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A former solider must protect his ex-fiancée and
his secret son in the next installment of The
Specialists: Heroes Next Door
Addi

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TO HONOR AND
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 high property qualification, elected by voters
Local having one-half of that qualification; the voting to
Government. be by signed ballot, and the session to last for
one month in the spring of each year. As to their
functions, they were to determine the method of levying and
spending local taxes, subject to approval by the minister of state for
home affairs; to scrutinize the accounts for the previous year, and, if
necessary, to present petitions to the central government. Thus the
foundations of genuine representative institutions were laid. It is
true that legislative power was not vested in the local assemblies,
but in all other important respects they discharged parliamentary
duties. Their history need not be related at any length. Sometimes
they came into violent collision with the governor of the prefecture,
and unsightly struggles resulted. The governors were disposed to
advocate public works which the people considered extravagant; and
further, as years went by, and as political organizations grew
stronger, there was found in each assembly a group of men ready to
oppose the governor simply because of his official status. But on the
whole the system worked well. The local assemblies served as
training schools for the future parliament, and their members
showed devotion to public duty as well as considerable aptitude for
debate.

This was not what Itagaki and his followers wanted. Their purpose
was to overthrow the clique of clansmen who, holding the reins of
administrative power, monopolized the prizes of officialdom. Towards
the consummation of such an aim the local
The Liberal assemblies helped little. Itagaki redoubled his
Party. agitation. He organized his fellow-thinkers into an
association called jiyūtō (Liberals), the first
political party in Japan, to whose ranks there very soon gravitated
several men who had been in office and resented the loss of it;
many that had never been in office and desired to be; and a still
greater number who sincerely believed in the principles of political
liberty, but had not yet considered the possibility of immediately
adapting such principles to Japan’s case. It was in the nature of
things that an association of this kind, professing such doctrines,
should present a picturesque aspect to the public, and that its
collisions with the authorities should invite popular sympathy. Nor
were collisions infrequent. For the government, arguing that if the
nation was not ready for representative institutions, neither was it
ready for full freedom of speech or of public meeting, legislated
consistently with that theory, and entrusted to the police large
powers of control over the press and the platform. The exercise of
these powers often created situations in which the Liberals were able
to pose as victims of official tyranny, so that they grew in popularity
and the contagion of political agitation spread.

Three years later (1881) another split occurred in the ranks of the
ruling oligarchy. Okuma Shigenobu (afterwards Count Okuma)
seceded from the administration, and was followed by a number of
able men who had owed their appointments to
The Progressist his patronage, or who, during his tenure of office
Party. as minister of finance, had passed under the
influence of his powerful personality. If Itagaki be
called the Rousseau of Japan, Okuma may be regarded as the Peel.
To remarkable financial ability and a lucid, vigorous judgment he
added the faculty of placing himself on the crest of any wave which
a genuine aura popularis had begun to swell. He, too, inscribed on
his banner of revolt against the oligarchy the motto “constitutional
government,” and it might have been expected that his followers
would join hands with those of Itagaki, since the avowed political
purpose of both was identical. They did nothing of the kind. Okuma
organized an independent party, calling themselves Progressists
(shimpotō), who not only stood aloof from the Liberals but even
assumed an attitude hostile to them. This fact is eloquent. It shows
that Japan’s first political parties were grouped, not about principles,
but about persons. Hence an inevitable lack of cohesion among their
elements and a constant tendency to break up into caves and
coteries. These are the characteristics that render the story of
political evolution in Japan so perplexing to a foreign student. He
looks for differences of platform and finds none. Just as a true
Liberal must be a Progressist, and a true Progressist a Liberal, so,
though each may cast his profession of faith in a mould of different
phrases, the ultimate shape must be the same. The mainsprings of
early political agitation in Japan were personal grievances and a
desire to wrest the administrative power from the hands of the
statesmen who had held it so long as to overtax the patience of their
rivals. He that searches for profound moral or ethical bases will be
disappointed. There were no Conservatives. Society was permeated
with the spirit of progress. In a comparative sense the epithet
“Conservative” might have been applied to the statesmen who
proposed to defer parliamentary institutions until the people, as
distinguished from the former samurai, had been in some measure
prepared for such an innovation. But since these very statesmen
were the guiding spirits of the whole Meiji revolution, it was plain
that their convictions must be radical, and that, unless they did
violence to their record, they must finally lead the country to
representative institutions, the logical sequel of their own reforms.

Okubo’s assassination had been followed, in 1878, by an edict

announcing the establishment of local assemblies. Okuma’s
secession in 1881 was followed by an edict announcing that a
national assembly would be convened in 1891.

The political parties, having now virtually attained their object,

might have been expected to desist from further agitation. But they
had another task to perform—that of disseminating anti-official
prejudices among the future electors. They
Anti- worked diligently, and they had an undisputed
Government field, for no one was put forward to champion the
Agitation. government’s cause. The campaign was not
always conducted on lawful lines. There were
plots to assassinate ministers; there was an attempt to employ
dynamite, and there was a scheme to foment an insurrection in
Korea. On the other hand, dispersals of political meetings by order of
police inspectors, and suspension or suppression of newspapers by
the unchallengeable verdict of a minister for home affairs, were
common occurrences. The breach widened steadily. It is true that
Okuma rejoined the cabinet for a time in 1887, but he retired again
in circumstances that aggravated his party’s hostility to officialdom.
In short, during the ten years immediately prior to the opening of
the first parliament, an anti-government propaganda was incessantly
preached from the platform and in the press.

