>ni Hill nil (111 lUl ^B IDO ms ,^^j >f-;;, Drgitized by me im^rnet Arc — in 2007 with funding frof - . IVIicrosoft Corooration 1 1-^ ASIA AT THE DOOR By Kiyoshi K. Kawakami, M.A. AMERICAN-JAPANESE RELATIONS An Inside View of Japan's Policies and Purposes. Net $2.00. "Mr. Kawakami treats of these questions with vigor, clearness and judicial breadth of view. ... The book is the ablest and most exhaustive on the theme. . . . The author threshes out facts concerning Japanese im- migration, coming to the same conclusion that scientific inquirers, the best business men and the statesmen, whose eyes are not on votes, have long held. . . . Mr. Kawakami's argu- ments are sound because based on everlasting righteousness and common sense." — New York Times, ASIA AT THE DOOR A Study of the Japanese Question in Continental United States, Hawaii and Canada, Net $1.50. ff^iih a Prologtie by Doremus Scudder and an Epilogiu by Hamilton W. Mabie. In this new book the author gives a graph- ical account of Japanese life in contact with Caucasian, as well as vivid descriptions of his personal experiences and observations thus injecting intense human interest into a seri- ous discussion of a vital problem confront- ing the Occident in general, and in particu- lar the American people. He presents his facts in a lucid, fascinating style. In a sense the book is an interpretation of the Orient to the Occident, and a plea for the fraternity of the races and for international peace based upon justice and humanity. . ASIA AT THE DOOR A Study of the Japanese Question in Continental United States ^ Hawaii and Canada BY KIYOSHI K. KAWAKAMI %^ I ■ Author of "American-Japanese Relations " WITH A PROLOGUE BY DOREMUS SCUDDER AND AN EPILOGUE BY HAMILTON W. MABIE New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H, Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1914, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street TO 282217 CONTENTS Prologue by Doremus Scudder . I. The Meeting of Two Worlds II. Mutual Disillusionment III. Can We Americanize Them? IV. Can We Americanize Them? — II . V. Their Humble Achievements VI. " They Are Taking Our Farms ! " . VII. The Japanese in Our Cities . VIII. "Hewers of Wood and Drawers Water" IX. California and the Japanese X. The California Land Imbroglio . XI. In the Melting Pot of the Races . XII. " They Have Usurped Hawaii " . XIII. The Japanese in Hawaii XIV. The Japanese in Canada XV. "White Canada" Epilogue by Hamilton W. Mabie . ACKNOWLEDGMENT Acknowledgment is due to the editors of The Forums The American Citizen, and The Canadian Magazine, for permission to incorporate in this volume the articles contributed to those publications. I am also indebted to The Outlook for permission to use as an epilogue to this book Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie's article on " America and the Far East," appearing in its issue of August 2, 1913. It gives me great pleasure to state that the encouragement and co-operation of my friend, Mr. Frank Putnam, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as well as the sympathy of my wife for the cause for which I am labouring, has been largely responsible for the preparation of this humble book. K. K. K. New York. PROLOGUE OUR NATION'S DUTY TO JAPAN NO other nation stands so close to the Japan of to- day as America. One reason for this is the funda- mental cosmopolitanism of both. Fundamental because racial elements are fundamental and both the American and the Japanese are racial mixtures.' In Japan three great human stocks are blended, the Malayan, the Mongolian, and the Aryan. Our own blend is more dis- crete perhaps in that there are more blood strains repre- sented, yet also more homogeneous because the Aryan stock so largely predominates. Thus on either side of the Pacific we have the two most composite peoples facing each other. Because most composite, therefore most largely human and as a consequence more vitally related. Another reason for the natural intimacy of these two great peoples exists in their love of peace. Since the United States became an independent nation it has had three foreign wars, and all of them of minor nature, though of large importance in their outcome. These wars were forced upon us and were not of our choosing. We have been the great arbitrating world-power. Our situa- tion, our traditions, and our line of development make for peace. Peace-Loving Japan Japan's history also has been remarkably pacific. Since the emergence of the nation upon the arena of Eastern 7 8 ' ' ' PROLOGUE Asiatic history its foreign wars have been almost neg- ligibly few. Way back in the third century of our era Korea was subdued by the Japanese, who later were ex- pelled. In the thirteenth century a Mongolian invasion, the only occasion when Japanese soil was violated by for- eign foes, was beaten back. Though Japanese freebooters ravaged Asiatic commerce, no further war occurred un- til the sixteenth century, when Hideyoshi conquered Korea a second time. Then from 1624 until 1853, when Commodore Perry landed, Japan kept herself absolutely free from all foreign intercourse, except with the Dutch in the harbour of Nagasaki. In 1894 and again in 1904 Japan was forced into war, first by China and then by Russia. So much for external relations, how about domestic history ? Ages of bloody conflicts, first between the Japanese and the aboriginal peoples, next between rival clans, marked the story of the development of Japan's feudal system, but from 1600 until 1868, when the Emperor was restored to power, the nation enjoyed internally nearly three centuries of profound peace. There is in the history of mankind no brighter narrative of tranquillity than this in connection with a people of abounding virility and enterprise. Japan's record is be- yond question not that of a war-loving nation. This race certainly resembles our own in devotion to peace. Young World Power Aided A third reason for deep friendship between these neighbours lies in America's great services to Japan. In 1854 Commodore Perry returned to Yokohama on his second visit and opened the country to intercourse with the world. Our nation followed up this kindly office by showing every possible consideration to the new-born child in the family of Powers. We sent as our repre- PROLOGUE 9 sentatives the noblest we had — men like Townsend Har- ris and John A. Bingham. They dealt justly. We re- turned the Shimonoseki indemnity. We negotiated fair treaties and stood with Japan against all Europe in sup- port of her demand to be relieved from the injustice of extra-territoriality. We opened our schools and col- leges freely to her young men and treated them like brothers. We poured our missionaries unstintedly into her cities and lavished large sums in establishing all manner of educational institutions. No step of the young giant toward adulthood among world Powers was un- greeted by the encouraging plaudits of America. In the dark day of war with Russia we were her nearest friend and our President helped more than any other single force in securing the brilliant settlement. Up to the conclusion of that peace not a cloud had darkened the intimate, noble, and unselfish friendship of these two great peoples. "A Nations Gratitude And Japan appreciated it. No such ardent gratitude has ever gripped the very heart and life of a nation as love for America has the soul of Japan. Whatever Eu- rope might do in its selfish schemes, America could be depended upon to be both fair and kind. The belief of this people in us has been one of the ideal things in the realm of international relationships, unique in human history. Its depth was reflected a few years ago by Ad- miral Togo in a speech made in one of the Pacific Coast cities, where he exclaimed that his nation would sooner commit harakiri than fight America. That is a senti- ment which only one acquainted with Japanese hon- our can understand. It belongs to the realm of the Cross. 10 PROLOGUE Sinister Interests But with the conclusion of the Peace of Portsmouth, America began to change. It is now openly charged that this change has been deliberately engineered by commer- f cial interests which would profit by war — those terribly I sinister interests that throughout the European world ; also are goading the nations on to ever larger arma- \ ments. This charge seems plausible. It is the only ex- V planation that adequately accounts for the strange growth of suspicion in America during the past eight years. Events have followed fast. First came, seem- ingly from nowhere, the suggestion that Japan was sure to menace America and that a war was inevitable. Next the California school excitement, a press-fanned blaze, scorched both nations. Peace Dove Versus Battleships Here President Roosevelt faced the greatest moment in his career. As a threat to coerce California, he de- clared that he would champion a measure admitting Japanese to the privilege of naturalization upon equal terms with Europeans. Whatever be the opinions of our fellow-citizens concerning Colonel Roosevelt, on one thing all must agree, that he has rare political vision. He saw with unerring insight the one inevitable solution of the difficult and delicate situation between the two nations. Japan with admirable patience had borne the unjust and irritating implications that our law, making her people ineligible to American citizenship, carries. Her states- • men refused to raise the question, trusting to the Chris- tian character of our people as certain to right the wrong some time. But the injustice was there and its sting was felt, though borne in the spirit of the friendship that ani- PROLOGUE n mated the nation. It was the one seed of possible dis- cord between the two peoples, and President Roosevelt knew it. He also knew both that its removal would ce- ment the two great Pacific powers as no other one thing could and that the opening of the privilege of citizenship to Japanese would forever end the troublesome California question. A stroke of world statesmanship of the high- est order lay in his power. If he had dealt it, he would have won a name in Asia that would never have been dimmed. It was the greatest miss of a great career in the history of our country. But instead of this dove of peace he sent a battleship fleet, and Japan responded by expending a million dollars in friendly welcome. Will Mr. Bryan grasp the like opportunity? We need not review the occurrences of the past few years nor the present anti- Japanese-Pacific Coast legis- lation which have so complicated the situation. That which faces us on Peace Sunday as a Christian people is a single question, What is our nation's duty to Japan ? An Old Story In striving to answer this question we must remember that we confront a situation demanding fair considera- tion. The people of California have something to urge upon their own side. Many of the Japanese who go there act in a manner of which their countrymen are heartily ashamed, exactly as numbers of our own fellow-citizens have done in Asiatic ports. They are without doubt a somewhat disturbing factor in labour circles, though by no means so largely as popular clamour would have us believe. Unquestionably some of them have squeezed em- ployers when they could, and have depreciated property by moving next to it. So have the Jews in many a city. In fact, the arguments used by Californians sound 12 PROLOGUE strangely like pleas I have heard in Eastern States against Greeks, Syrians, Italians, Bohemians, Hungarians, and other strangers. The trouble is that California has had little experience with masses of down-and-out Europeans, and when faced with the foreigner problem is able to make her grumblings tell for the simple reason that the nation has treated the Asiatic unjustly in denying him the means to refute all these charges by growing into a fine public-spirited American citizen. Look at Massa- chusetts with thousands of acres of her valleys and up- lands owned by people with unpronounceable European names, whose habits are dirt plus industry. These peo- ple, however, can become citizens and in a few years by proving their honest Americanism not only knock hostile argument to flinders, but win the friendship of their former detractors. Three Articles of Faith Then, too, many Californians really believe three things about Japanese : First, that they will never become Americans if given the chance; second, that if any of them should become naturalized, they are so patriotic that they never would be loyal to their new government, but in an emergency would turn traitors ; and third, that they are utterly unassimilable and must always remain un-American. Mark, these are all a priori arguments. They exist, like old-fashioned theological dogmas, only in the mind. There is not one scintilla of evidence to back them up. To say to a hungry-eyed boy, " You won't eat this choco- late cream if I give it to you," and then go on munch- ing it yourself is poor logic. Try the Japanese with the privilege of naturalization and see whether he will take it. In some communities more liberal than California PROLOGUE 13 here and there a Japanese has been naturalized. I know of cases where Japanese would give anything to become Americans, because they have fully identified themselves with the country. So far as experience goes, this first plea, that Japanese will under no circumstances consent to American citizenship, is untrue. "Japanese! Become Americans" As for the second argument, listen to the delegate of the National Party sent to investigate conditions in Cali- fornia, Hon. A. Hattori, who passed through Honolulu. Advising his countrymen in Hawaii to secure American citizenship if possible, he said : " Some Japanese think this would be disloyalty to Japan and that they would sacri- fice their national individuality by becoming American citizens. On the contrary, they would enlarge their na- tional individuality, becoming in effect world citizens. This need not interfere with loyalty to one's mother country. Mr. Carnegie in becoming an American citizen does not lose his loyalty to Scotland. Did he not give to Scotland the most magnificent of all the libraries he has endowed ? Indeed, by loyalty to his mother country does not a man prove his Witness for citizenship in a new country? But in case of war, what? What would be the duty of a loyal Japanese in case of war between America and Japan? Let me answer this by an illustra- tion from our own history. The retainer of a Daimyo became the adopted son of the Daimyo of another prov- ince by marrying into his family, and according to custom assumed allegiance to the new lord. Later on war arose between the two clans.. The young Samurai was in a quandary. How could he take up arms against his for- mer lord ? How fight his own father ? Yet, on the other hand, how could he be untrue to his new lord ? He fought H PROLOGUE it out thus : ' To be untrue to my new lord would be an act of treachery unworthy of the respect and name of my former master. I will fight for my present chief and by my valour add to the glory of the Daimyo who trained me in the principles of the samurai.' Japan has ever ap- plauded that hero as true to the spirit of Bushido." That was a splendid refutation,* here in Honolulu, of this baseless charge against Japanese honour, that we cannot trust the loyalty of any of these people who decide to become American citizens. Those of us who have proved the mettle of that honour know how false to Yamato-damashii, the spirit of Japan, any such argu- ment is. As for assimilability, we who have lived in the Eastern States have heard this worn-out plea with reference to almost every South European nationality. The Japanese is just as human as any other kind of man and after years of study of him I will back him for adaptability to conditions and for harmonious response to environ- ment against any racial specimen of genus homo pro- ducible. In my experience his forte par excellence is to land on his feet in any emergency. That he cannot and will not make a good American is all moonshine, and not the Kentucky mountain brand, either. ♦This remarkable address of Hon. A. Hattori before a vast throng of enthusiastic Japanese had four main points: first, be loyal to Japan and your Emperor (this point was fully re- ported in the American press : the others were not) ; second, become American citizens if you can; third, by becoming Americans you do not lose but enlarge your national indi- viduality, you become cosmopolitan; fourth, after becoming Americans if war should break forth between the two nations, justify your Japanese nobility of nature by fighting right loyally for your new country against the old. PROLOGUE IS Naturalization the Crux It is singular how this entire question revolves about that inevitable privilege of naturalization. Governor Johnson is right enough. The California law is not so much at fault, though the motive for it may be. Other states have a like law. Aliens who will not become citi- zens have no inherent right to own land in a community with which they refuse to amalgamate. The trouble is with the national law that will not let the Eastern Asiatic become a citizen. What right has President Wilson, with a beam in his eye as big as a third of the continent of Asia, to scold Governor Johnson for cherishing a mote the size of a score thousand acres of California land? If "^ the nation is honest in not wanting to make enemies of the two best friends, — ^yes, I think I am entirely within the truth in saying the two best friends we -have, Japan and China, — let it stop treating these two peoples as though they were a different species of human animal from the godlike Caucasian and his black man Friday. All this talk of Mongolian descent is laughable. We welcome the Hungarians to citizenship, yet their an- cestors were pure Mongolians, and many of the Russians have far more Mongolian blood than the Japanese. The distinction will not hold water. In this day of human solidarity, when we are learning how intricately races have blended and how truly alike physically and spiritu- ally we all are, it is impossible to draw such lines as Mon- golian or white or black. No supreme court could do it with scientific accuracy, even though its members were the first experts on blood analysis in the world. In fact, the papers tell us that a Hindu has just passed muster as a candidate for American citizenship, though he is as brown or yellow as many a Mongolian, on the score of l6 PROLOGUE his being an Aryan, a white man, with white blood, I suppose. The Christian Way Out No, the question can be treated by Christian America only in one way. Jesus Christ pointed out the way. " One is your Master, even the Christ, and all ye are brethren." God waited long to demonstrate this truth on a grand scale. He prepared a suitable locus, a broad continent beautiful as Paradise, fertile as Eden, rich as the fabled gardens of the Hesperides. He entrusted it to a handful of pioneers who accepted it in trust for all peoples. Your fathers and mine were numbered in that God-handful. As descendants of such sires, are we will- ing to prove false to that trust or deny the only guaran- tee of human liberty, firm as the Rock of Ages, " One is your Master, even the Christ, and all ye are brethren " ? The noblest utterance on this question of Japan and America which I have heard was not spoken by our preacher President Roosevelt, nor our lawyer President Taft, nor our scholar President Wilson. It came from no American prophet. It was uttered by a man whom our grandfathers would have called a heathen. Unpro- fessed disciple of Jesus though he be, I think of him as one of those other sheep whom the Great Shepherd is bringing to that one flock whither we all are tending. Count Okuma, the grand old statesman of Japan. He said in Tokyo lately, calming the excited minds of his countrymen : " Diplomacy or law or statesmanship will not work in this case: the power of Christianity — the teaching of the brotherhood of all men and universal peace — alone will save the threatening situation. Chris- tianity is stronger in America than in any other country and the concerted efforts of the Christian workers here PROLOGUE 17 and in America will achieve what we all have at heart." In the face of that appeal re-echoed from myriads of hearts of the noblest men of the Orient, the Church of Jesus Christ in America has only one answer to the question, What is our nation's duty to Japan? It is, apply that word " all men are brethren " to our dealings with the man whom our nation calls Mongolian. Open our privilege of naturalization to him on equal terms with the European. By all means stiffen these terms until they insure the granting of our citizenship to no alien who has not passed a creditable examination in the English language upon American civics, but let them apply impartially to the man of Eastern Asia as to all others. Treat him justly and honourably as a brother and the future of this great ocean will be mirrored in its prophetic and beautiful name, Pacific. Rare Hour for Real Men And whence should the plea to President and Congress thus to cement the lasting peace and friendship of three great nations arise if not from Hawaii, to whom the Asiatic has meant so much? We have been engaged in an earnest campaign at the nation's capital to save the hard-earned prosperity of scores of years of strenuous endeavour. Good! Let that work go on. Now we are faced with a missionary opportunity of real greatness, an opportunity for exercise of world statesmanship, a chance to utter an unselfish appeal for justice and brotherhood. It will not long be ours. Why not show Washington that we care for some things besides sugar dividends, that we stand for the humanity of those who have helped us swell our fortunes? It is a rare hour for real men. Is it a judgment day for this mid-sea commonwealth? DOREMUS SCUDDER. I THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS "Over the gate of the twentieth century shall be written the words: 'This is the way to virtue and to justice and to peace."* WHEN Johann Gottlieb Fichte uttered these pro- phetic words the German philosopher was yet upon the threshold of the nineteenth century. Between him and us lies a vast stretch of time, and in the intervening period many momentous events have oc- curred, each contributing its quota to the progress o£ human society, but the new era into which we have entered is yet far from the desired haven, where wrongs are righted and oppressions relieved in accord with jus- tice and humanity. Like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the golden age, the vision of the seers and the hope of the prophets, has persistently eluded the men who have followed it with panting eagerness. Again and again has it flashed its fire of hope, and again and again has that very fire danced the will-o'-the-wisp fantasy of mirth, leaving the weary pursuers helpless and hope- less in the dark. The French Revolution terminated the arbitrary rule of the aristocracy and declared all men equal before the law. The abolition of slavery afforded men a truer sense of justice. Schools opened their doors alike to the rich and to the poor. Taxes were imposed upon exalted princes as well as upon humble toilers. Official posi- tions were no longer the monopoly of a privileged few. 19 20 ASIA AT THE DOOR The franchise was extended to the populace, freedom of speech was guaranteed, while the church was forced to surrender the imposition of her dogmas and her arbi- trary authority before the onslaught of reason and lib- erty. It was as if sky and earth, after an Arctic winter, had become suddenly effulgent with a glorious burst of sunshine, and men once again fancied that the world was at last being lifted out of the darkness of oppression and injustice, and transported into the lighted realm of freedom and fraternity. Yes, the old political system was gone, taking with it the old social order and much that had inevitably re- sulted from both. And yet the day of salvation had not come. Scarcely had the Western States emerged from the tempests of political revolutions when the cloud of economic unrest began to darken the social horizon. The great inventive geniuses of Europe and America — New- comen and Watt, Hargreaves and Crompton, Kay and Arkwright, Fulton and Whitney — ^had contrived to har- ness the forces of nature, making them the co-workers of mankind in the production of commodities and in the pursuit of commerce. The invention of the spinning jenny, the power-loom weaving, the steam hammer, and the locomotive engine, brought in its train the recon- struction of the industrial system. And the advent of the new system of industry precipitated the war between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, a social war which is yet being waged in all modernized countries, and to which we know not when the end will come. We have rung out the old day of political oppression, but the day that has dawned upon us is equally full of alarms and fraught with equal dangers. Nor is this all. Steam and electricity, having on the one hand revolutionized the system of industry, have on THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 21 the other inaugurated a new relationship between the Orient and the Occident. The vast expanses of water separating continent from continent were at last spanned by means of cable and steamship. From East and West merchant vessels and warships approached Asia, while railroads and telegraph lines penetrated the solitudes of Siberia. That sense of space which dismayed our fore- fathers no longer baffles us. Thus for the first time in history Asia stood face to face with Europe and Amer- ica. Did they meet each other on terms of good-will and friendship? Was it a helping hand that the strong West extended to the weak East? Asia, which had already known something of the modus operandi of the Portuguese and Spanish conquis- tadores, naturally looked askance at the new visitors from Europe and America who came on Leviathan-like warships armed with monstrous guns. Especially were the Japanese sceptical of the Occidentals, because the Dutch, from the selfish motive of monopolizing Japanese trade, had deliberately poisoned the leading minds of Japan by misrepresenting other Western nations. Nor can it be denied that some of these newcomers did not deserve the welcome which they expected from the Ori- entals. That their intentions were not always holy their subsequent activities in the Far Eastern countries suffi- ciently attest. Even Japan might have ceased to exist as an independent nation had she not quickly aroused her- self from her lethargy and fallen in line with the ag- gressive, strenuous West. In the meantime, the new industrial system increased the productive capacity of the Occidental nations to such an extent that they were eager to find outlet for the manufactures which they could not consume at home. Moreover, the same industrial revolution begot financial 22 ASIA AT THE DOOR magnates and captains of industry who came to exert potent influence not only in the world of trade and traffic, but in the arena of politics and diplomacy. These men, not content with controlling the finances and commerce in their own countries, stretched their hands across the seas, intent upon grasping whatever might come within their reach. The enormous fortunes they built up were in themselves formidable enough, but when they knew that their governments, with all the force of their navies and armies, were ready to back them, they showed no hesitation in embarking upon a scheme of exploitation in countries whose doors had just been opened by the im- pact of foreign cannon-balls. So from the four winds of heaven their representatives came East with ships laden with gold and merchandise. The merchandise they were determined to sell to the natives whether the na- tives would have it or not; the gold they loaned to the natives, securing in exchange various concessions — rail- road, mining, telegraph, and what not. Commerce, which we are wont to call an ambassador of peace, is often a cause of enmity and trouble, espe- cially when a strong, aggressive nation comes to trade with a backward, inefficient nation. The Orient, when brought by the intermediary of trade face to face with the Occident, had not yet awakened from a torpor of centuries. Isolation and the consequent lack of compe- tition had arrested its progress and incapacitated it to meet the Occident on terms of equality, whether in arms or in the arts of peace. What more natural than that the Occidental, misled by external evidence, should re- gard the Oriental as inferior to the Western races? What more natural than that he should come to think that in dealing with Asiatics he could dispense with all ceremony and disregard all dictates of justice and fair- THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 23 ness? He was there mainly for the purpose of filling his purse at the expense of the pocket of the Oriental. His insolence, his overbearing manner, his assumption of superiority were enough to set the blood of the Oriental patriot boiling. It was the acts of such men which Pro- fessor Sydney L. Gulick fitly terms the " White Peril " in the Far East. But for the ameliorating influence of a handful of those Westerners who came to the East with sympathy and for loving service, the Oriental esti- mate of the Occident would have been less friendly than it is. The Occidental came to the East with the confirmed idea that he was of a superior caste, of a race which Providence had ordained should rule the world. So long as his dark-skinned neighbours recognized his claim for superiority and acquiesced in his condescension and con- nived at his swagger, he had little to complain of. His pretensions, however, were not long permitted to remain unchallenged. Japan, having acquired some knowledge of the arts and sciences of Europe and America, cast aside the cloak of mediaevalism, and boldly stepped into the arena of strenuous competition. She reconstructed her government, adopted modern laws, and administered them successfully; she reorganized her industrial system and her finances; she built up a powerful navy and or- ganized a formidable army; and with these records to her credit she determined to force the recognition of the West as a civilized nation and assert her legitimate rights as an independent state. Acting upon this determination, Japan set out to re- gain the rights and prerogatives which she had been forced to resign in favour of the foreign residents within her jurisdiction. First, she undertook the revision of the treaties which the Western Powers had wrested from 24 ASIA AT THE DOOR her when she was yet totally inexperienced in matters of diplomacy. This led to the abolition of exterritori- ality, an imperhim in imperio, which exempted the for- eigners from the jurisdiction of Japanese law courts. Then she proposed to impose taxes upon the foreign property-owners on the same basis on which the natives were taxed. To this proposal the foreign residents in Yokohama strongly objected, and the matter was referred to the Hague Tribunal. Again, the foreigners demanded extensive tracts of land in and about Yokohama for a race track, club sites, golf links, and so forth, without offering any compensation for the concession. With the growth of the city, the golf links thus obtained by the foreign community became a great obstacle to the traffic and the development of its business district. Conse- quently, the municipal government of Yokohama humbly requested the foreign community to return the land to the city, offering in its lieu a desirable site with ample means of communication. Did the foreigners accept this reasonable proposition with grace if not gratitude? Of course not. They demurred and grumbled, and not un- til the municipal government paid for all the improve- ments upon the old ground as well as for all the im- provements that had to be installed on the new, did the foreigners agree to vacate the golf links which they had been using for many years without paying a single cent for the privilege. Would any Western nation tolerate such arrogance and such disregard of fairness? While the government, central and local, was striving to regain the rights which had been surrendered to sat- isfy exacting foreigners, the native merchants and traders began to see the advantage of opening direct trade with firms in Europe and America. This naturally resulted in the elimination of many of the foreign commission THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 25 merchants whose methods of operation were not always honourable. How much has the story of the Japanese lack of commercial honour been exaggerated by the dis- gruntled foreign merchants whose fortunes began to de- cline with the awakening of the native traders! Then, too, the Japanese firms, financial or trading, having ac- quired sufficient knowledge and experience in the busi- ness in which they were engaged, no longer felt the need of Western tutorage, and gradually discharged foreign advisers and employes at the termination of their con- tract terms. Then the Japanese were charged with in- gratitude. These are but a few of the many instances showing the general attitude of the Westerners towards the Asiatic people. I am not blind to the fact that, amid the greed and vulgarism displayed by the fortune-seekers from the West, there were of course a number of men whose visions were clear, whose minds were noble, and whose sense of justice and honour could not condone the ignoble conduct of their short-sighted brothers. For the invaluable services rendered by these men Japan owes a debt which she will never be able to pay in full. ** Whether in Japanese pay or not, as hirelings, or as guests, or as forces healthfully stimulating, who from their own governments or societies received stipend, or self-impelled wrought for Japan's good, their work abides." Between 1869 and 1900, no less than five thou- sand Americans and Europeans were invited to Japan to assist her in the rehabilitation of her aflFairs, political, economic, social, educational. A few Dutchmen taught the Japanese the rudiments of anatomy and of a rational system of medicine. A coterie of Englishmen undertook the mint, and also laid a foundation for the powerful navy which in later periods annihilated the Chinese fleet and 2^ ASIA AT THE DOOR sent the Russian Armada to the bottom of the Japan Sea. To a Frenchman was assigned the task of codify- ing laws. Germans took the army in hand and formed a nucleus of what was destined to become a formidable military power. Germans also directed the whole higher medical instruction of the Empire. And most important of all, Americans, whether as missionaries or engaged by the Government, undertook the reform of the entire educational system. Beginning probably with Professor Raphael Pumpelly, who went to Japan in the seventies, almost twelve hundred American school-teachers were directly or indirectly engaged in educational work in the Mikado's Empire. The New Japan, then, is as much the creation of foreigners as it is the product of the native patriots. Such names as Satow, Aston, Gubbins, Wag- ener, Boissonade, Hepburn, Verbeck, Griffis, and Clark are still dear to all Japanese of the educated class. Japan has not yet forgotten either the singer or the song. And yet the attitude of such well-wishers of Japan was not the attitude of the Occident in general. The Occident, in short, expected of the Orient little but ser- vility and submission. To the European Asia was a land which he was by right divine at liberty to exploit for his own benefit. The moment the man of Asia stands on his own rights and tries to deal with the European on reciprocal terms, the latter feels chagrined and even out- raged. The vicissitudes and hardships which Japan ex- perienced in her efforts to abolish exterritoriality offer eloquent testimony to this statement. How many Cabi- nets foundered upon the rock of treaty revision ! What tragedies, what episodes marked the history of exterrito- riality in Japan ! A diplomat, one of the greatest states- men of New Japan, almost sacrificed his life in his ef- THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 27 forts to cut the Gordian knot. It was only after the Mikado's Empire displayed a military skill and prowess of a superior order in the war with China that the West- ern world rubbed its eyes and began to take Japan seri- ously. As a matter of fact, the Chinese war added noth- ing to the strength of the Empire, much less did it contribute to its culture and civilization. The same holds true in regard to the war with Russia. Indeed, the two mighty conflicts made the island empire materially weak, as wars always must. And yet the Japanese was virtu- ally given to understand that, unless he spoke in the language of shot and shell, the Western nations would never listen. We of the West are fond of calling our- selves civilized and intellectual, but to what e:^tent have we purged ourselves of our primitive love of brutal force ? We admire nations that battle and men who deal blows in order to chastise the unjust, making but lukewarm efforts to right wrongs and relieve oppression before the wronged and the oppressed are compelled to appeal to force. The Russo-Japanese War could have been averted had England and America, to whom Japan earnestly appealed for assistance, exercised their influence in good season to check the Muscovite intrigue to rob the Japa- nese of the Liaotang Peninsula, which they had secured from China. Aside from the conflict of capital and labour, the great- est problem of the age, and of ages to come, is that resulting from contact between the East and the West. Of this great problem the Japanese question in America is but a small fragment. The complete solution of the Japanese question, therefore, seems hardly possible with- out a complete readjustment of relations between the Eastern and the Western world. It requires the removal of mutual misconceptions not only with regard to po- 28 ASIA AT THE DOOR litical and commercial affairs, but also in connection with the deeper problems of the spirit. It requires on each side a better understanding and a higher appreciation by each of the culture and civilization of the other. Most of all, it requires on the part of the stronger and more aggressive West a stricter observance of the principles of justice and fairness in dealing with the weaker East. Viewed in this light, the question of the treatment of the Japanese in America is a question infinitely more important than it may appear at first glance. It is a question of the contact of two great worlds, the collision, if you will, of two great civilizations. This contact, this collision is not unlike the meeting of two mighty glaciers. That the mingling should at first be attended with up- heavals and grindings is inevitable, and yet the conflu- ence soon turns into one stream in which trace is no longer discernible of two glaciers which a moment since dashed against each other. Will not the mingling of two civilizations present much the same aspect? Will not the suspicions, the jealousies, the enmities, the dis- criminations which yet mar relations between the Orient and the Occident eventually give way to harmony and fra- ternal feeling? As we learn from the Koran, '' God alone knows the hidden mysteries of days to come, and to Him alone are the gates of the secrets of the future revealed." Yet, if we walk in the light in which God ordained hu- manity to walk, may we not rightly hope that the con- flict of the two worlds will ultimately end in friendship based upon mutual understanding of each other's culture, civilization, and institutions? The point is that the West must first of all divest itself of its age-long prejudice against the East. The past few centuries placed the Caucasian race in the forefront of THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 29 civilization, but in the life of the universe a period so brief is little more significant than a bubble on the face of an ocean. In the years to come Asia may again attain an eminence of civilization which will overshadow the civilization of Europe. In the meantime, let us deal with it in sympathy. If sympathy is not the forte of the busy West, let us at least act in accord with the spirit of fair play and a square deal. " People are afraid," says the Hon. James Bryce, " of a conflict of races ; people think that some of the great ancient races of the East may be led into mortal struggle with the European peo- ples. If our attitude to them were governed by Chris- tian principles, there would be no risk of any such con- flict. I hope and I believe that it will be averted if we try to apply in our national policy those Christian princi- ples which we profess. The sense of human brotherhood was never more needed than now, at this precious, this critical moment. It is needed not only by all who come in contact with these races; it is needed by men who come there for business; it is needed by soldiers and sailors; it is needed even by private travellers in these lands." In the early days of our intercourse with China and Japan — the days of Anson Burlingame, of Commodore Perry, and of Townsend Harris — our policy towards the Orient was based upon the Christian principles of justice and righteousness. It was disinterested and humane ; it sprang from a sincere desire to help backward peoples towards the path of modern civilization. In the fall of 1852, President Fillmore despatched to Japan an expedition commanded by Commodore Perry. The oflicial letter which Perry was entrusted to deliver to the court of the Sunrise Empire opened with these felicitous words : 30 ASIA AT THE DOOR ^' Great and Good Friend : — I send you this public letter by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, an officer of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, and com- mander of the squadron now visiting Your Imperial Majesty's dominions. I have directed Commodore Perry to assure Your Imperial Majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings towards Your Majesty's person and gov- ernment, and that I have no other object in sending him to Japan but to propose to Your Imperial Majesty that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other." The letter was delivered in July, 1853, and a treaty of amity and commerce soon followed. Describing this memorable event, one of our popular historians of some three decades ago penned a passage which may be taken as a fair expression of the generous and broad sentiment which still seemed to animate the America of his age. " Providence having bestowed the whole earth on the children of men/' says this historian, " such isolation [as was maintained by Japan] is defeating altogether that beneficial purpose; for should other nations follow the example of Japan, and refuse to communicate with their neighbours, there would be an end of all commerce, of all progress, of all civilization, — industry would be smitten with paralysis, and men would regard the in- habitants of adjoining countries as enemies." It was this optimism, this breadth of view, this un- feigned love for what is right and just, springing from the eternal principles embodied in our Declaration of Independence — it was this peculiarly noble characteristic which placed us in a position totally different from that of scheming empires and self-seeking monarchies, and thus won us the respect and friendship of Oriental na- tions. Yet, in the light of our Oriental policy in more THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 3I recent years, can we conscientiously say that we have not receded from that enviable position ? We have come to allow our national policies to be too greatly influenced by the selfish desires of great business interests and by the irrational clamours of the purblind masses. The enormous opportunities for which this country is noted, coupled with the influence of the great Industrial Revo- lution, have rapidly created a sort of financial oligarchy which, though holding no ostensible political or social privilege, wields a formidable power by virtue of the money which it controls. We have become a nation so engrossed in the pursuit of gold and in the desire to satisfy material wants as to hold most other things secondary to that one consid- eration. It seems as if these significant lines of Matthew Arnold's, "What shelter to grow ripe is ours? What leisure to grow wise?" were written especially to describe our present condition of life. In such an age it is but too natural that the ordinary citizen, upon whose shoulders rests responsi- bility for public welfare, should allow his private busi- ness interest to wean him from the conduct of public aflPairs. Is it any wonder that vital questions of na- tional policy should come to be relegated more and more to the hands of professional politicians, who are either the cat*s-paw of financial cliques or the mouthpiece of the trade unions? Even the dignified doctrine of James Monroe, that we should be the commanding arbiter of our own affairs and protect against the intriguing mon- archs of Europe those infant republics to the southward which had just shaken off the yoke of Spanish despotism, has been turned at the hands of the manipulators of 32 ASIA AT THE DOOR money and of the oligarchy of labour into a tool with which to frustrate the peaceful bona Me undertakings of an Oriental people in Mexico and South America. When we ponder our present attitude towards Japan, that classic letter, which Commodore Perry delivered to the ruler of Japan some sixty years ago, becomes almost an anomaly. We forced open the doors of Japan : now we close our doors to the Japanese. Even students are no longer admitted to our country unless their expenses of living and education are sufficiently guaranteed by the wealth and standing of their parents. Would that money and talent might go hand-in-hand ! That we are anxious to remain friendly with Japan it is needless to say, but how can you expect two nations to be friendly towards each other when either nation persistently assumes the attitude of a provocateur towards the other? We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the polite etiquette of diplomacy. The war which is waged with powder and ball is often less jeopardizing to true peace than the en- mity which is secretly nurtured under the outward sem- blances of peace. We are bidding for Japanese trade, but we ignore the fact that trade follows friendship more certainly than it follows the flag. We invite Japan to utilize the Panama Canal so that our Gulf and Atlantic States might de- velop closer trade relations with the rising empire in the East, but we are oblivious to the fact that we are throwing a great obstacle in the path of the Japanese ves- sels by forbidding their crews to land where our flag flies. To any one who knows something of life on sea it is obvious that a voyage of 19,500 miles is a great, almost unbearable, strain to the mind and body of the sailor when he is not permitted even once in the course of the voyage to tread the solid earth. THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 33 It is well to remember that fully half the foreign trade of our Pacific Coast is with Japan. San Francisco, with all the annoyances it caused the Japanese, could in 191 1 export to Japan merchandise to the value of $12,380,000, while its exports to other leading countries — England, Germany, Canada, Australia, China, etc. — ranged in value only from one to five million dollars. In the same year Japanese imports to San Francisco amounted to $24- 095,000, while those from other trading nations varied in value from one to seven million dollars. To be sure, no nation should fix its national policy solely with its commercial interest in view, but it is foolish to try with- out sufficient reason the patience of a country with which it has, and hopes to maintain, close trade relations. That the United States has the right to decide who shall be admitted to these shores and who barred is de- nied by no one. Japan has never challenged that right from a legal point of view. But what would this world be if all nations were to strain every nerve to assert their legal rights without mitigating them with mag- nanimity and the common dictates of courtesy? A man has the right to tell his neighbour not to enter the portal of his home, even when the neighbour has never inter- fered with his welfare and has always observed every canon of gentlemanly conduct. But is such an injunc- tion justifiable from the point of view of expediency, so- cial etiquette, and above all the good-will which is the foundation of human society? As with the individual so with the nation. The restriction of immigration is no doubt one of our sovereign rights, but in exercising such rights we must not single out a nation, a civilized and progressive nation, which has established its right to a place in the comity of Great Powers, as the object of dis- crimination. Perhaps we are justified in discriminating 34 ASIA AT THE DOOR against those peoples which are not yet admitted into the circle of civilized nations and whose mental training is such as to prevent them from comprehending and adopting our ideas and customs. Certainly the Japanese are not such a people. " We must," says Colonel Roose- velt, " treat with justice and good- will all immigrants who come here under the law. Whether they are Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile; whether they come from England or Germany, Russia, Japan, or Italy, matters nothing. All we have a right to question is the man's conduct. If he is honest and upright in his dealings with his neighbour and with the state, then he is entitled to respect and good treatment. Especially do we need to remember our duty to the stranger within our gates. It is the sure mark of a low civilization, a low morality, to abuse or discriminate against or in any way humiliate such stranger who has come here lawfully and who is conducting himself properly. To remember this is incum- bent on every American citizen, and it is of course peculiarly incumbent on every government official whether of the nation or of the several states." One of the favourite arguments advanced by the advo- cates of Japanese exclusion is that, if Americans were to immigrate to Japan in large numbers, the Japanese Government would set up a barrier against us, just as we have erected a wall against the Japanese. It might, and yet it might not. For my part, I prefer to believe that Japan would welcome American immigration, if she had such enormous natural resources and such a vast area of lands yet little exploited as are found in the United States. But, if she should feel obliged to restrict immi- gration, she would apply such restriction equally to all nations. It is, however, idle to indulge in such conjec- tures. The point is that Japan's probable, we may as well THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 35 say improbable, intention to restrict American immigra- tion should furnish us no ground for excluding Japanese immigration. We must do what is right and avoid what is wrong, no matter what our neighbours may do or think. It was this sense of justice which inspired our forefathers and which made our country unique and spir- itually great in the concourse of nations. If Japan should attempt to exclude our immigrants without plausible rea- son, it should be our duty to oppose such arbitrary meas- ures. To acquiesce in them would be to run counter to the tradition which has been our life and inspiration in the past. It has been our mission, self-imposed yet none the less noble, " to teach men in all parts of the world what- freedom is, and thereby institute other Americas in the very strongholds of oppression." Japan, civilized as she is, has yet much to learn. Her Govern- ment has not yet freed itself from superfluous red-tape and many another legacy of the oppressive past, while her people are not yet fully awake to the idea of personal rights and freedom essential to a constitutional govern- ment. In the words of Count Okuma : " The spirit of blind obedience and involuntary submission that we care- fully taught and fostered under the feudal regime and by Confucian ethics no longer finds any trace in the coun- try's laws, but its inherited influence still remains, and injuriously affects the social well-being of the people in ways direct and indirect, intentional and uninten- tional." If we mean to remain true to the spirit in which we first entered into intercourse with Japan, we should con- tinue to exert our wholesome influence to help her to- wards a greater freedom and a truer enlightenment. In order to do this we must acquit ourselves in accord with the principles of humanity. Heretofore those Japanese 36 ASIA AT THE DOOR immigrants who were allowed to avail themselves of the enormous opportunities which our country offered, and who drank of our fountain of liberty, have proved a potent leaven in the social evolution in the Mikado's land. Especially have those poor but resolute young Japanese who worked their way through our colleges been influen- tial in the subtle yet none the less powerful movement for the democratization of their country. And for this great assistance Japan never ceases to be thankful. But now our doors are closed alike to the students and to the ordinary immigrants. It should be borne in mind that the removal of the ban put upon Japanese immigration does not necessarily mean the reopening of our doors to unrestricted immi- gration. Japan, proud and sensitive, has no intention to embarrass the United States by sending emigrants in large numbers. She deems it her duty, a duty not only to her own people but to all the civilized world, to re- strict immigration where her emigrants are not welcome. What she wants is merely an equal treatment, the treat- ment which we have accorded to all other civilized na- tions. Should the United States of her own accord remove the restriction put upon the Japanese in the mat- ter of immigration and naturalization, Japan, on her part, will voluntarily and willingly see to it that her subjects of " undesirable " class will not seek these shores. This, we may be sure, the Japanese will be impelled to do by the sense of gratitude and obligation which magnanimous conduct on our part cannot fail to arouse in their hearts. For there are but few peoples on earth so appreciative of kindness and sympathy as the Japanese. " There is something painful," says Mr. Don C. Seitz, the manag- ing editor of the New York World, in the North Ameri- can Review, " about the childlike faith and grateful good- THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 37 will manifested toward the American visitor by the peo- ple of Japan, in perpetual acknowledgment of their debt to the United States. This is no shallow sentiment, but a deep feeling bred of the belief that but for Commodore Perry and Townsend Harris that country would have dwelt in mediaeval helplessness until too late.'