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32 - Outline History of Japan by Herbert Henry Gowen · Outline History of Japan

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one of an Outline History of Japan. This
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Speaker 1: is a librifox recording. All librifox recordings are in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: librifox dot org. An Outline History of Japan by Herbert
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Speaker 1: Henry Gowen, Chapter thirty one. The beginning of Shoa. The
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Speaker 1: concluding weeks of nineteen twenty six were shadowed by the
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Speaker 1: sickness and imminent death of the emperorio Hito. His health
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Speaker 1: had been declining for some years, and in nineteen twenty
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Speaker 1: one the duties of the royal office were transferred to
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Speaker 1: the shoulders of the prince region. By the beginning of December,
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Speaker 1: it was perceived that the end was not far off.
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Speaker 1: There was universal sorrow throughout the empire, and many and
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Speaker 1: touching were the efforts of the people by prayer and
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Speaker 1: sacrifice to avert the sovereign's doom. One man, a chronic drunkard,
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Speaker 1: abandoned his vice and prayed day in night night for
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Speaker 1: the royal recovery. When it was clear that the prayers
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Speaker 1: were unanswered, he committed suicide. Baron Ikeda, also following the
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Speaker 1: example of General Nogi in nineteen twelve, committed suicide to
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Speaker 1: accompany his master to the underwall. Death came to the
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Speaker 1: emperor on the morning of Christmas Day. For six days,
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Speaker 1: the morning was on a national scale, with all government
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Speaker 1: offices closed and no business in evidence but that of
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Speaker 1: preparing of the imperial obseecies. It is believed that in
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Speaker 1: Japan that for forty nine days, the soul of the
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Speaker 1: disease hovers about his old home. Consequently, the funeral ceremonies
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Speaker 1: had to be delayed until after February seventh. During the interval, however,
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Speaker 1: there was much to do in the way of preparation,
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Speaker 1: and Prince Kanin was appointed head of the funeral commission.
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Speaker 1: There was funeral oxcar to be built with its groaning wheels.
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Speaker 1: There were the ritual offerings to be made to the
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Speaker 1: dead men silay in state. There was the making and
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Speaker 1: lighting of the funeral lanterns of pure white paper. There
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Speaker 1: was a ceremonial playing of the many weeded food of
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Speaker 1: ancient Japan the show. There was, moreover, the selection of
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Speaker 1: the site for the mausoleum at Yokoyamamura, a suburb of Tokyo.
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Speaker 1: Here ground was broken early in January nineteen twenty seven,
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Speaker 1: and everything so carried out that, on the appointed day,
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Speaker 1: with all the traditional ritual of Shinto, the one hundred
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Speaker 1: twenty third emperor of Earth's oldest dynasty was laid to
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Speaker 1: his long rest. The whole world shared in the grief
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Speaker 1: of the Empire over the passing of the one who
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Speaker 1: had been a gorgeous and modest gentleman as well as
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Speaker 1: the ruler over a great people, Taisho. The Era of
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Speaker 1: great Righteousness had now run its twelve years course. It
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Speaker 1: had carried on the work of Meiji, and had witnessed
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Speaker 1: developments in democracy such as might have shocked some of
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Speaker 1: the early leaders of that famous epoch. Manhood suffrage had
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Speaker 1: been at last attained. The age of the Gindro was
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Speaker 1: passing into its last eclipse. In foreign affairs, the period
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Speaker 1: had had its rebuffs, but these very rebuffs had become
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Speaker 1: challenges to new alignments. The new era, beginning at midnight
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Speaker 1: on December thirty first, nineteen twenty six, was designated as Shoa,
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Speaker 1: a term made up of two Chinese words which may
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Speaker 1: be translated as enlightened peace, and is thus of happy
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Speaker 1: augury for the future. The new emperor, who was five
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Speaker 1: years as regent had already familiarized him with many of
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Speaker 1: the responsibilities of his great task as sended throne, amid
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Speaker 1: the affectionate good wishes of his people and the respectful
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Speaker 1: homage of the world. In many respects, Hirohito marks an
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Speaker 1: entirely new departure for the sovereigns of Japan. If Yoshihitos
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Speaker 1: the first emperor with a modern education and a modern outlook, Hirohitos,
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Speaker 1: the first who had had the advantage of travel in
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Speaker 1: foreign countries, graduated at the age of eighteen from the
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Speaker 1: Pierce School at Tokyo. He was proficient in the classics
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Speaker 1: of Japan and China, in French and English, in political science,
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Speaker 1: and in history. Among his tutors had been the Greek
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Speaker 1: general Nogi and the equally distinguished Admiral Togo. He had
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Speaker 1: accustomed himself to move freely among his people, and was
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Speaker 1: well known throughout his frequent tours in the rural districts.
