INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22584, 24 November 1936, Page 11

INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

CONGESTION IN CITIES EDUCATION OF CHILDREN NATIONALISM AND RELIGION Amazement at the industrial efficiency of Japan was expressed yesterday by Mr. I'. J. Dick, of Auckland, when he returned by the Maunganui from a three months' holiday visit to the East. So remarkable was the congestion of population which had followed in the wake of this industrialisation, said Mr. Dick, that in the small triangular area which could be represented by Auckland, Howick and Pukekohe, there were three great cities, Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto, with a combined population of over 4,000,000. Mr. Dick was also impressed by the educational policy of the Government. Children and adults were being taught loyalty. Their education combined the two forces of nationalism and the national religion, Shintoisrn, or reverence of the Emperor. But while it taught the Japanese pride in their country and contentment in tjieir lot, the Government's educational system did not appear to be resulting in an aggressive nationalism, said Mr. Dick. During his travels he had seen large groups of children, knapsacks on their backs, being taken through the country for the purpose of visiting shrines, historic places and mountains. The children were taken up mountains that were as much as 3000 ft. in height, and received practical education about their country. Another of the favourite means of educating the children in nationalism was to take them to the memorial picture gallery in the grounds of the great Meiji Shrine. Here were collected about 80 pictures in Japanese and European styles, illustrating the principal events in the lives of the .Emperor Meiji and the late Empress Dowager Shoken. All of them, from the catalogue given visitors, seemed to be designed to emphasise the glories of the reigning house. Mr. Dick said he and other European visitors to Japan had met with nothing but the greatest courtesy from police, and he had been allowed to travel freely in many odd corners of the cities he visited.