Dutch medical
system, from the Dutch who came to Japan on
the heels of the Portuguese.
The Shogunate government advocated the
open-door pohcy in foreign trade and encouraged
and licensed the merchants. Even the barons
and warriors joined in the work of shaping up
the country's commercial condition and sought
commercial advantages with other countries.
The government issued an annual license to the
trading ships to Luzon, Amoy, Macas, Annam,
Tanpuin, Cambodia, Siam, Malacca, etc. At one
time the ocean liners engaged in foreign trade
actually numbered one hundred and seventy-nine.
The Japanese believers in Christianity often
visited Europe; even their ambassadors were sent
to Rome, and there presented one hundred pieces
of gold to Pope Gregory Xni. In the year 1584,
the Japanese ambassadors were allowed an audi
ence with Phillip II of Spain. Many Japanese
studied in Europe and brought back with them
European arts and products, terrestrial and as
tronomical globes, clocks and watches, together

LIFE OF JAPAN 95
with the desire for European architecture, ship
building, civilization and customs. In 1600, the
arts of shipbuilding and gunnery were vigorously
carried on, and among the workingmen were
Spaniards, Dutch, Portuguese and Engfish.
Some of them married Japanese women.
About this time trade between Japan and
America was seriously contemplated. Acapulco
in Mexico, and Nagasaki in Japan, were mu
tually known as the centers of Japanese- American
commerce. As to Japan's open market pohcy of
olden time it may be clearly observed that when
King James I of England sent the agent of the
East India Company to Japan for purposes of
commercial extension, Japan entered readily into
a treaty. By the terms of the agreement both
the contracting parties were permitted to engage
in foreign trade freely and unrestrainedly. The
people of the two countries were to have privi
leges to sail along the coast of both empires, and
subjects of either country could reside and build
houses and enjoy the privileges of trading in the
capitals of the other. So Englishmen came to
Japan, and the Japanese in turn went to Eng
land; and the people of all trading countries, in
their critical comparisons of various noted cities
in Europe and America, asserted that Yedo sur
passed all the others in point of health, wealth,
prosperity, and magnificence. In the main,

96 LIFE OF JAPAN
Japan was flooded with the midday light of civil
ization and joined England, Holland, Spain and
•others that were most progressive in Europe, as
harbingers of culture, knowledge and civifization.
But the manifest destiny of Japan took other
ways in its march to ultimate completion. Polit
ical and religious matters arose and shut off the
country, the causes of which were altogether
superhuman. The Japanese people, who consti
tute only a human unit, had to submit to the hand
of Providence in abandoning their open-door
policy, and shunning their traditional free inter
course like a nightmare. Japan went into a pro
longed state of slumber and enforced a rigid pol
icy of excluding foreign intercourse, until after
about two and one-half centuries of sleep, in
1853, she was awakened by the arrival of the
United States expedition at her forbidden door.

PART II

CHAPTER X
JAPANESE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
If constitutional government, means certain
fixed rules and principles under which a govern
ment is carried on, the most important of which
is that the people have a voice in all deliberations
prior to the making of any new law, then Japan
has, from time immemorial, possessed it in some
measure. If it means " Government by the peo
ple and for the people," then Japan never pos
sessed anything of the kind until the Japanese
constitution was promulgated on February 11,
1889. A brief examination of the Constitution of Old
Japan is not only of historical interest, but is
also essential to show clearly the contrast between
the old and new constitutions.
The Japanese during the twenty-five and a
half centuries they have lived in one archipelago,
consisting of about 4,000 islands, hemmed in by
the natural boundaries of the seas, evolved a sys
tem of government peculiar to themselves — a
system of mutual independence and yet of con
federation among the different islands. The
99

100 LIFE OF JAPAN
early history of the Japanese before the Chris
tian era, like that of Greece and Rome, is a his
tory of incessant warfare and conflict between the
different tribes. This constant warfare and con
flict finally resulted in the consolidation of the
Japanese people into one political unit and the
birth of a national consciousness.
The progress of political fusion in the early
history of Japan was slow and always limited
by the necessities of the case. It progressed only
through necessity, or through the new statesman
ship which the new order demanded. The inces
sant conflict among the different tribes — either in
the suppression of tribal uprisings or in the de
fense of the islands against foreign invaders,
caused the rise of the middle class. The rise of the
middle class in any nation means the entering
wedge against despotism and the prevention of
national ruin. The ideals of the middle class nat
urally incline toward a military spirit. The sol
diery and the middle class in ancient Japan were
one and the same thing.
When a country is in its infancy the scepter
and the sword must follow each other, therefore
the king decides quarrels, declares customs and
leads the people in war. But after a while the
community extends by absorbing others in con
test or by natural means of growth, and can no
longer assemble in its entirety to express its as-

LIFE OF JAPAN 101
sent or dissent on matters of common interest.
The various duties of the King pass into the
hands of ministers, sometimes with the result,
noticeable in the English Constitution, that the
King comes to be regarded as incapable of dis
charging the duties for himself.
During the Feudal age the Emperor was re
duced to a mere figurehead. Still, he was the
sovereign just the same. The present constitu
tion of Japan construes the position of the Em
peror during the feudal ages in the following
few words :
" The unity of pofitical powers weakened dur
ing the middle ages, by a succession of civil com
motions." As it was written elsewhere, during the Feudal
age Japan was parcelled out into fiefs, each
under a separate Daimio or feudal baron. The
territory of each Daimio was politically and
socially independent from that of every other
fief, and the laws and customs of one territory
were often the very antithesis of those of adja
cent fiefs.
The Shogunate family had in every case three
or more branches or houses ; the successor to the
Shogunate being always chosen from one of these
families when the Shogun had no son. Next to
them in rank came the feudal barons, who were
of great power. They were allies rather than

102 LIFE OF JAPAN
subjects. Next to them in rank came the nobles,
who were descended from some of the numerous
progeny of a Shogun. Next in rank and power
were the Feudal barons who were eligible to mem
bership in the Central Council of the feudal gov
ernment. These privileges were attached to
these ranks as a reward for ancestral submission
in the decisive feudal war of the country. The
feudal barons sent their representatives who es
tablished their headquarters at the seat of the
Shogun's government; the representatives may
have changed from time to time, but their head
quarters and offices remained the same.
The Shogun government was carried on for
these nobles by the vassals who held fiefs of them.
These vassals constituted the Samurai or military
retainers. In short, these retainers of the Feudal
barons were eligible to the offices of the adminis
tration within the limits of the territory of the
particular baron. The judges, legislatives, exec
utives and officers of respective provinces were
chosen from the Samurai and the Samurai alone.
Such was really the form and relation to each
other of the parts of the feudal government and
such were the rulers who regulated the various
administrative affairs.
In theory the Japanese people autocratically
ruled under the feudal system; they had always
been able to make their wishes known to the

LIFE OF JAPAN 103
authorities about them. The peasants and far
mers of the country villages had access to the
local retainers, the retainers in their turn had
access to the government of the feudal lord, so
that the history of every clan teems with in
stances in which the policy of the feudal govern
ment was shaped by the will, deferentially ex
pressed, of the retainers. In the same way the
government of the Shogun was always accessible
to the counsels, deferentially tendered, of the feu
dal barons. When some great crisis threatened
the Empire, as for instance, the question of the
introduction of foreign residents and merchants
into the country, the Great Councils of the feudal
barons met for the purpose of deliberating with
the government on the needs of the empire.
But constitutional government, or government
by the people and for the people, in the modern
sense of the term, was quite unknown. The first
glimmering of the idea may be seen in the oath
which his present majesty took on the occasion
of the resumption of sovereignty by the crown.
In this oath, published on the 16th of April, 1868,
his majesty declared that " Men should meet in
council from all parts of the country, and all
affairs of State should be determined by public
opinion." In September of the same year Imperial noti
fications were issued in which it was declared

104 LIFE OF JAPAN
that " Public sentiment as expressed by the coun
cilors selected from all parts of the country was
to be the directing power in the future, because
the private caprice of any one individual should
not be allowed to control the empire." In April
of the following year (1869), another imperial
notification was issued, which announced that his
majesty would shortly proceed to the eastern
portion of his empire, that is, to Tokyo, when he
would summon together his ministers and the
chiefs of the people in order that public opinion
might be consulted, that the foundations of the
nation might be laid upon a basis which would
secure national tranquility. The history of the
Meiji era, from the accession of his present maj
esty to the final promulgation of the constitu
tion in 1889, shows us how constantly the Impe
rial Government kept before its eyes the princi
ples laid down in the oath of accession and sub
sequent notifications.
In the meantime every effort was put forth to
gather the experience and wisdom necessary for
the undertaking. A special mission, headed by
the late Prince Iwakura, left Japan for the
United States and Europe in 1871, its main ob
ject being to secure, if possible, the revision of
the treaties in which Japan was made to recog
nize the extra-territorial rights of foreign resi
dents in Japan. The embassy was also in-

LIFE OF JAPAN 105
structed to pay special attention to the political
institutions of the countries they visited. In ad
dition to Prince Iwakura, the embassy included
Kido, Okubo, Ito, Yamaguchi — all men who exer
cised great influence over the subsequent destinies
of their country. It was a period then, as now,
when many Japanese were abroad for the pur
pose of study; and many forms of constitutional
government were brought home for discussion.
The great difficulty was in selecting a model for
imitation. The Constitution of the United States, the
time-honored Constitution of Great Britain, the
Charter of the then newly organized French Re
public, and the conservative part of the German
Constitution, were some of the models presented.
In 1881 his majesty proclaimed that he would,
in the year 1890, summon a parliament to meet
for the transaction of government business. The
promise to summon a parliament in 1890 involved
the drafting of a constitution previous to that
date. The eight years wliich followed the impe
rial promise were therefore years of great activ
ity, both in and outside the government circles.
Outside the government influence the political
parties were organized and reorganized with a
view to the exigencies of parliamentary activity.
In the government circles the departments of
education and of the interior were busy with re-

106 LIFE OF JAPAN
forms, and prominent lawyers were employed in
connection with the department of justice. A
special department of the imperial household was
created, called the Seidotori Shirabe Kioku, or
Bureau for the Investigation of the Constitution.
And at last, on February 11, 1889, on the festival
of Kigensetsu, long celebrated in Japan in memory
of her first Emperor, Jimmu, but now doubly
dear by reason of this later event, was promul
gated as a free gift from the Emperor — the con
stitution which forms the precious charter of
Japanese liberty.
The Constitution of Japan is not like the
Magna Charta, wrung by rebellious subjects
from an unwilling king, but it is an imperial gift,
voluntarily bestowed upon the grateful Japanese
by the present Emperor. The Japanese Consti
tution gives to the country a Diet, with an upper
and lower house. In the upper house of the Jap
anese parliament sit the royals, nobles and peers,
and members appointed by the crown. In the
lower house of the Japanese Diet, like that of
the United States Congress, sit representatives
of the people, freely elected by those who are
citizens of the country.
The Imperial Diet must be convoked every
year, and its session lasts three months. The
duration of a session may be prolonged, or an
extra session may be convoked if necessary, by

LIFE OF JAPAN 107
imperial order. Both houses of the Imperial
Diet may respectively present addresses to the
Emperor, and may also receive petitions pre
sented by subjects.
In Japan no person can be a member of both
houses at the same time. Freedom of speech and
debate, or proceedings in parliament, are not to
be impeached in any court. Whatever matter
arises in either house of parliament is to be ex
amined in that house to which it relates, and not
elsewhere. The adjournment of either house
takes place at its own discretion, unaffected by
the proceedings of the other house. Prorogation,
or dissolution, takes place by the exercise of the
royal prerogative.
American lawyers in treating the Japanese
constitution must bear in mind that the sover
eignty of the empire was always with the Em
peror. From the establishment of the state, down
through the feudal ages, the emperors acknowl
edged no legal rule binding upon them.
Speaking comparatively of the constitutions
of Japan and the United States, it may be as
serted that in Japan the sovereignty is ascribed
to the Emperor; in the United States it rests
with the people; in Japan the sovereign actually
administers the government; in the United States
never in a single instance. The Japanese Em
peror has personal power, dignity and pre-emi-

108 LIFE OF JAPAN
nence, as well as offiicial; the American ruler has
none but official, nor does he partake in the
sovereignty otherwise than as a private citizen.
The Japanese constitution provides that the
Emperor is the sovereign, sacred and inviolable.
His sovereignty and legislative power is to be
concurrently exercised with that of the Diet.
Laws are sanctioned by him and their promulga
tion follows accordingly. The Emperor may
issue, or cause to be issued, decrees for the better
execution of the laws, the maintenance of public
peace and order, and the furtherance of the wel
fare of his subjects. While he may not alter
the laws he may issue the imperial ordinance
from time to time if he sees fit, and if absolutely
necessary in order to guard the public safety and
peace, or to provide against public disorder and
calamity. The Emperor's ordinance, according
to the constitution, must be sanctioned at the
next session of the National Diet or its further
operation lapses.
The constitution further provides that no per
son shall be arrested, detained, tried or punished
without due process of law, or be deprived of
his right to be tried by a judicial tribunal. The
Emperor is allowed the full right to issue amnes
ties, pardons or commutations of sentence. No
Japanese subject shall be deprived of freedom of
speech or writing. No special rights were given

LIFE OF JAPAN 109
by the constitution — the rights already existing
were merely expressed and defined. With regard
to libel, the courts of justice take no notice
of any matter intended for the press, but confine
their legal jurisdiction to that which actually
appears in print. It will be clearly seen that the
framers of the great Japanese charter embraced
in it all the important constitutional safeguards
of popular liberty. The Japanese officers exer
cise their duties by the methods and within the
limits marked out and prescribed by the consti
tution. The people rely upon the constitution
when they make a claim against the government
or sue it in a court of law, but the constitution
limits their rights, and prescribes the methods by
which those rights may be obtained. The con
stitution guarantees that all public meetings and
social gatherings shall not be molested. A sub
ject of Japan may live wherever he chooses, and
engage in whatever vocation he desires to follow.
He is never to be deprived of his life, liberty,
property and pursuit of happiness ; the right of
the subject to be secure in his person, house,
papers, and effects shall not be interfered with.
It is understood to mean that every man's house
is his castle, and that he, under the protection of
the law, may close the door of his habitation and
defend his privacy in it, not only against private
individuals merely, but against the officers of the

110 LIFE OF JAPAN
law and the state itself, when acting without dUe
process of law. According to the constitution
all religions are equally respected; one is pro
hibited from being favored or discriminated
against at the expense of the other. It further
prohibits restraint upon the free exercise of reli
gion according to the dictates of conscience, and
the state is not to' inquire into or take notice of
religious belief or expression so long as the sub
ject performs his duty to the state and to his
countrymen. No religious test shall ever be
made as a requirement for appointment to any
office or position of public trust under the Japa
nese Government. The constitution provides that
each chief of the several executive departments
may be allowed to attend any debates in the
National Diet and to take part in them, and he
is not responsible to the parliament, as in Eng
land, but directly to the sovereign, as in Ger
many and Denmark.
In the United States, for all the official acts
done by the Cabinet, ministers or secretaries, the
responsibility is on the President of the United
States and not on the Cabinet members, but in
Japan any official act done by the Emperor is,
in contemplation of the constitution, done by the
ministers of state, and the responsibility is upon
them. To determine the responsibility in the

LIFE OF JAPAN 111
United States the President is impeached by the
Congress. Judgment shall not extend further
than to removal from office, and disqualification
to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or
profit under the United States, but the party
convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject
to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment
according to law. In England, when a minister
is tried for a wrong committed, it is determined
that the King's command is no excuse for a
wrongful act. For a crime or civil wrong the
person acting under such command would be
amenable to the ordinary courts of law. The
English constitution has never recognized any
distinction between those citizens who are and
those who are not ministers of the state in respect
to the " law which governs their conduct or pun
ishment which deals with them." Not only is the
King's command of no avail, but a pardon, how
ever formally expressed, is no defense at the bar
of the house of lords.
The Japanese constitution, Article 55, says in
that respect that the " minister of state subor
dinates the King and shall be responsible there
by," and does not read, like Article 1, Section 3,
of the United States constitution, or like the Act
of Settlement in England. Yet let us construe
the term " responsible " within the meaning of the

112 LIFE OF JAPAN
Japanese constitution. The legal responsibility
of the crown, which finds expression in the maxim
that " the King can do no wrong," means, in
Japan, that the law presumes that he would
never willingly infringe its provisions. The re
sult is a curious instance of conflicting practice
and theory. The sovereign is a party to every
important act of state; he opens and prorogues,
summons and dissolves parliament; he makes
peace, war and treaties, etc. For every act which
the King must do in respect to these functions he
is legally responsible. The result would seem to
point to a grinding and unmitigated despotism;
in fact, it effects a strict restraint upon the
crown. For some one must be responsible, and
the servants of the crown are liable for advice
given as well as for acts done. They suffer by
loss of place and power for unwise advice. They
may suffer at the hands of the law for unlawful
acts. So this combination of irresponsibility in
the King and responsibility in his ministers has
a curious effect — that of clipping his independent
action and checking up correctly the balance of
government. In the main the Japanese people have a writ
ten constitution. Their charter of liberty will
never yield itself to treaty or enactment; it
neither changes with age nor bends to the force
of circumstances. It is a law for ruler and peo-

LIFE OF JAPAN 113
pie, equally in war and in peace, and protects all
men at all times and under all circumstances.
Therefore the Japanese have a constitutional
government by the people, and for the people, in
the fullest sense of the word.

CHAPTER XI
JAPAN UNDER THE REIGN OF LAW
In the primitive stage the individual's relation
to society was as simple and submissive as society
itself, so that the people avoided invoking the aid
of the law. When a man had to go into litiga
tion he first laid the facts before the family coun
cil. When the matter was brought up in the
court the arguments were reduced to a bare state
ment of the material facts, simply to have the
matter adjusted according to natural justice
and not by the rigid rules of law. Do not sup
pose, however, that the great community of
Japan, with the continuous growth of the arts
of every kind — architecture, sculpture, trade and
agriculture — was left century after century, with
out any jurisprudence. Special protection was
given to the artisans, and the wage-earners were
always afforded protection by the rigid enforce
ment of justice. All the necessary arrangements
were in practice for the protection of the mer
cantile community. Agriculturists, wholesale
dealers, brokers, and carriers from one end of the
country to the other, were peacefully engaged in
114

LIFE OF JAPAN 115
their ever prosperous vocations, entirely satis
fied with the system of law and equity then in
vogue. Meanwhile the primitive law of the family and
succession underwent legal evolution. In the
earlier days the family meant the organized fam
ily like the Roman conception of the family. The
idea was that all those who constituted the family
were bound together by paternal power. So that
in the strictest sense, when the wife passed into
the mamas of her husband, she immediately sub
mitted to a potestas, and united with her children
as the agnatic sister. So also would a man's
grandchildren, when deprived of his daughter as
their mother, fall under the paternal power of
their father. The family included only those who
were related to the father's side. The theory of
it all rested upon the legal relationship, so that
the artificial creation or adoption which has no
real tie of blood was readily received by the juris
tic bond. Later, when the legal period was a
step further advanced, the people entertained the
theory of cognation, in which the mother, repre
senting the cognatic, constituted the relationship
on both sides, a theory based upon the natural
consciousness. In brief, the Japanese woman ad
vanced from the legal position of sister to that
of mother. The doctrine of succession in old
Japan was based upon the dominant idea that

116 LIFE OF JAPAN
the family must always be preserved. The fam
ily must survive although the head master and
patriarch died. At all events the idea that the
common family, with its ancestral tablets, family
records, estate and obligation should be contin
ued, was an idea so well established that it dom
inated all the rival conceptions. At all times an
heir of some sort should represent the family for
all legal purposes, and his rights were strictly
guarded by the law. The eldest son was always
given the honor of the heirship, which he could
not refuse. By succession he was generally en
titled to one-half of all the property left by the
deceased, and .became the head of the family with
all its peculiar privileges, to accept or nullify
marriage, adoption, divorce, and to exclude
members from the family, and with authority over
all other matters pertaining to the home affairs.
Recently, in this country, a California superior
judge, in a divorce case, the allegation being non-
support by the husband, decided that it is as
much the duty of the wife to support the hus
band as it is for the husband to support the wife,
and ordered accordingly. This was the idea of
the Japanese people in that respect. Such was
the policy of the courts of law and justice in their
administration, and if Japan had not been dis
turbed by the exigencies of the times, she would
have had to-day this same continuous principle

LIFE OF JAPAN 117
of jurisprudence. But the decree of God or
dered otherwise.
The empire was threatened by the immigration
of foreigners. The restoration of the Emperor
bound the various fiefs into one national unit un
der the direct control of the central government.
Five hereditary classes or castes, the Samurai or
military retainers, the agriculturists, the artisans
and merchants, as well as the eta, were abolished,
and all were given equal rights before the law.
Each member of the family became directly re
sponsible, not to a Daimio, but to the national gov
ernment. This historical epoch of the departure
in Japan's historical jurisprudence dates from the
arrival of the United States expedition to Japan.
The laws of Japan are now very well compiled
and codified. The codes of laws are made up of
rights rather than of duties. In Europe and
America, where the laws are comparatively uni
form and equally developed, the codification is
more a question of form and arrangement. But
in Japan the laws were codified from the stand
point of substance rather than of form and ar
rangement. The sudden opening of the country
and the unexpected intercourse with other coun
tries made it absolutely necessary that the laws
be codified, and so the work was hastily done,
and as thoroughly as practicable. Codification
was necessary to meet the social and political re-

118 LIFE OF JAPAN
forms of the time. The advance in the remedial
branch of the law has not kept pace with the ad
vance in the substantive law. Soon after the sud
den change of old into new Japan, and before the
code of laws was completed, the courts were in a
difficult position. The judiciaries appointed a
commissioner to investigate the laws of foreign
countries, and to try and get help from those
laws. The judges administered justice accord
ing to the exigency of the moment, and accord
ing to their own arbitrary views of the law. This
policy resembled somewhat the equity jurispru
dence of Rome, until it was superseded by the
promulgation of the code of laws, as the Edictum
Perpetuum of Julianus in the reign of Hadrian.
A bureau was established for the investigation
of judicial institutions in 1870, and the work of
codification began with it. A distinction between
the courts of law and executive offices was es
tablished two years later, and in the following
year the rules of pleading, providing how a cause
of action should be prosecuted, were promulgated.
The statutes were enacted in 1875, to decide the
petitions or complaints and the customary or
equity laws remedied the deficiency which the
statutes had not provided for. The French codes
and the eminent French jurists were consulted and
the penal code and code of criminal procedure
were adopted from them. The civil code, commer-

