THE MEIJI ERA.

Shannon News, 13 September 1929, Page 3

THE MEIJI ERA.

JAPANESE ADOPTION OF WESTERN IDEAS.

Japan is about half as large again as New Zealand. It consists of a chain of islands, with a total length of 2000 miles, but less than 100 miles in width. Only a small portion of its area can be cultivated, because the country is vdry mountainous. It is interesting to note that the formation of the islands is not yet finished, for Japan is still slowly rising from the Pacific, with a movement so gentle that the strata in. large sections remain perfectly level. The wide and fruitful plain around Tokio was, only a few hundred years ago, a vast inlet of the ocean. The place where the second city of the Empire, Osaka, now stands was part of a beautiful inland sea, some "four hundred years ago. There are bluffs in the northern part of Japan, 200 feet high, .to the tops of which fishermen used to fasten their boats. These and many other facts about the island empire were given by the Rev, Wm. Beckett, Levin W.E.A. tutor, in his eighth lecture on "International Eolations," which is summarised below.

RAPID GROWTH OP POPULATION The population of Japan has risen from 33 million in 1872 to between 70 and 80 million at the present time, and her annual increase is over 800,000. Japanese civilisation had its origin in Asia, if not in Africa; more particularly in China, and to a lesser degree in India, through Buddhism, which was early introduced. The very earliest elements of civilisation in Japan were probably of Mongolian, Malayan_ or Egyptian origin, rather than Chinese. The latter influence was not distinctly traceable until after the Christian era. Notwithstanding the claims of Japanese scholarship to the contrary, there is grave doubt whether Japan had any knowledge of writing before she learned it from China. In the rise and development of civilisation in Japan, the clan exercised a greater influence at first than the central Government itself. Perpetuation of the famjly came to be one of the most important of social and even of religious duties. Everv family had to produce a male heir to become its head; boys enjoyed a social and religious advantage over girls, and this still obtains to some extent. In a civilisation where all images were those of deities, that of the ruler, himself regarded as divine, was sacrosanct, as it still is, for even now in Japan the Imperial image is not allowed oil postage stamps, lest it should be treated with irreverence. Experts in weaving, pottery, and painting were constantly imported from China, at first, for religious purposes, but later for embellishing the establishments of the great. mrrr INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY In 1549 .Francis Xavier, the great Christian missionary, and his . party, brought the light of the Christian gospel to Japan. The first impressions of Xavier were: "They are a people that have a disposition towards righteousness and towards progress, and as they are fond of learning and have good, sound discrimination, they attentively listen to our preaching concerning God and His teaching. In 1638 Christianity wa 3 proscribed. All foreigners were expelled save the Dutch, who were allowed part of an island because they had helped the shogun (soldier caste) to expel the Spanish and Portuguese. All who failed to obey the deportation order were executed. Suspicions began to arise that the advent "of the foreigner was the beginning of national -aggression. .

The first Englishman to arrive in Japan was Will Adams, a pilot-major in a Dutch East Indiaman, who was cast ashore in' 1600. The ruling caste of the shogun treated him well and used him to teach European shipbuilding and as a source of general information on European affairs. In time the British East India Company despatched ships to Japan, and there was a British factory in the country from 1613 to 1623, when it was closed through failure to compete with the Dutch. RELATIONS WITH OUTSIDE WORLD.

Many American seamen had from time to time been wrecked on the shores of Japan and some had been barbarously treated and even murdered. The Washington authorities, determined to put a stop to this, despatched a fleet under Commodore Perry in 1853, to open the doors of Japan to more friendly intercourse and at least conclude an agreement guaranteeing protection to United States nationals. America's four warships awoke Japan out of her 250 years' sleep. At the same time Commodore Perry handed to the Japanese Government a gift of two hithertj unknown examples of modern sciencemodels of the telegraph and of the railway. After a year's official procrastination, Perry returned with eight warships and four thousand soldiers. Japan saw that she must yield. The Shogun, as the ruler was then called, was compelled to conclude an agreement Avith the United States. Other foreign nations soon arrived to claim and receive smilar privileges, and in a few years foreigners began to pour into Japan, even before it was quite safe for them to be there. From 1854 to 1868 there was constant friction between foreigners and Japanese, for the treaties with Western nations were almost universally unpopular. So wrought up was the nation that both foreigners and Japanese were assassinated, including the Shogun's Prime Minister, who had committed the unpardonable offence of signing agreements with foreign, nations without either the Imperial sanction or imprimatur. But Japan awoke, hating for a time those who had rudely aroused her, but fully determined to learn all that her supposed enemies could teach her. She .sent out her young men to see with their own eyes what the outside world had to teach and to me their newly acquired knowledge for Japan. The first to leave Japan was Neesimi Jo, and he took this brave step when