* This sen- timent of gratefulness which is so deep-rooted in the Japanese mind will be infinitely intensified when once we deal with that nation on a basis of absolute equality. Yes, Japan will restrict emigration to the United States of her own accord, once we approach her in the proper manner. At the same time, the United States must plainly admit the injustice of interfering with the bona fide enterprise of the Japanese in countries outside of our jurisdiction, whether Canada or Mexico, Peru or Brazil. And yet, as if it were not enough to have excluded the Japanese from our own territories, we are now pursuing him, or rather the shadow of him, in Mexico and in South America. The spectre of Japanese invasion in Mexico was conjured up, it seems, as a scheme of boost- ing a real estate enterprise by those American interests holding immense tracts of land in Lower California. Of this the Magdalena Bay incident is an apt illustration. As President Jordan, of Leland Stanford University, says, " The whole Magdalena Bay business is a creation of the Hearst newspapers." It is understood that Mr. Hearst himself has an extensive real estate interest in Lower California, and it is not improbable that he thought he could boom the country by directing the attention of the nation towards that region. It is all very well for men of Mr. Hearst's calibre to spread wild talk of Japa- nese designs upon Mexico, but how are we to account for the action of such an enlightened statesman as Senator Lodge, when he takes up such wild talk in all his earnest- 38 ASIA AT THE DOOR ness and makes stirring speeches on the floor of the Senate ? A Japanese steamship concern may or may not have tried to secure a coaling station in Magdalena Bay. The question is immaterial. What is essential is that, in making a great ado about the supposed Japanese de- signs on Magdalena Bay, we forgot that the very expedi- tion of Commodore Perry of 1852 had as one of its missions the establishment of a coaling station in the Far East, possibly in Japanese v^aters. But for the out- break of the Civil War in our midst this scheme of ours would have been carried out. Suppose Japan objected to our securing a coaling station in or close to her terri- torial waters. Would we have heeded her protest ? Not likely. We would have lectured Japan pretty severely, and, what is more, we would have got what we wanted, anyway, had not the war of secession disconcerted us. For my part, I believe that any trading nation, whose intentions are peaceable, should be free to secure coaling stations wherever it will. The Monroe Doctrine, as interpreted to-day by our politicians and press, virtually makes it impossible for Japanese to launch in Mexico or in South America any enterprise, however innocent such enterprises may be. I have no sympathy for those entrepreneurs, Oriental or Occidental, who emulate the methods of what the muck- raker calls " predatory wealth " and stoop to grasp con- cessions and privileges in foreign lands, but I believe that we should not raise a hue and cry against those innocent, honest toilers of Japan who, crowded out of their small and densely populated country, emigrate to South Amer- ica or Mexico in search for wider fields of activities, agricultural or commercial. Yet many of our politicians and journalists are indulging in wild speculations and are declaring that Japanese immigration to South Amer- THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 39 ica will prove to be an encroachment upon the Monroe Doctrine. If the meaning of this doctrine must be stretched so wide, may not Japan be justified in setting up a Monroe Doctrine of her own and declaring that henceforth Americans must keep off the shores of East- ern Asia? The Western nations, America not excluded, persistently taught the Japanese the dangerous doctrine that might is right, and yet when the Japanese are ready to translate that doctrine into their policy would we con- nive at such affronts? I think not. What, then, will be the outcome? As an English writer in the Fortnightly Review puts it : " Let the sense of the common grievance among Oriental nations rise steadily and dominate; let it be asserted that there shall be white men's countries in every other continent, but that brown men and yellow men, no matter how much they increase or how far they progress, shall never have any countries but their own; let the conception of Asia contra mundum gradually arouse all its races for a colossal crusade; let Japan be invoked by China as a leader and by India as a liberator ; and let the black races feel that the white man is likely to be swept back at last, and then indeed the strangest dreams of the eclipse and extinction of Western civiliza- tion might come true." The " strangest dream " is not likely to come true, for Japan clearly realizes the impossibility of casting her lot with the huge, inert mass of humanity that inhabits the Asian continent. She believes that her interest is more closely interwoven with that of the Occident than with that of the Oriental races, that in temperament and in- clination she has much more in common with the West- ern peoples than with those of Asia. But some day in the remote future huge Asia may bestir and come to its own. And here lies the point of danger. Such a day of 40 ASIA AT THE DOOR danger will not come in a hundred years or even in two centuries, certainly not "before the opening of the Panama Canal/' in spite of all the horoscopes of Mr. Hearst and his associates. In the meantime let us do all we can for the removal of all factors which are liable to estrange East and West. Let us frankly admit that the Monroe Doctrine has lost much of its strength. What some publicists and jour- nalists are pleased to call the Monroe Doctrine of to-day is not the Monroe Doctrine; it is something brand-new. The real Monroe Doctrine lost its raison d'etre when Eu- ropean despotism and its offspring, the Holy Alliance, sank into the limbo of oblivion; and we forfeited our claim to that doctrine when we reached our own hands across the Pacific and seized the Philippines, and con- trived to become a predominating factor in the finance and railway enterprise in China, even at the expense of those rights which another nation had acquired at the cost of billions of dollars and a hundred thousand lives. It will never do for us to be beguiled into believing that the dollar is almighty, that it can do everything and undo everything. In this age of enlightenment, when the arbi- tration movement is gaining strength and the Hague Tri- bunal has become a permanent institution, no nation need cling to the legacies of a departed world and a bygone age such as the Monroe Doctrine. " America for Ameri- cans " is as absurd as " Asia for Asiatics." The more diligently the United States harps upon the Monroe Doc- trine in its distorted form, the less cordial and sympa- thetic will the leading republics in Central and South America become towards her. For are they not just as proud of their independence and integrity as ourselves ? It is indeed sad to think that even Christianity has done comparatively little for the razing of the barrier which THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 41 we have erected in our midst against the Orient. The sense of human brotherhood is no less needed by men whose profession is the propagation of the Gospel than by men of the lay world. We send missionaries to Japan and tell the " heathen " natives of love and universal brotherhood ; but when Japanese, converted to the teach- ings of the great Nazarene, come to these shores they are denied admission into the greatest fraternal institu- tion to which those great teachings have given birth — I refer to the Young Men's Christian Association. It was, I presume, this sort of proselytizing which the Master sternly rebuked in these words, " Woe unto you, hypo- crites, ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte." The world is troubled and the age is critical. Per- haps we are, like the Greek of old, "Wandering between two worlds — one dead, The other powerless to be born." How soon that other world will see the light God alone knows. We are souls loosed upon the sunless seas of doubt and wearily scanning the dark horizon for a haven for which our forefathers have striven these many centu- ries but which is not yet even in sight. The hour is full of anxieties and forebodings. And yet in such an hour " it is bliss to be alive," and be able to contribute a widow's mite towards the solution of the great problem that confronts us. II MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 1HAVE often wondered why I can never bring my- self to feel indignant at the American censor of the Japanese. Considering the vituperations and slanders which he heaps upon the Japanese, I ought to be able sometimes to let myself go and accept the challenge like a man, if I had a grain of pride in the race to which I belong. For the life of me I cannot. Am I cowardly or indifferent? The truth is that I can never fully grasp his point of view, and, failing to comprehend him, I also fail to take him seriously. As George Meredith says of Mrs. Caro- line Grandison, he " runs ahead of my thoughts like nim- ble fire." I follow him with panting eagerness, but the moment I seem to be catching up with him he suddenly disappears or shifts his position, only to crop up again, God knows in what direction. The American censor is so versatile and flexible that he appears at times whimsical. His line of argument is tortuous, full of sharp curves and backward bends. Only a short while ago he harped upon the popular notion of the inferiority of the Japanese. The Japanese strove might and main to vindicate their ability. Now he holds out the bogie of Japanese domination, and argues that the " brown men " must be excluded and even expelled because of their superior abilities. He complains that the Japanese are clannish and cannot understand the hail- 42 MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 43 fellow-well-met manner of the Occident, but when the Japanese try to mingle freely with Americans, why they are accused of being " too eager to push socially." He tells the Japanese to learn something of the amenities of conventional society ; woe betide the Japanese if they take him at his word and don black frock coats and high silk hats. " The Japs are cocky and like to put on airs " is the immediate rebuke. He blames the Japanese for sending money out of his country, but when they begin to invest their hard-earned dollars in real property in- stead of sending them home, he calls them a " menace." What does he want them to do with their savings? He used to argue that the Japanese must be kept away be- cause they lower the economic standards of the American labourer; now he charges them with demanding exorbi- tant wages. For some time he has diligently exploited the old theory of the unassimilability of the Orientals; now he admits that the Japanese show a capacity for assimi- lation much greater than that of the Chinese, Mexicans, and some of the South and East European races, and yet he concludes that, inasmuch as some native inhabitants of the Pacific Coast cherish prejudice against the Orien- tals, the Japanese should neither be admitted nor allowed to own land in this country. I have followed him far enough, and I must pause to save my breath. Such a dull mind as mine has but little craving for such intellectual gymnastics. I can see only the comical side of his strategy. He snatches weapons from the hands of his opponents and utilizes them to strengthen his own position. As frequently he forges his own weapons, which to my untrained eyes appear so bizarre that I think they should remain in fairyland, there to be put in the hands of imps and clowns. And yet such grotesque missiles seem to be effective 44 ASIA AT THE DOOR in beguiling an unthinking public. " The Japanese are so dishonest that most Japanese banks have to employ Chinese cashiers," says one critic, and another adds: "Unblushing lying is so universal among the Japanese as to be one of the leading national traits/' The third informs that " the Japanese are so unmoral that indul- gence sexually before marriage is a common practice of both sexes." And the fourth corroborates the idea in these words : " There is no word in Japanese correspond- ing to sin, because there is in the ordinary Japanese mind no conception of its meaning. There is no word corre- sponding to the word home, because there is nothing in the Japanese domestic life corresponding to the home as we know it." Such fairy tales are unessential, for we are dealing with this prosaic, matter-of-fact world. What is essen- tial is the state of mind which causes the public to listen to such stories with avidity and without discrimination. What created such a state of mind? The question is pertinent, considering the generosity and indulgence with which America up to a decade ago viewed Japan and the Japanese. The Americans are not naturally addicted to fault-finding, and I find the average American remarkably tolerant. How comes it that of late his innate leniency seems to have made way for censoriousness ? I do not pretend to possess any magical power enabling me to unveil the mysteries which have shrouded the alienation of American sympathy from Japan, but the following few facts may furnish a clue to this enigma : During the Russo-Japanese War many American and European newspaper correspondents came to Tokyo, all eager to proceed to the front. The Japanese Government, much as it was anxious to accommodate them, could ill- afford to expose its plan of campaign to the outside MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 45 world, for the stake it was playing for was the very ex- istence of the empire. To the impatient correspondents, however, the life or death of Japan was of no greater consequence than the rise or decline of their fame as writers, and when they found themselves virtual prisoners in luxurious hotels attended by courteous officers, they were in no mood to compliment Japan. That was quite natural, and it is unreasonable to blame them. Nor is it reasonable to censure the Japanese General Staff. When the plenipotentiaries of Japan and Russia met at Portsmouth to negotiate peace, the tide of public opin- ion began to flow against the Japanese. By the time the conference came to a close Russia had been virtually sub- stituted for Japan in the sympathies and good-wishes of the American newspapers. Not only had Witte defeated Komura within the walls of the historic " storehouse " utilized for the conference, but he had outwitted the Mikado's envoy by befriending the press of the world, whose representatives were gathered at the Hotel Went- worth. The late Marquis Komura, with all his shrewd- ness and foresight, never fully realized the power wielded by the press. He was always so cocksure of the just- ness of his stand that in adhering to it he never recog- nized the necessity of having editorial sympathy on his side. Most of all, he disliked the corrupt means so fre- quently employed by those statesmen who with Robert Walpole believe that " every man has his price." What wonder that almost simultaneously with the triumphant exit of Count Witte from the great diplomatic stage at Portsmouth, American newspapers began to publish all manner of insinuations with regard to Japan? This new turn of public sentiment was at once seized upon by those great interests whose business was and is to make capital out of the war scare often created by n/ 4€> ASIA AT THE DOOR themselves. They manufacture war talk in order to in- crease demand for the warships and guns and powder which they manufacture. There is no doubt that the clandestine activities of these interests greatly assisted in the alienation of American sympathy from Japan. With the termination of the war Japan was admitted into the family of Great Powers. This exaltation of pres- tige naturally demanded of her the fulfilment of all con- ditions requisite in the making of a first-class power. Henceforth the world had the right to measure Japan by new standards of judgment — standards which it had been accustomed to apply to the foremost nations of Eu- rope and America. She was no longer to be patronized and admired like a precocious youth achieving extraor- dinary feats, but was to be treated as a man who had attained the maturity of judgment and wisdom. And, judged by these new standards, Japan has proved a dis- appointment both to herself and to Western critics. The disappointment of the Japanese means little more or less than a healthy aspiration for perfection, but the disap- pointment of the Westerners is attended with a mingled feeling of disgust, distrust, and contempt. The Japa- nese were disappointed merely because Japan did not, like other vigorous, ambitious nations, permit the halo of her achievements to obstruct her discernment, but was eager to learn more and accomplish worthier deeds. The for- eigners were disappointed chiefly because their mental at- titude had already been influenced by certain unhappy circumstances. The entrance of the Japanese into the arena of commercial competition was in itself sufficient to arouse suspicion on the part of Westerners. In a word, the West is passing through a period of dis- illusionment in its attitude towards Japan. Nor is it the West alone that has been disillusioned. While the Japa- MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 47 nese was under Western tutorage, he knew but little of the seamy side of Occidental life. Like a docile pupil, the Japanese frankly admitted and recognized the supe- riority of not only Western civilization, but also the West- ern race. When I was in school in Japan as a small boy, my text-books taught me that " the people of the Occident are exceedingly industrious, always rising early in the morning, and never taking a noon-day nap." They told me that the Westerners were " our superiors physically, mentally, and morally." It was not only the school chil- dren but their teachers and parents who believed such sweeping statements with unquestioning simplicity. The whole nation was thoroughly in earnest to bring itself up to the standards of the Western people. Then there were missionaries who held out before their bewildered pupils the picture of an idealized Christendom. With a few lamentable exceptions, these disciples of Christianity were worthy of the mission entrusted to them. Not only by words but also by deeds they con- firmed the belief which had been instilled in the Japanese mind by the imposing presence of the warships on which the American commodore made his advent in Yeddo Bay, and by the wonderful wisdom displayed in the miniature railway and telegraph, the sewing-machines, and diction- aries which he unpacked at Yokohama in i860. Yes, the Japanese worshipped the Occident, especially America, with all the ardour of a youthful mind and the devotion of a pilgrim. He heard of our Puritan fore- fathers, who braved the rough seas and tjie wilderness infested with savage Indians for the sake of the free- dom of conscience. He read the Declaration of Inde- pendence, whose noble ideas thrilled his heart with admi- ration. He was told of Washington and Lincoln, of Franklin and Webster, and he thought America was a 48 ASIA AT THE DOOR land where petty politicians and intriguing demagogues had no place. He heard of the universal prevalence of Christianity in America, and fancied that every home and individual there must be guided by Christian princi- ples of purity, honesty, and uprightness. He was re- minded of his lack of business morality, in contrast with the high standard of commercial honour prevalent in the West, and he imagined that all American merchants must be incapable of imposition and chicanery. Much to his disgrace, he was rebuked for what his Western teachers believed to be immodest, even immoral, conduct of both his sisters and himself, and he had reason to expect the American men and women to be impeccable in character and faultless in demeanour. Poor Japanese! He allowed his imagination to soar too high. His castle in the air shot up like a rocket; when it came down, it was sudden, abrupt, like the stick. Let us illustrate this sudden disillusionment with the experience of a Japanese immigrant. The moment he lands at San Francisco he receives his first baptism in liberty in the most bewildering manner. " Poll tax ! poll tax ! " shouts an evil-visaged man, who has no more au- thority to collect poll tax than the man in the moon. The innocent soul, helpless among strangers, obeys the man- date of the dubious tax-collector, and the rascal disap- pears with an additional five-dollar gold piece snug in his trouser pocket. But no sooner does the Japanese re- lease himself from the clutches of the bogus tax-collector than he finds himself a captive in the hands of two or three savage-looking men, who tell him to get into their carriage (which is nothing but a common dray- wagon) so that he may be safely conducted to a Japanese hotel Decline the offer, and the reward is a black eye or a MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 49 bruise in his face; accept it, and they take him where they will, charging four or five dollars for the service. So is the Japanese initiated into American freedom. No longer is he dismayed by showers of oaths which come mixed with the unholy odour of whiskey and chew- ing tobacco. No longer is he afraid to penetrate into the mazes of American life and to explore its wonders. And there are plenty of wonders awaiting his discov- ery. He discovers, much to his surprise, that many of the municipal governments are burdened with graft and jobbery. He discovers " insidious " lobbying freely prac- tised in the shadow of the monument dedicated to the Father of Freedom. He finds the Goddess of Liberty standing uneasy and forlorn as if dismayed by the pres- ence of a metropolis which harbours 40,000 prostitutes, at whose feet gallant men offer a yearly tribute of $80,000,- 000. Is this the America which the missionaries told him about? He learns the horrible fact that $1,014,- 000,000 worth of adulterated food is annually dumped upon the market to the detriment of public health. Is this the America whose high standard of commercial mo- rality was heralded the world over? He opens a store in San Francisco, and a smooth-tongued American, call- ing himself a representative of a large firm, calls upon him and tells him to sign a paper, which he says will entail no obligation to the signatory. Unable to read the paper but having unrestricted confidence in the hon- esty of the American merchants, he signs his name to it and, behold ! piles of goods, which he had not the slightest idea of ordering, are dumped upon him! This in a Christian country! He hears of politicians bribing their way to the Senate or the House, where they be- come slaves of big interests to mend their " battered and bankrupt fortunes." Is this the America which produced 50 ASIA AT THE DOOR Washington and Lincoln? He is told that no less than ioo,cx)0 divorces are annually granted, making as many children motherless or fatherless, and " wrecking 2,000,- 000 homes, actual or potential, as hopelessly as by an infinite conflagration." Is this the America whose men and women are noted for their strong moral quality ? He hears of wealthy brewers and cattlemen buying for their whimsical daughters titled husbands just as they buy their infant children rocking horses or rag dolls. Is this the America which scorns social caste and boasts of its doctrine of equality? Most shocking of all, he discov- ers that sons and daughters of wealth are no longer con- tented with all the luxuries, wholesome and otherwise, offered in their own country, but go to Europe to gamble at Monte Carlo, to flirt at Vienna and Budapest, and to learn all the vices lurking under the eternal charm of the French metropolis. He hears of orgies of New Year's Eve, where intoxicated women reel with men, even less sober, both uttering coarse words and smoking cigarettes. Are these libertines the descendants of those Puritans whose stoicism and simplicity he fondly re- garded as a Western counterpart of bushi^do, the way of the warrior? Yes, the Japanese is disappointed and disillusioned. Yet he is reluctant to give up the fond admiration which he so long cherished for America. lie still hopes to unearth the sterling qualities which, he believes, must be hidden under the superficial vices so brazenly displayed to public gaze. His hope is not in vain, for his efforts are richly rewarded. He discovers good-nature and sym- pathy innate to almost all Americans; he learns public opinion is not so paralyzed as to permit political graft and official irregularities to pass unchallenged for any considerable time; he finds out that the extravagance of MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 5 1 the upstart millionaires is deeply deplored by the middle class, which is, after all, the true strength of the nation ; he discovers that the mutual devotion of husband and wife, of parents and children among the typical Ameri- cans is not less intense than that commonly found in his native country; he discovers the system of credit in the business world developed to the highest state, which cannot be done without correspondingly high sense of honour on the part of individual citizens. If Ameri- can life is not free from blemishes and defects, Japanese life is no more so — why drag them into the garish light of day? If he is disillusioned, that is nobody's fault but his own, which beguiled him to fancy that this earth could harbour a perfect people. After all, there is no reason why he should be disappointed or disillusioned. Thus does he become a truer friend of America. The trouble with most Western critics of Japan is that they come East without sympathy, and criticism without sympathy is seldom just. Neither are they in earnest to study Japan. If they come across something which defies their comprehension, they do not take trou- ble to investigate the question, but dismiss the whole matter as incomprehensible to the Occidental mind. That worn phrase, " The Japanese are inscrutable," sim- ply betrays the mental indolence of whoever invented it. Take, for instance, the much-advertised fiction of the Chinese cashiers standing guard over the Japanese banks filled with dishonest employes who are all natives. In all my life have I never heard a lie so unblushing as this. Time was when a few Japanese banks in open ports employed Chinese, because the Chinese were dis- honest. Does this seem paradoxical? The explanation is simple. China has no currency system such as is com- mon in civilized countries. Besides the silver coins arbi- 52 ASIA AT THE DOOR trarily struck out by the central and local governments, there is a large amount of bullion in circulation. Now the bullion is often adulterated, while many coins are counterfeits. Through experience of centuries the Chinese have learned to distinguish, by the ring of the metal, undebased from debased silver, an art which the Japanese had no need to develop. So the Japanese banks dealing with Chinese merchants had to employ Chinese silver experts to safeguard themselves against the loss which must result from accepting adulterated silver brought from China. In no Japanese bank were such Chinese experts given so important a position as cashier, and even such few Chinese were long ago replaced by Japanese experts. To-day there is no Japanese bank which employs a single Chinese in any capacity. That, however, made no difference to sensation-seekers from America. They were there to tell wonderful stories, and the Chinese employe in the Japanese bank traced to his raison d'etre was not nearly so fascinating a subject as when represented as the overseer of dishonest Japanese. It is indeed difficult to gain an insight into the life of any foreign nation. Especially is this the case when the nation one studies has a language totally different from one's own. The globe-trotter, without any knowl- edge of Japanese, whirls through the country, and writes a book on short notice. Entertaining? Yes, but is it worth while? Nor does he always write accurately who spends years in Japan. To know the Japanese as they really are, a foreigner must first of all have unfeigned sympathy with them, who will in turn receive him with sympathy. A critic without sympathy is apt to take su- perficial vices as the reflection of the inner qualities of the nation which he criticises. As for myself, the longer I live in America the more MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 53 cautious do I become in criticising American life. Had I returned to Japan after a few years' sojourn here as a college student, I would never have enjoyed the oppor- tunity to see America in true light. Fate decreed that I should make my home in America and have American relatives and friends, who do not hesitate to take me into confidence and reveal to me both the lighter and the darker phase of American life. We gossip with our neighbours over an afternoon tea, and our maid, not in- frequently lapsing into the instinct of her sex, brings home the report of the latest scandals of the town. Once we lived in a small town in the West, where we heard every year of three or four girls who " went wrong " and had to marry under circumstances about which no one dared to talk but in whispers. In a town of less than three thousand population an annual toll of three girls surrendered into the hands of temptation is not a thing to be dismissed lightly, and, when we think that there may have been more cases of misdemeanour which for- tunately or unfortunately did not terminate in enforced marriage, we are compelled to stop and think. Am I to say that the American girls are an unchaste lot? Not for the whole world. Yet this is exactly the method of argument followed by those unsympathetic writers who bring wholesale indictment against the Japanese girls. They tell me that Japanese of this or that class are dishonest, tricky, unreliable. Be it so, but are Americans of the corresponding class any better? Let me tell you my experiences in America, which I presume are about as worthy as the experiences of Americans who spent a few months in Japan. Once I engaged a few men, one of whom was a candidate for alderman of our town, to dig a ditch. I paid them at the rate of forty-five cents an hour, as they demanded. Afterwards I discovered 54 ASIA AT THE DOOR that no one in our locality paid more than twenty-five to thirty cents an hour for such work. Am I to say that the Americans are dishonest and take every opportunity to fleece strangers ? Once I asked a man, who was trim- ming the trees in our neighbourhood, to trim a tree in our yard. He said he would do it if I would pay him two dollars. I refused, as I knew that he was doing the job for my neighbours just for the fuel which he could get out of the branches he was cutting. That ended the negotiation as far as I was concerned; not so with my man. The very next morning he came back with a brand-new front, and said that he had changed his mind and decided to cut the branch for me if I would give it to him for fuel. Am I to say that Americans are tricky and try to take advantage of the ignorance of for- eigners ? We hire a maid with the understanding that she can cook reasonably well, but when she comes to work we find out that she can cook well enough to suit the occupants of my kennel, certainly not for any member of my household. Am I to say that the American girls are dishonest and unreliable? I engage a painter to paint my house. He furnishes the paint, for which I pay more than the regular price. Scarcely a year is past when the paint begins to peel off on all sides of the house. Am I to say that the American workmen are fraudulent ? I deal with a local plumber and agree to let him install a heating plant in my house. I pay in advance both for the plant and work, hoping he will feel obliged to com- plete the work without unnecessaiy delay. He begins to work in due season, but before the job is finished he quits to work somewhere else, leaving it uncompleted for months and months. I hire a man to work on my little garden. He demands an exorbitant wage for his first day's work, but promises to come back in the following MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 55 morning, which he never does. Upon investigation I find him in his dismal house unconscious from the effect of the liquor which he was enabled to purchase with the money I gave him. I thank heaven that my mind is not so perverted as to draw from such trivial experiences sweeping gener- alizations as to the integrity of the Americans. One's unpleasant experiences are seldom a safe guide in one's efforts to understand a foreign nation. Besides, why find fault with the Americans when the Japanese may be just as faultful? If a Japanese is as sympathetic as he is eager in studying America, he will have no difficulty in discovering admirable qualities in her people. There is one thing which requires particular considera- tion on the part of foreign critics of Japan. In Japan, unlike America, people do not whisper scandals, but shout them from the housetops. Suppose a girl had to marry under shameful circumstances. Out comes the local newspaper telling under blazing headlines every phase of the disgraceful story. Impetuosities of youth, follies of maturity, misdeeds of maidens and wives, ex- travagance and license of bachelors and husbands are reported in the newspapers in a manner which would put the yellowest of yellow journals in America to the blush. Especially is this the case with the local papers, which always find it difficult to gather enough news on local politics and trade to fill their columns. Such sensationalism is totally foreign to the editors of small local newspapers in America. In America peo- ple believe in the wisdom and charity of shielding from public gaze the misdeeds of the weak-willed. In no American weeklies or dailies published in small towns have I seen a single case of scandal reported. On the other hand, Japanese newspapers find justification for 56 ASIA AT THE DOOR their apparent sensationalism in the motto of the nov- elists of the old school, " Encourage virtue, rebuke vice." An American visitor in Japan, who hastens to the con- clusion that the presence of so many scandals in news- papers indicates the low standards of morality among the Japanese, is no more right in his observation than a Japa- nese who would infer the absence of misdeeds among Americans from the fact that the Americans do not talk scandals on the streets. The American is subtle, tact- ful, and charitable in dealing with scandal ; the Japanese, straightforward, tactless, and relentless. Social conventions. Oriental or Occidental, are often absurd and meaningless. Why is it that the American women should be forbidden under pain of ostracism to expose their bosoms on the beach, when they are ex- pected to reveal them in a ballroom? Does it not seem more natural for a woman to expose her bosom when taking a plunge in the surf than when whirling to the sound of exciting music, clasped in the arms of her masculine partner? Does it not seem the height of folly for an elderly dame to wear decollete dress, coaxing departing youth to linger upon her bosom by a liberal application of cream and powder ? Why is it that Ameri- can women, who think it perfectly correct to expose their feet on the beach, would be handed over to the police should they do the same in a ballroom? Why should Americans be shocked by the innocent, unconscious ex- posure of legs or the body, common among the Japanese, especially among the lower classes ? Does it not appear that the partial exposure of the person incidental to health, cleanliness, or convenience in doing necessary work, is far more modest and sensible than an exposure which is merely for show ? He who imputes immorality to such nudity betrays the pruriency of his mind. Have MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 57 we any right to laugh at the Mohammedan women, who think it sinful to show their faces but uncover their legs without blushing? The Hindu women hide their faces, yet their figures are clearly visible through their dresses of transparent gauze. The prude may be shocked to learn that even " the glory that was Greece " produced a great philosopher who urged that young men and women should see each other in nakedness, that they might know what sort of a person they were to marry. In this year of grace, 1913, American ministers — Dean Sumner of Chicago University one of them — advocate the adoption of this Platonic idea in modified form, when they urge medical examination as an essential condition for granting a marriage certificate. After all, American young men and girls, who may some day have to endure such embarrassing examinations, seem not much better oflF than the Japanese lasses and lads who entrust them- selves to the loving guidance of their parents, who in- quire with the utmost care into the genealogy, character, education, habits, and health of those who are to be the life companions of their sons or daughters. The better the Japanese people are studied and under- stood, the more will it be felt that a great injustice has been done them in the sweeping attacks made upon their women. It will indeed be found that charges of unchas- tity brought by foreigners against the Japanese rather recoil upon the character of the accusers, who would appear to have studied women in the brothels of open ports. Licensed prostitution in Japan is deplorable enough, but " why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but not the beam in thine own ? " Before Japan opened any port to foreign trade, says Dr. Griffis, the greatest American authority on Japan, " the Japa- nese built two places for the foreigner — a custom house 58 ASIA AT THE DOOR and a brothel — for they believed the foreigners to be far •worse than themselves. How far were they wrong?" And Mr. A. B. Mitford, an English authority on Japan, says : " Vice jostling in the public places ; virtue imitating the fashion set by vice, and buying trinkets or furniture at the sale of vice's effects — these are social phenomena which the East knows not." It is wrong to judge the Japanese courtesan from a Western point of view. She is not necessarily a depraved soul, entering a life of dis- grace from reprehensible motives, but often a sacrifice offered on the altar of Confucian ethics, holding filial piety and obedience to be the highest virtues. In the days of old, pure, innocent damsels often volunteered to sell themselves into the brothel to relieve their parents of debts or other obligations. To-day such heroines are becoming fewer and fewer, and the harlot's function has no longer attached to it such ethical glamour as was glo- rified by novelists of the old school. But as long as the white-slave trade in our midst is so horrible, as has been revealed by the reports of the vice commissions in New York and Chicago, we had better refrain from making the Japanese a target of criticism. There is nothing inscrutable about the Japanese, if one looks at him without bias. Mr. Roosevelt cites Lafcadio Hearn and Rudyard Kipling as two great authorities who believe in the inscrutability of the Japanese. No one is a sincerer and more ardent admirer of Lafcadio Hearn than I. I admire him as a poet and artist; as an in- terpreter of Japan, his authority is open to question. Such a book of his as " Gleanings in Buddha Fields " is destined to become immortal, but his " Japan, an Attempt at Interpretation " can hardly be regarded as authorita- tive. With all his poetic intuition, Hearn failed to see Japan as she really was. His picture of Japan creates MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 59 with us an impression that the Japanese are a people utterly different from Western peoples in ideals and traits. More critical, though less romantic observers, more and more disagree with Hearn. The basic qualities and character of the Japanese are much the same as those of the European. As for Mr. Kipling's writings, I need only say that his articles on Japan, written for the London Times and republished in " From Sea to Sea," are the most delightful reading ever proceeding from the pen of a globe-trotter. And what a globe-trotter Mr. Kip- ling is ! The more closely we look into the question, the more superficial does the difference between the East and the West appear. Even the kimono reminds us of the Eu- rope of the Middle Ages, in which originated the flowing gowns worn by European ministers and professors of to- day. The arts and crafts of Japan are not dissimilar to those of the Middle Ages in Europe. Ancestor worship, which is considered totally foreign to the Westerners, finds its counterpart in the Christian idea that the de- parted are received in heaven and there become angels. If the Occidental is encouraged to live a life of virtue by the belief that he will live among angels after his de- parture from this world, the Japanese is impelled to achieve meritorious deeds by the conviction that he will, when his earthly existence ceases, be worshipped by his descendants just as he worshipped his forefathers. Could we not find a point of contact in these two conceptions? Had a European nation existed through centuries in iso- lation as Japan did, it would have followed much the same line of progress as Japan. Both Europe and Japan are imitators, and in this respect they are radically dif- ferent from China. China invented all that she had and was self-sufficient. Neither Europe nor Japan invented 60 ASIA AT THE DOOR what it has. Japan imitated Chinese and later Western civilization ; modern Europe founded its civilization upon legacies left by China and Greece. But, inasmuch as successful imitation presupposes creative ability, both Europe and Japan have been and are developing new- ideas and making new inventions, as well as modifying and improving what was bequeathed by older civili- zations. Disillusionment as frequently follows over-praise as it precedes true appreciation. The present disappoint- ment manifested by the West with regard to Japan and the Japanese will in due time give way to truer under- staHding and higher appreciation of Japanese character, ideals, civilization, and culture. Meanwhile, Japan will continue to adopt, absorb, modify, and improve ideas, in- stitutions, and the arts of peace, which the West has to offer her. Professor Sydney Gulick forecasts Japan's future in these words : "The race or people who can best synthesize the thoughts and experiences of other races is the one to have a rich life. And it seems to me that Japan bids fair to excel here. She combines, as no other nation does to-day, the two great and hitherto divergent streams of Occidental and Oriental civilizations and languages. She has the power of holding, appreciating, and enjoy- ing a larger variety of different modes of life, of wear- ing apparel, of language, of ideals, of travel, and of amusement than any other nation with which I am ac- quainted. She is so situated in the midst of the con- vergent streams of Eastern and Western civilizations, with her immense variety of languages, customs, ideas, and religion, that she bids fair in due time to develop a life of marvellous wealth. Her dream not only of re- ceiving all that is good from other nations, but in due MUTUAL DISILLUSIONMENT 6l time of giving something of worth to the world, will doubtless be realized." It is Japan's hope not to disappoint such well-wishers as Professor Gulick. And the more the Japanese are maligned and oppressed at the hands of foreign nations, the firmer and more unconquerable will their determina- tion become to rise and to attain the end which they have started out to reach. Ill CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? NO nation, perhaps, has turned to environment so sensitive a front as the Japanese. Its history of twenty-five centuries is a record of unceasing adoption and assimilation. Aye, the process of assimi- lation began even before the curtain of history rose upon the pristine calmness of its Elysian islands, for the archi- pelago seems from time immemorial to have been the meeting ground of all races inhabiting the Asian continent and its adjacent islands. From the South came various tribes of Southern China, of the Malayan islands, and of India ; from the northwest came tribes of Korea, Tartary, Mongolia, and Northern China ; from the grim forests in the north the Ainu descended upon the sunlit plains of Southern Japan; even the aborigines of North America seem to have crossed the Pacific to swell the confluence of human streams that was forming in the archipelago of Japan. A glance at the map of Eastern Asia convinces us of the comparative ease with which these early tribes must have steered their courses towards Japan over vast ex- panses of water. Off the eastern coast of the Asian con- tinent a chain of innumerable islands runs from north to south, as if forming stepping-stones between the tropical islands of the Malayan group and the peninsula of Kamchatka in the grip of eternal ice. In this chain of islands Japan occupies the most fortunate position. To 62 CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 63 enhance the advantage afforded by this geographical configuration, the shores of Japan are laved by a warm current which issues from the South Sea and which finally runs towards Canada, across the Pacific. The monsoon, too, blows from the South Sea, taking in spring an oblique southerly course towards the Pacific, and in autumn veering to the opposite direction. For the rest- less souls of prehistoric times, therefore, it was no in- surmountable difficulty to drift from island to island until the fair scenery of Southern Japan greeted their eyes. Thus it came to pass that the Japanese nation incorporated a greater variety of races than any other nation in the world. That some of these component races were of Aryan origin not a few scholars have begun to recognize. When the primitive tribes met with one another in the fair isles of Japan, they saw little cause for quarrel. The climate was agreeable and the earth bountiful; and the sea was so abundantly supplied with fish that they could be caught by hand without any trouble of netting. There was plenty of food for every one, and the winding hills and embracing valleys afforded hospitable shelters — why should they quarrel? And so aborigines and immigrants freely and happily intermingled and conversed over the hearth in a tongue that quickly became common among them. With the barrier of race animosity thus insensibly removed, it was but natural that the Japanese people should draw into its veins the blood of numerous tribes and races. That indeed was the first step toward assimilation. As the various races became fairly homogeneous and uni- fied under a common government, they began to adopt the civilizations and cultures of continental countries, especially of China. When Japan came in contact with 64 ASIA AT THE DOOR the Western world, she set out to study and absorb the civilization of Europe and America with the same zeal and receptivity which she had displayed in adopting the civilization of the Asian continent. Mr. Robert P. Porter means to be courteous, I pre- sume, when he says, in his " Full Recognition of Japan," that Japan absorbs but does not imitate. Let us be more frank and admit that the Japanese are imitators. Imita- tion, however distasteful to the sensitive Japanese that word may be, is a virtue and trait common to all pro- gressive nations. " Herein," says no less an authority than Dr. W. E. Griffis, " is the abysmal difference be- tween the Chinese and Japanese, yes, between the sons of Ham and ourselves. The Chinese invented what they have. We did not, nor did the Japanese. The Chinese have had but one culture. It is indigenous. They have held to it and have only recently, under pressure from all sides and within, begun to change. The Japanese, like ourselves, inventing little until modern times, adopt and adapt new things, and even become adepts. Always, when opportunity offered, they took the novelties and were soon at home with them. The Japanese mind, thor- oughly un-Mongolian, works in other grooves than those smoothed by the Chinese." Successful imitation implies creative ability. No peo- ple, not endowed with originality, can adopt the compli- cated sciences and the intricate machinery of industry of other nations, and in a comparatively short time be thoroughly at home with them. Herein lies justification for Mr. Porter's assertion that Japan is not a nation of copyists. For she modifies the arts and ideas of other nations to meet their peculiar needs and to suit their own ideas. Take, for instance, the fine arts of Japan. Japan was China's pupil in painting and sculpture, yet CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 65 the style of painting and sculpture which she eventually developed is no more Chinese than the painting and sculpture of Europe. Western critics recognize admi- rable qualities in the fine arts of the Japanese; they declare that in this particular field the Japanese displayed remarkable creative genius. What they have achieved in the field of fine arts they are also achieving in other fields. No nation of mere copyists could handle the intricate yet tremendous machinery of modern warfare with such absolute mastery and precision as has been displayed by the Japanese. No nation of mimics without creative genius could in a brief period of thirty or forty years master the industrial arts of the Occident so completely as to enable it to construct mighty dreadnoughts, to build mammoth merchant vessels, and to establish and operate great factories. In the world of material science, also, Japan has already made remarkable records. Even the comparatively new and small Japanese community in America already boasts of such scientists as Dr. Takamine and Dr. Noguchi, of New York, whose remarkable inven- tions and discoveries are well-known among the special- ists of all countries. Professor Sydney Gulick, for fifteen years an educator in Japan, attributes the imitative trait of the Japanese to his sensitiveness to environment; his success in imi- tation he traces to the flexibility of his mental constitu- tion. " Great flexibility, adjustability, agility (both men- tal and physical), and the powers of keen attention to details and of exact imitation " — these are qualities with which Professor Gulick credits the Japanese. Comparing Japanese imitation with that of other nations, this Ameri- can scholar has this to say : " The difference between Japanese imitation and that of other nations lies in the fact that whereas the latter, 66 ASIA AT THE DOOR as a rule, despise foreign races, and do not admit the superiority of alien civilizations as a whole, imitating only a detail here and there, often without acknowledgment and sometimes even without knowledge, the Japanese, on the other hand, have repeatedly been placed in such cir- cumstances as to see the superiority of foreign civiliza- tions as a whole, and to desire their general adoption. This has produced a spirit of imitation among all the individuals of the race. It has become a part of their social inheritance. This explanation largely accounts for the striking difference between Japanese and Chinese in the Occident. The Japanese go to the West in order to acquire all the West can give. The Chinaman goes steeled against its influences. The spirit of the Japanese renders him quickly susceptible to every change in his surroundings. He is ever noting details and adapting himself to his circumstances. The spirit of the China- man, on the contrary, renders him quite oblivious to his environment. His mind is closed. Under special circum- stances, when a Chinaman has been liberated from the prepossession of his social inheritance, he has shown him- self as capable of Occidentalization in clothing, speech, manner, and thought as a Japanese. Such cases, how- ever are rare." I have dwelt at length upon the peculiarity of Japanese character, because it has vital bearings upon the ques- tion of their Americanization. If the Japanese were mere copyists without individuality, we have little reason for expecting them to become valuable assets of the Repub- lic. If, on the other hand, their personality is such as to prevent them from appreciating the superior points of foreign civilizations, we have no more reason for hop- ing to convert them into faithful members of our com- munity. It is because the Japanese are endowed with CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 67 both distinct individuality and extraordinary suscepti- bility to environment that we feel justified in believing that their physical peculiarities will constitute no insur- mountable obstacle to their Americanization. True, their proverbial patriotism furnishes some Americans a cause for apprehension, but I hold that this quality, instead of proving a hindrance, will be found an auxiliary to our efforts to assimilate them. No immi- grants, who come from a country where they enjoyed the benefits of an honest, efficient government, enter the portal of our country without casting longing eyes to- wards their native land. They alone fail to experience such feeling who left behind them a degenerate or back- ward state which they see no reason to be proud of. Of these two classes of immigrants which ai t Lhe more de- sirable? To this question many divergent answers may be given, but to me it appears that those immigrants who formed, while in their native country, the habit of respecting law and government not only out of the sense of duty but out of sincere affecti' a and devotion, would find no difficulty in appreciating a government which is founded upon the principle " that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- tain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Take, for example, the German immigrants. The Kai- ser*s subjects are no less loyal to the fatherland than the Mikado's subjects are devoted to the Land of the Rising Sun. Yet it is not many years after his arrival in this land of opportunity that the German becomes its ardent admirer. Time was when Germans in America maintained their own schools and newspapers and were regarded by the Americans as a '* menace," yet to-day no one ventures to deny that the German population is an 68 ASIA AT THE DOOR invaluable asset to the country. Will the Japanese be like the German? To Americanize the Japanese it be- hooves us to treat them in accord with the American spirit. The Japanese do not want us alternately to praise them and revile them ; what they ask is the observance on our part of the elementary principles of justice and fair- ness. " Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " are what was held by our forefathers to be sacred, and to guard these precious possessions we did not hesitate to shed the blood of three generations. Men who con- spire to violate these fundamental principles are running directly counter to the spirit of this Republic. Whether our country has reached a stage where we should no longer receive immigrants without restriction, is a question which I cannot discuss here. One thing, however, seems certain : namely, that any alien, once ad- mitted into our territories, must also be given opportu- nity to prove that he can be a faithful and worthy citizen of the Republic. To be more definite, our doors of citi- zenship must be open to all aliens, and especially those who come from countries which by dint of their achieve- ments in the arts of peace and of warfare, have been ad- mitted into the family of civilized nations. For the sake of our national solidarity and advancement, it is not advisable that any alien should be permitted to enter our country without at the same time affording him the privilege to become a citizen. Foreign people living within our jurisdiction with no hope of becoming Ameri- can citizens, constitute a floating, unstable element in our national existence. They will not feel with us, nor will they think as we think. To them the woe and weal of our body politic are of little consequence, and the conduct of our public affairs is of no greater interest than the domestic affairs of their strange neighbours. CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 69 Nor is this all. When we single out aliens of a cer- tain race or nationality as objects of discrimination in the matter of naturalization, we fix upon them the odium of inferiority and thus instill in their hearts a feeling of resentment. We look down upon them with contempt, and they reciprocate with disdain. We assume a suspi- cious attitude towards them, and they also look at us with suspicion. It is human nature, and cannot be avoided. The remedy is obvious. Open the doors of citizenship to them, encourage them to become worthy members of the commonwealth, and their hearts will glow with hope and they will strive to prove their right and fitness to become American citizens. For hope is a wonderful re- deemer, lifting men out of abandonment, and kindling in their bosoms the fire of aspiration. Give the Japanese in America an equal opportunity with other aliens, and they will respond as whole-heartedly and loyally as any other foreigner under our flag. No problem can be solved by hate and prejudice, certainly not the Japanese question. No people can be assimilated by pressure and persecution, certainly not the Japanese, a people en- dowed with the keenest sense of honour and pride. The great assimilating power of the American nation is or has been, I believe, largely due to the fact that here in the land of freedom the immigrants are permitted to bask in the blessings of a liberal government and are un- hampered by inequitable restraint. Why fetter the Japa- nese with discriminatory measures and drive them into a path which leads counter to the goal which we desire them to attain? Be it far from me to contend that we should natural- ize all aliens as they come. On the contrary, I urge that we should jealously guard our high standards of citi- zenship against all debasing influences. We should de- 70 ASIA AT THE DOOR mand of every candidate for citizenship the fulfilment of all conditions requisite in making him a desirable mem- ber of the democracy. If the present naturalization law is too lax in this respect, it should be revised so as to safeguard the moral well-being of our country. What I protest against is the false notion that all Asiatics are " undesirables," while all Europeans are " desirables." Physiognomy, stature, and the colour of the skin have no more bearing upon the moral character and intel- lectual quality of a man than the pattern of garments he wears. There are just as many knaves and sharpers in other civilized countries as in Japan. If China has her Hatchet Men, Italy has her Black Hands. As sang an ancient poet : "The world in all doth but two nations bear, — The good and bad, and these mixed everywhere." It is, however, fair to add that the Japanese community on either side of the Pacific has never had anything like the Hatchet Man or the Black Hand, whose atrocious methods of extortion have struck terror into the hearts of all denizens of the Bowery and of Chinatown. Neither have the Japanese established in any American city such filthy quarters as have been established by im- migrants from certain other countries. There is no sound reason why the Japanese should not be naturalized. In connection with the naturalization of the Japanese, the question of intermarriage is of special interest. Here and there the miraculous hands of love razed the barrier of prejudice and united men of Japan and our daughters in " the sweet bond of holy wedlock." Fortunately such unions have, as a rule, been successful. And why not? Despite wide difference in customs and manners, the