LIFE OF JAPAN 119
cial code, and other auxiliary laws were also taken
from the French jurisprudence. That system of
law was followed because the laws of the code were
tabulated together in so many articles, adequate
to the needs of the time, although a large num
ber of the gentlemen on the committee thought
that the Anglo-American laws were as systematic
and scientific as the French laws. In 1879 a
draft was submitted to the council of the Gen-
roin, the deliberative assembly then existing, the
members of which were appointed by the Em
peror, and the council, in turn, appointed the
members of the codification committee to draft
laws and make a report, and their report was ap
proved by that council in 1890. When the codes
were published they were subjected to severe
criticism by the pubfic; some of the people fa
vored the laws and others insisted on a revision.
In March, 1893, a commission consisting of mem
bers of both the upper and lower houses of the
Diet, professors of law, members of the bar and
the bench, and prominent financiers and mer
chants, was appointed by an imperial edict to in
vestigate the laws of the land. Three years later
the commission submitted a report which was
adopted by the Imperial Diet, and the whole went
into operation on the 16th of July, 1898. Thus,
the present code of laws has consummated the
social and political evolutions extending over the

120 LIFE OF JAPAN
two decades of the present progressive Japan.
The present system of judicature is uniform —
established throughout the whole empire — and is
concurrently and independently operated with full
force. It may be stated that the Japanese have all
their laws written in a legal order. Some of the
principal Japanese laws are the constitution, the
civil and commercial, criminal and administrative
laws, the law of application, and the law for the
organization of the courts, the laws regulating
special tribunals for administrative claims, the
laws governing municipalities, the laws of civil
and criminal procedure, the civil service law, elec
tion law, the imperial house law, state finance law,
public land law, naval and military law, general
municipal law, prefectural law, village and town
law, tax law, postal, telegraph and telephone
laws, mining law, fishery law, navigation law,
forestry law, hunting law, banking law, insurance
law, railroad law, naturalization law, bankruptcy
law. There are four grades of courts of law. Their
jurisdictions, both civil and criminal, are concur
rently exercised, differing according to the sub
ject-matter, either in respect of the amount in
volved in civil matters, or in extent of penalties
in criminal cases. Appeals lie from the lower

LIFE OF JAPAN 121
courts to the higher ones, either on points of law
or of fact, as well as on errors in the conduct of
the trial. The Precinct Court and the District
Court are the trial courts, while the Court of Ap
peals and the Supreme Court are the review
courts. All matters not exceeding the value of
100 yen come under the jurisdiction of the Pre
cinct Court. The jurisdiction of the Precinct
Court extends to all cases arising between house-
owner and tenant, or to controversies arising un
der irrigation and boundaries, or construction
of new buildings, making of the windows or
digging wells, to disputes over the payment of
wages between employer and employee under
contract of not more than one year, and also to
matters between the guest and the hotel, board
ing or lodging house, restaurant, or between pas
sengers and a transportation company, and be
tween shippers and the express company.
The jurisdiction of the District Court extends
to all cases involving the value of more than 100
yen, and to other matters than those above enum
erated coming under the jurisdiction of the lower
court. The District Court is composed of three
judges — one presiding and the others associated.
The Court of Appeals is the court where ap
peals from the District Court are heard, and it
is the court of last resort for appeals from the
lowest court, or Precinct Court. However, all

122 LIFE OF JAPAN
cases which involve the royal family shall be first
instituted in this court.
The Supreme Court hears the appeals or writs
of error brought in from the Court of Appeals,
and it is the highest court of the land.
The Japanese courts are, generally speaking,
much like the courts of chancery; the practice
like chamber practice. The judges do not sum
up the case or deliver the legal opinion of the
courts. They simply read the terms and orders
of judgments. There are no such imposing or
exciting scenes in the Japanese courts as we have
here in the courts of this country. The judges
are appointed for life, either by the Emperor or
by the Minister of Justice. The judges are ap
pointed, not from among the most experienced
lawyers, but directly from among the law schools.
In Japan the judges are judges, and the lawyers
lawyers — unlike the system in this country. The
lawyers in Japan have no business to anticipate
judges by keeping track of their fellow-members
of the bar; they have no business to indorse or
condemn judicial aspirants upon their merits ;
they have no business to prevent objectionable
candidates from attaining the bench, nor to work
for the election of the best men.
Until very recently judges made all inquiries
into the truth, the reality, the actuality of dis
puted things. They inquired into the rules or

LIFE OF JAPAN 123
standards of conduct. They determined the ex
act meaning and scope of the laws and the mode
of their enactment, so that there was no question
left for the jury to determine.
The year 1910 seems to Asia a new era, in that
there have taken place in Japan peculiar legisla
tive insurrections. The first and! foramos't of
these is the action of the majority party of the
House of Representatives in installing a jury sys
tem, — a system which is most essential to the
rights of man in any substantially civilized gov
ernment. The second is the Factory Law, which
attempts to legislate away the miseries of women
and children in factories and work-shops, — a law
practically the same as a labor law in the United
States. The third is a law regarding Campaign
Fund Publicity. In Japan, too, there are elec
tion frauds, though the members of the Diet are
comparatively honest. Remedial legislation is
necessary, as the frauds are but the necessary in
cidents of a common humanity. Here again,
thanks are due to the members of the British Par
liament for their exchange of notes with Chief
Secretary of the Imperial Diet, Mr. Kametaro
Hayashida, when he was recently visiting Europe.
This acknowledgement would not be complete
without mention of the assistance of the United
States Senator, H. C. Lodge, of Massachusetts,
in submitting to the chief Secretary the State laws

124 LIFE OF JAPAN
on Campaign Fund Publicity and the bills now
pending on the subject in the United States Con
gress. The twenty years experience of the Japa
nese parliament has its exact counterpart in the
experience of the West, as shown by the common
necessity for laws upon the subject.
During the feudal ages, Confucianism and
Buddhism placed the Japanese woman in a state
of dependence. She then observed the triple
obedience: "Obedience, while yet unmarried, to
a father; obedience, when married, to a husband;
obedience, when widowed, to a son." She was
practically excluded from the enjoyment or exer
cise of almost all rights. She had not the right
to become the head of a house; she had not the
right to hold property; she had not the right to
make any contract; she had not the right to act
as a guardian.
However, the introduction of the American
and European civilization into Japan changed
the entire fabric of the legal contemplation of
the Japanese woman. It has changed her position
from a dependent one to one of independence. She
can now become the head of a house; she has the
right to exercise parental authority over her own
child; she can enter into contracts, acquire or dis
pose of real or personal property in her own
name ; she can be a party to any legal proceeding
whenever and wherever she sees fit to do so. Even

LIFE OF JAPAN 125
after she is married, if she obtains permission
from her husband, she can contract debts, acquire
or relinquish movable or immovable properties;
she can engage in business ; she can institute
legal proceedings; she can accept or renounce
succession. Even if she does not obtain her hus
band's permission, her acts are not void but only
voidable; and until or unless her husband applies
himself to annul them, her acts are quite legal.
In short, the Japanese woman's status has been
promoted from an abnormally inferior position
to one of equality with the other sex. As to the
property of married women, the Japanese law-
draftsmen leaped at one bound from the system of
unity of conjugal property to the system of
separate property.
When we examine the jurisprudence of any
country with reference to the legal position of
foreigners, we will find at once the four distinct
periods of progress from its primitive state up
to the present period.
1. The barbarous principle that all foreigners
are enemies, and that they have absolutely no
rights. 2. By reason of commercial civilization, for
eigners cannot be regarded as enemies, but from
egoism or disdain they are placed in an inferior
position. 3. The foreigners are given the enjoyment of

126 LIFE OF JAPAN
their rights in proportion to what the people re
ceive from the foreigner's country, on the princi
ple of reciprocity.
4. The principle of equality, which is the most
advanced system of law relating to foreigners, at
the same time showing an unmistakable evidence
of high civilization, irrespective of race or na
tionality. The present written law of Japan is based
upon the principle of equality, and the foreigners
in Japan enjoy equal rights. Even those for
eigners whose countries are not in amicable rela
tions with Japan, or those who are not citizens
of any country with which Japan has a treaty,
have equal rights with the citizens of the treaty
powers, Thus has the Japanese jurisprudence
not only been evolutionized from the stage of
enmity to the stage of equality, but this has
been done in a comparatively short space of time,
the accomplishment of which, in their own case,
took even the most progressive nations of Eu
rope many centuries.
However, let me say that the gift of codes at
this early stage of the Japanese progress is not
the assurance of a great advantage to Japan.
Every human institution, like man, must grope
its way in the dark labyrinth of a mental and
moral wilderness, struggling its way against ar
bitrary power. Arbitrary power is that power

LIFE OF JAPAN 127
which is uncontrolled by reason and morality. It
is not necessary to point out the precise location
of arbitrary power in the Japanese government.
It is just as obnoxious when wielded by the many
as when it is wielded by one or by the few. It is
just as obnoxious when it is exercised by the Diet
as by the Emperor.
There are no native sages of the law in Japan
such as Marshall, Miller, Waite, Chase, Field,
Strong, Story, Bradley, Gray, Harlan, Brewer,
Fuller, Taney, and Mathews in America. There
is no judicial opinion from which to ascertain the
right meaning of the code. Nor has it as yet been
possible for the Japanese to produce men of such
original and creative power and character, by
whom alone can even the most perfect code be
successfully construed and administered.
I cannot say of my native country, as Tenny
son said of his mother country, whence Americans
derived their law and their spirit of liberty, that
it is a land "Where freedom broadens slowly down,
From precedent to precedent."
While power to improve the law is in the
judges' hands, the Japanese look to the law
draftsmen to cope with the needs of their pro
gressive society. The draftsmen of law, or the
code committee, are ever ready to meet the rapidly

128 LIFE OF JAPAN
changing national requirements. This practice
seems to us debatable, for such legislation may
raise expectations on the part of people. Does
it foster a dependence upon the legislature for
relief and protection from all the troubles of life?
Is it destructive of self-help or individual incen
tive? We have yet to see in the future whether
the legislature can satisfy these expectations, or
will break down under the weight of a burden
which it is unable to carry.
The author wishes to state that he has been
unable to present the Japanese laws exhaustively,
but if he has been able to " move the diligent stu
dent to doubt," and consequently to suggest to
the American student the study of the Japanese
laws and their reasons, he shall deem his efforts
by no means without reward.

CHAPTER XH
JOURNALISM IN JAPAN
The important items which an American news
paper records on its Bulletin, are very nearly all
recorded, (almost simultaneously, Jn Japan. There
are reasons to believe that the Japanese, through
wire and wireless, record comparatively more of
American and European affairs than the latter
do regarding Japanese affairs. The reception
of the Japanese press by the multitude is as keenly
appreciative in large cities as it is in the obscure
hamlets of Japan.
In Japan as in the West, editorial independ
ence is a question. It is not a theory but a con
dition that confronts the editor for solution. The
Japanese or American readers of a newspaper
do not pay for it on the rigid principle of " value
received " as they do for other property. They
cannot buy a five cent loaf of bread for one cent.
Yet the public expects to buy a great metropoli
tan newspaper for a cent or two. The author in
speaking with an editor of a certain "big" New
York Daily, heard him refer to a little village
139

130 LIFE OF JAPAN
newspaper as an excellent example of what a
newspaper ought to be. The author then and
there asked the editor if his newspaper accepted
the country newspaper's ideals as its own? " It
is impossible," said the editor, " because my news
paper does not address a limited number of the
people in any particular community. My news
paper invokes the attention of the whole nation."
So there is a question still unanswered.
Journalism in Japan is the creature of the
present regime. In all the boasted history of
pre-restoration time we are unable to find any
trace of journalism or that peculiar creature, to-
wit : " The Editor," according to Carlisle, the
" ruler of the world."
With the progress of civilization in Japan, the
same wants, the same desires, the same hopes, the
same aspirations that existed in the United States
were evolved there. Therefore, Japan imported
from this country the idea, the ink, the press, the
paper, and the " faking " ; but not the type. In
the initial stage of publishing newspapers, the
question of type obstructed the way of the enter
prise. The question of type and the setting and
making of forms will be the obstruction in the
present and future, as they were in the beginning
of Japanese journalism, for it is a question of the
Japanese characters. The written language of
Japan is a mixture of Chinese characters and the

LIFE OF JAPAN 131
Japanese alphabet, which latter consisted of forty-
eight sounds. To write an original letter forty-
eight " kanas " and about 1,000 Chinese charac
ters may be sufficient for the purpose. But for a
Japanese newspaper, there must be at least 56,000
Chinese characters. This enormous number of
different kinds of type entails a great difficulty
in keeping them separate, and is the most time-
consuming proposition of the newspaper business.
The type cases — each case being about 20 by
15 inches — are along the walls of large rooms,
extending from 25 to 30 feet, and the cases are
put one upon the other, as high as the type-setter
can reach. Thus the impracticability of employ
ing the linotype machines which are used in this
country is shown. It is strange that printing and
writing in Japan are to be thus handicapped, made
inconvenient, irksome, and time-consuming; yet we
cannot reform the evil. An abrupt reform of this
difficulty would kill the vitality of the people, for
a written language lives with the life of the peo
ple. It will take many generations before some
foreign language like English becomes an
adopted language. It will also take a long time
to Romanize the Japanese language, a thing which
has been attempted without success. One con
solation is that in reading the Chinese characters,
we read phonetically or understand by the
sounds. This is the result of the constant effort

132 LIFE OF JAPAN
of the generation past to eliminate the seeming
inconvenience which Chinese idiographic charac
ters carry with them.
One, and perhaps the most obstructing, thing
in the way of Japanese journalistic progress, is
the use of Kona alongside the Chinese characters,
in order to give the sound of the Chinese words.
All Japanese are not Chinese scholars. There are
some among the readers of the press who may
not be able to comprehend the news when it is
printed in Chinese characters only. It is neces
sary to place Kama, or the Japanese sound, of
every Chinese character, side by side with the
latter. Reporters in the American editorial rooms are
able to use typewriters more or less. But owing
to the complicated system of characters it is not
only impossible to seek any application of the
machine in Japan but it is necessary to go
through tedious processes. Recently an Ameri
can typewriter manufacturer attempted to solve
the question by manufacturing a machine which
carries with it only Kanas. We believe that the
manufacturer is or has been fully convinced that
the Japanese character question is beyond the
power of American invention and ingenuity.
The Japanese editorial room provides a blank
form, corresponding with the size of the newspa
per printed. The form is so arranged that each

LIFE OF JAPAN 133
character is to be written on a small cube or
block. The columns extend across the paper
horizontally, while the lines extend from the top
to the bottom of the column which is read down
the line ; usually about fifteen or twenty-five char
acters complete a line. In writing copy you have
many ways of abbreviating words, such as D. D.,
for doctor of divinity, Rev. for reverend, D. C. L.
for doctor of civil law. In Japan they have no
abbreviations. All must be written in full; for
example, " Matsudaira Vice-counltess Mistress,"
or " Kitashira-kawa Princess Her Imperial High
ness." There is neither capital letter to begin
the sentence, nor quotation marks for special
designation of verbatim. The Japanese sentences
start without a capital, and verbatim is desig
nated by brackets or parentheses.
" A nose for news " or the " butt in " quality
of a reporter in American newspaperdom may
be one of the first attributes of his success. But
in Japan these attributes cut the least figure.
The letters of introduction and a regard for con
ventionalities or formalities constitute the ifirst
important requisites. In America a journalist
may often be able to raise himself to eminence by
training in the science and art of journalism,
even without being born with inherent literary
genius. In Japan he must know Chinese litera
ture thoroughly, which often requires inborn

134 LIFE OF JAPAN
genius. But at any rate the journalist must be
a student of Chinese literature, otherwise there is
no hope for success, no matter how much he trains
himself in journalism as an art and science.
In this country we are able to write on the sub
ject of woman in journalism. It is said that the
innate peculiarities of an American woman are
apt to fit her for the position of journalist, for
she is naturally punctual, reliable, determined,
tireless, patient, and above all, endowed with a
feminine sympathy which may have an exclusive
field in some instances. It may be also said that
work on a newspaper in America is like any other
business, very respectable, so that women may
realize their ambition if they feel this work to
be their calling. Viewing properly the advanced
state of the American women we may safely as
sert that fitness for the work, and not sex, raises
her to a predominating place in the editorial of
fices. We regret to say that as yet the women
of Japan have not to any great extent invaded
the great field of journalism.
But to-day the Japanese have all classes of
newspapers, weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies.
The press reaches almost every hamlet of the
land. The press in Japan is an integral part of
the Japanese nation. The public servant and the
private citizen alike are honored or condemned,
as they are faithful or unfaithful to their re-

LIFE OF JAPAN 135
sponsible duties. The press once aroused, the
incident of Shibuya Park or the case of the Yoka-
hama millionaire is a fair evidence that a wonder
ful influence may be exerted. Even the recent
war with Russia may be said to have been caused
by the voice of the journalists. What Napoleon
once said is true: "A journalist! That means
a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a re
gent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations ! Four hos
tile newspapers are more to be dreaded than a
hundred thousand bayonets ! "
But we must keep in mind that there is a dif
ference in the individuality of journalism in
Japan and this country. For instance, if Amer
ican journalists, by their individual ideas, ap
prove or disapprove of any man's or woman's
merit or intellectual and moral character or per
sonality they will cause him or her to be the most
praised or most humiliated one of the community.
But Japanese journalists could not do the same.
We have a constitution which guarantees the
freedom of the press, and the censorship of the
Japanese government over the press is not as
strict as that of some European nations. Yet
there is but one Emperor in Japan. The Im
perial Household law, or higher law of Japan,
provides that the Emperor or his counsellors are
omnipotent, and it. prohibits derogatory comment
on whatever is done, or proposed to be done, by

136 LIFE OF JAPAN
them. And they are ruling Japan as the foun
tain head of justice. In this country every one
of eighty million inhabitants is an emperor. When
you feel amused, you laugh. And you want ev
ery other emperor to laugh at what you think
funny. Hence cartoons about your emperors.
Our journalists with their Japanese individuality
do not understand this strange privilege of being
amused by or laughing at your emperors. " As
every one of these edged tools," says the drafts
men of the present Imperial Constitution, " can
easily be misused, it is necessary for the mainte
nance of public order, to punish by law and to
prevent by police measures delegated by law, any
infringement by use thereof upon the honor or
the rights of any individual, any disturbance of
the peace of the country, or any instigation to
crime." After all I wish to state that the press in
Japan occupies an important position in public
affairs, and I assert that there is no one thing
at the present day in the Japanese nation to
which it is so much indebted for the good order
of society as the press. The Japanese newspapers
exercise an overwhelming influence over the coun
try and they are essential to the welfare of the
Japanese people. Without newspapers the Jap
anese people could not exist. Yet the time is a
long way off before they will reach the state of

LIFE OF JAPAN 137
journalism existing in America at the present
time. The mere existence of journalism is not a
boon to Japan. We have in Japan no Franklin,
no Raymond, no Gordon, no Bennett, no Greeley,
no Webb, no Blair, no Weed, no Green, no
Brooks, no Bryant.
Slowly but surely every step for the better
ment of Japan is being bitterly fought. And in
that betterment lies the progress of journalism
in Japan. "The road winds up hill all the way."
Step by step the way is won.
" Not enjoyment and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us further than to-day."

CHAPTER Xin
PRESENT EMPEROR'S ASCENSION TO THE THRONE
Rich indeed has been the harvest of the Amer
ican people in achievment as reaped by them in
Japan's national life. The spirit of right
thought and education once having entered the
head of Japan through the patient, generous and
humanitarian efforts of the revered republic of
the western world, the whole of Japan has been
changed and blessed.
On October 9, 1868, the Shogunate glided into
history by the resignation of the last Shogun of
the then reigning Tokugawa dynasty. This, then,
is rightly celebrated as the most peculiar national
event in all the history of Japan. Throughout
twenty-five centuries of unbroken lineage the
Mikado has been looked upon by his people as
holy, imperial and divine. For seven centuries
previous to the above date, 1868, through the
power of the Shogunate, partly vested and partly
usurped, the Emperor was in effect a mon
arch of very limited authority, if not a mere
figurehead. But on the above date cited, the Sho
gunate became obsolete, the Daimios lost their
138

LIFE OF JAPAN 139
fiefs, the feudal system was at an end, and the
Emperor once more reigned supreme over a con
tented and happy people.
In the year 1868, or the first year of Meiji,
the present Emperor ascended to the throne. His
Majesty is the one hundred and twenty-sixth em
peror, being the direct descendant of the first Em
peror Jimmu. Soon after the Emperor ascended
to the throne, the famous Decree of Five Articles,
or " Gojono-Gosei-in," was issued by His Majesty,
viz.: " 1st — Deliberative assemblies shall be established on
a broad basis in order that governmental measures may
be adopted in accordance with public opinion.
" 2d — The concord of all classes of society shall in all
emergencies of the State be the first aim of the Gov1-
ernment. " 3d — Means shall be found for the furtherance of the
lawful desire of all individuals without discrimination as
to persons.
"4th — All purposeless and useless customs being dis
carded, justice and righteousness shall be the guide of
all actions.
" 5th — Knowledge and learning shall be sought after
throughout the whole world, in order that the status of
the Empire of Japan may be raised ever higher and
higher." From these national principles the Japanese
as a nation and as individuals have not for a mo
ment swerved. Out of them has grown the re
form of the financial system ; to them are due the

140 LIFE OF JAPAN
industrial development of Japan, the re-organiza
tion of the Army and Navy and the growth of
educational institutions. Contrast the biography
of any other sovereign, East or West, with that
of the present Empeilor of Japan. To the Em
peror alone can Japan render thanks for her won
derful achievments in national evolution ; in short,
for the stupendous progress, which, beginning
with the time the Emperor received the actual
control of the political situation of the Empire,
has continued to the present time. Trace the
development of all the institutions of Japan since
1868. See what has been accomplished in the
lifetime of one who is truly a patriot. Consider
that no King or Emperior to-day exists, who has
more power than the Emperor of Japan. His
power is absolute, constitutionally above the laws
of the country. In his hand rests every power,
over every one and everything, frjom eternity to
eternity. Could any human being wield more
absolute authority? Morever there has never ex
isted a Japanese who would not willingly sacrifice
all he holds most dear, even his life, for the sake
of the Emperor. One word from His Majesty
is sufficient.
It is of historical importance to here describe
for all time the individual virtues and personal
conduct of the Emperor, affording as they do an
example well worthy of imitation. He is to be

LIFE OF JAPAN 141
found in his place of imperial business at a very
early moment of the day, and he is frequently
detained there by official affairs until midnight.
Notwithstanding this he enjoys fine health and
vigor, and no signs of weariness are apparent
after many hours of official overwork. The Em
peror never renders a decision without a thorough
understanding is first had by him, even if it neces
sitates an interrogation of the case by his august
self, before he is completely satisfied. His Maj
esty's private life has always been free from
ostentation, always frugal and simple. The Em
peror is fond of riding on horseback and takes a
great and constant interest in his steed; always
appearing on horseback at the military manceu-
vers. His Majesty is conspicuous for his tender
ness and sympathy, these traits compelling the
love and admiration of his subjects. The life of
her Majesty, the Empress of Japan, is also plain,
simple and unostentatious, in accord with that of
her illustrious husband, her virtues being a model
for her sex. In time of peace His Majesty oc
cupies himself with national political matters; in
time of war military matters receive his entire
attention. The Empress, in much the same man
ner disposes her days according to the differing
demands of war or peace. In event of war her
time is consumed with devotion to the " Red
Cross " work, even the monotonous making of

142 LIFE OF JAPAN
bandages and otherwise tending the sick and
wounded are her self-constituted duties. When
gentle peace smiles upon her country she turns
with pleasure and relief to the patronage and ad
vancement of the fine arts. The Empress is
peculiarly interested in the development of paint
ing, sculpture, music and architecture among her
young countrywomen; gardening is also one of
her duties and pleasures. In the records of the
world, this illustrious pair have written an un
paralleled example which is only emphasized by
their august station in life. As a nation and as
subjects, the Japanese have always been and will
continue to be inspired with the highest love and
patriotic devoticji to both their sovereigns, being
filled with respect and admiration for the present
glorious age of their nation, brought about by
the wise and beneficent sw,ay of the Emperor and
his noble lady. Well may Japan desire long life
and every good to its revered Personages, the
most gracious Empress and Emperor of Japan.
His Imperial Highness, the crown prince, was
born in the year 1879, and was married to the
Princess nine years ago. The purity of their
marital relations is a shining example of monog
amy for their beloved subjects for all time
to come. The two have had born to them three
children. The eldest is Prince Hirohito, who was
bom April 29, 1901. The Crown Prince is not

LIFE OF JAPAN 143
only well educated along the lines of modern
diplomacy and statesmanship, but is a good
English, German and French scholar. He is also
a great traveller, having visited every part of
Japan, opening educational institutions and in
specting the industrial establishments of the Em
pire. In learning, wisdom and experience, in love
of the people and in devotion to imperial duty,
the Crown Prince is more than competent to as
cend the throne of his Imperial Ancestors. The
throne of the Emperor, as vital to the people as
the rays of the sun, shall continue through ages
eternal. The Emperor may be succeeded, if there
is no Imperial descendant, by his brother or his
descendants or by the nearest relative among the
rest of the Imperial Family ; but, as the Imperial
House law provides, only " the male line " shall
succeed. The adoration of His Majesty's sub
jects, generation after generation, continues with
their love of country and self-sacrificing patriot
ism. In the same way as they feel toward the
present Emperor and Empress, would they feel
toward any Emperor and Empress who ascended
the throne. Moreover, the Emperor's political
tact, learning, wisdom and experience are such
that the Imperial advisory bodies, the Imperial
Family Counsellors, the Privy Counsellors, and
often the Cabinet Ministers continue to hold their
prestige in the eyes of the people as time goes on.

