Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1872-02-11
THE JAPENESE EMBASSY.

the moment in this country is the
arrival and the speeches of the jap
enese ambassadors. 1t is, however,
no Tommy" affair; and it is with
q consciousness that we are not
perhaps quite perfect in political
wisdom an American citizen may re-
fleet that Governor Ito, who made
the recent striking speech in San
Francisco, is not, under our laws,
capable of naturalization. It has
become so much our habit to con-
slider Asiatics as barbarians that
when the Burlingame embassy was
feasted in New York it was scarcely
possible for some of the chief ora
tors upon our side to restrain a tone
OF humorous sarcasm; and there
was a very general popular feeling
that the yellow foreigners with al
mond eyes had as little in common
with sensible American citizens as
they had just stepped off the dinner
plates upon which their portraits
were painted. Indeed, to call any
thing Chinese is to brand it as hope
lessly outlandish; and there are a
great many Americans who will be
very apt to regard our Japenese
visitors as if they were Laplanders
or Esquimaux.
1t will be most interesting reva-
lation, that of the progress of the
reform of Japanese society. In the
speech of Governor Ito at San Fran
cisco he said that few but native
japanese know anything of the in
ternal condition of the country;
while by reading, hearing, and OBJ
servation in foreign lands, the Jap
enese have acquired a general
knowledge of the constitutions, ha-
bits, and manners of most foreign
countries. The Japanese are an
xious, he says, to reach the highest
point of civilization, and to this end
they have adopted the military,
naval, scientific, and educational in
stitutions of the most enlightened
lands. But with the instinct of the
Orient, the mother of thought and
of religions, the Governor does not
exaggerate the i'm, rortance of ma
terial advantages. The mental i'm
proyement of the country has been
far greater than the material al
though the material opened the way.
Despotic sovereigns had held the
people in ignorance for ages. With
improved material advantages came
the consciousness Of rights which
had been SO long dented. Within
a year the feudal system of many
centuries had been entirely abolish
ed, without a shot or q .drop of
blood. What country in the Middle
Ages, proudly asks the orator, broke
down its feudal system without war?
He then adds what is perhaps the
most remarkable statement of all |
that even Japan already sees what
the Western nations of the highest
civilization see SO slowly, that the
welfare of the country depends
very much upon the education of
women. Already japanese girls
"our maidens," as the Governor calls
them-are coming to American
schools. The full force of this fact
will appear only to those who know
what the traditional feeling in re-
gard to women has always been in
China and Japan. The embassy
has come to observe more closely
the details and developments of our
government and inventive genius
and enterprise, and to gather every |
kind of valuable suggestion for
Japan. Then, says the orator, sthe
red disk in the centre of our ma.
tional flag shall no longer appear
like wafer over a sealed empire.
but henceforth be in fact what It is
intended to be-the noble emblem
of the rising sun, moving onward
and forward amidst the enlightened
nations of the world"
There has been an exchange of
courteous messages between the ma
tional and local authorities and the
Japanese ambassadors, and Con-
gress has appropriated fifty thou
sand dollars for their entertainment
while in Washington. Both the
good feeling which the embassy ex-
presses and the intelligence. with
which it studies and appreciates
our institutions have been manifest
ed in q very striking degree by Mr..
Mori, the resident minister of ,Japan
at Washington and the advan-
tages to our manufactures and com-