THE AWAKENING OF ASIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 6 December 1924, Page 15

THE AWAKENING OF ASIA.

A VITAL PROBLEM. JAPANESE MIGRATION. THE QUESTION OF DISCRIMINATION. The excrilsion of Japanese immigrants into America has given rise to much ill-feeling and resentment. In the Morning Post Dr. Bryan, who has lived in Tokio for sixteen years, analyses the whole problem of Asiatic immigration, and refers to the present dangerous unrest and its causes.

linmigration is at present one of the most pressing as well as one of the most menacing of world problems. To the nations that are suffering from density of population it is essential as a relief to congestion: for mankind must have room to breathe and grow, or the inevitable consequence will b« facial and national. deterioration and decay; and, if faced with risk of death either way, nations prefer to die fighting for the right to live rather than acquiesce -in slow decline from congestion of population. Density of population in England Would be much more menacing than it is if there were no Dominions and colonies, where the surplus could find vent. For many years density of population in Europe, and to some extent in Asia, has found relief by migration to the United States and British territories overseas, but now Canada, America, and Australia have closed their doors against Asiatic immigration, and greatly restricted that from Europe, so that in tiriie a danger point will be reached if relief be not afforded. Iri this connection, however, tlie largest element of danger lies in relations between East and West; for the West, particularly the New World, is, comparatively speaking, very sparsely while the East is everywhere approaching congestion. Asia, especially Japan, feels the sam© profound resentment that England would if, with her present density of population, she had no Dominions overseas, and all the thinly-populated spaces of the earth were closed against her people by those who could not even inhabit them themselves. While the Oriental millions lay in their age-long slumber the Occident was active jn promotion of invention, industry, and the acquirement of territory, and when Asia’s millions awake to avoid suffocation the vent for immigration has been shut off. The four hundred millions 'of China are being aroused from national inertia, and the sullen murmur of the resentment against Occidental restriction is already heard across the Pacific. Races of greater alertness and ambition, like the Indians and the Japanese, now keenly conscious of the rights of men, are not easily held in leash, and demand not only autonomy at home, but freedom for their nationals to go abroad. Having studied the immigration question carefully in Canada, America, arid the Far East, I feel that the present indifference of the Englishspeaking peoples to a question pregnant .with such dangerous possibilities is as unrighteous as it is unwise. And this is particularly true. of ourselves ; for the majority of British subjects are coloured people, and England*. stands or falls in relation to the coloured races of the world. UNREST.

All through Asia to-day there surges an ungovernable spirit of unrest, a seething animosity against the white races. The racial question no less than the spirit of self-determination is at the heart of the problem. The soul of Asia sees visions and dreams, but Asia regards these as possible of realisation. Asia believes that the brown and the yellow man once ruled the world. Only in recent years, since the fall of the Roman Empire, has the white man begun to gain the ascendancy. But it cannot be within the will of the gods that two or three hrindred million white men shall dominate the nine hundred million brown and yellow people of Asia. No; the brown and the yellow man will come to his own again some day and resume rule of the world, as tlie majority has the right to do. Such is the aspiration of the races that populate the largest of the world’s continents.

For long years the difficulty was that Asia was hopelessly without leadership to contend against the increasing aggression of the West. Then a great thing suddenly happened, changing the entire situation from an Oriental point of view. On May 27, 1905, Japan defeated Russia: it was the first tiine that a brown and a yellow race proved superior to what was then thought to he ohe of the greatest of the white races. From that moment a thrill of hope _ shot through the heart of Asia’s millions, which has gone on increasing ever since, until to-day it is difficult of restraint. Asia looks'to Japan as her potential leader in tlie fight far freedom. Already Japan speaks in the name of Asia, and as such has been accorded a seat of equality among the great nations at all the important international conferences since the Eurpean war. JAPANESE POLICY.

Japan’s policy is to eliminate racial discrimination between East and West She is bound to resist the attitude of the English-speaking nations on the immigration question. and all Asia is behind the resistance. As a matter of principle alone, Japan is compelled to oppose any legislation that obviously discriminates against her nationals in favour of immigrants from other countries. Having lived for sixteen years among the -Japanese people, X know that on this question they unanimously believe their position to be absolutely just. It is in Japanese opinion an insult to national honour and racial pride, as well as a denial of the most-favoured-nation clause in all Japan’s international treaties, and therefore a contravention of treaty rights, to single out Japanese subjects for exclusion from countries with which she has treaty relations. As a leading Japanese publicist recently said: “To be treated as a race inferior to the immigrants from Central Europe is a disgrace more intolerable for the Japanese people than the loss of a colony/ 5 But if Japan feels obliged to protest as a matter of justice and principle, she feels equally compelled to protest as a matter of policy, for her population is increasing at the rate of nearly three-quarters of a million ann?alLv“ aTld .already. with a population of 01 ,000,GOO/ the density of populatvnn is over 360 to the squai'e mile although the area of Japan is lar«-e’ nearly .three-quater s of the country are mountainous, so that the arable area is too small to support so great a nopulation. Japan requires 350,000 000 bushels of rice each year to feed her peonle, and at present from 20 to 30 million bushels of thi s have to be imported. Mv own conviction is that Japan’s main hope is a greater industrial development, alreadv mentioned so as to employ her people at home

rather than to depend on finding room for them abroad. IMMIGRANTS’ SKILL.

