JAPAN OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 11

JAPAN OF YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY.

By CAPTAIN HERBERT NOYES.

It would be impossible for the average man to arrive at a correct conception of what is implied in the title of this article, without first attaining to some degree of knowledge pertaining to the phenomenal progress of Japan during the last few years. And when one considers that Japan of yesterday virtually means a period of centuries during which she was a terra incognita to the rest of the world, centuries of almost absolute seclusion and jealously, guarded aloofness that only drew to a close within the last few decades, it seems but fair, for purposes of comparison, that some reference should be made to the conditions existing in the Land of the Chrysanthemum before tho awakening came. Practically, our first knowledge of Japan was derived from the records of the ancient Spanish and Dutch missionaries, who, more than four hundred years ago, took their lives in their hands and essayed a task even more impossible in those days than now—tbe conversion of the Japanese to Christianity. Yet, apparently, their efforts met with considerable success, for, in the days of Francis Xavier, it is on record that the number of alleged converts in Japan exceeded two millions. Then the inevitable happened. Tlie authorities, alarmed at the increasing power of the Church, proclaimed tha treason of the new doctrines, legislated against the pioneers of the Cross, and stamped out Christianity as a noxious weed. But not before tortures, as ingenious and devilish as any invented by' the Grand Inquisitors of Queen Mary's day, had been called in to the assistance of the promulgators of the edict. At this distance, the fact that we ourselves had certain peculiar ideas of moral suasion, not unconnected with the burning of stiff-necked adherents to unpopular creeds, may incline us to regard such practices with some small amount of condonation: I fear that the majority of our forebears lived in glass houses so far as questions of this description were concerned. Wherefore, it behoves us to refrain from gratuitous and invidious stonethrowing. But, whatever the reason, civilization, the French revolution, larger ideas—call it what you will —it may reasonably be conceded that since the last "auto-de-fe" at Smithfield, we have altered our ideas to an extent that precludes all notion of singeing our opponents, religious, poltical, or otherwise, to a degree that could render them innocuous and incapable of fur. ther opposition. ■ With Japan it has been otherwise, and not until 1873-was the law repealed that .made Christianity a crime .and its followers subject to the threat comprised in the edict promulgated in 16*38, an edict, well worthy of quotation:— "So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan. And let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christians' God, or the Great God of All, if he dare violate this command, shall pay for it with his head." It is generally supposed by worthy, if misguided, persons that the spirit which could have dictated such an effusion has succumbed to Western influences and a brief fifty years of comparative civrtuation. They are wrong; it survives, under another form perhaps, but deep in the heart of every Japanese is the rooted conviction that they, of all the nations, are best suited to dictate to the rest of the universe. Which, also, is a failing that, because it is not solely confined to them, may pass without harsh criticism. It is but fair to add that the edictquoted above was more honoured in the breach than in the observance after 1860 or thereabouts, though a few years previous to that date neither Bibles nor guns —our favourite agents for the heathen— were permitted to land in Japan. Later, our own small quarrel -with the country—in which, of course, was included most of the European powersopened the eyes of Japan to the expediency of preserving peaceable relations with tbe rest of the world, at least for the time being, and .since then Bhe has lost no time in availing herself of the collective brain power of Europe, tiU, having extracted all that was best of it, she incontinently expelled her teachers whose wits she had so successfully exploited. Which proves, if proof were necessary, their illimitable genius for imitation. So, peacefully devoting the. intervening years to acquiring the arts and sciences of the West, they remained quiescent until 1894, when a flimsy pretext afforded them an opportunity of demonstrating to China that tbe time had been well spent. The true history of that one-sided conflict has never been written; only, we know that, as Japan's allies, we prefer to ignore three episodes that stand out from the dark background of a series of encounters between two nations, one immeasurably superior in arms and warlike exercises, the other, fighting a brave, but losing battle, armed with little but their own courage. (The arsenal at Port Arthur is—or was when I visited it in 1904—full of dummy £uns and wooden shell, that had been supplied tb the Chinese troops by their swindling army contractors). But those three incidents were sufficent evidence to demonstrate te the rest of the world that the veneer of Japanese civilisation was not even skin deep, and that the simile of the leopard's spots holds good with men as well as animals. First, came the massacre of all the defending Chinese troops in Port Arthur, who had surrendered, and were therefore, by all the tenets of war as privileged as the Geneva Cross; secondly, and before those who heard of the horror had finished shuddering at it, came the assassination of the Empress of Korea, because with the intuition of a brave woman she had opposed the virtual acquisition of Korea by Japan, and strove to open the eyes of her subjects to the inevitable result— her only crime— and thirdly, the sinking of the unarmed transport. Kowshing, with 1200 troops on board, Chinese soldiers, whose Belgium rifles were not even loosed off as the enemies' shell, hurled . from a range beyond the ken of even modern smalli-arm bullets, sent the ■ doomed vessel to her watery grave.