Meanwhile the statesmen in power resolutely pursued their path

of progressive reform. They codified the civil and penal laws,
remodelling them on Western bases; they brought a vast number of
affairs within the scope of minute regulations; they rescued the
finances from confusion and restored them to a sound condition;
they recast the whole framework of local government; they
organized a great national bank, and established a network of
subordinate institutions throughout the country; they pushed on the
work of railway construction, and successfully enlisted private
enterprise in its cause; they steadily extended the postal and
telegraphic services; they economized public expenditures so that
the state’s income always exceeded its outlays; they laid the
foundations of a strong mercantile marine; they instituted a system
of postal savings-banks; they undertook large schemes of harbour
improvement and road-making; they planned and put into operation
an extensive programme of riparian improvement; they made civil
service appointments depend on competitive examination; they sent
numbers of students to Europe and America to complete their
studies; and by tactful, persevering diplomacy they gradually
introduced a new tone into the empire’s relations with foreign
powers. Japan’s affairs were never better administered.

In 1890 the Constitution was promulgated. Imposing ceremonies

marked the event. All the nation’s notables were summoned to the
palace to witness the delivery of the important document by the
sovereign to the prime minister; salvos of artillery
The were fired; the cities were illuminated, and the
Constitution of people kept holiday. Marquis (afterwards Prince)
1890. Itō directed the framing of the Constitution. He
had visited the Occident for the purpose of
investigating the development of parliamentary institutions and
studying their practical working. His name is connected with nearly
every great work of constructive statesmanship in the history of new
Japan, and perhaps the crown of his legislative career was the
drafting of the Constitution, to which the Japanese people point
proudly as the only charter of the kind voluntarily given by a
sovereign to his subjects. In other countries such concessions were
always the outcome of long struggles between ruler and ruled. In
Japan the emperor freely divested himself of a portion of his
prerogatives and transferred them to the people. That view of the
case, as may be seen from the story told above, is not untinged with
romance; but in a general sense it is true.

No incident in Japan’s modern career seemed more hazardous

than this sudden plunge into parliamentary institutions. There had
been some preparation. Provincial assemblies had partially
familiarized the people with the methods of
Working of the deliberative bodies. But provincial assemblies
System. were at best petty arenas—places where the
making or mending of roads, and the policing and
sanitation of villages came up for discussion, and where political
parties exercised no legislative function nor found any opportunity to
attack the government or to debate problems of national interest.
Thus the convening of a diet and the sudden transfer of financial
and legislative authority from the throne and its entourage of tried
statesmen to the hands of men whose qualifications for public life
rested on the verdict of electors, themselves apparently devoid of all
light to guide their choice—this sweeping innovation seemed likely to
tax severely, if not to overtax completely, the progressive capacities
of the nation. What enhanced the interest of the situation was that
the oligarchs who held the administrative power had taken no pains
to win a following in the political field. Knowing that the opening of
the diet would be a veritable letting loose of the dogs of war, an
unmuzzling of the agitators whose mouths had hitherto been partly
closed by legal restrictions upon free speech, but who would now
enjoy complete immunity within the walls of the assembly whatever
the nature of their utterances—foreseeing all this, the statesmen of
the day nevertheless stood severely aloof from alliances of every
kind, and discharged their administrative functions with apparent
indifference to the changes that popular representation could not fail
to induce. This somewhat inexplicable display of unconcern became
partially intelligible when the constitution was promulgated, for it
then appeared that the cabinet’s tenure of office was to depend
solely on the emperor’s will; that ministers were to take their
mandate from the Throne, not from parliament. This fact was merely
an outcome of the theory underlying every part of the Japanese
polity. Laws might be redrafted, institutions remodelled, systems
recast, but amid all changes and mutations one steady point must
be carefully preserved, the Throne. The makers of new Japan
understood that so long as the sanctity and inviolability of the
imperial prerogatives could be preserved, the nation would be held
by a strong anchor from drifting into dangerous waters. They
laboured under no misapprehension about the inevitable issue of
their work in framing the constitution. They knew very well that
party cabinets are an essential outcome of representative
institutions, and that to some kind of party cabinet Japan must
come. But they regarded the Imperial mandate as a conservative
safeguard, pending the organization and education of parties
competent to form cabinets. Such parties did not yet exist, and until
they came into unequivocal existence, the Restoration statesmen,
who had so successfully managed the affairs of the nation during a
quarter of a century, resolved that the steady point furnished by the
throne must not be abandoned.

On the other hand, the agitators found here a new platform. They
had obtained a constitution and a diet, but they had not obtained an
instrument for pulling down the “clan” administrators, since these
stood secure from attack under the aegis of the sovereign’s
mandate. They dared not raise their voices against the unfettered
exercise of the mikado’s prerogative. The nation, loyal to the core,
would not have suffered such a protest, nor could the agitators
themselves have found heart to formulate it. But they could read
their own interpretation into the text of the Constitution, and they
could demonstrate practically that a cabinet not acknowledging
responsibility to the legislature was virtually impotent for law-making
purposes.

These are the broad outlines of the contest that began in the first
session of the Diet and continued for several years. It is unnecessary
to speak of the special points of controversy. Just as the political
parties had been formed on the lines of persons,
The Diet and not principles, so the opposition in the Diet was
the directed against men, not measures. The struggle
Government. presented varying aspects at different times, but
the fundamental question at issue never changed.
Obstruction was the weapon of the political parties. They sought to
render legislation and finance impossible for any ministry that
refused to take its mandate from the majority in the lower house,
and they imparted an air of respectability and even patriotism to
their destructive campaign by making “anti-clannism” their war-cry,
and industriously fostering the idea that the struggle lay between
administration guided by public opinion and administration controlled
by a clique of clansmen who separated the throne from the nation.
Had not the House of Peers stood stanchly by the government
throughout this contest, it is possible that the nation might have
suffered severely from the rashness of the political parties.

