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ART. III.-AFTER THE WAR

WHILE American sympathy during the war was almost wholly with Japan yet we have not adequately realized that throughout this struggle Japan stood for all those ideals which until now have been the especial heritage of the Anglo-Saxon race. Freedom of speech, of conscience, of religion, justice impartially administered, the costs of government equitably apportioned, the rights of the individual sacredly guarded—all of these are ideals dear to the Anglo-Saxon heart. But not to the Anglo-Saxon heart alone; for all of these the Sun-Flag of Japan stands, and her victories were the victories of the civilization of the twentieth century over an antiquated, despotic militarism of the eighteenth.

If a dim perception of this has broken upon us as the war proceeded, then, as one of the results of the war, Japan has won her rightful place among the nations. And that place is not merely recognition as a great military power. It is not that Japan, in capturing the five hundred and eleven Russian cannon which, as I write these words, are parked outside the main entrance to the Imperial Palace at Tokyo, has captured and transferred to herself the reputation which Russia has borne so long. While Russia was feared she could not be respected. But Japan has proved herself worthy of our respect. We do not know which to admire most, her splendid fighting qualities, the executive ability shown in the organization and equipment of her forces, or the honorable way in which she has conducted her campaigns. There is no exaggeration in saying that Japan used the latest twentieth century appliances to wage a war in the spirit of the Golden Rule. War is supposed to afford few opportunities for the display of such a spirit, but the Japanese treatment of Russian prisoners would have been creditable to any country in the world. It was my privilege to be in the city of Fukuoka on a day when some eight hundred prisoners arrived from Port Arthur. As soon as I got off the train I saw that something unusual was happening, and as my friend and I rode along I noticed that we were the objects of a great deal of attention from the crowds of people that lined the streets, but

it was not until I alighted at his gate that I heard that a large body of Russian prisoners were expected and learned that we were probably taken for the earliest arrivals. The Russians were to pass my friend's house on the way to the barracks which had been assigned to them, and the street was full of people waiting for their arrival. A squad of Japanese policemen easily handled the crowd of expectant onlookers and lined them up in order on one side of the street, bidding them wait quietly. Nor was this enough. Just before the men passed two more policemen came along and warned the children that they were not to laugh or talk as the Russians passed. After a few minutes of quiet waiting the procession came in sight. First appeared the chief of police on horseback, then a squad of constables followed by a company of soldiers marching in absolute silence, their usual stamping tread replaced by one scarcely audible; and then came the great, hulking, grey-coated Russians. A few of them looked serious, more looked simply silly, and all were unspeakably dirty, and in everything but mere avoirdupois distinctly inferior to the Japanese guards. As they passed many of them turned and grinned at us, apparently surprised to see white faces in such a place. Not a word was spoken, however, and the Japanese crowd gazed at them in absolute silence and, when all had passed, turned and went quietly to their homes. It was a sight never to be forgotten. I do not think such an exhibition of courtesy and self-control under similar circumstances could have been seen anywhere in the world except in Japan. But what I saw that day was not all an exceptional thing. Japan everywhere treated her prisoners with the same consideration and kindness. They were regarded as guests whom the adverse fortune of war had brought to Japan. Some of them were even taught to read and write their own language by their Japanese guards, and sent letters to their friends at home which they had learned to write while prisoners of war. No wonder that fifteen Jews among them wrote a letter to the Emperor of Japan beseeching him that when the war closed they might remain in Japan and become his subjects! The civilized way in which the Japanese carried on war was also shown by the wonderful organization of their Red Cross and their military hospitals. A few days after

that experience at Fukuoka I visited one of the great Japanese hospitals located at Kokura. It was in charge of my personal friend Dr. Murata, and in his company I walked through ward after ward while the doctor told me the history of interesting cases among the four thousand patients under his care. I saw convalescents, almost ready to rejoin their regiments, who had been shot through the head from front to back but who were recovering with scarcely a scar; a tribute alike to the skill of the surgeons, the sanitary condition of the camp, and the hygiene observed by the men. And what Japan did for her own wounded she did for the wounded Russians as well.

