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

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty eight of an Outline History of Japan. This
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Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox 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: LibriVox dot org. Read by Sarafina. An Outlying History of
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Speaker 1: Japan by Herbert Henry Gowen, Chapter twenty eight, The New
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Speaker 1: Era of Taisho. Immediately after the passing away of Meiji Tenno,
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Speaker 1: two out of the three sacred treasures of the Empire,
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Speaker 1: the sword and the Jewel, were committed to the new
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Speaker 1: Sovereign Yoshito, with whom was inaugurated the Era of Taisho
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Speaker 1: Great Righteousness. The third treasure, the mirror, remained as was
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Speaker 1: customary in the Great Shrine at East Yoshihito Hadunomia, the
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Speaker 1: third son of Munsohito, was born on August thirty first,
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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, was made heir apparent on August thirty first,
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty seven, and was proclaimed Crown Prince November third,
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight. He was married to Sadako, daughter of
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Speaker 1: Prince Kujo, on May tenth, nineteen hundred. At the time
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Speaker 1: of his accession, he had three sons, the eldest of
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Speaker 1: whom the present Prince Regent Hirohito, was born April twenty ninth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen o one. The Kor Nation did not take place
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Speaker 1: till November nineteen fifteen, and was, as usual on such occasions,
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Speaker 1: a strange blend of the archaic and the ultra modern.
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Speaker 1: Among the most significant of the rites was the dae Josai,
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Speaker 1: which goes back to a time of immemorial antiquity. In
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Speaker 1: a primitive hut of unhewn timbers bound together with vines,
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Speaker 1: the Emperor kept his ten hours vigil. Here, the priests
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Speaker 1: made the motion of pouring hot water over him seven
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Speaker 1: times from a wooden ladle. Here he made obeisance to
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Speaker 1: the Sacred Sword and the Sacred Jewel. Here he made
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Speaker 1: his communion with the gods in three helpings of rice,
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Speaker 1: four cups of white sake, and four cups of black sake.
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Speaker 1: Here he reported to the gods his assumption of the
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Speaker 1: imperial authority. Ere this significant ceremony had taken place, the
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Speaker 1: realm was once again shadowed by death. A wave of
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Speaker 1: genuine grief passed over the land in the spring of
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Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, when it was announced that the widowed Empress
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Speaker 1: of meij Teno had passed away, though, but the mother
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Speaker 1: of the new Emperor. The deceased lady was bound to
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Speaker 1: him and to his family, as well as to the
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Speaker 1: nation at large by most affectionate ties. Once Again, the
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Speaker 1: quaint procession of oxen and creaking wheels expressed the woe
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Speaker 1: of the inarticulate. Once again, the love and loyalty of
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Speaker 1: the populace flowed forth unstintedly. The dead Empress was laid
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Speaker 1: to her last rest in Kyoto, and her spirit venerated
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Speaker 1: among the kami as the Empress Sholkin. The Marquis. Sayongji's
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Speaker 1: ministry did not long survive the accession of the new emperor.
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Speaker 1: Its downfall came about through the insistence of the War Minister,
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Speaker 1: General Uyehara, upon retaining two army divisions in Korea. As
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Speaker 1: the cabinet was embarked upon a policy of economy, and
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Speaker 1: as no other soldier would accept the war office without
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Speaker 1: the two divisions, Sayoonji had no alternative but to resign.
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Speaker 1: After something of a deadlock. Katsurah now Prince Katzurah, patriotically
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Speaker 1: offered to fill the gap, but the rising tide of
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Speaker 1: democratic feeling suspected his motives, and a resolution of no
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Speaker 1: confidence moved by mister Ozaki in the lower House created
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Speaker 1: so much feeling that the aged statesman felt obliged to resign.
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Speaker 1: He began at once the formation of a new party,
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Speaker 1: which was called Rigen Dooshikai. The Constitutional Crusaders Association, destined
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Speaker 1: to be influential enough in the after years, but the
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Speaker 1: banner of leadership soon fell from the failing hands of
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Speaker 1: Prince Katzurah, and before nineteen twelve was ended, he was dead.
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Speaker 1: He had been accused of appealing too frequently to the
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Speaker 1: Emperor for protection, and his death from cancer was that
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Speaker 1: of a humbled and disappointed man. In February nineteen thirteen
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Speaker 1: came the Yamamoto Ministry, but this was brought to an
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Speaker 1: end in a few months by what is known as
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Speaker 1: the Naval Scandal. This implicated quite a number of men,
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Speaker 1: some of them high in official position, who had accepted
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Speaker 1: bribes from the Seamen's Schukert Company in obtaining the contract
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Speaker 1: for building a Japanese warship. Another deadlock followed, during which
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Speaker 1: Prince Tokugawa and Viscount Kiora vainly attempted the formation of
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Speaker 1: a cabinet at last. On April fourteenth, nineteen fourteen, the
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Speaker 1: grand old Man of Wasida, Count Okuma, accepted the task
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Speaker 1: with the assistance of Prince Katsua's new party, the Doshikai.