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Speaker 1: It was in no merely perfunctory spirit that his first
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Speaker 1: Imperial rescript exhorted the government and the officials to encourage
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Speaker 1: originality instead of blind imitativeness, and simplicity instead of vain display.
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Speaker 1: It is not expected that the coronation will take place
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Speaker 1: before nineteen twenty eight. But meanwhile the era of Shoa
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Speaker 1: starts off under the best of auspices. The financial crisis
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Speaker 1: that the spring of nineteen twenty seven, however, brought in
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Speaker 1: its train the fall of the Wakatski Ministry, and on
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Speaker 1: April eighteenth, Baron Kichi Tanaka, head of the Seyukai Party,
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Speaker 1: became premier. For a time it was feared that the
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Speaker 1: new minister might develop a strong Chinese policy, but so
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Speaker 1: far Baron Tanaka had followed carefully in matters of foreign
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Speaker 1: policy the steps of his predecessors. It has been said
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Speaker 1: that with much truth, that since all art is selection,
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Speaker 1: history cannot be written life size. Among thousands of facts.
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Speaker 1: Historians have to choose those which are specially characteristic or
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Speaker 1: especially significant. It is this which probably makes the writing
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Speaker 1: of contemporary history the most difficult of all arts. It
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Speaker 1: is not possible so to select us to be sure
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Speaker 1: that the particular happenings we are at pains to record
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Speaker 1: are those which will ultimately fall into the picture of
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Speaker 1: the significant elements. Without the intuition, which is akin rather
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Speaker 1: to the vision of the prophet than to the art
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Speaker 1: of the historian. It is impossible, out of the chronicle
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Speaker 1: of the world's events to find the thin red line
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Speaker 1: of purpose, which is the real link between the past,
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Speaker 1: the present, and the future. For this reason, these closing
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Speaker 1: pages need be no mere rehearsal of the more recent
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Speaker 1: incidents in an ever fluid and developing story. Rather, does
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Speaker 1: our attention need to be directed to a few things
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Speaker 1: in conclusion, such as reveal the trend of affairs in
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Speaker 1: the Empire of the Rising Sun, of which many of
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Speaker 1: the more isolated phenomena of the story are the more
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Speaker 1: or less obvious illustrations. If we are able to seize
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Speaker 1: the significance of these things, we shall possess the proper
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Speaker 1: clue for the interpretation of the whole story. Have attempted
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Speaker 1: to outline first in reference to the Japanese attitude towards
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Speaker 1: the Emperor and the imperial family. Modern Japan has done
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Speaker 1: much more than abolished a feudalism which concealed the ancient
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Speaker 1: prerogatives of the sovereign. The sovereign himself is differently throughout,
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Speaker 1: not less significantly conceived. He is no longer the sacre
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Speaker 1: saint personage, who must only be approached with a screen
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Speaker 1: between himself and the suppliant. He is, as the training
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Speaker 1: of the present Emperor makes clear, himself permitted to come
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Speaker 1: into contact with things and persons hitherto remote an alien,
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Speaker 1: He is also accessible to the people who rever him
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Speaker 1: as the ruler and as the symbol of the nation's security.
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Speaker 1: While less and less is the emphasis placed upon the
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Speaker 1: old stories which link the Royal House with the Sun Goddess,
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Speaker 1: more and more does the throne become the rallying point
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Speaker 1: for patriotism, without which Japanese politics might so easily decrade
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Speaker 1: itself into a sordid struggle between the ambitions of a
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Speaker 1: partisan statesman. The rejoicings which gathered around the celebration of
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Speaker 1: the Emperor's wedding in nineteen twenty four and over the
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Speaker 1: birth and name ceremony of the Little Princess Terinomia in
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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty six show a happy change from the distant
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Speaker 1: religious awe which once fenced the Royal House from the populace,
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Speaker 1: to the generous association today in all and one common joy.