144 LIFE OF JAPAN
It is the highest unwritten law of the country
that the Japanese dare not indulge their pens in
matters relating to the Imperial Family. The
author has been confronted in Europe and Amer
ica almost continually with speeches or literature
made or published, which in his judgment would
neither uplift the dignity and interest of the
speaker or writer, nor of the auditor or reader.
But some of these have been decidedly provoca
tive tjo the Japanese people who read them. Within
the spirit of their people and of the present time,
the Japanese observe the principles of the high
est unwritten law, but could not even argue to
convince the Europeans and Americans in this
matter. But the author wants to say that inas
much as Japan makes it a penal offence for her
own people t'o' make personally derogatory com
ments on the flags or sovereigns of other nations,
and enforces the penal law sternly if in any
shape or form such comment endangers the in
ternational well-being, it would be only reason
able on the part of Europe and America to re
ciprocate this courtesy. To conclude in the lan
guage of the Imperial Poet, Baron Takasaki:
"When Jimmu fixed the Imperial throne,
Justice and Mercy to atone,
He laid its 'bases 'broad and deep
A throne that should forever keep:
Oh, happy day for me and mine
That gave us our Imperial line." ,

CHAPTER XIV
FINANCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL REFORMS
When the Imperial Government was restored
to its proper place in the economy of Japan it
was at once confronted with financial difficulties.
In the transfer of the government from the
Feudal to the Imperial systems, there was no rev
enue attached to it. Worst of all was the public
sentiment which had been so bitterly against the
Imperial regime. It was, indeed, an indescrib
ably hard task for the new and unwelcomed gov
ernment to straighten out the many intricate
problems of finance.
Under the feudal system, the central feudal
government was in no better condition in the
matter of revenue than the feudal lord, for the
central feudal government had the right of levy
ing taxes only in its own dominion, and the peo
ple of those fiefs had no obligation to support
the Shogunate government. And on the other
hand, the local feudal governments often were
better off in respect to the financial situation,
than the Shogunate. The revenue of the local
governments was for the purpose of maintaining
145

146 LIFE OF JAPAN
military administration and supporting the
Samurai or retainers, which was their only ob
ligation in relation to the Shogunate government.
Under such a financial system, the farmers and
merchants were always obliged to work hard and
often to support very extensive and luxurious un
productive classes, or feudal barons and retain
ers. When the author writes this he realizes that
he is indicting his own ancestors, but such is the
fact of the case.
In the pre-restoration periods, rice was the
principal medium of exchange. Taxes were paid
by the farmers to the feudal government with
rice — the system of levying being based on the
harvest of the crop. As we have stated, the
feudal barons were the owners of lands within
their respective dominions, and they did not al
low the people to purchase or sell the land. Since
rice was the medium of exchange and the prin
cipal medium in the payment and collection of
taxes for revenue, the feudal government inter
fered and issued orders to the farmers as to what
land should be and what land should not be cul
tivated. The result of such interference and or
der was often to* seriously embarrass the farmers.
As the soil was not always suitable for cultivation,
great mistakes and miseries were created among
the merchants as well as among the fatrmers.
Even to-day we speak and read of the miseries

LIFE OF JAPAN 147
and agonies of that time in song and story. Sa-
kura Sogoro was a chief of the farmer's council.
He was honest, truthful, and most beloved by the
villagers. He took steps to appeal from the un
bearable hardships of the farmers, not to the
feudal government but directly to the Shogunate,
or central government. He hid under Wyeno
Bridge, in wait for the Shogun to pass over it,
as he could not approach the military dignitary
in any other manner, owing to the numerous
guards around the Sedan carriage of the Shogun.
The time came when the Shogun was just passing
over the bridge., Out Sogoro jumped and suc
ceeded in placing the record of his followers'
grievances in the Sedan carriage in wliich the
Shogun rode. However, under the system of the
central and feudal governments, he could get no
result. His courage and effort was rewarded by
crucifixion on the cross. According to the popu
lar novel, the only way poor Sogoro could then
see to convince the baron of the existing injustice
was for him to appear after he had been cruci
fied, night after night in the presence of the
feudal baron and his family. This method he re
sorted to after his death and finally secured re
lief for his fellow farmers.
In the countries of Europe, as you know,
when they got the transfers of the governments
from their feudal barons, they paid for the fiefs

148 LIFE OF JAPAN
with money. But the almost bankrupted pocket
of the newly restored Japanese government could
only pay by means of bonds. Three years after
the restoration, for the first time it was decided
that all financial matters should be controlled by
the treasury, and this was succeeded in 1873 by
the new order that the receipts and disbursements
must be regulated. In the year 1880, the Board
of Audit was created and the year 1882 was a
memorable period in the reform of the financial
system. In that year the Treasury was empow
ered to control the receipts and the payments of
government money, and in the same year, the
Bank of Japan was established, to act as the gov
ernment cashier. A new epoch was introduced in
the history of Japanese finance when the consti
tution took full charge of the present Imperial
regime, in 1889. Since then, as at present, the
government alone could not and can not make
its own compilation of budgets, and the reporting
of settled accounts. All must wait until the rep
resentatives of the people in the Diet sanction
them. Local governments, too, owing to the develop
ment of self-government conditions and to the
progress of the times, are exercising the most
modern principles of finance; and the nation and
central government are strictly preventing any
undue expansion of the local expenses. On the

LIFE OF JAPAN 149
other hand, the local finance, in the same way as
the national system, must be sanctioned by the
respective local legislatures. This departure for
the better may be traced to the enactment of the
Law of Districts and Prefectures in 1889, and
the Law for Cities, Towns and Villages, in 1888,
It may be encouraging to observe the increase
made in the national and local revenues, accord
ing to' the official reports. For example: An
nual local revenue in 1890, nearly $36,000,000;
in 1900, nearly $70,000,000. The Imperial Na
tional Government had, when it assumed the finan
cial responsibility from the central feudal gov
ernment, an annual revenue of $16,000,000, and
in 1903 it reached the huge amount of about
$1526,000,000. Should the government treasury and the peo
ple's purse be said to be different and that the
former does not prove the wealth of the country,
then it may be said that the Japanese people seem
to have inexhaustible resources and capability. As
the outcome of the recent war with Russia the
people were imposed upon to carry the enormous
taxation of six thousand million dollars, and the
people's representatives in the 24th session of the
Imperial Diet sanctioned the Budget of Appro
priations. And the people in the last general
election, 1908, approved the Diet's sanction by
choosing a majority of the Diet from members of

150 LIFE OF JAPAN
the same political party which voted for the said
enormously increased taxation.
We should not lose sight of the fact that the
Japanese Government and pubfic are pushing
with great energy the shipping trade and ship
building industry of Japan. It goes without say
ing that the coming trade being inseparably con
nected with shipbuilding work, the expansion of
the one depends upon the activity of the other.
With these objects in view, the Japanese Govern
ment is continually extending its protection policy
in the shape of subsidies to steamers, insular or
foreign, according to the Law for Encouraging
Navigation. The postoffices numbered 5,485 by the last
census, which with the postal money order, postal
savings, telegraph and telephone offices, are con
trolled by the Bureau of Communication. Every
year, about 600,000 foreign telegrams are carried
in Japan. The world's trade will have nothing
further to desire while Japan, as at present, occu
pies a central position linking together the two
hemispheres, and furnishing a well-equipped
medium of communication. According to the last
census, not counting the insular possessions, but
only Japan proper, we have 10,000 miles of rail
road lines.
A few words about Japan's monetary reforms.
In the coinage history of modern Japan, you will

LIFE OF JAPAN 151
notice four periods. The first period extends
from 1868 to 1871, in which the beginning was
made of the establishment of the new currency
system by the promulgation of the new coinage
regulations of 1871. The main effort of the
finance ministers of these days was directed to
the adjustment of the disordered condition of
finance and coinage, created by the complicated
and confounded state of affairs during the Sho
gunate regime.
The second period extends from 1872 to 1879.
This period is marked by the founding of the
government mint and the issue of new coinage,
but is more marked for the enormous issues of
inconvertible paper money, which brought about
all the evils of inflation.
The third period extends from 1880 to 1885,
in which the efforts of the government were
directed toward replacing the inconvertible paper
money with convertible notes, which prepared the
way for the final inauguration of the gold stan
dard system, though for a time it resulted in the
establishment of a de facto silver standard.
The fourth period extends from 1886 to 1898,
in which the silver standard was changed into a
gold monometallic system.
Prior to the abolition of the Shogunate regime,
owing to the autonomical local governments, and
the defectiveness of communication and transpor-

152 LIFE OF JAPAN
tation facilities, foreign trade — even home trade
— was in an insignificant state, being carried on
only with China, Korea, Netherlands, and Portu
gal, and being limited between them and local
cities, under a strict exclusion policy. It was
only after the Imperial restoration in 1868, that
a new era began in the matter of foreign trade.
To begin with, in 1868, Japan had only about
$10,000,000 of foreign trade, but it had already
developed to the large amount of $500,000,000 in
1902. The United States has a large share of
this, as a natural result of its relations with Japan.
Secretary Straus, of the Department of Com
merce and Labor, when interviewed by the author,
gave him the following statement in regard to
the American- Japanese trade : " Our trade with
Japan has shown a remarkable growth in recent
years, during which time a feeling of deep friend
ship has developed between that wonderful race
and our own. Her people have been welcomed
to all the privileges and immunities enjoyed by
the most favored nation. The privileges of
Americans residing in Japan, the number of
whom has been nearly doubled in the past dec
ade, have correspondingly increased. Our great
silk manufacturers, who employ thousands of
workmen and disburse over thirty millions a year
in wages, have drawn largely for their raw mate
rial upon Japan, sending her nearly forty million

LIFE OF JAPAN 153
dollars for raw silk in the year just ended. In
turn, Japan has purchased freely of the products
of our farms and factories, so that our exports to
that country have grown over thirty-eight mil
lions in 1906."
It is said that Japan, if she marches on in her
commercial expansion as she has marched, will,
like John Bull did with the American merchant
men of the Atlantic, drive out the American
oceanic carriages from the Pacific. It is also
said that Japan, with her advantageous cheap
labor and untiring industry, within the near
future will not only control the traffic of the
countries and islands washed by the Pacific, but
will also supplant the American people in their
own occupations, placing them in the meantime
at the mercy of the Japanese commercial flag.
All this scare is based upon an entirely erroneous
theory. Well studied and true economic princi
ples are known to indicate a different course.
We admit that .50 per cent, of the population
of Japan belongs to the farming class. It is a
national policy to encourage agriculture. If the
rice crop be all sent out as a commercial article
to a foreign market, Japan may realize an annual
income of over $150,000,000. But we must admit
at the same time that the consumption of all the
rice crop in Japan does not supply even half of
the demand within her own territorial boundary.

154 LIFE OF JAPAN
The remaining demand must be imported from
the country that can supply the foodstuff.
We admit that Japan has large deposits of
coal and iron within her borders. She has dis
covered coal and iron in Manchuria, Korea and
Sakaline Island, and is getting from such discov
eries large quantities of coal and iron. On the
other hand, the empire has over 1,700 shipyards,
where all warships or merchantmen, as far as it
needs, can be built. Recently, the battleships,
Satsuma and Aki, which were constructed by
native labor alone, were launched. The Satsuma,
their largest battleship, is as large as the Dread-
naught of the British navy, and according to
American expert opinion, is superior in fighting
strength to the British Dreadnaught. We admit
that Japan builds all the steamers which are now
being used as international carriers between Ja
pan and Europe, Australia, Bombay, Eastern
Siberia, China, Korea, Sakaline, the Philippines,
Formosa, and the island seas, while at the same
time, her steamers are lining up between Japa
nese ports and San Francisco, Puget Sound
ports, Canada, and South America. And her
steamship companies are preparing for an exten
sion of oceanic lines to Panama, hoping for a
speedy completion of the Panama canal.
But we must also admit that the mineral mate
rials, such as coal and iron, etc., which are needed

LIFE OF JAPAN 155
by Japan, are lacking, approximately 60 per cent.
of such materials being imported. The more
Japan struggles in her commercial expansion,
the more she feels that Japan in herself cannot
provide all the essentials. The more her people
extend their traffic to other countries under the
advantage of cheap labor and industry, the more
she demands a supply of the vitally important
materials, foodstuffs, minerals, machinery, tools,
etc., all these essentials to the industrial life of
her people. Suppose the Japanese do drive out
American merchantmen from the Pacific as John
Bull did from the Atlantic; yet Americans will
still have an exclusive and continuous opportu
nity to supply the necessary trade demands of
Japan if they wish. The United States extends
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the
Lakes to the Gulf; within it abound all neces
sary foodstuffs and minerals ; its people are not
only able to supply the demands of their own
country's internal industry, but also' to supply
more than enough of all the materials that are
wanted every day by industrial Japan. Their
national resources are practically inexhaustible;
it makes even a scientist superstitious about
America as a country of manifest destiny. Does
every American realize these facts and then strive
to carry out such realization? The future pros
perity of Japanese-American trade is self-evident.

CHAPTER XV
the aiuvtt and navy of japan
When the Japanese soldiers safely passed the
Yalu River, which the Russian army characterized
as " an impregnable fortification " and to pass it
" a human impossibility " to where the Russian
soldiers were in wait after years of preparation
and determination, the great powers became
doubtful and uncertain as to the degree of Jap
anese strength. Battle succeeded battle. The
pygmy nation fought against and won from the
giant of Europe and Asia. The mere mention
of a Cossack was the terror of Europe, accord
ing to Napoleon. Yet the Russian soldiers — de
feated, defeated, and defeated — finally saw the
futility of their early boast that they would wipe
out the Japanese from the face of the earth.
With the progress of their defeat, they finally
began to complain of the maladministration of
their government, so that they would not fight.
Since then the army of Japan became the star
attraction of the military powers. When the
attention of the first powers of the world is thus
directed to it, if we spend a few moments in learn-
156

LIFE OF JAPAN 157
ing how Japanese soldiers have been trained and
are now being trained, we hope it will not ,be
uninstructive to the reader.
The treacherous aborigines were a constant
menace to the peaceful Imperial rule. It was
these barbarians, for the suppression of whom
the Emperor Keiko, the twelfth Emperor, is noted
in the ancient military annals by the deputation
of his only son, Prince Yamatodake.
In the reign of the Emperor Tenchi, the con
scription law was made known and then military
institutions were everywhere established. The
Emperor Tenchi transformed the military system
of the times and the soldiers were organized into
different regiments, battalions, brigades, com
panies, and sections. According to the rule, one-
third of the adult male inhabitants were con
scripted as soldiers and subjected to rigorous
military training. About one hundred years
later, 740 A. D., Emperor Shomu made still fur
ther changes, so that the young men of promis
ing marksmanship and good horsemanship were
chosen and sent to different military schools of
the land.
However, after feudalism ushered in a class of
professional or hereditary soldiers, the latter
trained their sons in their own professions until
the dawn of the present era.
The unique system of Japanese military train-

158 LIFE OF JAPAN
ing had its germs in the last Shogunate govern
ment. Ii, a conspicuous figure in the progressive
parties under the regime of the last Shogun, was
not only famous in taking decided steps in ad
mitting the foreigners for the sake of Japan's
trade, but also in re-organizing the military sys
tem. It was in a way the last dying effort to
preserve the existence of the Shogunate govern
ment. His scheme, however, was comparatively
modest, as it did not contemplate a total effect
ive force of more than 13,000 men whose drill
and equipment were far from perfect. This num
ber or even a greater number of men could have
been well equipped if Ii had been given a free
hand, as he was a very capable and far-seeing
person. In spite of opposition, not only within
his own party, but also from without, he opened
the country to' foreigners. Let us remember the
force of his character. /
The present Japanese military system when
compared with the last one mentioned, is, as a
matter of course, seen to be a great deal more
effective. In the first year of Meiji, or 1868,
A. D., the year in which the present Emperor
came to the throne, further changes were made
in the Department of the Army and the Navy.
Military conscription was published by the Impe
rial Edict of 1871, and in the following year the
navy and the army were separated, and each had

LIFE OF JAPAN 159
an independent department. Six military divi
sions were organized in the eighteenth year of
the present Emperor, in 1885 ; these were further
increased to twelve divisions after the war with
China of 1894-5, and quadrupled after the
Russo-Japanese war.
The present government conscripts all citizens
of Japan to do military duty for a certain num
ber of years. It is the pride of the Japanese
people to fulfil this requirement. At the present
time the population of Japan is over 48,000,000,
and continues to increase very rapidly. Obeying
the rule that every male citizen over twenty years
of age shall bear arms, the government would
have more soldiers at any one time than is needed.
Therefore to check the ever-increasing applicants
and to meet the requirements of a peace footing,
great discriminations are made, and each appli
cant is submitted to most rigorous physical ex
aminations. The result is that only those who
are physically perfect can enter the army. The
Japanese army, therefore, comprises a living and
intelligent fighting force of the very greatest
perfection. Senator Tillman, when speaking about the
Japanese, said: "The best goods come in small
packages." While appreciating the kind remarks
made by Senator Tillman, the author would like
to add that in individual strength to stand hard

160 LIFE OF JAPAN
study, and in the willingness to obey orders, the
Japanese may be " larger " than others.
In the barracks the officers share in all the
exercises of the soldiers and they are always on
duty so that there exists complete harmony be
tween the officers and the soldiers. Every officer
has to receive rigorous military training in the
colleges. One that is commonly known as the
Tokyo Military College, is located at Ichigai,
Tokyo. The military college has the depart
ments of infantry, cavalry, fortress artillery,
field artillery, engineering and training.
Irrespective of his choice of arms, the student
must meet the requirements, which are: Tactics,
science of artillery, fortification, topography,
military administration, field hygiene, the care
of horses, foreign languages, and surveying. In
addition to the above subjects they are required
to take exercise in drilling, gymnastics, fencing,
sabre use, shooting, riding, and jiujitsu. This
is followed by annual military manoeuvres at the
end of October. In order to attain higher mili
tary training the graduate officers enter the Mili
tary Staff College. The lieutenants and sub
lieutenants are eligible to admission to the college
when they satisfy the faculty of their physical
health, intellectual qualifications, morals and dili
gence. An applicant to the Military Staff College

LIFE OF JAPAN 161
must have been in all cases in the regiments or
battalions for a period of not less than two years.
The college course is three years in length.
There are in addition to the above named college,
the following, all of which are open to the mili
tary officers : College of Artillery and Engineer
ing, College of Gunnery and Field Artillery, Col
lege of Gunnery and Fortress Artillery, College
of Cavalry Training, Toyama Military College,
College of Military Administration, College of
Military and Veterinary Surgeons.
President Roosevelt, speaking about the Jap
anese soldiers, said: "The Japanese have given
us a good lesson by the way they handled their
army in the recent war. One of the reasons why
their medical department did well — the main rea
son — was the fact that they had been practiced in
time of peace in doing the duties they would have
to do in war." Such an utterance from the lips
of the American President and famous " Rough
Rider," is the greatest compliment to the Jap
anese soldiers. General Chaffee, too, among good
things about them of which the Japanese can be
proud, said : " There are certain lessons which
the armies of the world might study with profit,
and which are also of interest to the public."
The American military commander went on to
state that " the most important is the manner in
which the Japanese army is recruited and the

162 LIFE OF JAPAN
ease with which the government was able to place
three-quarters of a million of trained men in the
field within a few months after the declaration
of war. Every one of them was an educated sol
dier, who understood his duty and was able to
perform it. It was not necessary for the recruit
ing officers to break in awkward squads at any
recruiting station. The Japanese soldier demon
strated from the moment he put on his uniform
that he not only knew the manual of arms, but
was familiar with the duties of a soldier and
knew how to take care of himself in the field, in
camp and in battle. This is due to the thorough
ness of the Japanese system. More than in any
other nation is the army a part of the people of
Japan and the people a part of the army."
General Chaffee further said that in his opinion
the number of Russian troops in Manchuria has
been very much underestimated. " There were,"
said General Chaffee, " more than a million men
on the Russian side before the battle of Mukden."
Although there was naval warfare — in the
second century, when the Empress Jingo invaded
Korea; in the eleventh century when the Genji
and Heike clans fought at Danno-Ura; in the
following century when the Mongolian crusade
reached Japan; in the thirteenth century when
the Japanese took aggressive action against
China; in the following centuries, when Japan