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Speaker 1: The leader of this party, Baron Kato, became the new
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Speaker 1: Foreign Minister. It was to this cabinet that the responsibility
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Speaker 1: fell of deciding upon entrance into the Great War. The
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Speaker 1: room is still shown in which the epoch making decision
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Speaker 1: was made. On August one, nineteen fourteen, the Great War
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Speaker 1: burst upon a startled and bewildered world. It was soon
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Speaker 1: evident that Japan was ready, both in the spirit and
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Speaker 1: in the letter, to observe whatever obligations she had incured
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Speaker 1: by her alliance with Great Britain. It is with profound
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Speaker 1: regret ran the Imperial Edict, that we, in spite of
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Speaker 1: our ardent devotion to the cause of peace, are thus
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Speaker 1: compelled to declare war, especially at this early period of
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Speaker 1: our reign, and while we are still in mourning of
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Speaker 1: our lamented mother. Baron Katto explained in the Diet that
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Speaker 1: Japan had no desire or inclination to become involved in
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Speaker 1: the present conflict, but she believed she owed it to
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Speaker 1: herself to be faithful to the Alliance and to strengthen
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Speaker 1: its foundation by ensuring permanent peace in the East and
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Speaker 1: protecting the special interests of the two allied powers. On
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Speaker 1: August fifteen, Japan issued an ultimatum asking Germany to withdraw
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Speaker 1: all warships from Chinese and Japanese waters and deliver up
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Speaker 1: by September fifteenth, the entire least territory of kio Chow,
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Speaker 1: with a view to its eventual restoration to China. It
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Speaker 1: is said that the demand was with intentional sarcasm, modeled
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Speaker 1: upon that which Germany nearly twenty years previously had made
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Speaker 1: for the retrocession of the Laotung Peninsula. As no answer
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Speaker 1: was vouchsafed by Germany prior to August twenty three, war
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Speaker 1: was declared by Japan on the following day. It has
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Speaker 1: been stated that negotiations were already proceeding between Germany and
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Speaker 1: China for the abandonment at least temporarily of Zinghtau, but
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Speaker 1: in any case the initiative was with Japan. The first
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Speaker 1: Japanese troops were landed on September second, and these were
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Speaker 1: presently joined by a small Anglo Indian force under General Bernardstone.
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Speaker 1: The bombardment of the forts began on October thirty first,
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Speaker 1: and was so vigorously prosecuted that the defenders surrendered on
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Speaker 1: November seventh. The Allied troops made formal occupation of the
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Speaker 1: conquered port on November sixteenth. Even before the end of
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Speaker 1: the siege of Zinghtao, the Japanese fleet had destroyed in
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Speaker 1: a few days the German prestige in the Pacific, by
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Speaker 1: the capture of the largest of the Marshall Islands on
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Speaker 1: October sixth, the seizure of Yap on the day following,
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Speaker 1: and the occupation of all the Marshals, Ladrones and Carolines
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Speaker 1: by October twentieth. Of the further services of Japan to
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Speaker 1: the Allied cause in the Great War, we shall have
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Speaker 1: occasion to speak a little later. Within two months of
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Speaker 1: the taking of Singhtao, the warld World was startled by
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Speaker 1: an application to China at the hands of Japan, of
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Speaker 1: the doctrine of maximum pressure. On January eighteenth, nineteen fifteen,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Hioki, the Japanese Minister at Picking, personally served upon
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Speaker 1: President Yuan Shikai what are known as the twenty one demands.
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Speaker 1: These demands, arranged in five groups, may be roughly summarized
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Speaker 1: as follows. Group I dealt with the recently acquired territory
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Speaker 1: in Shangtung, securing the transfer to Japan of all the
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Speaker 1: privileges included in Germany's lease, and asking China's promise that
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Speaker 1: no future lease to any third power of territory in
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Speaker 1: the province of Shangtung should be considered. Group two asked
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Speaker 1: the acknowledgment of Japan's special position in Manchuria and Eastern
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Speaker 1: Mongolia and extension of the lease of Port Arthur to
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Speaker 1: a period of ninety nine years, and to certain rights
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Speaker 1: of residents, mining, and railway building by Japanese subjects in
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Speaker 1: these territories. Group three demanded that the Hanyabing Mining Company
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Speaker 1: should become the joint concern of Japan and China, thus
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Speaker 1: carrying Japanese influence into the Valley of the Yang Sea.
