THE JAPANESE SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3028, 15 March 1917, Page 3

THE JAPANESE SPIRIT

THROUGH A MISSIONARY'S BYES. "Tho Japanese have most certainly built up tho military spirit of the nation to au astonishing degroe, Rnd, in doing so, havo taken Germany as a pattern, just as tlicy have made tho British Navy their ideal in naval matters," sdys tho Rev. W. Mawson, Presbyterian missionary from China, who knows Japan fairly well. "From their earliest infancy Japanese children aro taught to revere their Emperor as. part of their religion. That is embodied in Shintoism. And likewise it has inculcated into them from tho beginning that there is. no more glorious end than to die for their country, which is precisely the spirit the Prussians have sought to instil into the German nation." Mr. Mawson believes that Japan has already been repaid for the help she has given Russia in respect to the supply of munitions of war by cession nf territory in Manchuria and Saghalien, whilst at tho same timo Japan was keeping a watchful eye on China, possibly, perhaps, with a view to establishing a suzerainty over tbat country similar to that of England in India. Mr. Mawson was in Shanghai about tho timo the late Yuan Shili Kai was making a bid for Emperorship, and ho was surprised to see so many Japanese there—smart young men of military hearing, who apparently had little or nothing to do. /Then a Japanese General arrived on 'tho scene. Had the crisis it was his firm opinion that tho Chinese would have found a trained .Tapancso Army on tlie spot, prepared for any eventuality.