A Fantasy of Far Japan Part 29

Since the bulk of the present work went to press, I came across the following communication printed in the _Outlook_. I take the liberty of subjoining it herewith, without any vain intention of flaunting the virtues of my countrymen.--K.S.

j.a.pANESE CHARACTER

_To the Editor of the_ OUTLOOK

SIR,--I have received during the last few weeks letters bearing such eloquent testimony to the n.o.bility of j.a.panese character that I am sending you some extracts in the hope of your publis.h.i.+ng them. The letters are from a friend of mine, who with her husband has lived in Yokohama for many years, and can therefore speak with considerable authority. The first extract is about the soldiers themselves--

Mine you know is a busy life, and I found work among the military hospitals and also among the brave wives of the soldiers so fascinating that from the New Year till early June I let all social duties slip, so much so that I had a nervous breakdown in June, and since then have had to go very slow.

We had a splendid time at our seaside cottage at Negis.h.i.+ this afternoon, any amount of our dear brown soldiers round us. There are five hundred quartered in that fis.h.i.+ng village just now; they were resting, bathing, boating, was.h.i.+ng their clothes or cooking their chow, but never a rude word or an uncouth action; no rowdyism, but all as civil, quiet, good-tempered, and alert as possible; they are a marvel; and my children go in and out among them and love them, like I do! I could _kill_ white idiots when I hear them speak of those fine fellows as 'an inferior race.' Ye G.o.ds! 'inferior' with never a camp follower to their name, and rapine unknown even after the fiercest fight! What European race can show a record like that? I wish I could be home for six months and tell what the soldiers and their wives are--what miracles of cheerful patience and manly dignity the wounded men are as they lie hacked and maimed, sometimes till almost all semblance of manhood is gone, yet never a murmur does any one hear from their lips--no, not if they are armless, legless, and even _blind_. And you would not dare condole with them! They say and believe they 'are greatly honoured.' When they embrace Christianity, they shame the brightest Christian among us, and I come away from visiting the hospitals feeling so small, so humble, yet at peace with all the world. We have very, very much to learn from this great people.

This second extract, about a soldier's wife, may come home to your readers even more:--

I allow two families a small sum of money every week. One case is that of a young woman, under twenty years of age, who has a child and an aged parent to keep, and her husband went to the war a few weeks ago, leaving her penniless and on the verge of having another baby. A few days ago, when I went to take her weekly money, she refused to take it, saying she had got a little work to do and could now manage without any help, as there were so many in much greater need of help than herself; and she would not take the money, though she was earning even less than I was allowing her.

_That_ is what I call a real heroine.

How many at work amongst our poor last winter could give such evidence to character as that?--I am, sir, yours, etc.

ENGLISHWOMAN.

NOTE TO DIALOGUE VIII.

Before the preceding pages had been printed two events worth mentioning here took place. One is the lamented death of Sir Henry Irving. The other is the public discussion which took place under the auspices of the London Shakespeare League, on the best method of presenting Shakespeare's plays on the modern stage. On the latter subject perhaps I may add a word. While in j.a.pan the tendency is to introduce women-players into the company of male players, and improvement of scenery is much sought after on European lines, both of which are due to the occidental influence, it is curious to notice that exactly reverse movements, namely the dispensing with the female players and the returning back to the primitive simplicity of stage properties, are advocated in England by competent persons with regard to the representation of Shakespeare. I extract below among others a pa.s.sage of the speech of Mr. Bernard Shaw on the occasion of the discussion referred to above:--

When Mr. Gilbert said that he would like to see the women's parts played by boys, he was not uttering a jest. In some of the performances at Westminster School, he had seen boys in women's parts much more effective than any professional actress. If women players had been proposed to Shakespeare, he would not only have been scandalised, but he would have pointed out that it was impossible to get the force from women that was obtained from boy actors.

NOTE TO THE ARTICLE ON 'COMMERCIAL MORALITY'

In the October number of the _Anglo-j.a.panese Gazette_ (London) is published a criticism by Mr. Curtis, editor and proprietor of the _Kobe Herald_, on 'the ridiculously sweeping a.s.sertions,' as he calls it, made by Mr. Longford in his article. I subjoin herewith a pa.s.sage which relates to Mr. Longford's a.s.sertion that a 'cordon' is drawn by the j.a.panese round the trading centres of Yokohama and Kobe, and that foreign merchants are suffering under the 'thraldom':--

Well, let me say that no sane, fair-minded man who knows anything whatever of his subject would ever dream of accusing the whole j.a.panese people of a lack of commercial morality. All this talk about a cordon being drawn round the treaty ports is rubbish. No such barrier exists, save perhaps in the imagination of a few who cannot shake off the prejudices and disabilities of the past. The idea sounds absurd to me, knowing, as I do know, that all the go-ahead firms have been doing their utmost for some time past to open up connections in the princ.i.p.al cities. Mr. Longford seems to think that business is conducted in j.a.pan to-day just as it was twenty years ago. He apparently does not know that some foreign houses have trusted clerks or travellers all over the country; that some foreign business men run up to Osaka and Tokio daily; and that business journeys to Maidzuru--the great, fortified naval base on the Sea of j.a.pan--Nagoya Sasebo, Hiros.h.i.+ma, and other important centres, are matters of everyday experience now.

In the same number of the same journal is also published an important article from the pen of Sir Tollemache Sinclair, Bart., concerning Bishop Awdry's letter published in the _Times_. Sir Tollemache strongly repudiates the accuracy of the bishop's charge of dishonesty and immorality against the j.a.panese, which Sir Tollemache calls the bishop's 'utterly erroneous accusations,' basing his contention upon an elaborate comparison of the statistical facts of j.a.pan and many other nations relating to several important subjects having bearing on the question.

Among other things, he writes:--

This clerical censor, who endeavours to find a mote in his j.a.panese brother's eye, but does not see the beam in his English brother's eye, cut the ground from under his own feet on the subject of the imaginary dishonesty of j.a.panese traders, for he tells us that a house was built for him by j.a.panese tradesmen admirably without any contract, and at a moderate expense; and I should like to know, if any Englishman did the same thing in England, whether he would not be unmercifully fleeced. Bishop Awdry says he is a friend of the j.a.panese, but they will probably say to him, after reading his letter, 'Save us from our friends, as to our enemies we will take care of them ourselves.'

And he winds up the article with these words:--

What excuse has he to offer for the gross and discreditable and unfounded insults which he has heaped on the heads of those under whose protection, and in the enjoyment of whose hospitality, he resides.... In short, it may justly be said of the letter written by this superfluous bishop, 'what is true is not new, and what is new is not true.'