' the penalty for leaving the country was death. Other young men followed, and fhen embassies of distinguished Japanese were sent abroad. Their eyes were opened to the power and value of the civilisation of the West, so they, with kindred spirits, undertook the stupendous work of bringing Japan out of the isolation and the feudalism of caste into international intercourse, constitutional government, universal education and equality before the law. THE NEW ERA. The royal abode was changed from Kyoto to" Tokio, and the Meiji era, or .era of enlightenment, was ushered in by an epoch-making proclamation, in which it was declared that "State affairs shall be decided by a deliberative assembly," and "Knowledge shall "be sought for throughout the whole world. The Meiji Revolution of 1867 ushered iii modern Japan. The spokesman of the new order was Pukuzawa, who gave a popular interpretation of things Western. He was also the leader of Japan's spiritual progress in the early years of the Meiji. He was the nation's teacher, and a great pamphleteer —over three million copies of his larger volume on learning were sold. Another student of Western'culture was Nakamura, who perceived that at its core was a spiritual factor which could not be ignored. He was a true scholar and an earnest disciple of Jesus, and appealed to the Emperor t 0 become a Christian.

In the truly wonderful renaissance that has marked the course of Japanese civilisation during the last halfcentury, the English language has been the chief medium, not only in the way of books and papers, but also through instructors using English speech —English i s now regarded as the commercial and diplomatic language of the East. Its influence on Japanese character and culture has been very marked. In the greater number, of national higher schools, English is compulsory, and nearly all the higher officials in Government, civil service, education, inxlustry, commerce and professions speak it. The influence of English literature

is easily traceable in the literature of niode>n Japan, no less than in the vernacular. Refoims followed quickly, and absolutely dazzled the world. Prisons were reformed. Lighthouses rose on the coast-line. The post and telegraph systems were modernised. Medi'cal and engineering colleges were founded. Newspapers were published. Banks were opened, and a mint built for coinage. Colleges, schools, educational institutions of all sorts sprang up. All this time the Mikado had no army, and one cannot but admire the loyalty of his subjects. Sir Harry Parker was British Consul in Japan in 1865, and he gave great assistance in the promoting of trade relations and much Avise counsel. It is said that Great Britain gave Japan her naval officers and engineers, France gave her her army officers and legal reforms, the United States gave

her education and postal reform, and Germany gave her science, especially medicine, "immediately after, the Revolution of 1868, it was decided to transfer the national capital to Yedo, which had practically been the seat of government for some time, and the name was 'changed to Tokio. In 1871 an order was issued to all the feudal lords to leave their estates and go to Tokio and settle there. Japan now entered on her path of modern progress.

MILITARY OPERATIONS. Japan set about adopting her military system on European lines. She overcame great difficulties in developing her army and building up her wonderful navy! But it was done in such an effectual manner that they gained a speedy victory over China in 1895, and rendered invaluable aid to the Allied troops in their march to Peking in 1900, and won every battle against Russia in 1904-5 on land and sea, driving the opposing army out of Korea and Southern Manchuria and destroying or capturing about all of Russia's navy The whole world was at this unparalleled series of victories that made Japan one of the half-dozen Great Powers of the world. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance did not automatically bring Japan into the Great War, as is generally supposed. Japan was out to lay her hand on China while Europe was busy with the War. Her object in coming in was to oust Germany and gain a foothold in the third of the three great peninsulas that command the entrance to_ Peking. The alliance permitted Britain to withdraw most of her naval strength from the Pacific and to concentrate it in the North Sea, so when Japan was called upon for aid, in terms of the Al-

liance, she accepted the responsibility. People will, not easily forget the security given to British overseas troops by the powerful escort of Japanese men-of-war at a time when the German armed cruisers were at large in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Japan gave her adherence to the Declaration of London signed by Great Britain, France and Russia, to make war and peace as one, and she was one of the signatories to the new FivePower Declaration on November 30th, 1915, after Italy entered the War. Japan was thus, from the early days of the War, one p *he Allies.

