REBUKE TO JAPANESE

Southland Times, Issue 19293, 11 July 1924, Page 8

REBUKE TO JAPANESE

PROTEST BY OUTCASTS. AMERICA AND THE NEGROES. (Sun Special). TOKIO, June 25. The Suiheisha Society, with a membership of 3,000,000 descendants of early prisoners of war, and still socially ostracised, has issued a proclamation urging Japan to take the beam out of her own eye before protesting against the American exclusion law. Delegates from this society previously protested to the late American Ambassador. Mr Woods, against the descendants of a people who left England in search of freedom and liberty, now discriminating in their turn against others equally entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. “We hold,” says the proclamation, “that Japan has no reason to protest diplomatically, as she accepted the principle of exclusion in the ‘gentlemen’s agreement,' and also because she has her own discriminatory laws. Before Japan gets angry, she should first free herself from the traditional discrimination against her own fellow-subjects in Japan and in Korea, that they may be placed on an equality and also that she should cultivate humanity toward her neighbour, China.” The descendants of the outcasts express disgust towards the notoriety-seeking antiAmerican agitators in Japan who, they say, do not represent the real nation. They add: “We are ready to sacrifice our lives on the altar of our country, but not in the company of these social robbers.” The society sends the following message to the Americans: —“You led in the formation of the League of Nations, in the name of ..world peace, and then abandoned it like a pair of old shoe®. You cry humanity in the name of Christ, but you stress racial discrimination, thus defiling God Himself. Note, we have a secret to tell you. We are in receipt of a letter in the name of the League of Negroes of America, and seeking material and moral support. “A million negroes living in America and quenching their thirst with American water, are crying out against American oppression and maltreatment. They arc turning to their brothers in this country for sympathy and assistance. Americans in Japan, what do you think of' this ?”