“2. The military school in Hangchau is taught wholly by Japanese.
“3. A large amount of translation work is done by the Japanese.
“4. Many Chinese students have been sent by Chang Chih-tung during recent years to be educated in Japanese schools for Chinese Government service.
“5. Influential Chinese newspapers, owned by Japanese, and advocating closer union between the two countries.
“6. One hundred Japanese students enrolled in the schools at Shanghai, studying Chinese and English.
“7. Formation of societies of Japanese in China to push the circulation in China of books on Western learning.”
At this time, then, every Japanese subject employed in China, in whatever capacity, “was a centre diffusing the light of liberalism.” The Chinese themselves acknowledged that they were led along their new path by the Japanese, who “have some degree of distant kinship with the Chinese.” That Japan was doing her duty in the way of helping China to the benefits of material civilization, that Japan was exerting her influence in China for good on high planes, is shown in the words of the most eminent Chinese scholar in America, Dr. Hirth, professor of Chinese in Columbia University, New York City. Said he: “No capable observer of events in China since the Imperial Court returned to Pekin can doubt that the Government has decided to adopt the policy of Japan, which is to take the methods of Western civilization for their models. In directing the new movement in China, Japan is taking the lead over other foreign nations, and this, it is asserted, is due to her superior command of the language.
“Moreover, every educated Japanese is imbued with the ideas prevalent in Chinese literature, religious and political, and hence he has a different standing in the eyes of the Chinese from that of Americans and Europeans. China has thus placed the work of educating the rising generation in the hands of the Japanese as being less likely to destroy the old knowledge while familiarizing the students with the advantages of the new.
“A National university has been established by the Emperor at Pekin, which it is calculated will be the model for educational institutions all over the country. Recently a Japanese professor has been selected to draft a new code of laws for the Empire. The reason why a Japanese was selected for this work in preference to an equally learned German, American, or Englishman, is because men who are both willing and capable of making due allowance for traditional prejudices will never arise from a country where the study of Chinese institutions is so much in its infancy as with all of us, except Japan.”
After the above consideration of Japan’s leadership in Formosa, Siam, and China, including Manchuria, there remain the facts relating to Japan’s most important interests in Corea. In the latter country, Japanese influence, at the beginning of 1904, was felt even more widely and more potently than in any other part of Asia. In Corea, on January 1, 1904, there were more than twenty thousand Japanese subjects. These managed practically all the important commercial and educational enterprises in the kingdom. By far the largest part of Corea’s foreign trade—with respect to both imports and exports—was with Japan. Corea sent agricultural products to Japan, and imported Japanese manufactured goods. Japan also virtually controlled Corea’s means of communication with foreign countries; for the postal and telegraph offices in every open port in the kingdom were in the hands of the Japanese. All Corea’s coasting trade, also, was carried on by Japanese vessels; for Corea herself had only an insignificant merchant marine. Practically all the railways were controlled by the Japanese who had built them. Every bank of good standing was managed by Japanese. The fisheries and mining industries were conducted almost entirely by subjects of the Mikado. Altogether, all the greatest business enterprises, of whatsoever nature throughout the kingdom, were conducted by the Japanese. In short, the Japanese represented the employers of Corea, while the subjects of the Corean king composed the great body of employees.