JAPANESE NATIONALISM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16823, 23 August 1920, Page 10

JAPANESE NATIONALISM.

CULT OF EMPEROR [WORSHIP.

(Bv Dr. J. Ingrain Bryan, in Sydney Morning Herald.)

TOKIO, Juno -1

Amid the widespread unrest and political discord coming as an aftermath of the liar, when impatient democracy seems bent on enforcing an unnatural levelling process with almost Bo*lshevik ruthlesuwss and unreason, Japan scouts danger to her ancient clan system still in vogue behind the scenes in' government and custom, on the maintenance of which the ruling classes strangely fancy the security of Uio Etaio°to* rest. That there is reason for some degree of apprehension no one laminar with the circumstances can doubt. With the strongholds of prosline and tradition m Europe shattered ami the old bureaucracies scattered to the winds, rath waves of anarchy sweeping through Siberia and China up to tlie very shores oi Japan, there cannot but be fears lor the future. Moreover the masses of Japan are beginning to see what bureaucracy and the divine rio'at of rulers did fur Germany and Austria, as well as Russia; and they have icccnilv mauilestod anew thengrowing aversion Lorn the old class systeinof the country by a demand tor universal .suliiv.ge. that precipitated dissolution ot the imperial Diet. Thu scandalous profiteering of tho war vears, on which the bureaucratic forces arc assumed by the public to have battened, has leit a null wider gulf between’ tho rich and the poor, and dered vei more acute the revolt against ail born to privilege. Approval of this tendency in any degree is regarded by the authorities as a symptom of dangerous thought, and every means is being adopted to keep down the lid on the boding cauldron. It boils over here and there, nevertheless. and the added disaffection of industry is echoed m iiicreasihg numbers of strikes' as well as in a permeating spirit of sabotage. Tho lacier is a new feature of industrial unrest in Japan, and comes very natural to a people averse to the rushing spirit of the age. The situation has not been improved by the iinnucuil panic recently experienced in Japan, leading to numerous business failures, throwing thousands of hands out oi employment*. But Japan has an unexampled system ot Imperial polity that has per- ! gisled through the centuries unbroken; her shores have never been invaded, and she has never been beaten in war. Therefore, she mast be right; and any evil that arises is due wholly to extraneous causes.’ Yet one can see that there is some degree of apprehension as to the security ol the fundamental ideas underlying' Japan's civilisation. It is a system in which the Emperor is the father and the people are ilje children ; ideally democrauc, to he sure, but m actual practice the elder brothers of tho family encircle the Throiie, enjoy ‘.superior rights, while the mass of the children feel rather orphaned. The nobles regard themselves a? the bulwark of the Throne ; and the masses resent this assumption, and its consequent separation" of -tho people from their Emperor. They claim as great a dSgreO of loyalty to the Thi'ouo as the nobles, and in time of wav they are the nation’s main fighting force and protection. The situation becomes more strained when it is seen that in order to enhance their position as protectors of the Imperial House the nobles are promoting a rabid nationalism, which lias its foundation in Emperor worship. It is believed that ns long ns the masses continue to venerate the Imperial house they will support the nobles as the inside guardians of the Imperial tradition. For th.is purpose in every school the Department of Education has a portrait of the Emperor for the veneration of the children at stated times. To bring tins spirit to a head a grand shrine is being erected in Tokio at an outlay of some six million yen. where the spirit of the Emperor Neiji is to he worshipped. The late Sovereign, having been the most popular and illustrious in many centuries, becomes the most fitting one for apotheoisation ; and to this shrine the thousands of the Empire will Hock to offer that worship on which tho safety of the Empire ami the honour of the -Imperial house are believed to depend. Not only so, but all persons accepting high office under tho Government have forthwith to proceed to the Imperial shrine at Ise, and do .homage to the spirits of the Imperial ancestors. And the individual docs this whether he bo a Buddhist, Shintoist, Christian agnostic, or nthiest. In some cases it savours of in .si m erirv.

Thus the cult of Emperor worship, which some supposed to bo on the, decline, is making strenuous efforts for perpetuation in Japan, So long as the masses can regard it as evidence of a gemnno regard for a divine Hue of rulers on tlie part of its promoters, well and good; but the moment, the idea gains force that it is being utilised to maintain the position and privileges of the nobles and the bureaucracy, the temptation to dangerous thought will enter. The habit of sheltering official veniality behind the skirts of the Throne is becoming perilously common. and subjects of a different' faith find themselves exposed to suspicion of disloyalty.