There was something melancholy in the spectacle. The Restoration

statesmen were the men who had made Modern Japan; the men
who had raised her, in the face of immense obstacles, from the
position of an insignificant Oriental state to that of a formidable unit
in the comity of nations; the men, finally, who had given to her a
constitution and representative institutions. Yet these same men
were now fiercely attacked by the arms which they had themselves
nerved; were held up to public obloquy as self-seeking usurpers, and
were declared to be impeding the people’s constitutional route to
administrative privileges, when in reality they were only holding the
breach until the people should be able to march into the citadel with
some show of orderly and competent organization. That there was
no corruption, no abuse of position, is not to be pretended; but on
the whole the conservatism of the clan statesmen had only one
object—to provide that the newly constructed representative
machine should not be set working until its parts were duly adjusted
and brought into proper gear. On both sides the leaders understood
the situation accurately. The heads of the parties, while publicly
clamouring for parliamentary cabinets, privately confessed that they
were not yet prepared to assume administrative responsibilities;3
and the so-called “clan statesmen,” while refusing before the world
to accept the Diet’s mandates, admitted within official circles that
the question was one of time only. The situation did not undergo any
marked change until, the country becoming engaged in war with
China (1894-95), domestic squabbles were forgotten in the presence
of foreign danger. From that time an era of coalition commenced.
Both the political parties joined hands to vote funds for the
prosecution of the campaign, and one of them, the Liberals,
subsequently gave support to a cabinet under the presidency of
Marquis Itō, the purpose of the union being to carry through the diet
an extensive scheme of enlarged armaments and public works
planned in the sequel of the war. The Progressists, however,
remained implacable, continuing their opposition to the thing called
bureaucracy quite irrespective of its measures.
 The next phase (1898) was a fusion of the two parties into one
large organization which adopted the name “Constitutional Party”
(kensei-tō). By this union the chief obstacles to parliamentary
cabinets were removed. Not only did the
Fusion of the Constitutionalists command a large majority in the
Two Parties. lower house, but also they possessed a
sufficiency of men who, although lacking
ministerial experience, might still advance a reasonable title to be
entrusted with portfolios. Immediately the emperor, acting on the
advice of Marquis Itō, invited Counts Okuma and Itagaki to form a
cabinet. It was essentially a trial. The party politicians were required
to demonstrate in practice the justice of the claim they had been so
long asserting in theory. They had worked in combination for the
destructive purpose of pulling down the so-called “clan statesmen”;
they had now to show whether they could work in combination for
the constructive purposes of administration. Their heads, Counts
Okuma and Itagaki, accepted the Imperial mandate, and the nation
watched the result. There was no need to wait long. In less than six
months these new links snapped under the tension of old enmities,
and the coalition split up once more into its original elements. It had
demonstrated that the sweets of power, which the “clan statesmen”
had been so vehemently accused of coveting, possessed even
greater attractions for their accusers. The issue of the experiment
was such a palpable fiasco that it effectually rehabilitated the “clan
statesmen,” and finally proved, what had indeed been long evident
to every close observer, that without the assistance of those
statesmen no political party could hold office successfully.

Thenceforth it became the unique aim of Liberals and Progressists

alike to join hands permanently with the men towards whom they
had once displayed such implacable hostility. Prince Itō, the leader of
 the so-called “elder statesmen,” received special
Enrolment of solicitations, for it was plain that he would bring
the Clan to any political party an overwhelming access of
Statesmen in strength alike in his own person and in the
Political number of friends and disciples certain to follow
Associations. him. But Prince Itō declined to be absorbed into
any existing party, or to adopt the principle of
parliamentary cabinets. He would consent to form a new association,
but it must consist of men sufficiently disciplined to obey him
implicitly, and sufficiently docile to accept their programme from his
hand. The Liberals agreed to these terms. They dissolved their party
(August 1900) and enrolled themselves in the ranks of a new
organization, which did not even call itself a party, its designation
being rikken seiyū-kai (association of friends of the constitution),
and which had for the cardinal plank in its platform a declaration of
ministerial irresponsibility to the Diet. A singular page was thus
added to the story of Japanese political development; for not merely
did the Liberals enlist under the banner of the statesmen whom for
twenty years they had fought to overthrow, but they also tacitly
consented to erase from their profession of faith its essential article,
parliamentary cabinets, and, by resigning that article to the
Progressists, created for the first time an opposition with a solid and
intelligible platform. Nevertheless the seiyū-kai grew steadily in
strength whereas the number of its opponents declined
correspondingly. At the general elections in May 1908 the former
secured 195 seats, the four sections of the opposition winning only
184. Thus for the first time in Japanese parliamentary history a
majority of the lower chamber found themselves marching under the
same banner. Moreover, the four sections of the opposition were
independently organized and differed nearly as much from one
another as they all differed from the seiyū-kai. Their impotence to
make head against the solid phalanx of the latter was thus
conspicuous, especially during the 1908-1909 session of the Diet.
Much talk then began to be heard about the necessity of coalition,
and that this talk will materialize eventually cannot be doubted.
Reduction of armaments, abolition of taxes specially imposed for
belligerent purposes, and the substitution of a strictly constitutional
system for the existing bureaucracy—these objects constitute a
sufficiently solid platform, and nothing is wanted except that a body
of proved administrators should join the opposition in occupying it.
There were in 1909 no signs, however, that any such defection from
the ranks of officialdom would take place. Deference is paid to public
opinions inasmuch as even a seiyū-kai ministry will not remain in
office after its popularity has begun to show signs of waning. But no
deference is paid to the doctrine of party cabinets. Prince Itō did not
continue to lead the seiyū-kai for more than three years. In July
1903 he delegated that function to Marquis Saionji, representative of
one of the very oldest families of the court nobility and a personal
friend of the emperor, as also was Prince Itō. The Imperial stamp is
thus vicariously set upon the principle of political combinations for
the better practical conduct of parliamentary business, but that the
seiyū-kai, founded by Prince Itō and led by Marquis Saionji, should
ever hold office in defiance of the sovereign’s mandate is
unthinkable. Constitutional institutions in Japan are therefore
developing along lines entirely without precedent. The storm and
stress of early parliamentary days have given place to comparative
calm. During the first twelve sessions of the Diet, extending over 8
years, there were five dissolutions of the lower house. During the
next thirteen sessions, extending over 11 years, there were two
dissolutions. During the first 8 years of the Diet’s existence there
were six changes of cabinet; during the next 11 years there were
five changes. Another healthy sign was that men of affairs were
beginning to realize the importance of parliamentary representation.
At first the constituencies were contested almost entirely by
professional politicians, barristers and journalists. In 1909 there was
a solid body (the boshin club) of business men commanding nearly
50 votes in the lower house; and as the upper chamber included 45
representatives of the highest tax-payers, the interests of commerce
and industry were intelligently debated.
(F. By.)

