IN THE MASTERTON LIBRARY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8448, 25 May 1907, Page 5

IN THE MASTERTON LIBRARY.

No II

THE NEW FAR EAST.— Arthur Diosy.

JAPAN—AN INTERPRETA-

TION.— Lafcadio Hearn

The European world to-day is regarding with intense interest what is probably the most wonderful example of national development that the world has ever seen.

Forty years ago Japan and China were looked upon as races of people destined never to come into serious competition with modern civilization. China, while recognized as possessing an almost unlimited latent power, was looked upon as a race wedded to an antique civilization and impervious to change. Japan was not looked upon, seriously at all. The European idea of Japan was quaintly but truly summed up by Gilbert and Sullivan in that most delightful of comic operas, "The Mikado." The Japanese were a quaint and charming little people—not savages, but children—happy children of irreproachable manners and with a taste spread through the whole people for quaint fan and screen painting and artistic lacquer work—absolutely without knowledge of modern arts and sciences, and with no capacity for acquiring that knowledge. It was the land of the geisha and the chrysanthemum. I When, forty years ago, the Imperial decree was published in Japan declaring simply "that the nation should strive , by study, to make itself, as far as possible, the intellectual equal of its enemies," the decree was hardly noticed, and if noticed was not considered as of any importance. When in 1891 the first Parliament was convoked people thought nothing about it. When, however, in 1894 Japan went to war with China, Europe received an extraordinary surprise. She learned that her conceptions of Japan required to be entirely reconstructed, that in the space of thirty years Japan had shaken off the traditions of thousands of years—had acquired a full mastery of the modern science of war, and was demanding, in no uncertain tones, to be admitted to the ranks of the World Powers. And when, ten years later, Japan went to war with Russia, not only was her title to rank as a first-class Power undisputed, but the naval, military and medical men who went from neutral countries to observe the campaign, found that in conception, organisation, and execution—in all branches of the art of war- Japan had learned everything that was ,known to themselves and, moveover, that her people had brought to bear upon the situation a courage and spirit of self-sacrifice of the highest order and productive of astonishing results.

The most momentous world questions to-day- and questions that particularly affect the peoples of the Pacific—are questions relating to the past, present, and future of Japan, and also of her great kindred neighbour, China. What was the source of power that impelled Japan to such absolute hearty and practical obedience of the Imperial decree "that the nation should strivo to study to make itself, as far as possible, the intellectual equal of its enemies?" If Japan has accomplished so much in the last forty years, what will the next forty years bring forth? What are the aspirations of her people in war, in trade, and in colonization? What is the meaning of the recent stream of Japanese emigration to America? Will the Japanese want to come to Australasia? If so, can England stop them without breaking her alliance? Do the Japanese wish to control and educate the Chinese? Can they do it? Is China, in her turn, capable of such revolution as has happened in Japan? The enquirer into these matters can cross the threshold of his enquiry by parusing the two books above mentioned.

There is a great difference between the two works. "The New Far East" is what is known as a popular book. It was obviously written with a view to feed an immediate popular interest. As a philosophic work it has little or no value; as a sketch of manners and customs in Japan, China, and Korea it is both instructive and interesting.

The late Mr Lafcadio Hearn's book, on the other hand, is a work of a very high order indeed. Mr Hearn was a lecturer in the Imperial University of Tokyo from 1896 to 1903; his wife was a Japanese, and he had a great knowledge of the inside life of Japan. His work is a charmingly written history of the Japanese character, constitution, and religion, and from it one. learns the impelling force that has enabled Japan to so marvellously reform herself from within. From it also one learns of the dangers that beset Japan through the wholesale adaptation of a new form of thought and action to an ancient order of society.