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Speaker 1: The last years, too, have witnessed a very striking change
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Speaker 1: in the place of the diet as an instrument of government.
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Speaker 1: It was probably out of an instinctive wisdom that instead
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Speaker 1: of flinging open political privilege at one act to all
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Speaker 1: men everywhere, the leaders were content with training a minority
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Speaker 1: to appreciate their prerogative. Men complained of the fewness of
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Speaker 1: the enfranchised, the dominance of the gindro, and the frequency
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Speaker 1: with which imperial ordinance and dissolutions were invoked in the
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Speaker 1: interest of a ministry, the slight respect paid to the
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Speaker 1: opinion of a majority in the diet. Yet the steps
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Speaker 1: taken so tentatively and with such apparent hesitation have succeeded
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Speaker 1: in making, as nothing else could have done, a safe
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Speaker 1: pathway towards the recently granted manhood suffrage. If the party
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Speaker 1: system was slow in gaining the trust of cabinets, it
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Speaker 1: was because it was since that the best way to
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Speaker 1: discredit the party system was to make it prematurely responsible
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Speaker 1: for the affairs of the nation. Today, the parties of
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Speaker 1: Japan are coming into their own, and from Hara to Wakatsuki,
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Speaker 1: men have been found whose partisanship has in no way
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Speaker 1: superseded their desire to serve their emperor and their country.
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Speaker 1: In international politics, Japan faces responsibilities of which she never dreamed.
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Speaker 1: When Commodore Perry forced the gates which for two and
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Speaker 1: a half centuries had remained barred against the outside world.
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Speaker 1: It was not without conflict, and not without mistake that
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Speaker 1: the island Empire accepted the responsibilities which were so gradually
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Speaker 1: yet so insistently presented. She had to learn war after
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Speaker 1: the Western method, than in order to keep some part
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Speaker 1: of what she had won by war, she had to
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Speaker 1: learn diplomacy, also after the Western method. Then she had
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Speaker 1: to learn the industrial systems of the West, in order
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Speaker 1: to provide subsistence for the increasing population for which there
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Speaker 1: was no outlet in that West, which had forced her
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Speaker 1: from seclusion. That Japan was not only able to learn
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Speaker 1: these lessons, but was able, by the aid of these lessons,
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Speaker 1: to take her place at the high table of international
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Speaker 1: politics is surely evidence of the fact that her history
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Speaker 1: has a vital continuity, which may be compared with the
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Speaker 1: consciousness linking together the experience of an individual personality. The
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Speaker 1: best ground for the assurance that Japan will overcome the
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Speaker 1: difficulties which at present confront her is in the contemplation
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Speaker 1: of the successful adjustment of the past. If she has
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Speaker 1: made her mistakes in China. She has been in no
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Speaker 1: slight degree educated by the process through the possibilities of
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Speaker 1: relation in the future as beneficial to herself as to
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Speaker 1: her neighbor. It is fairly certain that Japan and China
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Speaker 1: will co operate in the future much more fully and
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Speaker 1: effectively than has been possible in the past. So again,
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Speaker 1: if Japan has had in the past her conflict with Russia,
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Speaker 1: she has learned by that conflict what are the things
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Speaker 1: worth fo for and how these objects may be best attained.
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Speaker 1: There may be much of truth in the rumors as
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Speaker 1: to the significance of what is known as the Pan
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Speaker 1: Asiatic movement. It might very well be that rebuffed in
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Speaker 1: the West, Japan may find it to her advantage to
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Speaker 1: court in Asia the prestige which she is grudged in
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Speaker 1: Europe or America. Nevertheless, however, clothes may grow the bond
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Speaker 1: which is to unite in the future the three great
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Speaker 1: Asiatic powers. It may be taken for granted that Japan
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Speaker 1: in no wise intense to forfeit the place she has
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Speaker 1: won by the arts of war and peace in the
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Speaker 1: councils of the West. Japan has much yet to win
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Speaker 1: from the reluctantations who have hitherto feared to make the
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Speaker 1: doctrine of racial equality the corollary of the famous claus
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Speaker 1: with which the American Constitution opens. Japan, it may be assumed,
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Speaker 1: will not be willingly remain quiescent under the stigma of
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Speaker 1: being a race of undesirables in the great human family.