X.—The Claim of Japan: by a Japanese Statesman4

It has been said that it is impossible for an Occidental to

understand the Oriental, and vice versa; but, admitting that the
mutual understanding of two different races or peoples is a difficult
matter, why should Occidentals and Orientals be thus set in
opposition? No doubt, different peoples of Europe understand each
other better than they do the Asiatic; but can Asiatic peoples
understand each other better than they can Europeans or than the
Europeans can understand any of them? Do Japanese understand
Persians or even Indians better than English or French? It is true
perhaps that Japanese can and do understand the Chinese better
than Europeans; but that is due not only to centuries of mutual
intercourse, but to the wonderful and peculiar fact that they have
adopted the old classical Chinese literature as their own, somewhat
in the way, but in a much greater degree, in which the European
nations have adopted the old Greek and Latin literatures. What is
here contended for is that the mutual understanding of two peoples
is not so much a matter of race, but of the knowledge of each
other’s history, traditions, literature, &c.

The Japanese have, they think, suffered much from the

misunderstanding of their motives, feelings and ideas; what they
want is to be understood fully and to be known for what they really
are, be it good or bad. They desire, above all, not to be lumped as
Oriental, but to be known and judged on their own account. In the
latter half of the 19th century, in fact up to the Chinese War, it
irritated Japanese travelling abroad more than anything else to be
taken for Chinese. Then, after the Chinese War, the alarm about
Japan leading Eastern Asia to make a general attack upon Europe—
the so-called Yellow Peril—seemed so ridiculous to the Japanese that
the bad effects of such wild talk were not quite appreciated by them.
The aim of the Japanese nation, ever since, at the time of the
Restoration (1868), they laid aside definitively all ideas of seclusion
and entered into the comity of nations, has been that they should
rise above the level of the Eastern peoples to an equality with the
Western and should be in the foremost rank of the brotherhood of
nations; it was not their ambition at all to be the champion of the
East against the West, but rather to beat down the barriers between
themselves and the West.

The intense pride of the Japanese in their nationality, their

patriotism and loyalty, arise from their history, for what other nation
can point to an Imperial family of one unbroken lineage reigning
over the land for twenty-five centuries? Is it not a glorious tradition
for a nation, that its emperor should be descended directly from that
grandson of “the great heaven-illuminating goddess,” to whom she
said, “This land (Japan) is the region over which my descendants
shall be the lords. Do thou, my august child, proceed thither and
govern it. Go! The prosperity of thy dynasty shall be coeval with
heaven and earth.” Thus they call their country the land of kami
(ancient gods of tradition). With this spirit, in the old days when
China held the hegemony of the East, and all neighbouring peoples
were regarded as its tributaries, Japan alone, largely no doubt on
account of its insular position, held itself quite aloof; it set at
defiance the power of Kublai and routed utterly the combined
Chinese and Korean fleets with vast forces sent by him to conquer
Japan, this being the only occasion that Japan was threatened with a
foreign invasion.

With this spirit, as soon as they perceived the superiority of the

Western civilization, they set to work to introduce it into their
country, just as in the 7th and 8th centuries they had adopted and
adapted the Chinese civilization. In 1868, the first year of the era of
Meiji, the emperor swore solemnly the memorable oath of five
articles, setting forth the policy that was to be and has been
followed thereafter by the government. These five articles were:—

1. Deliberative assemblies shall be established and all

measures of government shall be decided by public opinion.

2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying

out the plan of government.

3. Officials, civil and military, and all common people shall as

far as possible be allowed to fulfil their just desires so that there
may not be any discontent among them.

4. Uncivilized customs of former times shall be broken

through, and everything shall be based upon just and equitable
principles of heaven and earth (nature).
 5. Knowledge shall be sought for throughout the world, so
that the welfare of the empire may be promoted.

(Translation due to Prof. N. Hozumi of Tōkyō Imp. Univ.)

