, 1885-02-20
los FOREFATHERs.
ARE The INDIANS THE DESCENDANTS
or THE JAPANEsEf


slnea thu Ja,ansss p,onls have 40 Iaru,lv
adonted the ciyIlizafion al the western ma
lions the quarry has been of frsouant occur
roncs among than. aWbence did We
originator and AVhere and how have Ne
colonizsdf' Tho lattsr Is perhaps the most
Interesting of the two Questions to Ameri-
cans. for therehas bean Of late wears much
speculation among ethnoloeists as to the
origin OF the anobss rad man. The Young
Japansse-and by this term 1 mean the
educated men of my eountry-haye very
readily embraced the idea that aIos "a a
descendant OF a race which. at some period
more or less remote inhabited -tbe land of
Of the rising SUM- There are two theories
as to how nv ancestors NAV have peopled
the prairie land of the west One Is founded
ON the esumpti that hundreds OF years
hQo there was no break I'm the causeway Of
islands which stretch from the main group
OF japan to the North American continent.
This Is not mere theory. 1 think. because
Rcoloelsts are united In the belief that the
formation of the groups Of isles has been
comparatively recent Five hundred years,
or oven 200. Is Of very small account In the
history Of n race. and especially of small
account in the history OF geological changes.
II this presumption holds we NAV next con-
slider the probability of the race which mao
nled .Janan AZ that aarlv dav having bean =
nomadic one. Experts In architecture. like
DIR. Dresser author of aJapan: lts Arcbi-
lecture. etc.). believe that the REGULARITY OF
japanese architecture Is its tent-IIke form.
DR., Dresser savs that the public building
fvnshikh and the temnle miva, ara the ont
coma OF the tent There h nearly ALWAYS n
center-pole. while the neouIiar curved caves
suggest the curtains of a tent held IN bv
poles to admit the welcome breezs of the
summer ~solstico. And. iudeed this view
accords with the most ancient Japanese ira
ditions-thnt ours was originally a race as
non,adic In ibs tenianciez az thu B.douio Of
today.
Thera il anothar n,ethod nv which the an
Giant Japanese NAV have reached this conn
try. refar To the ocaan current which
even stronger than vour famous aouIf
stream washes the shores Of the 1850
ISLANDS which constitute the Dai Nipnon
Great Japan, of TODAY. This current il
known to our sailors as the akuro shIvoD
black nurrentA II has baeu notad nv navi-
gators and bvdrourapbera since the earliest
timaa-for Instance tha Dutch ma vloato
Vries described IL in 164s Its force h tre-
mandous and can ha annreclafad NV thu moat
Inexneriencad t-ravsler II "a = Variable rivar
IN tha Pacific ocaan. boiling along srm mar
and winter, preserving, perhap5, for Japan
not only It's mild and equitable climate. but
for its people that wealth of ocean food which
makes them so grateful to aYebisu. n the god
of the piscatorial domain. and which con
stitutes japan the principal fs~h-produciuR
country of the world.
1t Is not unreasonable TO suppose that tho
Japanese sailor in ancient times. while ON his
voyage from the main island to one of tho
outlying groups, may nave encountered
,evere storms. and have been swept along
by this mighty kuro-shiwo far from the IA
miliar landmarks onward and northward.
or in a northwestarly course, to the Ameri'
can coast. Even in our times this has hap
pened again and again. In some instances
Japanese craft have laid their weary bones
on the iron bound shores Of Washington tar
ritory or icy Alaska. or even farther south
in Oregon. In some cases only the corpsos
Of these waits Of the sea would DO found on
the stanch little ships, while in several in
stances, after months and months of a pre-
carious struggle with tho wind god Futhin)
the hardy sailors have survived to tell
the strange story OF their voyage from
Asia to America. What is more natural
than that 1000 years ago japanese
vessels were thrown AWAY on a part Of
the American shore, and that they leopled
the prairie land and mountains with a race
which afterward becanie- The American In
diansl 1t u true that, physically considered,
there Is little or no resemblance DotWoen the
Japanese of to-day and the Indian. One Is
q giant in stature as compared with the
other. But it must not be forgotten that
the body dwarfs as the mind enlarges, and
the intellectual makes heavy drafts on the
physical. In this connection, l refer espec
tally to the southern Japanese, as those most
generally known to your readers. In the
northern parts OF Japan, however, the race
is considerably taller, experimenting, per
haps, the shorter tribe, OF Indians. 1t may
be that the superior height OF the American
may be attributed to tho fact that during
the centuries when my ancestors settled
down to learn the arts of civilization his re-
tanned the nomadic proclivtties.
Folklore and the traditions preserved
from the most ancient times greatly encour-
age this theory. One OF these relates that a
prince and his family was sentenced to exile
for some political fault and banished to a