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Speaker 1: Group four asked the Chinese government to agree that no island, port,
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Speaker 1: or harbor along the coast shall be seated or least
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Speaker 1: to any third power. Group five may be quoted in
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Speaker 1: extensol since it was around these points that the bitterest
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Speaker 1: controversy raged Article one, the Chinese government shall employ forceful
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Speaker 1: Japanese as advisors in political, financial and military affairs. Article two.
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Speaker 1: In the interior of China, Japanese shall have the right
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Speaker 1: of ownership of land for the building of Japanese hospitals,
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Speaker 1: churches and schools. Article three. Since the Japanese government and
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Speaker 1: the Chinese government had many cases of dispute between Japanese
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Speaker 1: and Chinese police to settle cases which caused no inconsiderable misunderstanding,
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Speaker 1: it is for this reason necessary that the police of
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Speaker 1: important places in China shall be jointly administered by Japanese
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Speaker 1: and Chinese, or that the Chinese Police department of the
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Speaker 1: places shall employ numerous Japanese for the purpose of organizing
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Speaker 1: and improving the Chinese police service. Article four. China shall
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Speaker 1: purchase from Japan a fixed ration of the quantity of
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Speaker 1: munitions of war, say above fifty percent, or Japan shall
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Speaker 1: establish in China a jointly worked arsenal Japanese technical expert
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Speaker 1: to be employed and Japanese material to be purchased. Article five.
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Speaker 1: China agrees to Japan's right to build a railway connecting
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Speaker 1: Wu Chang with q k Yang and Nan Chang, also
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Speaker 1: a line between Wu Chang and hang Chau, and a
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Speaker 1: line between Nanchang and chiou Choo. Article six China agrees
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Speaker 1: that in the province of Fukian, Japan shall have the
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Speaker 1: right to work mines and build railways and to construct
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Speaker 1: harbor works including dockyards, and in case of employing foreign capital,
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Speaker 1: Japan shall be first consulted. Article seven China agrees that
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Speaker 1: Japanese subjects shall have the right to propagate Buddhism in China.
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Speaker 1: It must be confessed that when the news of the
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Speaker 1: demands was generally printed in March nineteen fifteen, a rather
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Speaker 1: painful impression was created, especially in the United States. But
12:51
Speaker 1: before describing the sequel, it is important to remember certain
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Speaker 1: essential facts. That Okuma was finding it necessary to seek
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Speaker 1: pure support for his rather heterogeneous combination of parties against
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Speaker 1: the sey Yuki by the presentation of a strong policy
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Speaker 1: is obviates. In this he felt justified in overlooking no
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Speaker 1: point which might serve to place Japan on a footing
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Speaker 1: of equality in all respects with Western countries. Hence his
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Speaker 1: request for concessions in the matter of advisers and religious
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Speaker 1: propaganda similar to those which had been won by the
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Speaker 1: Western powers. We must also, in this connection allow for
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Speaker 1: the Oriental spirit of bargaining, which always asks for more
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Speaker 1: than it expects to receive. Eventually, as Professor paysin treat
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Speaker 1: puts it, the treaties which finally resulted contained very great
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Speaker 1: modifications in the terms and included practically nothing which China
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Speaker 1: was not prepared to yield at the very beginning of
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Speaker 1: the long discussion. Okuma was therefore justified in giving out
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Speaker 1: that the negotiations between US and China were nearing a
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Speaker 1: satisfactory conclusion. As to the exacerbation of feeling in the
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Speaker 1: United States, there is little doubt that much was due
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Speaker 1: to deliberate attempts to sow discord between Japan and her
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Speaker 1: European allies, and that much criticism was in ignorance of
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Speaker 1: the facts since revealed by the correspondence published in the
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Speaker 1: Reports of the American Foreign Office. Professor treat points out
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Speaker 1: that it was in connection with the desire of the