It is interesting, as showing the continuity of the policy of the

empire, to place side by side with these articles the words of the
Imperial rescript issued in 1908, which are as follows:—

“We are convinced that with the rapid and unceasing advance
of civilization, the East and West, mutually dependent and
helping each other, are bound by common interests. It is our
sincere wish to continue to enjoy for ever its benefits in common
with other powers by entering into closer and closer relations
and strengthening our friendship with them. Now in order to be
able to move onward along with the constant progress of the
world and to share in the blessings of civilization, it is obvious
that we must develop our internal resources; our nation, but
recently emerged from an exhausting war, must put forth
increased activity in every branch of administration. It therefore
behoves our people to endeavour with one mind, from the
highest to the lowest, to pursue their callings honestly and
earnestly, to be industrious and thrifty, to abide in faith and
righteousness, to be simple and warm-hearted, to put away
ostentation and vanity and strive after the useful and solid, to
avoid idleness and indulgence, and to apply themselves
incessantly to strenuous and arduous tasks....”

The ambition of the Japanese people has been, as already stated,

to be recognized as an equal by the Great Powers. With this object
in view, they have spared no efforts to introduce what they
considered superior in the Western civilization, although it may
perhaps be doubted whether in their eagerness they have always
been wise. They have always resented any discrimination against
them as an Asiatic people, not merely protesting against it, knowing
that such would not avail much, but making every endeavour to
remove reasons or excuses for it. Formerly there were troops
stationed to guard several legations; foreign postal service was not
entirely in the hands of the Japanese government for a long time;
these and other indignities against the sovereignty of the nation
were gradually removed by proving that they were not necessary.
Then there was the question of the extra-territorial jurisdiction; an
embassy was sent to Europe and America as early as 1871 with a
view to the revision of treaties in order to do away with this
imperium in imperio, that being the date originally fixed for the
revision; the embassy, however, failed in its object but was not
altogether fruitless, for it was then clearly seen that it would be
necessary to revise thoroughly the system of laws and entirely to
reorganize the law courts before Occidental nations could be induced
to forgo this privilege. These measures were necessary in any case
as a consequence of the introduction of the Western methods and
ideas, but they were hastened by the fact of their being a necessary
preliminary to the revision of treaties. When the new code of laws
was brought before the Diet at its first session, and there was a
great opposition against it in the House of Peers on account of its
many defects and especially of its ignoring many established usages,
the chief argument in its favour, or at least one that had a great
influence with many who were unacquainted with technical points,
was that it was necessary for the revision of treaties and that the
defects, if any, could be afterwards amended at leisure. These
preparations on the part of the government, however, took a long
time, and in the meantime the whole nation, or at least the more
intelligent part of it, was chafing impatiently under what was
considered a national indignity. The United States, by being the first
to agree to its abandonment, although this agreement was rendered
nugatory by a conditional clause, added to the stock of goodwill with
which the Japanese have always regarded the Americans on account
of their attitude towards them. When at last the consummation so
long and ardently desired was attained, great was the joy with which
it was greeted, for now it was felt that Japan was indeed on terms of
equality with Occidental nations. Great Britain, by being the first to
conclude the revised treaty—an act due to the remarkable foresight
of her statesmen in spite of the opposition of their countrymen in
Japan—did much to bring about the cordial feeling of the Japanese
towards the British, which made them welcome with such
enthusiasm the Anglo-Japanese alliance. The importance of this last
as a powerful instrument for the preservation of peace in the
extreme East has been, and always will be, appreciated at its full
value by the more intelligent and thoughtful among the Japanese;
but by the mass of the people it was received with great
acclamation, owing partly to the already existing good feeling
towards the British, but also in a large measure because it was felt
that the fact that Great Britain should leave its “splendid isolation” to
enter into this alliance proclaimed in the clearest possible way that
Japan had entered on terms of full equality among the brotherhood
of nations, and that thenceforth there could be no ground for that
discrimination against them as an Asiatic nation which had been so
galling to the Japanese people.

There have been, and there still are being made, many charges
against the Japanese government and people. While admitting that
some of them may be founded on facts, it is permissible to point out
that traits and acts of a few individuals have often been generalized
to be the national characteristic or the result of a fixed policy, while
in many cases such charges are due to misunderstandings arising
from want of thorough knowledge of each other’s language,
customs, usages, ideas, &c. Take the principle of “the open door,” for
instance; the Japanese government has been charged in several
instances with acting contrary to it. It is natural that where (as in
China) competition is very keen between men of different
nationalities, individuals should sometimes feel aggrieved and make
complaints of unfairness against the government of their
competitors; it is also natural that people at home should listen to
and believe in those charges made against the Japanese by their
countrymen in the East, while unfortunately the Japanese, being so
far away and often unaware of them, have not a ready means of
vindicating themselves; but subsequent investigations have always
shown those charges to be either groundless or due to
misunderstandings, and it may be asserted that in no case has the
charge been substantiated that the Japanese government has
knowingly, deliberately, of malice prepense been guilty of breach of
faith in violating the principle of “the open door” to which it has
solemnly pledged itself. That it has often been accused by the
Japanese subjects of weakness vis-à-vis foreign powers to the
detriment of their interests, is perhaps a good proof of its fairness.