tra- CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 71 ditions of American families are not much different from those of Japanese families of the corresponding class. What is different is merely outward forms; the basic ideas are the same. Moreover, in the sphere of intel- ligence and character there is neither race nor nation- ality. In the words of Kipling: "But there is neither East nor West, i Border, nor breed, nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, Though they come from the ends of the earth." Marriage of a man and a woman on totally different planes of education and intellectuality would be unfor- tunate, even when they both belong to the same race and nationality. Where intermarriage between a Japa- nese and an American has proved unhappy, the failure can usually be traced to causes other than racial. A California writer, a newspaper correspondent, who evidently thinks that painstaking investigation and fidel- ity to truth form no part of a writer's duty and responsi- bility, discusses intermarriage between Japanese men and American women, and says : " In all cases the white woman has been ostracized by Americans, but even stronger in proof of the impossi- bility of the amalgamation of the races is the fact that the Japanese man has also become an outcast from his own race by reason of the marriage. The offspring are neither Japanese nor American, but half-breed weaklings, who doctors declare have neither the intelligence nor healthfulness of either race, in conformity with the teach- ing of biology, that the mating of extreme types produces deficient offspring." I am reluctant to question the profundity of the bio- logical knowledge which this writer claims to have, but 72 ASIA AT THE DOOR I fear he has to study a bit more. If book-reading is not his forte, he may at least make a round of calls to the homes of American- Japanese couples and see if he could find the wee weaklings of his imagination. I know in California, whose laws forbid the union of Caucasians and Orientals, white women married to Japanese are placed in uncomfortable positions, but California is dif- ferent. In no Eastern States are such snobbery and provincialism displayed with regard to intermarriage. Even on the Pacific Coast other States are not so averse to American- Japanese marriages. As for the Japanese being ostracised on account of his marriage to a white woman, the story is too absurd to require a refuta- tion. I should not be so severe in criticising the Califor- nian, for I myself used to view intermarriage with dis- favour. I used to see in the open ports in Japan boys and girls born to the Japanese " wives " of Europeans and Americans. Such " Eurasians," with few excep- tions, seemed neither bright nor robust. In my youthful, unreasoning mind, I fancied that marriage of Occidentals and Orientals was disastrous. As I grew older, I learned to think more rationally and to place the blame where it belonged. The trouble with those Eurasian children was that their Japanese mothers were mere hirelings, employed for the time being to satisfy the lust of sailors and traders from Europe and America. What could we expect from such promiscuous " marriages " ? Wanton 'love is destructive alike to the home and to the human race. On the other hand, men like Lafcadio Hearn and Captain Brinkley, who made homes in Japan with edu- cated, respectable Japanese women, are blessed with chil- dren who are mentally and physically as wholesome as any child. CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 73 But we must come back to America. There are at present in the entire United States some 300 Japanese who have married American women. Of these about 250 are in the Eastern States, about 50 on the Pacific Coast. Homes resulting from the union of Japanese and Cau- casians are usually happy, and the children born and reared in such homes are both healthy and bright. In ^ appearance, in temperament, in manner such children are so completely American that one can hardly detect Japanese blood in their veins, unless one is informed of their parentage. Especially is this the case when their mothers are American. True, their eyes and hair are dark, but there are many white children whose eyes and hair are no lighter. As one watches these children one is struck with a peculiar charm in their physical expres- sions. Perhaps this is because the harsh contour of Oc- cidental physique is somewhat softened by the inherent subtilty of the Oriental race. Their mental agility is extraordinary, and as they grow older they show sur- prising proficiency. We shall not be surprised if in the coming few decades we find among these American- Japanese children of to-day scholars and artists whom we may well be proud of. When I heard a noted agi- tator shout, in one of his fire-spitting harangues be- fore San Francisco labourers, that " if Japanese and Americans intermarried the result would be a nation of gaspipe thugs and human hyenas," I could not help laughing in spite of the solemn audience about me, for I could not but believe that this famous hero of the dynamite conspiracy was indulging in jest. This reminds me of what the elder Dumas said to his friend, Cremieux, a notoriously homely man, when the latter tried to turn a laugh against the great novelist. " Was your fa- 74 ASIA AT THE DOOR ther a mulatto?" asked Cremieux. "Yes," replied Dumas, " my father was a mulatto, my grandfather a negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey; my family began where yours ends." In the assimilation of aliens within our borders reli- gion must, of course, shoulder a great responsibility. Churches and all institutions founded upon the princi- ple of humanity and universal brotherhood, must receive the aliens not only with open arms but with open hearts. By dint of sympathy they must throw across the chasm of racial prejudice a bridge of mutual understanding. How strange that the Young Men's Christian Associa- tions on the Pacific Coast should refuse to admit Japa- nese into their membership! Surely this was not the kind of fraternity for which Jesus of Nazareth sacrificed his blood. Some three years ago a Japanese, a clerk of the Japanese Consulate-General, applied for admission to the Y. M. C. A. at Honolulu, but was rejected. The event created at the time something of a sensation, as Dr. Doremus Scudder and the majority of American residents severely criticised the discriminatory measure adopted by the secretary of the Y. M. C. A. The con- troversy, at which the rejected applicant was an inter- ested onlooker, continued for almost a year, at the end of which the Y. M. C. A. decided to admit the Japanese. By that time, however, the Japanese had become so pro- voked that he no longer cared to join the fraternity. I presume that the Y. M. C. A. was rather glad that he declined the belated invitation, for it had decided upon a policy of segregation, having instituted a Japa- nese Y. M. C. A. as an auxiliary to the Honolulu Y. M. C. A. At Los Angeles, a Japanese young man had an expe- rience even more humiliating than that of the Honolulu CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 75 Japanese. A graduate of the University of Southern California and an employe of an American bank, he had many friends among Americans. At the urgent ad- vice of his American friends, who were members of the Los Angeles Y. M. C. A., he applied for membership in the association. He had not the slightest doubt that his application would meet immediate acceptance, but the secretary demurred and hesitated and seemed unwilling to give any definite answer. The Japanese, not knowing what was in the secretary's mind, requested prompt de- cision, whereupon he was told that he could become a member if he would accept one condition. The Japanese replied he would if the condition were reasonable. Then the secretary said that the Japanese could enjoy all the privileges enjoyed by other members, but that he must refrain from using the swimming pool ! The young man was simply dumfounded. Did the secretary mean to intimate that the Japanese people were physically un- clean or that they were liable to spread disease? That ended the negotiation. The Japanese applicant, who had thought that his race was noted for cleanly habits, was naturally disgusted and indignant with what he con- sidered the height of bigotry, and abandoned all hope for doing anything for or with American Young Men's Chris- tian Associations. In these instances the issue raised was a purely racial one, for the applicants were men of impeccable char- acter and high intelligence. In San Francisco it is much the same story. The shock which the Japanese convert to Christianity experiences in such circumstances is all the more severe because he was accustomed to see the picture of Chris- tendom painted in roseate hues at the hands of the evangelical workers who revealed Christianity to him. *7^ ASIA AT THE DOOR While in his native land he heard a great deal said about Christian love and brotherhood, and he felt justified in ex- pecting to find the teachings of the Great Nazarene lived up to at least by Christian workers and institutions, if not by all members of Christendom. And yet here he is in the Christian country of all Christian countries unable to enter one of the greatest fraternal organizations to which those teachings have given birth. He cannot help wondering if he would not have been much happier and much better oflf, had he remained what his religious teachers from America reproachfully called a heathen — a disciple of Buddha, a devotee of Confucianism, or a believer in Shinto. If the Y. M. C. A. be like a club, consisting of men grouped together by common whims and fancies, no one is justified in complaining of its exclusiveness. Certainly the Y. M. C. A. has not yet degenerated into such an organization. The question involved is a vital one and challenges the soberest consideration on the part of all public-spirited men and women, and especially those directly interested in foreign missions. For the policy of segregation can- not but militate against the effective propagation of the Gospel not only among the Japanese in this country, but among tens of millions of souls on the other side of the Pacific. This significant fact is clearly recognized by the Immigration Commission when it says that the establishment on the Pacific Coast of missions exclu- sively for Japanese is " a recognition of a difference be- tween them and other races and a condition which lessens their value as an assimilative force." At the same time, the good work accomplished by the Japanese missions cannot be too highly appreciated. The Methodist Church alone maintains some fifteen churches for the Japanese on the Pacific Coast. There are almost CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? yy as many Presbyterian churches. Primarily established for the propagation of the Gospel, these churches are also schools and social centres, where Japanese young men acquire a knowledge of English as well as American customs and ideas. IV CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM?— II EVEN in the present untoward circumstances, the Japanese in America have proved themselves sur- prisingly loyal to the country which harbours them. How fond they are of this great country! And how proud! Their enthusiasm is almost contagious. They are resolved that nobody shall speak in their pres- ence disparagingly of the United States. Now and then there come to these shores Japanese who have spent a few years in Germany or France or England and who are naturally inclined to belittle America, its arts, its literature, its universities, its cities, and even its charm- ing womankind. Such impudent critics had better be- ware, lest their compatriots in America admonish them rather unceremoniously. In spite of all the inconven- iences and disagreeable experiences that annoy them, the Japanese in America, especially the educated class, ap- preciate that this is a country of freedom and opportu- nity. They breathe the atmosphere of freedom and they revel in it. Here is a country which is singularly free from official red-tape; where nobody is called upon to sacrifice the best years of his life for military duties; where officials are in the true sense of the term the serv- ants of the people; where social caste has never been established; where all the blessings of modern civiliza- tion — schools, libraries, museums, and what not — are placed at the disposal of every one. After all, it is a 78 CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 79 pretty good country, this great Republic of brothers, and the Japanese are quick to appreciate it. When they are treated more kindly, and more squarely, and more in ac- cord with the true spirit of the Republic, there is no doubt that they will become even more devoted to this country. One of the most interesting subjects for the students of sociology is the Japanese children bom and reared in this country. These children, oblivious of their own parentage, disdainfully call the newcomers from Japan " Japs." Surely they have caught the Yankee spirit ! Tell them that they are themselves Japanese, and they proudly cock their heads and indignantly swear that they are not Japs but 'Mericans. Their parents, too, are proud that they are Americans and want them to learn all that is good of American ideas and manners. As they grow into manhood and womanhood, they will no doubt strive to live up to the standards of living which obtain in our community. Their agile minds readily grasp the details of our life, and they become teachers of their parents, if their parents were not fortunate enough to receive the blessings of modem education. Miss Katherine M. Ball, for fifteen years a teacher in public schools in San Francisco and at present Supervisor of Art of that city, makes interesting observations, com- paring the peculiarities of Japanese children with those of Chinese. " The Chinese," she says, " although living in an American city, still perpetuate their own national life; hence the difference between the native-bom and foreign-born Chinese children is so slight that it is scarcely perceptible. Not so with the Japanese who live among us. They strive to the utmost to become familiar with Occidental life and to adopt Occidental customs. As a result, the art work of those Japanese children born 8o ASIA AT THE DOOR and reared in this country is similar to that of our own children, thereby demonstrating that ' as water cannot rise above its level,' so humanity cannot reflect aught but that which environs it." A striking example of the assimilability of the Japa- nese is found in those Japanese girls born and educated in Hawaii and teaching public schools in the territory. Not only are their manners and speech perfectly Ameri- can, but their features and complexion are markedly dif- ferent from those of the Japanese girls at home. Their vivacious movement, their airy manner, their charming speech find no example among their sisters in the Mika- do's land. Brought up in a congenial atmosphere in which many races live amicably together, these Japanese girls grew up with little knowledge of race hatred, and when they are placed upon a footing of equality with their American sisters by the official recognition of their scholarly attainment, they feel that their efforts are not in vain and are encouraged to achieve more meritorious work. It imbues their naturally modest minds with self- confidence and self-respect, qualities essential in the mak- ing of good citizens. What has been accomplished in Hawaii can also be accomplished on the continent when we are purged of racial prejudice and learn to deal with the Japanese in sympathy. One of the peculiarities of the Japanese community in America is the schools established by it to instruct Japa- nese children in the language, history, and ethics of the Mikado's Empire. Almost every centre of Japanese population on the Pacific Coast has a Japanese school. On the entire coast region from Vancouver to Los Angeles there are about fifteen of such schools, all es- tablished and maintained by contributions from the Japa- nese residents. The maintenance of such educational in- CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 8l stitutions may be construed as a proof that the Japanese mean to perpetuate in our midst the traditions and moral conceptions of their native country. Before I made per- sonal study of these schools I was myself one of those who urged their summary abolition. My recent visit in Hawaii and on the Pacific Coast persuaded me to modify my views. The Japanese schools, it must be remembered, are not substitutes for, but supplements to, our public schools. The Japanese children go to Japanese schools after their regular hours in the public schools. The session lasts two or three hours and the curriculum consists of caligraphy, reading, and composition in Japanese. To these Japanese history, geography, and ethics are added for older children. In the classrooms one finds por- traits of Washington and Lincoln hung side by side with the portraits of the reigning Mikado and Admiral Togo or General Nogi. There is indeed something touching in the scene presented by the Stars and Stripes infold- ing the Rising Sun, under which the children sing the gentle air of the Mikado's Empire and the militant song of the American Republic. It is cosmopolitanism, not narrow nationalism, which is fostered in these schools. In the public schools the Japanese children are taught the doctrine of humanity and freedom embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and in the Japanese schools they are enjoined to respect the spirit of the Mikado's Rescript on education. That rescript, issued in October, 1890, runs thus : " Ye, Our Subjects, be filial to your parents, aflFection- ate to your brothers and sisters ; as husbands and wives be harmonious, as friends, true ; bear yourselves in mod- esty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue learning and cultivate arts, and thereby develop 82 ASIA AT THE DOOR intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers ; further- more, advance public good and promote common inter- ests; always respect the constitution and observe the laws; should emergency arise, oifer yourselves courage- ously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth." With the substitution of " citizens " and " Republic " for " Our Subjects " and " Our Imperial Throne," re- spectively, the rescript might well be read in our own public schools. In reading the rescript in the classroom, teachers in the Japanese schools in this country usually interpret its meaning so as to suit the circumstances under which their pupils are placed. Living in America, they explain, the children must " guard and maintain the prosperity " of the Republic. As for the rest of the rescript, every word contained therein rings with eternal truth, which knows neither East nor West, race nor nationality. Our children, reared in the atmosphere of independence and freedom, are sometimes inclined to forget to " honour thy father and thy mother." On the other hand, the Japanese are taught to sacrifice every- thing upon the altar of filial piety and of the State. The East developed ultra-communalism, the West ultra- individualism. Perhaps, by modifying the ideas of each with those of the other, both the East and the West may find the golden mean. In rare instances Japanese teachers are inclined to inspire in the hearts of their youthful pupils such senti- ment and creeds as would hinder their assimilation with American ideas and traditions. No word can be too strong in condemning such perverted methods. Yet in the overwhelming majority of cases I find the teachers judiciously liberal, and I have reason to believe that the CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 83 good example set by the majority will soon be followed by their few conservative colleagues. There is another strong reason for justifying the Japa- nese schools. The American text-books are too sparing in dealing with the history and geography of the Orient. Worse still, they often do Oriental nations gross injus- tice by disseminating mistaken ideas. What one learns in his childhood in the nursery, in the kindergarten, and in the primary school, influences and fashions his thought throughout his life. Most Americans judge and estimate Japan from what their ** schoolma'ams '* told them twenty or thirty years ago. American writers of text-books are not entirely free from the notion that the whole Orient is peopled by inferior or backward races. The Japanese children, more or less despised by their schoolmates and reading in the newspapers foul epithets and vituperations heaped upon the Japanese, have no favourable idea of the race to which they belong. And when they see even their text-books speak slightingly of the Japanese, they see no reason why they should thank the fate which made them Japanese. Such depressing feeling seldom de- velops good qualities. It makes the child timid and often suspicious. To offset such unfortunate influence, it is necessary that the Japanese children should be given correct knowl- edge of Japan and the Japanese. They must know that Japan has had an intensely cultivated civilization of her own, that her people are possessed of moral fibre as strong as that of any other people, that her history is replete with stories of noble deeds and achievements. Such knowledge makes them confident of the potentiali- ties of their race, and teaches them to respect not only themselves, but their parents and all men of their kin. What is equally important, it affords them a broader view 84 ASIA AT THE DOOR of the world and divests them of narrow prejudice. No man is worth while who does not respect himself and the race of which he is a member. Neither is he a de- sirable member of the democracy who cherishes preju- dice against other races. To prevent the injection of such undesirable elements into the American population is the chief mission of the Japanese schools in America. In the assimilation of aliens, public schools play the most important part. They may well be called the great melting pot of the races. It is fortunate that in no State other than California any attempt has ever been made to segregate Japanese school children from American children. Even in California it is only poli- ticians with their eyes upon the labour vote who exploit the segregation question. The teachers and superintend- ents of schools never recognize the necessity of segrega- tion. And why should they? When a certain publicist of California delivered in San Francisco a speech in favour of segregation, a California woman, for eleven years a teacher in public schools in her State, wrote a letter to the gentleman. In part the letter reads : " It shows you are totally ignorant of Japanese life and char- acter. The Japanese children are as clean, bright, and wholesome as our average American child, and much cleaner-minded, more studious, and obedient. It is snob- bery, pure and simple, and un-American race-hatred that would forbid the Japanese child the training of our schools.'* I have quoted elsewhere in this chapter the statement of Miss Katherine M. Ball, superintendent of art in the public schools of San Francisco. When in 1906 San Francisco tried to segregate Japanese children, the principal of a public school in that city wrote thus : " The statement that the influence of the Japanese in CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 85 our schools has had a tendency towards immorality is false and absolutely without foundation. From all I have heard in conference with other school men, as well as from my own continuous and careful observation, there has never been the slightest cause for a shadow of suspicion affecting the conduct of one of these Japanese pupils. On the contrary, I have found that they have furnished examples of industry, patience, unobtrusive- ness, obedience, and honesty in their work which have greatly helped many efficient teachers to create the proper moral atmosphere for their classrooms." Such, in brief, are the testimonials of most school teachers in California. The agitation for the segrega- tion of Japanese children is nothing but a political game. Let those who scandalize Japanese pupils with invented tales of immorality read a recent report of the Chicago Law and Order League, wherein it is stated that, in the twenty-four months covered by the investi- gation, 600 school children occupied wards in the county hospital devoted to diseases resulting from immorality. As long as the morals of our own children are in such deplorable state, we have no right to throw stones at those children of foreign birth or parentage who are much purer-minded. Aliens, in order to Assimilate American ideas and man- ners, must first acquire a fair knowledge of English. How does the Japanese compare with other immigrants in this particular respect ? " The difference," we learn from the Reports of the Immigration Commission, " be- tween the Japanese and some of the other races with regard to the learning of English is so great as to justify the statement that the Japanese have acquired the use of the English language more quickly and more eagerly than the Chinese, Mexicans, and some of the European 86 ASIA AT THE DOOR races." This eagerness and ability to acquire English is shown not only by the better or educated class of Japa- nese immigrants, but also by the labourers. To quote the reports once more : " When compared with other races employed in similar kinds of labour in the same industry, the Japanese show relatively rapid progress in acquiring a speaking knowl- edge of English. Their advance has been much more rapid than that of the Chinese and the Mexicans, who show little interest in American institutions. During their first five-years* residence a greater proportion have learned to speak English than most of the South and East European races. However, among those who have been in this country for a longer period of time, a larger proportion of the South and East Europeans than of the Japanese speak English. The progress of the Japa- nese is due to their great eagerness to learn which has overcome more obstacles than have been encountered by most of the other races, obstacles of race prejudice, of segregation, and of wide difference in language. The Chinese are self-satisfied and indifferent in this regard, whereas the Japanese are eager to learn the English language or anything pertaining to Western civilization." Turning to the census of 1910, we find a very small rate of illiteracy among the Japanese. Take, for exam- ple, the case of California, where the majority of the Japanese in this country are found. The rate of il- literacy among the Japanese was 8.6 per cent, as against 10 per cent, of foreign-born whites, including Germans, English, French, Irish, Canadians, Swedes, as well as South and Eastern Europeans. The rate of illiteracy among the Chinese was 15.5 per cent, and among the In- dians 49 per cent. In the light of what has been said in this and the pre- CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? ^ ceding chapters, and will be said in the chapters follow ing, it seems fair that we should confer upon the Japanese the privilege of naturalization. I have said that the natu- ralization law, if inadequate to bar out undesirable aliens, should be revised. The Rev. Dr. Doremus Scudder, one of the most influential moral leaders in Hawaii, seems to entertain the same opinion, when he says : "If Congress would place the Asiatic on a level with all other races in eligibility for naturalization, follow this up by guarding American citizenship by requiring the passage of a stiff civil-service examination in the English language upon American civics by every candidate for the franchise, and then enact a law admitting only a definite number of labouring men annually from each foreign country, we should get no more than we could assimilate healthfully and those aliens admitted to our citizenship would comprise the indomitable spirits so much needed to recruit our population. Those who know the Asiatic and compare him with the Southern European, the Russian Jew, the Armenian, and Syrian, have no patience with the oft-repeated nonsense that the Asiatic cannot and will not assimilate. The truth is that he does assimilate with great rapidity, that if admitted to our citizenship he would make a thoroughly charac- teristic and devoted American, and that in the event of conflict with his former homeland his loyalty to his adopted nation would be unquestioned." Even the existing law, if strictly enforced, will be able to exclude from citizenship a very large number of un- desirable aliens who are morally and intellectually unfit to become citizens. The new naturalization law which went into effect September, 1907, is doubtless an improve- ment upon the old law, its provisions being couched in such elastic terms as would enable the naturalization au- 8^ ASIA AT THE DOOR .horities to prevent the admission into citizenship of un- desirable aliens. The law provides that no alien unable to speak Eng- lish shall be naturalized; that an alien applying for a naturalization certificate must prove that he has resided continuously within the United States for five years at least and within the State or Territory where his cer- tificate is to be obtained one year at least; that he must also make it appear to the satisfaction of the authorities that during his residence in this country he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the prin- ciples of the constitution of the commonwealth, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the Re- public, which statement must be verified by the affi- davits of at least two credible witnesses who are Ameri- can citizens. It will be seen that there is much room for the authori- ties to employ their own discretion in their efforts to maintain the moral and intellectual standards of the American nation by preventing the naturalization of un- desirable aliens. The educational test, for instance, may be so employed as to bar out many Japanese, for it rests with the authorities to decide how well an alien must be able to speak English to be admitted as a citizen. Again the moral test is as flexible as the educational test. The court reserves the power to withhold the natu- ralization certificate until it is satisfied that the state- ment made by the candidate for citizenship as to his moral character is genuine and sincere; in fine, it entirely de- pends upon the discretion of the court whether or not an alien shall be regarded as morally wholesome. In the face of these provisions, the conclusion seems natural that, in the event of the right of naturalization being extended to the Japanese, there will be no danger of the CAN WE AMERICANIZE THEM? 89 United States becoming infested by the undesirable classes of Japanese. Professor Jenks, in his book, " The Immigration Prob- lem," justly credits the Japanese with " considerable ca- pacity for assimilation," but adds that " effort is made [on the Pacific Coast] to hold them [Japanese] apart as a separate race, even when they themselves appar- ently manifest a strong desire for assimilation." There- fore, he concludes, it is best and necessary to exclude the Japanese. In other words, race prejudice is a thing which should be preserved. On the other hand, I contend that race bias is a thing which should be removed, not by pressure but by force of sympathy and enlightenment. I know but little of American history and ideals, much less have I been able to imbibe the American spirit. Yet I seem not entirely wrong in believing that race prejudice is incompatible with the American spirit — the spirit, not of hair-splitting lawyers who are permitted to masquerade as statesmen, but of the men who penned the Declaration of Inde- pendence and who drafted the Constitution of this unique Republic. There are millions of Americans who still remain true to the ideals of the sires from whose loins they have sprung. The Goddess of Liberty may sink in the bottom of the New York Harbour, but the light of freedom and humanity which made America what it is shall not die, and so long as it continues to shed its rays, however faint, we shall continue to hope that America will some day deal out to the Japanese a full measure of justice. THEIR HUMBLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF all foreign peoples living under the Stars and Stripes the Japanese are perhaps the youngest. There are only a small number of those Japanese residents whose children have reached maturity. Most Japanese children born in this country are yet in pri- mary schools or kindergartens. By the time the first gen- eration passes over to the unknown shores, to be suc- ceeded by the second, the Japanese community in Amer- ica will have been able to record some achievements which may do credit to the country whose protection it enjoys. Meanwhile, we may describe a few things which seem not altogether unworthy of notice. Attention is first called to the discovery by Dr. Jokichi Takamine, of New York, of a haemostatic agent called Adrenalin. The physiological activity of adrenalin iso- lated by Dr. Takamine is astoundingly strong. A frac- tion of one drop of aqueous solution of adrenalin or its salt in strength of 1 150,000 blanches the normal con- junctiva within one minute. Of all the haemostatic agents yet known it is the strongest. The intravenous injection of adrenalin produces a powerful action upon the mus- cular system in general, but especially upon the muscular wall of the blood vessels and the muscular wall of the heart, resulting in an enormous rise of blood pressure. The result of three intravenous injections of i c. c. of the solution of adrenalin chloride of i : 100,000 into a dog 90 THEIR HUMBLE ACHIEVEMENTS 91 weighing 8 kilograms raised the blood pressure corre- sponding to 30 millimetres of mercury. The therapeutic applications of adrenalin are already numerous, while new uses for it are constantly found by specialists. Non-irritating, non-poisonous, non- cumulative, and without injurious properties, adrenalin is useful in all forms of inflammation and is the stron- gest stimulant of the heart. It has been used with good results as an antidote in morphine and opium poisoning, in circulatory failure, in the prevention of collapse in anaesthesia, and in allied conditions. To prevent bleeding in surgical operations, 00 better haemo- static agent than adrenalin has been found. It has also given good results in some cases of deafness, hay fever, nasal haemorrhage, and various forms of heart disease. Adrenalin is prepared by isolating the active principle of the suprarenal glands. Before the discovery of adrena- lin, many scholars of Europe and America endeavoured to discover a similar substance. It was forty-six years ago that Addison first observed the certain changes of the suprarenal glands and their relations to the disease now bearing his name. Oliver and Schafer's work on the physiological action of the glandular extract was soon followed by those of Scymonowicz, Cybulski, and later by many others. Thus the suprarenal therapy became not only a subject of scientific interest, but was found invaluable in various branches of medical practice. The marvellous therapeutic value of the suprarenal extract was established and proved beyond all doubt. And, as its use increased, a desire to obtain its active ingredient in pure state was generally felt by medical practitioners. This need was felt all the more keenly because the suprarenal extract, if not pure, is prone to deteriorate very rapidly. 92 ASl\ AT THE DOOR thus requiring the preparation of fresh extract for each use. Before Dr. Takamine many able chemists devoted their energies to the isolation of the active principle of the suprarenal glands, resulting in J. J. Abel's discovery of epinephrin and Otto Von Furth's discovery of supra- renin. But neither of these authors succeeded in secur- ing the active ingredient in pure, stable, definite forms, and it remained for Dr. Takamine to attain the end long coveted by chemists and physicians throughout the world. Another creation of Dr. Takamine is called the Taka- Diastase, now extensively used for amylaceous dyspep- sia. This medical matter is the result of an ingenious utilization of microbes. The mere mention of the word microbe or bacterium is enough to horrify the laymen, yet the scientists tell us that no human being can exist without bacteria. The fact is that there are two kinds of microbes, one useful, the other harmful. It is the useful kind of bacteria that Dr. Takamine has captured and utilized for the promotion of human well-being. The process of creating this diastase is described by Dr. Takamine as follows : " The bran of wheat is well fertilized by steam ; on to that spores of such fungus are sprinkled, and are allowed to grow in an incubator, at a proper temperature and humidity. In the course of forty- eight hours the bran will be covered with a dense growth of this microscopical plant, and the mass will be found to be rich in diastase, from which it is extracted by per- colation with water. The diastase dissolved is now pre- cipitated by the addition of strong alcohol, thus sepa- rating it from other impurities that may exist in the extract. The precipitate is now pressed and dried and constitutes Taka-Diastase. It has the remarkable di- astasic power of converting a hundred times its own THEIR HUMBLE ACHIEVEMENTS 93 weight of starch in ten minutes to a proper temperature and condition." Considering that at least two-thirds of our daily food consist of starchy material, and that more than two-thirds of the cases of indigestion are caused by the imperfect digestion of starchy food, the invention of Taka-Diastase is a boon to humanity. This diastasic substance is espe- cially valuable in that it supplies the deficiency of the ptyalin of saliva. While the pepsin-creating organs in the human body are comparatively well protected in the system, the salivary glands are more exposed to abuse. No other medical preparation is more efficient than Taka- Diastase in counteracting this abuse of salivary glands. Because of its stability, Taka-Diastase is far more useful than other diastasic preparations so far obtained from other sources. In his laboratory in New York, Dr. Takamine, with several assistants, is still engaged in new researches. In private life no one is happier than he. Both to Ameri- cans and Japanese his home is synonymous with hospi- tality. Mrs. Takamine, a cultured American woman, as well understands the Orient as she is at home with the Occident. Their children — bright, healthy, handsome — are typical of children born to American- Japanese fami- lies of the better class. Their oldest son, a graduate of Yale, is now in Germany continuing scientific studies. No less important a contribution to science than that made by Dr. Takamine is the isolation by Dr. H. Noguchi, of the Rockefeller Institute, of Spirochccta pallida in pure state. Spirochceta pallida, as is well known, is the most effective causative agent of syphilis. The cultivation of this organism in pure state has been sought by many sci- entists, as it affords a great advantage in the treatment of syphilis. Up to the present time three investigators 94 ASIA AT THE DOOR claim to have succeeded in cultivating Spirochccta pallida in pure state — Muhlens, W. H. Hoffmann, and Dr. Noguchi. Muhlens announced in 1909 and 19 10 his success in obtaining one strain of the pallida in pure culture. Hoffmann, who assisted Muhlens, reported in 191 1 that he was able to isolate five more strains of the same organism as was obtained by Muhlens. Dr. No- guchi contends that the spirochetes cultivated by these two authorities are not in reality the pallida, but what is known as Spirochceta microdentium. On the other hand, the Japanese scientist succeeded in isolating six different strains of Spirochceta pallida from the orchitis material of rabbits, and also seven strains directly from chancres, condylomata, and skin papules of human sub- jects. In his Fenger-Senn memorial address before the Chicago Medical Society, Dr. Noguchi explained how he isolated Spirochceta pallida. In the course of the address he said : " Syphilis is a chronic infectious disease, and presents many difficulties in diagnosis. During its very early period, it is principally a disease of dermatologic, genito- urinary, and laryngologic fields. There the clinical ap- pearance, demonstration of Spirochceta pallida and the Wassermann reaction usually settle the diagnosis. On the other hand, as soon as it enters its chronic course, it manifests most diverse and often obscure symptoms. The direct demonstration of pallida becomes laborious and often impossible, the serum reaction less frequent, and the clinical aspect less decisive. A great many cases of the disease at this period now pass into the fields of medi- cine, surgery, ophthalmology, neurology, and psychiatry. Here the detection of the allergic condition will doubt- less aid in deciding the diagnosis of dubious cases. *' Since the discovery of Spirochceta pallida, various THEIR HUMBLE ACHIEVEMENTS 95 investigators have attempted to introduce a specific cuta- neous reaction based on the allergy in syphilis. Thus, Meirosky, Wolff-Eisner, Munk, Tedeschi, Nobl, Ciuffo, Nicolas-Tavre-Gauthier, Neisser-Bruck, Jadassohn, and Fontana carried out a series of experiments by means of an extract obtained from syphilitic tissues containing the pallida. They were much handicapped by not having a pure pallida extract for such purposes. One can imagine the way in which an extract containing various bacteria besides the pallida would react. With such an impure antigen, some of them obtained quite favourable results, while others were unable to come to any conclusive result. " After obtaining the pure cultures of several strains of pallida in 1910, I commenced my experimental work on rabbits with the purpose of ascertaining if these ani- mals could not be made allergic to the extract of pure pallida. By repeated intravenous injections of the pal- lida antigen into the rabbits for several months and then giving them a month's rest, I tested them with the ex- tract, which was termed luetin, given intradermally. A proper control was provided. They all reacted to the luetin with marked inflammation, some leading to pustu- lation in several days. No normal rabbit reacted. While I was still working with the animals, Professor Welch suggested that I make the test on human subjects. Through his encouragement I commenced the work at once at different dispensaries and hospitals." Another important discovery by Dr. Noguchi is the culture in vitro, the four blood spirochaetae, called Spiro- chccta duttoni, Spirochceta kochi, Spirochcota ohermeiri, and Spirochceta novyi. These four distinct species of spirochaetae are responsible for the disease known as re- lapsing fever. The organisms in the blood of patients 90 ASIA AT THE DOOR suffering from the relapsing fever of Europe were first discovered by Obermeier in 1873 ; hence the name Spiro- chceta obermeiri. In 1904 Button and T6dd, and Ross and Milne simultaneously discovered another variety of spirochseta in the blood of those who contracted the dis- ease known as African tick fever. This species is called Spirochceta duttoni. In 1905 Koch discovered the third species which is known as Spirochceta kochi. The fourth species, Spirochceta novyi, was found by Norris in 1906 in New York in the blood of a patient with relapsing fever. But none of these scientists succeeded in obtain- ing in vitro a, culture of any of these spirochaetae. Upon Dr. Noguchi falls the honour of having discovered the method of growing these organisms for medical purposes. There are several other discoveries which must be re- corded to Dr. Noguchi's credit. He is the first scientist who pictured the germ of syphilis. With Dr. Flexner, he also discovered the germ of infantile paralysis. The improvement by him of the Wassermann reaction is one of the most important achievements of the age. Not content with the study of human diseases, Dr. Noguchi carried his investigation into the world of ven- omous reptiles. Indeed, he is one of the greatest authori- ties on snake venom. While in the University of Penn- sylvania, he began to take interest in the snake. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell was then studying snake venom in the light of the modern conception of the action of toxins. Noguchi became Dr. Mitchell's pupil, and studied the subject with such ardour that for a time he virtually lived with the snakes. Before Dr. Noguchi, the French scientist, Calmette, was the greatest authority on snake venom. To-day Noguchi stands foremost in the list of investigators in this peculiar field of research. If you call on him at the Rockefeller Institute, he will usher THEIR HUMBLE ACHIEVEMENTS 97 you into a little room literally lined with dried and bot- tled snake venom. Most of us have heard of Dr. Simon Flexner or of Dr. Alexis Carrel, the two greatest authorities on medical science. The former is the head of the Rockefeller In- stitute, the latter the recipient of the Nobel prize for 1912. Well, Dr. Hideyo Noguchi is recognized as the equal in scientific attainment of either Flexner or Car- rel. And yet who ever heard anything about this Japa- nese scientist? It is no wonder. He shuts himself up in his laboratory in the Rockefeller Institute year in, year out, and never cares to see anybody or to talk with any- body. Even in the Japanese community in New York he is a stranger. As a writer in the Chicago Daily News says, " he is a quiet, reserved, matter-of-fact sort of 4nan, who regards newspaper attention as a thing to be avoided when possible, and to be deprecated when it cannot be avoided." Yet this modest, obscure man may one of these days win the Nobel prize. His name is bound to become immortal. Dr. Noguchi owes Dr. Flexner a debt of gratitude for his achievements in America. It was Dr. Flexner who discovered him. When Flexner was sent to the Philip- pines to investigate the causes of the epidemic of dysentery then harassing the American army, he stopped in Japan to consult with such foremost bacteriologists as Dr. Kitasato. Noguchi, then a very young man, was intro- duced to Dr. Flexner by Kitasato. The American scien- tist took an interest in Noguchi and asked him to accom- pany him to the Philippines as his assistant. While in the Philippines the young Japanese rendered Dr. Flexner a valuable service, assisting in the investigations which resulted in the discovery of the bacillus of dysentery. After their work in the islands was completed, Noguchi 98 ASIA AT THE DOOR came to America with Dr. Flexner and became his as- sistant in the University of Pennsylvania. When Flex- ner became the head of the Rockefeller Institute, Noguchi followed him. But for the opportunity offered him by the generosity of Dr. Flexner, Noguchi might not have been able to carve out for himself such a brilliant career of service and usefulness to all humanity. Apart from the achievements of Dr. Takamine and Dr. Noguchi, there is but little which the Japanese can be proud of. Only a very few Japanese, having graduated from American colleges, have been made members of faculties of universities. The most notable example is that of Dr. Asakawa, assistant professor of Oriental His- tory in Yale University. Because of the difficulty of mastering the English language, the Japanese are greatly handicapped in securing such professional positions. In the field of literature, Mr. Adachi is perhaps a soli- tary figure. Perhaps we are justified in mentioning those few Japa- nese who have made remarkable records in the world of business. New York has, of course, a number of suc- cessful Japanese merchants, but these Japanese, with the exception of Arai and INIoremura, came here with con- siderable capital or as agents of large firms in Japan. Of those Japanese who came empty-handed to this coun- try and built up fortunes by dint of sheer industry, shrewdness, and foresight, we must mention George Shima, exaggeratedly called the Potato King of Cali- fornia. One of the Japanese pioneers in the Golden State, Shima was up to fifteen years ago little more than a " boss," supplying labourers to large orchardists or operating farms under lease contracts. But he saw a fortune in store for him in the apparently barren delta of the San Joaquin River. The islets in the lower THEIR HUMBLE ACHIEVEMENTS 99 reaches of that mighty stream were covered with a dense growth of reeds and shrubs, and were frequently inun- dated. The appearance presented was altogether too for- bidding to attract white farmers. Shima, backed by an American firm which owned the delta, tried his hand in developing the waste lands. For an experiment he diked one of the islands, and drained the soil inside by cutting a wide ditch across it. If there was superfluous water in the ditch, he pumped it out into the river by engine. The land now yielded to the plough operated by steam engine. For a year or two following the first ploughing the virgin soil is allowed to lie idle, so that the brush and reeds would rot under the sod. The soil thus pre- pared was found excellent for the cultivation of potatoes, and Shima's dream came true. The American firm in- terested in the exploitation of the delta encouraged Shima to extend the scope of his undertaking, and to-day the Japanese Potato King cultivates six to ten thousand acres of delta lands, partly leased, and partly owned by him- self. Shima's potato ranches are not far from Stockton. At the wharf at Stockton one notices a dozen steamboats, barges, tug-boats, launches, all bearing the name of Shima. These are utilized as a means of communication between his ranches and Stockton and to transport the potatoes to San Francisco. Among the successful Japanese merchants on the Pa- cific Coast, M. Furuya of Seattle stands foremost. Like Shima, he came to this country with no capital but sound judgment and sound body. Gradually he forged ahead in business until to-day he maintains two stores in Seattle, and a store each in Vancouver, Tacoma, and Portland. His Japanese art-goods store in Seattle, though a losing enterprise to its proprietor, is a delight lOO ASIA AT THE DOOR of tourists and of the residents of that city. When his manager suggested that the store be discontinued, as it was a heavy burden to him, he smiled complacently, and in his characteristically humble manner said : " That store is far from what I should be proud of, but the citizens here seem to think a great deal of it, and I don't like to close it. What small fortune I have been able to amass was made in Seattle, and I feel I ought to do some- thing for the city, as long as I can afford it." Naturally a modest man, he has nothing about him that suggests the millionaire. He still lives in a small, un- pretentious house which he occupied when he was yet far from being opulent. Himself an uneducated man, he has keenly felt the disadvantage resulting from the lack of education and helped many young men go through colleges. Such, in brief, is the humble record of Japanese achievements in America. Yet, considering that the com- munity is little older than twenty years, we may console ourselves that it has made even so humble a record. What few achievements it is able to boast of are the achievements of men who came to this country equipped with knowledge and training acquired in their native land. When the present generation is succeeded by younger men and women, to whom English is no longer an adopted language but is a mother tongue, and who have enjoyed every advantage of education and other opportunities offered in this country, the Japanese com- munity will, let us hope, be able to register achievements not entirely unworthy of recognition. I p- VI " THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS ! " THE source from which Japanese immigrants are drawn is the agricultural population. The Japa- nese, small as his country is, is essentially the son of the soil. In the days of feudalism the farmer ranked next only to the samurai in the social scale. This ex- altation of the agricultural class was due to various circumstances. In the first place, peculiar moral concep- tions, more or less prevalent in all countries before the advent of the industrial era, kept commerce in abeyance and assigned an unenviable position to the merchants. Commerce meant bargaining, and bargaining could not be completely dissociated from chicanery and prevarica- tion. So the samurai looked down with contempt upon traffic and traffickers, and deliberately nurtured scorn for money and the arts of money-making. Towards the farmer, however, his attitude was different. To him farming was one productive pursuit which could be free from sordid phases of commerce. In the second place, the policy of exclusion adopted under the old regime resulted in the commercial, as well as political, isolation of the island nation. Thus obliged to become self-supporting, the country necessarily at- tached a great importance to men who tilled the soil and produced the daily necessaries of life. Moreover, the samurai, to be able to devote himself to the cultiva- tion of martial arts and to a career of conquest, had to lOI '162 '•*''' " ASIA AT THE DOOR rely upon the farmer for the supply of provisions for himself and for his retainers. Towards the last days of the military regime Japan enjoyed a period of peace of almost three centuries, un- interrupted by any serious warfare. Thus freed from the waste of war, the country witnessed an unprecedented increase of population. And yet its doors remained closed not only to those who rapped at them from with- out, but to those who wished to unlock them from within and to go forth into wider fields of activity. With emi- gration forbidden, with the importation of foreign com- modities placed under ban, and with the group of small islands offering but one-twelfth of its total area for cul- tivation, how did Japan manage to secure enough food- stuff to sustain her ever-increasing population ? Only by developing farming into a state of perfection. Of the science of agriculture, as the term is understood in our modern age, she knew but little, but experience of cen- turies taught her how to wrest from the earth all that it could yield without impoverishing the soil. Thus agri- culture was invested with the dignity of a fine art, and men who embraced the calling were regarded not as mere tillers of the soil, but as gentlemen with keen sense of honour and self-respect. They were not even at lib- erty to quit their vocation and join the mercantile class, for that would mean a lowering of their prestige and the impairment of their dignity. Looked upon as a most important element in the body politic, the farmer of old Japan was nevertheless simple of heart and almost unconscious of the high esteem in which he was held. Frugal, contented, industrious, and devoted to the hearth, he was not unlike the Swiss farmer of whom Goldsmith sang: "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" 103 " Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose, Breathes the keen air as he goes. At night returning, every labour sped He sits him down the monarch of a shed, Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze." The abolition of feudalism afforded him a greater op- portunity and wider fields of activity. The new regime removed the circumstances which kept his aspirations unawakened, and the farmer was now free not only to carve out his own career, but to seek fortune beyond the narrow precincts of his native land. With the inau- guration of a local self-government three decades ago, he became as important a factor in the political as in the economic life of the coimtry. This, then, is the sort of population from which most Japanese immigrants to these shores are derived. It is, therefore, but natural that the Japanese in America should show strong preference for farming and farm labour in spite of the great difficulties which they must experience in adjusting themselves to a method of agri- culture totally foreign to them. In the past few years many well-educated young men from Japan have taken to farming. Some of such Japanese even studied in col- lege. As farmers such " tenderfoots " may not, at first at any rate, be so successful as those settlers who are inured to farm life from their childhood, but had no opportunity to receive modern education. Yet, in the long run, these educated Japanese agriculturists will prove more valuable assets to this country, because of their intelligence, their adaptability, their ability to im- bibe American ideas and adopt American customs. California is, of course, the chief field of activity for Japanese farmers, but in almost every State whose agri- I04 ASIA AT THE DOOR cultural resources are yet comparatively little exploited, Japanese have taken up farms. According to the " Nichi- bei Nenkan," the year-book published by the Japanese American of San Francisco, in 1912 they owned 31,814 acres of farmland and leased 225,046 acres. Distributed among various States the figures are as follows : Owned Leased California I7,76s 172,512 Colorado S25 15.997 Idaho 12,174 Texas 10,390 2,330 Washington 12,136 Utah 123 5,659 Oregon 1,892 2,033 Nebraska 1,189 New York 603 325 Florida 364 120 Other States 152 571 Total 31,814 225,046 It is estimated that about 41,000 Japanese, equivalent to some