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Speaker 1: This is something she resents far more than the refusal
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Speaker 1: of the privilege of sending a few hundred immigrants to
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Speaker 1: the American shores. It is fairly certain that the increased
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Speaker 1: interest in domestic politics which will result from the extension
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Speaker 1: of the franchise will also lead to an intensified interest
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Speaker 1: in the status of Japan among the powers, and to
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Speaker 1: renewed efforts to free the nation from the limitations at present. Excepted,
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Speaker 1: there appears to be no reason for supposing that such
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Speaker 1: a readjustment is impossible without least interference with the undoubted
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Speaker 1: right of the United States to determine the character of
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Speaker 1: its own incoming population. Turning into consideration of domestic affairs
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Speaker 1: in Japan, it is obvious that the Empire is becoming
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Speaker 1: increasingly democratic. Vi tide of democracy has brought with it
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Speaker 1: much of progress. It has also brought not a little
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Speaker 1: of present danger and manace to the future. That militarism
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Speaker 1: is less popular than afore time ought not to seem
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Speaker 1: surprising to those who remember that two centuries of Tokugawa
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Speaker 1: supremacy were but slightly infected with the military virus. Japan
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Speaker 1: became militaristic to meet and overcome dangers which threatened her
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Speaker 1: very existence. She would doubtless become so again were she
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Speaker 1: at any future time similarly threatened. But she prizes to
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Speaker 1: well the ways of peace to cultivate for their own
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Speaker 1: sake the arts of war. Socialism of various types, Marxist,
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Speaker 1: state socialist, Christian socialist, syndicalist, and anarchist, the last two
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Speaker 1: strictly controlled, has no doubt made headway with the d
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Speaker 1: some portion of the proletariat. But there is at present
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Speaker 1: no sign that the patriotism of Japan has lost its
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Speaker 1: faith or its ancient vigor. Labor organization again has undoubtedly
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Speaker 1: increased in strength, and economic discontent has been exploited by
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Speaker 1: strikes such as a few years ago would have been
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Speaker 1: instantly suppressed. But it would be strange, indeed, if the
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Speaker 1: evils of modern industrialism it slow wages its bed housing,
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Speaker 1: its problems of unemployment had been accepted without manifestation of revolt.
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Speaker 1: After the war, conditions changed for the worse more slowly
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Speaker 1: than in Europe, but Japan could not escape the swing
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Speaker 1: of the pendulum altogether. So whereas in nineteen fourteen there
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Speaker 1: were only fifty strikes involving less than eight thousand workers,
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Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen there were four hundred seventeen involving over
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Speaker 1: sixty six hundred. Since then, the growth of unemployment has
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Speaker 1: had the result of lessening the number of strikes Japanese industrialism,
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Speaker 1: which in part has been due to the necessity of
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Speaker 1: providing for the surplus population, and in part due to
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Speaker 1: the need of accommodating the nation, to which change civilization
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Speaker 1: has not yet succeeded in altering the essentially agricultural character
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Speaker 1: of the people as a whole. Seventy percent of the
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Speaker 1: population are still cultivators of the soil, and seventy percent
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Speaker 1: of these are tenants, each tiling an average of one
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Speaker 1: and half acres. A number of people equal to half
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Speaker 1: the population of the United States has to be supported
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Speaker 1: on one twentieth of the area of our own country.
