The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea

by Trumbull White

Japanese cemeteries are most carefully cherished spots, and are always bright with verdure[verdure] and flowers. Each family has its own little enclosure, where several simple commemorative stones stand. Once a year a festival for the dead is held. It is celebrated at night. The cemetery is illuminated by thousands of colored fires, and the whole population resort there, and eat, drink, and enjoy themselves in honor of their dead ancestors.

Their incapacity for conceiving sorrow is one of the most characteristic features of the Japanese. Perhaps this psychological phenomenon is due to the influences amidst which this happy people have the privilege of living. It is an indisputable fact that where nature is bright and beautiful the inhabitants themselves of that particular spot, like the scenery, seem to expand under its sweet influence and to become bright and happy. Such is the case with the Japanese, who while yielding almost unconsciously to these influences, deepen them by their eager pursuit of all things gay and beautiful.

Japan is progressive enough that it has a compulsory system of education, which is sure to be ultimately fatal to idolatrous religions. There are more than three million children in the elementary schools, not to mention those in the higher institutions. The ability to read and write is almost universal among the people. Steady improvement is observed from year to year, in the attendance and quality of the government schools. The various schools in connection with the protestant and Roman missions, which are numerous and influential are also well attended and constantly growing. A large number also of the wealthier classes have their children taught privately at home. The average attendance of the Japanese children at the schools is nearly one-half the total number of school age. Education is very highly esteemed by every class, and all are willing to make genuine sacrifices to obtain it for their children.

Penmanship is laid great stress upon, and there are many different styles in use. The blackboard is used in all schools now, and the artistic tendencies of the people are often well displayed on it. The Arabic numerals are fast displacing the old Chinese system. A great many of the methods of European and American teaching have been introduced into Japan, and their use is constantly on the increase.

Universities and academies supported by the government have been chiefly under the direction of American and European professors, and the western languages are taught everywhere. In addition to this educational element introduced into the country, there is that brought in by the large number of Japanese young men who have been sent to the universities of the United States, Germany, France, and England to complete their education. In our own colleges these young men have ranked with the highest as linguists, scientists, and orators. The influence that they have exerted in Japan, where they have invariably taken a high position, either officially or educationally, has been most beneficial to the advance of learning in the island empire.

The excessive cleanliness of the Japanese, the simplicity of their apparel, which allows their bodies to be so much exposed to the open air, added to the salubrity of their country, might reasonably lead one to imagine that they enjoy excellent health. Such however is not the case. Diseases of the skin, and chronic and incurable complaints are very prevalent. The hot baths are the great remedies for everything, but in certain cases the aid of the physicians is enlisted. These form a class of society which has existed from a very early date, and enjoy certain privileges. They are divided into three classes, the court physicians, who are not permitted to practice elsewhere, the army physicians, and lastly the common physicians, not employed by the government, who attend all classes of the community. As no formalities used to be required for the practice of medicine, each member entered on the career at his pleasure and practiced according to his own theories on the subject. It is a profession often handed down from father to son, but it is not a lucrative one, and is looked upon as an office of little importance or consideration.

Medical men nevertheless abound in Japan, and in addition to recognized practitioners, there is a class of quacks exactly answering to those of our own country. Their science principally partakes of the nature of sorcery. Where hot baths fail to produce the desired effect, they have recourse to acupuncture and cauterisation. Acupuncture consists in pricking with a needle the part affected, a mode of healing which has been practiced from time immemorial in the east. After the skin has been stretched sufficiently tight, the needle is thrust in perpendicularly either by rolling between the fingers or by a direct gentle pressure, or else by striking it lightly with a small hammer made for the purpose.

GÉISHA GIRLS PLAYING JAPANESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Cauterisation is performed with little cones called moxas, formed of dried wormwood leaves, and prepared in such a manner as to consume slowly. One or more of these is applied to the diseased part and set alight. The mode of cauterising wounds has frequently the effect of strongly exciting the nervous system, but does not seem to improve the general health of the patient materially. The national university of Tokio has a medical department in connection with it, which teaches medical science according to our own western methods. Hospitals exist in the large cities of Japan which are similarly equipped to those of our own country, and are under the direction of physicians and surgeons, most of whom are either Europeans and Americans, or Japanese who have been educated in medical colleges abroad. Many young women of Japan have come to America to take courses in nursing in our great hospitals and training schools, and on their return to Japan are spreading the knowledge they have thus gained.