sixty per cent, of the entire Japanese population in continental United States, are engaged in agriculture. Of this total farming population about 5,000 are inde- pendent farmers, while the remaining 36,000 are farm- hands employed by their compatriots or by American farmers. Even as the Jew takes to the clothing trades, and the Italian to various mercantile businesses, so the Japanese shows peculiar preference for agricultural in- dustries. In California he is mostly engaged in potato, bean, beet, onion, and fruit culture; in Washington and Oregon his chief interest is in the orchard and dairy ranch; in Texas he is almost exclusively engaged in the culture of rice ; in Idaho and Colorado he finds the sugar- beet industry most profitable ; and in Florida he has begun to raise pineapples. On the outskirts of some of the larger cities on the Pacific Coast he has become a factor "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" 105 in truck gardening. In Seattle and Los Angeles in par- ticular his garden products are important features in the public markets both in point of quantity and quality. At San Francisco he operates one of the largest nurseries on the Pacific Coast. Indeed, the Domoto Brothers* estab- lishment is so extensive that they virtually control the cut-flower market of San Francisco. In Idaho and Washington the Japanese, while doing considerable farming, own no land. This is because those two States have not until recently permitted foreigners to own land. In March last, however, the State of Idaho enacted a new land law, extending the right of landownership to all aliens, Japanese not excluded, while the State of Washington revised its laws so that all foreigners are entitled to own urban land, though it still denies them the right to own rural land. It seems not without significance that these States adopted new laws without making any discrimination against the Japanese, just at the time when the California legislature was straining all its nerves to enact a law especially directed against the Japanese in the matter of landownership. Indeed, some of the sponsors for the anti- Japanese land bills in California volunteered to counsel the legislators of the neighbouring States to follow the example they had set, and adopt a law depriving the Japanese of the right of landownership. Oregon made no response; Idaho and Washington repudiated the advice by pass- ing a law in favour of the Japanese. Apart from such a magical catchword as " America for Americans," or " California for Califomians," there is no plausible reason for prohibiting the Japanese from acquiring land. Such arguments as are advanced by the authors of anti- Japanese measures have already been exploded. They argue that the Japanese does not know I06 ASIA AT THE DOOR how to care for the soil, so that a farm worked by him for a few years becomes practically worthless. This is a calumny pure and simple. The Japanese, instead of ruining good soil, enriches poor soil, redeems waste land, and renovates impoverished farms. Back in his old coun- try he never heard of such a thing as abandoned farms, and he is bewildered to learn that in our Eastern States there are countless farms whose soils have been so im- poverished that nobody cares to cultivate them. No, the Japanese cannot afford to abandon any farm, once he settles upon it. If he migrated from one section to another, deserting the old farm and taking up the new, as do many of our farmers, he would soon have to stand upon the brink of the ocean — so small is his country. The habit of intensive cultivation, which he must per- force acquire in such a country, he naturally brings with him to the new country whither he emigrates. It is, therefore, but natural that the Japanese farmers in Cali- fornia should show unique skill and fastidiousness in cultivating their lands. Because of the care which they lavish on the soil, the farm rented to a Japanese com- mands an unusually high price. This fact is unreservedly recognized in the special report on the Japanese pre- pared a few years ago by the commissioner of labour of California, Mr. J. D. Mackenzie. The charge that the Japanese abuse the soil finds no endorsement either in the annual report of the Bureau of Labour of California or in the voluminous reports of the United States Immi- gration Commission, of which Senator Dillingham was chairman. Where the Japanese goes into farming on a rather small scale, utilizing the skill which he had acquired in his native country, he is generally successful. Not a few of them, however, have caught the " get-rich-quick " "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" 107 spirit of the strenuous West, and have embarked upon agricultural enterprises of a speculative nature for which he has neither experience nor means. Such undertakings, except in a few cases, resulted in failure. True, there is George Shima, the Japanese " Potato King," who cul- tivates at Stockton, California, six thousand to ten thou- sand acres of potatoes. But Shima is a solitary figure. Such bonanza farming as was common in the earlier days of California is abnormal, and it seems desirable that the Japanese should adopt more conservative meth- ods and practise farming on a modest scale. It has been contended that when a Japanese settles on a farm it always results in the lowering of price of the adjoining farms, because the Caucasian farmers do not desire to live in his neighbourhood. Facts do not countenance such contentions. In the first place, the Japanese have in most cases settled or worked on unde- veloped lands, whose fertility was problematical and whose price was naturally very low. They clear such lands and convert them into highly productive farms. The land about Fresno is of sandy soil and was long regarded as unproductive. Moreover, in the interior of California the winters are rigorous and the summers intensely hot, and the people who were accustomed to the milder climate of its coast territory did not care to settle in the neighbourhood of Fresno. But the Japa- nese were induced to come, and the country soon became rich with raisins and wines. To Japanese, Fresno is in- debted for its general prosperity and for the high price which its farmland now commands. At Florin, not far from Sacramento, it was also the Japanese who utilized the poorest lands in the vicinity and converted them into profitable strawberry gardens. The lowlands in the Sacramento Valley are damp and I08 ASIA AT THE DOOR unhealthy, and in consequence remained long undevel- oped. Again the Japanese were brought in, and the sec- tion now virtually flows with milk and honey. In Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, and in almost every State where the Japanese is engaged in agriculture, it is much the same story. He often creates the value of land as he develops it. Where he enters into farming in a country already well developed, he is usually on friendly terms with his Caucasian neighbours. What- ever the sentiment of urban communities towards their Japanese population, in the countryside there is little ill-feeling between the Japanese and American farmers. At the same time, it must be admitted that most Japa- nese farmers, like their compatriots in the city, are not yet in position to cultivate refined taste. Their dwellings are not yet what they can be proud of, and their modes of living show little refinement, though they are fastidi- ous and even extravagant both as to food and clothing. But no Japanese will admit that this is to be their ulti- mate condition. So far from it, they are ambitious not only to acquire wealth but to elevate their social stand- ing. Eager to learn English, they are even more anxious to utilize the knowledge of the language they acquired in their efforts to understand our institutions and cus- toms. When the hardships and trials inevitable in the initial stage of their undertakings are passed, there is no doubt that they will emerge from their present state of life. Time is not yet far back when even the Irish, among whom there are to-day talents and geniuses America may well be proud of, lived in an infelicitous condition which their American neighbours made an object of ridicule and sarcasm. We used to sing : "There is a pig in the parlour, And that is Irish too." "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" 109 The pig has made an exit from the parlour of the Irishman, and in his place has appeared a piano, a " talk- ing machine," and a set of tasteful furniture. There is no reason why the Japanese should not go through simi- lar stages of evolution. It is only some fifteen years since the Japanese started farming in this country, and it is unreasonable to expect them to live as the older settlers of other races live. The anti-Japanese agitators argue that the Japanese can live almost on nothing. The fact is that it costs the Japanese just as much to live as it costs any other people in the corresponding class. The trouble with the Japanese is that he is, in a sense, a poor manager of household economy. Most Japanese are not satisfied with American diet alone, and to cater to their whimsical pal- ates they loosen the purse strings for exotic edibles im- ported from their native country. Including duties and the cost of transportation, the price of such food-stuffs is exorbitant. When they marry their wives demand flowing Japanese gowns as well as close-fitting American dresses. What is more serious, neither they nor their helpmeets know how to utilize for table such materials as can be easily obtained from the farm. When the Japa- nese farmer suppresses his peculiar craving for imported food-stuflFs and learns to satisfy his palate with common American dishes ; when his wife, like the wives of Ameri- can farmers, learns how to cure ham, churn butter, con- vert sour milk into breads and cakes, and cook eggs in a hundred and one wonderful ways, his cost of living will be greatly reduced. Then the money thus saved will go a long way towards the improvement of his dwelling. I have purposely referred to the unsatisfactory condi- tion of the houses occupied by Japanese farmers, because during my trip through the farming districts of the Sac- no ASIA AT THE DOOR ramento Valley I was greatly disappointed with such houses. They are not houses, but huts. In such places as Walnut Grove, Isleton, Grand Island, and Courtland I found the condition especially bad. In these places, as in many another section, the Chinese preceded the Japa- nese as farmhands or tenants. To quarter them the land- lords put up camps, the cheapest possible structures that lumber and nails could build. Never painted and inva- riably of unplaned lumber, these structures are far less attractive than the corn cribs or hay barns which are commonly seen in the farm country of the Middle West. When the Japanese came to take the place of Chinese, they were naturally given the same camps which their predecessors had vacated. Upon entering these dreary camps one still finds mementoes of their former tenants in the numerous pieces of red paper, containing mo- notonous Chinese characters signifying " wealth, good luck, and longevity," and pasted at random on the walls, on the doors, and even on the ceilings. " Why don't you scrape off these hideous symbols of Mammon, and paint the walls and make the house look a bit more decent ? '* I said to many of the Japanese farm- ers I talked with. " Oh, it's no use ! " they would always reply. " It's impossible to paint those rough boards. We won't live in such miserable shacks for ever; we expect to build some day somewhere." " Somewhere ? " I queried. " W^hy not build here at once? You have been here long enough to save enough to put up a modest farmhouse." " Because the place doesn't belong to us. We are just tenants and our term of lease is never longer than a year or two. And, besides, you know what the labour unions at San Francisco and the politicians at Sacramento are "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" HI talking about us year in year out. We may have to get out any time. Why should we invest anything in this old ramshackle building? Our money is hard-earned, every penny of it ; it would be rank foolishness to waste it as you suggest, when we don't know what is going to become of us next year. As well dump it in the mud ! If our position were legally secure, why, that would be different." It was extremely unfortunate that the Japanese came after the Chinese. The Chinese was submissive to the point of servility. He was easy to satisfy, and was happy sleeping and eating in his dismal hut. Had there not been in existence thousands of such huts vacated by the Chinese and waiting for new tenants, the Japanese might have built more respectable dwellings. The presence of Chinese, moreover, had instilled in the bosoms of the Calif ornians a fixed prejudice against all Oriental peo- ples. They had got the notion that Asiatics must come to their country, if they are to come at all, only to hew wood and draw water for them, and not to become independent and self-reliant. So long as, therefore, the Japanese walked in the footsteps of the Chinese and showed no desire for independence, they were tolerated and even praised. But once the little brown men showed their mettle, Californians heaped upon them vituperations and slanders which they did not deserve. What success the Japanese farmers have achieved is due to naught but their perseverance, their temperance, their willingness to work. As Miss Alice Brown, of Florin, says in a pam- phlet, " the very fact that the Japanese is an industrious being and a highly successful producer gives white farm- ers spasms of alarm. * They are taking our farms ' is the woeful wail, which means that the slothful must get to work. So, in their blindness, they would destroy the 112 ASIA AT THE DOOR productivity of the Japanese, return to the past status of barren fields, that their meagre and inferior product would meet no competition. It is blind, selfish greed that recognizes only self as a factor in the world's struggle. It is ignorance and inhumanity that does not consider the larger whole." What I have said about the mode of living of Japa- nese farmers may furnish anti- Japanese agitators a pre- text for restricting their rights. The Japanese, they may argue, do not spend their earnings on American merchan- dise, but buy Japanese goods, thus benefiting little the community in which they live. Ah ! the old story of the pennywise. As a matter of fact, the Japanese patronizes American stores more than he patronizes Japanese deal- ers. But, even if he sent all his profits to his native country, what of that? His contribution to California would still be great. Take, for example, the case of Florin, which has been cited by the anti- Japanese legislators at Sacramento as a pretext for the need of laws discriminating against the Japanese. In the neighbouring region of Florin the soil is a shallow bedrock, abounding in sloughs. The land has to be irrigated by means of artesian water conducted through ditches. Because of the great amount of money and labour required in the boring of wells and the lev- elling of land for irrigation, there was but little induce- ment for the white farmer, though the soil, with adequate preparation, was especially adapted to grapes and straw- berries. Before the advent of Japanese, the country was poor, its output of fruits being extremely meagre. The vast fields had been sowed to grain, but the fertility of the soil was found so limited that each succeeding year decreased the yield until the grain industry was no longer profitable. At last the land was permitted to lie "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" II3 idle; but when the Japanese came in its owners saw a chance to turn it into a profit, offering it to them on yearly payments for a price they never would have gotten from the white investor. In a year's time the barren fields were changed into attractive berry gardens. With their usual foresight, the Japanese plant grape-vines along with strawberries, so that when the three-years' life of the strawberry ceases a productive vineyard takes its place. Their vines are robust and their berry plants luxuriant, and in comparison with them those raised by the white farmers look sadly neglected. The Japanese spare no pains in their efforts to improve the quality of their produce, knowing that the best quality brings the highest price. And to-day Florin boasts of shipping $150,000 worth of strawberries annually. The shipment of grapes is also large. Who created this profitable industry but the Japa- nese? He it was who put Florin on the map, a tiny sleepy town up to fourteen years ago. The opponents of the Japanese naturally ask, " What becomes of this money that the Japanese get ? " The answer is given by an American resident of Florin, Mr. L. M. Landsbor- ough. He informs me that the Japanese strawberry growers of Florin annually pay the express company from $15,000 to $20,000. Then, the production of strawber- ries, valued at $150,000, must confer a considerable profit upon the box-maker, besides giving employment to his millhands. The railroad, too, shares in the growers' profit, while the well-borer and the engine-man are paid high wages. Finally, the storekeeper sells the Japanese growers and their employes provisions and sundry ar- ticles, for these eclectic folk from the Orient are no more satisfied with Japanese articles alone than they are satisfied with American goods — they wish to enjoy 114 ASIA AT THE DOOR both. Last, but not least, the local banker, who is always willing to advance cash for the Japanese, has due share in their profitable industry. No industry can be carried on without due investment. Farming means expenditure as well as profit-making. He indeed must be blind who fails to see that a strawberry industry of $150,000 con- fers a great benefit upon the community in which that industry is carried on. We think ill of the Russians because they ill-treat the Jews. The Jewish problem in Russia is a problem aris- ing out of the contact of a wonderfully alert and adroit race with a peculiarly phlegmatic, dull race. The Rus- sian peasants, ignorant and guileless, usually go to the wall when confronted with the business acumen of the Jews. The Japanese question in California presents a totally different aspect. Here relations of the Japanese with the white farmers are not relations between two races separated from each other by a chasm of intel- lectual discrepancy. Intellectually both, I believe, stand on a par; there is neither inferiority nor superiority be- tween them. The American, however, has the advantage over the Japanese in that he is conversant with English and is familiar with the farming methods and tools em- ployed in this country. In the stratagem of bargaining, too, the American is, on the whole, more than the equal of the Japanese. I should be the last man to accept with- out much qualification such sweeping assertions as are made by Miss Alice Brown as to the relative moral in- tegrity of the Japanese and American, and I give the following passage from her pamphlet for what it is worth : " It is the whites that bear the record of shame and dishonour in dealing with the Japanese. It is no dis- grace to swindle them in their ignorance, to sell them "THEY ARE TAKING OUR FARMS!" II5 a worthless horse as a perfect animal for a round sum, to unload worthless things on them for a big price, and to overcharge them at every turn. It is these very same white tricksters who denounce the Japanese when they are foiled in their own game; for the Japanese are an alert, brainy people, and they soon learn a means for self- defence. When they can no longer be exploited, they are dishonest. It is the same old story of greed and the unscrupulous factor is the white man.'* It is chiefly untiring industry and unwavering perse- verance, and little else, which crown Japanese enter- prise with success even where the white farmer reaps a failure. VII THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES "I^R. SUN YAT-SEN," said a California friend of I 3 mine, "ought to be thankful to the Japanese gamblers in California for his success in estab- lishing the Chinese Republic." " What ! " I exclaimed in astonishment. " What did the Japanese gamblers do for him ? " And this is the story which my query elicited from my friend : The Chinese revolution of two years ago was financed mostly from the United States. Not by the money kings of Wall Street, as one may imagine, but by the appar- ently impecunious Chinese living in various parts of this country. Sun Yat-sen, the star in the drama of revolu- tion, was long an exile in many lands, and while in America he visited every village and town where Chinese were found in any considerable number. Inspired by his ardour and patriotism, every Chinese who came in contact with him pledged support for the cause of lib- eration. Thus the revolutionary fund was raised. Among the Chinese who contributed to this fund were merchants, farmers, domestic servants, camp cooks, and what not, but the most liberal contributors were the keep- ers of gambling dens in California and those deriving benefits from them, for money easily acquired is also easily parted with. Now the patrons, or rather victims, of these dens were mostly Japanese. In California alone these gambling dens used to levy from the Japanese a ii6 THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES 1 17 toll of several million dollars every year ! So the revolu- tionary fund raised in America virtually came from the pockets of the Japanese. The story seemed a hyperbole and I could not believe it. But when I visited all the towns and villages which my friend told me were rendezvous of gamblers, I began to realize the magnitude of the evil business conducted by the Chinese. One can form no adequate idea of the gambling business from what one sees in the Chinatowns of San Francisco or Los Angeles, though even here gam- bling dens are numerous enough. One must visit the underworld of such smaller cities as Fresno or Stock- ton, and again make a detour into such out-of-the-way places as Walnut Grove, Isleton, or Courtland on the Sacramento River. In the earlier days the Chinese were mostly employed on farms and orchards. As these labourers grew older and incapacitated for heavy work, they quit the country and moved to the city. Meanwhile, the exclusion law prevented the replenishing of the ranches and orchards abandoned by the older Chinese with younger and stur- dier labourers from China. Thus it has come to pass that almost eighty per cent, of the Chinese population now in California is in the city, only the remaining twenty per cent, still being engaged in farming or farm labour. And in every city or town where Chinese congregate gambling dens have sprung up as their necessary acces- sories. The Chinatowns of Stockton and Fresno con- sist mostly of gambling houses, while the legitimate busi- ness conducted by a comparatively few Chinese is largely dependent upon the business of ill-repute. In the small rural towns dotting the vast agricultural fields of the Sacramento Valley, the Chinatowns are simply groups of gambling dens. When I first walked through rows of Il8 ASIA AT THE DOOR such dens in Walnut Grove, I could not help exclaiming, "This is hell!" One naturally wonders, as I did, how these gambling dens can do a thriving business. Obviously there are not enough Chinese in the country to justify the* main- tenance of so many dens. The explanation that they depend upon Japanese patronage is not at first convinc- ing, for even the Japanese are not much in evidence most of the time. One can, however, understand the situa- tion if one knows something of the agriculture of Cali- fornia. Farming industries in the State require large forces of hands only in certain seasons. When such seasons are over the farm labourers are dismissed and naturally drift into towns, where they seek relaxation with their hard-earned money. It is then that the Chinese gambling houses do big business. The Japanese, fresh from orchards and ranches, have their purses filled with gold and silver, but before their first month in the city is gone they are "broke." Where does the money go? Seldom anywhere else than to the Chinese gambling den. Is it because the Japanese are poor gamblers that they are always fleeced by the Chinese? Undoubtedly that is one of the reasons, but there seems to be some intri- cate device invented by the Chinese so that no gambler, however crafty, could come out of the den without part- ing with all the money in his pockets. The city of Fresno, being the centre of a vast grape country, naturally attracts a large number of Japanese labourers when the busy season on the vineyards is over. Here Chinatown, which is separated from the " Ameri- can " town by a railroad track, may well be called a gam- bling town. Block after block is congested with those untidy, dismal buildings within which are played the evil games. A lure for the Japanese labourers, they are also THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES HQ their snare. The law forbids open gambling, but in no Chinatown in California have such laws been strictly or consistently enforced. A few years ago the gambling mania became so alarming that the better classes of Japa- nese In California organized an association whose object was the extermination of gambling among Japanese. But to prevent gambling by the Japanese the Chinese gambling houses must first of all be closed. The task was herculean, almost quixotic. But the Japanese Re- form Society undertook it first in Fresno, then in other cities. The greatest difficulty in such a campaign lies in the difficulty of proving before the court that such and such Chinese are operators of gambling dens. The moment the police attempt to raid the den their activities are de- tected by the Chinese spies, who warn their fellows of the approach of the authorities, so that when the police enter the tables are clear of dice and gamblers. All is serene and quiet, the few remaining Chinese peacefully smoking their exotic pipes and twinkling their curious eyes in apparent innocence. How are the police to tell that only a few minutes since there was on the very spot a group of gamblers absorbed in their game ? The daring souls in the Japanese Reform Society of Fresno, seeing that the authorities could not be relied upon, volunteered to raid the gambling dens themselves. They called themselves the " Band of Desperates," and such indeed they were. Some of them, disguised as gam- blers, would enter the den and feign interest in the game. Meanwhile other members of the band, obliging unwill- ing officers to accompany them, would suddenly descend upon the den. As usual, the Chinese spies would come hurrying to warn their employers, but at this critical mo- ment the reformer-gamblers would suddenly throw aside I20 ASIA AT THE DOOR disguise and change into allies of the officers and Japa- nese rushing into the scene of disorder. The reformer- gamblers, instead of being scared away by the spies, would surrender themselves to the raiding police, subse- quently to appear before the court to testify that such and such Chinese kept gambling dens. For a while the heroic scheme worked splendidly and a few gambling dens were closed. But the police proved by no means consistent in backing the Japanese. The court, too, issued an injunction, forbidding the police to invade the dens without the proper warrant. These cir- cumstances made it impossible for the Reform Associa- tion to carry on the crusade. The Japanese in America are possessed to a remark- able extent of public spirit and civic sense. In every town in the Western States they have organized the Japa- nese Association, whose primary object is the promotion of moral well-being among the Japanese. If the au- thorities would only co-operate with such organizations, much reform could be effected. The Reform Society, though no longer able to secure official support, is still waging war against gambling, but not so effectively as before. The only thing it can lawfully do under the circumstances is to admonish Japanese gamblers and place them under a sort of surveillance. The campaign has produced some effect, and the Japanese frequenters of Chinese dens are palpably decreasing. The inaction and unwillingness of the authorities are often responsible for retarding the reform of the un- derworld. Mr. Chester Rowell, editor of the Fresno Republican, in a brilliant article in the " Annals of the American Academy," justly credits the Japanese with public spirit, but asserts that the Japanese in Fresno declined to co-operate with the police in the cleansing THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES 121 of the disorderly quarters. As far as I have been able to ascertain, this statement is not quite correct. His uncle, Dr. Chester Rowell, physician, philanthropist, publicist, and warm sympathizer with the Japanese, could have told him, had he been alive, just how the situation was. Instead of the Japanese being reluctant to co- operate with the authorities it was the authorities who declined to assist the Japanese. The disorderly houses, where unfortunate Japanese women were kept, were in the heart of the business section of the Japanese quarters of Fresno. A few years a.^o the Japanese Association and the Japanese Reform Society, seeing in this condition a menace to the moral integrity of the Japanese community, attempted to remove the " red-light " houses to the out- skirts of the town, but when they solicited the approval and assistance of the Fresno authorities they were given a cold shoulder. The authorities upon one excuse or an- other would not co-operate with the Japanese in their efforts to purify the business quarters, and without official assistance the measure could not be carried out. It should be the duty of the State as well as the mu- nicipal authorities to enact and enforce such laws as would conduce to the moral and material betterment of all persons under their jurisdictions. Such Chinatowns as those of Walnut Grove and Courtland are blots upon the fair landscape of California and a disgrace to the good reputation of the State. I do not see why there should not be building and sanitary laws which would prevent the appearance of such horribly unsanitary towns. These Chinatowns had sprung up before the Japanese came to work on the fields of the Sacramento Valley. As the forces of Japanese farmers and farm- hands grew in number, Japanese traders naturally fol- 122 ASIA AT THE DOOR lowed upon their heels, and looked around for suitable locations to set up small stores and shops. They found Chinatowns already established in advantageous localities. Although the Japanese entertained little sympathy for the Chinese, ties of racial kinship, coupled with reasons of trade policy, were sufficient to draw the Japanese traders to Chinatowns. The Chinese gambling dens were a great attraction for Japanese labourers, and the mer- chants evidently thought it a good trade policy to estab- lish themselves close to Chinatown, so that their stores might be visited by those who would frequent the gam- bling dens. At the same time, the Chinese knew that the Japanese were indispensable for the prosperity of their evil business, and invited Japanese stores and restaurants and amusement houses to locate in their neighbourhood. It was thus that, in many Chinatowns, Chinese and Japa- nese became neighbours. The worst examples of this mingling of the two peoples are found in Walnut Grove, Isleton, and Courtland. The separation of the Japanese from the Chinatowns is one of the urgent problems which the Japanese Associa- tions have long been trying to solve. As in many an- other instance, it was too late when the Japanese awak- ened to the grave significance of the problem. Where Japanese quarters are separate and independent of Chinese sections, they are usually more respectable in appearance. The Japanese quarter in Florin, established before the Chinese tried to settle there, has never had a gambling den or an immoral house. Again and again the Chinese tried to sneak in, but the Japanese Associa- tion, which had learned good lessons from examples shown in such places as Walnut Grove, was ever on the alert to keep Chinese out. In Sacramento and Los Angeles, the Japanese quar- THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES 123 ters are located some distance from Chinatown and com- pare favourably with other foreign quarters. So are the Japanese quarters in San Francisco and Seattle. In all these places there is. of course, much room for improve- ment, but they are by no means worse than the quarters settled by immigrants from South Europe or Russia. In the arrangement of stores and in many another thing, the Japanese strive to conform to American ways. True, in San Francisco the Japanese went in what was in former days a good residence section and established small stores, laundry shops, and boarding houses. They rented houses and in front of them built additions to be utilized as stores and shops. But this peculiar condi- tion in San Francisco was only one of the unfortunate results of the great earthquake. When the greater part of the city was destroyed in that disaster, the Japanese, having nowhere else to go, had to rent houses in a sec- tion formerly occupied by Americans, though the rents asked were exorbitant. The landlords were willing to let the new tenants build additions for business purposes, as that meant for them an additional source of income. But for the disastrous effects of the earthquake and fire such things would never have been permitted. At the time, the setting up of small shops and stores in resi- dence sections was absolutely necessary, as the business quarters were all but wiped out. It was not only the Japanese who did this : others, both Americans and aliens, did exactly the same thing. But the Japanese attracted more attention, because they put up peculiar signs over their stores and painted strange characters on the win- dows. Innocent in themselves, these exotic sign-boards have been made the objects of severe criticism at the hands of the unsympathetic, both Americans and Japa- nese. It was, therefore, the part of wisdom that the 124 ASIA AT THE DOOR Japanese Association at San Francisco started a cam- paign against the sign-boards. Of the total Japanese population in the United States, estimated at about 72,157, some 23,000 live in the city. Distributing them among the principal cities, we obtain the following table: Los Angeles (Cal.) 7,938 Ogden (Utah) .. 200 San Francisco " 6,988 Salt Lake City " . . 200 Sacramento " 2,452 Denver (Col.) 752 Oakland " 1,835 Idaho Falls (Idaho) .... 207 San Jose " 790 Sugar " .... 245 Alameda " 692 Rock Springs (Wyo.) .. 195 Berkeley " 686 Chicago (111.) 370 Stockton " 495 Omaha (Neb.) 100 Portland (Ore.) 1,036 New York City (N. Y.) 1,300 Seattle (Wash.) 4,267 Brooklyn " 300 Tacoma " 865 Boston (Mass.) 100 Spokane " 448 The majority of Japanese in cities are engaged in do- mestic work, or employed in stores, Japanese and Ameri- can, in various capacities. A considerable number are also engaged in mercantile business. In the Western cities Japanese stores, with the exception of those espe- cially dealing with fancy or art goods, primarily aim to cater to Japanese customers. Newcomers from Japan, unfamiliar with English, find it convenient to buy of Japanese stores, but as they acquire better knowledge of the language, they discover that they can purchase better goods for smaller prices at American stores. In San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland, the laun- dry business is one of the principal trades of the Japa- nese. The patrons of Japanese laundries are mostly Americans. They charge exactly the same as do Ameri- can laundries, but the dexterity and carefulness which characterize their work seem to draw larger and larger patronage. " There are in San Francisco," says Dr. H. B. Johnson in his report on the Pacific Japanese mis- THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES 125 sion, " laundries in large numbers advertised as French, German, Chinese, etc., but the Japanese laundries are especially prosperous because of their promptness and good work at prices equal to the best." That is why the American laundrymen's union in San Francisco has been agitating against the Japanese laundry. The agitation resulted this year in the introduction in the State legisla- ture of a number of bills providing for the prohibition of the Japanese from employing steam engines. A popular writer, a native of California, in a most sen- sational article, says that " the peculiar code of business morals of the Japanese makes it impossible for whites to compete with them," and adds : " The Japanese are not confining themselves to any one business. They are branching out in all directions. There is a bookstore in San Francisco at which books may be bought cheaper than at other places. This does not please the American bookseller." I am certain that this man never bought a single vol- ume of this Japanese bookstore ; if he had, he could never have made such an irresponsible statement. That book- store sells Japanese books almost exclusively; what few English books it may occasionally handle are sold ex- actly at the market price. As for the general commercial morals of the Japanese, I have already discussed the question in preceding chapters, and shall recur to it in the following chapters. It has been said, as a reason for prohibiting Japanese immigration, that where Japanese come to live, Ameri- cans are sure to go away. The story is exaggerated, but even if it is true, can such be said of the Japanese alone? Immigrants, whether Japanese or Europeans, are more or less despised and shunned by Americans and older settlers. In the Polish blocks in Chicago, for in- 126 ASIA AT THE DOOR stance, only 19 families out of a total of 1,562 are Ameri- can. Conditions in the Jewish and Italian sections are about the same. The Latin quarter in San Francisco is not much better in this respect. And in fairness it must be admitted that the Japanese quarter in any American city is as sanitary and clean as any foreign district, if not much more so. Sanitary officers admit that, compared with the houses occupied by immigrants of some other races, those of the Japanese are in far better condition. The Japanese quarters are neither so overcrowded nor so infested with filth as are certain other quarters. When in 1904 San Francisco was threatened with the bubonic plague, the sanitary authorities discovered for the first time the horrible condition of the basements occupied by the Chinese. One house was so saturated with filth that it had simply to be condemned and torn down, in spite of the strenuous protests of the American who owned it. That such an abominable state had long been permitted to remain unquestioned was, however, largely due to the greed of the landlords and the in- efficiency and supineness of the sanitary officers. The Chinese used to " pay up " the police in order to be let alone, while the owner carefully avoided the premises, letting his agents collect all the lessee would bear. Wherever the blame may belong, it is regrettable that our cities should permit the appearance of such filthy quarters. Whatever the defects of the Japanese in other respects, in the matter of sanitation they have made a good showing. True, some of the Japanese lodging houses may be found somewhat crowded, but none is so crowded as lodging houses of other immigrants. As a comparison read the following passages from the re- ports of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy for 191 1 : THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES 127 " The trouble with housing conditions is largely that small cottages built for one family have been turned into lodging houses. In all the foreign colonies families feel they have to take in single men or other families as lodgers or roomers. This leads at once to overcrowd- ing. In Polish, Lithuanian, and other homes one-half the families added to their income by filling up their rooms to the utmost capacity with men and women who were too new to this country to realize that they could demand anything more than a place to sleep. They sleep on the floor, both with and without mattresses, and sleep in bed with people who are total strangers. "In 181 cases of those investigated, crowding, caused by poverty and improper house construction, made it nec- essary for one member of the family to sleep in the lodg- ers* room and sometimes in the same bed. In sixty cases two members of the family slept in the room with the lodger, in twenty-three cases there were three, in nine cases four, and in three cases five. In one case the lodger slept in a room with the whole family of seven. Sometimes men and women lodgers slept in the same room ; in other cases the men slept in a room which could be reached only by passing through a room in which the women slept. " The law requires 4CX) cubic feet of air space for each adult and 200 cubic feet for each child. In 3,730 cases investigated, 1,981 violations of this ordinance were found. In one case four people slept in a room con- taining only 333 cubic feet, a room that could have been legally occupied by only a child of twelve. In another case five slept in a room that could have been occupied legally by only one grown person, and in another seven used a room not legal for two. Of rooms with no outer window, three were found in these thirteen blocks 128 ASIA AT THE DOOR occupied by five persons each, nine occupied by four per- sons each, twenty-two by three persons, thirty-eight by two persons — a total of 223 persons in windowless rooms." Compare this with what the Immigration Commission has to say about the conditions of the Japanese quar- ters in the cities of CaHfornia. Of the entire mercantile establishments and work-shops visited by the agents of the commission, 81.8 per cent, were reported to be in " good " sanitary condition, while 16.6 per cent, were reported " fair." Only 1.4 per cent, were " bad." Again, as to the sanitary conditions of lodging places, 68.5 per cent, were " good," 27.3 per cent. " fair," and 4.2 per cent. " bad." The general appearance of Japanese streets in our cit- ies is not much different from that of streets lined with houses and stores occupied by Americans. True, there are the sign-boards with prominent characters in gold, and the men you meet there speak a peculiar language. But here again comparison is necessary before any hasty conclusion as to the unassimilability of the Japanese is made. Go to the " Yiddisher " market in Chicago and watch the uproar of bargaining in the twenty-four hours preceding the Jewish Sabbath. There are booths and boxes and barrels and push-carts and wagons laden with all things imaginable and unimaginable, and among them men, women, and children from the villages and ghettos of Poland and Galicia and Roumania are vigorously el- bowing one another, laughing, shouting, jabbering in strange tongues. Or visit the Italian quarter in Chicago or New York, preferably on a saint's day. Here comes a procession of devout marchers, each carrying a huge candle tied with ribbon upon which is pinned American paper money for a votive offering. Presently it stops before a shrine THE JAPANESE IN OUR CITIES 129 within which the Virgin sits serenely. Beside the shrine and upon the platform stands a priest, receiving the sons and daughters of pious men and women so that the young souls may kiss the Virgin. As each child receives the sacramental kiss its parents raise an exclamation of de- light and hand to the priest paper money as a token of thanks. How poetical, how picturesque, how beautiful it all is, if we look at it with sympathy ! And yet what would the Americans say if it were the Japanese, instead of a European race, which perpetuated such a foreign custom in our midst? In the one case it is tolerated, if not particularly admired ; in the other it will be made the target of severest criticism. With the opening of the Panama Canal the Pacific Coast will no doubt receive large contingents of European im- migrants — Poles, Jews, Russians, Italians, Greeks, Lithu- anians, Slovacs, and what not. Should this expectation materialize, its principal cities will inevitably witness the appearance of Ghettos and Boweries and other foreign quarters such as have been established in New York and Chicago, since many of such immigrants have a strong inclination to dwell in the city, instead of seeking agri- cultural work in the country. And when that time comes the cities on the Pacific Coast will face a problem much more serious than the Japanese question has ever been or will ever be. As I write I recall the atrocities perpetrated by one of the Black Hand bands in Chicago. Within the past twelve months this gang took thirty lives with " sawed- off shotguns " and poisons, used more than a hundred in- fernal machines to terrorize those refusing to pay blood money, set houses on fire entailing a damage of $300,- cxx), and passed forged checks amounting to more than $150,000. In comparison with such terrible crimes 130 ASIA AT THE DOOR among Italian immigrants, gambling among Japanese la- bourers is almost an innocent affair. Again I think of the Hatchet Men who are Chinese criminals sneaking into this country and subsisting by blackmail upon wealthy merchants and upon houses of prostitution, and by gam- bling and assassination. Their chief business is to in- timidate, and often murder, those who are obnoxious to themselves or to whomsoever may hire them. In the face of such terrors the Japanese communities in Ameri- can cities may console themselves, if they have a few fallen women to grapple with. The agents of the Federal Government who took the census in California were struck with the intelligence and civility displayed by the Japanese residents. In con- trast to the suspicion and fear with which immigrants from certain European countries received the agents, the civility and open-heartedness which characterized the attitude of the Japanese towards the census-takers were remarkable. In many cases such European immigrants could not understand the mission of the agents, and acted as one confronted by a detective or a police officer. Not infrequently, I was told, they would even slam the door in the face of the agent. On the other hand, the Japa- nese invariably received them politely and in friendly feeling, and answered all questions asked with perfect ease and willingness. If one cares to dive into the mazes of statistics in the census, one will notice the small rate of illiteracy among the Japanese in this country. In this respect the Japanese certainly compare favourably with many of the European immigrants. If there be any need for restricting immigration, such restrictions should be based upon reasons other than racial ones. Legisla- tion springing from racial bias awakens enmity and is jeopardizing to international amity. VIII " HEWERS OF WOOD AND DRAWERS OF WATER " A COLONEL SAMUEL JOHNSON had a lumber mill at Pahoa, Hawaii. One day last year the plant was destroyed by fire. Johnson summoned before him his four hundred employes, all Japanese, and said: '* We have lost everything, and have no money to pay you at least for a month or two. But I am determined to rebuild the business. How many of yoG boys would stay with me and help me through the months of strug- gle ? I cannot urge you to stay under the circumstances, but I shall be thankful if you feel disposed to do me service." Without a moment's hesitation the four hundred men answered as in a chorus, " I shall not leave you ! *' The colonel quivered with emotion and almost burst into tears. He had counted upon the sympathy of at least some of the boys, but had never dreamed that all the four hundred would stand by him with such unflinch- ing loyalty. In a letter to the editor of a Japanese news- paper in Honolulu, he described the mingled feeling of amazement, admiration, and gratefulness which he ex- perienced at this unusual demonstration of unselfish de- votion on the part of the workingmen whom he had always regarded as ignorant and mercenary and whose souls he had never tried to fathom. The incident threw a new light into the colonel's mind, and converted him 131 132 ASIA AT THE DOOR into a sympathetic and appreciative employer eager to know more of his men. The story furnishes an apt illustration of the pecu- liarity of Japanese character. Essentially an emotional race, the Japanese appreciates kindness as keenly as he resents unkindly acts. Take him into your confidence, open your heart to him, and he is ready to " follow you through fire and flood," as a Japanese proverb says. On the other hand, if you deal suspiciously with him or try to manage him with a show of authority, he puts him- self on his guard, and becomes intractable. Perhaps I am not exactly right in stating that this responsiveness is the characteristic of the Japanese. Hu- man nature is the same the world over. The world over kindness and sincerity beget friendship, while insincerity and unkindly acts reap antipathy. Yet the individualism of the West brought into prominent relief the idea of right and duty, while the communalism of the Orient developed benevolent paternalism on the one hand, and loving submission on the other. In this age of steam and electricity the barrier between the East and the West is crumbling down. Moreover, when the Japanese labourer comes to this country of freedom^ he seems to feel a certain reaction from the age-long restraint to which he subjected himself in his native country, and is liable to hold the sense of duty secondary to that of right. Yet now and then the soul of the passing Orient asserts itself in the characteristic manner, as in the above story. The type of immigrants is usually judged from that of the labouring class, which constitute by far the largest portion of immigrants. It is commonly admitted that the Japanese, as a people, are alert and keen-minded. This general characterization is no less true as applied "HEWERS OF WOOD; DRAWERS OF WATER" 133 to the labouring class. Once a Japanese labourer per- ceives that he is unjustly dealt with or beguiled into ac- cepting unreasonable terms, he will see to it that his employer regrets the unwise course he has taken. In the early days of Japanese immigration to America, some employers or landowners, unaware of this characteristic, took advantage of ignorance of English on the part of Japanese labourers, and imposed upon them contracts which the employers knew could not be carried out with- out entailing a loss to the Japanese. When the Japa- nese, finding it impossible to fulfil the contract, were compelled to abandon it, they were charged with lack of business honour. To be sure, the Japanese were much to blame, but were not the men who knowingly imposed such unreasonable contracts even more dishonourable? Many of the disputes between the Japanese and Ameri- cans in the earlier days were caused in this way. Espe- cially is this true in the case of farming contracts on the Pacific Coast. The unhappy experience made both the Americans and the Japanese wiser, and of late years troubles of this nature are of rare occurrence. To-day the Japanese, knowing that all Americans are not true Christians as he had thought, has the contract examined by experienced interpreters before signing his name to the document, while the American, having awakened to the folly of unfair dealings, tries to be fair and honourable. The most important class of Japanese labourers in this country is farm labourers. In California alone Japa- nese agricultural labourers number almost 30,000, while those in other Western States total about 9,000. Next in importance are railroad labourers, of whom there are some 10,000 on the Pacific Coast and in the adjacent States. Of lumber-mill labourers there are about 2,200, while 134 ASIA AT THE DOOR salmon cannery labourers number some 3,600. In the mines of Wyoming, Utah, Southern Colorado, and New- Mexico there are some 2,000 Japanese, while one or two hundred are employed in the smelters. Add to this a contingent of domestic workers, whose number on the Pacific Coast is estimated at 14,000, and we have a fair classification of Japanese labourers by occupation. First, as to farm labour. In 1909 the State of Cali- fornia instituted a special investigation into the status of Japanese agricultural labourers. Upon the comple- tion of the investigation the Commission came to this conclusion : " It is not mere opinion, based upon con- sensus of observations, no theory predicted on an analy- sis of conditions and requirements, but the positive ex- pression of a majority of the growers of fruits and such products as are affected by the demand that Japanese labour must continue to be drawn from sources beyond the United States. The competency of both Chinese and Japanese to meet all the requirements by these in- dustries of the orchard, the vineyard, and the field is unquestioned and unquestionable." The Commission also stated that, " comparing the individual Japanese la- bourer and the individual white labourer of the typical class that is now available in the field and from which is recruited all the white help now obtainable, the in- vestigation discloses a higher standard of the Japanese individual." The investigation dissipated the studiously circulated idea that Japanese labourers underbid white labourers. In order to confirm the views of the California Commis- sion, I avail myself of the result of the exhaustive in- vestigation made by the Immigration Commission of which Senator Dillingham was chairman. We learn that " the average wages for both Japanese and Chinese regu- "HEWERS OF WOOD; DRAWERS OF WATER" 135 larly employed and receiving board, respectively, are higher than those for miscellaneous white men and Ital- ians." Where labourers were employed without board, miscellaneous white men were paid higher than were the Japanese. Further details of the comparison are shown in the following table: Race Miscellaneous white Italian Mexican , Chinese Japanese Hindu , Regular Regular without Tempo- with rary with Board Board Board Average Average Average $1,311 $1,889 $1,286 1. 108 1.667 1.422 1.121 1.406 1.559 1-454 1.396 1.633 1.534 1.421 Temporary without Board Average $1,855 X.721 1.743 1. 615 1. 