YOUNG JAPAN

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12041, 20 January 1925, Page 5

YOUNG JAPAN

TIDE OF DEMOCRATIC IDEAS :■ . 1 "f ' . ■ ' LIBERALISM RISING IN POPULAR , . ESTIMATION. . • CRITICAL OUTLOOK.. ' ' - .• An Arresting article on “What Young Japan is Thinking About; is written in the New York “Outlook”:by Yusuke Tsurumi, a son-in-law, of:' Viscount Goto. He is a rich, young man - who has turhed his back on commerce .to give his services tb public and patriotic affairs. He- is now livering lectures at all. the great. American universities. • “What Young. Japan ■ is concerned: with'to-day may-'become the guiding ' influences of an dtder. Japan to-mor-row,* and in the long .days-after-to-mor-row;?’ he writes. '■ “Young- men are more susceptible than old men. "In this Tespect Yottag Japan, is not unlike Young America.. In recent years, however,. Young Jap-i, an, unlike Young America; has been: peculiarly affected by thealieninfluV ences-of the outside world. Hefc me try briefly; to describe Bow these influx ences' have affected the mind and thethinking of Young Japan. ' ‘The most- marked impressive-force-came, during • the Great War, •: during, the "first two years not noticeable, but thereafter becoming increasingly felt, and noteworthy. ' With unprecedented'prosperity and new. and, vivid contacts a tide of democratic-.ideas .came flood--ing into the cduntsy, and, ranch to. the, alarm-of the older conservative generationl, spread far back into the estuaries, of. Japanese thought. . - . f . INFLUENCE, OP RUSSIA. . [

“The 'old regime . called these dangerous, ideas, -and- tried, to stamp out.- Their, labours were in'vain. .Young Japan ,liad; begun to catch fire. In this- social ' and political conflagration Professor Nitobo—rwho has lectured in America —and Professor Yoshino -were, the torch-bearers. .

“Then came, a still greater influence, a more: abiding change. The Russian revolution of 1017 madq an impression upon:: the .receptive minds, of; Japanese youth,' already fiarrowed and ploughedby the - progress of the war, which can hardly' be over-estimated.' For,, some time- previously Russian literature had. been widely- appreciated by the inquiring minds of many generations- in the universities, hut after 1917 Russian writers jumped to the first, place in. popularity. Things Russian became the order of . tho day—intellectually, and so socially, politically. “This trend of our young intellectual : world, would no€ have affected- .public opinion in general much, had-it not been reinforced /by the- material' changes which; were taking -place in the country at this juncture. -A business boom, unparalleled in the,history of the country, Was going on. Every form of‘industry and commerce- flourished, The new prosperity 'was ‘ intoxicating. It: made men bold. The demand for every. form of service exceeded the 'supply, and there was,-ac-cordingly, no fear of ; unemployment. Young men,- after-- graduation from, college, were rid'of the nightmare of-job-hunting. Labour ceased to .take thought for to-morrow. ■ With no fear of losing jobs by free expression, all through tho ranks of labour and salaried' employment, . young men began to express themselvei in word and act with* a hew freedom, 'even with -recklessness,

LABOUR STRUGGLES

-■ “Matters soon took, another developing turn, going even'further than the conservative forecasters had apprehended. - .The new democratic ideas gradually assumed a morß* Radical aspect. Socialism began to appeal to the fancy of the'old as well'as the young, men of an awakening japan. ; On,-the ) wake of the business .boom our troubles. For the first; time- in its history Japan began to experience

;the inconvenience of strikes of all ikinds.: At first the demands of the ►malcontents were purely econofnic, hut gradually they invaded < the dbmain of business control; as notably in the cage, of the Kawasaki dockyard (the largest shipbuilding plant in Japan) strike'of lp2l. “In all these struggles of labour, intellectual young Japan was rendering active support. More susceptible by Nature end immaturity to theory than to actual practice, it went a long v ay towards the Socialistic, conception .of life. At this moment new leaders began :to appear on the horizon. Socialistic . writers- Bfce Sakai, Yamaiawa, and the ls-te Osirgi, belonging to the extreme left .wing of Socialism and advocating’ violent measures for the accomplish-u-ent of their nbjeots, increased their ;’.ioid on the -imaginations of , Young Japan, In all rhe. shops and on tie streets ‘hooks- on doeialnsm.'sold thonsfolds, of copies, and Radical .writers for the" many new ' magazines vied. with one'anofher in extreme views. A group in'-the Imperial University organised a society -called ‘Shinjin Kan.’, or ‘The Eccietv ol New Men ' Tbev were chiefly' interested in the new-born Labour nk vosnent and many of 'the- mambere, after! graduation, actively enlisted *ri tho’“ranks -of labour agitators.-- The future careers of these dedicated vun'ng men of the ‘Shinjin Kai’ are to -be'watched with real interest. Some ,oS them.have'already sprung into na{bibndl" jirominencc. - ; V LABOUR-SOCIALIST SPLIT.

' “Socialism, bound up as it was wi£& Life Labour movement did not develop tmoothly - A break, came, weakening whatKwas beginning to assume the proportions of a formidable political development, The panic of the spring -of 1620, and the- following period of de. jnessien'{nought-'the pendulum. '• hack agiin-.'; Wages dropped, and many factories had to go ont of business, Lab-bhr-became, under these chastening influences, less and less arrogant:-. ally, in 1921: the Labourites, : n whose rdnks Socialistic influence had been -gradually waning parted company with .the. Socialists, and the Laibour groups thenceforth' took on a distinctively tpad-e-ariiorustic aspect. , . “This changing oharaoter of the Labour movement coinciding -mill a change in the political attitude -of Young Japan. In 1920 the eager spirits had had no patience with the less dynamic doctrines of a. Slowly developing' Liberalism, but less than tw/f years , later tehey 'began to swing around again to the former ideas, of a Liberal demo, hi acy .’which antedated' thoßussian influence: . v f

“With this change-in Hhe general trend of ideas came. a corresponding substitution j of intellectual - leaders. The bare economic ' interpretation of life, never really adaptable.to: Japanese temperament, gayq,place gradually to. .a more: idealistic. theory, and -the more idealistic Liberal tliinkers begdn to' rise it popular estimation.' It Was at ■'his period vhat writers like Aririma, Kurata, and Kagawa reached the quickly won height of their'influence and Professor Yoshino’s sane counsels began again to count with Young Japan.