PRESSURE ON CHINA. , At the Peace Conference, Japan showed* her hand. She made 21 demands on China, that have been described as "infamous." She claimed Germany's rights in Shantung, and demanded the employment of Japanese as advisers in political, military and financial matters. Japanese were to participate in the Chinese police service. China was to purchase a largeportion of her ammunition from Japan. Certain financial, mining and railway concessions were insisted on. Japan staked out enormous claims in China and became her most dangerous neighbour. By her greed Japan- aroused the spirit of China in bitter antagonism, and, step by step, she secured a position that threatened very life of China. To ask Japan to release China is asking very much against her habits of thought, and yet the altenutive of

meeting the chief Powers of the world , has made her willing to waive many of those demands, even to the evacuation, of" Shantung. INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES. Japan is rich in coal, iron, silver, copper and petroleum, while raw' silk is produced in abundance. The industrial development of the Orient has been influenced in two directions by these natural resources. The growth of cotton, jute and silk has led te textile industrials, while mineral resources have led to coal-mining, smelting of iron and other ore, and the development of steel and allied industries. Cotton is imported into Japan from India and China, spun into yaT» on over four million spindles, and woven into cotton cloth on 45,000 looms. The Japanese also spin a large part of the silk they produce. They are doing all this not only for themselves, but in an increasing degree,for the great markets of the world. Fifty years ago Japan was a peaceful agricultural country, arid as late as 1883 there were only 125 modern fac- . tories. In 1921 there Avere 71,000, employing nearly two million men, women and children.

Education is controlled strictly in the interests of Nationalism, and all contrary thought is condemned as dangerous and even ' poisonous. Bolshevism, Communism and even Socialism are strictly prohibited. All ideas inconsistent with" Nationalist piety are penalised if detected. . AN ANCIENT EVIL.

The greater emancipation of women in Japan, as compared with the rest of Asia, is one of the most encouraging aspects of the new civilisation, as well as being one of its most signi- ; Scant fruits. Generally speaking, woman in Japan is now accorded most of

the rights she enjoys in Western countries. Her enfranchisement, however, is still distant, and naturally she is the leader in the campaign against licensed vice, from which the Treasury draws a considerable revenue. There are over 200,000 women, in Japan who are in the grip of this vice and. whose existence is one of absolute misery. Over 50,000 of them are licensed women, from whom the Government receives revenue. . The Japanese delegate to the League of Nations Com-'* mittee on the Traffic in Women and Children stated that a Bill for the abolition* of licensed houses had been submitted to the Japanese Parliament. A special correspondent in Japan states that licensed prostitution in that country met its first decisive legal defeat in December last, -when the' prefectural assembly of Saitama, near

Tokio, unanimously passed a resolution providing for the gradual abolition of the evil in that prefecture. The practice will become dead automatically in Saitama prefecture upon the expiration .of the present licenses. Mrs O. Kubishiro, general secretary of the Japan W.C.T.U., says, "The institution of the licensed quarter is now under the ban in two prefectures in Japan, and other sections of the Empire will'.soon .follow their lead."

THE FOOD QUESTION. The population problem is one that gets into every question about Japan. In China the essence of the whole tragedy is that the population recklessly increases while its means of support actually diminish under the wastage of perpetual civil war. But Japan's food problem is not scarcity. She grows all the "rice she requires. The question is whether Japan can "be a modern nation on a mediaeval • diet. Peasants can digest sufficient food of low quality to keep them healthy, but that food "is ill suited for the factory worker, the brain worker, and the town-dweller in general. There is said to be no surplus of population in Japan; the country's ability to care for its millions is rising more rapidly than the excess of births over deaths. The density of population in Japan in 1925 was 157 persons per square mile; 'in Belgium it was 250, in Holland 217, England 189, Germany 132; Italy 131, and France 74. Some provinces in China which are as great as Japan have 350 persons per square mile..,-,.-At" present Japan consumes 95 per cent of the food produced in its own country, and it is considered that for at least half a century Japan can satisfy its subsistence (needs by its own means. The emigration is,: small, being only about 15,000 a year. So far Japan is not suffering from overpopulation. What she needs is not territory, but raw material for her factories and markets for her manufactured goods.