The forts at Port Arthur are changed beyond recognition, since the hapless Chinese vainly tried to cram wooden shell into painted papier maehe guns; the sea is silent as to the fate of their 1200 countrymen off Chemulpo, but one can still see, as I have seen, the room, where the ill-fated Empress was murdered by four hundred Japanese soldiers, led by a woman of their own nationality, a trusted servant of the Queen; one is still shown the spot, where in the outer courtyard Her Majesty, together with several of the ladies, was hacked to pieces with swords saturated with parrafine, and burnt to ashes. And why?—mainly, because she resented the change of colour and form of the national dress decreed by the Japanese, and because in other ways she opposed the piratical intentions of the invading ■ marauders. And thirteen years afterwards, if as much, we are asked to regard these people as civilised, to applaud when we hear them spoken of as "Englishmen of the East"; forsooth, to add craven voices to swell the tumult of rejoicing over the~ Russian defeats. I have lived and travelled with both Russians and their conquerors, and I have met many Eastern men who have done the same, but, outside of Great Britain. I have never met one who has not cursed the day when our alliance with the latter was signed, not only with the strength of his own convictions, but with due Tcgard to the ill-disguised contempt shown to Britons ever since by every other foreigner throughout the furthest East. And now, to preserve the continuity of my argument, I will quote the pre"amble of the treaty in question, though, as an historical document, the agreement is well worthy of repetition in extenso:— "The Governments of Great Britain and Japan, actuated solely by a desire to maintain the status quo and general peace in the Extreme East, being, moreover, specially interested in maintaining the independence and territorial integrity of the Empire of China, and the Empire of Korea, and in securing equal opportunities in those countries for the commerce and industry of all nations, etc." What is the position to-day, notwithstanding this precious agreement Japan has achieved the acqnisition of Korea— to her so long a veritable Naboth's vineyard—without as much as a murmur of protest from us. She has seized the post and telegraph systems and revenues, she has appointed an Adviser of Finance who has the income of the country at his own disposal; even before my first visit there in 1902 she had forced debased nickel coinage, by the shipload, on the protesting Koreans; she has proclaimed a protectorate over the unhappy country, and not many months ago she fined and imprisoned an English newspaper editor for daring to call attention to the evil . practices of her officials. The "territorial integrity" of Korea is as dead as Queen Anne; the country is to all intents and purposes Japanese territory, and we who, possibly as a blind to the other Powers, bound ourselves to uphold .its have Btood unprotestingly, silently, shamelessly inert while the outrageous theft was being perpetrated. When "our noble little allies" stand blessed with such a record, and when we have so flagrantly connived at their treachery, it would be ill-wishing to expect too much from them, and possibly bad form to criticise them, even if one were in agreement with the ethics of our present relationship. When nne, as is the case with the present writer, is not, a brief summary of what all this has led up to may be permitted. For one thing, Japan is full of missionaries, and Exeter Hall booms with the news that converts are plentiful. So far we may justify ourselves of tho famous treaty, even though we shut our eyes to the unbelief that originated in the agnosticism and higher criticism of Europe, and the failure possibly of an insnfficing Buddhism, that permeated the higher classes of Japan like a canker. I yield to no .one in my abstract admiration of missionaries, but personal experience compels mc to doubt the efficacy and results of their teachings. "Millions have been spent in endeavours to Christianise other races, but statistics notwithstanding, the-ootcome can scarcely be termed a success in Africa, India, or China. And in Japan, it is expedient that the rulers shodd look complacently on the efforts of well-mean-ing proselyUsers; that the tongue is in the high-boned cheek the while is » detail that escapes the majority. Commercial methods have not ink* proved in Japan; there are no trademarks known to commerce that the natives will not cheerfnSy aad unfcknhingly imitate; their contractors are as conscienceless where Europeans are concerned as it is possible to be, and tha white man who looks for justice in at native court presided over by a ye&om Solon will look in vain. It is barely three years ago since at Mr Wißdnson, patentee of the--now famous Tan-san water, related to the writer his experiences of a Japanese court. He had brought an action ia December against a native imitator ol his capsules and labels. The wiseacre on the bench admitted the truth of aU Mr Wilkinson's contentions as to loss, evidence, etc., bat, qt»o4h he, '1 mast regretfully nonsuit you, because yon have brought this suit in winter, when very little of ytrar honourable water is drunk. Perhaps if you try again in summer, when people are thirsty, you will have better luck." Before <we practically adopted the Japanese, they were known as the "Frenchmen of the East," presumably, on account of their exquisite, if somewhat shallow, politeness. It has disappeared, and nowadays you shall find a Yokohama policeman or "ricksha coolie as uncivil and bearish as any oldtime Boetian or Goth. And, lastly, the Japanese of the present is more puffed up with pride, if that were imaginable, than ever he was in the olden days; with the knowledge of his prowess, has come an almost intolerable conceit. For he perceives— not being a fool —that we fear him, that other nations, as exemplified by Russia, share in a grudging and unwilling respect, and he knows that, so long as his armies are composed of men who would rather die—l speak literally— than suffer defeat: men whose religion is their patriotism, who otherwise believe themselves soulless, so long will he realise that we have cause for our not altogether unjustifiable and cowardly regard. For the attitude of a nation sunk ia 1 commercialism to an extent which \ makes it unwilling to sacrifice personal ' interests for the good of the community • as a whole, could not well think other: - wise; or, to vary the phraseology, a . people indifferent "to the safeguarding of " their possessions, by force of arms can » hardly command the genuine respect of I another to whose subjects their native ' land patriotism, the welfare of the > motherland is their all ia all. ther