LIFE OF JAPAN 163
renewed her attacks against Korea and China —
their warships were not such as we understand
in the modern sense of the word. They were in
the shape of armed merchantmen, including fish
ing junks. As we have already learned, the navy
became independent from the army in 1872. In
the same year, rules relating to the Levy of Sea
men were promulgated and in 1885 the system of
conscription service was put in force; and in 1899
the voluntary service system was also inaugurated.
The naval colleges are open for every young
man between the ages of fifteen and twenty years.
Entrance to the college is by competitive exami
nation. All married applicants and all those
who have any blemishes of character whatsoever
are never admitted. The government defrays
all necessary expenses of the students who are
admitted to the college. The first examination
is physical, and only those who are successful in
this are qualified to take the educational exami
nation. The educational examination as it exists
at the present time includes the following sub
jects: Algebra, plane geometry, plane trigo
nometry, Japanese literature, composition, Eng
lish grammar and translation, physics, chemistry,
history, geography, hand sketching, and mechan
ical drawing. The French, German, and Russian
languages are optional. The college course,
which is three years in length, comprises the fol-

164 LIFE OF JAPAN
lowing lines of work: In the first year, the
gunnery course requires four hours a week; sea
manship, four; engineering, one; English, five;
physics and chemistry, five and one-half; mathe
matics, six and one-half; making a total of
twenty-six hours of study each week. The
second year's course requires for gunnery, four
hours a week ; for seamanship, three ; for torpedo
instruction, one; for engineering, three; for
mathematics, five. The third year course re
quires three hours a week for gunnery; four for
seamanship ; four for torpedo instruction ; seven
for navigation; one for engineering; six for
English; three for mathematics and statistics.
The course in seamanship comprises the inter
national law of the high seas; signalling; ship
building; preservation of ships and their con
struction; provisioning. In the course in navi
gation, the studies of meteorological observation
and surveying are both included. In addition to
these courses there are lectures on international
law and naval history. The cadets who have
passed the final examination are promoted to
midshipmen. The midshipmen first serve on a
special training-ship, then in the ships of the
standing fleet. In both of these capacities they
are rigorously required to put in practice what
they have been taught in the colleges.
There are two naval colleges, one in Etajima

LIFE OF JAPAN 165
and the other in Tokyo. The latter is the higher
naval college and is established for the purpose
of training lieutenants and sub-lieutenants. Ad
mission to this college is also competitive. The
college course is two years in length, and com
prises four different courses. The subjects
studied in these courses are strategy, tactics,
naval history, military administration, political
economy, gunnery, torpedoes, navigation, ship
building, engineering, etc. In addition to the
two most important colleges already named above
it may be proper to add the college at Yakosuka,
the Naval Medical College, Paymasters Training
School, and the Nautical College at Tokyo. In
conclusion, those Japanese who claim that their
navy is as good if not better than that of any
other nation, had better leave this problem to the
solution of the world's naval experts.
However, it may be justice to add a few words
as to the causes of Japanese naval success in the
practical engagements with the navy of Russia.
You know of the rapidity with which the Japa
nese officers and sailors struck the first blow at
Chemulpo and Port Arthur, and the phenomenal
success which attended those daring naval opera
tions, involving as they did the paralysis of the
Russian navy, and the final success in the Sea
of Japan, securing at the same time the full com
mand of the Eastern seas. These successes have

166 LIFE OF JAPAN
served, not only to raise the prestige of Japan
enormously, but also has caused her to become
the subject of the admiration of the whole world.
" Japan won," saysi a French naval expert, a well
known deputy who had been Minister of Marine,
"because from the first to the last they fought
in obedience to the eternal principles of naval
war, because they knew that the command of the
sea meant nothing but the security of maritime
communications; without it they could do noth
ing, with it they could do everything, and that
the only way to obtain it was to destroy or ren
der impotent all the available naval forces of the
enemy. That is one of the great lessons."
After all, as all the authorities agree — the
United States, England, Germany, France,
Russia, Italy — it must be admitted that the war
was decided, as naval wars always have been de
cided, not by the ships and fleets engaged, but
by the men of Japan who handled the ships and
who fought with the guns.
Perhaps the best institution which is an inte
gral part of the navy and the army, and also a
philanthropic and humanitarian establishment, is
the Red Cross Society of Japan, which the author
believes to be entitled to brief comment. The
Red Cross Society owes its origin to the south
western civil war in 1877, which was the last
that ever occurred in Japan. It was then named

LIFE OF JAPAN 167
the Universal Benevolent Society, or " Haku-ai-
sha." This philanthropic organization amended
its articles of association in 1887, and joined the
Red Cross Convention of Geneva, changing its
name to the Red Cross Society of Japan or
" Seki-jiu-ji-sha." The members then enlisted
were about 2,100, but in 1902 it had grown to
no less than 796,045.
The work undertaken by the society made a
creditable record on the occasion of the Japanese-
Chinese war. The officials and nurses of the soci
ety took charge of and cared for 101,423 invalids,
including 1,484 prisoners of war. The society
has also undertaken several times to nurse those
wounded in calamities, accidental and natural.
Among the principal cases we may mention are
the eruption of Mount Bandai in 1888, the ship
wreck of the Turkish man-of-war in 1890, the
disastrous earthquake of Mino and Owari in the
following year, the tidal waves in Sanriku and
the earthquake at Akita in 1898, the fire at
Hachoji in 1897, and the famine of the Northern
provinces in 1906, not mentioning the benevolent
work the local branches of the society have under
taken at every time a flood or other disaster
overtook the provinces near them.
There were many defective points in the inter
nal arrangement of the society, but they have
been completely removed since the Japanese-Chi-

168 LIFE OF JAPAN
nese war in 1894, and the society as well as its
local branches is no longer subject to inconven
ience as regards materials and personnel. The
society, the head office and branches as well,
maintains a regular system of training nurses,
which was begun in 1890. The term of train
ing at the head office extends over a period of
three years, and that of the branches one year.
When the Russian-Japanese war broke out the
society discharged its duty with signal efficiency.
In September, 1909, the members of the society
numbered 1,500,000.
To conclude, it is perhaps most fair, from the
nature of the subject, to say in the words of an
American lady and representative of the Ameri
can National Red Cross, Miss Mabel T. Board-
man, during a conversation with the author:
" The Japanese Red Cross is the most efficient
of all."

CHAPTER XVI

EDUCATION IN JAPAN

There exists ample evidence that even in an
cient times Japanese culture and learning at
tained s high degree of development. However,
the system of education in vogue prior to the
restoration of the Imperial Government in 1868,
and also its scope and operation were narrow
and limited. It consisted more of the "human
ity " studies than of anything else, in the modern
sense of the term. It has been only since Perry's
expedition to the thitherto forbidden sea of Uraga
that modern education has flourished in Japan.
The people of the United States exemplified
the words of Abraham Lincoln when he said : " I
am never easy when handling a thought, till I
have bounded it north, and bounded it south, and
bounded it east, and bounded it west." The gift
by the United States of $750,000 for Japanese
education did not exhaust the interest taken by
American people in the educational advancement
of Japan. The best educators in the United
States thoroughly discussed the matter, made
lists of the best educational standards in every
169

170 LIFE OF JAPAN
branch of science, literature, art and law, and
many competent teachers went to Japan to per
sonally inspect, establish and superintend the
educational interests of that country, and Chris
tian missionaries took a leading part in this
magnanimous work. Some of the most prominent
scientists were also in the van in disseminating
the advantages of education among the Japanese
youth. By the advice of the first United States
Minister Harris, the Shogunate, in the spring
of 1860, equipped a large number of young as
pirants for governmental honors, and sent them
abroad to pursue various courses of learning and
to familiarize themselves, each in his own
specialty, with every branch of modern civiliza
tion. Sixty-five of these Japanese students after
completing their respective courses returned per
meated with the best learning of the age, as the
standard bearers of modern enlightenment in
their country. In 1872 the Emperor sent abroad,
for a like purpose, a similar embassy of forty-
nine young men. In all due haste this Imperial
embassy gathered their various stores of infor
mation and promptly returned to augment the
fruits of the Shogun's first embassy. Many
members of both these embassies are now in the
highest positions of trust in the realm. Thence
forth the stream of ambitious youths from Japan
in search of foreign lore has been continuous, until

LIFE OF JAPAN 171
at the present day Japan is pushing well to the
front in every branch of modern advancement.
Christian institutions, mechanical and mercantile
establishments, colleges, and universities, founded
by Americans or by Japanese from America
through the length and breadth of Japan, have
all contributed to a result unprecedented in the
history of any nation.
Before entering into a brief observation of the
educational institutions, let us inscribe here, as a
matter of historical importance, the much com
mented upon and criticised " Kkwku-Choku-go "
or " Imperial Rescript on Education," which was
issued by His Majesty in 1890, and read as
follows :
" Our ancestors founded the State on a vast basis,
while their virtues were deeply implanted, and our sub
jects by their unanimity in their great loyalty and filial
affection, have in all ages shown them in perfection.
Such is the essential beauty of Our National Polity and
such, too, is the true spring of Our Educational System.
You, our beloved subjects, be filial to your parents, af
fectionate to your brothers, be loving husbands and wives,
and truthful to your friends. Conduct yourselves with
modesty and be benevolent to all. Develop your intel
lectual faculties and perfect your moral powers by gain
ing knowledge and by acquiring a profession. Further,
promote the public interests and advance the public af
fairs; ever respect the national constitution and obey the
laws of the country; and in case of emergency, courage
ously sacrifice yourselves to the public good. Thus offer
every support to Our Imperial Majesty, which shall be

172 LIFE OF JAPAN
lasting as the universe. You will then not only be our
most loyal subjects but will be enabled to exhibit the
noble character of our ancestors.
"Such are the testaments left us by our ancestors,
which must be observed alike by their descendants and
subjects. These precepts are perfect throughout all ages
and of universal application. It is our desire to bear
them in our heart in common with you, our subjects, to
the end that we may constantly possess these virtues."
The government makes compulsory the educa
tion of children of school-going age; yet the
parents appear more anxious than the govern
ment in this respect, which is demonstrated by
the establishment of kindergarten schools, both
public and private. There is scarcely one incor
porated city without a kindergarten.
The institutions maintained by the Depart
ment of Education are called government insti
tutions, while those maintained at the local dis
trict or corporation expense are called public ot
communal schools. According to the official rec
ords there are 29,335 public and private schools
consisting of Primary, Blind, and Deaf and
Dumb, Normal, Higher Normal, Middle, Girls'
High, High, Universities, Girls' Universities,
Special, and Technical. Professors and teachers
number 118,104, allotted to 5,265,000 students
and pupils.
In the main, the Japanese government is ever
attentive to the affairs of education. The Japa-

LIFE OF JAPAN 173
nese have all necessary institutions founded upon
the most modern principles of education. The
students are very earnest, diligently devoting
themselves to literature, to arts, to sciences, and
to all other subjects of learning, aiming to cope
with students of any country.
As the foundation of primary education in
Japanese grade schools, lessons on devotion to
parents, obedience to elders and teachers and the
functions of His Japanese Majesty will continue
to be given an equal number of hours as are given
to the lessons on history, geography, and mathe
matics. Nor shall there be lack of instruction
as to one's duty toward the country and com
munity. The lessons on charity, kindness, and
self-sacrifice will be illustrated by the story of
Florence Nightingale, those on patience and per
severance by the life of Christopher Columbus,
those on self-help and industry are illustrated by
the story of Benjamin Franklin, on sympathy by
Abraham Lincoln's life, and on honesty by the
story of George Washington and the cherry tree.
Outside of the schools and the students who
devote themselves to study as we have above
enumerated, there are other institutions that are
worthy of notice in connection with the education
of Japan. They are the institutions wherein the
farmers, miners, and other common mass of
millions are receiving the benefit of instructions

174 LIFE OF JAPAN
in the application of the most modern science
and art to their daily labor. For instance:
There are thirty-eight agricultural experiment
stations in Japan. They are impressing the
common farmers with the importance of scientific
knowledge of farming, the three essential ingredi
ents of fertilizers, the selection of seeds and so
forth. In these stations are conducted scientific
researches into the theory of agriculture, agri
cultural chemistry, entomology, vegetable pathol
ogy, tobacco culture, horticulture, stock-breed
ing, etc. On the other hand the miners are indi
vidually brought in contact with the most ad
vanced mining engineers, geological surveyors,
etc. This is being done to encourage the devel
opment of mining industry along scientific
methods. A meteorological observatory was established
at Hokkaido as early as 1875, and to-day there
are 134 meteorological stations. The daily
weather map, the monthly weather review, the
monthly report, and the annual report are being
published and circulated at large and they are
reputed as the most trustworthy of their kind in
the world. At the Central Meteorological Obser
vatory the observers are taught and trained in
meteorology, seismology, physics, the use of
instruments and methods, etc. Japan indeed has
struggled in the discovery and application of the

LIFE OF JAPAN 175
theory and practice of the sciences, and her peo
ple having contributed greatly to the dynamics
and physics of earth's intellectual atmosphere
and to the allied sciences in general, she stands
to-day pre-eminent in the scientific civilization of
the world.

PART III

CHAPTER XVH
JAPAN'S ROMANTIC RELATION TO THE
UNITED STATES
We are coming to perhaps the most interesting
part of the discussion on the " Life of Japan,"
and it will reveal how far and how much the
American people — nationally and individually —
participated in and are credited with the dra
matic progress of Japan during the last half
century. The fifteenth President of the United States,
Millard Fillmore, in his annual message to Con
gress, dated April 6, 1852, said:
" Our settlements on the shores of the Pacific have al
ready given great, extensive, and in some respects a new
direction to our commerce in that ocean. A direct and
rapidly increasing intercourse has sprung up with Eastern
Asia. The waters of the northern Pacific, even into the
Arctic seas, have of late years been frequented by our
whalemen. The application of steam to the general pur
poses of navigation is becoming daily more common and
makes it desirable to obtain fuel and other necessary sup
plies at convenient points on the route between Asia and
our Pacific shore. Our imfortunate countrymen who from
time to time suffer from shipwreck along the shores of
the Eastern seas are entitled to protection. Besides these
specific objects, the general prosperity of our States on
179

180 LIFE OF JAPAN
the Pacific requires that the attempt be made to open the
opposite regions of Asia to a mutually beneficial inter
course. It is obvious that this attempt could be made by
no power to so great an advantage as by the United
States, whose constitutional system excludes every idea
of distant colonial dependencies. I have accordingly been
led to order an appropriate naval force to Japan, under
the command of a discreet and intelligent officer of the
highest rank known to our service. He is instructed to
endeavor to obtain from the government of that country
some relaxation of the inhospitable and anti-social sys
tem which it has pursued for about two centuries."
In the month of March, 1852, Commodore
M. C. Perry was appointed to command the expe
dition to Japan, and in the following November,
aboard his flagship, Japan's political redeemer
signaled " Weigh anchor " and proceeded on that
historical voyage. He was accompanied by as
many vessels as the importance and safety of the
expedition demanded, and was invested with " full
power to negotiate and sign a treaty of amity
and commerce between the United States and
Japan." He carried with him " a copy of the
general instructions," which were to be considered
" in full force and applicable to his command."
He bore with him from the President of the
United States to the Emperor of Japan a sealed
letter of great importance, of which the immortal
Daniel Webster was the composer, and, Webster
dying soon after, it was countersigned by his
successor, Edward Everett. It is as follows:

LIFE OF JAPAN 181
"Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of
America, to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan.
Great and Good friend: I send you this public letter by
Commodore Matthew C. Ferry an officer of the highest
rank in the navy of the United States, and commander
sibly disturb the tranquillity of your Imperial Majesty's
domain. " I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your Im
perial Majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings to
ward your Majesty's person and government, and that I
have no other object in sending him to Japan but to
propose to your Imperial Majesty that the United States
and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial
intercourse with each othet.
" The constitution and laws of the United States for
bid all interference with the religious and political con
cerns of other nations. I have particularly charged Com
modore Perry to abstain from every act which could pos
sibly disturb the tranquility of your Imperial Majesty's
dominions. " The United States of America reach from ocean to
ocean, and our territory of Oregon and State of California
lie directly opposite to the dominion of your Imperial
Majesty. Our steamships can go from California to Japan
in eighteen days. Our great State of California pro
duces about sixty million of dollars in gold every year,
besides silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and 'many other
valuable articles. Your Imperial Majesty's subjects are
skilled in many of the arts. I am desirous that our two
countries should trade with each other for the benefit of
both Japan and the United States.
"We know that the ancient laws of your Imperial
Majesty's government do not allow of foreign trade, ex
cept with the Chinese and the Dutch; but as the state
of the world changes and new governments are formed,
it seems to be wise from time to time to make new laws.
There was a time when the ancient laws of your Imperial
Majesty's government were first made.
"About the same time America, which was sometimes

182 LIFE OF JAPAN
called the New World, was first discovered and settled
by Europeans. For a long time there were but few
people, and they were poor; they have now become quite
numerous; their commerce became very extensive; and
they think that if your Imperial Majesty were inclined to
so change the ancient laws as to allow a free trade be
tween the two countries, it would be extremely beneficial
to both,
" If your Imperial Majesty is not satisfied that it
would be safe altogether to abrogate the ancient laws
which forbid foreign trade, they might be suspended for
five or ten years, so as to try the experiment. If it does
not prove as beneficial as was hoped the ancient laws can
be restored. The United States often limit laws, then
renew them or not, as they please.
" I have directed Commodore Perry to mention another
thing to your Imperial Majesty. Many of our ships pass
every year from California to China; and great numbers
of our people pursue the whale fishery industry near the
shores of Japan. It sometimes happens, in stormy
weather, that one of our ships is wrecked on your Im
perial Majesty's shores. In all such cases we ask and
expect that our unfortunate people be treated with kind*
ness and that their property should be protected till we
can send a vessel and bring them away. We are very
much in earnest in this.
" Commodore Perry is also directed by me to repre
sent to your Imperial Majesty that we understand there
is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Em
pire of Japan. Our steamships in crossing the great
ocean, burn 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 provisions and
water. They will pay in money or anything else your
Imperial Majesty's subjects may prefer; and we request
your Imperial Majesty to appoint a convenient port iD
the southern part of the Empire, where our vessels may
stop for this purpose. We are very desirous of this.

LIFE OF JAPAN 183
" These are the only objects for which I have sent
Commodore Perry with a powerful squadron to pay a visit
to your Imperial Majesty's renowned city of Yedo;
friendship, commerce and supply of coal and provisions
and protection for our shipwrecked people.
" We have directed Commodore Ferry to beg your Im
perial Majesty's acceptance of a few presents. They are
of no great value in themselves; but some of them may
serve as specimens of the articles manufactured in the
United States and they are intended as tokens of our
sincere and respectful friendship.
" May the Almighty have your Imperial Majesty in
His great and holy keeping!
" In witness whereof, I have caused the great seal of
the United States to be hereunto affixed, and have sub
scribed the same with my name at the City of Wash
ington, in America, the seat of my government on the
thirteenth day of the month of November, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
" (Seal attached.) Your good friend,
MlLLABD FlLMORE."
"By the President,
Edward Everett,
" Secretary of State."
The great Commodore carried with him useful
implements and inventions as presents from the
United States to the Emperor of Japan, includ
ing a small but complete railway and equipment,
a telegraphing outfit, etc. Perry was under
instructions to approach the Emperor in the
most friendly manner, and to use no violence un
less attacked. He delivered his letter and cre
dentials to the Shogun government after about
ten days' delay, and then set sail on a voyage

184 LIFE OF JAPAN
among the East Indies, promising to return the
following spring, and in the meantime he surveyed
the Loo Choo islands. This portentous expedi
tion of M. C. Perry was soon destined to make
Japan a world-power.
In Febmary, 1854, Perry returned to the Bay
of Yedo, and the first treaty between the United
States and Japan was negotiated, which secured
for the United States limited commercial privi
leges — coal supplies and hospitality to Ameri
cans. But, due to a misunderstanding as to resi
dential rights, a readjustment was made in 1860
under the administration of President Buchanan.
This "wanton" intercourse with " barbarians "
met with great opposition in Japan and civil war
ensued. Good resulted even from this internecine
mix-up, for a rapid change now marked public
opinion in Japan, resulting ultimately in cordial
social and close commercial relations between the
United States and Japan, with results wonder
fully beneficial to both countries.
Matthew Calbraith Perry, brother of the re
nowned Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and son
of Christopher Raymond Perry, a distinguished
naval officer, was born at South Kensington,
R. I., on the 10th of April, 1795, and died in
New York March 4, 1858. In his early youth
he evinced promising signs of the eminent sea
manlike ability that afterward signalized his

LIFE OF JAPAN 185
great career. At the age of fourteen he was a
cadet in the United States navy, and served under
Commodores Rogers and Decatur. Early in life
he distinguished himself by founding a colony in
Liberia, as commander of the African squadron,
and in capturing pirates along the west coast of
India. Later we find him in the president's chair
of the School of Gun Practice. As commodore
of the Gulf of Mexico squadron he did telling serv
ice at the famous battle of Vera Cruz. He had
been entrusted with sundry commands, and numer
ous valuable services are gratefully recorded to
his credit in the annals of his nation. And now,
to a commander of such ability, was naturally
entrusted the momentous expedition to Japan.
A man of sterling character; powerful, though
mild and gentle ; great in administrative and
executive capacity ; a heroic warrior, a diplomat
and a statesman ; the right man in the right
place — such was Perry.
A special despatch dated July 3, 1853, was
sent by the officials of Uraga to the Shogunate
government, at Yedo, stating that " Black ships
of evil sects " had appeared on the horizon.
The news spread like wildfire through the city
and soon everything far and near was topsy
turvy. Frenzied excitement swayed the popu
lace, and vehement anger was manifested and
imprecations showered on the heads of the barba-

186 LIFE OF JAPAN
rian intmders. Soon mothers with their children
in their arms and tied to their backs were flying
aimlessly in every direction. Exaggerated re
ports and fancies swallowed the very souls of the
horror-stricken people. Soon was heard the
clipperty-clip of the warhorse, and the clatter of
armed warriors ; the rattlety-bang of carts, artil
lery and all sorts of rolling stock; the parade of
firemen ; the incessant tolling of bells and thump
ing of gongs, mingled with the shrieks of women,
screaming of children, and barking of dogs, while
the very denizens of the wilds re-echoed the noise.
Promptly the Shogun government sent a letter
to the Uraga officials with instructions to deliver
it to the black ships. The communication was
to the effect that, " the habit of the Japanese
whenever foreigners ask to trade with us is to
positively refuse. We make no distinctions be
tween different foreign nations. We treat them
all alike. We are aware that our customs are
different from those of other nations, but every
nation has a right to manage its own affairs in
its own way. In conclusion we beg to say that
the Emperor positively objects to your entering
the Holy Bay. He advises you to consult your
own safety by departing from our shores and not
to again appear on our coast." In the mean
time hurried despatches were sent to the various
Daimios or feudal barons, commanding them to

LIFE OF JAPAN 187
summon their warriors to arms, to reinforce the
ports, to provide necessary money and munitions
of war, and to call on the priests to obtain the
favor of the gods. This for some days was the
state of affairs at the city of Yedo, the seat of
the Shogun government.
But this tremendous state of confusion soon
became worse confounded, for despite all remon
strances to the contrary, the far-seeing and in
trepid Perry coolly entered the sacred harbor to
the accompaniment of the most soul-stirring
music from the bands of his fleet and the melodi
ous throats of his hardy seamen. On the after
noon of the 8th of July, 1853, the United States
squadron anchored off Uraga, in the Bay of
Yedo. The signal guns were promptly fired,
followed by the discharge of rockets. These
were signals of good will and peaceful purport.
On shore there was no sign of peace or good
will, for the warriors were ready to maintain their
country free from all foreign intrusion, until their
ears were struck by the wonderful music that
again broke forth from the fleet. This time it
was purely vocal, unaccompanied by drum or
bugle. It was a music so sublimely melodious, so
heavenly that for a time it dispelled the bloody
passions of the army and populace on shore,
smoothed their fiery hearts and assuaged their
thirst for the blood of the barbarian intruders.