In view of the principles and the policy above indicated, Japaimfinds it hard - to be refused admission for her people in lands that claim her friendship and yet have plenty of room for immigrants from Europe. There is no doubt that Japanese immigrants would prove of great material benefit to some of the territories from which it is now excluded. The 350,000,000 acres controlled by the Japanese in California is the most highly productive and best cultivated land in the State, compared with what is was when the Japanese took it. As market gardeners none can compete with them. Thus the Japanese think they are being discriminated against for their virtues rather than their vices. The Japanese, if allowed to go into the State of Louisiana, would soon make it a paradise of cultivated prosperity compared with its present undeveloped condition. Arid the same may be said of North Australia, where the climate does not encourage the white man to remain, but offers ideal inducement to the tropic-loving Japanese.

Not only do Japanese immigrants work harder arid prosper more than their rivals, thus creating a competition which the easy-going European immigrant dislikes, but they are very clannish, create their own villiage life, and often control the market, as may be seen in the case of the Potato King of California, who is a. Japanese. The total number of Japanese in the United States , is "-not more than 110,000, of whom about three-quaters are in California, a State that has a. density of only 22 to the square mile. - Restrictions on immigration have brought the annual infux of Japanese to America down to between five and six thousand, while births provide some four thousand more. Hitherto the extent of immigration from Japan to America has been left to the’ decision of the Japanese Government, 'in accordance with what has been known as the Gentleman’s Agreement, which avoided discrimination against the Japanese in thus leaving the matter in their own hands. But the recent legislation abolishes this agreement and enacts a new severe law excluding Japanese immigrants, Students' and business men are free to come and go as they please, but labourers are prohibited. AN ECONOMIC PROBLEM. What the Japanese fails to understand is that the legislation against their immigrants to Canada, America, and Australia is not based on racial discrimination, but is looked upon' as a necessary protection of civilisation from the deterioration it would appreciably suffer from free competition with Asiatic labour and civilisation. Though the' Japanese can hardly be expected to regard it in this way, it is really an economic and to some extent a moral question. For how can a people working 8 hours a day, 51 days a week, on high wages, agreeably compete with a people working 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days in the week, on low wages?. Two such civilisations cannot meet and mingle oh even terms without one coming down to the level of the other, or the lower rising to the standard of’the higher.

Japan does not, of Course, deny the right of any nation to regulate and limit the number of immigrants, or even exclude the nationals of other countries. What she cannot approve is the principle of racial discrimination in a measure that prefers European to Japanese nationals. It lias been shown above how this impasse has been avoided in the past by the Gentleman’s Agreement which President Roosevelt entered into with Japan in 1907. This Agreement worked well, arid orily of late has any reflection been thrown upon it. The charge has been made that more Japanese have been finding their way to America than the passports show, hut for this Japan is not responsible. Of the 220,000 Japanese who have entered America during the past century at least half have returned home, leaving the number in America no more than 110,000, as already indicated. Neither the number in the country, nor those entering it through birth and immigration are such as to cause alarm. But the competition and the claim of the Japanese to rights of citizenship and land-ownership, both claims rejected by the American courts, have aroused public opinion in America to the dangers of Japanese aggresion, especially as land-ownership is not conceded to aliens in Japan, While over 350,000 acres in California are controlled by Japanese, a privilege that would not be accorded Americans in Japan. Japan admits all this, but contends that it is their nationals being singled out for discrimination in favour’of Europeans that demands a protest. Another thing the Americans do not relish is that while Japanese born in that country have been claiming rights of citizenship, the Japanese Government has been insisting on their being registered at the Japanese consulates as Japanese citizens, and this in American feyes looks like an attempt to gain dual nationality, a difficulty the United States had to deal with in the case of Germans during the war. It js true the new legislation in America to which Japan objects does not discriminate against the Japanese by name, but simply excludes immigrants cot eligible for American citizenship. As the Chinese and Indians W c €re i'£? ady excluded by the legislation of 1904 and 1917 respectively the Japanese can only infer'that the present measure is directed at- them Japan cannot hut feel that so abrupt a displacement of the Gentlemen’s Agreement is a want of confidence in and a reflection on her method of carrying out the agreement. But it is obviously not against Japan only fo>the same percentage of exclusion applies to all Asiatics; the only change that Japan is placed in th e same category with India and China, and the management of immigrants from Japan is placed m American hands instead of beintr left to the Gentlemen’s Aerce ment managed by Japan.

chnVm ! he En sbsb-speaking countries should have and no doubt have erery sympathy with Japan’s effort to nmt V Z fOT T' pll,S Population, it must be remembered that their ex°f 1 J l apanes '? immigrants affects CP.L r 6 aboi V class - a nd that this class from whatever country. i s excluded from Japan itself. '' "