THE FAR EAST

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1926, Page 4

THE FAR EAST

JAPAN’S LOVE OF ENGLAND

(By HAROLD E. PALMER, Adviser to the Japanese- Ministry of Education, in the London “ Daily Mail.”)

Japan is by far the most pro-British of all foreign countries. That is the impression I have gained during four years spent in intimate contact with all classes of Japanese society in all parts of the. Japanese Empire. Quite recently a Japanese Minister, commenting upon the great strike, observed to me that in England only could such an event be marked by common sense, good lliumour and rea-

sonableness, and that in England only could freedom of speech be permitted without undesirable consequences. The Japanese and British aristocracies have this in common-—that they are reserved and shy and that they are incapable of boasting or of adopting the defensive attitude, for they have nothing to defend. For exactly the same reason both the British and the Japanese are suspected and misunderstood; we are the two nations on earth who are too proud to explain. The modern Japanese samurai liases his conduct on his ideal—the English gentleman. He finds little or no discrepancy between the code of Bushido and that which characterises the Englishman. For the Japanese educated classes the term “ Western Civilisation” is more or less synonymous with the term “British Culture.” The Japanese Press is sympathetic With a broad outlook it discusses British internal and external difficulties as a friend who sees all sides with generous understanding. 'Pile Press deplores the building of the Singapore base. “We have witli- ! drawn our garrisons from China and from Russia,” the Japanese say. “We i have accented the Washington agreement in letter and in spirit. Although we, like Britain, depend oil our navy ; and distant bases, we arc content to adopt a non-aggresive policy, eontract- ; mg rather than expending. Wo have ■ been of humble service to England in the past—can you not trust us to he > as friendly in the future?” In no other , Press do we find such sympathetic i cordiality. I The people are sympathetic. In re- > mote villages and distant countrysides the iim-koper or farmer will respond i to frieiidv advances. “From what ■ country is honourable foreigner? ” And at the reply “ from England ” the react.on is genuine and spontaneous. ■ “I am glad you are from England; > we know you are our friends.”

English is the second language of Japan. When any language other than Japanese is felt to be needed, English is ’that language. All foreigners are assumed to know English; and the Frenchman, German. or Russian going to Japan learns English as apart of his necessary equipment. French is occasional, German is the second language of the medical world, hut English is the foreign language, either in its American guise or, preferably, in its British form. Speaking as an Anglo-Saxon (this

term really 'means Anglo-American) 1 rejoice at this; speaking as the English adviser to the Ministry of Education, I may he permitted to gloat over the bias ins favour of the British variety. But as a iion-Nationalist T should have preferred to see an artificial non-national language of the ldo type (call it Reformed Esperanto) as the second language of Japan. For the same reason I am grieved and glad that the Japanese have adopted the artificial noil-national metric system rather than the “natural” AngloSaxon system weights and measures.

Although .English is the second lang iiage of Japan, strangely enough the Japanese student, instead of learning English, learns merely how to pass a competitive examination ill that weird sort of English which is unknown beyond the foreign class-room. He acquires a sort of expertness in handling subtleties of antiquated idiom; he is told—and believes—that this is tile road to scholarship and Western culture. Hence the English-teaching reform movement, which, incidentally, brought mo to Japan. Prince Chichibu. whom I was privileged to coach in spoken English before his stay in England, J, consider to be a model to the Japanese student of English—a hard worker, conscientious, ready to study English as it is.

A generation ago the Japanese studied English in this spirit. The present generation has tended to study that sort of 'English which exists only in the vain imaginings of pedants. The rising generation is' concerned with English as a means to Western culture in the true sense.