The Far East.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 38, 15 February 1904, Page 4

The Far East.

MUTSU HITO'S IDEALS. THE JAPANISATION OF ASIA. Mr F. J. Norman contributes the following article to the London Spectator, dealing with Japanese ideals Fancy ami myth about things Japanese are so vei"y much to the fore at the present time, he says, tlnat it would be wrong not to warn the British public tliut, despite all protestations to the contrary, Japan has other tihiui jieaceiul designs uj;»n the integrity of Occidental influence, not only in China and Korea, but the whole continent of Asia. A tall older though it may appear to many, anil one fraught with dair.iger to Japan, yet it is nevertheless a fact that the Japanisatio'n of Asia is a \cry favourite toi(ic of discussion amoiig a certain aij.l wry influential class, of Japanese, anyl is by them by no means considered an impossible task. And what is more, the idea is certainly not a new one, for if Japanese histories are to l?e Jiclicvotl, Hidcyos./i, the so-called Xapoleon of Japan, was levolvii.g a scheme with that object in view when death overtook him i-n 1 r.DS. A HISTORY OF LVTIUGUES. 'll.tit the Japanese are not the high-souled and chivalrous people so many of their apologists would have the British public, believe a ;;tudy ol th-ir past history will show caily too plainly. So full is it of intrigues, ruthless nnindcrs, ami massacres of both men and women that probably tlie history of no other I«>ple on the face of tlvis earth can sLow anything like it • and what is worse still, such murders uis,i massacres have been committed in quite ITO ,„ t tilm , s rJ .. murder of the Queen of Korea, i„ 189.,, nray be given as an instance. Of ttis event Miss Bind, tliut verv obiiervant tra/veller and writer, who was in Seoul at the time, savs in her book on Korea :—"lt will always be remembered that the murderous plot WAS arrangv.nl in the Japanese Leiraticn, arji that Japanese ollicials, in disguise and armed with deadlv weapons were engaged in the outrage in the palace of the Kin w of a friendly l'|pw,en-an outx wo on a helpjess woman by people inanv of whom were drawing Korean pav as Advises to the Korean OoVernmeivt' To this 1 may add that it ; mould never be forgotten that out of the sixty Odd Japanese implicated 111 the muider, not one has received any punishment beyond an enforced rfctimi.ent from Die service of hj. s (ouirlry—a retirement that one cannot but help thinking was mea.'t to be more a punishment for tawrIrng tin- atlair tlran for aught else ItKSM.TS OF A WAR. "In oider to estnbliwh the peace of the Orient," said the Japanese authorities, but really to pose before the world as a Power to Ije taken into consideration, Japan declared war upon China in 18! M. As for the lesujts of that war, I quote from one o-i the leading journals of Tokio "The vast country we have fought for and con'<if,.er«l in all tile rigours oi a semi-Arctic winter is now openly uia! frankly tak**n, in if not in woi'J, hy a l\>ww which has not given so much ns the life of a single Cossack to achieve its enjd. The two griut fortresses of Port Arthur aiwl Wei-hai-wen—ldu.* on<> taken by our peerless Navy—are now , . what ? The one Russia.n and the other Uritisih ! The fiel'ds of Newelnvang, Tmchwa/ng'tar, an.l Kangwa.sai. where we spi'ilul the best blood oi our lighters, are now the bloodless corJfjtiesls of tlje Russian eagles: an easy jjroy. Ami what are we, f>oJiticallv, i'n Korea ! After the fatal Miura episode (Viscount j .Miura was the .Japanese re-present alive ut tlu* Korean Court when hap- i hss (Juwn Min was muideml, and not, aloaie by foreig'ivcis, but by tens of thousands of his fellow-country-mcn, is charged with thut cowardly and repulsive crime) our prestige i wantt'd, and then vaii'islwd for ever. Our country unqißvsUtmably presumed ovennuch o-n what our arms had achieve*-!. The first wiilvusfasm of the emancipated Koreans was chilled by Japanese arrogance, then their frkmlshiip alienated by a series of diplomatic blunders without parallel for crass stu-jmlity. The weakling Korean Monarch threw himself into the arms of Russia , . ami this was Hie beginning of the tod,"