The Japanese have often been charged with looseness of

commercial morality. This charge is harder to answer than the last,
for it cannot be denied that there have been many instances of
dishonesty on the part of Japanese tradesmen or employees; tu
quoque is never a valid argument, but there are black sheep
everywhere, and there were special reasons why foreigners should
have come in contact with many such in their dealings with the
Japanese. In days before the Restoration, merchants and tradesmen
were officially classed as the lowest of four classes, the samurai, the
farmers, the artisans and the merchants; practically, however, rich
merchants serving as bankers and employers of others were held in
high esteem, even by the samurai. Yet it cannot be denied that the
position of the last three was low compared with that of the
samurai; their education was not so high, and although of course
there was the same code of morality for them all, there was no such
high standard of honour as was enjoined upon the samurai by the
bushidō or “the way of samurai.” Now, when foreign trade was first
opened, it was naturally not firms with long-established credit and
methods that first ventured upon the new field of business—some
few that did failed owing to their want of experience—it was rather
enterprising and adventurous spirits with little capital or credit who
eagerly flocked to the newly opened ports to try their fortune. It was
not to be expected that all or most of those should be very
scrupulous in their dealings with the foreigners; the majority of
those adventurers failed, while a few of the abler men, generally
those who believed in and practised honesty as the best policy,
succeeded and came to occupy an honourable position as business
men. It is also asserted that foreigners, or at least some of them, did
not scruple to take unfair advantage of the want of experience on
the part of their Japanese customers to impose upon them methods
which they would not have followed except in the East; it may be
that such methods were necessary or were deemed so in dealing
with those adventurers, but it is a fact that it afterwards took a long
time and great effort on the part of Japanese traders to break
through some usages and customs which were established in earlier
days and which they deemed derogatory to their credit or injurious
to their interests. Infringement of patent rights and fraudulent
imitation of trade-marks have with some truth also been charged
against the Japanese; about this it is to be remarked that although
the principles of morality cannot change, their applications may be
new; patents and trade-marks are something new to the Japanese,
and it takes time to teach that their infringement should be regarded
with the same moral censure as stealing. The government has done
everything to prevent such practices by enacting and enforcing laws
against them, and nowadays they are not so common. Be that as it
may, such a state of affairs as that mentioned above is now passing
away almost entirely; commerce and trade are now regarded as
highly honourable professions, merchants and business men occupy
the highest social positions, several of them having been lately
raised to the peerage, and are as honourable a set of men as can be
met anywhere. It is however to be regretted that in introducing
Western business methods, it has not been quite possible to exclude
some of their evils, such as promotion of swindling companies,
tampering with members of legislature, and so forth.

The Japanese have also been considered in some quarters to be a

bellicose nation. No sooner was the war with Russia over than they
were said to be ready and eager to fight with the United States. This
is another misrepresentation arising from want of proper knowledge
of Japanese character and feelings. Although it is true that within
the quarter of a century preceding 1909 Japan was engaged in two
sanguinary wars, not to mention the Boxer affair, in which owing to
her proximity to the scene of the disturbances she had to take a
prominent part, yet neither of these was of her own seeking; in both
cases she had to fight or else submit to become a mere cipher in the
world, if indeed she could have preserved her existence as an
independent state. The Japanese, far from being a bellicose people,
deliberately cut off all intercourse with the outside world in order to
avoid international troubles, and remained absolutely secluded from
the world and at profound peace within their own territory for two
centuries and a half. Besides, the Japanese have always regarded
the Americans with a special goodwill, due no doubt to the steady
liberal attitude of the American government and people towards
Japan and Japanese, and they look upon the idea of war between
Japan and the United States as ridiculous.

Restrictions upon Japanese emigrants to the United States and to

Australia are irritating to the Japanese, because it is a discrimination
against them as belonging to the “yellow” race, whereas it has been
their ambition to raise themselves above the level of the Eastern
nations to an equality with the Western nations, although they
cannot change the colour of their skin. When a Japanese even of the
highest rank and standing has to obtain a permit from an American
immigrant officer before he can enter American territory, is it not
natural that he and his countrymen should resent this discrimination
as an indignity? But they have too much good sense to think or even
dream of going to war upon such a matter; on the contrary, the
Japanese government agreed in 1908 to limit the number of
emigrants in order to avoid complications.

It may be repeated that it has ever been the ambition of the

Japanese people to take rank with the Great Powers of the world,
and to have a voice in the council of nations; they demand that they
shall not be discriminated against because of the colour of their skin,
but that they shall rather be judged by their deeds. With this aim,
they have made great efforts: where charges brought against them
have any foundation in fact, they have endeavoured to make
reforms; where they are false or due to misunderstandings they
have tried to live them down, trusting to time for their vindication.
They are willing to be judged by the intelligent and impartial world:
a fair field and no favour is what they claim, and think they have a
right to claim, from the world.
(K.)

Bibliography.—The latest edition of von Wemckstern’s

Bibliography of the Japanese Empire contains the names of all
important books and publications relating to Japan, which have
now become very numerous. A general reference must suffice
here to Captain F. Brinkley’s Japan (12 vols., 1904); the works of
B. H. Chamberlain, Things Japanese (5th ed., 1905, &c.); W. G.
Aston, Hist. of Jap. Literature, &c., and Lafcadio Hearn, Japan:
an Interpretation (1904), &c., as the European authors with
intimate knowledge of the country who have done most to give
accurate and illuminating expression to its development. See
also Fifty Years of New Japan, an encyclopaedic account of the
national development in all its aspects, compiled by Count
Shigenobu Okuma (2 vols., 1907, 1908; Eng. ed. by Marcus B.
Huish, 1909).

1 The Taira and the Minamoto both traced their descent from imperial
princes; the Tokugawa were a branch of the Minamoto.

