JAPAN'S POOR BEGINNING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10671, 21 January 1911, Page 2

JAPAN'S POOR BEGINNING.

It is too early to pass harsh judgment on Japan's administration of Korea, pleads a Japanese writer who frankly admits that Japan has made something of a mess of it in Korea so far. England has not produced an Eden in India or Egypt, after many years of control, while Japan has been administering Korea only three years, this writer reminds us. "It woukl have been truly wonderful," says Mr Kyoshi K. Kawakami, in the Taiyo (Tokio), "if the Japanese could have in three years put every part of the intricate machinery of the Korean administration in perfect working order," and he adds with a touch of Oriental sarcasm: "It was not given them to work such a miracle." Perhaps their critics could have done better. He adds: — "Indeed we cannot help blushing when we reflect how little we have contributed toward the betterment of conditions in Korea, after such critics as. Alfred Stead held us out before the Western public as the model of 'national efficiency.' " The problem which faces the Mikado's Government, he says, is "how to teach men of another race voluntarily to accept and assimilate a superior civilisa-. tiou imposed on them from without." It is the same question which America is trying to solve in the Philippines, and England in India and 1 Egypt. He admits that Koreans have been oppressed and'outraged by certain Japanese immigrant^— greedy "carpet-bag-gers" and money-lenders or low-class laborers, but it is not the Japanese Government that is to blame. _One method of fleecing the Korean consisted in lending him money on mortgages for sums much below the value of his rice lands, yet bearing high interest and made for short periods; so that, when, the debtor failed to pay on the fixed date, the creditor lost no time in foreclosing the mortgage: "■ _ "Not less reprehensible was the conduct of low-class, laborers. Puffed up by the notion that their country vanquished one of the greatest military Powers of Europe,, they vented their arrogance- and' contempt for- the Koreans by bullying arid bluster. They apparently believed that they were by right of conquest, entitled to handle their native neighbors as they pleased. It never dawned upon them that their acts were calculated to hinder the good work of the Residency-General by alienating the sympathy of the natives ,as well as of foreign nations. Had it not been for the detestable conduct of this, riffraff, Japanese rule in Korea would not have been' made the target of scathing criticisms." A better class of Japanese settlers, however, are gradually taking up their residence in Korea, and they are thus described:— "As the country resumes its normal condition, and as the Japanese, authorities settle down to the arduous task of internal reforms in Korea, the objectionable element of the Japanese population there is gradually being weeded out, while the newcomers from Japan are of a law-abiding, industrious class, following their trades, peaceably and legitimately without trespassing upon the rights of their native neighbors." This Japanese writer asks the public to wait awhile before passing final sentence on the administration of Japan. t Rome was not built in a day, and only the? prelude of the great annexation drama has yet been performed.. "The last five years of the Korean administration have been unsatisfactory" ; but "let us see the following performance and criticise it." He admits Japan's "sad failure in Korea," and believes that what^Japan is going to-do she could have done very well if she "had been ; wiser and stronger, under the former form of Japanese protectorate/' He declares frankly: "It is sad to review the history of .failure' during the last five years; only one good result I may gain from such an exposure is to convince you that we have never played the role of hypo.crite for the Korean affairs. We do not think that the annexation was a diplomatic triumph; as I said before, it is only the true confession of our sad failure in Korea."

K "Now the prelude, long and tedious, is over,' and we feel ashamed that we could not show any art in it. But pray, give usTilme; we might do better, in the real performance! It is just now beginning."One great drawback in dealing with Koreans, both in business and litigation, springs from the fact that the Japanese merchants and lawyers do not know the language of Korea and have to employ the service of interpreters, often the lowest and basest of rogues, who pervert the truth to their own profit. The Japanese Government is doing its best to find out and deport any such undesirable immigrants. The regulations at present in force are thus characterised: "These regulations authorise the local Japanese merchants to take official cognisance of any Japanese who may have no fixed abode or means of livehood, 'or who is guilty of unruly behaviour or intemperate language. Further, in selling or purchasing property or articles, as well as employing labor, the regulations forbid any undue depreciation or appreciation of price by means of violence, threats, or fraud. They also prohibit any person from obtaining repayment of a loan by acts of intimidation, deception, or restrain of the debtor's personal liberty; from lending money or articles at usurious rates of interest; and from engaging in agency work for an exorbitant commission. Any Japanese violating these provisions is liable to a fine of from 50 yen to 100 yen (£5 to £10) or to imprisonment in term from three months to one year." While this candid and conscientious writer readily admits the faults and deficiencies of the Mikado's Government in their of Korea, he also blames the new subjects of Japan, without, howeSrer, specifying their faults. He concludes with a bitter reflection on the Koreans and a pessimistic estimate of Japan's outlook in her new possessions, and declares: "I think nobody ruins Koreans hut the Koreans themselves. And I have no hesitation to declare that such are not interesting people at all to welcome ■as our brothers. There is nothing dearer than failure; I am afraid "that we are 'going -to pay an extraordinarily high price for our failure of the Japanese protectorate in Korea. Optimism, is always healthy, but you know that pessimism often tells more truth."