188 LIFE OF JAPAN
Yet the majority of the inhabitants on shore had
no faith in the Christians, and the time seemed
yet some distance off for the complete fulfillment
of the fear-dispelling hymn that was then so
sweetly breathed from the fleet:
" Before Jehovah's awful throne
Ye nations bow with sacred joy."
Yet let it be perpetuated in the memory of
generations to come and to the credit of the
Spirit that inspired them, that these words of the
hymn then sung breathed forth God's sacred
providence and wrought miracles in the history
of the two nations. The officials of Uraga de
livered to Commodore Perry a second message
from the Shogunate, this time asking that the
squadron leave the forbidden bay. This had no
immediate effect, neither did the message of the
governor of Uraga avail, requesting that the
squadron move to the port of Nagasaki, whereat,
if any successful conference could be had, it could
as well be effected, and stating that the continu
ance of the fleet in the sacred harbor was endan
gering mutual safety. The squadron remained
securely anchored to the very foundations of Dai
Nippon, and the dauntless Perry calmly dis
played the plenipotentiary authority vested in
him as ambassador of the President of the United
States, and insisted upon handing to the Em-

LIFE OF JAPAN 189
peror the important brief, for this was the specific
function of his present commission. The Sho
gunate were now at their wit's end, and marshal
ing all their ingenuity, a conference was con
voked at Kurihama, and on July 14, 1853,
Perry's preliminary commission was transacted,
not by the clang of steel, the roar of musketry,
and the groans of the dying, as was expected by
the Japanese, but quietly and peaceably, amid
the sublime music of the American bands. Thus
the President of the United States and the Em
peror of Japan became first introduced. Great
have been the consequences. His mission accom
plished, the mysterious commander and his ob
noxious fleet now left the forbidden bay, with the
promise that he would return the ensuing spring
for the answer, leaving behind him a panic-
stricken people and a much dumbfounded govern
ment. Thus ended the preliminaries of Perry's
memorable expedition.
Right here let us say that all the stupendous
advancement, the intellectual, commercial and na
tional progress of Japan is the sequel of this
memorable expedition. To-day the name of Mat
thew Calbraith Perry is emblazoned in imperish
able marble at Kurihama, where he landed, in
token of Japan's gratitude.
The 14th of July, 1901, is noted in the history
of Japanese-American relations, for on that day

190 LIFE OF JAPAN
Perry's monument was unveiled. With tears of
pride and gratitude, the millions of people scat
tered over the 137,081 square miles of earth
quake-rocked Japan celebrated, with grateful
recollections, the incalculable good done Japan
by the United States. The American squadron
and American diplomats participated in this
memorable day at Kurihama, and accepted the
exaltation of the illustrious Perry as Japan's
national redeemer. On this side of the ocean,
too, your great citizens voiced their sentiment
and hailed the day in the same spirit with which
forty-eight million patriotic people, partaking of
their morning feast and donning their best, did
honor to the revered American whose propitious
visit to Japan's shores was to be perpetuated in
a fitting statue. Among letters addressed to the
author at that time by great Americans, he has
a few here to produce, of which the personality
and characteristic American sincerity will suffice
for historical purposes:
"Masuji Miyakawa, Esq., Dear Sir: I beg to express
my great gratification at the progress made by Japan.
The manner in which she has developed since the adop
tion of Western ideas shows the beneficent influence of a
good example.
" I trust that the relations now existing between the
United States and Japan may continue harmonious, and
that the two nations may vie with each other in friendly
and honorable rivalry. Very truly yours, Wm. iJ. Bryan."

LIFE OF JAPAN 191
"Mr. Masuji Miyakawa, Dear Sir: Permit me to ex
press the pleasure I have in hearing of the celebration
of Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan, which opened
that interesting country to the influences of Western
civilization and which no doubt has resulted in the up
building of the Japanese Empire to-day, making its posi
tion honorable and respectable in the eyes of the world.
Yours respectfully,
James D. Phelan,
Mayor of San Francisco."
Were it possible for this great heralder of
countless blessings to Japan to awake and com
pare the miserable islands of yore with the Japan
of to-day and stand where he once stood, at the
foot of his monument and view the fruits of his
diplomacy, he would doubtless exclaim, "Well!
My earnest, unselfish efforts have produced a
thousand- fold! " One of the results presaged by
Perry's commission to Japan was manifested not
long ago, when this comparatively small group
of isolated islands of forty millions of souls
humiliated and subdued a veritable continent of
four hundred millions of people, in the short
space of ten months, in spite of the colossal
genius of the haughtiest and most skilled of
modern leaders — Li Hung Chang. Those Euro
peans who then prophesied Japan's defeat were
fully prepared to admire, if not even to fear, her
prowess during the recent victorious march of
the allies to Tientsin and then to Pekin. And

192 LIFE OF JAPAN
more recently, in the war with Russia, as the
champion of the rights of nations, she paralyzed
the Russian navy and army, and secured the com
mand of the Eastern lands and seas.
Father Perry! The phenomenal, almost in
spired course pursued by you in our sacred Bay
of Yedo, a half century ago, has rendered the
bay and soil you touched much more sacred by
your miraculous visit. May your sacred dust
rest in peace, with that of your fathers, and may
your soul be with God; but your name shall re
main emblazoned in imperishable marble in Ja
pan. Whatever were the motives that prompted
your timely voyage to the shores of Japan, the
Japanese people care not, but the salutary effect
shall live in grateful and loving memory while
God spares Dai Nippon.
The desire of the Japanese people to show their
appreciation of Commodore Perry by erecting a
monument to his memory to commemorate his en
trance into Japan in the year 1853, was expressed
through the medium of the Japanese-American-
Friend Society ; therefore success is largely due to
President Viscount Kentaro Kaneko and members
of the Society. The Japanese characters were
inscribed on the monument by Prince Ito, and read
as follows :
" Monument commemorating the landing of Commo
dore Perry of the United States Navy.
" By Marquis Hakubumi Ito, the Grand Order of
Merit."

CHAPTER XVHI
TRIUMPHS OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY
On July 523, 1832, Mr. Edward Roberts was
commissioned by President Andrew Jackson to
obtain certain scheduled information concerning
Japan — its laws, customs, internal revenue, con
stitution, etc. Again, in 1845, Mr. Alexander
Everett was similarly commissioned by the
United States government to ascertain by
thorough investigation the details of the appar
ently complicated system of government in vogue
in Japan. The sundry reports thus obtained
were compiled among similar records in Washing
ton, as initial steps towards ultimate reciprocal
relations between the two governments, Japan
and the United States. From these records
President Fillmore was able to judge of the vari
ous equities, natural or acquired, respectively
inherent in the Emperor, the Shogunate, and in
the Japanese people, severally and combined, and
of the wishes of the majority.
Therefore, the important brief committed
to Commodore M. C. Perry by President
Fillmore and delivered to the officials at
193 .

194 LIFE OF JAPAN
Kurihama on the 14th of July, 1853, was
the result of thorough investigation and
mature judgment, and President Fillmore's in
structions to deliver the letter to the Emperor
instead of to the then existing goverenment, mani
fested the most astute diplomatic sagacity, and
was an effective pebble in causing the terrific
eruption of a mighty geyser. He judiciously
insisted that the response should be from imperial
authority, as being the only treaty-making power
of the realm, all international negotiations with
the Shogun government and the governed being
shrewdly eschewed for the express purpose of
avoiding future diplomatic complications, inas
much as the Shogun government was virtually
inimical to the imperial rule. The fact that the
Shogunate exercised absolute authority, and, on
previous occasions, treaty powers, as in the case
of the Portuguese and Dutch in the sixteenth cen
tury, did not influence President Fillmore to
treat with it and ignore the Emperor. On the
contrary, he expressly demanded that all treaty
stipulations should be negotiated with the Em
peror and his cabinet. It was manifest to the
United States authorities, from a knowledge of
the past history of Japan, that the Shogun gov
ernment was too uncertain in its stability and too
capricious in its diplomacy to make wise any
attempt to ratify a permanent compact with it

LIFE OF JAPAN 195
and therefore negotiations were sought with the
Emperor and his Ministers. It was further evi
dent to the United States authorities that an
absolute contempt of the Shogun government
would be tantamount to assuming the responsi
bility of a protectorate over the defenseless impe
rial authority and would evidently incur the
antagonism of the Shogunate. Therefore, the
first treaty was transacted with the commissioners
of the Shogun government by the sanction of the
Emperor. This first treaty was concluded at Kanagawa
on March 31, 1854, during Commodore Perry's
second visit. In August, 1856, Mr. Townsend
Harris was sent as minister to Japan. He took
up his residence at Shimoda, but later on, con
trary to the custom of centuries, the United
States Minister was permitted to reside at Yedo.
Mr. Harris had spent his whole life in intercourse
with the Orientals. He was familiar with their
commerce, their whims, their race tendencies,
their emulations, their pride, and their traditions.
He fully anticipated that the slightest hitch
might result any moment in a tremendous burst
of pent-up energies, and he shaped his policy to
hold back as long as possible the ultimate inevi
table. His administration, therefore, was peace
fully politic and prudently conservative. Pre
eminently was Mr. Townsend Harris the right

196 LIFE OF JAPAN
man in the right place. He frequently assuaged
the retaliatory ire of his great nation, that on
several occasions would have demanded reprisals
if it had not been for his marvellous conciliatory
sagacity. His wise adjustment of most intricate
issues during this hazardous period was an excel
lent object lesson in international law, and incul
cated in the minds of Japan's future political
leaders the genuine value of prudent diplomacy.
Certain flaws were found in the treaty of 1854,
wliich Mr. Harris promptly adjusted, resulting
in the revised treaty of July 27, 1858, and which
was proclaimed at Washington on May 22,
1860. On the 15th of January, 1860, Mr. Heusken,
Secretary of the United States Legation, was
waylaid and assassinated in the streets of Yedo,
now Tokyo. Had it not been for the great diplo
matic sagacity of Minister Harris, this extraor
dinary event might have been the cause of far
greater complications. The Minister not only
prevented a misunderstanding on the part of the
American people, but also persuaded his supe
riors in Washington that the unpleasant responsi
bility lay on his own shoulders, and finally
shielded Japan from blame. The following de
spatch sent by Secretary Seward indicates the
character of Mr. Harris as well as the outcome
of the event.

LIFE OF JAPAN 197
" The Japanese government has made no satis
factory explanation of this great violation of the
rights of the United States, and on the other
hand, has virtually confessed its inability to
bring the offenders to punishment.
" It was argued by me in the aforesaid notes
that the Japanese government would infer that
we are unwilling or unable to vindicate our
rights, if, leaving that transaction unpunished
and unexplained, we should frustrate the effect
of the treaty stipulation for the opening of the
City of Yedo."
The tone of the government at Washington
was changed, however, by the arguments of Min
ister Harris. The following was sent to him from
Washington :
" Your despatch has been received. The
President has, therefore, concluded to confer
upon you the discretion solicited by you. * * *
We leave the form and mode of that satisfaction
to your own discretion."
Again a month later:
" It affords the President sincere pleasure to
know that the government of the Tycoon has
exerted so much diligence to bring the assassins
of Mr. Heusken to punishment, and that you are
satisfied that those exertions have been made with
good faith. It is expected that the government
will not abate its efforts until the end so impor-

198 LIFE OF JAPAN
tant to a good understanding between the two
countries shall have been attained.
" The punishment of the delinquent Yakonines,
who were in attendance on the deceased when the
crime was committed, is regarded by this govern
ment with high approbation."
Again on the 24th of May, 1863, the Ameri
can Legation at Yedo was set on fire, and at the
same time, American merchants and ministers
were either assaulted or threatened. This dis
turbed condition was maintained until the foreign
legations were removed to Yokohama. Again,
Mr. Harris' great pacific conservatism, patient
gooid-heartedness, and statesmanly skill, averted
a crisis, and manifested to the people of Japan
the unselfish philanthropy and conscientious
fidelity of the American people. He convinced
the Japanese that this government aimed solely
at peace, friendship and commercial intercourse
with Japan, and that it had no oolonial or domi
nating motives. Mr. Harris explained to his
government that the whole trouble in Japan was
due to the revolutionary tendency of an anti-
foreign faction of semi-barbarians, and that it
was the desire of all intelligent, progressive Jap
anese, from the Emperor down, to break the
fetters of fossil conditions and rise to the highest
plane of civilization possible, and to continue in
the very van of the nations. Mr. Harris, there-

LIFE OF JAPAN 199
fore, asked the influence of his government to' aid
the well-disposed in suppressing the turbulent
element and in sundering the cordon that resisted
the nation's progress.
Despite Mr. Harris' great diplomatic efforts
during his benign administration, the condition
of the factions in Japan at the time of his resig
nation was such that in the despatch sent by the
Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, to Mr. Robert
H. Prugn, who succeeded Mr. Harris, we read
the following rather discouraging suggestion : " I
fear you will find embarrassment in your mission,
which will make you regret its honors and under
value its power." The dispatch goes on to say
that: " Japan is a semi-enlightened and isolated
country, only recently induced into treaty rela
tions with the United States. A favorable impres
sion towards the United States has been evinced
by the government of Japan, granting special
treaty stipulations in favor of our government,
as compared with other nations. The sentiment
of the Japanese in our favor is mainly due to the
great patience and political sagacity of Commo
dore Perry and your predecessor, Mr. Harris.
But it is notorious that the people of Japan, and
especially its existing government, have not yet
reconciled themselves to a complete commercial
revolution and to national emancipation from an
obsolete traditional prestige, as is essentially

200 LIFE OF JAPAN
incidental to our treaty stipulations with them.
Old customs have remained unchanged for many
centuries and there remains a superstitious sa-
credness respecting their perpetuity, a mistrust of
enlightenment and a suspicion of the motives of
foreigners. Hitherto, as we have good reason
to believe, the Japanese people and government
have been kindlier disposed towards us than to
wards the European nations with whom they have
similar commercial intercourse under similar con
ditions." By the wishes of the American people, the
United States remitted its share in the $3,000,-
000 indemnity for the Shimonoseki affair, men
tioned elsewhere. This share of $750,000 was to
be devoted to education in Japan. From the
Act of Congress remitting this share we glean
this motive : " It is believed that such a policy
will result in the establishment of more intimate
relations with the government of Japan, will
ultimately prove of great importance in further
ing the commerce of the two nations, and will
accelerate the progress of civilization." The
government of Japan accepted this beneficent
donation of $750,000 for the purpose specified in
the bequest.
Judge John A. Bingham, a native of the same
State that gave to the United States the late
President McKinley, and for thirteen years Min-

LIFE OF JAPAN 201
ister to Japan, did much toi advance the intel
lectual and national progress of that country.
Of him, President Grant justly said: "Judge
Bingham has taught the people of Japan that
they are a nation, and has taught the nations of
the earth to respect them as such." Had it not
been for Mr. Bingham's determined shrewdness,
Russia and other nations of the world would have
taken advantage of Japan's paralyzing vicissi
tudes to coerce her into damaging relations. As
soon as Japan issued her customs regulations she
at once exposed herself as a prey to avaricious
nations. The United States, with Japan's ap
proval, morally obliged the other interested coun
tries to follow the system of philanthropic civili
zation pursued by the United States. The Jap
anese then began to look upon America as Ja
pan's moral ally, regardless of the race or color
of the American people, and they appreciated
deep in their hearts that America and humani-
tarianism were synonymous terms.
Before entering into a descriptive narrative of
the triumphs of American diplomacy when Japan
engaged in a life and death struggle with Russia,
while in the meantime the interest of the civilized
world was perhaps unprecedently centered in the
international drama, it may be not only inter
esting to give a brief account of the causes and
effects of the wars Japan had with China and

202 LIFE OF JAPAN
Russia, but it will also serve the historical pur
pose of the present work.
It goes without saying that the geography of
Korea places her strategically in a position
where it might be possible to strangle Japan at
will. If Korea were as stable and progressive
as Japan, it would be but natural that there
should be either alliance or annexation of the two
countries. It is providential. This natural and
economic reason, as far back as the 3d century
A. D., necessitated the sending by Japan of an
expedition to Korea under the famous heroine,
Empress Jingo. The same reasons impelled the
sending of the expedition of Hideyoshi during
the 16th century. A large part of Japan's
medieval history tells of the continual homage
that was paid to her by Korea and of Japan's
suzerainty over Korea. With the isolation
policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate, temporary
severance of political ties between Japan and
Korea became the inevitable sequence. But the
reawakening of Japan once more brought forth
the consciousness of her common predestined
political destiny with Korea. Therefore, in the
year of 1876 the Japanese forced open the com
mercial door of Korea, which was so closely shut
agamst the rest of the world as to cause her to
be appropriately named by the commercial na
tions the "Hermit Kingdom." The method

LIFE OF JAPAN 203
Japan employed in opening Korea was somewhat
analogous to that of Commodore Perry in deal
ing with Japan herself. The Japanese fleet
sailed up within sight of Seoul, the capital, and
by a display of men-of-war and guns forced the
government to sign a treaty opening the country
to trade through the port of Fusan, and four
years afterwards through the port of Che
mulpo. Unfortunately for Korea and Japan, no less
so for China, the Korean kingdom was always
unstable in the organization of its government,
and very unreliable in the observance of a treaty
compact. Its international agreement of yester
day was unconsciously and openly disregarded,
and is a useless paper of to-day. Moreover,
Korea lacked in moral principle, in that, for in
stance, while she professed the sincerest friend
ship for a nation, yet she proved a decided enemy
to and was industriously intriguing against that
nation, the while professing the warmest friend
ship. In the meantime, European powers were
slowly but surely working out the scheme actually
to be ended in the partition of China. And de
fenceless China, conscious or not conscious of
these designs, yet ambitious, was attempting to
acquire sovereignty over defenceless Korea.
China, and more especially Korea, being defence
less and helpless to cope with foreign aggression,

204 LIFE OF JAPAN,
Japan must take measures, not only to save her
self from being weakened by the weakening con
dition of Korea and China, but also must take
decided means to put an end to the continued dis.-
orderly condition of her neighbors, and, if pos
sible, to develop the Asiatic countries for the
world, open the door of commerce for any nation
— European or American — no less than for
Japan herself, and to enter and realize the fruits
of her own industry, merit and civilization.
In 1885 the famous treaty of Tientsin was
entered into between China and Japan. It pro
vided that in case insurrection or internal dis
order arose within Korea and became serious to
the extent of demanding military help from with
out in order to restore peace and tranquility,
China and Japan should be mutually consulted
beforehand as to the amount of such help, and
both nations were to take common action. If
this contract had been observed to the letter, the
history of Asia might have been different. But,
for reasons known to China alone, when the insur
rection of the Tong Haks reached the stage
where it was necessary for outside interference in
Korea, the Chinese government, without warning
or consultation with Japan, and openly disre
garding the Tientsin treaty, not only equipped
her military forces, but actually established her
military supremacy in Seoul. Thus challenged

LIFE OF JAPAN 205
by China, what could Japan do but meet the
situation as it demanded?
On July 25, 1894, three Japanese men-of-
war, cruising in the Yellow Sea, sighted two
ships of the Chinese navy convoying a transport
which had on board about twelve hundred troops
to reinforce the Chinese regiments at Asan.
Naniwa, the Japanese flagship, now approached
the transport, a chartered British vessel named
the Kowshing and flying the British flag, and
made examination of her papers. The captain
of the Japanese warship ordered the Kowshing to
follow her. The Chinese generals and British
officers, not accustomed to instantaneously obey
the commands of Japanese, hesitated. The Jap
anese officer, seeing the hesitation, gave a second
command. This time it was " Fire " ! And
before half an hour elapsed the Kowshing
went to the bottom, carrying down with her over
one thousand souls. This was practically a
declaration of war. It was followed by naval
battles in the Eastern waters, where some of the
most astounding events in the records of the
navies of the world took place; for ironclad
battleships of the present day for the first time in
history were put to the proof, and the naval
inventions made in Europe and America had
their first trial in the conflicts between the Chinese
and the Japanese. The latter proved before all

206 LIFE OF JAPAN
maritime nations their ability to handle these
powerful engines of war — and this, too, when
only a half-century previous their people were
hardly beyond the bow and arrow stage of war
fare. While naval battles were practically
brought to an end by the final destruction or cap
ture of all the Chinese war vessels in the Japa
nese attacks on the Port of Wei-hai-wei, the
Japanese land forces commenced their operations
before Seoul, Asan, Chao Yung, then passing
the boundary of Korea into China (here the
author had the honor and pleasure of joining
the imperial army in the capacity of an official
interpreter) on to Chin-Chio, Port Arthur, Tai
Ping San, Neu Chang, and, lastly and decisively,
to finish at Tenshiodai. The warring nations
commenced hostilities on July 25, 1894; they
continued until the Chinese sued for peace on
April 17, 1895. This war was as great a war
as the late war with Russia, if not more disas
trous to Japan. China, with 400,000,000 popu
lation, her land forces, with many European
volunteers in her army, with almost every ship
manned with European gunners and officers, with
determination to win, and also having at her back
the sympathy and assistance of Russia, Ger
many and France, together with the world's en
couraging prophecy that China's superior war
materials would bring her victory, vigorously

LIFE OF JAPAN 207
prosecuted her war against Japan, who had no
single European or American soul helping her
either in her army or in her navy, or in her
finances. The outcome of the war is well known
— Japan lost not a single campaign on land or
on sea.
By the treaty of peace signed at Shimonoseki,
China ceded the islands of Formosa, besides pay
ing an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels, and
agreed to the occupation of Port Arthur and
Lio Tung Peninsula, and the independence of
Korea, which was to be virtually under Japanese
protection. But the signal victory of Japan over
China gave no less trouble to the other nations
than before the war. The cowardice of the world
certainly caused poor Japan to keep busy for her
own self-defence! The European powers became
alarmed and fearful that Japan, so powerful a
nation and neighbor of China and Korea, might
eventually frustrate the deep-rooted scheme so
ingeniously devised, namely, the partition of
China, the oldest and most populous of nations,
but then practically moribund. France and Ger
many, by the request of Russia, who was impelled
by a so-called " labor of love " to maintain the
integrity of the Eastern nations, joined her in a
united protest against Japan, and demanded the
evacuation of Port Arthur and the Lio Tung
Peninsula, which Japan, by the Shimonoseki