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Speaker 1: United States to secure a coaling station at Samsa Inlet
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Speaker 1: north of Fuchau, a point as strategically dangerous to Japan
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Speaker 1: as a Japanese coaling station would be in the bermudas
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Speaker 1: that Group four was pressed upon China. We also learned
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Speaker 1: adds Doctor treat that is, by the publication of the
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Speaker 1: American Reports, that the American Department of State, after a
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Speaker 1: careful scrutiny of the Japanese demands, and in the light
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Speaker 1: of information received from our representatives in Picking and Tokyo,
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Speaker 1: informed Japan that in respect to sixteen of the demands,
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Speaker 1: it was not disposed to raise any question. These included
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Speaker 1: the demands regarding Shangtang Province for which Japan was so
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Speaker 1: roundly denounced in the United States four years later, and
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Speaker 1: regarding South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia. Only five of
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Speaker 1: the demands seemed objectionable to our State Department, two of
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Speaker 1: these on the ground that they would be a violation
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Speaker 1: of the principle of the open door, and three because
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Speaker 1: they were clearly derogatory to the political independence and administrative
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Speaker 1: entity of that country. Japan acceded to our suggestions. In
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Speaker 1: every case, four of the demands were dropped, and the
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Speaker 1: fifth was changed to an exchange of notes, which, following
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Speaker 1: our suggestion, stated that China would not permit any power
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Speaker 1: to construct a dock yard a calling station for military
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Speaker 1: use or a naval base, or to set up any
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Speaker 1: other military establishment on the coast of Fukian Province, nor
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Speaker 1: shall they allow any like establishment to be set up
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Speaker 1: with any foreign capital on the said coast. In other words,
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Speaker 1: there was absolutely nothing in the Sino Japanese treaties of
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen to which the American government had taken the
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Speaker 1: slightest offense to go back. A little after the statement
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Speaker 1: by Okoma that the uneasiness and suspicion in the United
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Speaker 1: States in connection with Japanese negotiations at Peking are based
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Speaker 1: on misunderstanding and misinformation scattered broadcast by interested mischief makers,
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Speaker 1: Group five was withdrawn. It was announced that these particular
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Speaker 1: demands were not intended to be enforced at the present time,
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Speaker 1: but were only presented as principles which it was considered
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Speaker 1: well that China should endorse in a revised form. The
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Speaker 1: demands were presented again on April twenty sixth, and upon
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Speaker 1: China replying with further protest, an ultimatum was dispatched on
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Speaker 1: May seven by Japan, which on the following day was accepted. China, however,
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Speaker 1: continued to show her dissatisfaction by a boycott of Japanese goods,
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Speaker 1: and by the raising of a fund known as the
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Speaker 1: National Salvation Fund. Years afterwards, even when the Treaty of
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifteen was to the world outside of China of
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Speaker 1: little more than historical interest, the idiographs for remember the
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Speaker 1: National Shame continued to deface the walls and temples of China.
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Speaker 1: The world at large was content for the time to rest,
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Speaker 1: satisfied with the solution reached. Whatever might be the discontent
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Speaker 1: with the past or suspicion as to the future, it
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Speaker 1: had perforce to be recognized that Japan was left secure
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Speaker 1: in her claim to be the dominating power of the
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Speaker 1: Far East. She had won this position by her valor,
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Speaker 1: her diplomacy, and her readiness to rise at critical moments
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Speaker 1: to the magnitude of her responsibilities. As setting a seal
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Speaker 1: to the fact we have just mentioned, it is important
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Speaker 1: to remember the agreement reached at Washington on November two,
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen, between the governments of Japan and the United States,
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Speaker 1: as represented by Viscount Ischi and mister Robert Lansing, respectively.