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Speaker 1: Even with the drift to the cities. It will be
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Speaker 1: seen that there is here to be faits, a tremendous
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Speaker 1: problem which the progress of intensive farming and the efforts
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Speaker 1: to reclaim some of five million acres by utilization projects
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Speaker 1: cannot wholly solve. Special crops are being sought for such
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Speaker 1: lands as may promise large returns. Beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tobacco,
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Speaker 1: et cetera are being cultivated in favorable localities. It is
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Speaker 1: to be remembered also that sericulture employs the labor of
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Speaker 1: over one and a half million families, while nearly the
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Speaker 1: same number of individuals get their living by fishing. As
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Speaker 1: per work which especially that of women. Recent figures show
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Speaker 1: that twelve million, seven hundred seventy thousand women are engaged
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Speaker 1: in various occupations, with four million as farm hands, one million,
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Speaker 1: two hundred fifty thousand as factory workers, one million two
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand in business, one million as servants, and three
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Speaker 1: hundred twenty thousand in public service. That are at present
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Speaker 1: less than a thousand women doctors, though there are thirty
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Speaker 1: five thousand nurses and about the same number of midwives.
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Speaker 1: Trade union methods, of course, are the strongest in the cities,
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Speaker 1: but are beginning to affect the country's districts. Also, for example,
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Speaker 1: tenant farmers' unions have sprung up in recent years to
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Speaker 1: the number of five hundred. The recent successful agitation for
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Speaker 1: manhood suffrage has necessarily had its counterpart in the movement
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Speaker 1: for the political enfranchisement of women, and the Woman's Suffrage
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Speaker 1: Federation was actually able to bring a suffragette bill before
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Speaker 1: the diet. It was voted down, but will doubtless come
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Speaker 1: up again at any rate. The regulation forbidding women to
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Speaker 1: and political meetings has been repealed, and the Woman's Day,
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Speaker 1: established in nineteen twenty four is annually observed even without
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Speaker 1: the franchise. The modern Japanese woman is contributing largely to
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Speaker 1: welfare work. As doctor Faust has recently said, questions of education,
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Speaker 1: proper care of poor children, playgrounds for children, the milk supply,
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Speaker 1: and sanitary measures are the lines along which woman's suffrage
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Speaker 1: has been a decided help. Welfare work today is being
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Speaker 1: carried on by three types of organization. There is, first
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Speaker 1: of all, the Imperial Charity, which for emergency occasions mainly
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Speaker 1: has been extraordinarily generous. Secondly, there are the administrative agencies
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Speaker 1: providing for the insane, tubercular, the reform of refractory boys,
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Speaker 1: care of leapers, blind mind theft mutes, discharged prisoners, and
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Speaker 1: for the medical treatment or funeral expenses of unclaimed travelers.
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Speaker 1: Relief of this type is also given to the decripit
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Speaker 1: above seventy and to the physically disabled, to children under thirteen,
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Speaker 1: and to invalids. Under this head also come cooperative and
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Speaker 1: credit societies and the mutual aid associations organized in connection
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Speaker 1: with the government establishments. Thirdly, we have the welfare work
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Speaker 1: carried on by private individuals and voluntary associations, both Christian
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Speaker 1: and Buddhist. Under this head, it should be remembered that
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Speaker 1: an increasing number of the large mercantile establishment are now
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Speaker 1: engaged in welfare work among their employees by the provision
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Speaker 1: of doctors and nurses, playgrounds and entertainment halls, sik benefits
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Speaker 1: and the like. One of the most important of recently
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Speaker 1: organized pieces of welfare work is the project, under the
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Speaker 1: auspices of a son of Count Arima and with the
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Speaker 1: assistance of members of the Diet for the reclaiming of
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Speaker 1: the two million outcasts, known as the Eta. The leaders
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Speaker 1: of this movement says the Tokyo correspondent of the North
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Speaker 1: China Herald, fully realized that prejudices such as these die
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Speaker 1: hard in the East, especially prejudices that are handed down
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Speaker 1: through the centuries. They accordingly proposed to go to work
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Speaker 1: by raising the economic status of the etah, rather than
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Speaker 1: by attempting to deal with the problem on the social plane.
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Speaker 1: To a visitor, it is not easy to remember that
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Speaker 1: in pastimes the standard of living generally throughout Japan has
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Speaker 1: been far below the present Western marque. We are prone,
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Speaker 1: therefore to estimate present conditions rather by comparison with the
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Speaker 1: present American than with the Japanese standards of an earlier age.
