SOME LESSONS FROM JAPAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12609, 25 June 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOME LESSONS FROM JAPAN.

hit TOHUNGA.]

It there is one thing in the .worlds which we Britishers admire more than anything else it is success, and in our admiration for the manner lin which the • little Jap is hustling the big Russian out of Manchuria we are inclined to think that he can teach even us a thing or two,, from the way to bottle up war correspondents to the way to get rid of unsuccessful "generals.. : By the way, : is it fair to Wonder if it is a t > part of; our (Britisher character always ..to,be desperately afraid of something or , somebody ?,j.; We ; really do not seem to be able to enjoy ourselves without a bugbear, possibly because we know that a state of perfect security (' and happiness is always but the prelude to ruin and despair. Without going .back too far, we have the Spaniard with ! his black priests and ! torturers making every English villager look glum and then the Frenchman, with bis Bastille, 'and then " Boney," who was the incarnation of all evil, and then the Russian, with his Siberia and his knout and his infernal autocracy. All bubbles! Including Napoleon himself.-'? The priest-ridden Spaniard was wabbly in the knees, and went clean over the ropes ;• at the very first round. ■The men who 'Submitted to the Bastille could ? - hold neither ' India "> nor! ■' Canada. "Boney" turned and fled /the moment he saw Bill Adams;; And here is the Russian actually being kicked into Siberia by an undersized ; little fellow, - who isn't* even white. There be our bugbears, 0 Britishers ! ; Yet set insistent is our national habit that we are already \ hard " at \ work manufacturing another bugbear out -of the unrlersisscd little coloured fellow. We fancy that when he has finished kicking the Russian he will turn round 'and kick at us. (And for a people that " has so v far managed to give a rjpretty good account of itself we are amazingly afraid of being jumped on. We always were. ?"■" " j -■ j

Wliy are we so afraid?: "Is it because our nation got very badly frightened in its national infancy, or because we were individually hushed:; to ! sleep" with those pleasant British allusions to; the man out- • side the window and the black man under the bed. Probably the latter, : for when you "coma to think about it you will immediately call to; mind that our national mania for having a bugbear only reflects our .individual(prepossession. Every true Britisher has a little "bugbear" of his own ; he would be quite unhappy if he (were not convinced that some one persoa, 5 policy, or thing is absolutely ruinous to himself and to nis country. The joy and delight; which we gain through our bugbears would be lost if we were humorous enough to -laugh at ourselves. Fortunately we are not. ■We only laugh at (the : other fellow. And so we keep our interest in the: casual things <of life and persuade ourselves that protectionists are unscmpulous villains and freetraders designing knaves, that brewers are Machiavellian schemers and prohibitionists crtiy fanatics,, that freeholders (are iusatiable land-grabbers and leaseholders envious ignoramuses, world without end, amen. , Or'/we: are satisfied that the Joneses will stop at no crime to place their puddingfingered Mary, (oh the * organ-seat of our church, or ; that Mrs. Smith is putting in her existence persuading Mrs. Vere de Vere to ibe uncivil." With an infinite number .of other bugbears, each different to the other, which prevent us from feeling that this is 'the best (of fall possible worlds. . And we never laugh at ourselves individually any more than we laugh at ourselves nationally. It all seems too important : and too serious, at least at the time. Though we are beginning to,smile a little at the retcollection that we were actually afraid .that . the; Russians might some fine evening -stop -us getting home to Devon port, .unless we trained to Henderson, and walked round by JRiverhead. ' However, this is a little away from the question of the lessons we may learn from the Jap, who has presumably something (to teach us, seeing that he wins, sitting still. Lesson number one .-. is that rice is all that is -necessary, to the production of a strong and muscular and 'intelligent people —which lesson the seventh sous of seventh sons may see with prophetic eye adopted in the far future. in those halcyoni days Japanese ( instructors may, teach us ...;,, how to pack ourselves on paddy fields and not to go wasting; good land on dairy, cows. The Ooromahdel rpeninsuia will bold the couple of million Europeans, and > Eangitoto the couple of thousand Maoris, leaving the rest of the colony for a couple lof score million Japs, with rice enough for ps all and twelve hours' work a day for everybody. Then the New Zealander will t look ; back with scorn and contempt upon the lazy, muttoneating, butter-making ancestors who did not know what could be done on rice, arid who really imagined that beef-steaks transmogrified themselves into muscle, and that the pink skin was something to brag about. Lesson number one: Rice, and very little of that. A hard lesson truly, yet one which our colonial workmen may be confidently depended upon to learn— our professional men nave set the example.

And lesson number? two is just as hard: That if things go wrong in this world you should try your luck in the next. This is .'; apparently the keystone of Japanese philosophy as submission to the inevitable is the keystone to our own. One says the lesson is "hard," not. because there isn't in every roan's nature the tendency to shuffle off this mortal coil, but because it is opposed to most of our prejudices and to all of our beliefs. The Britisher, not to say merely the Christian, regards suicide as one of the cowardices rathe* than, as one of the wickednesses, as prima facie evidence of insanity, because in a sane man it would be too shocking to consider possible. Before the idea of insanity occurred to us we buried the self-slain at crossloads, ostracising even their bones from human society. And if there are the inevitable difficulties which prevent universal agreement when a Solomon asks: : "Under such-and-such circumstances is not; suicide permissible?" we compromise them all on the basis that only when one's best friend and nearest relative would not hesitate to be executioner can suicide be nncondemned. In the fullest meaning of the words, we all acknowledge that God" has set His canon against self-slaughter. And the Jap says it is just the other way. There are other lessons, of course, one at least as opposed to our feminine ideals as the eating of rice' and twelve hours' work a day is to our social ideals, and as opposite to oui religious convictions ' as is the laudation of suicide. But there is the hard fact that the Jap is a conquering race; and we are told that he is chosen to redeem Asia, so we may suppose that his national ideals are chosen also. . The Psalmist of the five-meal, meat-fed men, with his men who endure to the uttermost and bis women who set love among the stars, can step down from the music-gal-lery. We should sing henceforth of the courage of the rice-eater and of the sublime individual wh<* ripped himself up the moment things went wrong. But, perhaps, unpopular as it may be to suggest it in these days of Japanese triumph, the lesson to be learned is that, when all is said and done, the Jap is only a coolie after all. Is it not possible that the custom of suicide has been fostered and established because the little brown fellow has no heart wherewith to rise from I defeat and overthrow, that he must win, must succeed, or must fling up the sponge ! and commit harikari? While we make it j our boast not that we always conquer, but that we are never more fit for victory than when everything appears lost. It is when Japanese heroes shut themselves in their cabins and kill . themselves that British heroes set their teeth and submit—to get the foe at handgrip. It is when even honour is lost, when disgrace embitters defeat, and there is no hope visible, that the most worthless and disreputable Britisher shakes himself -together and climbs to Valhalla by unforeseen ways. But to suicide! That may suit the Jap and may be a lesson in conduct for us. But it may also show that flaw in their•-■ character which at_ the [■ touch of fortune may turn a casual check [ into irretrievable disaster.