44 1 In the consideration of alleged Japanese competition with white labour, it is essential to remember that the Japanese are employed mostly in the kind of labour dis- liked and shunned by white workingmen. This fact is clearly brought out in the Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labour Statistics of California. More than ninety per cent, of labour required in berry and vegetable picking and celery culture is supplied by Japa- nese. More than eighty per cent, of labourers employed in the beet industry as toppers, loaders, hoers, and thin- ners are also Japanese. Japanese employed in grape picking and the pruning of fruit trees constitute more than seventy per cent, of the total men employed in this field, while some fifty-five per cent, of fruit pickers are also Japanese. The reason for the phenomenal advance which the Japanese have made in these fields is obvious. Work in 136 ASIA AT THE DOOR these branches of farming is mostly performed by hand, and handworlc is more congenial to the Japanese than to the whites. Nor is this all. The picking of grapes, strawberries, and vegetables, and the thinning of beets and celeries require a stooping attitude which is not natu- ral to the Caucasian. To the Japanese, however, stoop- ing or kneeling is not very difficult, partly because of his short stature and his limber body, partly because he was accustomed, while in his native country, to farming with- out machinery. In grape picking, for instance, a white labourer can pick only one-third of what a Japanese harvests in a day. The white labourers, naturally averse to this kind of work, reluctantly, if not gladly, assigned it to the Japanese. If the whites were to be substituted for the Japanese, the cost of producing these fruits and vegetables would be so greatly increased that the growers would have to abandon the industry. In those branches of the fruit industry in which stoop- ing is not necessary or in which machinery is more im- portant than handwork, the white labourer still main- tains supremacy. In fruit packing Japanese labour em- ployed is less than twenty-five per cent., while in hop picking it is only ten per cent. In team work and fruit cutting Japanese labourers employed are only five per cent, of the total number of men engaged in those fields. After all, Japanese monopoly of labour in the picking of grapes and berries, and in the culture of certain vege- tables, is the outcome of natural and expedient distri- bution of labour, a process placing the right man in the right place and thus securing the highest degree of effi- ciency. " Between the available white farm labourer," says a California vineyardist, " and the available Japanese labourer, the Japanese is by far the better. For a day's wage he will do a day's work, and adapt himself to disa- "HEWERS OF WOOD; DRAWERS OF WATER" I37 greeable conditions which the white man will not. His wage is as high as that of the white man, for the farmer wants efficiency." Outside of California, Japanese farmhands are not a very important factor. True, there are a considerable number of them in Washington employed in strawberry culture on Vashon Island, in the dairy industry in the White River Valley, and on the potato farms in North Yakima; yet in this State no hostile feeling has been displayed by the white workingmen towards the Japa- nese. In other States agricultural labour supplied by Japanese is but a negligible quantity. When Mr. John D. Mackenzie, commissioner of la- bour statistics of California, instituted at the direction of the State legislature a special investigation into the conditions of Japanese in the Golden State, one of the surprising facts disclosed was that almost every Japa- nese, whether a farmer or a farmhand, had in his pos- session English-Japanese dictionaries and conversation books. All were eager to learn English, and through the knowledge of the language American customs and institutions. Many of them subscribed to local English papers, while their favourite magazines were not fiction magazines, but such substantial publications as the Out- look, the Independent, the Review of Reviews, and the Literary Digest. The United States census states that fifty-five per cent, of those Japanese who have been in this country less than five years can speak English. Among those who have lived here more than five years the rate of illiteracy is very small. " Among the Japa- nese population in Florin," says Miss Alice M. Brown, a California vineyardist and a student of sociological problems, " there are few who have not a very fair knowledge of English and a considerable number who can 138 ASIA AT THE DOOR speak it well. Some are well educated, having high- school training, others pore over English books after a hard day's work to acquire a reading and writing knowledge/' The Japanese are as steady in the pursuit of knowledge as they are industrious as tillers of the soil. " Compare this industry of the Japanese," says Mr. L. M. Landsborough, of Florin, in a letter addressed to the Judiciary Committee of the California legislature, " with the so-called white farm labourers. Here to-day, gone to-morrow, but always to be found at the wayside groggery, not ' sending their money out of the country,' as anti- Japanese agitators insinuate with regard to the Japanese, but leaving it where it will do the most harm and leaving their brains with it." So much for the farmhand. I now introduce Japa- nese railroad labourers. Of the 10,000 Japanese now employed by various railway companies, some 7,000 are section hands. Companies which employ the largest num- ber of Japanese are perhaps the Great Northern Rail- way Company and the Northern Pacific Railway Com- pany. Especially does the Great Northern show a pref- erence for the Japanese. All along its lines from the Pacific Coast to Havre, Montana, Japanese are seen working with Greeks and Italians. But the Japanese are not employed merely as section hands, working with picks and shovels. No less than one hundred are employed by the company as section foremen, each having under him a gang of some fifty men, Japanese, Italians, Mexicans, and Greeks. Indeed, it is thought-provoking to see labourers from South Eu- rope contentedly working under the supervision of Orien- tals. Here at least the proud West surrendered its vaunted superiority before the efficiency and ability dem- onstrated by an Oriental race, which has long been "HEWERS OF WOOD; DRAWERS OF WATER" 139 regarded as backward or inferior. To the unsympa- thetic, the picture presented must be a gloomy one — it may appeal to him as the beginning of the white man's defeat in the struggle for supremacy in world competi- tion. To the sympathetic and to the optimist, it is but a milestone on the road leading to the true fraternity among the races and the realization of human brother- hood and equality. The present advantageous position of the Japanese as railroad labourers was not attained without vicissitudes and hardships. Indeed, the story of the conflict and the eventual harmony which marked the contact of the Japa- nese with other races in the Pacific Northwest indicates the course which the confluence of human streams usu- ally takes. When the Japanese section hands were first brought to Montana and the interior regions of Wash- ington, some twenty years ago, cowboys and mountain- eers who had never seen a Japanese showed intense hatred towards them. Riots and shooting were almost the order of the day. Camps occupied by Japanese were shot at and often set on fire. Two or three Japanese were lynched, while many were captured and subjected to cruel treatment. But the Japanese boss who handled the situation was a shrewd strategist and a man of undaunted courage. Step by step he captured the bulwarks of the cowboys and their allies, not by powder and ball, but by shrewd diplomacy and skilful manoeuvre. Here is a typical story. Once he led a body of section hands into a small town on the foothills of the Cascades. The townsfolk received the Japanese in the characteristic fashion of the fron- tiersman, shouting oaths and displaying guns to intimi- date the strange intruders. But the Japanese boss proved himself the equal of his adversaries. He strode rough- I40 ASIA AT THE DOOR shod out of the car and ordered his boys to follow him. The belligerent villagers thought he was going to accept the challenge, but, to their astonishment, the Japanese boss marched his men into a saloon near by. The mob fol- lowed him, breathing threats and uttering foul words. Having entered the saloon, the Japanese drew a fifty- dollar gold piece and tossed it upon the counter, saying : " Here, boss, I want you to call in those fellows outside and give them anything they want; if that isn't enough, here is more," and he threw another fifty-dollar gold piece upon the counter. The saloon-keeper, amazed and bewildered, did as the Japanese told him. In came the fellows who wanted to fight, and without giving their Japanese host a chance to say a word emptied the glasses on the counter. But they knew what the glasses were for, and when they were done with them they shook hands with the Japanese, and said : " You Japs are all right! We won't fight you any more." And they never did. When Japanese labourers come in close contact with the white workingman they usually become good friends. It is only when the professional agitator enters the field that their amicable relations are disturbed. With the temperament of the Japanese fairly well understood, there seems no reason why Americans could not be friendly towards him. Let me tell you another story. About twenty years ago Cutbank, a small Montana town on the main line of the Great Northern Railway, wit- nessed for the first time the advent of Japanese labourers. The citizens of the town naturally objected to their com- ing and lodged a protest with the railway company. The company, instead of lending ear to the protest, threat- ened to isolate the town by removing the track, if the townsfolk were so finical about the section hands whom "HEWERS OF WOOD; DRAWERS OF WATER" 141 the company liked best. So the Japanese were tolerated and permitted to stay. Gradually the merchants and residents of Cutbank perceived the amiable nature of the Japanese and began to like them. A few years later the Japanese, dissatisfied with the treatment of the com- pany, went on a strike. Then the railway company threatened to discharge all Japanese and substitute Greeks and Italians. Alarmed by this, the people of Cut- bank petitioned the railway company to retain the Japa- nese, who they knew were much more desirable than either Greeks or Italians. What a radical change a few years of contact with the Japanese brought upon the sentiment of the residents of the Montana town ! I have chiefly dealt with my personal observations, and those of Americans and Japanese who personally handled the Japanese railroad labourers. We may for a moment turn to public documents. The Reports of the United States Immigration Commission have this to say : " With few exceptions, the Japanese are preferred to the Greeks, who are invariably ranked the least desirable section hands, because they are not industrious and are in- tractable and difficult to control. As between Japanese and Italians, opinion is fairly evenly divided. The same may be said of them and the Slavs." Professor Jenks, who was a member of the Immigration Commission, cor- roborates the above statement in these words : " The road masters and section foremen generally prefer the Japanese either to Italians, Greeks, or Slavs as section hands. In railway shops they are given a higher rank than the Mexicans, Greeks, and at times than the Ital- ians." As to wages, the reports inform us that the Japa- nese are paid just as much as any white man employed in the same capacity. The third important group of Japanese labourers, from 142 ASIA AT THE DOOR the numerical point of view, is domestic workers, num- bering some 15,000. Of late Japanese of this class have been made targets of scathing criticisms, some of which are not without ground. As an example of such criti- cisms, I quote the following from the pen of a writer who apparently prefers to be interesting rather than truthful : " From the earliest ripple of the Japanese invasion, there came a lot of adventurous boys, eager either to grasp a fortune out of the Land of Opportunity or to learn European ways and industrial methods that they might go back to Japan and practise them. Their ambi- tion, their desire to get on, were commendable; their methods of gratifying that ambition, contemptible. For they were no more honest, no more faithful to their con- tracts, than the farming Japanese. . . . Curious, enter- prising, industrious, taking every means to get ahead, they came to impress the city-dwelling Californian as a nuisance." There is in the temperament of this writer something radically different from the generosity, large-hearted- ness, and tolerance which I believe constitute the quality of the true American. I am, however, inclined to agree with him that the Japanese does not make an ideal serv- ant like the Chinese. I am glad of the fact, and hope the time will soon come when no American will employ any Japanese as servant. Domestic work is not man's work. No ambitious, aspiring, restless race can produce ideal men-servants. The trouble is that Japanese servants are yet much in demand. Except in certain sections of California, where constant anti-Japanese agitation has made them in- tractable, they are still regarded as desirable domestic workers. If they are somewhat independent and are "HEWERS OF WOOD; DRAWERS OF WATER" 143 eager to " get on," the white servants are much worse. From my personal experience I can understand why so many Americans prefer " unreliable " Japanese boys. Since I made my home in this country, I have employed servants of various nationalities and races — Japanese, Danes, Poles, Swedes, Americans, etc., and I do not know but that the Japanese boy is the best worker we have had. When we engage a white girl we ask if she can cook. She answers in the affirmative, and we fix her wages accordingly ; but when she comes to work we find her culinary abilities so limited that at the end of each meal we have to breathe a sigh of relief. The worst of it is that she never admits her ignorance and persistently declines to ask the " lady of the house " how things should be done. The Japanese boy, if inexperienced, at least tries to do his best, poring over his cook book and watching what the mistress does. His earnest efforts are all the more commendable because in most cases housework is not his permanent occupation, but only a means for attaining his end of receiving higher education. The white girl is indifferent and would think of her beaux and the dance and dress, rather than study the art of housekeeping, an art which she will have to practise through her life. We engage her upon the understand- ing that she is to stay with us for a certain time, but her promise is of little worth. A factory offers a better wage or a store promises shorter hours, and she leaves us on a moment's notice. But we must not strive to behold the mote in others' eyes, when there may be the beam in our own. We can be lenient with our servants when we consider that our own daughters, if unfortunately placed in a similar posi- tion, may do exactly as the girls whom we are at times inclined to consider a nuisance. The chief fault of the 144 ASIA AT THE DOOR censor of Japanese domestic labourers is that he expects Japanese to be superhuman — something infinitely better than any white servant. There seem to be two classes of Japanese domestic workers. One consists of so-called " schoolboys," who work short hours and have the privilege of attending school. Sometimes the schoolboy works all day and re- ceives a full wage, but his housework is only a means to gratifying his ambition to enter school. The other class consists of labourers, pure and simple, who cherish no ambition to receive higher education. Where a Japa- nese works full working day his wages vary from $35 to $45 per month, the average being much higher than wages paid female whites in similar occupations. The statement especially concerns the Pacific Coast and should not be applied to other sections without some qualifi- cations. If we are bent upon finding fault with the Japanese, volumes may be written. But fault-finding is neither edi- fying nor profitable. " Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." But there are people who revel in finding fault. To such people even those qualities which would constitute a vir- tue in an American must, if found in a Japanese, appear reprehensible. " I do not want to see," says Senator Boynton of California, " Japanese own a foot of land in California. If they come here only to work for us, it will be all right." Yes, it would be all right for the senator if the Japanese remained for ever in a state of serfdom. But the clarion note of the Declaration of Inde- pendence rings clear in our ears : " All men are created equal." IX CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE A S late as 1883 a popular American writer, who evi- ^^■^dently cared to excite laughter rather than pro- voke thought, dubbed California " a country where the places are all saints and the people are all sinners." What glowing tribute would this very writer have paid the Golden State had he lived to witness the unparalleled progress which she has achieved within the past few dec- ades. Instead of disparaging her so impudently as he did, he would have inscribed to her the words of Bishop Berkeley : "Westward the star of empire takes its way: The first four acts already past, The fifth shall close the drama of the day, The noblest and the last ! " Not only has California astonished the world with the rapidity of its material progress, but it is marching abreast with the most advanced States in the Union in the field of learning and arts. Her higher institutions of education are the pride of the nation, and even in arts and music she has made remarkable records. In legisla- tion and administration she is one of the most progressive States. The marvellous feat which San Francisco achieved in the wake of the earthquake and conflagration which smote her in 1906 is but an indication of the tremendous energy and unequalled enterprise with which the Californians are endowed. 145 146 ASIA AT THE DOOR The Americans of to-day are wont to speak slight- ingly of the " Forty-niners " and those who followed their footsteps in search of gold. Yet from those sturdy, if somewhat unruly, pioneers the Californians of to-day have inherited their undaunted courage and their enter- prising spirit. The hardships and privations which the pioneers endured in crossing the continent, through des- erts and over mountains infested with highwaymen and savage Indians, were in themselves a sure test of supe- rior mental and physical qualities. The descendants of such indomitable souls cannot help being self-reliant, plucky, and progressive. Herein lies the explanation for the peculiar attitude which the Californians asfiume towards the Orientals; yes, towards all outsiders. \ The native son of California regards himself, and not without reason, as the chosen son of God, a superior being to whom all foreigners, whether Asiatic or European, should pay homage. To speak of this attitude as foolish or boorish is unreason- ably for did not even our great Carlyle, that beacon light of English literature and philosophy, cherish intense, almost bitter, prejudice against the Irish? What nation, what race has not in one stage or another of its history t?rified itself with the halo of superiority? California's assumption of superiority is not in itself a bad trait, rather is it a wholesome confidence in her ability. The only danger lies in the fact that such confi- dence is liable to be carried to extremes, especially by the ignorant and vulgarj It is such extravagant self- confidence which we call provincialism. Except such blind self-respect, California's contempt of Orientals is not unjustifiable. Meanwhile, let us record a few cases in which this provincialism manifested itself in a manner which all judicious-minded Californians deeply deplore. CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 147 A Japanese Consul-General at San Francisco rented a house for his residence in what the newspapers called a fashionable district of that city. The official was one of the ablest and most cultured of the younger diplomats of Japan. Yet his prospective American neighbours ob- jected to his moving into the house he rented, and it was only after a protracted parley that he was at last al- lowed to occupy it. The Yokohama Specie Bank of Japan, one of the largest banking establishments in the world, and Mitsui & Co., the largest Japanese firm engaged in international trade, maintain a branch office at San Francisco, and have been a potent factor in the development of the trade which passes through the Golden Gate. The treatment accorded the representatives of these firms in San Fran- cisco is anything but pleasant. When the manager of the San Francisco office of the Mitsui firm rented a house in Berkeley, his neighbours looked suspiciously at him. If they had only declined to associate with him he would not have fared very badly. But their methods of snub- bing assumed a more aggressive aspect. They organized themselves into a sort of " holy alliance," and issued an injunction forbidding the fuel dealers and provision mer- chants of the city to accept the patronage of the heathen Oriental. At first the merchants took the mandate rather lightly, but when the belligerent neighbours of the unfor- tunate Japanese threatened them with a boycott, thty were forced to heed it. The Japanese, a man of cosmopolitan culture who had travelled extensively in Asia and Europe, was not worried — he took the situation in good humour like a philosopher. And why not? His landlord knew him and liked him, and told him to stay, no matter what his neighbours might do. Then the belligerent folk resorted I4B ASIA AT THE DOOR to novel strategy and enjoined their children not to asso- ciate with the little daughter of the man who rented his house to the Japanese. Still the landlord laughed and remained steadfast, though he had to send the daughter away from home. ** These people/' he declared reso- lutely, " need education and a great deal of it." Mean- while, the Japanese, unable to buy necessaries of life of the intimidated home merchants, sent to Oakland and San Francisco for his supplies. He furnished the house adequately, hired an American girl as servant, and lived as respectably as anybody in the vicinity. Weeks passed by, and weeks grew into months, with his neighbours slowly awakening to the folly of the whole performance. They could see no reason why they should be so finical with their new neighbour from the Orient, and they be- gan to exchange with him such social felicitations as are usually exchanged among neighbours, first from sheer curiosity, then with a desire to make acquaintance with him. Another tragi-comedy was also staged in Berkeley. George Shima, the Potato King, procured a residence in an exclusive section of the college town. He had made a fortune as potato grower. His ranches are deltas on the lower reaches of the great San Joaquin River, and cover an area of more than ten thousand acres, partly leased and partly owned by himself. It is bonanza farm- ing, and Shima was called the " Potato King." Yet when he moved into his new home at Berkeley, the " society *' of the college town began to talk, heaping upon him all sorts of insinuations and invectives. The newspaper reporters of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland quickly lined up with the frivolous society gos- sipers, and conspired to pull down the man whom they had voluntarily placed upon a royal dais. "Jap In* CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 149 vades Fashionable Quarters," " Jap Puts on Airs," " Yel- low Peril in College Town " — such were a few of the hundred and one flings and epithets which the newspa- pers hurled upon Shima. But Shima was a philosopher and a strategist. He lived in his new home in respectable fashion, employing a retinue of servants and embellishing the rooms with elegant furniture. He purchased the adjoining lot and converted it into a garden adorned with rare shrubs and flowers imported from Europe and Asia. Then his *' exclusive " neighbours rubbed their eyes and began to wonder what sort of a " Jap " had come to live in their midst. And when Mr. Shima donated $500 to the Y. M. C. A. of the University of California, the towns- men had to recognize that even a Japanese could be as public-spirited as they. That settled it. Shima was no longer a social outcast, and to-day the crown of the Potato King rests upon his head as securely as ever. It is indeed regrettable that we have come to attach too much importance to the worldly possessions of a man in determining his worth as a man. Mr. Shima is a gen- tleman before he is a potato king. He is possessed of the highest sense of honour; his character is impeccable. Neither is he an uncultured boor, for he is well versed in the Chinese classics, and can compose a poem or two even in the thick of business. All these qualities passed unnoticed, and not until he demonstrated his wealth in things that could be spoken of in terms of dollars and cents did the people take him seriously. The inability of the Japanese to secure desirable dwell- ing places is pregnant with significance, for it must in- evitably result in the virtual segregation of the Japa- nese from the American community. The Japanese are 150 ASIA AT THE DOOR accused of congregating in their own quarters in our cities, but how can they avoid the course when we our- selves set up a barrier of prejudice which they are not yet able to scale or destroy? There are of course classes of Japanese who are foreign to the amenities of refined so- ciety, and no one insists that such Japanese should be permitted to reside in " exclusive '* quarters. Neither would they care to live in such quarters, even if they could. At the same time, there are Japanese who deserve and are anxious to be admitted into respectable quarters. Such men will prove themselves, if only allowed an op- portunity to prove, as desirable as anybody not only as tenants but as members of the community in which they live. It is indeed sad to think that even in such college towns as Berkeley, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles the Japa- nese students find it well-nigh impossible to board or room with American , families. What a contrast is here presented with the kindness and cordiality with which the Japanese students are received in the college towns of the East ! In the East any fahiily welcomes Japanese young men as roomers or boarders, because they are more quiet, more orderly, more cleanly in habit, and less critical than their American schoolmates. Thus coming in close contact with American life, the Japanese students in the East enjoy opportunity to adopt and absorb Ameri- can ideas. In Los Angeles, the Japanese Students' Club, con- sisting mostly of students of the University of Cali- fornia, desired to purchase a lot on which to build its clubhouse, but it had to drop the plan entirely, as the prejudice of the citizens made it impossible for it to secure a desirable site. Is it any wonder that the Japa- nese students in California, in spite of all the splendid CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE IS I opportunities offered by her universities, are ever casiing their longing eyes over the Rockies ? One of the leading New York magazines says in its editorial : " The Japanese dislike the Californians as heartily as the Californians dislike them." The latter half of the sentence may contain some truth, but the former does not. Rightly or wrongly, the Japanese in California still believe that the agitation against them was started and is being engineered by a class of men whose conduct, public and private, most Californians de- plore and denounce. To me their patience and good- nature appear almost surprising, considering the humili- ating treatment to which they are constantly subjected. And, after all, there is no reason why they should not be good-natured, when they come to think of it. In spite of all the calumnies and insinuations which the Exclusion League heap upon them, the individual Californians are but too willing to deal with Japanese farmers and merchants. One of the commonest charges brought against the Japanese in California is that, " wherever they live, their presence depreciates the value of all adjacent property." I do not wish to be dogmatic on this point, but shall simply quote the following passages from a letter writ- ten by Miss Alice M. Brown, a resident of Florin, to contradict the statement made by Collier's Weekly: '' As to the decrease in land values that is another bald falsehood. The property has doubled in value within the last six years. Any realty man of Sacramento knows that this is the fact as well as the residents of this com- munity (Florin) know that this is the fact. As for the Japanese neighbour, his industry on the land he tills enhances its value and increases ours in consequence. Adjoining my home is eighty acres which for all these J 152 ASIA AT THE DOOR years had never been touched by a plough — so sloughy and shallow was the land that the white man set it aside as only fit for a pasture. The Japanese turned it into the most beautiful vineyards and strawberry patches, and where the poorest of the poor soil lay is the finest berry patch in this vicinity. Neat little homes dot that once barren tract, and they are occupied by as good and kindly neighbours as we wish to have. Who is insane enough to believe that such a transformation from aridity to high productiveness would decrease the value of adjoin- ing property? " There never has been one farm sold to get away from a Japanese neighbour. On the contrary, white families are coming in all the time and erecting homes. The fact that the Japanese are here enables the white man to secure the help to make good for himself. We do not object to the moral, industrious Japanese being our neighbour ; we prefer him to ignorant, shiftless white men. The experience of many has shown that the white man is a failure as a tenant, the property becomes a wreck in his hands. The industrious Japanese will do the work and increase the value of the property. There are more whites in this community than there ever were before in its history." Mr. Chester Rowell, editor of the Fresno Republican, harps upon the most deep-rooted prejudice of Calif or- nians when he opens his article in a recent issue of the World's Work with this sensational utterance of a farmer who was permitted to appear before a session of the Cali- fornia legislature: " Up at Elk Grove, where I live, on the next farm a Japanese man lives, and a white woman. That woman is carrying around a baby in her arms. What is that baby? It isn't white. It isn't Japanese. I will tell you CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 153 what it is — it is the beginning of the biggest problem that ever faced the American people I " To understand why California is so averse to American- Japanese marriage one need only look at the Venus-like faces of her women and the features of her men as hand- some as those of an Adonis. To give up such a beautiful woman to a homely Japanese instead of to a stately, courtly Californian must appear a sacrifice and a blas- phemy. That is the only " biggest problem " involved in intermarriage between Japanese and Americans. But why should it be any problem at all when a Japanese man and an American woman could be happily united and can rear offspring as vigorous, as bright, and indeed as handsome as any child? In Eastern States I have seen many Japanese-American children who are the fa- vourites of the whole community in which they live. It is only when prejudice and snobbery obstruct one's dis- cernment that one utters such hysterical cries as that raised by the Elk Grove farmer. Neither sons nor daugh- ters born to American-Japanese couples will find any diffi- culty in marrying pure-blooded Americans. If the " big- gest problem that ever faced the American people " will ever result from the presence of Japanese in this coun- try, it is least likely to come from intermarriage. In this age of human solidarity we can no longer ad- here to such narrow views of intermarriage as are enter- tained by Califomians. To the Eastward across the Rockies and to the Westward across the Pacific there are already a considerable number of Japanese married to Caucasian women. Such Japanese are forced to avoid California, however urgently their business or calling may require them to reside in that State. To place in an uncomfortable position such men as Dr. Takamine, of 154 ASIA AT THE DOOR New York, or Dr. Nitobe, of Tokyo, merely because their wives are Americans would be childish. Yet that is ex- actly what happens to such men when they travel in California. Instead of attempting to fan this popular prejudice against intermarriage, cannot the leading men of the Golden State be large-hearted enough to exert their wholesome influence for its dissipation? But I have al- ready discussed this problem at length in the chapter on the Americanization of the Japanese, and I must pass on to another phase of the problem. Dr. Edward A. Steiner, one of the foremost authori- ties on the immigration problem, in a recent address at St. Louis, sees the real menace for California not in Oriental immigration, but in the ebbing energy of its citizens. The pioneers of California who conquered all obstacles offered by nature, were energetic, undaunted, and willing to toil. But the present generation, Dr. Steiner points out, is beginning to seek pleasure, avoid parenthood, and shirk hard work. And many Californians plainly admit that their young men no longer soil their hands with the tilling of the earth, but migrate to cities in quest of gen- tleman's work and easy money. The effect of this tend- ency is clearly shown in the census of 19 lo, which records considerable decrease of the farm lands in California. Some American writers go even so far as to assert that this very symptom of weakness on the part of Califor- nians is one of the causes which brought about the agi- tation against the Japanese. To us, however, the theory is open to question. The idea of setting up the bogie of superiority of an Asiatic people is too bizarre, to put it mildly, to be taken seriously. At the same time, the Japanese, being human, have not been faultless. They may not have been as faithful CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 155 to contracts as they should have been. At any rate, it has become a fashion among Californians of a certain class to laud the honesty of the Chinese and deplore the *' dishonesty " of the Japanese. Yet we must remember that when California was trying to exclude the Chinese they had no hesitation in assailing the " dishonesty " of the Chinese in the most vehement terms, in comparison with which their present criticism of Japanese lack of business honour seems a tame affair. When we are bent upon attaining a certain end, our sense of justice does not prevent us from resorting to exaggeration and mis- representation in order to attain that end. Again, the Japanese may have appeared too proud, although the Japanese themselves seem totally uncon- scious of the fact. Their apparent " cockiness " is noth- ing but their innocent efforts to conform to the customs and manners which they have been constantly told to respect by the very men who now attack their cockiness. And besides, there are many educated and well-bred Japa- nese who were disciplined in the deportment commonly observed among the upper classes in their native country. In the words of Mr. Walter V. Woehlke, of the Sunset Magadne, ** this cockiness is but the expression of the poise and dignity that is one of the* finest features of the Japanese national character." When, therefore, a Japa- nese acts as a well-bred American would act, he has no intention to offend anybody, no desire to put on airs, no idea to challenge the superiority of any man under the sun. To him it is perfectly natural and spontaneous to respect and conform to the customs of any foreign coun- try where he may come to live. This spontaneous feel- ing even overcomes his innate dislike of black frock- coat and high silk hat, which, though adopted in Japan as proper costume in formal functions, were undoubtedly 156 ASIA AT THE DOOR invented for tall figures. After all, the allegation of Japanese cockiness is a trivial thing unworthy of serious consideration, yet Mr. Woehlke warns us that it is just such trivial things which largely influence the judgment of a prejudiced public. In New York there are more Japanese who " put on airs " than in San Francisco, yet nobody in that cosmopolitan, hospitable metropolis on the Atlantic ever becomes excited over it. If it be true that the Californians are exasperated by *'the proud, erect bearing, the immaculate clothes, and the exquisite manners of the successful, well-bred Japa- nese," the future of California calls for deep apprehension on the part of every public-spirited citizen. This appre- hension is expressed by Dr. Francis G. Peabody, of Har- vard University, in this language : "The attitude of the South to the Negro practically prohibits the immigration of free men. The same result would seem probable if the Mississippi view of citizen- ship were applied in California. Self-respecting immi- grants would be likely to shun a State where none but serfs were wanted. If, on the other hand, the extraor- dinary attractiveness of California should overbalance its deterrent policy, then it seems likely that she would get the kind of immigrants desired. I heard a Californian last February in a public address describe the gains which were to be made by California through the open- ing of the Panama Canal. The future of the State, he said, depended on a great influx of population, and Ger- man lines proposed to * lay down ' immigrants from the Mediterranean at a cost of $5 above the rate to New York. New England has already had its lesson of finan- cial loss and social disorder as the consequence of im- porting this kind of labour from the eastern Mediter- ranean. But New England may perhaps urge in self- CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 1$? defence that she could find no other source of supply. California, it would seem from this article (Mr. Woehl- ke's article in the Outlook), deliberately proposes a pol- icy of welcome for inefficiency, ignorance, and anarchy, and of exclusion for the intelligence, orderliness, and skill which stand waiting at her doors.'* Mrs. Mary Roberts Coolidge is perhaps right in say- ing that " the anti-foreign feeling in California was un- questionably intensified by the presence of Southerners, who comprised nearly one-third of the population in the first generation. Of these a minority were educated pure American stock, who brought, in some cases, their slaves with them and a profound conviction that California should be a white man's country. But this class was greatly outnumbered by immigrants from the border States of the Pike-County-Missourian type, whose igno- rance and extreme race antipathies classed all persons, other than European whites, together — South Americans, South Europeans, Kanakas, Malays, or Chinese — all were coloured; even the French, partly because they were of a darker skin and partly because they, like the Spanish- Americans, were too high-spirited, were attacked as for- eigners. The Germans.Jrish, and Englishmen alone were excepted, although many of them were not naturalized, and had far less right in the country than the native Indians and Spaniards." Added to the conditions described by Mrs. Coolidge, there was another factor which gave a strong impetus to the movement against the foreigners, and especially the Asiatics. From the early days California enjoyed the reputation of having very strong trade unions. This peculiarity was no doubt due to the fact that California began her history as a mining country. In those States whose economic resources are mostly in agriculture. 158 ASIA AT THE DOOR trade unionism seldom looms portentously upon the po- litical horizon. It was gold mining which enriched Cali- fornia before its farm lands began to attract settlers, and the mining industry inevitably resulted in the organi- zation of miners' unions. As early as 1850 the mining workers became a potent factor in State politics. Both the Republicans and the Democrats depended upon the mining vote to control the legislature. From that time on the miners' organization steadily grew in influence and in the number of its members. With the general progress of the State other trade unions sprang into ex- istence and joined hands with the older labour organi- zations, culminating in 1877 in the inauguration of the Workingmen's Party. In the meantime the distribution of wealth in Califor- nia was such as would assist in the growth of trades unions. The concentration of lands in the hands of a few deprived settlers of small means of opportunity to become independent farmers, while the monopoly of rail- ways and steamship services by a few financial magnates necessarily raised the cost of living by keeping transpor- tation at prohibitive rates. Such a condition naturally awakened discontent on the part of the workingmen as well as men of limited means. These circumstances conspired to confer upon the trade union in California a most arbitrary and tyrannical power. I am no opponent of trade unionism, when trade unionism is based upon sound economic and ethical prin- ciples. Indeed, I was one of those few Japanese who, about a decade ago, introduced trade unionism to Japan at the risk of incurring the displeasure of the ruling class and the capitalist. Fresh from college and having never been abroad, I had gleaned a knowledge of trades unions in America and Europe from books mostly from the CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 159 pens of sympathetic writers, and I naturally became a most enthusiastic sympathizer with their principles and movement. I frankly confess that I was somewhat dis- illusioned when I came to know something of the prac- tical modus operandi of the trade unions in America. My fidelity to the fundamental principles of trade unionism still remains unshaken, but I have little sympathy with the narrow-mindedness and the utter disregard of justice and honour with which the good names of some labour leaders have been besmirched. A perusal of such a book as " The Masked War," by William J. Burns, the man who uncovered the dynamite conspiracy, is enough to dis- pel all glamour of martyrdom and disinterestedness which long shrouded such leaders. Perhaps the climate of California, too, has had some influence in developing a peculiar type of " mass psy- chology." Professor Steiner thinks that this climate is responsible for the mental habit of exaggeration com- monly observed in California. Unquestionably some Californians entertain a very exaggerated idea as to the number and strength of the Japanese in their State. Whatever may be said of Tennyson's dictum, " That bright and fierce and fickle is the south And dark and true and tender is the north," it seems fairly clear that from time immemorial climate has been a potent factor in directing the course of human activities and determining the destinies of nations. Now the climate of the Golden State is a sort of climate that strengthens the passions and sends them wild for excite- ment. Not only does this climate quicken the pulse and the temper, but it gave birth to that peculiar human being called " hoodlum." The hoodlum cannot exist in a country with a rigorous winter and the homes that i6o ASIA AT THE DOOR are born of it. He can thrive only in a country where snow is unknown, and where one can live out in the open day and night without suffering from chilling damp- ness or biting frost. While the climate of California is congenial to the existence of the hoodlums, its economic conditions were such as to swell the tide of lawless elements. From the early days the adult labourers in California made con- certed attempts to prevent the employment of boys and young men in lighter and cheaper common labour. The Miners' Union had a law providing that the rate of pay for all underground men must be $4 per shift, regard- less of age, experience, or ability. This made it impos- sible for the superintendent to hire miners' sons. This policy of the miners' union was adopted by other trade unions organized after 1870. In the cigar trade, for in- stance, the number of apprentices to be employed in any one shop was restricted to three. These conditions natu- rally resulted in the creation of a class of boys and young men who were forced to lead a life of idleness, drifted into large cities, and became the material out of which the hoodlum element was ultimately made. It was mostly these lawless elements which in the days of Denis Kearney constituted the band of sand-lotters. Since that time the fortunes of the hoodlum, as fortunes go, have been on the wane, yet we know that he figured prominently in the anti- Japanese outrages in San Fran- cisco a few years ago. Beyond a doubt it was that dis- orderly class that broke the windows of Japanese stores, raided Japanese restaurants, and even extorted money from Japanese merchants in those days of confusion and consternation that occurred in the wake of the great earthquake and conflagration. To the Japanese, and even to Americans who live east CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE l6l of the Rockies, these outrages in San Francisco appeared at the time to be an incident of great significance. The Japanese across the ocean regarded it as an indication of the hostile attitude which the Californians in general assumed towards Japan. Moreover, the report as to the damages suffered by Japanese merchants was greatly magnified, as it travelled across the Pacific. Meanwhile, Americans in the Eastern States, knowing little of the peculiarities of the San Francisco population, overesti- mated the meaning of those outrages and were led to wonder if Japanese and other races could ever live ami- cably together. Looking at the incident of 1907 through the perspective of the years that have gone by, I am inclined to think that it was comparatively of small significance and un- worthy of the great excitement and commotion with which it was discussed on both sides of the Pacific. Even the school question should have been settled more quietly through judicial channels. But it was just such excite- ment and commotion which the Exclusion League was anxious to create, knowing that it would inevitably act contagiously upon the mind of the whole nation, and thus result in creating with the public an impression that it might be best to close the doors to the Japanese. And in this the league has been largely successful. Whatever may be the real cause of the anti-Japanese agitation, its recrudescence is highly deplorable. Each succeeding year it intensifies the anxiety of the Japa- nese on both sides of the water. In the session of 19 13 of the legislature of California no less than fhirty-fnnr bills were introduc ed, all aimed at the curbinp^ of the . rights of the Japanese, m ost ot which were, in my I'udg- ment, obviously guaranteed by the treaty between the United States and Japan. The thirty-four bills — four- l62 ASIA AT THE DOOR teen in the Senate, twenty in the House — are of special interest in that they indicate the nature of missiles with which the Exclusion League, through its political allies, assails the Japanese. Classified by their respective na- tures, these bills fall under these seven heads : ^i. Bills prohibiting the Japanese from acquiring title to land or real property. 2. Bills increasing the license fee of Japanese fisher- men from the present rate of $io to $ioo a year. 3. Bills providing for the segregation of Japanese school children. 4. Bills prohibiting the issuance of liquor licenses to Japanese. 5. Bills forbidding the Japanese to use power engines. 6. Bills providing for the imposition of a special poll tax upon the Japanese. 7. Bills prohibiting the Japanese from employing white women. True, the bills, except in a few cases, do not openly attack the Japanese, for the indirect phrase, " aliens not eligible to citizenship," is preferred to the direct word " Japanese," where the real object of discrimination is the Japanese. Such indirect discriminative acts are cal- culated to gall the Japanese even more brutally than a direct act. As President Jordan says : '' The exclusion of the Japanese from citizenship, for which discrimina- tion no adequate cause exists, is of the nature of insult in itself. To be shut out because they have been insulted once adds doubly to a humiliation which they have no power to resent, but which they hope their nearest friend among the nations will not offer them." The appearance in the State legislature of a flood of anti- Japanese bills in 191 3 was especially untimely and unfortunate. For the preceding seven years Japan had CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPANESE 163 patiently and graciously endured the indignities and hu- miliations to which California had persistently subjected her. Not only this, but Japan was the first nation to respond to the appeal of the Panama- Pacific Exposition with a generous promise to participate in the proposed World's Fair on a large scale. The delegates of the exposition had gone over to the otlier side of the water and had told the Japanese that the people of California in general had entertained good-will and friendly feeling towards them, and that Japan's liberal participation in the coming exposition would greatly strengthen the bond of friendship between the two nations. Japan had taken the word at its face value, and promptly sent a special commission to San Francisco to select a site for the build- ings which she was to build on the fair grounds, when no other leading nation had even decided whether it would participate in the exposition at all. The commission re- turned home and recommended that at least one million dollars be appropriated for the exposition. Now came the State legislature proposing innumerable anti- Japanese bills. In the face of these facts can we not understand why on this particular occasion the masses of Japan displayed unusual excitement ? It was not the mere " probability of passage of an act by one State discriminating against its people " that caused that excitement. It was the out- come of the insult which California had for the preceding seven years constantly offered Japan, and of the peculiar feeling of distrust caused by the difference between the assurances of the exposition management and the prac- tical activities of the State legislature. Had it been a European power which was subjected to such uncere- monious treatment, it would not have been seven long years before " its people brought out mobs and talk of i64 ASIA AT THE DOOR war." The cry of war which was raised in one of the mass meetings held in Tokyo in protest against California was certainly unfortunate and foolish, but had not some of the Americans newspapers and publicists been for many a year diligently working for the creation of the bogie of an American- Japanese war, even while the Japa- nese press and people had scrupulously maintained an attitude of dignity and tolerance ? Why, then, should the enlightened editors of great New York magazines be sur- prised if some ignorant, hot-headed, irresponsible people in Tokyo, not publicists nor newspapers of any standing, showed a willingness to accept California's challenge " like a man " ? For my part, I agree with Mr. Don C. Seitz when he says in the North American Review: " The pride of accomplishment has not yet abolished [Japan's] gratitude towards America. In view of the occasional American manifestation of distrust, it is aston- ishing that it should prevail so strongly. It is a certain test of the permanency of their sense of obligation which stands patiently unwarranted attacks upon their honour, a people whom Russia was unable to push away from the Asiatic shore when once they chose to rest foot upon it." Of the alleged '' mobs and talk of war " in Tokyo, we shall have to say more anon, in connection with the anti- Japanese land legislation in California. THE CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO LIKE the attempted segregation of the Japanese J school-children in San Francisco in 1906, the enactment of the anti-Japanese land law is one of the " successes " with which the efforts of the Japanese Exclusion League of Mr. Olaf Tvietmoe was rewarded. Systematic agitation against Japanese ownership of land was begun in 1906 when the League was in its palmiest days. From that time anti-Japanese land bills in one form or another were introduced every year in the legislature at Sacramento. Both Democrats and Re- publicans sported with the bills, as both were anxious to win the labour vote. But as long as the State gov- ernment as well as the Federal Administration was in the hands of the Republican Party the legislators at Sacramento scrupled to enact bills which the authorities at Washington considered inimical to the maintenance of friendly relations with the Mikado's Empire. Again and again did Mr. Roosevelt's " big stick " stop the passage of such bills, while Mr. Taft also succeeded, though by subtler means, in checking the anti-Japanese agitation in the State legislature. But the political tables were completely turned as the result of the general elections of 191 2. The Progressive Party became paramount in the politics of California, while the Democratic Party assumed the reins of govern- ment at Washington. The California Progressives had 165 l66 ASIA AT THE DOOR little sympathy for the Wilson Cabinet, and were de- termined to manage the affairs of the State to suit them, whatever the effects of their actions upon the policy of the Federal Government. I have always been, as I still am, a sincere admirer of Governor Johnson, his un- daunted courage, his unflinching energy, and above all, his love of justice. Yet they tell me that the Progressive Governor of California, seeing that his influence was waning, was anxious to regain his popularity by catering to the wishes of the labouring class. At the last election he was elected by a very small majority, less than a hundred votes. When the anti- Japanese land bill was introduced in the fall of 1912, he saw a chance to be- friend the labouring class. As the Argonaut observes, the land bill " is just a bit of cheap political buncombe, mean- ingless and ineffective in itself, useful only in that it may help somebody to get votes under pretence of being a Japanese baiter." What appears to be an inside story of the enactment of the land bill is told in a letter addressed to the Lon- don Nation by Miss Alice M. Brown, of Florin, who was a close observer of every activity of the California legis- lature in regard to the land legislation. Even conceding that her account of the situation may not be absolutely free from misconception, it nevertheless throws an in- teresting light upon the question. She says: " When the agitation began in the legislature we thought it was just a flurry of organized labour that would soon end by being unnoticed. The session of the legisla- ture this year was bifurcated and it was not until the middle of March that the agitation took an aggressive character. When the Judiciary Committee held a meet- ing in March, they permitted a member of our com- munity [Florin] to appear before them. This man was CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 167 a disreputable person, shiftless, ignorant, and addicted to hard drinking, and naturally gave utterance to a stock of vicious falsehoods which shocked all respectable, fair-minded people of Florin. But the legislature took up his ugly lies and repeated them on the floors of both houses as * the demand of the farmers of Florin to be saved from a terrible menace.' The intellectual citizens of Florin immediately took steps to controvert the falsi- fication and begged the Judiciary Committee for a hear- ing. After repeated appeals it was finally announced that we could appear. We went to the capital prepared with facts and statistics, but to our great disgust and astonishment we were not permitted to say a word. Meanwhile, the same uncouth falsifier was called forth and given all the time he wanted to utter more false- hoods. " We tried to get into the press so that the public might see the situaition as it really was. But the press of California was closed and locked. We then turned to the Governor; he had no time to give us. At one time we waited for three hours at the door of the Governor's office, having sent in a letter of introduction written by his personal friend, and yet we were not permitted to set forth before him our side of the case. The only thing we could do was to print a protest, and the duty of pre- paring pamphlets describing the real status of the Japa- nese in our community was assigned me. These pam- phlets were distributed among the legislators, editors, and publicists in the State, but were given scant atten- tion. " We then saw that ' the demand of the people of the State for relief ' was a political scheme to arouse race antagonism and curry favour with the labour-union ele- ment, and that the truth was not wanted because truth l68 ASIA AT THE DOOR would deprive those concocting the scheme of their ammunition for a great Japanese scare. With the lid tight on the truth, and with the doors of the press and legislature wide open to falsehood, the public mind could be inflamed and their political ends attained. " I attended the session every time the land bill came up. The speeches in favour of the bill were simply torrents of abuse and vituperations, and a defiance of national authority. Once I asked an Assemblyman to set forth before the legislators some salient facts bearing upon the question, and the gentleman sighed : ' The Assembly is dead set; no industrial appeal, no human appeal, no appeal whatever would reach them, and I am going to save my breath.