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Speaker 1: With a fair degree of judgment, it should be plain
22:05
Speaker 1: that immense progress has been made in recent years. The
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Speaker 1: two danger spots are first the growth of industrialism and second,
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Speaker 1: the growing irreverence of the old sanctions of law and order.
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Speaker 1: The question is often asked as to the direction in
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Speaker 1: which the face of Japan is really turned. Will she,
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Speaker 1: with her international status accepted, make herself the missionary of
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Speaker 1: her ancient idealism. Mister Stomi expresses his own desire as follows,
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Speaker 1: I sincerely hope that there will come a time when
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Speaker 1: the value of the Japanese ancient idealism will be recognized
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Speaker 1: and appreciated by European philosophers and thinkers, and their assiduous
22:50
Speaker 1: study would eventually and reciprocally stimulate researches of this principle
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Speaker 1: of Japan. On the other hand, there are those who
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Speaker 1: desired to see Japan completely separated from her past in
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Speaker 1: order to pursue her national adventure along Western lines. Professor
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Speaker 1: Hartro writes, what we aspire to earnestly as our national
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Speaker 1: ideal is to make our country able to stand shoulder
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Speaker 1: to shoulder with the senior Western nations in contributing to
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Speaker 1: the advance and welfare of world civilization. We shall proceed
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Speaker 1: towards this goal. However, fluctuating foreign opinion about us may
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Speaker 1: be for years or ages to come. In all probability,
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Speaker 1: the two ideals may not prove irreconcilable. So far, the
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Speaker 1: Japanese have always exhibited marvelous aptitude for making the difficult
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Speaker 1: transitions and the necessary synthesis for their history with skill
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Speaker 1: and success. In the light of the achievement of the
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Speaker 1: past seventy five years, one has no need to fear
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Speaker 1: for the future. It is not the function of the
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Speaker 1: historian to indulge in speculation, which is about as near
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Speaker 1: as he may approach to the gift of prophecy. But
24:08
Speaker 1: it is possible to lay this little record of the
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Speaker 1: past before the opening portals of the future, with the
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Speaker 1: false conviction that the quality so brilliantly exemplified during the
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Speaker 1: past twenty five centuries will find the challenge of the
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Speaker 1: coming generation so uncongenial stimulus to struggle, no unreal harbringer
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Speaker 1: of feature victory. In the program of Japan, says doctor W. W. McLaren,
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Speaker 1: there will arise a long succession of difficult problems demanding solution.
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Speaker 1: But with the government resting upon the support of a
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Speaker 1: politically free people and led by a monarch, loyalty to
24:48
Speaker 1: whom is an article of faith, no problems need be feared.
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Speaker 1: With its manhood preserved and developed by the free exercise
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Speaker 1: of its faculties in all directions, no nations need dread
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Speaker 1: what the future has in store. All the demigods and
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Speaker 1: heroes of Yamato will look from their body of bliss
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Speaker 1: and give blood assent to such an assurance. The deeds
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Speaker 1: of Yamato Dake and of Hideyoshi the statesmanship of Yorimoto
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Speaker 1: and Yeyasu, the loyalty of Kusunoki and Nitayoshisada, the unquenchable
25:24
Speaker 1: faith of Takano, Nagahide and Yoshida Shoin. The manifold labors
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Speaker 1: of leaders from the first Fujiwaras to Kido, Okubo and Ito,
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Speaker 1: the majesty of kings from Jimmu Teno and Nintoku to
25:38
Speaker 1: Meiji Teno, vindicate and sustain our confidence. With only such
25:43
Speaker 1: anxiety as may spring from a common sympathy, the outside
25:47
Speaker 1: world has the best of grounds for the expression of
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Speaker 1: faith in the future of Japan. That world, with all
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Speaker 1: the many millions of the island Empire, may well join
25:58
Speaker 1: in singing the Kimigayo, the ancient prayer of the prayers
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Speaker 1: for the ruler who gathers up in his person, the
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Speaker 1: loyalty of a hundred generations of dainipom a thousand years
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Speaker 1: of happy life. Be thine live on, my Lord, till
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Speaker 1: what we are pebbles now by age united, the great
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Speaker 1: rocks shall grow, whose vulnerable sides the moss Doth line
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Speaker 1: end of Chapter thirty one