Japan has imitated the best things in every civilized nation; if it will produce the same results, let us have more such imitation. Why has not China, which has been in contact with the Western world so many more years, also achieved the same results? The reason is in the difference in the character of the two nations. Japan is favorable to new ideas, susceptible to a new form of civilization now because she was what she was three hundred years ago. While she has used the best of all the appliances and facilities which the Occident afforded her, yet these mere appliances have not made her what she is today. The ideals which we have seen so well displayed by Japan in this war are her own, only manifested in new form and supplemented by the best ideals of the Western world. I have lived for three years in Kagoshima, the capital of the Satsuma province-which may be termed the very heart of conservative Japan, less influenced by the tides of Occidentalism than any other part of the empire—and I can affirm that in my opinion mere Occidental influences have not made Japan what she is. Her success in this war was the triumph of Japanese character, and is not so much a tribute to the superiority of her guns-for during almost all the war her artillery was inferior to the Russian-as it is to the character of the man behind the gun. Some people seem to think that the Japanese army was a picked body of men quite superior to the mass of the nation. Toward the close of the war I met an English missionary from Manchuria who labored under this misconception. After praising the conduct of the Japanese army as he had seen it he added that

Japan had shown wonderful wisdom in the way she selected men for her military service. "Why," he exclaimed, "she doesn't let a man go into her army who can't read and write!" The actual fact is that the Japanese army, raised as it was by conscription, was not an especially selected body of men, except physically; morally and intellectually it was not a whit superior to the rank and file of the Japanese nation, and from an educational point of view, since none of the students of her high schools and universities were called into the service, the army was hardly equal to the intellectual average of the Japanese people. The wonderful achievements of the Japanese army are not as noteworthy as the spirit in which they were won, and the possession of that spirit was no military monopoly. The whole nation, army, navy, parliament, and people, afforded a magnificent example of team play. Dozens of illustrations could be given. Listen to the last orders of the commander of one of the ships which were sailing to their death in the attempt to blockade the entrance to Port Arthur:

Let every man set aside all thought of making a name for himself, but let us all work together for the attainment of our object. It is a mistaken idea of valor needlessly to court death. Death is not our object, but success, and we die in vain if we do not obtain it. If I die Lieutenant Yamamoto will take the command, and if he is killed you will take your orders from your warrant officer. Let us keep at it until the last man, until we have carried out our mission.

The spirit which caused Commander Yuasa to issue that order pervades every man, woman, and child in Dai Nippon. "Keeping at it until the last man" made Japan invincible in the war, "keeping at it" has given her a permanent place among the great powers of the world, and "keeping at it" will enable her to leave her mark in the history, not only of the Orient, but of the world.

The second great fact which stands out as the result of the war is the converse of the first. The morning after the battle of the Yalu I met in Nagasaki an English friend who came to Japan soon after the first opening of the ports and had resided there ever since. He was rubbing his hands with glee. "Oh," said he, “Japan is going to pierce the Russian bubble as she broke the Chinese bubble." My friend's prediction has come true.

Japan has broken the Russian bubble. Not only has the Russian advance received a check but the real nature of that advance is understood, and Russia is estimated no longer at her own valuation but at her real worth. "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!" We still are prone to cling to Philistine standards. Russia is so big that we thought she must be great, and so it proved easy for her to make capital out of her bulk. She hypnotized the world into extravagant ideas of her prowess until public opinion was ready to accept all her preposterous claims to military invincibility. Under cover of this fictitious greatness Russia pushed and elbowed her way across Asia to the Pacific. She began to reach out from her legitimate territory over three hundred years ago, and her annual acquisition of territory since then amounts to a little over 25,000 square miles. This Russian advance is not legitimate colonization. It is not to be compared to the steady advance of a little band of AngloSaxon settlers on the eastern shore of a great continent who have pressed on until they have covered the continent with a line of Icities and towns which touch that continent's farthest western shore. Our fathers crossed America because the fertile soil of the wide prairies tempted them. Russia was lured on by no such opportunity. She was shut in by mountains and deserts and wide seas, and has accomplished her expansion only as the result of a definite plan to which she deliberately set herself, and which in the future is expected to bring a sufficiently great return for her vast expenditure of life and money. Our fathers, too, developed the country as they occupied it—at least most of them did; there were some exceptions. I used to know an old farmer in Highland County, Ohio, of whom his neighbors said that "he was always in debt because he wanted to buy all the land which joined his." That is the way Russia has pushed on and on, without stopping to develop the territory she already possesses, and consequently adding to her indebtedness with every conquest. Neither has Russia been impelled to her aggressions by the necessity of providing an outlet for a teeming population. Her resources in Europe are undeveloped, and her territory is vast and thinly populated. In Asia she owns one third of the entire area but she has only one

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