2 Daimyō (“great name”) was the title given to a feudal chief.

3 Neither the Liberals nor the Progressists had a working majority in

the house of representatives, nor could the ranks of either have furnished
men qualified to fill all the administrative posts.

4 The following expression of the Japanese point of view, by a

statesman of the writer’s authority and experience, may well supplement
the general account of the progress of Japan and its inclusion among the
great civilized powers of the world.—(Ed. E. B.)
 JAPANNING, the art of coating surfaces of metal, wood, &c.,
with a variety of varnishes, which are dried and hardened on in
stoves or hot chambers. These drying processes constitute the main
distinguishing features of the art. The trade owes its name to the
fact that it is an imitation of the famous lacquering of Japan (see
Japan: Art), which, however, is prepared with entirely different
materials and processes, and is in all respects much more brilliant,
durable and beautiful than any ordinary japan work. Japanning is
done in clear transparent varnishes, in black and in body colours;
but black japan is the most characteristic and common style of work.
The varnish for black japan consists essentially of pure natural
asphaltum with a proportion of gum animé dissolved in linseed oil
and thinned with turpentine. In thin layers such a japan has a rich
dark brown colour; it only shows a brilliant black in thicker coatings.
For fine work, which has to be smoothed and polished, several coats
of black are applied in succession, each being separately dried in the
stove at a heat which may rise to about 300° F. Body colours consist
of a basis of transparent varnish mixed with the special mineral
paints of the desired colours or with bronze powders. The
transparent varnish used by japanners is a copal varnish which
contains less drying oil and more turpentine than is contained in
ordinary painters’ oil varnish. Japanning produces a brilliant polished
surface which is much more durable and less easily affected by heat,
moisture or other influences than any ordinary painted and
varnished work. It may be regarded as a process intermediate
between ordinary painting and enamelling. It is very extensively
applied in the finishing of ordinary iron-mongery goods and domestic
iron-work, deed boxes, clock dials and papier-mâché articles. The
process is also applied to blocks of slate for making imitation of
black and other marbles for chimneypieces, &c., and in a modified
form is employed for preparing enamelled, japan or patent leather.

JAPHETH (‫)יפת‬, in the Bible, the youngest son of Noah1

according to the Priestly Code (c. 450 b.c.); but in the earlier
tradition2 the second son, also the “father” of one of the three
groups into which the nations of the world are divided.3 In Gen. ix.
27, Noah pronounces the following blessing on Japheth—

“God enlarge (Heb. yapht) Japheth (Heb. yepheth),

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
And let Canaan be his servant.”

This is probably an ancient oracle independent alike of the flood

story and the genealogical scheme in Gen. x. Shem is probably
Israel; Canaan, of course, the Canaanites; by analogy, Japheth
should be some third element of the population of Palestine—the
Philistines or the Phoenicians have been suggested. The sense of the
second line is doubtful, it may be “let God dwell” or “let Japheth
dwell”; on the latter view Japheth appears to be in friendly alliance
with Shem. The words might mean that Japheth was an intruding
invader, but this is not consonant with the tone of the oracle.
Possibly Japheth is only present in Gen. ix. 20-27 through corruption
of the text, Japheth may be an accidental repetition of yapht “may
he enlarge,” misread as a proper name.

In Gen. x. Japheth is the northern and western division of the

nations; being perhaps used as a convenient title under which to
group the more remote peoples who were not thought of as
standing in ethnic or political connexion with Israel or Egypt. Thus of
his descendants, Gomer, Magog,4 Tubal, Meshech, Ashkenaz,
Riphath and Togarmah are peoples who are located with more or
less certainty in N.E. Asia Minor, Armenia and the lands to the N.E.
of the Black Sea; Javan is the Ionians, used loosely for the seafaring
peoples of the West, including Tarshish (Tartessus in Spain), Kittim
(Cyprus), Rodanim5 (Rhodes). There is no certain identification of
Tiras and Elishah.

The similarity of the name Japheth to the Titan Iapetos of

Greek mythology is probably a mere accident. A place Japheth is
mentioned in Judith ii. 25, but it is quite unknown.

In addition to commentaries and dictionary articles, see E.

Meyer, Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstämme, pp. 219 sqq.
(W. H. Be.)

1 Gen. v. 32, vi. 10, vii. 13, x. 1; cf. 1 Chron. i. 4.

2 Gen. ix. 27, x. 2, J. c. 850-750 b.c. In ix. 18 Ham is an editorial

addition.
 3 Gen. x. 1-5; cf. I Chron. i. 5-7. For the significance of the
genealogies in Gen. x. see Ham.

4 See Gomer, Gog.

5 So we should read with 1 Chron. i. 7 (LXX.) for Dodanim.

JAR, a vessel of simple form, made of earthenware, glass, &c.,

with a spoutless mouth, and usually without handles. The word
came into English through Fr. jarre or Span, jarra, from Arab, jarrah,
the earthenware vessel of Eastern countries, used to contain water,
oil, wine, &c. The simple electrical condenser known as a Leyden Jar
(q.v.) was so called because of the early experiments made in the
science of electricity at Leiden. In the sense of a harsh vibrating
sound, a sudden shock or vibrating movement, hence dissension,
quarrel or petty strife, “jar” is onomatopoeic in origin; it is also seen
in the name of the bird night-jar (also known as the goat-sucker). In
the expression “on the jar” or “ajar,” of a door or window partly
open, the word is another form of chare or char, meaning turn or
turning, which survives in charwoman, one who works at a turn, a
job and chore, a job, spell of work.
 JARGON, in its earliest use a term applied to the chirping and
twittering of birds, but since the 15th century mainly confined to any
language, spoken or written, which is either unintelligible to the user
or to the hearer. It is particularly applied by uninstructed hearers or
readers to the language full of technical terminology used by
scientific, philosophic and other writers. The word is O. Fr., and
Cotgrave defines it as “gibridge (gibberish), fustian language.” It is
cognate with Span. gerigonza, and Ital. gergo, gergone, and
probably related to the onomatopoeic O. Fr. jargouiller, to chatter.
The root is probably seen in Lat. garrire, to chatter.