* " When the bill was up for debate in the Senate, Senator Weight arose and said : ' You are all playing politics, dirty cheap politics; you all know you are, and you don't dare deny it.' They didn't, not one; they only sat and chuckled. " We had not connected Governor Johnson with the political intrigue, feeling that in deference to the high honour he had held as a Vice-Presidential candidate last fall he would not stultify himself with undignified manoeuvres and unjust discrimination. But with the coming of Secretary Bryan he showed his hand, and his identity with the sinister scheme became manifest. By that time he saw the chance to put Wilson in a hole, and he became feverishly anxious to pass a very drastic measure. " Mr. Bryan addressed both houses jointly in a private session. When he explained the Administration's wishes and promised them help by diplomatic adjustment, the legislature was bending to his plea. At that juncture however, the Governor sprang to his feet, and by a CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 169 virulent plea for ' State's rights ' turned the tables against Secretary Bryan. " From the beginning the Japanese community in Florin was made the centre of attack, and Florin's very prosperity was made over into dire calamity. Governor Johnson brought Secretary Bryan out here, taking as a guide not an intelligent, respectable citizen of our com- munity but the ignorant whiskey-soak who could be re- lied upon to delude Secretary Bryan. When the party returned to Sacramento, Secretary Bryan allowed me an interview. I then told him the facts and history of agriculture in Florin, and the part the Japanese have played in it. He asked me many questions concerning what he had seen and heard, proving that he had been a close observer but had been greatly misinformed. I am sure he saw through Governor Johnson's duplicity." All efforts of President Wilson and Secretary Bryan unavailing, the land bill was passed on April 15. Mr. Bryan had left Sacramento on April 3, after a stay of a week. While the bill was in Governor Johnson's hands awaiting his signature, the President made another, and the final, effort to prevent it from becoming a law. But the Governor stood firm and replied to the President: " By the law adopted we offer no offence, we make no discrimination. The offence and discrimination are con- tained, it is claimed, in the use of the words ' eligible to citizenship,' and in making a distinction between those who are eligible to citizenship and those who are not. We do not mention the Japanese or any particular race. The constitution of California in 1879 made its distinc- tion and there has never been protest or objection. The naturalization law of the United States long since, with- out demur from any nation, determined who were and who were not eligible to citizenship. If invidious dis- I70 ASIA AT THE DOOR crimination was ever made in this regard, the LJnited States made it when it declared who were and who were not eUgible to citizenship, and when we but follow and depend on the statutes of the United States and their determination as to eligibility to citizenship, we cannot be accused of indulging in invidious discrimination." The Governor's reply was a lengthy one. As a piece of logical argument it is a splendid document and de- serves the praise which it elicited from the editors of certain influential magazines in New York. Yet every one of us knows that a logical argument is not necessarily a convincing argument. There are arguments which, however logical, terse, and vigorous in expression, fall flat, and we fear that Mr. Johnson's reply to the Presi- dent was, at best, a fine example of such arguments. He could silence his opponents, but not convince them. And to those who knew the inside story of the political game at Sacramento the Governor's argument is far from convincing. The law puts " in a hole " not only the Wilson Cabinet but the Government at Tokyo. It provides that all aliens eligible to citizenship may acquire land, and that all aliens ineligible to citizenship may acquire land in the manner and to the extent and for the purposes prescribed by any treaty now existing between the United States and nation or country of which such aliens are subjects. Now the American- Japanese treaty expressly extends to the Japa- nese the right to own or lease or occupy houses, manu- factories, warehouses, and shops ; to lease land for resi- dential and commercial purposes and generally to do anything necessary for trade. The treaty is silent on the question of ownership of farm land. Comparing the provisions of the treaty with those of the land law it is difficult to see how Japan could logically protest against CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 171 the measure adopted by California. True, the treaty contains a " most favoured nation " clause, but that clause, too, is not couched in general sweeping terms, but confines its application to navigation and trade. Section 4 of the land law which prohibits the inheritance of farm lands now owned by Japanese by their heirs may be interpreted as an infringement upon clause 3, Article i, of the treaty with Japan, and also a violation of an article in the United States Constitution which provides that *' no State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." But the question of inheritance is not the fundamental one. The fundamental question is the question of ownership of farm lands, and as far as that is concerned, Japan must find it difficult to argue her side of the case, if the question is approached from the legal point of view. That the land law is opposed to the spirit of the treaty seems to us obvious, but in international dealings what is not expressly conceded in the treaty is never secure, unless, forsooth, such concessions are upheld by the sword and cannon. It, therefore, bespeaks Japan's good sense that her so-called " protest " was in reality little more than a friendly request for the assistance of the Wilson Cabinet in her efforts to solve the question in an amicable manner. The question, we believe, should be considered not from the legal point of view, but in the light of broad statesmanship with due regard for justice and humanity. In the first place, we must consider whether such a law would not conflict with the fundamental spirit and prin- ciple upon which this great Republic stands. In the second place, we must consider whether there exist con- ditions which call for such a law. In the third place, we must consider whether such a law has the endorsement 172 ASIA AT THE DOOR of an intelligent, fair-minded class of people. Finally, we must consider whether the adoption of such a law would not be prejudicial to the national foreign policy of this country. The first point has been repeatedly discussed in the preceding chapters. Here I need only assert that the law is decidedly un-American. It is enacted merely to throttle the legitimate aspirations of the Japanese, to keep the Japanese farmers in a state of serfdom, to fan the prejudice which is being constantly exploited by the jealous and ignorant. Senator Boynton, one of the staunchest champions of the land law, exclaimed on the floor of the California Senate : " I don't want to see a Japanese own a single foot of land of California. If they are willing to perform menial labour on farms under the direction of citizen owners, that is all right." Are these words which could be put into the mouth of the descendant of the sire who only a hundred years ago addressed this note to his oppressor: " To your justice we appeal. You have been told that we are impatient of government and desirous of inde- pendence. These are calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory and our greatest happi- ness. But if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind: if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of law, the principles of the constitution, or the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you that we will never submit to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world." CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 173 It is to " your justice " that the Japanese appeal. We have consecrated our country to the cause of justice and liberty, and in order to uphold it we did not hesitate to make enormous sacrifice. What heresy, what perfidy to attempt to trample upon the sacred legacy of our revered sires and to destroy the foundation upon which the great democracy stands ! The land question should not be confounded with the immigration question. We have imposed upon Japan the " gentlemen's agreement," as the result of which Japanese immigration has been effectively checked. Those who are already within our borders it is our duty to protect and uplift. That duty we are in honour bound to assume not because of any treaty we have concluded but in deference to the prin- ciple which made this nation morally great and which we have with pardonable pride proclaimed to the whole world. To deprive the Japanese wilfully and viciously of rights which they have long been permitted to enjoy, is not ** exclusion " but " extermination " and " persecu- tion." But we must come to the second point. The second point has already been dealt with in the chapter entitled " They Are Taking Our Farms," but there are some essential facts which I must present here. According to the report of the Bureau of Labour Statistics of California agricultural lands owned by Japanese aggregrated only 12,726 acres, cut up into 331 farms assessed at $478,990. Compare this with the total agricultural lands in the State, estimated at 27,931,444 acres, and we can see what an insignificant part the Japanese land-holdings constitute. Again the number of farm operators in the State is 88,197, of whom 66,632 are owners. It therefore appears that there is only one Japanese landowner to every 201 Caucasian owners. During the past decade or so California's agriculture has 174 ASIA AT THE DOOR been declining. A study of the census reveals interesting facts in this connection. In ten years intervening 1900 and 1910 there v^as a decrease in the amount of land in farms of 897,597 acres, and in the amount of improved land in farms of 568,943 acres. This unhappy condition was no doubt partly due to the movement of the popu- lation from the country to the city. In the face of such facts I fail to see how a body of wise legislators could afford to enact a law which is calculated to drive out thrifty industrial farmers. There is another consideration. Those sections of California in which Japanese have been chiefly active in agriculture are in the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley. The northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, unlike the coast district of California, is noted for its rigorous winters and scorching summers. Because of this climate the development of the country was long delayed. Certain sections of the Sacramento Valley con- sist mostly of lowlands, always damp and often inun- dated. This section, therefore, was long regarded as unhealthy, and was shunned by most immigrants. It was the Japanese who opened these countries. He braved the heat and cold of the northern San Joaquin Valley, and has converted it into a thriving fruit coun- try, famous for its raisins and wines. He worked upon the unsanitary farms on the lower reaches of the Sac- ramento and the San Joaquin River, and has made the country rich with onions, potatoes, beans, and fruits. Yet for this great contribution what has the Japanese received as reward? Only 10,000 acres of land — 6,000 acres in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, and 4,000 acres in the Sacramento Valley. The valleys are in themselves an empire containing some 37,456 square miles of arable lands. In such a vast territory 10,000 CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 175 acres owned by Japanese are nothing but a negligible quantity. And mind, every inch of the 10,000 acres was purchased with hard-earned money. To disinherit this land would be an act unthinkable in this great country of liberty and enlightenment. The third point has been to some extent dealt with in Miss Brown's letter to the Nation, already quoted. To drive it further home to the reader I quote the following passage from her pamphlet entitled " Educatipn not Legislation " : " Under our system of lawmaking any irresponsible person can have a bill introduced and so bills have been brought forth with the cry that the farmers demand such laws. As a matter of fact, the three so-called ' farmers * who were permitted to go before the Judiciary Committee, did not represent the vast intelligent farm- ing class at all. The real farmers were there, but they opposed the measures, so were denied a hearing. Such petitions as have been gotten up represent an unthinking, prejudiced, jealous class of people, largely non-property- owners. The better elements were never approached or, if they were, refused to have anything to do with it. In this community it was carried around by a social pariah, a man who owns not a foot of soil. " The constant prodding and slurring of the Japa- nese is a habit of the ignorant of California. Their ugly words pass unchallenged and hence breed more. The forces of evil and ignorance are always rampant; the forces of good-will and stay-at-home industry are tranquil. So while prejudice and un- Americanism claim to be the voice of the people, our real citizenship de- preciates the attacks, deplores such bitterness, but finds all avenues for voicing objections closed. In local com- munities those who come out for justice and right are 176 ASIA AT THE DOOR bitterly assailed, and it is the line of least resistance to be passive. Then, too, the latter always know the un- worthiness of the agitator and are reluctant to recog- nize that he can stir up mischief." The fourth and last point need not be discussed at length. For who under the sun does not know that the law is in direct contravention of the national for- eign policy of the Wilson Administration? President Wilson and Secretary Bryan, seeing that the commerce of America must inevitably expand towards the Orient, were anxious to befriend Japan and China. Especially were they desirous of healing the wound which we have on more occasions than one inflicted upon the pride of Japan. The time seemed auspicious for the launching of such a policy. The Japanese generously responded to the appeal of the Panama- Pacific Exposition and showed a willing- ness to cooperate with the Federal Government in the readjustment of relations between the two nations. Now comes the State legislature introducing a flood of bills all aimed at discrimination against the Japanese. To say that these bills are not intended to offend any for- eign nation is a mere subterfuge. Yet amid the vituperations of the politicians and the vociferations of the ignorant, the true spirit of the Re- public asserted itself, and called upon the whole nation, like the call of the bugle, to rally under the standard of justice and fairness. Seldom before during my thirteen years' residence in this country have I witnessed the true greatness of the American nation so vividly demonstrated as on the occasion of the land legislation in California. Would that the Japanese on the other side of the Pacific could have seen this imposing spec- tacle! The majority of American newspapers and of fair-minded Americans turned a solid phalanx to the CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 177 legislators of California and denounced their selfishness and bigotry. A minister declared from his pulpit : " The California land bill is something that would disgrace hell in its palmiest days. It is a piece of political perfidy and rotten state's rights — of proverbial buncombe — and of a race and religious bigotry that makes the Oriental heathen a Christian saint in comparison. What a lovely exhibition of low-browed, hard-hearted provincialism for a State that intends to hold the Panama World's Fair. The Fair privilege should be rescinded, or if not Japan and China as well as Europe should boycott it." Would such frank and fearless expression of opinion be permitted in Japan, were the Parliament at Tokyo to adopt a measure discriminating against aliens? May not some fanatical patriots regard such outspoken criti- cism as treason and betrayal of national honour? When we think of this we realize that the spirit of America is not yet dead, that the glory and greatness of the Re- public are not a thing of the past. In the previous chapter I have referred to the " mobs and war talk" alleged to have been brought out in Tokyo on the eve of the passage of the land law. In view of the fact that the so-called " war-talk " has been studiously exploited in America not only by sensational newspapers but by influential magazines and critical writers, it seems not amiss to direct attention to a passage in Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie's recent article in the Outlook, wherein this eminent scholar states that " as a matter of fact the mobs and the clamour were imaginary." On the contrary " there has been a very warm feeling of friendship for the United States among the Japanese; a feeling of confidence and friendship which has been and may continue to be, if wise counsels prevail, a very valuable asset in the Far East; and the 178 ASIA AT THE DOOR feeling in Japan was rather one of astonishment and pain than of anger." Dr. Francis G. Peabody, of Har- vard, who also happened to be in Japan at the time when " twenty thousand people " were reported to be " surg- ing through the streets of Tokyo clamouring for war with America," testifies to the absurdity of such sen- sational reports. In refutation of a California writer's statement that " the abrupt change in California's atti- tude was but the reflection of the Japanese mailed fist," Dr. Peabody has this to say: " This chronology of events has no correspondence, so far as I know, with facts as seen in Japan. No jingo agitation occurred in Tokyo, to my knowledge, until it became evident that the California legislature and Governor, in defiance of advice from Washington, were determined to discriminate against Japan. The war talk was even then limited to a few irresponsible and self-interested demagogues, who had no influence with the Japanese Government and were never taken seriously by responsible people. To speak of the Japa- nese as provoking the issue, and the Californian as sud- denly roused to resentment by Japanese combativeness, seems to me a complete inversion of the facts. Indeed the most marked feature of public opinion in Japan has been the forbearance with which it has been assumed that the United States would in the end reach a just conclusion." Before concluding this chapter we may be permitted to set forth exact facts with regard to alien landowner- ship in Japan, as the sponsors for the new land law of California repeatedly asserted that in depriving the Japanese of the right of landownership California is doing to the Japanese what Japan is doing to the Ameri- cans and other foreigners. CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO 179 In 1910 Japan adopted a law by virtue of which for- eigners were to be permitted to own land, provided such foreigners came from a country where similar privilege was extended to her subjects. The enforcement of this law has been delayed for various reasons, one of which is the difficulty of applying the reciprocal principle to such countries as the United States which has no uni- form land law. But the point I desire to emphasize is that, even in the absence of the new alien ownership law, the for- eigners in Japan are allowed to enjoy almost all the rights which are enjoyed by the natives. The civil code of Japan, which was adopted in 1898, was drafted after the Digest or Pandect system, and in consequence has many points of similarity, as to both form and prin- ciple, to the civil code of France or the Biirgerliches Gesetzbuch of Germany. It recognizes the rights of possession and ownership, the superficies, the emphy- teusis, the servitus proediorum, the lien, the preferential right, the right of pledge, and the right of mortgage. Of these nine real rights the right of landownership will not generally be conferred upon foreigners until the new alien ownership law takes effect. Of the other rights which are extended to foreigners, I call particular attention to the superficies and the emphyteusis. The superficies is a species of lease, but is not encumbered with any restriction as to its duration. It is attended with almost all the essential features of ownership. The emphyteusis is another kind of lease, the duration of which should not be less than 25 or more than 50 years. Without entering into details, it may reasonably be said that the foreigners allowed to acquire these real rights virtually enjoy the benefits of landownership. There is another important consideration. The civil l8o ASIA AT THE DOOR code of Japan extends the right of ownership to cor- porations organized by foreigners in conformity to the requirements of Japanese laws. To enjoy this privilege it is not necessary that such companies should include any Japanese interest. Moreover, a partnership may consist of any number of persons from two upwards. Suppose a partnership is composed of two persons. In this case one of the duet may hold even as much as 99 per cent, of the whole interest. If a foreigner desires to acquire land under the laws now in operation, it would be comparatively easy for him to attain the end by or- ganizing a company with another person, possibly one of his intimate friends, Japanese or foreigner, and allow- ing the latter only one per cent, of the entire interest. In this way he would have virtual control of the land acquired by the company, for the interest of his partner would be but nominal. Or if he does not care to take this step, he may be naturalized and own land. To recur to the alien land law of 1910. This law is on a par with any similar law enacted upon the prin- ciple of reciprocity by any other nation. It has, how- ever, one provision which I consider unfortunate. I refer to the clause forbidding foreigners to acquire land in the three territories, Formosa, Saghalien, and Hok- kaido. I do not see why the Japanese Government should make such a restriction. Perhaps the authorities fancy that these new territories, being yet only sparsely populated, may become dominated by foreign capital, if alien ownership of land there be not forbidden. To me such apprehension is absurd. Capital is timid and refuses to go where profitable investment is problemat- ical. Throw open all of her territories, and Japan may yet rest assured that foreign capitalists will not be so quixotic as to invade snow-bound Saghalien, explore CALIFORNIA LAND IMBROGLIO l8l semi-tropical Formosa, and go forth into the abode of the hairy Ainu. But even if they would go in droves into the remotest corners of the Mikado's realm in search of land, what of that? It would only add to the wealth and prosperity of the country. It is, however, consol- ing that as a matter of fact the exemption of the three territories from the provisions of the alien ownership law will entail no actual inconvenience to foreigners, who would not care to buy land in such countries, pro- hibition or no prohibition. In addition to the rights of foreigners recognized in the civil code I must mention the so-called " lease-in- perpetuity," which the Europeans and Americans had wrested from the Japanese when the latter were totally inexperienced in diplomatic affairs. In every open port the Western powers caused the Japanese Government to set apart an extensive tract of land for the business and residential purposes of their citizens and subjects. This they called the " settlement," and such indeed it was, for here Japan virtually forfeited the exercise of her sovereign rights. In the settlement the foreigners es- tablished what they pleased to call perpetual lease. In reality this lease was the actual surrender of land by the Japanese Government in favour of the foreign resi- dents, for the latter never paid either rent or tax upon the properties they occupied. When the inequitable old treaties were abrogated in 1898 the settlement was abolished, but the perpetual lease remained and still remains intact. On the land thus leased foreigners erected residences and office buildings valued at millions of dollars, and yet they refuse to pay tax on these buildings. Would any West- ern power tolerate such an obnoxious institution? The more closely we look into the matter the clearer does it l82 ASIA AT THE DOOR appear that the foreigners in Japan are allowed to act much as they please. They are allowed to enjoy almost all the civil rights enjoyed by the native subjects, and in addition they have the benefits of the special con- cessions which they secured from the Japanese when the latter had just awakened from a lethargy of cen- turies. XI IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES "Fair clime! where every season smiles Benignant o'er those blessed isles, Which, seen from far Colonna's height, Make glad the heart that hails the sight, And lend to loneliness delight." THUS did Byron sing of the Grecian isles. Had his eyes beheld the fair islands of the Mid- Pacific in what superb language would he have described their beauty and enchantment! It seems a sacrilege to call such a picturesque group of islands the "melting pot of the races." Yet it is the pride of the residents of Hawaii to have it so called, even though the name might be an outrage to Nature, whose deft hands fashioned these gems of the ocean. The Sandwich Islands, lying in the middle of the Pacific and between 19 and 23 degrees N. latitude, have a most delightful climate, with a temperature averaging 75 degrees through the year, and ranging between the extremes of 60 and 88 degrees. Even when the sun of day is scorching the heat is agreeably tempered by the delicious trade winds which fan the islands at regular intervals. It is indeed a fair clime where every season smiles benignantly. The islands are, save for a few mosquitoes, absolutely free from the disagreeable in- sects and venomous reptiles common to the tropics. No wonder that the Japanese in Hawaii call the islands the " Paradise in the Pacific." 183 l84 ASIA AT THE DOOR But the Sandwich group is not a paradise for the Japanese alone, for here in these islands more than a dozen races live amicably together. Classified roughly these numerous races fall under these nine groups: Races Number in 1910 Hawaiian 26,041 Part Hawaiian 12,506 Portuguese 22,303 Spanish i,990 Porto Rican 4.890 Other Caucasian 14,867 Chinese 21,674 Japanese 79»674 All others 7,964 Total 191,909 With all these divergent ethnic elements, Hawaii has no race problem, as the Americans there proudly tell us. . Perhaps the statement is too sweeping, for there are various problems arising out of the contact of the races. But if the term " race problem " is used in the sense of " race hatred," certainly Hawaii has reason to be proud of its absence. One naturally wonders how Hawaii manages to avoid conflict of races, while California, where Americans are far more firmly intrenched than in Hawaii, is constantly harassed by agitation against Orientals. Hawaii has only 29,183 Caucasians as against 94,348 Chinese and Japanese, whereas there are in California 2,259,672 Caucasians as against 41,356 Japanese and 36,248 Chi- nese. And yet the Americans in the Territory are per- fectly sanguine as to their ability to maintain their civili- zation and ideals unaffected by alien races, and their capacity ultimately to assimilate them and make them loyal citizens of the Republic. For this peculiar com- placency and conviction various circumstances are re- sponsible. IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES 185 The first of these is perhaps the abiding influence of the missionaries who opened the country to civiHzation. In no other part of the non-Caucasian world has modern missionary enterprise effected so much social and po- litical good as in the Sandwich Islands. Beginning with 1822 missionaries poured in from the United States, and through their labours the Hawaiian language was for the first time reduced into writing. Schools were estab- lished, laws were codified, public works were undertaken, and in 1840 King Kamehameha IV was induced to grant a liberal constitution. In all these reforms the missionaries were chiefly instrumental. Ever since that time their influence has been strongly felt among all classes of people and in every phase of life. The ex- ample of charity and love set by the missionaries has in the main been followed by other classes. To-day many of the pioneer missionaries have already passed into the unknown beyond, but their descendants, whether in evangelical work or in the lay world, have not as a rule deviated from the tradition bequeathed by their fathers. Equally significant is the fact that before the advent of Chinese and Japanese the Americans in the islands had long been in contact with dark-skinned people. The native Hawaiians, numbering some 140,000 when found by missionaries, were not only dark-skinned but semi- civilized. Dr. Anderson, one of the first missionaries in the archipelago, went so far as to say that the Hawaiian nation was composed of thieves, drunkards, and debauchees, and the people who were slaves to the sovereign. Compared with such people Chinese and Japanese labourers imported to the islands must have appeared far superior in every respect. The Americans who had befriended even the semi-savage natives had i86 ASIA AT THE DOOR little reason to cherish prejudice against these new- comers from the Orient. Many of the early immigrants from Japan wore the kimono, which to the Americans on the mainland would seem all too exotic, not to say in- decent. But to those who had been accustomed to see the native Hawaiians with almost no dress but what nature bestowed upon them, even the flowing national costume of Nippon seemed a mark of advanced civiliza- tion. The missionaries, properly shocked by the naked- ness of the aborigines, introduced a pecuHar costume, consisting of long skirts and high waists, with no under- wear. Even this simple apparel was detested by these children of nature who would go naked even for decent attendance at church. The time is still in the memory of many Americans when the natives brought on Sunday all their clothing in a bundle to the door of the church where they dressed, and after service doffing their cos- tume, carried it homeward under their arms. Nothing, therefore, which the Orientals did in the islands ap- peared to the American residents either exotic or in- decent. The fact that the American community of Hawaii is essentially an aristocratic community is also no doubt responsible for the absence of race hatred. Besides the missionaries the predominating factor in the American population in the Territory consists of sugar planters. Beneath these men of wealth and luxury there is no class in the social scale of Hawaii but the mass of human atoms employed on their plantations as farm hands. Even the descendants of missionaries are living com- fortably if not luxuriously, on the estates bequeathed by their fathers, many of whom acquired extensive tracts of land under the old regime, when land could be secured for a ridiculously small price. Thus those on the upper IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES 187 rounds of the social ladder could with complacency look at those at its foot, for they felt sure that their supremacy and superiority could never be challenged by the latter. We know that it is exactly such a gulf between the rich and the poor which in democratic countries causes the social war, the conflict between capital and labour. But in a country where the labouring class is completely dominated by the capitalist class and has not yet awak- ened to the consciousness of its potential power, the very gulf serves to strengthen the position of the wealthy class. This is exactly the condition in Hawaii. Those Americans who constitute Hawaii's aristocracy, or plutocracy, if you will, are too confident of their supe- riority to hate those races who are hewing wood and drawing water for them. For people begin to hate other races only when they are doubtful of their own superiority. The Southern aristocrat never hated the negro; it was only those poor whites who were not so sure of their superiority that hated him. When Oriental labour was introduced into the archi- pelago there was no white labour with which it could come in competition. True there were Portuguese who were paid higher wages than Oriental labourers, but the plantations were always suffering from labour famine to such an extent that neither the Japanese nor the Chi- nese ever displaced any Portuguese. This absence of competition among labourers of different races is un- doubtedly one of the facts which account for the amica- ble relations existing among the many races in the Terri- tory. Chinese were the first alien labourers brought to the islands in large numbers. But before the advent of the celestials Caucasian blood had already left its impress on the native Hawaiians. Whether that impress was for l88 ASIA AT THE DOOR the good or for the evil of the natives it is difficult to say. Those Caucasians who came in promiscuous con- tact with Hawaiian women were no doubt mostly de- bauching sailors, whose boast was that they had their wives in every port where their boats stopped. The evil influence of such libertines can readily be understood if we only recall that the natives were the offspring of the animal rather than of the intellectual faculties, gov- erned by traditional customs of a very low order, and leading a life of idleness and enervation, content with what voluntary gifts the bountiful Nature of the tropics might have to offer them. The moral effects of such influence were deplorable enough, but the physical de- generation into which it led the natives was even more alarming. It introduced vices and diseases previously unknown among the Hawaiians. Without ascribing the rapid decrease of the native population solely to the in- jection of such evils, it may well be said that the natives would have been better off, had they been immune from the influence inevitably resulting from Hawaii's geo- graphical position as the rendezvous of innumerable whalers and merchant vessels. After the seafaring Caucasians came the Chinese. With the growth of the sugar industry Hawaii felt the necessity of importing Oriental labour. In 1865 the Royal Government of Hawaii commissioned Dr. William Hillebrand to go to China and obtain labour for planta- tions. The commissioner came back in the autumn of the same year, bringing with him some 200 Chinese. That was the first assisted immigration of Chinese to Hawaii. From that time the Chinese population grew steadily until in 1900 it reached 25,762. From that high water-mark it declined gradually until to-day it numbers 21,674. IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES 189 The most significant thing about the Chinese in Hawaii is that they freely married natives, thus creat- ing a new type of composite race. It is commonly ad- mitted that the children of Chinese-Hawaiian marriages " combine the kindly, generous disposition of the Hawaiian race with the honesty, domesticity, persever- ance, frugality, and business acumen of the Chinese." And yet it would seem highly doubtful whether the in- tellectual quality of the Chinese could be improved by fusing his blood with that of a race to which the world is like a great playground or a dreamland, where no one need toil severely or cherish any aspiration for higher attainments. Intermarriage can result in mutual benefit only when contracted between members of races whose respective civilizations and cultures are on a sim- ilar, if not the same, plane or stage. A race which has an intensely cultivated civilization cannot with advantage fuse with another race which has not yet fully emerged from a primitive state of culture. With the decline of the Chinese population Portu- guese were brought in in increasingly large numbers. Along with the Portuguese Japanese were also imported, to be followed by Porto Ricans, and in recent periods by Filipinos and Russians. From the numerical point of view the future princi- pal races of Hawaii may be the Japanese and Portu- guese, for the fecundity of one is just as great as that of the other. At present there are only 22,303 Portu- guese as against 79,674 Japanese, but hereafter the number of Portuguese and Spanish will increase rapidly, as it is the policy of the Territorial Government to assist in the importation of Portuguese and Spanish in families. This policy has already been practised for the past five years, during which the Government brought 190 ASIA AT THE DOOR 5,288 Spanish and 4,962 Portuguese. The only setback to this policy is that these European immigrants cannot be tied to the plantations, as are the Japanese. While the Japanese are forbidden to migrate from Hawaii to the mainland, there are no such restrictive laws applicable to European immigrants. The result is that many of the Spanish and Portuguese imported at great cost leave the islands at the first convenient opportunity for con- tinental United States, where they can earn higher wages. In spite of this drawback the Spanish and Portu- guese will no doubt increase much more rapidly than hitherto, if the Government continues the present policy. On the other hand the " gentlemen's agreement " con- cluded between Tokyo and Washington in 1907 effec- tively checked Japanese immigration. During the past four years the number of Japanese departures from the islands has been much larger than that of Japanese ar- rivals. The Japanese population in the archipelago would, therefore, decrease as steadily as has the Chi- nese, if it were not for the fact that under the same agreement the Japanese now in the islands are permitted to send for their wives whom they left in Japan. As they realize the advantage of remaining permanently in the Territory they will avail themselves of this right and are making homes with their helpmeets who come from Japan to join them. This cannot but result in in- creasing Hawaiian-born Japanese. At the same time it is highly doubtful that the Japanese population will in- crease at the same rate as the births of Japanese chil- dren. Some of the native-born Japanese will go to Japan, but the more important fact is that these Japa- nese, being American citizens by reason of birth, are free to migrate to continental United States. This privi- lege of citizenship they will undoubtedly utilize freely, IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES IQI as they cannot be expected to be contented with planta- tion labour, when their ambitions are awakened through modern education. And yet one thing seems certain, namely, that the two vital races in the Sandwich Islands will be Portuguese and Japanese. The native Hawaiians are either afflicted by contagious disease or addicted to alcoholism, enervat- ing themselves by consanguinary marriage or destroy- ing themselves by practices born of superstition and igno- rance. The Chinese are mostly old men, while the native-bom Chinese, whether pure-blooded or infused with Hawaiian blood, are not very fecund. On the other hand, the Portuguese are a remarkably thriving race. While in the islands I heard of many Portuguese families blessed with more than ten children. On the whole, the birth-rate among the Portuguese may be even higher than that among the Japanese. This suggests the question : " Will the two races, the Japanese and the Portuguese, be friendly towards each other as both grow in number and influence ? " The question is not easy to answer. But judged from present indications their future relations do not seem to justify pessimism. Either on plantations or in cities there has never been any trouble between the two races. True, there have been but few cases of intermarriage, but this is mainly because women, whether Japanese or Portu- guese, have been comparatively few. As the children of both races are now taught in the same schools and in the common language, the future relations between the Portuguese and Japanese promise to be far more inti- mate. When the present school children come of age intermarriage between the two races will be more fre- quent. The most interesting subject of study relating to 192 ASIA AT THE DOOR Hawaii is its educational institutions, public and private. Until one visits one of these schools and observes boys and girls of all races studying together in classrooms, one cannot fully understand why Hawaii is the " melting pot of the races." Of school children of various races the Japanese are most numerous, numbering, in 191 1, 8,368; the Portuguese come second with 4,214, to be followed by Hawaiian, part-Hawaiian, and Chinese chil- dren in the order named. Including other ingredients in the " melting pot "of public instruction we obtain the following figures: No. school children Nationality in 191 1 Hawaiian 3,453 Part-Hawaiian 2,765 American 459 British 85 German 179 Portuguese 4,214 Scandinavian Japanese 8,368 Chinese 2,471 Porto Rican 510 Korean 274 Other foreigners 974 Total 23,752 It is indeed inspiring to see children of all these differ- ent races freely mingling with one another either in study or in play, with no knowledge of race hatred or prejudice. Here in these small isles God's invisible hands seem to be moulding a harmonious human society out of the divergent races which He created. But the study of school children does not reveal the full meaning of His work, for a glance at the personnel of the teaching force is even more interesting. Here is an army of teachers commanded by Americans but consisting of members of many races — ^Americans, Hawaiians, Chi- IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES 193 nese, Portuguese, part-Hawaiians, and Japanese. Of Chinese and Japanese teachers there are about twenty, divided equally between them. All the Japanese teachers are girls born and educated in Hawaii. If the assimila- bility of the Japanese needs substantiation, no finer ex- ample can be found than these thoroughly Americanized Japanese school teachers in Hawaii. In manner, in bearing, in deportment, there is in them nothing that suggests their sisters in the Mikado's land. In no coun- try where race prejudice prevents sympathetic and equitable treatment of aliens is such complete assimila- tion of an Oriental race possible. With this fact in view the following passage from an essay by President Grif- fiths of Oahu College is of special interest: " The picture of industrious contentment has made many a visitor from California exclaim over the con- trast between the Chinese in Hawaii and the kind that has settled in California. But the man is the same, often coming from the same village and district, and even from the same family ; the difference is that the best has been drawn out in Hawaii, while the sister Common- wealth, by repression and cruelty, has developed his baser qualities. While he has been subject to revilings and physical abuse in California, in Hawaii he has had opportunities for labour and self-improvement, spirit- ually and intellectually, as well as materially and finan- cially. The generous treatment given him by mission- aries in private schools was continued in the public schools under conditions favourable to his best develop- ment. He has lived on terms of pleasant amity, both receiving and giving in return." The good example set by the missionaries in the field of education cannot be too highly appreciated. By the advice of the early missionaries and through their or- 194 ASIA AT THE DOOR ganizing power, the King and Legislature, under the old regime, made provision for the establishment of public schools, which formed the foundation of the present sys- tem of education in the Territory. Besides assisting in the inauguration of public schools, the missionaries established private schools based upon the Christian principle of love and fraternity. Of this enterprise Oahu College and the Mid-Pacific Institute, both at Honolulu, are noble monuments. The Normal and Training School at Hilo, though not a missionary enterprise, is also ani- mated with Christian ideals. The Mid-Pacific Institute, through the efforts of its treasurer, Mr. Theodore Rich- ards, brought several young men from Japan and con- ferred upon them scholarships provided for the specific object of promoting peaceful and friendly relationship between Japan and the United States. With all the educational facilities afforded in the islands, there is much room for improvement in the equipment of schools. The Territorial college is far from what it should be, while the rural schools are not well appointed. In some villages public schools are housed in such small buildings that some of the classes have to meet in buildings belonging to Japanese Chris- tian or Buddhist missions. Most village or plantation schools maintained by the Territory are not as attract- ive in appearance as the schools maintained by the Japa- nese. Such a state of things is extremely deplorable. In every village where schools are needed the Territorial Government should build respectable, even imposing, schoolhouses, which should, in the eyes of immigrants and their children, stand symbols of the advanced civili- zation of the American nation. They should be shrines where children of aliens enter with a sense of reverence. In such villages as those in Hawaii schools are almost the IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES 195 only institution which suggest anything of civiHzation; the rest consists of plantation camps and cane fields. Are the existing rural schools adequate to fulfil the missions peculiar to Hawaii? Flattery itself will have to hesitate to answer this question in the affirmative. What impressions of American civilization would the guileless children of Japanese plantation labourers de- rive from the public schools whose buildings are no better, if not worse, than the Buddhist temples or the private schools maintained by their parents? There seems to be a certain force, and a very power- ful one, arrayed against the promotion of education among the children of plantation hands. When I was in Hilo a plantation manager naively said to me : " It should be the duty of learned men like you to urge the sons of workmen to stay on the plantation after they are through schools." This straightforward remark perhaps indicates the nature of the force which is opposed to pro- viding better educational facilities in the islands. My view of the situation is sustained by the following pas- sage found in the report of a special educational com- mission appointed by the Governor a few years ago: *' In the Territory there is a very powerful element both openly and covertly declaring that too much educa- tion is being given the children of lowly birth." The report also points out the following defects in the existing educational system of Hawaii: 1. The number of available teachers has been far be- low the need. Salaries of teachers have been always inadequate and at times distressingly low. 2. Uncertificated teachers of deficient qualifications have been employed in large numbers. 3. Overcrowding of buildings has been perennial. 4. Per capita cost of education has been kept below 196 ASIA AT THE DOOR that of other progressive communities — below average cost in the United States — notwithstanding the fact that in Hawaii the cost of educating a public school pupil is distributed among ten of population as against a ratio of a little less than one to five in the United States as a whole. 5. Stated in other words, though the men of Hawaii have had less than half the burden of public education that men elsewhere are bearing, yet they have not been willing to bear even this half burden either capably or with entire cheerfulness. It is indeed regrettable that while tens of millions of dollars are being poured into the fortifications of Hawaii its public schools should be permitted to remain in such unsatisfactory conditions. That fortification is obviously directed against Japan, the one nation in the world which will never attack the American territory unless forced to do so by the provocative attitude of our own people. The fortification is superfluous and the money expended will be wasted. How much wiser and more sensible to ex- pend a few million dollars for schools and libraries and thus win the affection and loyalty of the Orientals, in- stead of wasting twenty-million dollars for the construc- tion of forts and naval bases! Apart from such moral significance, there is to be considered the question of un- happy influence of soldiers upon the civilian population. Already the Japanese living in the neighbourhood of the military barracks have begun to complain of the dis- orderly conduct of the troopers. It is consoling to think that this armament scheme of the Federal Government is deeply regretted by the moral leaders of Hawaii. Mr. Theodore Richards expresses the general sentiment of such leaders when he pleads for ^' a million for defence to partly offset twenty million for oflfense," arguing that IN THE MELTING POT OF THE RACES 197 the extensive system of forts and mines against Japa- nese would be far more effectively replaced by a friendly appeal to them on educational and social lines. Such a friendly appeal has just been made. As I write the leading citizens of Hawaii issue an open letter plead- ing for the naturalization of the Japanese. The plea, coming as it does at the moment when both Japan and the Federal Government are at a loss to find the way out of the California land imbroglio, is especially appeal- ing. It contends that the only way to prevent the de- velopment of such embarrassing situations as have been created by the land legislation in California is to grant the Japanese the privilege of naturalization ; it expresses a strong confidence in the assimilability of the Japanese ; it argues that the proverbial patriotism of the Japanese, instead of being an obstacle to their Americanization, would prove an asset to the United States, once they are permitted to swear allegiance to the Republic. The sig- natories to the letter are all prominent Americans in Hawaii representing all fields of activities — educators, pastors, missionaries, editors, bankers, merchants, and men connected with sugar plantations. The leading Americans in Hawaii believe it to be their mission to demonstrate the possibility of fusing diverse races, and in the educational, social, and political crucible to turn them into homogeneous Americans. The task seems herculean. Can it be done? The most thought- ful educators of the Territory answer, emphatically, " Yes. It is being done now. It has been done. Both Chinese and Japanese born and nurtured in Hawaii are among our best citizens.'' At the same time Hawaii must most jealously guard itself against the undesirable influence which must in- evitably result from the increasingly greater influx of 198 ASIA AT THE DOOR immigrants from Russia and Southern Europe. This seems a task no less difficult than the assimilation of Orientals. And yet the Americans in the islands are perfectly confident of their ability to dominate the Terri- tory. That confidence is well expressed by President Griffiths when he says: *' Hawaii at present is absolutely American, not only in its affiliations, but also in the very fibre of its thought. By aggressiveness and cohesion in thought and action, io,ocx) Americans have absolutely dominated a territory with 170,000 people. Immigrants have been assimilated. Through the medium of the pubHc schools, children of foreigners have been made into patriotic sons and daugh- ters of Uncle Sam. The Asiatic has not affected the political or social fabric. He has been in, but not of, the life of the Islands. He has lived side by side with the dominant race, which has not yielded or given way." May the fair isles forever remain the abode of good- will and fraternity, the triumph of the Prince of Peace, .' and the conquest of race prejudice by force of sympathy and justice! XII "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAII" IT has become a fashion among American critics to speak of the " Japanese usurpation " of Hawaii, as if Japan has done something she ought not to have done. The truth is that the islanders of Nippon would never have usurped Hawaii, had they not been invited and coaxed by all means to do so. We are a singular nation, letting big interests bring all sorts of aliens pell- mell, and when these aliens take hold, making our grum- blings heard in a manner not always rational. Let me tell you how the Japanese had to usurp Hawaii, willy- nilly. In 1868 a steamer appeared in Tokyo Bay, and created a sensation among the natives of Nippon with an an- nouncement that she came there to recruit labourers for sugar plantations in Hawaii. The Sunrise Empire had been opened to foreign intercourse only a decade, and the people had known nothing of the plantations in the Mid-Pacific islands. So they took but little interest in the announcement, but a small number, less than fifty, were induced to sail. That was the beginning of the Japanese " invasion " of Hawaii. And yet the men who so earnestly invited Japanese invasion treated the pioneer invaders from the Orient in no generous manner. From the stories told by later im- migrants there is no doubt that these early labourers from the Orient met brutal treatment at the hands of the plan- 199 200 ASIA AT THE DOOR tation overseers. The rumours of inhuman treatment, somewhat exaggerated as they travelled across the ocean, reached the Japanese authorities, who thought it their duty to despatch a vessel to Hawaii and recover the labourers who had been taken there. That ended the prelude to the Japanese usurpation of Hawaii, for the Mikado's Government saw no wisdom in sending immi- grants into a country where they were likely to be sub- jected to maltreatment. But the sugar interests did not give up the scheme so easily. They were simply biding their time to renew negotiations with the Japanese. So in 1884, when six- teen years' interval dimmed the memory of the unhappy experience of the early immigrants, the planters induced the Hawaiian Government to approach the Japanese Government with a view to resuming the importation of Japanese labourers. The Mikado's Government, with due regard to its dignity, declined to enter into any agreement which would make it a sort of labour agency, but consented to connive at the shipment of labourers in a tentative way. That resulted in the introduction of 953 Japanese, — 676 men, 156 women, and 108 children. Again the result was unsatisfactory and the Tokyo Gov- ernment decided to suspend further emigration of its subjects to Hawaii. For the third time the planters, through the Hawaiian Government, made earnest efforts to persuade the Japa- nese Government to open the doors for emigrants to Hawaii. Japan was in no mood to lend ear to the representations of the planters, but the latter 's repeated solicitations finally resulted in a labour convention be- tween the Mikado's and the Hawaiian Government. By that time Japan had perceived the necessity of a formal agreement of a nature to prevent the ill-treatment of "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAH" 20I Japanese labourers upon the plantations. The conven- tion was concluded in March, 1886, and a few more shiploads of Japanese labourers were brought to the islands. And yet news of abuse and inhuman treat- ment did not cease to filter out of the plantations. The Administration at Tokyo, weary of handling the perplex- ing problem, determined to put an end to emigration to Hawaii, and with that end in view declined in 1891 to renew the convention of 1886. By this time, however, many emigration companies had sprung into existence for the purpose of promoting emi- gration to Hawaii. They were subsidized by the plant- ers, and made much profit by squeezing emigrants. Through the combined efforts of the sugar interests and the emigration companies, the Japanese Government was once again coaxed to reenter into a convention with the Hawaiian Kingdom. All these occurred before the annexation of Hawaii by the United States. Japan's object in concluding labour conventions with the Ha- waiian authorities, as may be surmised from the follow- ing provisions found in those instruments, was to safe- guard the equitable and humane treatment of her emi- grant subjects: 1. Each contract was to be signed by the labourer as one party and the Hawaiian Government as the other, at Yokohama, for a period of three years, at a wage of $9 a month and $6 food allowance. The labourer was free to extend this contract for two years more at the time of its expiration. 2. A specified number of Japanese interpreters and physicians were to be employed in behalf of the emi- grants, originally at the expense of the Hawaiian Gov- ernment, but later at the cost of the labourers them- selves. 202 ASIA AT THE DOOR 3. The Government of Hawaii was made responsible for damages due for the cruel treatment of labourers. 4. Twenty-five per cent, of the labourer's wages were I to be deposited with the Hawaiian Government, to be 'paid to the labourer upon the expiration of his contract, I and to draw five per cent, annual interest during the in- I tervening period. 