OUTCASTS OF JAPAN

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6545, 29 February 1928, Page 2

OUTCASTS OF JAPAN

BAN DISREGARDS LAW. ORIGIN. -A MYSTERY. , The recent attempt of a private soldier to make a direct appeal to the; Emporor has drawn attention to the. hard lot of the Japanese “Eta,” or outcasts, known nowadays, for reasons! that will be apparent later, as “Sui-; heisha” (literally “Water-level- peO’ pic”)- y .v.: i The soldier in question was a mem-i her of this despised class and had long! been smarting mder tho discriminatory treatment meted <>ut to himself and] his fellow outcasts, both in the Army, and i/r „tvil life. By taking tho unusutf /top of leaving his place in the ranks in order to present a petition to the Emperor in person while the Japanese Ruler was holding a military review at Nagoya, he hoped to ease their lot and have an end put to the insults heaped, upon them. The 1 exact origin of the Japanese outcast class has always been something of a myatery. The most likely explanation however, seems to be that.it is closely connected with Shintoism, a religion which insisted on the avoidance of all impurities, especially defilement by blood, by mutilation, and by death. As blood had to lie shed and the dead buried, a special class of people was set aside for the,performance os such duties. At first no stigma attached to those detailed to these tasks, but in process of time they became objects of contempt and became ostracised’by thoir fellows. In 1871 tho Emjieror Mbiji issued a decree, putting this class of people on an equality -with' other commoners : but, though equal- ly law, they still remain social outcasts in tho eyes' of their countrymen, despite the fact that ethnologically and physically there is nothing to distinguish them from other Japanese and that not a few of them have risen to great wealth. The discrimination complained of is, therefore, social) not legal. Consequently it, is all the more difficult to remove. Members of tho .Eta class, though they may be men of culture: and of moans’, are; debarred from ail social intercourse with those who know them to bo of the outcast class, and intermarriage is virtually unknown, except in instances such as those in which the Eta party to the marriage has hidden his or her' real identity. Sometimes the deception has. been found out later, and this bas been considered just cause for divorce. ' / ' In recent years, however, the outcasts,’ who are said to number between two or three million, have started to assert themselves and to take common action to rid themselves of the stigma under which they labour. The Suiheisha movement, ns it is called, has, in consequence, assumed the proportions of a serious problem. Blood has been spilt on more than one occasion during the past few years in, clashes that have resulted from this movement, and houses have been burned down or otherwise wrecked, by Suiheisha men who have banded themselves together to avenge some real or imaginary insult to bno of their number. So much do these.outcast people resent the contempt shown towards them that nowadays a Japanese newspaper which is foolish enough to refer to thorn, even in friendly terms, by the name of “Eta”—tlie name by which they were always known in former times and which is an offensive term signifying “unclean” —will be straightway visited by Suiheisha representatives with, a demand to apologise or else take tho consequences. Nor is this a mere empty threat. While, therefore, it is true that the members of the outcast class are grossly discriminated against socially, they uro now to “get some of thoir own back.”