Japan

by Walter G. Dickson

In 1904, too, the classes below the nobility had been minimized to two—namely, the gentry and the commons. Even in these two classes the distinction was nominal. Only in official records, in the exercise of the elective franchise and on certain other occasions, were the people required to register their grade in the social or political scale. Aside from the nobility, caste had disappeared. Merit, not rank, was rewarded in public life; while in private life claim to respect lay in achievement and education rather than in one’s standing as to class.

In education, a suggestion of the broadening process in this field—from the mere study of the Japanese and Chinese classics—is contained in the statement that one college in Tokio, in its desire to attract students, took the name “College of One Hundred Branches.” Studies in Japan now include all Occidental as well as all Oriental branches. With the spread of education, with the learning of languages, came foreign books. The study of the English language had been made compulsory in all schools, and with the advent of the twentieth century thousands of students had learned also French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and Italian. Books in all these languages were imported, and libraries throughout Japan now contained as many books in foreign languages as in Japanese. The dead languages, too—Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Sanskrit—had become part of the curriculum of nearly all schools and colleges. Formerly, only nobles, priests, and those of the military classes received an education. Now elementary education was free for all, the American school system, with certain modifications, having been put into effect throughout the Empire. Books in many different foreign languages were also now printed within the Empire, in printing-offices equipped with modern type, presses, and appliances. A large number of magazines were published in Tokio and Yokohama, and almost every town had its local newspaper.

In religion, Japan in 1904 still remained a Buddhist country, yet Christianity had 125,000 enrolled believers. With religious freedom came Christian ministers, who built Christian churches which were openly attended by Christian converts, while a gospel ship cruised in the Inland Sea, seeking converts among Japanese sailormen and fishermen.

Japan began the twentieth century with a system of law and legal administration based on European models. The criminal law, for example, was based on the Code Napoleon. Trial by jury, however, had not yet been adopted. There were four courts—namely, Local, District, Appellate, and Supreme. The judges were appointed by the Emperor and held office for life or during good behavior. Certain foreigners claimed at this time that a European citizen stood small chance of receiving justice in a Japanese court. To refute these charges a Yokohama newspaper, the “Japan Mail,” made an examination of the courts there covering a period of six years, with the following result: Ninety-six cases brought by Europeans. In eight a judgment partly in favor of each party; compromised and settled thirty-eight. Out of the remaining fifty, thirty-six were decided in favor of the foreign plaintiff and fourteen in favor of the Japanese defendant. These facts show that foreigners were treated fairly in, at least, the courts of Yokohama.

In the world’s commerce, Japan at the beginning of the nineteenth century played so small a part that no record was kept of her exports or her imports. In the first year of the twentieth century, the figures for Japan’s commerce showed $130,000,000 for exports and $140,000,000 for imports. At this time, next to the soldier, the merchant was the most important factor in Japanese society and civilization. Formerly despised for trading for profit, the Japanese merchant class now represented the complete change from feudal and æsthetic Japan to commercial and democratic Japan. The sword and the barracks were still first in Japanese esteem, but the next highest honors belonged to the ledger and the business office. Behind her new commerce lay Japan’s newly developed manufacturing industries. In the gardens of the Prince of Mito in Tokio was built a national arsenal. And all over the Empire, Japanese makers of things had built an immense number of manufacturing plants—engine works, electrical apparatus manufactories, cotton, woolen, and paper mills, and iron foundries, dockyards, and shipyards.

As for modern means of communication, Japan began the present century with four thousand miles of railway, ten thousand miles of telegraph, and, in the Japanese capital city alone, sixty-five hundred telephones. Telegraph and telephone bureaus in the Mikado’s palace placed the Emperor in direct communication with his entire Empire and with the whole world. The jinrikisha remained the most popular local conveyance, principally because Japan lacked horses. But there were also horse-cars, stages, a few horses, and some carriages, trolley-cars, and bicycles. In 1904, an electric railway had even invaded Kyoto, once sacred to the Mikado. Trolley-cars even ran through the ancient domains of Shogun and Emperor, where once the peasant who even unwittingly stepped foot was arrested and ultimately beheaded.

In the three great necessities—food, clothing, and shelter—Japan began the twentieth century with a modern bill of fare, with European dress, and with houses built and furnished to some extent in Western fashion. Once a nation of vegetarians, the Japanese diet now included anything and everything to eat and drink known in Europe. Many families employed foreign cooks, and great numbers of the common people ate foreign food at least once a day. In 1904, the Empress of Japan received foreign visitors dressed precisely as were dressed the European women in Tokio; that is to say, in the latest Parisian gowns, with the addition of the latest Parisian millinery. The Emperor, too, abandoned the kimono for trousers and frock coat; at least on public occasions. In short, European clothes were as common a sight in the streets of the greater cities as native costumes, though in the rural districts the people still adhered strictly to the costumes of their forefathers. In the matter of houses, the influence of foreign architecture was, in 1904, just beginning to be perceptible. Not that dwelling-houses were built European style, but that Japanese architecture had become somewhat modified by foreign architecture. Brick and stone were replacing wood in the construction of residences, stores, and offices. Paper in doors and windows was giving way to glass; matting for floors was being replaced by rugs. And in rooms where formerly there was not one article of furniture—rooms in which the family sat and slept and ate on the floor—there were now European chairs, bedsteads, and tables. Where once the only light in the house was furnished by a pith-wick floating in vegetable oil, or by lightning-bugs imprisoned in a bamboo-cage, there were now lamps filled with oil from Russia or America, and, in the cities, gas and electric lights.

One class alone, in all Japan at the beginning of the present century, was still of the Japan of old. This was the agricultural class. Agriculture was still the chief pursuit of the common people. The soil, of volcanic origin, was liberally fertilized, and yielded immense harvests. The farms were small, exceeding in few cases more than fifteen acres. Upon these few acres, however, a Japanese peasant supported himself and his family, and even had something left over after paying his tax-bills. The chief products for export were rice, tea, and silk. It was in the method that farming remained the same as in years gone by. Very few farmers owned horses; in general, the farmers broke the ground with a spade and cultivated it with a hoe. Of this class a traveler has said: “Left to the soil to till it, to live and die upon it, the Japanese farmer has remained the same—with his horizon bounded by his rice fields, his water courses, or the timbered hills, his intellect laid away for safe keeping in the priest’s hands—caring little who rules him, unless he is taxed beyond the power of flesh and blood to bear.”

In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Japanese promised to make of their country that which they called Greater Japan. Public opinion, in 1904, regarding Japan’s immediate future, as summed up by Japanese statesmen and by Japanese publicists, was as follows: “Japan is especially favored by nature with beauty and picturesqueness of scenery and a healthful climate, and has been appropriately called the ‘Paradise of the East.’ We shall turn this country into a grand park of the nations, and draw pleasure-seekers from all parts of the world. We shall build magnificent hotels and establish excellent clubs, in most splendid style, to receive the royal visitors of Europe and the millionaires of America.

“To all appearances, the seas about Japan and China will be the future theatre of the Far East. The Philippines have been reduced to a province of the United States. China, separated from us only by a very narrow strip of water, is offering every promise of becoming a great resource open to the world of the twentieth century. The Siberia railway has been opened to traffic; and the construction of a canal across Central America is expected to be finished before long.... As for fuel, our supply of coal from the mines of Hokkaido and Kiushiu is so abundant that the surplus, not required for our own consumption, is exported largely into various parts of the East, where no productive coal mines have been found except a very few ones of poor quality....