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Speaker 1: The substance of the agreement was not so much in
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Speaker 1: any new department as in the expression of mutual understanding
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Speaker 1: of the principles governing the two governments. In relation to China,
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Speaker 1: mister Lansing explicitly recognizes that Japan has special interests in China,
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Speaker 1: particularly in the part to which her possessions are contiguous.
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Speaker 1: After stating that there had been unquestionably growing up between
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Speaker 1: the people of the two continents, a feeling of suspicion
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Speaker 1: as to the motives inducing the activities of the other
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Speaker 1: in the Far East, mister Lansing affirms that the visit
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Speaker 1: of Viscount Ishi has changed all. This has swept away
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Speaker 1: the work of mischievous propaganda and created an atmosphere of
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Speaker 1: trust and confidence. On the first day of December nineteen seventeen,
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Speaker 1: President Wilson addressed to the Emperor a fitting answer to
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Speaker 1: Yoshihito's own cordial message, in which it was stated that
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Speaker 1: the result of his Viscount Ishi's visit will be as
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Speaker 1: happy and as permanent as the enduring friendship of the
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Speaker 1: peoples of the United States and Japan. It will be
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Speaker 1: remembered that soon after several distorted versions of the agreement appeared,
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Speaker 1: it was asserted that mister Lansing had been hoodwinked, especially
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Speaker 1: as he was ignorant at the time of Allied commitments
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Speaker 1: to Japan. Before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in
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Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, mister Lansing stated that the phrase as to
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Speaker 1: Japan's special relation to China through territorial propinquity was inserted
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Speaker 1: by Ishi's own suggestion. But in a letter from mister
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Speaker 1: Bryan to the Japanese ambassador of March thirteenth, nineteen fifteen,
20:29
Speaker 1: two years before the agreement in question, the then Secretary
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Speaker 1: of State wrote as follows, the United States frankly recognizes
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Speaker 1: that territorial contiquity creates special relations between Japan and these districts,
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Speaker 1: that is, Shangtan, South Manchuria, and East Mongolia. There was
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Speaker 1: nothing whatever in the statement which was foreign to the
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Speaker 1: claims of Japan or dangerous to the interests of the
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Speaker 1: United States. In comparison with the literature poured forth from
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Speaker 1: the press dealing with the World War as it affected France, Flanders,
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Speaker 1: Great Britain, or Italy, there has been little written to
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Speaker 1: tell of Japan's share in the Great Conflict. Of course,
21:14
Speaker 1: in the actual amount of fighting and in the loss
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Speaker 1: of blood and treasure, Japan's part was comparatively insignificant. Yet
21:22
Speaker 1: it would be misleading to judge of Japan's value to
21:24
Speaker 1: the Alliance by this standard. At the very least, the
21:29
Speaker 1: power and prestige of the Japanese fleet set free the
21:32
Speaker 1: navies of Great Britain and later of the United States
21:36
Speaker 1: for service in the Atlantic and the North Sea. In addition,
21:41
Speaker 1: there was the capture already alluded to of Germany's base
21:44
Speaker 1: in the Pacific Zinghtau, and with the co operation off
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Speaker 1: Australia and New Zealand of the enemy's insular possessions, that
21:54
Speaker 1: Japan was able to clear the Pacific of hostile warships
21:58
Speaker 1: and commerce raiders, to force Bonsbi's fleet from the Pacific
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Speaker 1: to the Atlantic, where it met its doom, to help
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Speaker 1: the convoying of large forces of ansecs to Egypt and
22:10
Speaker 1: the Dardanelles, to head off German schemes for promoting uprisings
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Speaker 1: in China and Manchuria, to protect the Siberian Railway, to
22:20
Speaker 1: furnish at a critical time arms and ammunition to Russia.
22:25
Speaker 1: And to assist materially the suppression of the submarine menace
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Speaker 1: in the Mediterranean, not to mention the services of the
22:32
Speaker 1: five hundred Japanese volunteers from the Pacific coast who fought
22:37
Speaker 1: in the Canadian and American armies is eloquent testimony to
22:41
Speaker 1: the loyalty and efficiency of the support rendered in the
22:44
Speaker 1: Allied cause. The steady adhesion of Japan to the Great Cause,
22:51
Speaker 1: in spite of whatever temptation to the contrary, in spite
22:55
Speaker 1: even of anti British propaganda prior to the entrance of America,
22:59
Speaker 1: made ou Asia safe and greatly lessened the anxiety of
23:03
Speaker 1: those nations which were called upon to bear the brunt
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Speaker 1: of the conflict in the West. Mister Wilson's famous assertion
23:11
Speaker 1: that the war was meant to make the world safe
23:14