208 LIFE OF JAPAN
treaty, was rightly entitled to own. But, con
fronted by these overwhelming odds, Japan was
forced to forfeit these rights, and was humiliated,
before the ink was scarcely dry on the notice to
the Chinese government of the Japanese evacua
tion, by seeing Russia secretly take possession of
Port Arthur from China, which fact, by treaty of
March 23, 1898, was made public. Herein lie
some of the important elements that slowly but
surely evolved the later war — a war with perhaps
the greatest bloodshed ever recorded in the his
tory of the world.
To freely open the vast continent of Asia to
the commerce of the world; to enter into honor
able rivalry with all the nations of the world,
and to vie freely and honorably in the develop
ment and the exploitation of the great territor
ies of China, briefly stated, these were the na
tional policies of Japan before the commence
ment of the war with Russia.
Russia as a great power had perennially
sought an adequate ocean outlet for her com
merce in Europe, but had been, however, re
peatedly thwarted by her neighbors. Finally she
directed her energies toward the completion of a
marvelous five-thousand-mile march across north
ern Asia to the Pacific, the construction of the
Trans-Siberian Railway from St. Petersburg to
Vladivostock. However, it must be remembered

LIFE OF JAPAN' 209
that the terminal of her trans^Asian march has
always been, and must be of necessity, other than
Vladivostock, for the latter was known to her
as ice-bound before she acquired the port. As to
Russia's ulterior purposes, strategical geography
unreservedly reveals them. The cardinal object
was to acquire either Port Arthur, Dalny, or
Korean ports, for without such ports the Rus
sian-Asian-march and her presence in the East
would have been a splendid failure. Her " labor
of love" in the maintenance of Chinese terri
torial integrity, and her drastic measures taken
against Japan, resulting in Japan's evacuation of
Port Arthur and the Lio Tung Peninsula, which
China in her national right had transferred to
Japan in the Shimonoseki treaty, are self-evident.
The fixed aim of Russia in China and Korea
necessarily included the question of how to safe
guard them even after she was successful in ac
quiring them. The answer is plain — that she
must, first, fortify the ports; second, Russianize,
or, rather, absorb the surrounding countries into
the Russian Empire, and, to insure the perma
nency of her acquisition, she must necessarily ex
clude the interest or influence of all other nations
therein; third, she must clear the waterways be
tween the acquired ports and her land possessions
to bring about free navigation of her gunboats
and merchantmen; fourth, and lastly, she must

210 LIFE OF JAPAN
acquire and fortify the Korean Straits. The
well-fixed aim and purpose of Russia was proved
beyond doubt when Russia actually fortified
Port Arthur and Dalny in the best style of mod
ern engineering and military art and science,
when she had garrisoned the Chinese territories
with the fearful Cossacks, when she had estab
lished her ports of duty and custom, and when
she had excluded other nations from trading in
northern China, and when in the summer of 1903,
she invaded northern Korea.
In view of the circumstances Japan had only
one course to pursue. On August 20, 1903, a
note was sent to St. Petersburg requesting Rus
sia to sign an agreement with Japan to respect
the integrity of China in Manchuria, and also of
the Korean Empire, and to uphold in both the
principles of the open door to the trade of all
nations. However, throughout the negotiations
which followed, Russia refused to discuss her in
tentions in Manchuria, and also declined to agree
that she would not control Korea. After six
months of fruitless negotiations the civilized
world became convinced that there would be no
agreement. Right here let us produce from among the
American dailies what the author said in discuss
ing the situation before the audiences of the
American-Asiatic Society in this country, which

LIFE OF JAPAN 211
which may serve to show the spirit with which
Japan faced the crisis.
The author, discussing the " Eastern Ques
tion," said:
" Civilization, we have been told, rides on a gun car
riage. However, in the case of the Anglo-American, the
gun carriage is followed by the schoolhouse and the print
ing press. The history of the acquisition of India by
Great Britain is written in pages of blood, but, as a con
sequence the India of to-day is an India of liberty, whose
native press may say what it thinks, and whose people
may worship according to the dictates of their hearts.
"The United States wrote history in Japan and is
now writing history in the Philippines in the same way.
Its advance courier is the gun carriage, but behind the
guns march the American school teachers. Can the same
be said of Russia? In what manner can it profit Man
churia and Korea to be under the yoke of the Ciar? Can
he be expected to give aliens what he denies to his own
people? In what part of Russia can there be found a
free press, where civil and religious rights are vouch
safed, where the little red school house is in evidence,
and where freedom of thought and speech is guaranteed
to the public. ¦
" This is the civilization of the great white Czar which
was being forced upon the weaker nations — China and
Korea — owing to the cowardice of the powers of the
world. Was it in the least to be wondered at, after more
than a century's experience of Russian perfidy, duplicity
and malicious designs, not only against her neighbors but
against herself, that Japan at last resolved to settle her
own quarrel by the arbitrament of heaven and her own
sharp sword? "
On Febmary 6, 1904, Japan severed her

212 LIFE OF JAPAN
diplomatic relations by recalling Minister Ku-
rino from St. Petersburg. The Russian army,
on the following day, that is, Febmary 7, in
vaded Korea, which virtually served as the Rus
sian declaration of war against Japan. And on
the 9th, Admiral Togo attacked Stark's squad
ron at Port Arthur and gave the quick strokes
which disabled the Russian battleships Czare
vitch and Retizan, and the protected cruiser Pal-
lada. On the following day Admiral Ureu de
stroyed the Variag and Kovietz at Chemulpo,
Korea. And on this day, February 10, the Rus
sian Emperor formally issued a declaration of
war, which was followed by Japan on the next
day, viz., February 11, 1904. Thus the great
est pf the world's hostilities commenced.
The horrors of war continued until Komura and
Takahira, for Japan, and Witte and Rosen, for
Russia, met in the storeroom of the Kittery Navy
Yard at Portsmouth; until the Treaty of Peace
was engrossed in English and French and signed
by the respective Commissioners of Peace at 3:45
P. M., September 5, 1905, and until they ut
tered the words of courtesy: "We shake the
hand of an old friend, and now a new friend."
Japan, in her Peace Treaty with Russia, secured
all she wanted and all for which she fought.
The great instrument stipulated that, " His Maj
esty, the Emperor of Russia, recognizes the pre-

LIFE OF JAPAN 213
ponderant interest, from political, military, and
economic points of view, of Japan in the Empire
of Korea"; that Russia will not oppose any
measures for the government, protection or con
trol that Japan may deem necessary to take in
Korea ; that " the right possessed by Russia in
conformity with the lease of Port Arthur and
Dalny, together with the land and waters ad
jacent, shall pass over in their entirety to
Japan," and that, " the government of Russia
and Japan engage themselves reciprocally not to
put any obstacles to the government measures
(which shall be alike for all nations as the se
curity for the open door in Asia) that China
may take for the development of the commerce
and industry of Manchuria." And on Novem
ber 18, 1905, Japan assumed the pofitical control
of and suzerainty over Korea.
Ever since Japan assumed the political control
of Korea she has said and is now saying to the
Koreans as the Americans are saying to the Fili
pinos, that if they become capable of conducting
a civilized government she will give them their in
dependence. This is Japan's hope, and though
humanitarian, it is inimical to Japan's national
integrity. Among innumerable evidences was the
recent assassination of Prince Ito. This very
man, who was sacrificing his political prestige for
the realization of Japan's humanitarian hope, was

214 LIFE OF JAPAN
slain like a dog on October 26, 1909, at Harbin,
by the Koreans themselves. The best and the only
solution of the Korean problem for both the Ko
reans and the Japanese is immediate annexation,
giving the Korean Emperor the title of heredit
ary prince and gradually training the common
people in their rights and finally giving them their
full rights in the matter of local self government.
This may be objected to because of the fear in
certain quarters that if Japan should carry out
annexation, Europe and America might think it
done in vengeance for Prince Ito's assassination.
This is a misapprehension. Such a reason falls
to the ground by its very ridiculousness, as such a
course would tend to lower Japan's civilized con
science and consciousness in the estimation of the
world. Another fear and objection is that the
annexation might make the Koreans a first-class
power like the Japanese when in fact they aie in
capable of conducting themselves according to the
rank that would be given them. This too is a
misapprehension on the part of the Japanese, for
the American annexation of Hawaii and the law
ful acquisition of the Philippines did not make
the Filipinos and Hawaiian Kanakas at once a
first rate people in the estimation of the civilized
world. By the annexation of Korea, Japan would
relieve the political situation and change the in
dividual Koreans into living beings, fostering for

LIFE OF JAPAN 215
them the opportunities and advantages of Japa
nese civilization, all of which would tend to the
realization of Japan's humanitarian hope and to
the ultimate good of Korea. The author regrets
that this book could not wait until after the mak
ing of one nation out of the two ancient Empires
of Japan and Korea, but consoles himself only
with the fact that he has written enough to bear
out the historical climax. But on account of the
side discussion of the fate of the Korean nation
and of Prince Ito, we have been forgetting the re
lation of the Russo-Japanese war to the American
people. It is impossible to overlook the characteristic
attitude of the United States towards Japan dur
ing this war. The attestation of American sym
pathy towards Japan in the recent war has been
unprecedented in the international records of any
nation, not even of Great Britain, Japan's ally
in law.
From the beginning to the end of the war, one
and the same characteristic encouragement
poured in upon the hearts of the Japanese sol
diers, as if to assure them that if the Russians
ever conquered the Japanese, the Americans
would be the next ones they would have to dis
pose of. And foremost in this attitude, were
rich and poor, young and old, men and women.
Shortly after the declaration of war, on Febru-

216 LIFE OF JAPAN
ary 11, 1904, American women volunteered their
self-denying services to nurse the wounded Japa
nese soldiers. They were: Miss Minnie Cooke,
Miss Adelaide Mackereth, Miss Ella King, Miss
Elizabeth Kratz, and Miss Adele Neeb, of Penn
sylvania ; Miss Sophia Newell, of New York ; Miss
Genevieve Russell, of Minnesota; Miss Alice
Kemmer, of Indiana; with Mrs. Anita Newcomb
McGee, M. D., as their leader, a most intelligent,
accomplished and benevolent woman. These
women after the war were honored with war
medals by the emperor. Upon Mrs. Dr. McGee
was bestowed a medal of the sixth class, and upon
the rest medals of the seventh class. Among those
who were also recipients of the honor of this
seventh class Imperial order of the Crown were the
following war correspondents: Richmond Smith,
of the Associated Press; George Kennan, of the
Outlook; Oscar King Davis, and William Lewis,
of the New York Herald ; W. G. Morgan, of the
New York Tribune; Franklin Clarkin, of the
New York Evening Post; Stanley Washburn, of
the Chicago Daily News ; Grant Wallace, of the
San Francisco Evening Bulletin ; G. H. Schull,
of the Commercial Advertiser; Frederick Palmer
and J. H. Hare, of Collier's Weekly; Herbert
G. Ponting, of Harper's Weekly; Richard Hard
ing Davis, of Collier's Weekly; John Fox, of
Scribner's Magazine; James Ricalton, of the

LIFE OF JAPAN 217
Travel Magazine; Richard Barry, of the
Eastern Illustrated War News; J. M. Cockran,
of Leslie's Weekly ; W. H. Brill, of the Associated
Press and Reuter's Telegraph Agency ; and Jack
London, of the Hearst papers.
As the war progressed there was increased
American encouragement and favoritism for the
Japanese soldiers, wliich in a most cordial man
ner was attested by the Taft party. Irrespective
of the official protest of Russia, that great law
yer, statesman, and Secretary of War, William
H. Taft, and Miss Mabel T. Boardman, a repre
sentative of the National Red Cross, a highly
cultured, amiable and sympathetic woman of
great executive ability, and at thel same time
characteristically kind and gentle in manner, to
gether with a number of other great Americans,
in company with a daughter of the President of
the United States, Miss Alice Roosevelt, now
Mrs. Nicholas Longworth, of Ohio, paid a visit
to Japan.
In this connection we should not overlook an
official act done for Japan by the United States
as a neutral nation for a belligerent nation, which
we now reproduce in the language of the official
records. The Japanese government made the
following request of the American government,
through its minister at Washington:
"See the Secretary of State as soon as possible and

218 LIFE OF JAPAN
ask him whether the United States Government, if Rus
sia consents, will permit its embassy in St. Petersburg and
its consulates in various places in Russia, to assume charge
and protection of the Japanese subjects and interests in
Russia. " You will add that the Imperial government retains
lively appreciation of the friendly offices extended to
them by the United States during the Chinese-Japanese
war, and ventures to hope that nothing will prevent the
United States from acting for it in a similar capacity in
the present instance." — Komwra.
And to this governmental request the official
reply came only two days later:
"Mr. 'Japanese Minister': I learn from our ambas
sador at St. Petersburg that the Minister of Foreign
Affairs has informed him that the Emperor of Russia
sees no objection in the way of our representatives look
ing after your interests upon the withdrawal from Rus
sia of (all diplomatic and consular Representatives (of
Japan. The necessary instructions will be issued at once.
Very sincerely yours, John Hay."
We must not lose sight of the fact that the
United States achieved one of the signal victories
of modern diplomacy in the limitation of the
sphere of hostilities at the beginning of the gi
gantic war. Those European powers which were
not in the habit of acknowledging the American
" square deal " diplomatic policy had to applaud
this bold, wise, and astute diplomacy. Having
been tested by results, the United States stands
abreast of all in the esteem of all nations, as she

LIFE OF JAPAN 219
by that move not only lessened the hardships
which of necessity jeopardized China, but also
prevented China from being drawn into the war,
and the commercial interests of all nations, which
were already much complicated, from becoming
worse confounded.
Meantime, Kuroki's army safely passed the
Yalu, and the famous Port Arthur fell into the
hands of Nogi's army. A force of Japanese
troops landed on the Island of Sakalin, and prac
tically all the Russians were either killed or cap
tured. Lio Tung peninsula and Korea were de
clared to be Japanese territory by right of con
quest. Then came the greatest battles on land
and sea — the bloodiest ever fought in history —
the battles of Mukden and the Sea of Japan.
The battle of Mukden was the battle in which,
in the language of General Chaffee, " over one
million men on the Russian side and three-
quarters of a million men on the Japanese side
on a battlefield extending over eighty miles of
frontier, through trackless mountains, across
snow-covered plains, engaged in mortal combat
for eighteen days and nights — corpses, corpses,
and corpses! — only to be ended by the Russian
loss of over 200,000 prisoners, wounded and
killed." When on March 16th, the Japanese re
lentlessly pursued the Russians, surrounded and
captured them at Tiding, as a finishing stroke

220 LIFE OF JAPAN
to their victory at the battle of Mukden, and the
news of the disastrous defeat at Mukden reached
St. Petersburg, the temper of the Russian people
rose to a fever heat, slaughtered, discouraged,
disheartened, disappointed, and humiliated.
The battle of the Sea of Japan was the battle
when, on the 27th of May, the Czar's great ar
mada, the most formidable fleet ever gathered to
gether in the history of naval battles, steamed
into the Straits of Tsushima with the fixed aim
and determination to annihilate the navy of
Japan. But contrary to the expectations of the
Czar and the rest of the world, it was completely
wiped out, while the startled world stood aghast
at the immensity of the disaster to the Russian
empire; the loss of all their warships, valued
at over $100,000,000, which were either sunk or
captured, and 15,000 Russian seamen, officers, and
admirals killed or taken prisoners. The Japa
nese fleet came out with practically no damage.
Meantime, the newly raised foreign loan, and
the passing of the War Fund appropriation bill
by the Japanese House of Representatives — the
war to be fought upon the systematic trade ex
pansion policy — assured the immensity of the
national resources. International statisticians
already had before them the cold facts that the
expenditure of war and the indebtedness result
ing from the war amounted to very little to Japan

LIFE OF JAPAN 221
in the world's credit, and in an industrial sense
to the Japanese people. The bill which Japan
had to foot after victory upon victory was ap
proximately $900,000,000, which, apportioned
among 48,000,000 inhabitants, amounts to about
$19.00 per capita. After all, Japan's debt was
then little more than that of the United States,
and less than Cuba's, less than Australia's, less
than Belgium's, less than Holland's, less than
Germany's, less than Spain's, less than Portu
gal's, less than the United Kingdom's, less than
France's. Japan was then, with ever-increasing | inter
national credit, and with careful preparation and
redoubled courage, ready to push the campaign
to the end. Marching on, they would have
pushed the Russians to' the deserts of Asia, there
to finish the last stroke; Generals Kuroki, Oku,
Noju, Nogi, and Oyama, watching the land, and
Togo, Urieu, and Kamimura, the sea. The world
recognized that the end had come, but it needed
some one to say so. Then came Theodore Roose
velt, " the Rough Rider," and President of the
United States, to say so — the right man, in the
right place, at the right time. To this inter
mediation, Japan, America's foster-child, meekly
submitted. The result was the conclusion of the
Treaty of Portsmouth. And the author believes
he is justified in asserting that the sentiment of

222 LIFE OF JAPAN
the whole civilized universe is that, in ages to
come, humanity, philanthropy, and civilization
will owe eternal debts to the American President.
Now that the administration of William H.
Taft and his new cabinet has been before the Jap
anese people, what is the merit of the past year
of American diplomacy? When all has been said
and done the Taft administration stands aloft
in the esteem of the Japanese nation, more tri
umphant than any of its predecessors. The
author assures you that President Taft carries
the implicit confidence of the Japanese people.
Mr. Taft as a President is " on the square," a
man of stout heart and smiling face, and a symbol
of peace, prosperity and good will.

CHAPTER XIX
AN AMERICAN- JAPANESE WAR
Shall it be war, or shall it be peace? In re
cent times, this ominous cry occurs with the
regularity of the seasons. Not all the people,
to be sure, but some both in America and Japan,
seem to have lost the significance of the word
war. To them, on account of the common talk
of war in general speech and in the press, it
seems as if a war would amount to nothing more
than the crushing of an egg. A man's patriotism
counts for much on the battle-field, but mind that
in a war between Japan and the United States,
with the completely equipped machineries of de
struction of to-day, one stroke by either would
blow groups of patriots into atoms. It is true
that in Japan and in America, there is no man
who would hesitate to die for his country's cause.
If an officer were to point to a fort on some steep,
surrounded by barbed wires, showering forth the
leaden hail of twenty inch guns, and protected
by mines of dynamite and were to say to his men,
" go," every American and Japanese without a

224 LIFE OF JAPAN
moment's hesitation, would climb to the assault,
and die crying " Hurrah " or " Banzai." This
they would do although the enemy's shells liter
ally become filled with patriots' bones and with
their warm flesh like newly canned goods. Such
are some of the horrors of war in both army and
navy. But is there not another way of showing
patriotism and bravery? Is there not a greater
triumph for men in their patriotic devotion to
science, industry, arts and letters? Were not the
discovery of America, the opening and civilizing
of Japan by the American people, and the in
vention of printing, greater triumphs than all
the victories of war? Will not the upholding of
the majesty of the law, and the unionization of
all races of mankind, all be accomplished, not
by the force of arms, but by the works of peace?
Human government has worked out in a human
way from time immemorial, and so we have all
sorts of pretensions, under the guise of universal
peace. The plan of the substitution of arbitra
tion in place of armed conflict is as old as his
tory. And conflict of opinion as to the substitu
tion of a court of law in place of the arbitrament
of the sword is as old as the myths of the pre
historic periods. It is not news when we state
that Thucydides convinced the Spartan king that
it was wrong to treat the wrong-doer as an
enemy when the latter was willing to arbitrate,

LIFE OF JAPAN 225
even concerning the question of Salamis, which
was a life-or-death controversy involving the very
existence of Athens. Plutarch gives us record
that the immortal law-giver Solon left the ques
tion to five Lacedasmonian arbitrators. Perhaps
the earliest institution of its kind within authentic
history, viz., the Amphictyonic League, had for
its aim the mitigation of the horrors of war. The
state whose champions were winners at the Olym
pic games was authorized as a prize to act as
arbitrator. Then, too, in the middle ages, there
was one supreme judge and arbitrator of right,
the Pope. Kings and princes have often i ac
quiesced in, but sometimes resisted his authority.
For instance, when the Pope arbitrated the pre
tension of Edward II. to the sovereignty of Scot
land, the Scottish parliament said to the Pope:
" You are to be held responsible to God for the
loss of life, for as long as a hundred Scotchmen
are left alive we will never be subject to the
dominion of England." That the Pope was the
recognized arbitrator during the middle ages of
Christendom, there can be no doubt. But the in
stances of failure were as many as those of suc
cess. It was the Pope who arbitrated the cele
brated controversy between Spain and Portugal
and drew the line from one pole to the other, and
by it divided the New World between the two na
tions. But it was this Pope of whom the King

226 LIFE OF JAPAN
of France, Francis I, said: "What! The King
of Spain and the King of Portugal quietly divide
between them all America, without allowing me
to take a share! I should like very much to see
the Adam's will which gives them this vast in
heritance." Grotius, the father of international law, in his
treatise published in 1625, concentrated the ar
gument for the arbitration process in place of
the armed contest. So did Abbe de St. Pierre, at
the beginning of the eighteenth century, who also
proposed the scheme for reorganizing the Con
federation Army of Europe, to be used as a
policeman's club to whip any nation which should
disobey the order of the international court. This
proposition soon found its advocate in Bentham,
later in Kent, and most recently, even in the
most autocratic of all sovereigns, the Russian
Czar himself. Yet, it is a fact too well known,
says the civilized world, that disarmament at the
present time seems impossible. Franklin once
accused our brothers of cowardice : " We make
daily great improvements in natural, there is one
I wish to see in moral, philosophy, the discovery
of a plan which will induce and oblige nations to
settle their disputes without first cutting one an
other's throats." And to-day the sons of cow
ards still rule the nations. Sometimes it seems
that hereditary cowardice is producing a thou-

LIFE OF JAPAN 227
sand-fold. The so-called civilized powers of the
world fear their own shadow, their own nation
and their own race, and they, it appears to us
without hesitation, are "beating the funeral
march " to " hell."
In the case of Japan the cowardice of the
civilized world is proved. When Japan asked
the nations' recognition of her legal autonomy,
because she could take care of her own internal
affairs, because she believed that she excelled in
art, literature and the graces of social life, and
because she was inherently entitled to this na
tional right, the nations repeatedly denied this
recognition and charged Japan with barbarism
and her people with being semi-civilized. Only
after Japan killed more men in her war with
China in 1894-5 than were killed in the American
civil war and the Napoleonic wars put together,
did the civilized nations recognize Japan's legal
autonomy. Even after that, the present day
humanity indulged in religious and racial prej
udice against Japan. It was only after Japan
in her war with Russia proved that she could kill
more men in one land battle than in all the land
battles of the Crimean war, that she could send
to the bottom more ships and seamen in one naval
battle than was done in the battles of Nelson's
Trafalgar and Dewey's Manila Bay, that the
civilized world received Japan as a first-class