5. The Hawaiian Government was required to return to Japan immigrants who, on account of permanent dis- ability, were unable to earn their own living, even against the will of the labourer, and also all women found plying immoral traffic. The annexation of Hawaii by the United States nat- urally terminated all the labour conventions entered into by the defunct Kingdom, for the Republican Govern- ment could not permit the importation of contract labour. The contract labour system under the old regime, with the resultant convention with the Japanese Government, was both beneficial and harmful. It was beneficial in that it afforded the Japanese Government a responsible party to deal with for the security of the well-being of its emigrant subjects, for there was no doubt that the plantation hands needed protection against abuse. The system was, however, harmful in so far as it prevented the growth of the true idea of emigration among the Japanese. Contract labourers are not immigrants. Un- der the old system the Japanese labourers came to Hawaii to remain there only for three to five years and not to be- come permanent residents of the country. The Mikado's Government, for fear that its emigrant subjects, if per- mitted to remain abroad indefinitely, might become desti- tute or become public charges on account of sickness or accident, required them to return home at the end of their contract terms. This precaution was necessary in dealing «'THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAII" 203 with the labour scheme broached by the Hawaiian planters and the Hawaiian Government, but the very precaution acted to nurture in the bosoms of the emi- grants the mistaken idea that the severance of alle- giance to their native country, or even their permanent residence abroad, was an act of disloyalty. This narrow view the islanders of Nippon have not yet completely discarded, notwithstanding their moral leaders and men of affairs earnestly striving to abolish it. The Japanese, having learned their first lessons in emigration on the plantations in Hawaii, brought to the mainland of America the idea which they had got from those lessons. When contract labour was abolished as the result of the amalgamation of Hawaii with the United States, many Japanese migrated from Hawaii to the mainland, but the intention of such Japanese was to remain in the States only long enough to amass a com- petency. With their experience in foreign affairs wid- ened and their knowledge of conditions abroad becoming clearer, the Japanese have become proportionately more cosmopolitan, bringing about a signal change in their conception of emigration. The Japanese Government itself no longer assumes the paternalistic attitude which it used to assume towards its subjects in Hawaii, as the abolition of contract labour, ensuring fairer treatment of plantation labourers, made such an attitude unnecessary. Indeed the animating spirit among the leading men of Japan is that of cosmopolitanism, and it seems fair to predict that before long this new spirit will completely dissipate the prejudice against expatriation. As an indication of this new tendency recent utter- ances of Hon. Yeitaki, the Japanese Consul-General at Honolulu, are significant. At a banquet tendered in his honour by the Japanese residents in Honolulu in 204 ASIA AT THE DOOR 1912, the Consul-General urged that the Japanese in Hawaii should no longer send money to Japan, but should invest it in property or in some commercial or industrial enterprises, with a view to becoming permanent resi- dents of the Territory. Such an utterance is all the more significant when we recall the earlier attitude of the Japanese authorities towards emigrants. The liberation of the Japanese plantation hands, which was the logical outcome of the abolition of the contract labour system, inevitably resulted in their exodus for the mainland, where wages were higher and conditions of labour much more agreeable. The planters, alarmed by this fresh development of the labour situation, resorted to every means, except the increase of the compensation of labour, to stop the tide of emigration. True, they raised in 1906 the scale of wages, but even the new scale was far lower than what the Japanese labourers were entitled to. The planters persuaded the Territorial Gov- ernment to enact a law imposing an annual fee of five hundred dollars upon each emigration agent recruiting labourers in Hawaii for the mainland employers. In addition they turned for assistance to the Japanese Con- sul-General of the time as well as certain classes of Japanese residents in Honolulu, who were on friendly terms with the planters. An organization called the Central Japanese League was the outcome of this effort. How faithfully this association echoed the will of the planters may be gathered from the following resolution adopted at one of its meetings held in 1904 : " That the League will request the Imperial Japanese Consul- General to issue advice to the Japanese labourers, setting forth in plain language the many advantages of their remaining in the islands; that it will take all necessary measures to induce the Japanese boarding-house keepers "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAII" 205 and others to refrain from giving assistance to those in- tending to sail for the American coast ; that the officials of the local branches of the League be instructed to use their influence in order to prevent the emigration of the labourers; and that it make some arrangement with the steamship companies whereby to check the exodus of Japanese labourers." The assistance of the Japanese Consul-General was also brought directly into play to stem the migration of his fellow-countrymen to the Coast. In May and June, 1904, a notice from the Consul-General, urging Japa- nese not to leave Hawaii for the mainland, was found conspicuously posted throughout the islands, in both English and Japanese. And yet the exodus of Japanese labourers did not diminish to any appreciable extent. The embarrassment caused by the emigration of Japa- nese labourers for continental United States was coupled with the difficulty resulting from what the planters re- proachfully called the " aggressiveness " of these labour- ers. As a matter of fact their aggressiveness was noth- ing but a legitimate and just desire to be treated as any human being should be treated. They wanted decent living quarters as well as a scale of wages commensurate to the services they were rendering. They had been awakening to the sense of human rights, but had been unable to give expression to that sense with effectiveness, as long as they were bound hand and foot by the old system of contract labour. In the annexation of Hawaii by the greatest democratic nation in the world those semi-slave labourers from the Orient saw the light of salvation. With contract labour forbidden, they be- gan to breathe more freely. Their *' aggressiveness " was the immediate result. Upon the heels of the abolition of penal contracts many strikes were reported. This 206 ASIA AT THE DOOR alarmed the planters almost as greatly as the emigration of the Japanese to the mainland. The sugar interests recognized that this new attitude of the Orientals must be tempered by some means, but as in all previous cases they were reluctant to lay the axe at the root of the trouble. Instead of meeting the demands of the labour- ers in a spirit of fairness they tried to alleviate their grievances by means altogether unworthy of their great power and high prestige. The Central Japanese League we have just mentioned had as its object not only the prevention of Japanese exodus from Hawaii but also the conciliation of labour disputes. The League, undoubtedly at the instance of the planters, issued in June, 1904, a circular urging the plantation hands not to resort to strikes as the means of pressing their demands. The subservient nature of the letter is apparent in the following passages taken from that document: " We view with profound regret the late unhappy occurrences akin in nature and appearance to strikes among the members of the Central Japanese League on some of the plantations. Such occurrences cannot fail to injure the reputation of the organization in the eyes of the public, particularly employers of Japanese la- bourers, with whom we earnestly wish to maintain just and cordial relations. " Strikes and all other violent acts, especially for trivial causes, are, in their nature, like the doings of unruly children or like the acts of barbarians, rather than of civilized men. We are absolutely opposed to them." The efforts of the League to lessen the friction be- tween the planters and the Japanese labourers proved no more successful than their voluntary action for the checking of Japanese exodus for the mainland. The "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAH" 207 Japanese plantation labourers obviously preferred to be called " unruly children " or " barbarians " to having their legitimate claims turned down at the hands of an aristocracy, of which the League, they had reason to believe, was but a handy tool. The Japanese Consul- General, who was the President of the League, was made the object of scathing criticism by leaders of the planta- tion labourers. In one instance an attache of the Japa- nese consulate, while addressing a meeting of strikers and urging them to return to work, had a narrow escape from rough handling by the strikers. The Japanese had scented something of freedom at this outpost of a great democracy and began to show in their rough way a desire to be free and independent. To the lay mind the labour policy of the planters was from the beginning a mistaken one. In the earlier days they freely subsidized emigration companies in Japan which acted as recruiting agents for the planters. These subsidies were virtually paid out of the pockets of the Japanese labourers, for the planters naturally tried to meet this special expenditure by cutting the wages of their employes. Had the planters instead of assisting the emigration companies, whose dealings with the pro- spective emigrants were far from honourable, paid the in- dividual labourers what their work was really worth, the Japanese labourers would have come to Hawaii in larger numbers. When the Japanese in Hawaii began to leave for the mainland, the planters again failed to face the problem" squarely, wasting money for means obviously futile to attain the end they had in view. Had they awakened in season to the futility of such a policy the strike of the Japanese plantation hands of 1909, which cost the planters a sum of $2,000,000, would have been avoided. Instead of doing what should have been done, 208 ASIA AT THE DOOR the planting interests attempted to supply deficiencies caused by the departure of Japanese by importing all sorts of ignorant and inferior labourers at enormous cost. And when they saw that even such ignorant inferior labourers would not stay, they induced the Territorial legislature to pass a law containing the following pro- vision : " Any person who, by promise of employment outside the Territory of Hawaii, shall induce, entice, or persuade, or attempt to induce, entice or persuade, or aid or abet in inducing, enticing, or persuading, any servant or labourer who shall have contracted, either orally or in writing, to serve his employer for a specific length of time, to leave the service of said employer during such time, without the consent of said employer, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months or by both such fine and imprisonment." We have referred to the Japanese strike of 1909. That labour conflict is so illustrative of the characteristic methods of the planters in dealing with their employes that it deserves further elucidation. The strike was the most serious labour trouble that ever occurred in Hawaii. Prior to that event the Japa- nese in Hawaii made no organized efforts to press their demand for better treatment. Here and there Japanese plantation hands had gone on strike in a desultory man- ner and utterly without effect. Perhaps this lack of de- termination and organized efforts was largely due to the fact that the Japanese still enjoyed the liberty to leave the plantations to seek better employment on the main- land. Hard as their lot in Hawaii was they could still console themselves in the thought that the way was yet left open for them to escape the predicament. But when "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAH " 209 that way was completely barricaded in 1907 they became desperate. The historic school incident in San Francisco and the agitation of the Japanese-Korean Exclusion League had come to an unforeseen issue, the Adminis- tration at Washington forbidding the Japanese in Hawaii to migrate to continental United States. This regula- tion, depriving the Japanese of the right of travel within the jurisdiction of the Republic, resulted in the bottling up of the Japanese plantation hands in the narrow pre- cincts of the Mid-Pacific islands, while labourers of other nationalities were never subject to such restriction of freedom. This more than anything else was the direct incentive for the strike of 1909. How far the planting interests were responsible for the realization of this re- striction it is difficult to say, but it was common knowl- edge at the time that they assisted in the movement for the prohibition of Japanese emigration from Hawaii for the mainland. The strike began on some of the larger plantations on Oahu Island in May, 1909, and continued through a good part of the following summer. Though there was no cessation of employment outside of that island, the issue was understood to involve all plantations in the Territory. Consequently the direct cost of the strike to the employers, well estimated at $2,000,000, was appor- tioned among all the plantations, while the striking labourers were supported by funds collected from their fellow countrymen still at work in the cane fields of other islands and those residing in the city of Honolulu. The chief demand of the strikers was that they be paid the same wages as the Portuguese and Porto Ricans were paid for exactly the same work. At that time unskilled Caucasian labourers on the plantations were paid $22.50 per month of twenty-six working days. 210 ASIA AT THE DOOR while the Japanese of the same class and doing the same amount of work as the Caucasians were paid only $i8. As no labourer, not even the Japanese, can work in a tropical climate twenty-six days in the month, no un- skilled Japanese labourer could earn more than $13 or $15 per month. Moreover, the Caucasians were given much more comfortable living quarters than were the Japanese. Those Portuguese who had families were given respectable cottages, each having attached to it a lot of an acre or so, while the Japanese had never been accorded such liberal treatment. During the strike many circulars and pamphlets were issued by its leaders telling heart-rending stories of the miserable lot of plantation hands. Some of these stories perhaps should not be taken at their face value, but they certainly indicate the nature of the grievances which forced them to strike. One of such stories runs thus: " A Japanese, forty-eight years of age, has been work- ing on the plantations for fifteen years. He has with him his wife and four children. The price of rice alone consumed by this family foots up to $10 a month. His wife has her hands full in caring for the children and the house. The man has to support his aged mother who remains in Japan." And this man was earning no more than $15 a month. How could he make ends meet when the rice alone cost $10 a month? Without doubt the lot of this poor man was the lot of many another. Many pamphlets relate the unsatisfactory condition of camps assigned to the Japanese. " In Honomu, Hawaii Island," says one of these pamphlets, " the labourers are complaining of the uncleanliness of the camps and of the planter's indifference to sanitary conditions. Some "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAH" 211 of the labourers in this locality built their own houses, as the camps were unfit for them to live in. The camps need immediate improvement; they are unfit for human habitation, both from the moral and sanitary point of view." The chief weakness of the strike, it is said, lay in the fact that it was conducted on a national line for the benefit of the Japanese alone. But viewing the situation impartially, it is difficult to see how the strikers could avoid the course, when their demand was that they be treated as were the labourers of other nationalities, in respect of wages and living quarters. Apart from the question of whether or not the Caucasian labourers were themselves treated squarely, the strikers were willing to work if they were only paid as much daily wages as the Caucasian plantation hands were paid for work of the same amount and nature. The manifesto of the strikers made this point fairly clear. I quote the follow- ing passage with all its picturesque expressions: " The demand for higher wages is based on the effi- ciency of our labouring class. Fair, impartial, and com- petent witnesses all agree in that Japanese plantation labourers accomplish work of the same amount and quality as is done by other labourers in a given time. We believe that the planters will also agree in this. Wages are a reward for services rendered, and a just wage is that which compensates labour to the full value of the service rendered by him. It is an unjust wage to pay the labourer less than the real value of the work performed by him. Here we do not propose to discuss whether the planters could afford to pay more than $22.50 a month to ordinary unskilled labour on the plantations, though we are of the opinion that they can pay far more than that sum. Let us take that sum as 212 ASIA AT THE DOOR a just reward for the labourer from Porto Rico and Portugal. If a labourer comes from Japan and he per- forms the same quantity of work of the same quality within the same period of time as those who hail from the opposite side of the world, what good reason is there to discriminate one against the other? It is not the colour of his skin or hair, or the language he speaks, or manners and customs that grow cane in the field." In condemning the strike the planters asserted that Japanese labourers themselves were by no means so dis- satisfied as to wage war against their employes, and that the strike was started at the instigation of a few educated Japanese who had nothing whatever to do with planta- tion work. We agree that the discontent among the labourers was awakened by outsiders, but that does not in the least affect the justice of the cause for which the leaders of the strike laboured. In no country have the workingmen been aroused to the sense of their inherent rights and been stirred to action without the guidance and leadership of those men whose visions reached be- yond the narrow horizon of the present. Whether the engineers of the Japanese strike had their own axes to grind we cannot say, but that there existed circumstances which justified a strike no one can gainsay. The strike was on the whole a failure. Famishing labourers, with their wives and children stricken with hunger, are no match for modern capitalists organized and disciplined to the highest state of efficiency. More- over, the planters had the authorities on their side and acted much as they pleased in handling the strikers. Although the strikers were so law-abiding and quiet that the citizens of Honolulu called the strike the "gentle- men's strike," their leaders were all arrested and im- "THEY HAVE USURPED HAWAH" 213 prisoned. Mr. Soga, editor of the Nipopu Jiji, the Japa- nese newspaper in Honolulu, which championed the cause of the strikers, was indicted on more than twenty charges from misdemeanour to conspiracy. Without search warrants or any legal right whatsoever, the planters caused the police authorities to break into the offices of the journal and of other strike leaders, and even forced open the safes in search of incriminating evidence. The Chief Justice of the Territory, even while confirming the sentence on Mr. Negoro, one of the strike leaders, to imprisonment, plainly admitted that such illegal acts were perpetrated with impunity. He said : " There were papers taken from the office of the defendant, Negoro, without process of law and forcibly, including corre- spondence. Defendant's claim that the evidence was in- admissible because illegally obtained was not sustained." Whatever the planters may have to say in justification of their side of the case, such misuse of administrative and judiciary authority was deplorable and left an inef- faceable stain on the pages of Hawaiian history. The Territory, as the outpost of American civilization, should have administered its laws and meted out justice in a manner that would win the respect of the many diverse races residing within its jurisdiction not only for the courts and laws but for the American people and their civilization. How can we expect the " inferior " races from the Orient to cherish loyalty and confidence for our government and institutions when the powers of our government are employed in an arbitrary and despotic manner in order to subserve the interests of a few cap- tains of industry? The strike, however, was not entirely without good results. The planters have been improving the living quarters of the plantation labourers and have also raised 214 ASIA AT THE DOOR the scale of wages, though they take special pains to make it appear that such measures have been adopted quite independently of the strike and entirely of their own accord. At present the wages of the Japanese plantation hands vary from $20 to $22. In addition they receive a certain amount of bonus, provided they work twenty days per month for twelve successive months. Including the bonus the monthly earnings of the plantation labourers should range from $22 to $24. Before this new schedule of wages went into effect in 1912, Dr. Clark, of the United States Bureau of Labour, speaking of the wages of plantation labourers in Hawaii, had this to say: "The lowest rate is $18 a month. Though this is nearly 50 per cent, more than was paid in the days of contract labour, it is, at present prices, little more than a subsistence wage for an Oriental with a family. . . . Tropical labourers, even the Orientals, having no winter rest season, do not work every day; and the average actual earnings of these employes prob- ably do not much exceed, if they exceed at all, $15 monthly." What would be the average actual earnings of the Japa- nese hands under the new schedule it is difficult to say, but, judging from what is on paper at any rate, they should be as much as I have above stated. The strike showed one thing with clearness, nclmely, that the Orientals could no longer be relied upon to work for starvation wages. In a vague unconscious way the Oriental " man with the hoe " has caught the spirit of freedom upon which the great Republic is founded. He has begun to realize that he is no longer "A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox.? "THEY HAVE USURPED HAW AH" 215 Here, in the islands of Hawaii, the East has met the West, and the aggressive, restless, nervous Occident is gradually infusing a new spirit into the naturally passive and self-abnegating minds of the Oriental people. Liberty and democracy, in whatever form they may express them- selves, must ultimately conquer the world. XIII THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII SAID an evangelist in Hawaii : " Two years ago, when I came, there came to this camp also a young man recently arrived from Japan. He opened his eyes in astonishment, saying, * I never dreamed that Japanese could come to this ! ' And yet that very young man is to-day wallowing in the mire as hopelessly as any of them, and that will be the history of every young man that comes, unless we can get a hold of him before he gets dragged down." The evangelist was describing the gruesome condition of some of the plantation camps occupied by Japanese hands. It is puzzling, he added, that the people noted, while in their native country, for their orderly habits and artistic tastes could become so utterly indifferent to their surroundings, once they are brought on the plantations. I can, however, well imagine why some of the Japa- nese labourers show such deplorable relapse after their arrival in the islands. Poor as they were, most of them lived in roomy, comfortable houses. The Japanese farm- houses with quaint thatch roofs are to the Western eye more picturesque than inviting, yet most of them con- tain three or four rooms of good size. They have noth- ing that indicates refined taste, but they are comfortable enough, and with a little care can be kept quite respect- able. The floors are fitted with thick well-made mat- tresses covered with mattings, the interior walls are 2l6 THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 217 plastered and papered, and the rooms are partitioned with fusuma, a peculiar sort of doors of wooden frames covered with thick layers of paper, the surface of which is often embellished with drawings or ideographs. Having been accustomed to live in such houses, the Japanese labourers, when placed in dismal camps on the plantations, naturally feel a certain sense of disappoint- ment which easily develops into depression and indif- ference. Most of us know how discouraged we feel when suddenly removed from respectable living-quarters and put into a pretence of a house where putting things in order is a hopeless task. Disorderly habit soon takes hold of us, making us callous to untidiness and in- decency. In the earlier days the plantation camps were merely bunk-houses divided into narrow cells, each containing two sleeping places. In those days even married labour- ers were made to live in such cells, to the detriment of both morals and sanitation. The survivors of such dis- mal bunk-houses are still to be seen occupied by labour- ers on some of the plantations. The unhappy habit acquired by Japanese labourers in the days of contract labour could not easily be reformed. And yet the Japanese plantation hands cannot be said to have been slow in availing themselves of the oppor- tunity offered by the planters of improving their sur- roundings. That they are naturally inclined to be neat and even fastidious in the upkeep of their premises is shown in the following passage from one of Mr. Ray Stannard Baker's illuminating articles on Hawaii : *' Often the manager permits the working people to use a bit of land around their houses, and it is surprising to see, as at Kohuku and Ewa, with what skill and beauty the Japanese have developed their little yards. 2i8 ASIA AT THE DOOR Some of the miniature gardens with little rocky pools and fish and many flowers around about, suggest a corner of old Japan. The only other people who have manifested any similar pride in their surroundings are the Portu- guese, but their improvements run to the practical rather than the artistic." The Ko^huku and Ewa plantations are on Oahu Island. At Waialua, also on the same island, the manager told me that the Japanese paid far greater attention to their houses and gardens than other people. That was also the view expressed to me by the nianagers of plantations on Hawaii Island. Since the Japanese strike of 1909 the planters have been building more delectable shelters for the Japanese hands. And along with this the Ha- waiian Board have been engaged in a vigorous campaign for the betterment of the camps, distributing trees among the Japanese to be planted around their cottages, and offering prizes for the best grown trees. In 1909, when the Board started a campaign for planting trees, 2,000 trees were distributed. The Japanese took immediate interest in the movement and vied with one another to attain the best results in tree culture. Without any at- tempt on the part of the Hawaiian Board to continue the movement for a second year, the Japanese labourers have ordered on their own initiative 1,700 trees. Along with the trees came added interest in flowers and fences and hedges. In some camps the improvement has amounted to a transformation. The Japanese in Hawaii, having mostly come from picturesque villages surrounded by rice fields, know little of communal life in America. When such people are allowed to settle together in their own way the resultant villages, towns, or streets are not in conformity to the plans and ideas on which American villages and towns THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 219 are established. Of this the Japanese quarters of the city of Hilo, Hawaii Island, furnish a most conspicu- ous illustration. The buildings in those quarters are as exotic as they are unsightly. True, this peculiarity is not apparent in the stores and shops facing the business streets, but when you explore the mazes back of the streets you begin to wonder if you are in an American city. Here in the small space of ground enclosed by the block buildings the Japanese put up all manner of ramshackle buildings, utilized as restaurants, bath houses, barber shops, and small stores. Their architectural effects, both interior and exterior, are more Japanese than American. Every inch of ground that could be utilized has been utilized for building purposes, leaving but nar- row passages which thread through the medley of whimsical structures. The whole atmosphere suggests a corner of a small town in the Sunrise Empire. As I walked through these so-called " Japanese alleys " I wondered why the municipal authorities should ever have permitted Japanese, or more probably American landowners, to put up such exotic houses in a manner totally contrary to the usual methods of city-building in America. I could not see why there should not be building and sanitary laws which would prevent the ap- pearance of such quarters. Upon inquiry I found out that the Board of Supervisors of the city was composed mostly, almost exclusively, of native Hawaiians, whose sluggishness and inaction are proverbial. As long as local governments are left in the hands of Hawaiians, it is next to impossible to infuse civic pride into the minds of the aliens living under such governments. If one drives through the city of Hilo one realizes that it is no wonder that the Japanese built such strange houses. Rather does he wonder how they avoided establishing 220 ASIA AT THE DOOR 4 far more outlandish quarters. For the whole city seems to have been built without preconceived plan, letting the streets run where they may, and allowing the houses to rear their roofs where their whimsical builders would have them. Most streets, except those of the business section, have no sidewalks, and even where walks are provided they abruptly degenerate into impassable mud- holes and ruts. Save for the pretentious residences occupied by wealthy Americans interested in the sugar industry or banking business, the whole city suggests the Orient rather than the Occident. Small wonder that the Japanese seem to feel perfectly at home in Hilo. What the Japanese in Hawaii need is the discreet guidance and wise counsel of public-spirited American statesmen, publicists, and moral leaders. Most of all, they need enlightened legislators and efficient officials. Once the way is shown there is no doubt that they will strive to follow it. The Japanese came to Hawaii not on their own initiative but at the urgent solicitation of the interests which made the life of the archipelago what it is. It is, therefore, incumbent upon Hawaii to guide them and assist them towards higher civilization and greater well-being. Instead of giving them this much- needed guidance, the administrators of Hawaii are per- mitting the Japanese in some places to build houses and lay thoroughfares in a manner contrary to American ideas. Worse still, they are even leaning upon the Japa- nese, as in the case of public school buildings, which I have discussed in the preceding chapter. If Hawaii is ever to be Orientalized in the unfortunate sense of the word, much of the blame must be shouldered by those Americans who are at the helm in the administration of the islands. With all the keen appreciation of what Hawaii has THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 221 done for the Japanese, we must admit that in some re- spects American tutorage in Hawaii for the Japanese has not been what it should have been. The Japanese are accused of underselling American merchants and under- bidding American contractors, but who was it that first taught the Japanese to undersell their labour? Ever since their advent in the islands they have been made to work for less wages than were paid Caucasian labourers for exactly the same amount and the same kind of work. It was only after the great strike of 1909 that the Japa- nese labourers began to be accorded anything like fair treatment. Thus were the Japanese initiated in the art of competition and of undercutting price. Is it any won- der that they essayed to apply that art in their dealings with Caucasian merchants and mechanics? Yet the procession of skilled Caucasian labourers back to the States cannot wholly be attributed to Japanese competition. It is chiefly the result of the depression which Hawaii has felt for several years on account of the reaction from the '* boom " that marked the early period following annexation. It was not only the artisans but also merchants who suffered from the effects of this depression. Upon the heels of annexation Americans and American money poured into the islands. Many contracts were let for public buildings, while private residences and commercial establishments were building everywhere. Carpenters and plumbers came to the islands in large numbers, and clothing houses and other miscellaneous stores were established in much larger numbers than would have been warranted under the normal condition of the Territory.* For a few years the country was bustling with business and traffic, and in that moment of excitement people forgot that they were living in an abnormal period. The excitement was des- 222 ASIA AT THE DOOR tined to pass. The necessary buildings were soon com- pleted, and with their completion many skilled labourers from the States were forced to remain idle or go back to the mainland. A general depression soon followed, and some of the traders found it difficult to hold their own. This depression no doubt added to the acuteness of Oriental competition. When business is brisk and de- mand for labour is great, competition, whatever source it may come from, is not so keenly felt nor so quickly observed as when trade is falling off with the corre- sponding decrease of demand for labour. Whatever the immediate cause of their success, there is no doubt that the Japanese are gradually forging ahead in various directions. In the building trade they are fast becoming a factor; there are quite a few Japa- nese plumbers in Honolulu; they have almost monopo- lized the fishing industry which was formerly exclusively carried on by the Hawaiians. In Honolulu hack-drivers are mostly Japanese, while a few enterprising Japanese have begun to take an interest in the taxicab business. In Honolulu some of the dry goods, clothing, and hard- ware stores owned by Japanese are becoming quite re- spectable, and in Hilo I saw a Japanese merchant erect- ing a building which when completed promised to be one of the largest business buildings in the city. On the plantations the Japanese are not only unskilled labourers but fill highly responsible positions. In the sugar mills, too, they are employed in important places. Their in- dustry is prodigious and their versatility wonderful. Perhaps this characteristic of the Japanese is largely responsible for their success. It is a peculiar phenomenon that while the Honolulu branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank of Japan seldom, if ever, advances money for Japanese enterprise, agri- THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 223 cultural or industrial, American banks, especially the Bishop Bank and the National Bank of Hilo, are very liberal in dealing with the Japanese. Once adequate security is furnished, these banks are always willing to advance funds to Japanese merchants. It seems to be the general opinion among bankers that as debtors the Japanese are as honourable as any other people. Both in Honolulu and Hilo I was struck with the unusual politeness shown me by their employes, an experience which I had seldom had in dealing with banks on the Pacific Coast. American merchants and storekeepers in Hawaii are also far more courteous to the Japanese than those in the States. As I put up at various hotels, visited various restaurants, purchased of different stores, I realized more forcibly than ever that Hawaii's boast that it had no race problem was not meaningless. Much has been said about the low standard of living prevailing among the Japanese. All things considered, however, the Japanese in Hawaii expend, I am certain, more liberally than any other people of the corresponding class. The Japanese do not eat rice grown in Hawaii, but import this staple from Japan. This is not for any patriotic or sentimental reason, but because the Japanese know that Hawaiian rice is inferior in quality. Including the cost of transportation and customs duties, Japanese rice is far more costly than Hawaiian rice, yet the Japanese ungrudgingly pay the high price simply to satisfy their palates. Up to a few years ago the Japanese plantation hands wore even on holidays only coarse stiff shoes made by Chinese cobblers in Honolulu; to-day they all wear high-priced shoes made in the States. While travelling on the lines of the Oahu Railway on Thanksgiving Day, 19 12, I saw at various stations and on the train many Japanese women, obviously wives of plantation labourers. 224 ASIA AT THE DOOR all dressed in national robes of their native country made of costly silk evidently imported from Japan. Their hus- bands, too, were clad in shining new suits cut in the latest style in New York or Chicago. In comparison with their neat appearance and their quiet, unobtrusive manner, the labourers of other races, whom I also found on the same train, seemed to me all the more coarse and unkempt. One of these uncouth fellows drew a bottle of whiskey from his trouser pocket, and taking a sip directly from it, passed it on to his fellow travellers. As I watched them jabber in unknown tongues and with lively gesture as if there were nobody else in the car, I was struck with a strange sensation. When we tell what the Japanese expend for what they wear and eat, we tell only the beginning of the story of their cost of living, for they expend for education and religious purposes more liberally than other people. I was told that a well-to-do Japanese merchant in Hono- lulu has to contribute at least $20 per month for such purposes. The burden of plantation labourers, though not so heavy, is heavy enough for their earning capacities. In one of the English pamphlets issued on behalf of the Japanese strike of 1909 I find the following statement couched in picturesque language: " These institutions [churches and schools] are not unnecessary luxuries. They are just as important as bread and butter in the Ufe of man. They will give the planter an intelligent, conscientious, and God-fearing labour, instead of lazy, unscrupulous, selfish, and savage labour. The Japanese maintain at the present time 59 churches and missions with 61 ministers and preachers. Of these 33 are of Buddhist missions, and 26 Christian. These places of worship have remarkably increased in recent years. Down to 1903 there were only 11 Christian THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 225 missions, but since that year 10 were added. The Bud- dhist missions are of recent growth. The first mission was estabUshed in 1868, and within the last ten years they have maintained only 21, chapels, but since then they have added 10 more. Christians do not bear, as a gen- eral rule, the expenses of constructing a church or preaching place, they bearing only the ordinary expenses in maintaining the establishment, which are between $30 and $50 per month for one place. " But the Buddhists bear all expenses themselves. In the construction of their churches and places of worship the Buddhists have expended some $icx),ooo, and they are bearing average current expenses of $50 per month in each place. With the increase of women and children, these churches and chapels have to be enlarged in ca- pacity and increased many fold in number and improved in quality. " Religion relates to the relation between God and man, and is, in one sense, a private matter. But no Christian employer can be blind to the religious demands of his employes. The present and prospective needs for adequate and decent places of worship for the plantation labourers are something which should be provided for in determining the wages of the labourers. " As to the schools, the Japanese now maintain 68 schools, with a teaching force of 80. They are both denominational and non-denominational. These schools now have 4,631 pupils. Taking annual expense of teach- ing one pupil in these schools at $1, the Japanese labour- ers are now bearing a burden of $70,000 per annum for education of their children. These schools, like their churches and Buddhist temples, must be improved, en- larged, and increased, in the very near future. This is absolutely necessary in view of the rapid increase of 226 ASIA AT THE DOOR children and also of the necessity to raise the standard of life of the labourers." This brings us to an enquiry into the important ques- tion of education of Japanese children. In a previous chapter I have discussed at length the Japanese schools on the Pacific Coast, their nature, their missions, their raison d'etre. The Japanese schools in Hawaii are of greater significance because of their larger number and larger attendance. The first Japanese school in Hawaii was established in 1895. In 1904 there were 44 schools, and at the time of the strike of 1909 the number increased to 68. At present there are 80 schools. Like the Japa- nese schools on the Pacific Coast these schools are meant merely to supplement the public schools, not to replace or supersede them. Children come to these schools in the afternoon after their regular hours in the public schools are over. Some of them are maintained by Bud- dhists, a few by Christian missions, while others are non- sectarian. In the back country I found some of the Japanese schools housed in much better buildings than the public schools. The maintenance of such schools entails no small burden on the Japanese labourers. Yet to them " schools are as important as bread and butter," and they ungrudgingly bear the burden even at the sacrifice of their own comfort. As Mr. Ray Stannard Baker observes, the " Japanese in Hawaii have a passion for education and send their young people to school un- til they are thoroughly prepared." Contrary to this prac- tice among the Japanese, the Portuguese plantation la- bourers take their children out of the schools very early and send them into the fields. The peculiar condition of life in Hawaii perhaps necessitates the maintenance of such afternoon schools. THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 227 On the plantations there is virtually no home where children can be cared for and brought up in the proper manner. Camp life does not create a wholesome atmos- phere for children. Moreover, most Japanese women work in the fields to supplement the meagre earnings of their husbands. When, therefore, the public schools close in the afternoon, the Japanese children have no- where to go and nobody to look after them. If they were allowed to shift for themselves they would acquire no desirable habits and develop no good qualities. For the sake of their wholesome growth, mentally and morally, it seems desirable and even imperative that there should be some institutions where these children of the plantation hands could be kept engaged in light studies and wholesome pastime, until their parents come home from the fields. If the Japanese women, like their sisters from Portugal, were to remain at home, the boys and girls would have to be taken out of the schools be- fore they are fully trained, and be sent into the fields, as are the Portuguese boys and girls. This the Japanese will never do until they have exhausted all means to pro- vide for the proper schooling of their children. The question arises : " Will not the Japanese schools interfere with the assimilation of the Japanese?" This I have already discussed in the chapter on the Ameri- canization of the Japanese; here I shall set forth what the Americans in Hawaii think about the ques- tion. The leniency and broad-mindedness with which the American residents of Hawaii view this question are re- markable. The moral and religious leaders in the islands have no objection whatever to the Japanese schools. On the contrary they unreservedly recognize the need for such institutions, believing that Japanese children should 228 ASIA AT THE DOOR know something of the language and history of the coun- try whence their parents came. When one hears such views unhesitatingly expressed by Americans one is deeply impressed with the true cosmopolitanism of Hawaii. I found among them quite a few who were even well versed in the Japanese language. The educators of Hawaii, too, view the Japanese school question much in the same light as do the moral and religious leaders. The only exception they make is that work in the Japa- nese schools may overtax the mental and physical ca- pacity of the children who have also to attend the public schools. So far as the primary grades are concerned, they admit, such apprehension may be unnecessary, but in the high school the extra study in the Japanese school is undoubtedly an overload. My observation also led me to believe that the curriculum both in the primary and high schools was in many cases too heavy. The planting interests view the educational question in a slightly different light. I hardly think that the plantation managers, with few exceptions, are seriously concerned with the moral and mental training of the children of their employes. All they care is to make conditions so agreeable as to bind the Japanese to the plantations. They know that without schools the Japanese would not be satisfied. So they have been contributing rather liberally towards the educational funds of the Japanese. The Planters' Association at Honolulu gives $12,000 every year, while individual plantations also donate small sums to individual schools. The contribution from the Planters' Association seems a goodly sum, but when dis- tributed among the eighty schools it dwindles into com- parative insignificance. Contrary to the attitude of the civilians, the militarists in Hawaii see a " menace " in the Japanese schools. To THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 229 them these schools are there to foster the loyalty of the Japanese children to their mother country. In their eyes, all Japanese, whether plantation hands or mer- chants, are trained soldiers ready to take up arms for the Mikado the moment America and Japan fall out. They believe, or pretend to believe, that the Japanese came to Hawaii with the determination to absorb the islands, and that the Japanese schools are but a part of that sinister scheme. Their jealous and suspicious atti- tude was conspicuously shown when they raised a hue and cry against a Japanese young lady who was selected to read the Declaration of Independence in celebration of Fourth of July at Honolulu a few years ago. " What a scandal," they muttered, **to let a Jap girl read the sacred document." But the protest of the militarists failed to supersede the decision of the celebration com- mittee, consisting of the leading American residents of Honolulu, and the Japanese girl was permitted to recite the Declaration. Closely connected with the educational question is the question of Buddhist activities. Not only have the Bud- dhists established temples in cities and on plantations, but they have also established many schools throughout the archipelago. In travelling through the back country by train the first thing one notices from the car is the Buddhist temple rearing its quaint roof above the huts of plantation labourers. With the exception of the resi- dences occupied by plantation managers these houses of worship are the only structures which break the mo- notony of the vast cane fields dotted here and there with clusters of camp houses. In comparison with the dismal structures surrounding them, these temples pre- sent an imposing appearance. Small wonder that the Japanese labourers point to them with a sense of pride. 230 ASIA AT THE DOOR Even the natives and Portuguese labourers lOok upon them as a mark of superior civilization. The attitude of Christian workers in Hawaii towards Buddhist propaganda is characterized with broad- mindedness and leniency. They unreservedly admit that the Buddhist has the right to propagate his doctrines in Hawaii just as the Christian has the right to preach the Gospel in Japan. The only apprehension they enter- tain is that some of the Buddhist priests and the teachers of Buddhist schools are inclined to inspire loyalty to Japan as a means of propagating Buddhism. How far this apprehension is true I am not ready to determine, but that it is not without foundation no one can gainsay. The Buddhist schools seem to be one of the means of propagating Buddhism. Aggressive and enterprising, the Buddhist workers are often a disturbing element in plantation camps. They would go forth and establish a school where there is already a non-religious school, and where no other school is needed. Trouble immediately begins, for the Buddhists resort to all means in trying to take pupils out of the non-religious school and enroll them in their own. When I was in Hawaii Island the Japanese Vice-Consul at Honolulu was making a tour of the island with a view to finding the way out of this perennial trouble. It was the Vice-Consul's opinion that where there was school trouble the blame was usually to be placed at the door of the Buddhists. The Japanese Consul-General, upon receipt of the Vice-Consul's re- ports, formulated a plan to organize an education com- mittee by which all the Japanese schools in the islands were to be supervised. The committee was to consist of leading Japanese business men, editors, teachers, and Christians and Buddhists, as well as a few Americans in Honolulu. The committee thus organized was to be THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 231 absolutely non-sectarian, and the schools under its super- vision were likewise to be non-sectarian. Such a plan would seem to me the only feasible one which would re- move the present school troubles. At this writing, how- ever, the plan is not yet put into execution. In spite of the large number of adherents the Bud- dhists claim to possess in the islands it is highly doubt- ful if they are achieving much in the world of the spirit. It seems to be the universal opinion among the Japanese of the educated class that the Buddhist priests are in Ha- waii mainly for their own material gain. They seem to be concerned chiefly with the collection of offerings from their parishioners. If a priest stays in Hawaii four or five years, he usually amasses what he considers a competence. Unlike American missionaries in the for- eign fields these Buddhist priests are not paid from their headquarters in Japan. All Buddhist missions are self-supporting, and the priests in charge of them get what stipend they can make out of the votive offerings of their parishoners. In Hawaii I noticed each priest had five or six camps in his charge. In the evening he goes out on a pony and pays a visit to the camp, where he says a few comforting words to the labourers and recites the stereotyped sutras, and receives offerings from his pious audience. As he visits all camps alter- nately, one each evening, his evenings are pretty well occupied, repeating sermons and collecting offerings. That the Japanese people are intensely religious there is no room to doubt, but that they are in urgent need of sound guidance is also evident. The corruption of the Bud- dhist hierarchy in Japan is proverbial. The Hongwan-ji temple at Kyoto is the hotbed of financial troubles and factional feuds. Water cannot rise above its source, and it is small wonder that the Buddhist priests, with a 232 ASIA AT THE DOOR few notable exceptions, are men without inspiration or ideals. It is very well for Hongwan-ji to send priests abroad, but unless its system and methods of propaganda are completely reformed, the presence of such priests in such countries as Hawaii can do more harm than good. The erecting of temples and the maintenance of the priests entail no small financial burden on the plantation hands. That the burden is borne cheerfully and will- ingly is no justification of the imposition. Up to the time of the Japanese strike of 1909 the Japanese labour- ers had already contributed $100,000 for the erection of Buddhist temples alone. When I was in Hawaii in 1912 the Buddhists had just decided to build a new temple at Honolulu at a cost of $100,000. Not only have the Japanese in Hawaii to bear such heavy burdens, but they are even required to make occasional contributions to Hongwan-ji at Kyoto. A few years ago a special emis- sary of Hongwan-ji came to Hawaii and collected $50,- 000 for a festival which was to be held in Kyoto. The emissary, encouraged by his unexpected success in Hawaii, came to California with the intention of collect- ing more contributions from the Japanese there. But here he met his Waterloo, for the Japanese on the Coast proved far more clear-sighted and well-informed than their brothers in Hawaii. The Japanese newspapers there raised a storm of protest against him, and the envoy had to leave San Francisco under very awkward circumstances. On the mainland, too, the Christians have strong rivals in Buddhists. In Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Fresno, and Los Angeles, the Buddhists have established respect- able headquarters which are used both as places of wor- ship and as dormitories for Japanese young men. In San Francisco they are also planning to erect a building THE JAPANESE IN HAWAII 233 much larger than those in the other cities. If the pur- pose of the Buddhists were to propagate the teachings of Buddha, pure and simple, the American people, I am sure, would have little to complain of. Much to our regret, we find some of the Buddhist priests are inclined to link Buddhism with patriotism to Japan, knowing that this method of propaganda appeals to the ignorant masses. I do not see why the Japanese Buddhists could not be broad-minded enough, and clear-sighted enough, to see the folly of such a policy. Out of my sincere respect for their character and ideals I prefer to believe that the Buddhist leaders themselves are absolutely inno- cent, and positively disapprove such unscrupulous means as have been resorted to by their followers. It is also re- grettable that the Buddhists keep aloof from the Chris- tians and apparently have no desire to cooperate with them. Perhaps the Christians themselves are to blame. Both Christianity and Buddhism, however different from each other in essential teachings, aim at the promotion of the spiritual well-being of humanity. In the field of practical social reform, therefore, they ought to be co- workers, not antagonists. To bring this about both Christians and Buddhists must first of all abandon their narrow views of religion. XIV THE JAPANESE IN CANADA IT was more than forty years ago. A Japanese lad, so the story runs, was building a boat at a hamlet of fisherfolk not far from Nagasaki, the greatest port in Southern Japan. Now and then the young ship- wright stopped plying his tools, and seemed absorbed in meditation. At last he muttered, " I must go ! " and with these words he left his work. Why had he to go? — And where? The Mikado's Empire, having just been opened to foreign intercourse, was animated with an aspiration for higher knowledge and advanced arts. Even the young boat-builder could not escape the spirit of the times. He had seen in the harbour of Nagasaki many a gigantic vessel from Europe and America, of which the populace sang in a sense of mingled awe and curiosity: "Thro' a black night of cloud and rain, The Black Ship plies her way — An alien thing of evil mien — Across the waters grey. Down in her hold, there labour men Of jet black visage dread; While fair of face, stand by her guns Grim hundreds clad in red. With cheeks half draped in shaggy beards, Their glance fixed on the wave, They seek our sun-land at the word Of captain owlish-grave. 