Speaker 1: for democracy had its echoes in many different directions. These
23:19
Speaker 1: were clearly audible in Japan as elsewhere. Doctor Jenks states
23:24
Speaker 1: that as early as nineteen hundred, Prince Ito's trusted lieutenants
23:29
Speaker 1: foresaw the steps by which the Japanese government was to
23:32
Speaker 1: move away from the German ideals which had once been
23:35
Speaker 1: entertained to something like the system of party responsibility prevailing
23:40
Speaker 1: in Great Britain. The formation of the sey Yukai was
23:44
Speaker 1: an indication of this. While the career of men like
23:47
Speaker 1: mister Yukio Ozaki, the leader of a more extreme liberal party,
23:52
Speaker 1: is striking witness to the growing desire for fuller democratization
23:56
Speaker 1: of the nation without thereby weakening the thread of loyalty
24:00
Speaker 1: to the throne which runs through the entire fabric of
24:03
Speaker 1: Japanese history. The wonderful industrial development made possible by the
24:09
Speaker 1: World War had the immediate result of increasing the wealth
24:12
Speaker 1: of Japan beyond all president Whereas before this there had
24:17
Speaker 1: been annual additions to the national debt approximating ninety million dollars,
24:22
Speaker 1: the government was now able to redeem many of its
24:25
Speaker 1: foreign loans and increase its gold reserve to the amount
24:28
Speaker 1: of a billion dollars. But there was a bad side
24:31
Speaker 1: to it all. For while the profiteers or naigin literally
24:37
Speaker 1: become gold rioted in luxury and extravagance, others began to
24:42
Speaker 1: feel the increased cost of living and to breathe the
24:45
Speaker 1: spirit of discontent with the atmosphere of democracy. In consequence,
24:51
Speaker 1: strikes began once more to be common. The labour movement,
24:55
Speaker 1: it should be remembered, inaugurated by socialists of the type
24:59
Speaker 1: of katayama A eighteen ninety seven, had been suppressed by
25:02
Speaker 1: the application of Article seventeen of the Public Order Police
25:06
Speaker 1: Law of nineteen hundred, with the result that trade unions
25:10
Speaker 1: were practically unknown again till nineteen sixteen. But in nineteen
25:14
Speaker 1: seventeen there were four hundred seventeen strikes affecting over sixty
25:19
Speaker 1: thousand workers, and a year later, in spite of better times,
25:23
Speaker 1: there were four hundred ninety seven. In August of nineteen
25:27
Speaker 1: eighteen occurred the Rice Riots of Kobe, which led to
25:31
Speaker 1: the downfall of the Tayuchi Ministry. There was quite a
25:36
Speaker 1: popular demand for a new government more in sympathy with
25:39
Speaker 1: popular aspirations, and the first commoner to head a Japanese
25:43
Speaker 1: ministry was found in the person of mister Takashi Haa,
25:47
Speaker 1: leader of the sey Yukai in secession to Sayonji. Mister
25:52
Speaker 1: Haa was not a graduate of any university, but had
25:56
Speaker 1: had long experience of political life. He was for some
26:00
Speaker 1: years Ito's right hand man and had served his country
26:04
Speaker 1: as counsul in Tiensin charged the affairs at Paris, vice
26:08
Speaker 1: Minister of Commerce, Minister in Korea, and Minister for Home
26:13
Speaker 1: Affairs before taking the premiership. Political and social progress was
26:19
Speaker 1: now the order of the day and a perfect ferror
26:22
Speaker 1: for democracy took the place of the earlier militarism. Some
26:27
Speaker 1: of the movements now presented were, of course, of earlier
26:31
Speaker 1: origin and inspiration. The Yuen Kai Labourer's Friendly Association was
26:38
Speaker 1: founded in nineteen twelve by a young Christian lawyer, Bunji Suzuki.
26:43
Speaker 1: The factory Law forbidding the employment of children under twelve
26:48
Speaker 1: except for light work and with special permission also the
26:52
Speaker 1: employment of children and women for more than twelve hours
26:54
Speaker 1: a day and providing for at least thirty minutes rest
26:58
Speaker 1: within the first six hours of war, had been passed
27:01
Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven, but had been put in force and
27:05
Speaker 1: even then with some reservations, only in nineteen sixteen. But
27:10
Speaker 1: now welfare work of the most various kinds began to
27:14
Speaker 1: be popular, and attention was drawn to industrial conditions in
27:18
Speaker 1: the factories and minds, demanding sympathy and reform. A good
27:23
Speaker 1: illustration of the quickening of conscience in social matters is
27:27
Speaker 1: to be found in the career of mister Toyohiko Kalgawa
27:31
Speaker 1: of Kobe, whose remarkable work crossing the Death Line has
27:36
Speaker 1: gone through over three hundred editions. The Saint of the
27:40
Speaker 1: Shinkawa slums is the Japanese Saint Francis of Assisi, who
27:45
Speaker 1: has lived literally the Sermon on the Mount, passing through
27:49
Speaker 1: a period of temptation and mental struggle into a life
27:52
Speaker 1: of consecrated service for his fellow men. The authorities at
27:57
Speaker 1: first considered him a dangerous radical, but are at last
28:01
Speaker 1: waking up to the fact that he represents one of
28:04
Speaker 1: the strongest conservative forces among laborers in Japan. The completion
28:10
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen of fifty years since the return of
28:14
Speaker 1: the Sun Goddess from her cavern of seclusion may afford
28:18
Speaker 1: us a good opportunity for the briefest possible summary of
28:21
Speaker 1: conditions in Japan as they were at the point to
28:24
Speaker 1: which we have now come. Politically, Japan was in nineteen
28:29
Speaker 1: eighteen still in the age of experiment, though not a
28:33
Speaker 1: few steps had been made with brilliant success. That the
28:37
Speaker 1: constitution had always worked well, not even its warmest friends
28:40
Speaker 1: would have admitted, but it was gradually becoming more and
28:44
Speaker 1: more efficient. There was less need as the years went
28:48
Speaker 1: on for that rapidly diminishing body of the elder statesman,
28:52
Speaker 1: the Genro, who had rendered such great service in Meiji.
28:58
Speaker 1: The cry was now for ninsei, ninken and jiu, that
29:03
Speaker 1: is popular government, popular rights and liberty. And with it
29:08
Speaker 1: all there was the recognition of the nation's ability to
29:12
Speaker 1: continue without a break, the eager quest for democratic forms
29:16
Speaker 1: of government in harmony with the age long devotion to
29:19
Speaker 1: the throne and its august occupant. Quoting a stanza written
29:24
Speaker 1: by the late Empress Dowager to the effect that, however
29:29
Speaker 1: shallow the mountain rivulet, if dammed up, it will overflow,
29:34
Speaker 1: so will it happen with the sentiments of the people.