JARGOON, or Jargon (occasionally in old writings jargounce

and jacounce), a name applied by modern mineralogists to those
zircons which are fine enough to be cut as gem-stones, but are not
of the red colour which characterizes the hyacinth or jacinth. The
word is related to Arab zargun (zircon). Some of the finest jargoons
are green, others brown and yellow, whilst some are colourless. The
colourless jargoon may be obtained by heating certain coloured
stones. When zircon is heated it sometimes changes in colour, or
altogether loses it, and at the same time usually increases in density
and brilliancy. The so-called Matura diamonds, formerly sent from
Matara (or Matura), in Ceylon, were decolorized zircons. The zircon
has strong refractive power, and its lustre is almost adamantine, but
it lacks the fire of the diamond. The specific gravity of zircon is
subject to considerable variation in different varieties; thus Sir A. H.
Church found the sp. gr. of a fine leaf-green jargoon to be as low as
3.982, and that of a pure white jargoon as high as 4.705. Jargoon
and tourmaline, when cut as gems, are sometimes mistaken for each
other, but the sp. gr. is distinctive, since that of tourmaline is only 3
to 3.2. Moreover, in tourmaline the dichroism is strongly marked,
whereas in jargoon it is remarkably feeble. The refractive indices of
jargoon are much higher than those of tourmaline (see Zircon).
(F. W. R.*)

JARĪR IBN ‘ATĪYYA UL-KHATFĪ (d. 728), Arabian poet,

was born in the reign of the caliph ‘Ali, was a member of the tribe
Kulaib, a part of the Tamīm, and lived in Irak. Of his early life little is
known, but he succeeded in winning the favour of Hajjāj, the
governor of Irak (see Caliphate). Already famous for his verse, he
became more widely known by his feud with Farazdaq and Akhtal.
Later he went to Damascus and visited the court of Abdalmalik (‘Abd
ul-Malik) and that of his successor, Walīd. From neither of these did
he receive a warm welcome. He was, however, more successful with
Omar II., and was the only poet received by the pious caliph.

His verse, which, like that of his contemporaries, is largely

satire and eulogy, was published in 2 vols. (Cairo, 1896).
(G. W. T.)

JARKENT, a town of Russian Central Asia, in the province of

Semiryechensk, 70 m. W.N.W. of Kulja and near to the Ili river. Pop.
(1897), 16,372.

JARNAC, a town of western France in the department of

Charente, on the right bank of the river Charente, and on the railway
23 m. W. of Angoulême, between that city and Cognac. Pop. (1906),
4493. The town is well built; and an avenue, planted with poplar
trees, leads to a handsome suspension bridge. The church contains
an interesting ogival crypt. There are communal colleges for both
sexes. Brandy, wine and wine-casks are made in the town. Jarnac
was in 1569 the scene of a battle in which the Catholics defeated the
Protestants. A pyramid marks the spot where Louis, Prince de
Condé, one of the Protestant generals, was slain. Jarnac gave its
name to an old French family, of which the best known member is
Gui Chabot, comte de Jarnac (d. c. 1575), whose lucky backstroke in
his famous duel with Châteigneraie gave rise to the proverbial
phrase coup de jarnac, signifying an unexpected blow.

JARO, a town of the province of Iloílo, Panay, Philippine Islands,

on the Jaro river, 2 m. N.W. of the town of Iloílo, the capital. Pop.
(1903), 10,681. It lies on a plain in the midst of a rich agricultural
district, has several fine residences, a cathedral, a curious three-
tiered tower, a semi-weekly paper and a monthly periodical. Jaro
was founded by the Spanish in 1584. From 1903 until February 1908
it was part of the town or municipality of Iloílo.

JAROSITE, a rare mineral species consisting of hydrous

potassium and aluminium sulphate, and belonging to the group of
isomorphous rhombohedral minerals enumerated below:—

Alunite K2 [Al(OH)2]6(SO4)4
Jarosite K2 [Fe(OH)2]6(SO4)4
Natrojarosite Na2 [Fe(OH)2]6(SO4)4
Plumbojarosite Pb [Fe(OH)2]8(SO4)4

Jarosite usually occurs as drusy incrustations of minute indistinct

crystals with a yellowish-brown colour and brilliant lustre. Hardness
3; sp. gr. 3.15. The best specimens, consisting of crystalline crusts
on limonite, are from the Jaroso ravine in the Sierra Almagrera,
province of Almeria, Spain, from which locality the mineral receives
its name. It has been also found, often in association with iron ores,
at a few other localities. A variety occurring as concretionary or
mulberry-like forms is known as moronolite (from Gr. μῶρον,
“mulberry,” and λίθος, “stone”); it is found at Monroe in Orange
county, New York. The recently discovered species natrojarosite and
plumbojarosite occur as yellowish-brown glistening powders
consisting wholly of minute crystals, and are from Nevada and New
Mexico respectively.
(L. J. S.)

JARRAH WOOD (an adaptation of the native name Jerryhl),

the product of a large tree (Eucalyptus marginata) found in south-
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