228 LIFE OF JAPAN
civilized power and her people as a civilized peo
ple. It is this mock civilization, this warlike hu
manity that forced and is now forcing the Japa
nese to expand their army and navy as far and
sometimes farther than their national economy
can reach. Japan is by no means a warlike na
tion. The fact that she has for centuries se
cluded herself and refrained from interfering
with any Western powers, the fact that she sup
plicated the rest of the world to let her alone,
amply proves her peaceful individuality and
propensity. If Japan ever be prepared to strike
any nation, if Japan ever be skilled in the science
and art of war, it is not because Japan is a war
like nation, but because she has to carry out the
mandate of the civilized world. The cowardice
of the world must answer and not Japan, before
the jury of the twelve Apostles under the Mosaic
Law. It seems paradoxical, yet it is no less true, that
the honest expression of Bacon: "'Wars are
suits of appeal to the tribunal of God's justice,
where there are no superiors on earth to deter
mine," — survives. So also survives the strong
language of Von Moltke: "War is an element
of universal order established by God. The
noblest virtues are developed by it — courage and
abnegation; duty faithfully accomplished, and a

LIFE OF JAPAN 229
spirit of sacrifice engendered. Without war the
world would soon fall into the most sordid ma
terialism." The United States and Japan are
very strange. They have drawn from their in
dustries the huge sum of nearly $2,000,000,000
as their part of the $16,000,000,000 which, dur
ing the last ten years, represents the amount
which has been expended by the world in war or
in preparation for war. The United States, ac
cording to the international naval table, stands
higher than Japan. The table is, first, Great
Britain ; second, France ; third, Germany and the
United States ; fourth, Japan.
Higher in the maritime table, greater in na
tional resources, larger in population, wealthier
in treasury than Japan, the United States is not
without advocates of expansion of military
strength. " The greater and more efficient the
American navy is, the safer and more prosper
ous is the American national and international
trade, for military strength and peace are co
ordinate and cot-extensive." These are the watch
words of the American capital! Such is also
true of the Japanese capital. " There is no idea
of augmenting the naval expansion," says the
present Japanese administration in answer to the
question put by the opposition party in the Im
perial Diet, "but we have to keep pace with the
civilized countries of the West." To this the

230 LIFE OF JAPAN
present imperial cabinet also adds with regard
to the army expansion: "The completion of the
Japanese army is in no sense an aggressive
preparation, but is solely a (guarantee of the
world's peace. A military force cannot be created
in a day, but without an army a country's pres
tige and safety cannot be insured."
Thus the United States and Japan actually
face each other, fully armed and prepared for
the maintenance of the world's peace.
As to the most miserable state of affairs which
has prevailed with reference to the Japanese im
migrants in the Pacific Coast States of the
United States, the now famous municipal order
segregating the Japanese children in the San
Francisco schools, unfortunately was not settled
in the courts of law, as it ought to have been.
As attorney for the school children the author
filed injunctions against the San Francisco muni
cipal authorities (as those who have read his other
book, " Powers of the American People," may
recall, his opinion being that the trouble was
an insignificant local matter as had often been
the case in the Southern States). But the cir
cumstances of the time and certain people dif
fered from his idea and against his wish enlarged
the matter to the circumference of the entire earth.
The result was a compromise, the self-exclusion
of the Japanese immigrants and the children's

LIFE OF JAPAN 231
return to their schools, while the question in
volving the principle of segregation still remains
as it was when first raised. So that the same
segregation principle, either under one mask
or another, will surely revive just as long as
the Japanese are dependent upon the polit
ical departments of the United States and
Japan, and just as surely as the Japanese
continue establishing their colonies, writing, read
ing, and speaking in their own vernacular, and
continue eating, drinking, dancing, and singing
in their native style. They thus introduce con
stantly disturbing elements into the composite
whole of the American Republican form of gov
ernment, and give room for criticism to poli
ticians and some labor leaders whose clients are
largely constituted of immigrants from Europe.
It is true that some immigrants from Europe once
caused their native governments to make protest
to this country, like the Japanese have done, but
the resultant injuries have been long felt and are
not yet healed. Such tactics as these not only
damage the Japanese cause in America more and
more, but also affect the amity and traditional
friendship which must be kept at any price, for
the sake of still greater purposes, one of which
is the world-wide-betterment of mankind. By no
means should the Japanese start cabling to the
Japanese press or cry like a baby for the help of

232 LIFE OF JAPAN,
mama! For this Japanese attitude means more
than their hoisting the white flag in their individ
ual, physical, and mental competition with the
immigrants from Europe. The continuance of
this attitude is disgraceful and shameless, and it
would be far better for them to pack up and re
turn speedily whence they came. But in such
case they must acknowledge the superiority of
their victors in America.
The industrial or racial conflict in America is
as old as pre-independence periods of the United
States, and as extensive as the growth or progress
of the American people. Therefore, it is not at
all news of interest to know the existence of the
boycott or of industrial or racial differences in
reference to the Japanese colonies in California.
The United States has for the backbone of its na
tional growth, a conglomeration of local city
commonwealths as many and different as the con
glomeration of races in them — Germans, French,
Italians, Russians, and all other races or nation
alities. Here they come from across the ocean
with their distinct customs and languages and
their wives and children; here they introduce in
dustrial or racial strifes or at least, elements of
strife, of race against race, city against city,
state against state. The racial and industrial
conflicts in America are too numerous to write
down, and their nature too appalling to describe.

LIFE OF JAPAN
It may seem paradoxical, yet it is true, that the
American civilization is formed out of these in^
numerable appalling conditions of racial and in
dustrial controversies.
It is a primary principle in the success of col
onization, that it avoid the interference of the
home government, and cultivate individual ini
tiative and patience, and become assimilated into
the people to which such colony has come; espe
cially so when their territory is already colonized
and has a government of its own. For instance,
if ten thousand Americans went over to Tokyo,
London, Berlin, or Paris, and commenced to es
tablish their rights as laborers, they would surely
have to encounter industrial and racial conflicts.
If the American government intended to help its
citizens settle such racial and industrial war
fares with the international coercion dependent
upon the sharp point of the bayonet, it would
surely expose the American government to' the
charge of unreasonableness before a fair-minded
world. Suppose, still further, that the Americans
made a treaty concerning laborers which might
be even as long as from the south to the north-
pole. It would not and could not change human
minds. The American, as a powerful nation, may
oppress by might, but at the same instant, it out
rages the conscience of the civilized world and
sins against Heaven.

234 LIFE OF JAPAN
The civilization of the present century rides
on the reign of law. Should any racial or indus
trial conflict or strife reach such an extent as to
injure life, liberty, property, or the pursuit of
happiness, the resort must be to the court of
Justice which has competent jurisdiction over the
point in issue. Fortunately, the Japanese col
onies in this country have over them splendid
courts composed of splendid judges. No nation
on earth has such independent courts as we have
in America. From the time of Marshall to Fuller
the people within and without have looked upon
the American Courts as the best friends of the
aliens or the weak, and in the greater measure,
the triumphs of the American system of govern
ment are due to them.
The Supreme Court of the United States, as
early as 1804, rendered a decision that even an
" Act of Congress ought never to be construed
so as to violate the law of nations." It is not
necessary to seek far for innumerable instances
where the courts protected otherwise unprotected
parties. Often the Presidents of the United'
States were powerless in adjusting labor con
flicts, boycotts, or interferences with business
rights among the Americans and appealed to
the courts for protection. For instance, in the
famous Chicago strike of 1894, President Cleve
land appealed to the Circuit Court of the United

LIFE OF JAPAN 235
States for the district of Illinois, which court is
sued injunctions and subsequently put the Presi
dent of the Labor Union and his three associates
into the custody of the law. The application to
the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus
was denied and the prisoners remanded to cus
tody. President Cleveland, in reference to this
case, rightly observed : " The Supreme Court of
the United States has written the closing words
of this history, tragical in many of its details,
and in every line provoking sober reflection."
In this connection the reader's attention, espe
cially if he is an alien, is called to a decision of
the United States Supreme Court which contains
the most sweeping language in the interests of
the peace of the country as well as of the world.
It said: "International law is part of our law
and must be ascertained and administered by the
court of justice of appropriate jurisdiction as
often as questions of right depending upon it are
duly presented for their determination."
The so-called anti-Japanese movement in Cali
fornia, after all, shall never be a cause for a
Japanese- American war. Far from it! Indus
trial or racial conflicts in San Francisco are trivial
in number when comparing any such experiences
with those other races or nationalities have
had. They are insignificant in the scope of the in
terests involved, for the thinking people of the

236 LIFE OF JAPAN
State of California are more sympathetic to
ward the Japanese than toward their antagonists.
So are also the entire Pacific States. East of
the Rockies the country is filled with friends of
the Japanese, who love to see the Japanese pros
per and progress. If the Japanese in San Fran
cisco hope, as a colony, to be successful in this
country like other races or nationalities, they
have yet to see their tracks covered with the bones
of martyrs who have perished in the struggle, by
stone or by fire. If the Japanese expect success
in colonization they must say as their predeces
sors said: " It is weary watching wave by wave,
And yet the tide heaves onward;
We climb like corals, grave by grave,
And pave a pathway sunward."
If, unfortunately, the Japanese either through
racial prejudice or industrial considerations, are
to be looted or discriminated against, there are
other means for adjustment; and those means are
illustrated by the Americans themselves in Japan.
Did not the Japanese at one time, in obedience
to anti-foreign sentiment, commit outrages on
the American residents in Japan? Did not the
Japanese Romines assassinate the American
diplomatic agent in the streets of Yedo ? Did not
the Japanese roughs and hoodlums set fire to the

LIFE OF JAPAN 237
American Legation? Did not the Japanese,
animated by race prejudice, commit violence un
imaginable, resulting in driving all the Ameri
cans and Europeans out of the city of Yedo? It
was only the great benevolence, patience, and
self-sacrificing enthusiasm of the Americans that
not only saved Japan from international rupture
with the European powers, but also impelled
Japan to march from a position of insignificance
to the forefront of modern nations. Is it not
then about time for the Japanese to begin the re
turning of favors and discharge " giri " or " recti
tude " ; instead of making diplomatic protest or
complaint or needlessly fermenting a spirit of
hatred or a call for war against the United
States, the benefactor of Japan? These latter
are indeed crimes against the teaching of recti
tude and the virtues that were deeply implanted
by Japanese ancestors,
A war that exists at present and will exist in
future between the two nations is the war for
commercial supremacy. It is interesting to. watch
the warring strategies of the two> countries : on
the one side, the Japanese government having a
partnership interest in the manufacture and ex
port of iron, beer, sugar, tobacco, cotton goods,
and in the milling, oil refining and mining indus
tries; subscribing for shares of stock in ship
building and locomotive works and iron foundries ;

LIFE OF JAPAN
subsidizing the steamship lines that touch the in
sular possessions as well as the foreign ports,
and owning and operating the railway, telegraph
and telephone lines; and on the other, the Amer
ican citizen under the American governmental
statutory limitations — plainly speaking, the Japa
nese imperial government trust and the American
democratic anti-government trust.
This phenomenal difference in the two national
economic conditions will undoubtedly attract the
attention of the reader. But an investigation
into the objective or individualistic progress of
the American, and the subjective or passive prog
ress of the Japanese, will at once reveal the rea
son for that difference. The reader is already
aware that the Japan of to-day is the result of
evolution from the pre-American expedition
period, in which the hereditary castes, never con
ceiving the idea of a social condition different
from their own, and entertaining no expectation
of ever ranking equally with one another, ac
cepted benefits from such difference without dis
cussing their right, and submitted to their chiefs
without resistance, practically assuming author
ity to be providential. In this Japanese national
evolution the reader will also take notice of the
fact that the barriers which once severed the
people into castes are now lowered; property is
divided; the light of intelligence spreads; the

LIFE OF JAPAN 239
capacities of all classes are equally cultivated;
the respect for the law, of which they are the
common author, is strong; and their self-sacri
ficing spirit is now not the result of blind igno
rance, fetishism, or tradition, but is the result of
a well-studied philosophy which has been found
applicable to their conditions, and which appeals
to the intelligence of the masses to such an extent
that it is adopted as the ideal working plan
through which the people expect to attain the
highest national development.
Against this Japanese conception, which they
believe will be most effective and most successful
in the interprefectural and international commer
cial warfare, stands that of the American people,
whose equality of condition has reached the ex
treme, as its government was founded on a most
ancient, a most uniform and a most permanent
system of the Anglo-Saxon race. Subjective
progress vs. objective progress, — Japan and
America — -: both peoples, in cases of national up
heaval, proved and will prove the strongest types
of communalists, yet they draw their undercur
rent of development from radically different foun
tains of the philosophy of government.
Consequently we observe a remarkable result
from these individual characteristics of the two
peoples, the backbone and vitality of the com
mercial progress of the nations — that the Amer-

240 LIFE OF JAPAN
ican citizen has for his incentive the hope of
gain and profit for his individual effort, while
the Japanese citizen, imbued with the spirit of
self-denying patriotism for the gain and profit
of the Emperor, is ready to sacrifice all personal
gain. Here the two peoples have peculiarly and
distinctly antagonistic enthusiasms.
But the peoples of the two nations have re
cently reawakened to the full realization that
Japan and America should maintain their tradi
tional friendship and deep-rooted peace, that
their peoples need no more be imposed upon by
the burden of war taxation, that hundreds of
thousands of useful lives need no more be spent
in useless training in the art and science of war,
and that no more people need be engaged in the
manufacturing of instruments for the effective
carrying out of the art and science of war. This
grand realization that there should never be war
between the two peoples gives birth to the confi
dence that if Japan and America always co-oper
ate, they need never fear any other nation on
earth. If any other nation should challenge the
United States in war Japan would spring to her
defence, and the United States would do likewise
in case of Japan's need. This would mean that
all the nations of the world would let these two
nations well alone. Any nation who really knows
the real resources of Japan or the United States,

LIFE OF JAPAN 241
dare not even point its finger at the back of
either Japan or America. The cause of this in
ternational reawakening may be attributed to the
traditional romantic friendship between the two
peoples as well as to their peace-loving charac
teristics. The evidences of these facts are well
worthy of record.
The Americans characteristically hate and
dread military power and they inbornly love
peace. Since the peace of Westphalia, more than
half of the international disputes that have been
submitted and ended in arbitration, are cases in
which the American was either on one side or
the other of such disputes. Every movement of
every nation toward lessening the horrors of war
is most zealously supported and most enthusias
tically advocated in America. " The history of
legal institutions and the development of methods
of settling private disputes, ought to be opened
to the student. The student who would not draw
the desired inferences from this line of study
would not be worth telling categorically that uni
versal peace between nations is a certainty of the
future and not an iridescent dream." So declares
Prof. Joseph H. Beale, Jr., of Harvard. " War
is a hideous evil; under no circumstances is it to
be encouraged," insists President Bryan, of In
diana. " The American college and university
student does not need to know," joins Prof. W.

242 LIFE OF JAPAN
W. Willoughby, of Johns Hopkins, " that in very
many cases at least, it is an unnecessary evil. To
this end college and university instructors in polit
ical science should agree to present these facts
to their classes." " There is a second service,"
rejoins President Reese, of Rochester, "which:
our college instruction ought to render to the
community, namely, a closer development and
stronger rooting in the minds of students of the
sense of justice." According to Prof. Elmer E.
Brown, the United States Commissioner of Edu
cation, " Every well-conducted international ar
bitration contributed to the building up of a
higher conception of international obligation in
world relations, and is accordingly in its effect
the bringing of the disputants together on higher
and more stable ground than either of them oc
cupied when the strife began. It is the type of
thinking which should be promoted in schools of
every grade in the interest of liberal culture and
in establishing such modes of thought among our
people eveiywhere the public schools can lay the
surest foundation for the arbitration principle."
Prof. James B. Scott, of Columbia, says : " In
fact as well as in theory international law does
exist and is accepted, applied and observed in its
entirety by all civilized nations in their constant
and common intercourse." These utterances rep
resent only a few examples of the American edu-

LIFE OF JAPAN 243
cators' training of the American children. Al
though the figures of speech may be more or
less differently expressed, all prominent educators
in Japan and in America agree on this matter.
T^ fillustrate the undercurrent of feeling along
thisi line in Japan, the author is indebted to In
spector K. Hattori of the Department of Educa
tion of Japan. Through the kindness of the In
spector, he received in the month of November,
1909, the following message from the Japanese
public school children to the public school chil
dren of the United States:
" To the Public School Children of the United
States : We have been told by our fathers, broth
ers and teachers that Dr. Miyakawa through his
Japanese pictures and lectures before the Amer
ican public school children, intends to bring about
a better understanding of the more than histor
ical friendship of Japan and the United States.
We have in the meantime, been told that there is
a certain sentiment which looks upon war between
the two countries as inevitable, just as our older
brothers who passed before us in our schools,
thought war with China and the late war with
Russia inevitable. In view of our teaching at
school and at home that ' the American people
are the foster-mothers of Japan's present prog
ress and prosperity,' we, the public school chil
dren in convention assembled, with the permission

LIFE OF JAPAN
of our fathers, brothers and teachers, passed the
following resolution:
" ' Resolved, That we, the pupils of the Im
perial public schools, shall never raise our swoids
against, but shall emulate the pupils of the Pub
lic Schools of the United States as perfect ex
amples of brotherhood and sisterhood. ,
" ' Resolved further, That we ask Dr. Mijra- ;
kawa to personally hand our resolution to our sis
ters and brothers of the United States.'
" Y. Matsudaira, delegate, Sixth Grade, Tsu-
kudo Public School, Tokyo, Japan."
Although this action of the children was a sim
ple unofficial matter, yet the simple and unofficial
thing itself was considered by American and Euro
pean officials and diplomats, as the greatest, the
most unprecedented and the shrewdest piece of
diplomacy in all history, ranking as one of the
achievments of the Katsura cabinet, and particu
larly of Minister Eitaro Komatsubara of the De
partment of Education. Many American journals
in their editorials have also considered it a matter
of great importance. One of these writes : " For
the first time a foreign people have given recogni
tion to the sovereignty of the individuals of the
country, to whom its officials must eventually an
swer, and have instituted a movement to reach the
sovereigns of another country direct."
The keynote of the governmental attitude with

LIFE OP JAPAN 245
regard to the real relations of Japan and Amer
ica was struck while for a moment there was a
little cloud over the romantic friendship of the
two nations, when Mr. Elihu Root declared : " It
is ^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 simultaneously, in Tokyo, Mr. William H.
Taft, made the same thing plain when he said:
" The greatest earthquake of the century could
not break our amity. Under the circumstances
nothing is more infamous than the suggestion of
war." There seems to be no political party line
in America as far as mutual sympathy and the
safe keeping of this friendship is concerned.
" Japan entertains," says Mr. William J. Bryan,
" nothing but good will toward our nation. Steam
has narrowed the Pacific and made us neighbors ;
let Justice keep us friends." Mr. Seth Low, of
New York, touching upon the passing cloud
which hovered momentarily over the friendship of
the two nations through the incident of the San
Francisco school question, said : " The regret
of the American people at large has been the
deeper, because such incidents seem to cast a
shadow upon their historic friendship that has
been as sincere as it has been continued." Judge

246 LIFE OF JAPAN,
George Gray of Delaware, characterized the
school question incident as " lamentable." " We
cannot help but pay attention," writes Ambassa
dor O'Brien to Viscount Kaneko, the President of
America's Friend Society, when the Society |_w/s
about to banquet Melville E. Stone of the As.sod-
ated Press of the United States, " when anjvon?
says that the crisis of the two nations' affairs ;.ahas
been reached. It is useless, however, to investi
gate such a report, because there is nothing to
investigate." This letter was dated March 18th,
1910, and Mr. Stone was visiting Tokyo at that
time. A whole volume would be needed to express
the thoughts' of the rank and file of the American
people on this matter. And how is it in Japan?
It needs no special emphasis, that to any one who
opens the parliamental records or listens to the
assurances of the government of Japan, the as
sertion that there shall be peace with the United
States will pass unchallenged. Japan's attitude
of refusing to devote useless labor to the military
cause stands beyond question. The reawakening
is turning the people to the more useful employ
ments of peace. Most significant evidence was
presented when the American Atlantic Fleet
reached Japan and the hardy fighters of the two
nations met face to face. Contrary to the
prophecy or devilish desire of some war-like na
tions in other portions of the earth, instead of

LIFE OF JAPAN 247
the Japanese and Americans sinking each other's
battleships, there came out statements which
mean exactly what they say. At the gathering
of the American and Japanese seamen, Ambassa
dor O'Brien said: "Above all I am inspired to
gjV'e a special and kindly greeting to these tried
and seasoned officers of the Japanese navy who
ar >t present here to-night, sitting side by side with
their country's guests, joining in that fraternal
comradeship in which brave men everywhere are
entitled to indulge."
" The whole people of Japan unite in extend
ing a most warm and sincere welcome to their
guests on the American battleship fleet now ap
proaching the harbor of Yokohama." Thus
Prince Ito struck the keynote of the Japanese
welcome. He continued, " I hope our friendship
and commercial relations with the United States
will be more closely cemented by this auspicious
event." "We welcome the American fleet with
our whole heart," stated Count Okuma, and he
further said: " We, the people of Japan remem
ber with profound gratitude the help and guid
ance of America." Thus the strongest men in
the government and the people at large, united
their voices as one man. Prince Yamagata de
clared : " I welcome the American fleet as an evi
dence of friendship, and also as a guarantee of
the peace of the whole world." "The friendly

248 LIFE OF JAPAN
relations between America and Japan decorate
the pages of the world's history of civilization,"
said Marquis Matsukata, a most influential
statesman of Japan. Marquis Katsura, Premier,
made his government's position known when he
stated: "The visit will give opportunity) %o
cement the friendly relation existing between ¦' the
two countries." " The traditional good relations
existing between the two nations will be further
strengthened by this happy meeting of the two
navies," said Admiral Saito, a great naval min
ister of Japan. Admiral Count Togo, whose love
of his country made him fear no enemy in the
world and whose sincerity is considered as an ex
ample for all men, begged for peace, saying,
"May our friendship which has lasted so long,
continue to grow and flourish forever." " I send
my sincere welcome from my heart and soul," said
Admiral Yamamoto, who is considered as Japan's
highest type of military statesman. General
Terauchi, the present Minister of War, joined
in saying "Every true Japanese feels as I do in
welcoming the Admiral, his ships and his men."
Viscount Kaneko, now Privy Councillor, to whose
effort is largely due the erection of Perry's monu
ment at Kurihama, said : " The visit of to
day assuredly will bind fast forever the existing
ties of international friendship." Baron Goto,
Minister of Communication, announced this char-