29:38
Speaker 1: Mister Ozaki about this time affirmed that the future of
29:41
Speaker 1: Japan would not belie the fundamental secret of government, which
29:46
Speaker 1: guides and acts upon the popular sentiment materially. The progress
29:52
Speaker 1: of Japan up to this point was without president. The
29:56
Speaker 1: area of the empire had increased from one hundred forty
29:59
Speaker 1: four thousand square miles to two hundred fifty seven thousand,
30:03
Speaker 1: six hundred seventy three. The population, roughly estimated in eighteen
30:09
Speaker 1: sixty eight at thirty million, was at the close of
30:13
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen seventy seven million two hundred eighty nine thousand,
30:17
Speaker 1: four hundred ninety four, with an average yearly increase of
30:21
Speaker 1: some six hundred thousand. The revenue of the Empire from
30:26
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two to nineteen seventeen had increased from fifty
30:31
Speaker 1: eight to seven hundred fourteen million yen, drawn in large
30:35
Speaker 1: part from the taxes on land, income, liquors, and customs duties.
30:41
Speaker 1: Foreign trade had increased by leaps and bounds, and the shipping,
30:46
Speaker 1: which in eighteen sixty eight was a negative quantity, amounted
30:50
Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety three to fifteen thousand tons, and before
30:54
Speaker 1: the end of the Great War to over two million tons,
30:58
Speaker 1: with great companies like Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Tokyo Kisen Kaisha
31:04
Speaker 1: and Osaka Shosen Kaisha sending out their vessels to the
31:08
Speaker 1: ends of the earth. Railways, which were inaugurated in eighteen
31:13
Speaker 1: seventy two by the opening of a line eighteen miles
31:16
Speaker 1: in length, now extended over seven thousand miles, of which
31:21
Speaker 1: six thousand were the property of the state. Mining had
31:26
Speaker 1: become increasingly important, both in Japan proper and in Korea,
31:30
Speaker 1: with copper and coal the chief products, and iron, petroleum,
31:35
Speaker 1: gold and silver in respective amounts. The fisheries were providing
31:40
Speaker 1: the food supply of a large part of the nation,
31:43
Speaker 1: and occupation for nearly two million people. Agriculture was still
31:48
Speaker 1: supporting three fifths of the population, with three hundred million
31:52
Speaker 1: bushels of rice produced annually and wheat, rye, barley, millet, potatoes, soybeans,
32:01
Speaker 1: and other crops in proportion. Manufacturers had made enormous strides.
32:07
Speaker 1: At the close of nineteen fifteen, there were nearly seventeen
32:11
Speaker 1: thousand factories producing textiles, machinery, chemicals, food stuffs, and miscellaneous goods.
32:20
Speaker 1: About one million, five hundred thousand families were keeping up
32:23
Speaker 1: the reputation of Japan for sericulture. The telegraph system included
32:29
Speaker 1: five thousand offices and over a hundred thousand miles of wire,
32:34
Speaker 1: with telephone stations practically everywhere. The postal system had over
32:39
Speaker 1: seven thousand offices in the empire, and at Tokyo there
32:43
Speaker 1: were twelve daily deliveries of mail in her dependencies. Japan
32:49
Speaker 1: had made notable advance twenty years. Rule in Taiwan had
32:53
Speaker 1: subjugated the head hunters, established drains, sewers and a water
32:58
Speaker 1: system in the capital, built four thousand miles of roads
33:02
Speaker 1: and many miles of light railways, made extensive harbor works,
33:07
Speaker 1: established trade in tea, salt rice, sugar and camphor, and
33:14
Speaker 1: in short turned a liability into a flourishing asset. In Korea,
33:19
Speaker 1: progress had been slower, but over one thousand miles of
33:23
Speaker 1: railway had been opened by the end of nineteen seventeen,
33:26
Speaker 1: and many important reforms carried out. Intellectually, development kept pace
33:32
Speaker 1: well with the economic advance. Elementary, secondary, university and technical
33:39
Speaker 1: education had played a great part in training young Japan
33:42
Speaker 1: for her enhanced share in international life. There were four
33:47
Speaker 1: Imperial universities with ten thousand students and twenty five thousand
33:52
Speaker 1: schools attended by eight million, two hundred fifty thousand pupils.
33:57
Speaker 1: In nineteen o six, ninety eight percent of the boys
34:01
Speaker 1: and ninety five percent of the girls were in actual attendance.
