■I JAPANESE IMMIGRATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1923, Page 4

■I JAPANESE IMMIGRATION.

I IGNORES HOKKIADO. FERTILE NORTH ISLAND. CAN HOLD SIX MILLION. (By DREW PEARSON.) SAPPARO, JAPAN. In trying to solve their problem of a surplus population, the Japanese have 1 migrated to all corners of the Pacific, , but have entirely neglected one of the richest islands of their Empire, Hokkiado. Very few Canadians, Australians, or Californians who have economically clashed with the Japanese over emigration, realise that directly north of Honshu, Japan's m.un island, lies the second largest island of Nippon, Hokkiado, which is practically empty. The Japanese Government estimates that six million people could easily make Hokkiado their home. Not only is Hokkiado empty, but it is one of the richest of the Japanese group. It contains great quantities of high grade coal, as yet almost untouched. Its timber supplies most of Nippon's newspapers with its wood pulp, and its iron goes down to South Hokkiado, where it ia transformed into big guns for the Japanese army and navy. That part of Hokkiado, which has been agriculturally developed, supplies the other island* with most of their fruit, cheese and butter. By far the greater part of Hokkiado lies in vast undeveloped stretches of meadow and forest awaiting the settler. -Military railroads built during the Russo-Japanese War, when the island was important strategically, have given Hokkiado a better per capita transportation system than any other Japanese island. And yet Hokkiado has room for six million people. Why has it not been colonised? The chief answer is the Japanese aversion to cold weather. Hokkiado has a climate a little more rigorous than that of Tasmania, and Japanese migrating north have foolishly tried to live in the flimsy bamboo and paper houses of their southland, with the result that hundreds have perished of pneumonia, and thousands have returned south to spread the word through all Nippon that Hokkiado is "dominie" —bad luck. Mention Hokkiado to any Japanese and tie will shrug hit shoulders and comment that "that cold place may be all right for you if you want to go there, but not for him." . INEFFICIENT COLONISATION. In addition to the cold weather, Hokkiado ia empty because the Government has pot carried through an efficient colonisation policy. A British missionary who had lived in this North island ■ during most of his life, told mc that [many Japanese had complained to him of the difficulty and red tape surrounding the task of securing land. .It took such a long time, and so many gratuities to various officials, that only a man of at least moderate circumstances could afford to take up land. Moreover, the average peasant was terrified at the mere thought of filling out the multitudinous application blanks of the Govern- , ment. The latter gave no financial assistance, but on the contrary preferred to sell the land in large tracts to wealthy landlords, who could later relet it on the tenant system. Large areas of land were held by the Crown, not only in Hokkiado, but in the South islands as well. In thia North island, the Japanese Government has made its greatest immigration failure. Certainly the white races of Australasia, the united States and Canada have a right to ask Japan to fill up her own dominions before flooding white countries with surplus people. PROHIBITS CHINESE IMMIGRATION. ] Japan has undertaken colonisation 1 schemes in Siberia, Korea and Manchuria, ( I but all of them have failed for obvious i I reasons. In Siberia it was the intense 1 cold; in Korea it was the unproductive ] soil already burdened with dense popula- i tion; and in Manchuria it was com- , petition with the Chinese. Nowhere j have the Japanese been able to compete i with their neighbours of the Celestial Republic. The Chinese can undercut a ] Japanese in trade, can outlast him at \ unskilled labour, and is more efficient as { an artisan. Because of this Chinese competition, ( Japan allows none of her yellow cousins \ to migrate to her islands. Recently two , thousand Chinese, who had entered under , the guise of merchants, but had forsaken . their trade for coolie labour, were round- , ed up in Tokyo and deported to China. ( Japan, therefore, behaves toward the j Chinese in exactly the same manner in , which Australia, New Zealand, Canada i and the United States act toward her , own nationals. She complains because , we bar her immigrants on the basis that 1 their standard of living is not equal to < ours and we cannot compete with them, j and yet she bare Chinese for the very , same reason. It is significant that many of Japan's more liberal leaders see the fallacy of trying to preach one thing and to \ J practise another. It is an established I fact that Japnn has conscientiously carried out her "Gentlemen's Agreement" with America, and according to the United States Immigration Bureau, more Japanese have left California during the term of this agreement, than have entered. Admiral Baron Kato, Prime Minister : of Japan, made this statement to mc '■ when I questioned him on the policy of a . white Australasia. "Japan has no quarrel with the British I' Empire over the question of excluding | her nationals from Australia and New J Zealand." It is interesting to put alongside : Premier Kato's statement the answers to a similar question which I have asked '. Mr. Massey in New Zealand, and Mr. ; Bruce in Australia. I Mr. Massey, when asked it New ' Zealand would admit the yellow races, i replied most emphatically: — < "We are good friends with the Japan- ] ese and Chinese. We trade with them. . VTe work together all right. But we can't ( lrt them 'nto our country. They know it, and respect our position, so that they are not trying to send emigrants down here. We have the most stringent im- j migration laws in the world. We can co- • operate and work together in external 1 matters, but we cannot co-operate to the I extent of filling up our waste territor- 1 ies with the yellow races." ' Mr. Brace's answer had the same ring of sincerity and conviction. I "Australia does not fear Japan," he 3 said. "She has always been a most i admirable neighbour, and during the war. i performed her part of the treaties in a < most excellent manner, but we must 1 continue our policy of "Whitp Aurtralia." i