234 THE JAPANESE IN CANADA 235 While loud they come — the boom of drums And songs in strange uproar; And now with flesh and herb in store, They turn toward the Western shore. And slowly floating onward go, These Black Ships wave-tossed to and fro." The imposing presence of the " Black Ship " inspired the young shipwright with an idea to go to the country whence she came and learn how those fair-visaged men with " shaggy beards " built such floating castles of the ocean. So Nagano — for such was his name — wended his way to Nagasaki, and there seeing the captain of one of the Black Ships, begged to be taken where the vessel came. The captain consented, and the steamer, a sort of tramp vessel, left Nagasaki with Nagano aboard. An uneducated man, Nagano imagined that any coun- try on the other side of the Pacific would be a great in- dustrial country, manufacturing powerful engines and building mammoth vessels. He did not know that San Francisco was then an infant city, and that Seattle and Vancouver were scarcely on the map. It happened that Nagano's steamer after a tedious voyage cast anchor at a lonely hamlet on the west coast of Canada. Imagine his disappointment! There was no bustling factory, no hammering traffic, no thriving stores. Where was he to study the art of ship-building? Nagano was the first Japanese who trod the shores of British Columbia. At the time of his landing there were but a handful of white men in New Westminster and vicinity. The straggling village was hemmed in by thick primeval forests of cedar and hemlock. The only traffic which broke the sylvan solitudes was a sawmill operated by a Britirher named Alexander. Indians were 236 ASIA AT THE DOOR roaming about. The railroad had not yet brought the white man's civilization across the Rockies. No one fancied the country about that solitary sawmill was destined to become the Pacific metropolis of the Do- minion. Had Nagano been a man of education and foresight, he would have secured a large tract of land, for the authorities of New Westminster were giving land to any- body almost for the asking. An ignorant carpenter, he was contented to work for wages which he found to be almost fabulous in comparison with what he was used to earn at home. While most of his fellow pioneers from Europe or the United States have since amassed large fortunes by landholdings, Nagano is to-day only the proprietor of a couple of modest stores in Victoria. For several years Nagano was a lone Japanese in British Columbia. With the development of the fishery industry, however, Japanese began to filter in in small numbers. Soon the canning interests found the Japanese fishermen unequalled as salmon catchers. The Chinese were also brought in, but they were more useful in can- ning than in fishing. Thus the demand for Japanese labour on the Fraser River grew with phenomenal rapidity, until in 1900 the Japanese Fishermen's Asso- ciation of the Fraser River had 3,419 members. The report of the Association shows a considerable fluctuation in its membership. Here are the figures for fourteen years from 1900 to 1913: 1900 3,419 1907 1,018 1901 3471 1908 984 1902 1,160 1909 1,569 1903 1,860 1910 1,100 1904 883 1911 942 1905 1,252 1912 954 1906 584 1913 1,535 THE JAPANESE IN CANADA 237 There are also a considerable number of Japanese operating on the Skeena and the Nass. Including these the present number of Japanese fishermen in British Co- lumbia probably is not less than 2,500. The Japanese fishermen are to the Province what the Japanese planta- tion hands are to Hawaii. In spite of all the hue and cry raised by the labour unions against the Japanese, British Columbia is constrained to admit that no other fishermen as efficient are available. The Indians are dull and indolent, while most Caucasians dislike or are ill- adapted to salmon fishing. In 19 10 there were in British Columbia 1,270 boats employed in salmon fishing. Of these the Japanese fishermen owned 793, while the Caucasians and Indians had 315 and 162 respect- ively. Along with timber, salmon is a principal product of British Columbia. The Fraser, the Skeena, the Nass, as well as other rivers and inlets, annually produce 940,000 cases of canned salmon, each case containing twenty- four one-pound cans. The Fraser River, the greatest of fishing-grounds in the Province, produced in 191 1 some 301,000 cases. Here the Japanese fishermen num- ber from 1,000 to 1,500, operating more than 500 boats, all fitted with gasoline engines. The boats and nets be- longing to the Japanese operating on the Fraser alone are valued at half a million dollars. Steveston, not far from Vancouver, is the rendezvous of all fisherfolk on this great stream. Here the Japanese have established two or three shipyards where small fishing craft, five tons in capacity and thirty feet in length, are turned out both for Japanese and other fishermen. There are also a well-appointed Japanese hospital, a Japanese school, a Japanese Christian church, and a number of Japanese stores and shops. The hospital, superintended by an 238 ASIA AT THE DOOR English physician, is a boon for fisherfolk of all races on the Fraser. Unlike his brothers on the Hawaiian plantations, the Japanese fisherman is quite independent. He is not bound by contract to the cannery. He receives no wages from the cannery. On the contrary, he owns his boat and nets, and catches salmon on his own account. The only relation between him and the cannery is that of a seller and buyer. The cannery, however, provides living quarters for the fishermen. I found most of such quar- ters far less attractive and sanitary than the camp-houses on the plantations in Hawaii ; but inasmuch as the Japa- nese fishermen are not employes of the cannery they have no right to demand the improvement of their living quarters. It should be their own duty to expend reason- able sums for the erection of more sanitary and decent houses. Not only do the Japanese catch salmon for the can- neries, but they have also created new industries in fishery which promise in time to become no small source of wealth for the Province. One such industry is the salting of dog-salmon. Before the Japanese began to utilize them for export to Japan and China, salmon of this species had been wasted, as no cannery cared to use them. During the past several years the annual export of salted salmon has ranged from 3,000 to 7,000 tons. Another industry created by the Japanese is herring salting. Thirty miles from the city of Vancouver is Nanaimo Bay, embraced by the jutting promontories of Vancouver Island. The bay abounds in herring, but the Canadians never attempted to utilize them for com- mercial purposes until the Japanese began to salt them some ten years ago. So rapidly has this new industry THE JAPANESE IN CANADA 239 developed that Nanaimo, which used to be called the Coal City on account of the coal mines in the vicinity, is now called the Herring City. The Nanaimo Herald estimates the capital invested by the Japanese in this enterprise at $220,000. Salted herring are exported to Japan, Korea, Manchuria, and China. Up to a few years ago Japan was the distributing centre for Canadian herring for other Oriental countries. In 1910, however, Mr. Jackson, Canada's trade agent at Shanghai, reported that the direct export of herring from British Columbia to the Chinese marts of Shanghai and Hong-Kong had just begun. He added that of all the marine products of Canada finding their way to China salted herring was the most important. At present the annual export of Canadian herring to Oriental countries is estimated at 30,000 tons. As the Chinese are great consumers of dried and salted fish this trade is bound to increase. Travelling in the wooded country of British Columbia, one often hears the sharp whistle of an engine breaking the still air of the forest. It is the signal whistle of the " logging donkey." The donkey is a hoisting engine of heavy design and is used in bringing the logs into driv- able waters or more frequently to railroads, by dragging them on the ground with wire cables. A more powerful device is the steam-skidder, which handles immense trees weighing fifteen or twenty tons as if they were straws. In the logging industry the Japanese have also become a factor. At present Japanese bosses and labourers en- gaged in this work number about 1,000. The bosses obtain logging contracts from the lumber companies which own timber lands. In the sawmills in the vicinity of Van- couver, too, the Japanese are employed to a considerable extent. Including some 400 women and children, there are some 1,500 Japanese mill hands. Unskilled hands ^ 240 ASIA AT THE DOOR receive daily wages varying from $1.75 to $2.00 v^hile skilled mechanics get $2.50 per day. Apart from fishery, logging, and lumbering there is no industry in which the Japanese are engaged in large numbers, either as labourers or as capitalists. A body of Japanese worked what was supposed to be a copper- mine, on an island off British Columbia, but this enter- prise has proved a total failure, notwithstanding an alarmist's statement that one small syndicate of Japa- nese now " possesses a copper-mine worth nearly a million pounds." The present Japanese population in Canada probably does not exceed 12,000, of whom al- most ninety per cent, are in British Columbia. This population may be roughly classified by occupation as follows : Fishery 2,500 Logging 1,000 Sawmill 1,500 Agriculture 500 Miscellaneous labourers l,50O Merchants and employes 3,000 Women and children 2,000 In agriculture the Japanese are yet a negligible quan- tity, although the Dominion extends to them the privi- lege of taking up homesteads. Perhaps this is mainly due to the fact that fishery and logging have been more immediately remunerative than farming. Moreover, government lands in good locations are already monop- olized by railway companies or other private interests and are held for sale at exorbitant prices. Those still available for farmers of small means are so inconveni- ently situated that few care to develop them. Nevertheless the manifest tendency among the Japa- nese is to take more and more to farming. In British Columbia, especially in the vicinity of Vancouver and THE JAPANESE IN CANADA 241 Victoria, quite a few Japanese are engaged in gardening and fruit-growing. Their holdings are small, ranging, except in a few cases, from five to twenty acres. On the other side of the Rockies, too, a few enterprising Japa- nese have begun to work grain farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan, but the total acreage of such farms does not yet exceed 2,000. Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, with a total area of 878,715 square miles, and with their natural resources but little devel- oped, await the immigration of industrious, intelligent, honest aliens, who do not seek easy money and a gentle- man's job, but are willing to toil and to live on the sweat of their brows. Of the total Japanese population in Canada about one-third live in cities. Vancouver has some 3,500, Victoria, 300, and even Dawson in the far north has about 100 Japanese. About a hundred more are scat- tered in various cities east of the Rockies. In Vancouver Powell Street is the centre of the Japa- nese quarters. At first glance that street presents no exotic aspect. Neat stores and shops, European in ap- pearance, line a well paved street provided with broad cement sidewalks. With clanging street cars running through it, the Japanese street is as bustling and hustling as any business street in the strenuous Occident. As you walk down the street or ride through it in a street car, you hardly notice where the European section con- verges with the Japanese section. True, the stores are mostly small and often meagre, but they have no untidy appearance which so frequently mars the stores in " for- eign" quarters. When I was in Vancouver last year a large four-story building was rearing its roof in the heart of the Japanese section of Powell Street. It was being built by Mr. Tamura, the wealthiest Japanese merchant 242 ASIA AT THE DOOR in Vancouver, who has largely been instrumental in de- veloping trade between Japan and British Columbia. That building, which was to be used as a hotel, would do credit to any business section. While in Vancouver I chanced to pick up in a maga- zine shop a local monthly, in which was printed an article on the Japanese in that city. The author of that article obviously belonged to that school of writers whose sense of honour does not prevent them from telling such un- blushing lies as that the Japanese are so dishonest that all Japanese banks have to employ Chinese cashiers, for he says that " even in Japan the Japanese does not trust anybody." And yet this very writer is constrained to write of the Japanese in Vancouver: " In Canada the Japanese gets along well and makes money. He is sober and without the coarser criminal tendencies. He gives the police little trouble. . . . The Japanese in this country has cast away his household gods, or at least he has laid them away — with moth balls. He does not in Vancouver hang a lantern over his door to drive away evil spirits, or burn joss-paper to propitiate them." Again his picture of Powell Street is fairly truthful. We read: * " At first glance only the window-signs and the dried devil-fish and straw sandals and sake bottles in the win- dows themselves tell you that you are in the Japanese quarter. But presently you notice a barber shop in which a Japanese woman barber is shaving a troglodyte of a coolie with a razor of unfamiliar shape, and you hear from an upper window the weak tinkle of a Japanese lute, and a voice pitched high, singing something with a queer slow rhythm. " These things are all I saw or heard on Powell Street THE JAPANESE IN CANADA 243 that I might not have seen and heard on any street in Vancouver. Look for something picturesque and Orien- tal on Powell Street, as I did, and you will look in vain. You will see no Japanese wearing a single rag of the cos- tume of his country. American store-clothes is the rai- ment of the Nipponese in Vancouver, and small is the percentage of picturesqueness in the blue overall. ** Powell Street is a monochrome ; there is no colour. There is not a suggestion of the Japanese architecture in any of the buildings. The shop windows have little in them that is interesting or curious. Little of the stuff is Japanese. Some carved ivory, a little china, Japanese cereals, some dried vegetables and fish, some primitive- looking carpentry tools, and agricultural or rather gar- dening implements in a hardware store window were all that I saw." A block from the centre of the Japanese section of Powell Street you come across a large, unsightly struc- ture. It is the Japanese school maintained by the Japa- nese residents for their children. At present the school has 130 pupils. If your mind is critically inclined, you will find here in this building a problem worthy of sober consideration. The Japanese school in Vancouver is different from those in the United States and Hawaii. In the latter case the Japanese schools are supplementary to the pub- lic schools, but the Vancouver institution is a substitute for the municipal school. The difference is chiefly due to the fact that while education is compulsory in the United States and Hawaii, it is not in British Columbia. I do not think the Japanese schools as conducted in the United States would interfere with the assimilation of the Japanese children. Their curriculum is simple, and the session, always in the afternoon, lasts only two 244 ASIA AT THE DOOR hours. What they intend to do is to disseminate knowl- edge of the Japanese language, history, and geography, the study of which is sadly neglected in the public schools in America. Moreover, as I have already discussed in previous chapters, they have their distinct mission arising out of the peculiar situation on the Pacific Coast and in Hawaii. On the other hand, the Japanese school in Vancouver is not an afternoon school; it is a complete educational system of the primary grade conducted in accord with the principles adopted in Japan. The text-books are all Japanese, although English is taught by an English teacher one hour every day. The knowledge of English acquired in such a school is too scant to be of any prac- tical use, and the ideas and traits developed by such an educational system would be more Japanese than Cana- dian. The Japanese children attending the Japanese school never come into contact with Canadian children, thus depriving them of the opportunity to increase their knowledge of English and to absorb the ideas and cus- toms of the country which harbours them and their parents. The public school is the most powerful assimi- lative organ, the ** melting pot of the races," wherein children of different races and nationalities mingle with one another and acquire common knowledge and develop common traits. Although a few Japanese residents send their children to public schools, it is highly regrettable that the ma- jority seem to prefer the Japanese institution. Never- theless the leading Japanese, men of learning and fore- sight, have begun to see the disadvantage and unwisdom of maintaining such a school, and it is to be hoped that this school, if it has to be continued at all, will at any rate cease to exist as a substitute for the public school, THE JAPANESE IN CANADA 245 but will become an institution like the Japanese schools in the United States, with a simple curriculum and short hours. At the same time, British Columbia, it seems to me, should adopt a compulsory educational system, com- pelling the Japanese parents to send their children to public schools. One thing that struck me as being particularly un- fortunate during my sojourn in British Columbia was the inadequate provision of educational agencies. The public library of Vancouver, though housed in a respect- able building donated by Mr. Carnegie, is deplorably ill- equipped. In the United States a city of Vancouver's wealth and population would have a far better-appointed public library. Again in the United States a common- wealth, with 250,000 population and an area of 373,000 square miles, would undoubtedly provide a state uni- versity, and have a few colleges maintained by private interests. In British Columbia there is yet no university maintained by the province, while none of the few private institutions for higher education has risen to the dignity of a college. Ambitious young men of the province aspiring for college education must either enroll them- selves in American universities across the boundary line, or go to Toronto, 2,000 miles east of Vancouver. Is it not time for British Columbia to pause and slacken her pace in the race for material prosperity and devote more attention to the promotion of higher culture and civili- zation ? And yet it is hardly fair to speak so slightingly of British Columbia's achievements in the field of culture. As I sit in a refined little room at the Dominion Hotel at Victoria, and listen to Mr. Nagano recount the story of the adventure which landed him forty odd years ago at a little hamlet which was to become the great city of 246 ASIA AT THE DOOR Vancouver, I muse over the marvellous transformation which has taken place in British Columbia in that brief period. From my windows I gaze at the majestic dome of the provincial capitol and at the splendid residences mantled with vines, surrounded by azure greensward, adorned with stately trees and smiling flowers, and my heart is filled with admiration for the enterprise and progressive spirit of those men who have been instru- mental in making British Columbia what it is. Verily those forty years are a millennium. XV "WHITE CANADA" LIKE other British colonies, Canada regards its ter- ^ ritory as closed to Oriental races — its watchword is " White Canada." That mystifying yet singu- larly appealing expression has been industriously ex- ploited, especially by those affiliated with the labour unions on the Pacific Coast. And yet Canada's treatment of Asiatic races cannot be said to have always been severe. True, it raises against the Orient a barrier as insurmountable as that erected in other exclusive countries, but those Asiatic immigrants who were allowed to enter the country in accord with the provisions of the immigration law Canada has as a rule treated with consideration and even leniency. She has extended to the Orientals the privilege of naturalization and even of securing homesteads. Even in British Co- lumbia, the stronghold of the anti-Oriental agitation, no such discriminatory laws as have been proposed and enacted in California have been introduced in its legis- lature. There the Japanese and Chinese are permitted to conduct business and cultivate land not only un- molested but enjoying all privileges enjoyed by British subjects in Canada. They can own land both urban and rural, and in provinces other than British Columbia they even enjoy voting privileges. The question arises : " Why of all provinces and terri- tories does British Columbia alone discriminate against 247 248 ASIA AT THE DOOR the Orientals in the matter of the franchise?" In Yukon Territory there are about a hundred Japanese, most of whom are naturalized, while in the provinces east of the Rockies what small number of Japanese there are have also sworn allegiance to Canada. All these naturalized Japanese exercise the franchise just as though they were native Canadians. But in British Columbia the Japa- nese, though free to become citizens, are not allowed to cast the ballot. The reason for this discriminatory measure is not far to seek. British Columbia does not issue fishing licenses to aliens. When Japanese fishermen were brought into the province they found it necessary to secure naturalization certificates in order to obtain fishing licenses. Thus it came to pass that almost ninety per cent, of the natural- ized Japanese in British Columbia are fishermen, many of whom are uneducated, if not illiterate. The wisdom of naturalizing such immigrants is open to question, but inasmuch as the province had to rely upon them for the exploitation of one of its most important economic re- sources, it had to give them naturalization certificates. Naturalization in such circumstances means little more than the granting of fishing privileges. It does not neces- sarily mean that the recipients of citizenship certificates are ready to become faithful subjects of the Empire, nor that they intend to reside permanently in Canada. Not a few of such Japanese do not see much difference between the fishing license and the naturalization paper. Under such circumstances we can fully understand, and even sympathize with, British Columbia when it overrode the Dominion law and deprived naturalized Japanese within its jurisdiction of the right of casting the ballot. Certainly those Japanese fishermen who are "WHITE CANADA" 249 not bona fide citizens of the Dominion have no moral right to protest against this provincial measure. And yet the fact remains that this discrimination is in obvious contravention of the naturalization law of the Dominion. Besides, it wrongs those Japanese who have obtained naturalization certificates in good faith, and are to all intents and purposes desirous of remaining loyal subjects of the British Empire. It is estimated that up to 191 1 some 3,091 fishermen were naturalized. Grant- ing that some of these men have since returned to their native country or crossed over to the unknown shores there must still be more than 2,000 naturalized Japanese engaged in fishery. It would be unjust to presume that all of these fishermen are ignorant and otherwise unquali- fied to vote, for my personal observations lead me to believe that some of them are intelligent and are sincerely desirous of swearing allegiance to their adopted coun- try. Moreover, there are in British Columbia some 500 naturalized Japanese who are not fishermen, but who are, in intelligence and moral character, the equal of the average immigrant from any European country. The interest and welfare of this class of Japanese it should be the duty of British Columbia and Canada to safe- guard, especially since the naturalization law obviously means to extend the franchise to all naturalized aliens. At the same time British Columbia has the right to prevent the injection of undesirable elements into its body politic. How, then, can the province find the way out of this dilemma? To me the way is clear. Issue fishing license quite independently of naturalization paper; in other words, extend fishing privilege to aliens, so that no ignorant fisherman, whether Oriental or Euro- pean, need be naturalized simply because he is needed for the perpetuation of the salmon industry. This is 250 ASIA AT THE DOOR the policy adopted by most States in the United States. California, for instance, issues fishing license to any alien upon the payment of annual fee of $io. I do not see why British Columbia cannot adopt a similar policy. On the other hand, all aliens, naturalized in conformity to the laws of the Dominion, should be allowed to enjoy all privileges, civil and political, enjoyed by the citizens of Canada. This British Columbia can afford to do, once she has found the way to secure desired labour for the promotion of the salmon industry without at the same time admitting ignorant fishermen into citizenship. British Columbia's peculiar manner of dealing with the naturalization question naturally created a grievance among those Japanese who secured citizenship certifi- cates in good faith. A few years ago these Japanese sought redress through legal channels. In the Provincial courts their claim was upheld, but the Privy Council at London, to which the Province carried the case, virtually overruled the decision of the courts by declaring that the franchise can be exercised by naturalized foreigners only when the Provincial Government recognizes their fit- ness as voters. From the purely legal point of view there is still room for the Japanese to urge their con- tention, but the real remedy — a remedy satisfactory to both parties — should be found, I believe, on the line suggested in the foregoing passages. At present Canada has within its boundaries 12,000 Japanese as against 40,000 Chinese. The cry of *' White Canada " was first raised in the eighties against the Chinese. In 1885 the first anti-Chinese law was passed, imposing upon each incoming Chinese a poll tax of $50, and permitting the steamers to bring only one Chinese immigrant per each ton of the capacity of each vessel. In 1 90 1 the poll tax was raised to $100, and in 1904 to "WHITE CANADA" 25 1 $500 ; yet during the past several years Chinese have been coming in in much larger numbers than Japanese. The restriction of Japanese immigration follows a line totally different from that followed in dealing with Chinese immigration. The Japanese are not required to pay any poll tax which is not imposed upon European immigrants. In accord with the provisions of the general immigration law they must possess upon their arrival in Canada at least $25 during the eight months from March to October, and from November to February, when de- mand for labour becomes less, at least $50. But there is between Canada and Japan, as between the United States and the Mikado's Empire, a sort of " gentlemen's agreement." This understanding, entered into in 1908, admits Japanese only of the following classes : 1. Settled agriculturists. 2. Parents, wives, and children of resident Japanese. 3. Those coming back to Canada to resume their residence or business. This agreement was the immediate outcome of the un- scrupulous act of some self-seeking Japanese and Cana- dians who brought Japanese from Hawaiian plantations by the shipload. Prior to 1907 the Japanese Government of its own accord restricted the emigration of its sub- jects to Canada, and thus prevented the immigration question from interfering with the cordial relations ex- isting between Canada and Japan. But in that year a body of Japanese in Vancouver in complicity with their Canadian associates broached the idea of importing Japanese labourers from Hawaii in order to supply the unprecedented demand for labour created by the general prosperity then prevailing in Canada and the United States. For this specific purpose these men chartered a steamer and began importing Japanese on a large scale. 252 ASIA AT THE DOOR The result was that during the twelve months from July I* 1907* to June 30, 1908, there were 7,601 Japanese immigrants, showing an increase of 5,500 as compared with the figures for the preceding year. This sudden influx of Japanese labourers naturally aroused among the labouring class a hostile feeling against the Japanese. About this time the Exclu- sion League of San Francisco, having established a branch office in Seattle, was striving to extend its in- fluence to British Columbia. Fowler, the man in charge of the Seattle office of the League, came to Vancouver, instructed by his chief, O. A. Tveitmoe, to fan the anti- Japanese sentiment already stirred up by the influx of Hawaiian Japanese. The result was the Vancouver riot of September 7, 1907. On the evening of that day several hundred labourers marched through Powell Street to demonstrate their hostility against the Japa- nese. On the whole these men were orderly and ap- parently had no intention to resort to violence. But some of them, under the influence of liquor, uttered vile epithets and attacked some Japanese and broke the win- dows of a few Japanese stores. The Japanese readily accepted the challenge, and the scene that followed was one of violence and disorder. When the scuffle ended several men of each group were seriously wounded. Alarmed by this outbreak the Dominion authorities sent special commissioners to Japan to negotiate an agreement for the restriction of Japanese immigration. The result was an exclusion agreement much of the same nature as that between Japan and the United States. Before 1907 Japanese immigration to Canada was not very large. In 1904 there were only 354 immigrants, in 1905 1,922, and in 1906 2,042. In 1907, as we have already noted, the figures suddenly increased to 7,601. "WHITE CANADA ^53 Then came the immigration convention, as the result of which Japanese immigration suddenly declined to 495. In 1909 it continued to decline, the figures for the year being 271. In 1910 there were 437 Japanese immigrants and in 191 1, 765. It must be borne in mind that the majority of Japanese immigrants now seeking Canadian shores are not fresh immigrants, but those who were in Canada before and are coming back to resume their residence or business there. In the following table we observe that Japanese immigration since the conclusion of the " gentlemen's agreement " is much smaller than Chinese immigration: Year Japanese Chinese 1908-1909 495 1.887 1909-1910 271 2,156 1910-1911 437 5.278 1911-1912 765 6,247 Not only has " White Canada " erected a barrier against the Chinese and Japanese, but it is even more strictly excluding the Hindus, who are, like the Cana- dians themselves, subjects of His Britannic Majesty. Up to 1905 Hindu immigration to Canada was a negligible quantity, but in the year following there were 2,124 immigrants from East India, and in 1907, 2,623. Then Canada took immediate steps to check the further influx of Hindus, as the result of which there were only 6 immigrants in 1908. Since that year the figures have remained almost stationary, the number for 191 1 being only 3. The treatment accorded the Hindus in Canada is much the same as that given them in the United States. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the East Indians are in their religious practices, their customs, and their ap- pearance far more exotic than the Japanese, and even 2S4 ASIA AT THE DOOR the Chinese. Even as the Chinese used to regard the queue as the inalienable appendage to the head, so the Hindu clings to the turban almost with reverence, and is furthermore wedded to peculiar ideas and habits born of the religious conceptions and practices of his native country. Such ideas and habits, when better understood, may be found harmless and unobjectionable, but as yet they are a puzzle to the Occidentals, and in consequence the cause of aversion and repugnance. In the United States, and especially on the Pacific Coast, I saw Hindu immigrants, unable to secure a lodging, sleep in deserted, ramshackle buildings and unoccupied barns. It is prob- ably much the same story in British Columbia. In Canada the Hindus are not only refused the fran- chise, but are forbidden to bring their wives or children with them and establish family relations. At one time the Canadian Government went so far as to form a scheme for the wholesale deportation of East Indians to Honduras. The scheme was not carried out, as the Hindus refused to go, but the legislature at Ottawa adopted in 191 1 an immigration law providing a clause which made it virtually impossible for the Hindus to enter the Dominion. That clause provides that no immigrants " who have come to Canada otherwise than by continuous journey from the country of which they are natives or citizens, and upon through tickets purchased in that country or prepaid in Canada " shall be admitted. Inno- cent on the face of it, the clause is to all intents and purposes directed against the Hindus, who consider it " cruel, vexatious, and tricky." To understand the Hindu point of view one need only recall that there is no direct steamship service between Canada and East India, and that no steamship companies in India will issue through tickets to Canada. This discriminatory measure has been "WHITE CANADA" 255 the cause of bitter complaint on the part ot the Hindus. " The Canadian immigration laws," says a Hindu writer, " have laid a clearly defined line between His Majesty's subjects of Canada and those of India in the face of the bold and clear proclamation of our late Queen Victoria. It is a puzzling riddle to be solved, that in India we are British subjects, in England we are British subjects, but in Canada, to legalize our British citizenship right, we have to secure another deed to that effect." Canada is " white." Oriental immigration as com- pared with that from Europe is insignificant. In the fiscal year 1911-1912 immigrants to Canada totaled 354,237, of whom only 1,845 were Orientals — 6,247 Chinese, 765 Japanese, and 3 Hindus. And yet there are plenty of alarmists trying to conjure up the phantom of an Oriental domination. Through the activities of such alarmists various anti-Oriental bills have been oc- casionally introduced in the legislature, Dominion or Provincial. Some of such bills are no doubt put forward for the purpose of wooing the labour vote and need not be taken at their face value. The Province of Saskatchewan, for instance, adopted two years ago a law prohibiting the Orientals, keeping stores and amusement places, from em- ploying white women. And yet when I was travelling in that province last year I met in the city of Moose Jaw two Japanese young men operating a pros- perous restaurant where all waitresses were Canadians of English or French descent. I found the establish- ment one of the best restaurants in the city, and patron- ized by the leading business men and the best classes of residents. The city authorities were fully informed of the new law with regard to the employment of white women by Orientals, but they could see no sense in 256 ASIA AT THE DOOR applying such a law to a respectable Japanese restaurant. Its proprietors, educated, intelligent men, were them- selves married to Canadian women of respectable fami- lies, and were among the best citizens of the city. Why molest their legitimate business simply because some poli- ticians wanted to curry favour with a radical segment of the labouring class? So these Japanese were permitted to conduct their restaurant as if the employment law had never been passed. Yet the existence of such a law was highly repugnant to the Japanese, and it was but natural that the Japanese Consul at Vancouver requested the authorities of Saskatchewan to exempt the Japanese from the scope of this law. The Provincial Government gra- ciously responded to the request, and the Japanese mer- chants and business men are no longer subject to that discriminatory law. So far as other Oriental peoples are concerned, that law still remains valid. The story of the Japanese restaurant-keepers in Moose Jaw is but one of many instances of the fact that the Japanese are possessed of essential qualities to make good citizens. A few years ago these Japanese donated a considerable sum to the Y. M. C. A. of Moose Jaw, and find their staunchest supporters among the religious work- ers of the city. In Dawson, Yukon Territory, I found Mr. S. Kawakami one of the very popular citizens of the city. In Vancouver and Victoria there are a number of public-spirited, intellectual Japanese, who should be al- lowed, as their brothers in other parts of Canada, to enjoy voting privileges. The principle represented by the catchword " White Canada" is not necessarily a wrong one, but Canada would do well to reflect that all " whites " are not " good whites." Moreover, while Canada is admitting the Chinese by the thousand, it is barring out the subjects "WHITE CANADA" 257 of the most advanced and enlightened country in the Orient, an ally of the British Empire. Again, in the fiscal year 1911-1912, Canada admitted South and East- em European immigrants as follows : Bulgarians 3,295 Greeks 693 Hebrews 5,322 Italians 7,590 Poles 5,060 Roumanians 793 Russians 9,805 Servians 209 Turks 632 Syrians 144 In the United States many authorities on the immi- gration question are beginning to realize the danger of admitting without restriction immigrants of the races represented in the above table. If Canada's enormous natural resources cannot be developed without recourse to immigrants, it would seem the part of wisdom on her part to conceive her laws so as to receive only desirable classes of immigrants both from Europe and from Asia. It is much to be hoped that Canada and the British Empire will not permit the shibboleth of " White Can- ada " to be exploited by those pseudo-publicists and self- styled patriots who have their own axes to grind. It is just such publicists and patriots who constantly raise the hysterical cry of " Japanese domination." They say that the Japanese have placed in their political pro- gramme '' the occupation of British Columbia," when in reality Japanese immigrants are merely peace-loving, law- abiding, unobtrusive souls, desirous only of improving their lot in life in this new world of opportunity. They say that the Japanese have " settled down in British Columbia in solid phalanxes of 10,000 or more at a time and place," when the entire Japanese population in Canada does not exceed 12,000, of whom less than 4,000 are in Vancouver, whose total population is more than 125,000. They say that a Japanese syndicate " seized " 258 ASIA AT THE DOOR a valuable copper-mine in British Columbia, but the en- terprise has been a flat failure because the mine has been found worthless. All such alarmist notes are sounded chiefly, if not merely, for the purpose of creating a powerful Pacific fleet of warships for the Dominion. One can well un- derstand why so many of the politicians of British Columbia are eager to conjure up the bogie of Japanese domination, when one recalls that men-of-war are far more liberal customers of coastwise cities even than men of commerce. To indicate the extent of business patronage which a naval fleet bestows upon a seaport city, let me cite the case of San Francisco. In 19 12, $5,ooo,ocx) was expended in the city of the Golden Gate by the Commissary for supplies. In the fiscal year 191 3 the expenditure in- creased to $8,000,000. As a writer in a recent military journal states, " ninety cents out of every dollar of this not inconsiderable sum will swell the bank accounts of San Francisco merchants, civilians, mechanics, labourers, and others to whom the United States pays living ex- penses.'' Is it any wonder that Vancouver craves " de- fence " ? It wants to see dreadnoughts frequent its har- bour not because of any fear of Oriental invasion, but because the Navy is notoriously " a good spender." Just as in the United States many politicians and pub- licists are employed by the manufacturers of warships and guns to spread and exploit war talk, so in Canada those interested in the creation of a powerful Pacific fleet are resorting to means which are far from honour- able. To carry out their scheme these men are holding up before an unthinking public the scarecrow of Japa- nese invasion. Perhaps they have no desire to stir up hostile feeling towards the Japanese, but their methods "WHITE CANADA" ^S9 of propaganda, if taken at their face value, cannot but result in the estrangement of the British Empire and the Mikado's Empire, which are at present bound in alli- ance as well as by ties of traditional friendship. To indi- cate the nature of the activities of such unscrupulous propagandists, I present the following passage from a speech recently delivered in Vancouver by a publicist of British Columbia: " Japan will not allow a foreigner to own or even work a mine in Japan, but she unreasonably demands for the Japanese the right to work in the mines and to own and exploit the mines of Canada and the United States — one small syndicate of coolies having now possession of a copper-mine in British Columbia worth nearly a million pounds. She allows no foreigner to engage in fisheries in Japanese waters, but she demands the right of the Japanese to fish American and Canadian waters; and, as a consequence, all the fisheries of British Colum- bia, which are thirty per cent, of the fisheries of Canada, which are the largest and most profitable in the world, are now wholly in Japanese hands, yielding 10,500 Japa- nese labourers from £100 to i6oo a year apiece, the most of which is sent in cash to Japan, and alienated from the British Empire for ever. It is a well-known fact that Japan will not tolerate our workmen on her soil, except those skilled labourers we have been simple enough to send over to teach the Japanese how to make goods cheaper than we can make them. " Japan is gradually taxing, or legislating, or expropri- ating every Western interest out of Japan, Korea, and Manchuria, and as far as possible out of China, but she demands equal rights and opportunities for the Japanese workman, merchant, financier, farmer in the business opportunities and potential wealth of the New World, 26o ASIA AT THE DOOR and more — those safeguards and protections which the Japanese themselves cannot grant to their own people on their own soil — equal rights in the privileges of an Anglo- Saxon democracy. *' If Japan wants something on the American Conti- nent, Canada and the United States must give it. If Canada and the United States want something in Japan, Korea, or Manchuria, it is inimical to the interests of Japan, and they cannot have it. Whatever is prejudicial to the interests or the pride of Japan must be yielded by Canadians and Americans. Whatever is prejudicial to the interests of Americans and Canadians must be ac- cepted because of the imperious demands of Japanese pride and national interest, and the power of the Japa- nese warships." Such irresponsible assertions are hardly worth a refu- tation. I may, however, say that most of them have been answered in the foregoing chapters, as well as in my recent book, " American- Japanese Relations." If the publicists of Canada would discuss the Japanese ques- tion, it should be their duty to study more seriously the laws and policies of the Empire of Nippon, lest they would simply make themselves ridiculous and absurd in the eyes of the well-informed. EPILOGUE AMERICANS AND THE FAR EAST AMERICANS, as a whole, know very little about for- jt\. ^^S^ affairs and care less ; the struggles of peoples for a larger share of political power interest them because their own career as a nation began with such a struggle, and because they are sympathetic with the demo- cratic movement everywhere. Since the Philippines fell into their hands they have learned where Manila is ; and they have come to have a realizing sense, to recall an old theological phrase, that there is a Far East. War shares one advantage with travel; it teaches geography. The gallant fight of little Japan with big Russia carried American sympathy with it ; the precision and skill with which that war was conducted by the Japanese received quick appreciation from this country ; while the splendid patriotism of the Japanese and their dauntless courage evoked unstinted admiration. The revolution in China was so unexpected on this side of the Pacific and so dra- matic that it instantly arrested attention, and the recogni- tion of the Chinese Republic undoubtedly had behind it the hearty good-will of the American people. That strik- ing event, like the rise of Japan, and, for that matter, like every other event of great significance, was sudden only to those who did not know the influences that brought it about ; influences that had long been at work in the venerable country which has rendered so many services to civilization. When the Dragon Throne fell, with so little disorder and bloodshed that it seemed to have collapsed of its own weight, Americans did not 261 2(y2 EPILOGUE recognize the very considerable part they had played in making ready for the drama which is much the most im- pressive now being presented on the stage of the world. Nor did the majority of Americans understand the part played by American influence in the revolution in Turkey, and, consequently, in the series of events set in motion when the Young Turks dethroned the Sultan. Many of them had heard of Robert College, but they had only a very vague idea of the effect of American educational agencies of various kinds in awakening civic spirit in Tur- key and liberating an energy so long suppressed that it seemed to have been destroyed. In the Near as in the Far East, Americans have in- curred responsibilities from which their ignorance will not relieve them. It was their hand which opened the closed doors of Japan and forced upon that country changes more radical than any other country has ever passed through in less than sixty years. Those changes, as Count Okuma recently pointed out in the pages of The Outlook, have left no side of life in Japan untouched. The situation may be summed up in a sentence: The entire development of modern Japan has been imposed on her from without. She has been involved in a chain of events from which she could not have escaped if she had tried, and she has faced them with a courage, an intelligence, and a power of devotion to the nation which must fill all fair-minded men who know her history with confidence in her ability to overcome the difficulties which still confront her, and to work out her destiny along the lines long ago defined by her history, temperament, and genius. The sooner the world recognizes the fact that there is a New East, the greater will be the chances of race prog- ress in the twentieth century; the sooner Americans rec- ognize the share they have had in creating the conditions EPILOGUE 263 and problems of the New East, the sooner will they face the responsibilities they have assumed and the more in- telligently will they choose the part they are to play in the world in the new age of international relationship which has begun. Are they to discard their traditions, violate their principles, and abdicate the chance of lead- ership in the affairs of humanity, or are they to fulfil the prophecies of a large-minded, far-seeing statesman- ship which their relations with Japan and China have so far uniformly made ? California has unexpectedly raised an issue of the first importance, and those who imagine that the crisis, has passed and that the clouds between the two countries will dissolve in thin air do not know the persistence of the people with whom they are dealing. A Russian military writer has said of the Japanese that they seem to have mastered all kinds of tactics except those of retreat. They feel that they have been seriously affronted and unfairly treated, and any attempt to ignore their protests and trust to time to heal the breach in the long-established friendly relations between the countries will disastrously fail. It has been well said that this question is two per cent, a State matter and ninety-eight per cent, a National matter. The members of the Califor- nia Legislature who voted for the anti- Japanese land bill acted as if they were dealing with a few thousand immi- grants ; they seemed to be ignorant of the fact that they were dealing with a sensitive and powerful nation. Ig- noring that nation and omitting the courtesies with which civilized countries approach questions of such difficulty and delicacy, they struck at the Japanese immigrants and w^ent home, leaving the United States to deal with the Japanese Government. The American people are very much engrossed for the moment with home affairs of pressing importance ; Japan is nine thousand miles from Washington; most Ameri- 264 EPILOGUE cans are very ignorant of the character, ability, and spirit of the Japanese people ; and the news sent from one coun- try to the other seems to be edited for the purpose of irritating the two peoples. Under these conditions it is not surprising that Americans have not yet awakened to the fact that they are face to face with an international question of far-reaching importance : the question of the future policy of this country in the New East. If it shall appear that the short-sighted and rough- handed way of dealing with a friendly nation brings home to the United States its responsibilities to, and the political and commercial possibilities of, the rising East, good will come out of evil; for a sharp crisis is less dangerous than drifting without foresight into grave complexities, and missing through ignorance those oppor- tunities of contributing to the welfare of the race which constitute the greatest good-fortune of a nation. Many things could be said about the anti-Japanese legislation in California, but only two things need to be said for the purpose of getting the situation clearly before the country. There was no immediate occasion for such leg- islation ; neither in population nor in holdings of land was there a menacing situation. There was not the slightest danger of a '' wave of Asiatic immigration " ; it was im- possible under existing arrangements between the two Governments. A writer in The Outlook, whose statement of the case from the anti- Japanese standpoint was in effect a recogni- tion that one of the most serious objections to the Japa- nese is their ability, declared that California cared noth- ing for the land bills, and that they could have been killed as anti- Japanese measures were killed two years ago if the " Tokyo jingoes " had not blown the " war trumpet " ; and that the abrupt change in California's attitude was but the reflection of " Japan's mailed fist " ; and a writer EPILOGUE 265 in The World's Work says : " At this very moment, while this is being written, twenty thousand people are surging through the streets of Tokyo clamouring for war with America." It is a curious fact that Americans in Tokyo, at the time these stirring words were written, saw no mobs and heard no clamour. As a matter of fact, the mobs and the clamour were imaginary. There are yel- low politicians in Japan as there are in this country, and there were meetings at which speeches were made de- nouncing the Japanese Government for not taking a firmer attitude on the question ; for it is an old device of the opposition to attack the government for not adopting a " vigorous policy '* when an international difference arises. There was no outbreak of popular feeling against the United States. There has been a very warm feeling of friendship for the United States among the Japanese ; a feeling of confidence and friendship which has been and may continue to be, if wise counsels prevail, a very valuable asset in the Far East ; and the feeling in Japan was rather one of astonishment and pain than of anger. The managing editor of the World, writing on this sub- ject in the North American Review, says : " It may be said plainly that, if there is ever trouble between the United States and Japan, it will begin here. There is something painful about the childlike faith and grateful good-will manifested toward the American vis- itor by the people of Japan, in perpetual acknowledgment of their debt to the United States. This is no shallow sentiment, but a deep feeling bred of the belief that but for Commodore Perry and Townsend Harris, that coun- try would have dwelt in mediaeval helplessness until too late." The Japanese felt, and they had ample justification for the feeling, that the proposed legislation was unfair in its attack on values acquired by Japanese workers in 2(£ EPILOGUE California, and they resented the discrimination against them as Japanese; precisely as we should have done if Germany, for instance, had proposed such legislation dealing with American holdings. Nor was there any '' Japanese mailed fist " ; on the con- trary, the Japanese Government has treated the situation with notable reserve and studied courtesy from the be- ginning. It has done everything in its power to avoid giving occasion for anti-Japanese agitation in this country. It has also been urged as a justification for driving the anti- Japanese bill through the legislature at Sacramento that *' the press of the country raked the Sacramento statesmen fore and aft with grape-shot/' whereupon Cali- fornia shook off its lethargy and demanded the passage of the bill. The press of the country did precisely what it ought to do when a State attempts to deal with a question " ninety-eight per cent." of which is National. Having passed the bill, the Sacramento statesmen went to their homes and left the National Government to deal with an international situation which it had not created. A question that is " ninety-eight per cent." National ought to be dealt with by the Nation ; this matter was pre- eminently matter for arrangement by diplomacy, not for rough-and-ready action by a State legislature influenced by local politics. If this legislation were a thing of the past, unfortu- nate in manner and form but an accomplished fact, it would be a waste of time to recall the peculiar circum- stances which surrounded it; but it is not an end, it is a beginning. It ought, therefore, to be clearly under- stood that there was no occasion for it in present condi- tions ; that there is no " Asiatic invasion " of any part of America, nor is there any possibility of such an inva- EPILOGUE 267 sion ; that there were no *' surging mobs in the streets of Tokyo clamouring for war "; that there was no " mailed fist'' raised by the Japanese Government, but that, on the contrary, that Government has made every effort to keep the country quiet and has succeeded, and has treated the questions at issue with restraint and calmness; that in protesting against the legislation the country at large was not interfering with local affairs in a State, but urg- ing a State not to interfere with National affairs. Pre- cisely what was foreseen by clear-minded people has hap- pened: an international problem of the first importance has been, presented, and must be settled on principles of justice and fair play and with the same consideration for the feelings of other nations which we demand for ourselves from other nations. Japan has a civilization different from ours; in some respects inferior, in other respects distinctly superior, to ours. Japan is much more thoroughly organized than the United States; indeed, no Western country except Ger- many can be compared with Japan in military efficiency and in general educational training: Japan must be treated on a basis of equality. This does not mean the unimpeded flowing together of great populations, with different standards of life and living under radically different economic conditions; it does mean that the United States shall demand nothing of the Far East which it is not ready to give to the Far East, that restriction of immigration and all kindred questions shall be settled by friendly diplomacy between the Governments, and that the Far East shall be treated as a co-partner in the affairs of humanity. In a sentence : The equality which is often professed in word and often denied in act must be made the basal principle in all international relations. Race differences must be clearly 268 EPILOGUE and frankly recognized; economic differences must be candidly faced; but race hatred must be driven beyond the pale of civilization ; it is a survival of barbarism and it must go back where it belongs. The Japanese have never been servile; that is the secret of the dislike for them felt by Western peoples, accustomed to treat the Oriental as if he were outside the protection of law. " You cannot knock a Japanese down in Japan without danger of going to jail," summed up, for one European, the chief offence of a nation which holds itself quite on a par with other nations in those things which are essential to civilization. If some Japa- nese have an exalted idea of their national achievements, they are sharing the feeling which Americans, Germans, Englishmen, and others entertain with regard to their re- spective countries. The sense of superiority has reached a high state of development in most countries. Much has been said about non-assimilability ; and it has been declared many times that the issue of superiority or infe- riority is not raised ; but the fact remains that in dealing with Japanese subjects Japan was ignored. There is a New East rapidly rising in political and com- mercial power ; we have had a great share in opening the way for it, in giving its development impetus and direc- tion. We have invaded it with our ideas, methods, cap- ital. Our merchants are in all its ports, our lawyers, surgeons, physicians, dentists, are in its leading cities; we have wxlcomed its students in our colleges and sent our teachers by the score to its schools, colleges, universi- ties ; our missionaries are everywhere preaching the reli- gions we profess, and teaching the ethics we call ours. We have forced open the gates of the Far East, and every year we are multiplying the means of relationship with it. Mr. Marconi has spoken across the Atlantic and EPILOGUE 269 will soon speak across the Pacific. The ends of the earth have become stations on the unbroken circle of communi- cation which runs around the globe ; and we are only at the beginning of international intercourse. A German writer has recently said that in his opinion the finest ele- ments for future citizenship are in China. Japan is well on her way towards the command of her resources ; and now that science is intensifying the efficiency of men in dealing with soil and with industry, who will venture to fix the limits of her growth? In the Far East, too, lie the great fortunes of the future — the prosperity which ought to enrich the Pacific Coast and will enrich it unless it closes its imagination to a wealth of opportunity which twenty-five years will turn into tangible riches. In the light of these facts, what shall be American pol- icy in the Far East ? So far it has been friendly ; if not masterly, it has not followed slavishly the lines of Euro- pean policy, which has been determined largely by com- mercial interests. But it ought to do more; it ought actively to aid a development for which it is largely re- sponsible; it ought to unite to the sound sense that will deal practically with questions of present intercourse the imagination that will foresee and lead the way in the new age which has begun. " The Mediterranean era declined with the Roman Empire and died with the discovery of America/* writes Mr. Roosevelt. " The Atlantic era is now at the height of its development and must soon ex- haust the resources at its command. The Pacific era, destined* to be the greatest of all and to bring the whole human race at last into one comity of nations, is just at the dawn." Hamilton W. Mabie. 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