34:06
Speaker 1: The private universities and missionary schools were also contributing their part,
34:11
Speaker 1: and educational authorities were keenly alert to make reforms when
34:15
Speaker 1: discovered and needed. In literature, Japan had passed with a
34:21
Speaker 1: swing of a pendulum from the craze for Western books
34:25
Speaker 1: to a reaction in favor of Japanese literature, and again
34:28
Speaker 1: to a more synthetic and balanced use of things both
34:32
Speaker 1: native and foreign. The native schools of philosophy and fiction
34:37
Speaker 1: were jostling the devotees of Nietzsche and Tolstoy, and revival
34:42
Speaker 1: of the Nu drama was at rivalry with enthusiasm for
34:46
Speaker 1: the Irish drama. Attempts had been made to amalgamate the
34:51
Speaker 1: written and spoken languages and to supersede the Kana with Romaji,
34:56
Speaker 1: but so far, while foreign textbooks were commonly used in
34:59
Speaker 1: the school, the Japanese language and script continued to hold
35:03
Speaker 1: their own. Foreign wars had brought about an immense advance
35:08
Speaker 1: in journalism. Periodicals on every conceivable subject abounded. In nineteen fourteen,
35:16
Speaker 1: there were registered two thousand, seven hundred nineteen periodicals, of
35:20
Speaker 1: which eight hundred sixty one were newspapers. Several years later
35:25
Speaker 1: there were six newspapers in Tokyo and Osaka, each with
35:29
Speaker 1: a daily circulation of two hundred thousand copies or over,
35:33
Speaker 1: while other influential journals were printed in English. In art,
35:38
Speaker 1: though the bad taste of foreigners had often placed a
35:41
Speaker 1: premium on inferior work, the encouragement given by the government
35:45
Speaker 1: to painting and sculpture, the publication of copies of old masterpieces,
35:50
Speaker 1: the establishment of institutions such as the Tokyo art school,
35:55
Speaker 1: the personal efforts of teachers like Okakura Kakuzo, and above
36:00
Speaker 1: all the innate artistic sense of the Japanese people have
36:04
Speaker 1: kept things along the right path. In religion, there was,
36:09
Speaker 1: of course much that was chaotic. Shinto had become for
36:14
Speaker 1: many a political philosophy rather than a religion with its
36:18
Speaker 1: traditional ritual on important national occasions, but there was nevertheless
36:24
Speaker 1: a religious Shinto which should not be overlooked. Thirteen Shinto
36:29
Speaker 1: sects were officially recognized, with fourteen thousand priests and one
36:33
Speaker 1: hundred twenty thousand shrines. Buddhism was marked by many serious
36:38
Speaker 1: attempts at reform, but had on the whole lost ground.
36:42
Speaker 1: There were twelve recognized Buddhist sects, with fifty thousand priests
36:47
Speaker 1: and seventy thousand temples. The ethics of Confucius had considerable vogue,
36:53
Speaker 1: but many of the younger men felt that Confucianism was
36:56
Speaker 1: out of harmony with Western civilization. Christianity had grown steadily,
37:02
Speaker 1: and probably at this time, including all church bodies, numbered
37:07
Speaker 1: close to two hundred thousand professed believers. Okuma in nineteen
37:12
Speaker 1: o nine summed up the religious condition as follows. Japan
37:18
Speaker 1: at present may be likened to a sea into which
37:21
Speaker 1: a hundred currents of Oriental and Occidental thought have poured,
37:26
Speaker 1: and not having yet effected effusion, are raging wildly, tossing, warring,
37:33
Speaker 1: and roaring. The old religions and old morals are steadily
37:39
Speaker 1: losing their hold, and nothing has yet arisen to take
37:42
Speaker 1: their place. A portion of our people go neither by
37:46
Speaker 1: the old code of ethics and etiquette nor by those
37:49
Speaker 1: of modern days, while they are also disinclined to conform
37:53
Speaker 1: to those of foreign countries, and such persons convey the
37:57
Speaker 1: impression of neither possessing nor being governed by any ideas
38:01
Speaker 1: about morality public or private. That the situation was not
38:07
Speaker 1: without its anxieties is shown by the convoking of a
38:10
Speaker 1: tri religion conference in March nineteen twelve by the then
38:15
Speaker 1: Vice Minister of Home Affairs, when fifty Shinto, Buddhist and
38:21
Speaker 1: Christian representatives assembled to discuss how they might best meet
38:25
Speaker 1: the spiritual needs of the nation. That such anxiety existed
38:30
Speaker 1: was proof positive that those responsible for the moral welfare
38:33
Speaker 1: of the nation were not asleep at their posts. End
38:39
Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty eight