LIFE OF JAPAN 249
acteristic expression, " From the bottom of my
heart I bid a thousand welcomes to the ships and
men of America." Vice-Minister Ishii, of the
Japanese Foreign Department, stated that "I
confidently believe that the present visit will prove
as-jpowerful a factor in uniting the bonds between
the two countries as did the coming of Commo
dore Perry in their inauguration." Chief Secre
tary Hayashida of the House of Representatives,
the1; most popular branch of the government, dur
ing his recent visit for a comparative study of
parliamental procedures, when interviewed by
Chicago and Washington journalists, gave a
glad welcome, saying: "All Japan is waiting in
eagerness to greet the ships and men of America.
Thanks for the opportunity by which Japan can
show her sincere feeling of gratitude for Amer
ica's traditional friendship with Japan." Last
and best is the statement of one of the workers
in the great cause of peace and America's now
most popular Japanese Ambassador, Baron
Uchida : " The relations of the two countries
are of such a unique nature from the beginning
that I think there exists nothing parallel to them
between any other nations." The inspiring fea
ture of the whole situation is the attitude of even
the Japanese women and children as well as of all
the press of Japan. Literally as one, they stood
in tears and gratitude and with prayers for the

250 LIFE OF JAPAN
continued peace and friendship of the United
States. Incidental to the Atlantic Fleet's visit
to Japan, there came to Japan a no less impor
tant body, a group of business men from the
American Pacific coast states. Then came a visit
from the U. S. Commissioners to the Japdrluse
World Fair for furthering the interests of ' the
American exhibit at the Fair. These visits. have
all resulted in the perpetuation of the romantic
relations between the two countries. The business
men on both sides of the Pacific have resolved
that the Great Lake between them shall not be
made the scene of sacrifice of money and life, as
our savage forefathers made of the Mediterranean
Lake two thousand years ago, when they fought
their one hundred years' war, resulting in the
death of Hannibal and the destruction of the
civilization heaped up for three thousand years
by East and West, including the sacrifice of
the vitality of the Great Roman Empire. They
have determined to make their Pacific Lake be
tween Japan and America an enchanted and
peaceful paradise of commercial rivalry and
prosperity. This sentiment of the American com
mercial bodies was reciprocated by the visit to the
United States of Jitsugio-dan, or so-called honor
able Commercial Commissioners, headed by Baron
Eiichi Shibusawa. If the people and the govern
ments both want peace and commercial prosper-

LIFE OF JAPAN 251
ity, will they not be strong enough to set aside
superficial passion and prejudice in order to se
cure them?
Before the arrival of the Atlantic Fleet in Ja
pan, however, a first step toward the realization
of the grand determination to make Japan and
the United States as one, instead of two, nations,
culminated in the exchange of the following notes
between Root and Takahira, in 1908.
" 1. It is the wish of the two governments to
encourage the free and peaceful development of
their commerce on the Pacific Ocean.
" 2. The policy of both governments, uninflu
enced by any aggressive tendencies, is directed
to the maintenance of the existing status in quo
in the region above mentioned and to the defence
of the principle of equal opportunity for com
merce and industry in China.
" 3. They are accordingly firmly resolved
reciprocally to respect the territorial possessions
belonging to each other in said region.
" 4. They are also determined to preserve the
common interests of all the powers in China, by
supporting, with all pacific means at their dis
posal, the independence and integrity of China
and the principle of equal opportunity for com
merce and industry of all nations in that Empire.
" 5. Should any event occur threatening the
status in quo as above described or the principle

252 LIFE OF JAPAN
of equal opportunity as above defined, it remains
for the two governments to communicate with
each other, in order to arrive at an understanding
as to what measures they may consider it useful
to take."
The recent plan of Philander C. Knox, the
American Secretary of State, for the neutraliza
tion of Manchurian railroads by the interested
powers, attracted the world's attention. That
the American diplomatic attitude toward Asia
has always been abnormally drastic and its extra
ordinary scope misunderstood, is admitted by
history. When Secretaries Daniel Webster and
William Seward planned to neutralize Japan in
the early sixties, the plan was adopted in spite
of the opposition of the interested powers of Eu
rope, who ridiculed the American idea of neutral
izing Japan, an old nation ready to collapse at
the snap of a finger. The fact that Japan
is to-day an independent nation, and a great one
at that, is the best evidence of the wisdom of that
extravagant American plan. Japan understands
and must understand that the United States has
never swerved from the idea of Webster and
Seward, in the work of Hay, Root and Knox,
and that if the world refuses to co-operate now as
it did in the neutralization of Japan fifty years
ago, the United States will continue in the future

LIFE OF JAPAN 253
as in the past to stand alone for the best interests
of mankind.
The American people seem to uphold this
principle which Washington, Jefferson, Marshall,
and Lincoln upheld : to wit, " Westward the
' Star ' of Empire takes its way " ! Not the star
of a King or Emperor, but the star of the right
eousness and true liberty of the American people,
which guides their march into the islands and
countries washed by the waters of the Pacific,
where a splendid destiny has called the people of
the United States.
Therefore, there is not a sign of an American-
Japanese war in arms. Let the truth of this fact
be understood by us and let the world under
stand. Briefly we may put forward ten reasons
which, to our mind, assure the eternal peace of the
two nations, and effectually prevent Japan and
the United States from ever engaging in armed
conflict. First, the international positions of Japan and
the United States in their interdependent rela
tions with the civilized powers of the world, act
as a check against such a gigantic conflict — a
conflict beside which the Russo-Japanese war
would pale into comparative insignificance, —
which would not only upset the economic condi
tions of the world, but would also ignore the inter-

254 LIFE OF JAPAN
national consciousness of humanity and civiliza
tion. Second, even though the policy of the nations
of the world might be to turn the tables for
Japan and the United States to practice the game
of war, the two nations are too deeply interested
in the commercial field in Asia — one nation sends
raw materials and the other manufactures them —
and vice versa. The fact is that Japan and the
United States enjoy the rich harvest now, and
for the two nations there are greater possibilities
in the future as the result of the astute diplomacy,
patience and patriotism of over half a century.
Would the two nations so abruptly abandon their
cherished hope of so rich a harvest to be reaped
after years of struggle and activity in order to
cut each other's throats? The two nations are
certainly not so nonsensical as to tolerate such
diplomacy. Third, Japan and the United States are sensi
tive, positive and proud nations. The statement
which has recently been made, and which has been
widely circulated in both countries, that the
United States has been converted from a belief in
the Bible to a belief in commerce and the sword,
is, generally speaking, quite incorrect. And it is
also absurdly incorrect to state that Japan, after
her signal victories in war with China and Russia,
is entertaining a " swell head.'^ On the contrary.

LIFE OF JAPAN 255
the two nations hear more and more plainly the
throbbing of humanity, and they observe more
and more distinctly the guide-posts on the foot
path to peace between them.
Fourth, the people of the two countries are
beginning to study each other more seriously.
There was a time in the United States when the
scope of the study of Japanese affairs was limited
to such silly indulgence as the hearing of lectures
on Rikisha-men, Sedans or Palanquins, tea houses,
gardens, bamboo houses, Geisha girls, or other
trivial things, or the reading or writing of love
stories and similiar superficial things. To-day
Americans are realizing the importance of
learning the civilization of Japan. Nations, like
individuals, says the United States, can never
become real friends until or unless they know
each other intellectually and intelligently.
Fifth, because of that wonderful human docu
ment, the Anglo-Japanese alliance treaty of
1905, which, while lasting for ten years, also
provides that " If either contractor be involved in
war the other contractor shall at once come to the
assistance of its ally, and both parties will con
duct war in common and make peace in mutual
agreement with any power or powers involved in
such war." This alliance, on its expiration, will
be renewed as surely as it was humane and helpful
in the past in the preservation of peace in the

256 LIFE OF JAPAN
East, and especially in the politics of Europe.
Now that the United States and Japan are allied
by the Root-Takahira pact, both nations will con
sult each other in their international position
with regard to the other nations, which means
that all the nations of the world will let the two
nations well alone.
We are not yet informed of the declination or
prohibtion of Japan from participation in a
triple alliance of Great Britain, the United States
and Japan. On the contrary, such seems to us a
mere matter of time for its accomplishment, which
is being hastened by America's interests in the
Philippines, Japan's interests in Manchuria and
Great Britain's interests in India, and the interests
of all of them in that part of the world east of
the Suez.
Sixth, the relation between the individual Jap
anese and Americans is too close — a relation that
will not and cannot entertain anything else
than peace. This friendly relation does not rest
upon formal document, nor is it an official and
diplomatic sort of friendship. It is still better
and far deeper than them all. It is called Girt.
Giri is the great reverence that the Japanese feel
for their teachers. Never for one moment will
the Japanese forget Giri, or the kindness of
America in educating the Japanese; and to
strictly observe the Giri — the relation between

LIFE OF JAPAN 257
the teacher and disciple — is and ever has been an
essential quality of the Japanese individuality.
Seventh, the two peoples having intellectually
understood the special civilization of each other,
and having widely awakened to their individual
consciousness, they will exercise morally respon
sible action and speech. They will become more
and more unselfish and impartial; they will avoid
egotism and self-conceit; they will refrain from
indulging in imputations of inferiority and
abuse; they will condemn the insult, disdain and
discourtesy; and they will maintain broadened
views and higher standards of individual respon
sibility to the general good of the two great
nations. Eighth, the people of the two countries have
realized that while the international relations be
tween Japan and the United States have hitherto
been dependent on and resulted from each other's
chivalry, benevolence, romance, enthusiasm, senti
ment, emotion and religion, at present and in the
future, they must of necessity be dependent upon
other profound qualities besides those, namely:
self-respect, self-preservation, and mutual respect
as the most essential factors to a prosperous and
lasting Peace.
Ninth, the two distinct peoples fully realize
that individual material comfort and national
material development is not the end of human

258 LIFE OF JAPAN
society or human government. On the contrary
such a material comfort or development ever has
been the cause of individual and national ruin.
The more material comfort, the more material
development, the heavier becomes the correspond
ing duty that such material development be
translated into moral effort and achievment.
Idle ease, foolish good nature or weak peace,
which are twin results of individual material com
fort and national material development, have also
to be rooted out.
Tenth, and lastly, the governments of the two
nations are and must be conscious that it is not
the government officials alone that are entitled to
the credit for progess and prosperity and inter
national peace, as has been hitherto claimed by
the Japanese officials, but it is the common mass
of people, the great source of human progress
that the government stands upon, and it must sink
or swim with them. Hence the American Govern
ment in transacting business with Japan should
first ascertain the wishes of the Japanese people.
Special emphasis to the same principle should be
given by the Japanese government, so that in
dealing with the United States it may remember-
that the latter is a government of the people, for
the people and by the people in the strictest sense
of the terms.
The Japanese, after their war with Russia,

LIFE OF JAPAN 259
have had to write their history of individual and
national development by electricity. Every
action and speech made by the American people
relative to the Japanese is recorded in Japan
through wire and wireless. Like or dislike,
friendly or unfriendly manner, sympathy or dis
cord, insult or courtesy, all are instantaneously
transmitted through the columns of the press, and
their messages flashing over countless wires or
wireless posts are made known in Japan — multi
tude calls to multitude, and no peasant can es
cape from participating in moulding the nation's
destiny, no matter in how obscure a hamlet he
may be found. Do they continue to assemble
with tears of gratitude and ever thankful hearts
over the revered American people? Or will the
wind of wrong be sown, and the whirlwind of
sullen and revengeful hatred be reaped?
It is difficult for us to predict what will be the
future conditions of the two nations, or to proph
esy even what forms of government might in
the future be adopted. Yet, it may be safely
asserted that the people of Japan and the United
States are ever ready to respond to the call of
humanity or "jin-gi."- During the Japanese-
Russian war America said to Japan in the name
of humanity, "Let there be peace." Hence the
conclusion of peace at Portsmouth. This appeal
for humanity was potent with the brave Japanese

260 LIFE OF JAPAN
soldiers on Manchuria's battle line, and the
swords and bayonets so bravely and skilfully
wielded, fell to the ground and they could not
raise them again.
For the matchless progress of enlightened rule
during the last half century the world is indebted
to the United States and Japan. Parent and
child, though separated by a mighty ocean and
apparently conflicting emotions, they have been
co-workers in the great cause of perfecting and
strengthening liberal government, and thereby
they have " builded wiser than they knew." Did
we not in the past sound depths in the decline
of our progress that the present age can never
reach? "The babbling echo mocks itself!"
How glorious would it be if some day we may
be fortunate enough to establish a Congress of
the United States of Japan and America, which
shall deal with the questions of commerce, of war
and of peace between us and the rest of the world.
How grand would it be if some day we may
be civilized enough to make Japan and America
monitors for the peace of the world, although
we can safely predict that before this grand and
glorious idea is realized we will have many sea
sons of war and peace, prosperity and famine!
Let the people of Japan and the United States
work shoulder to shoulder in an unselfish interest
for human liberty and progress — the eternal

LIFE OF JAPAN 261
principles of justice and philanthropy — recog
nizing the rights of all according to the highest
ideals of Christianity and the ideals of the two
nations. May the Stars and Stripes and the
Banner of the Rising Sun ever float side by side
in mutual endearment, emblems of peace, pros
perity, justice, and the greatest amount of true
liberty to mankind.

THE END.

INDEX

Agriculture, in Japan, 146,
174.
American people, 138, 1SS,
171, 179, 198, 215; open
ing of Japan by, 185;
diplomacy of, 193; in
Russo-Japanese war, 215;
characteristics of, 239.
241, 255?; laws of, 127.
American - Japanese pact,
251, 255.
American - Japanese war,
223.
American Legation, burn
ing of, 198.
Anglo - Japanese Alliance,
255; Anglo - Japanese
treaty in the middle age,
95.
Annexation of Korea, 213,
215, 202.
Anti - American movement
in Japan, 198.
Anti - Jiapanese movement
in California, 235.
Arbitration, theory of, £24;
cowardice of the world,
226, 227; American posi
tion on, 241, 242; Japa
nese position on, 245.
Army of Japan, 156; how
trained, 159 ; conscription
for, 159; colleges for of
ficers of, 160.

Ascension, to the throne of
the present Japanese Em
peror, 138.
Assassination, of Ii Kamon,
83; of Secretary Heuskin,
U. S. Legation, Tokyo,
196; of Prince Ito, Hiro-
bumi, 213.
Atlantic Fleet, visit of, to
Japan, 246. B
Banks, 54, 148.
Beggar who became Sho
gun, 72.
Biwa Lake, 61.
Buddhism, 10, 19, 34, 93.
Bushido, what is, 21; illus
tration of, 05, 30; teach
ing of, 31.
Boardman, Mabel, T. 168,
217.
Bryan, William J., 190, 246.

Caste system, in Japan, 69,
238.
Children, home training of,
43; in primary school,
173; Japanese children's
message to American
children, 243; in San
Francisco school question,
234.

262

INDEX

263

Chinese, 93, 163; written
language of, 131.
China-Japanese war, 27,
159; declaration of, 205;
result of, 207.
Chivalry, in Japan, 22; in
Europe, 23, 32'; in Amer
ica, 30; relation to wo
man, 33.
Christianity, in Japan, 9,
15, 18, 171; faith in, 18;
inspiration of, 188; mis
sionary, 93.
Civilization, 2, 234; of
Japanese ancestors, 3, 89,
91; of modern Japanese,
130, 170, 239; scientific,
175.
Commercial dishonesty, Jap
anese, 54.
Commercial progress, Japa
nese, 189, 199.
Commercial rivalry, 155, 237,
250, 255.
Communication, Japan in,
mediums of, 150, 238.
Confucianism, 34.
Congressional act, Ameri
can, 197, 179, 200.
Constitution of Japan, 99;
promulgation of, 106 ;
principles of, 109.
Customs and habits, Japa
nese, 47, 89. D
Daimio, in Feudalism, 70,
79, 86, 101, 186.
Declaration of national
principles of Japan, 193.
Decree, of Japanese Em
peror, 7, 103, 104; famous

five articles of, 139; on
Education, 171.
Despotism, 6, 100.
Diet, Imperial, 107, 119, 127,
148.
Domestic relations, Japa
nese, 115, 239. E
Education, in Japan, 169;
Home, 36, 41; of woman,
40; Imperial decree con
cerning of, 171; compul
sory, 172; primary, 176,
#43.
Emperor, the first Japa
nese, 68; the present, 83;
powers of, 101, 108, 111,
135, 138.
Empress, Jingo, 34, 92;
Meisho, 34; the present,
141.
English language, 59, 131,
164.
Europe, progress of, 5;
feudalism of, 23, 147.
European, Japan in, 93;
Yedo in, 237; medieval
Japan in, 13. F
Fauna and flora, in Japan,
62.
Farmer, Japanese, under
feudalism, 146 ; Modern,
173.
Feudalism, 64, 70, 101; To
kugawa system of, 75;
end of, 83, 89, 146.
Fillmore, Millard, 179, 183,
193.

264

INDEX

Financial reform, 145, 148.
First message, to Japanese
from American, 181; to
American from Japanese,
186.
Foreign intercourse, in me
dieval Japan, 88, 96.
Franklin, Benjamin, 173.
French jurisprudence, in
Japan, 118.
Fuji mountain, 61, 63.
G
Gardens, Japanese, 48.
Germany, constitution, in
Japan, 105.
Government, Constitutional,
of Japan, 99.

Immigrants, in United
States, 231, 232.
Industrial reform, 145.
Isolation, Japanese, the
world from, 16, 17, 88.
Ito, Hirooumi, the Prince,
105, 192, 213, 247.

Japan, as old as ever, 2.
Jimmu, the first Emperor,
68, 88.
Jingo, Empress, 34.
Journalism, Japanese, 129 ;
Handiicap of, by the
Japanese Language, 131.
Judicial system, 100; Grades
of courts, 121; of Anglo-
Saxon, 127.
Jurisprudence, 114;, 117,

Jury system, Japan in, 122,
123. K
KanektJ Kentari, "Viscount,
Privy Councillor, formerly
Minister of Agriculture
and Commerce, 244, 247.
Katsura, Taro, Marquis,
Premier, 224, 247.
King can do no wrong,
Japan in, 112.
Knox, Philander C. Secre
tary of State, 251, 052.
Komura, Jiutaro, Count,
Minister of Foreign Af
fairs, 212, 218.
Korea, 72, 92, 163. Open
ing of, by1 Japan, 202;
Japanese suzerainty over,
213.
Kurihama, the Bay of,
America's first landing,
189, 194.
Kyoto, 69, 70, 85.

Language, Japanese, 131 ;
A handicap of journalists,
133, 136.
Laws, Japanese, 100, 126;
foreigners in Japan, un
der, 125; American, 234.
Lincoln, Abraham, 169, 173,
052.
Lodge, H. C, U. S. Sena
tor 124. M
Manchuria, 154, 207, 209,
Marco Polo, 90,

INDEX

265

Marriage, Japan in, 23, 43.
Meiji, era, 139.
Message, to the American
public • school children
from the Japanese public
school children, 243.
Military expansion, Japan
and United States, 229.
Military system, 158; Army
colleges, 160; Naval col
leges, 163.
Monetary reform, 150, 246.
Money, ioVe of, 31, 49.
Mongolian invasion, in Ja
pan, 70.
Mother, Japanese, 36, 41,
42. N
Name, Japanese, 50; 133.
Navy, of Japan, 163; train
ing Japanese naval of
ficers, 164; in feudal days,
162.
Newspapers, Japanese, 129,
132, 136. O
O'Brien, American Ambas
sador, 046.
Observatory, meteorologic
al, in Japan, 174.
Okuma, Shigenobu, ex-
Premier, 247.
Opening of Japan, by the
American people, 179,
192.
Opening of Korea, by Ja
pan, 202, 203.
Oyama, Iwao, General, 221.
P
Pacific coast, commercial
interests of, 249, 250,

Parliament, Japanese Diet,
106.
Peace, 224, 208; between Ja
pan the United States,
230, 240 ; effect on, of At
lantic Fleets visit, 246,
250.
Periclean age, of medieval
Japan, 71.
Ferry, Matthew Calbraith,
78 85; biography of, 184;
expedition of, to Japan,
180; monument to, at
Kurihama, 190, 192.
Press, Japanese, 132; the
powers of, 134, 136, 224.
Prince, Crown, Japanese,
142; Imperial House law
concerning, 143.
R
Race, Japanese, 88, 89, 90.
Race prejudice, 198, 233,
235, 237.
Red Cross Sbciety, Japa
nese, 141, 166.
Reign of law, Japan under
the, 141, 166.
Religion, in Japan, 9, 19;
evolution of, 10; freedom
of, in Japan, 110.
Roosevelt, Theodore, ex-
President of U. S. 162,
221.
Root Elihu, U. S. Senator,
ex-Secretary of State, 245,
250.
Russo-Japanese war, 27, 29,
159; declaration of, 212;
causes of, 207, 009;
Americans in, 215, 217;
battle of Mukden. 219 5

266

INDEX

battle of Sea of Japan, Treaty of Shimonoseki, 207.
220; result of, 212, 213. Trusts, Japanese, 48, 238.

Samurai or Bushi, 25, 29,
31, 35, 87, 102.
San Francisco Japanese
school question contro
versy of, 230.
Schools, Japanese, 172;
Peerless, 40; Normal, 39;
English language in, 32,
131.
Secret, of Japanese prog
ress, 7.
Shintoism, 10, 19.
Shipbuilding, 'Japanese in
dustry of, 150; of medi
eval Japan, 88, 154.
Shogun, the first, 68; Over
throw of the, 83, 145, 147.
Sovereignty, in Japan, 107;
in America, 108.
Spencer, Herbert, 2, 7.
Spies, Japanese, in America,
58.
Stone, Melville, E., 246.
T
Taft, Wflliam, H, U. 8.
President, 217, 222, 245.
Takahira, Kogoro, Baron,
ex-Ambassador, 212, 255.
Taxation, 46, 150.
Tokugawa Shogunate, 75,
85, 186, 188.
Tokyo, 35, 69, 104.
Topography of Japan, 61.
Treaty, the first, with the
United States, 238.
Treaty of Portsmouth, 211.

U
Uchida, Ambassador, 249.
United States, 30, 96, 104,
193, 200; President of,
111, 117, 155, 179, 188; in
Russo-Japanese war, 217;
race prejudice in, 232;
Courts in, 234.
University, 40, 172.
W
Washington, George, 178,
252.
Webster, Daniel, 180, 052.
Wife, the Japanese, 44, 45,
51.
^Witchcraft, 3.
Woman, Japanese, 33, 41;
legal rights of, 125; re
ligious influence under,
34; training, 35, 36; fore
most maladies of, 38;
University for, 40.
Writing, Japanese, 52, 131.

Xavier, Francis, 13, 15, 71,
94.

Yedo, now Tokyo, 74, 83,
85, 95, 237; arrival of
Perry Expedition at, 185,
187.
Yoritomo, the first Shogun,
69, 77.