Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-01-01
THE TRIUMPH OF JAPAN
What Sir Edwin Arnold Has to Say of
the Victorious Nation.
He Shows How Unreasonable 1t Was
How China Was Defeated Long Ago.

to Regard Japan as a Minor Power
How China Was Defeated Long Ago.
Sir Edwin Arnold in The Chautauauan.
Japan has Just crowned the brilliant Sc
ries Of her victories by the capture of Port
Arthur, the principal naval station OF
China. This extraordinary achievement.
whether or not it will conclude the cam
paign, and perhaps even the war. places
China, in military and naval sense, at
the feet of the conquertng nation, and Is
the last of a succession of warlike move
ments planned with the utmost skill and
carried out with wonderful sagacity, en-
ergy and valor. The result may well seem
astounding to those who did not know
the true Japan, and who took their notions
of the temper of 1t from superficial OBJ
servers. Accomplished as this series of tri-
umphs has been within less than four
months, 1t is well calculated to satisfy, If
not to surprise, these who best understood
the spirit and resources of the mikado's
country, and the high intelligence with
which the Japanese government and the
people had prepared themselves for such
a crisis in the national history.
I shall endeavor in this paper to furnish
some reasons why the present outcome OF
well-informed eyes from the commence
ment; and I may do this with better
grace because when the war was break
ing out ventured to write in magazine
article that the troops and ships OF China
would not be able to stand before those
Of Japan anywhere, or at any time, In
anything like equal numbers and strength:
That was in the hour when almost all
western critics Of the war were saying
that whatever slight successes Japan
might at first obtain the 'somber strength"
Of China would eventually overWhelm her,
and even Mr.. Curzon did not fear to at
firm that the war was being entered upon
chiefly to please the parliamentary oppo-
sition.
The fact is that until recently the west
ern mind generally cherished an entirely
erroneous idea about Japan and the Japa-
nese. Their conception was derived from
such sources as M. Pierre Lofts clever
but superficial Madame Chrysantheme,
and from various similar publications by
globe trotters' who had seen and un-
derstood NO more Of the country than
laneurs or curio hunters can get at. MIR.
Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan have also
something to answer for by reason of their
lively Misrepresentation of japan in the
comic opera entitled THE Mikado.'
Signs of the same mistaken notions nave
been everywhere visible In the Engish
press, whether serious or comic. Mr.. Punch
at the first great victory Of Ping-Y ang, mad
a cartoon representing Jap the Giant
Killer" proudly trampling upon colossal!
Chinaman; and everywhere might be read
expressions of wonder, and occasionally OF
make such Roadway against the prodigious
middle kingdom. But Japan Is not little
measured by any just standard. Even
Whitakers Almanack might have Informed
these public instructors that the empire
which comprises no less than 1920 islands,
nearly 10000 square miles IN area--has
population Of over 100000 souls-more
than the number of those dwelling either in
the British realm or in France. This popu-
lation Is as homogeneous as sack of rice.
A native of Hakodate or Sendai talks with
the same tongue one OF kioto or Maya
saki, wears the same clothes and cherishes
the same loyalty to his 'heaven-born" SOW
ereign and the same patriotism toward Dial
Nippon. Only one-thirteenth part of the
empire, however, Is under cultivation, the
rest consisting Of mountainous ground,
either barren or forbidding tillage and the
keeping of flocks and herds because of a
prickly bamboo grass which grows every
where and spoils the pasture
In word. Japan is no globe trotters
playground of understood frivolous people.
living life like that depicted upon tea
trays and screens, but a great, serious
and most intelligent nation, having his
tory extending over $500 years, obeying an
unbroken dynasty dating it's origin only
hundred years short of the time of the
foundation of Rome, and deriving from its
isolated position in the North Pacific
soidity and unity possible only to island
empires Japan has borrowed from China
many important elements in her religion,
her arts and her customs. but 1t is the
greatest mistake to speak of the two coun-
tries in the ordinary style, as If their char
acter and type were at all identical.
Japanese features give evidence, nc doubt
Of large Monaghan element in the blood,
but that blood has been subtly tempered by
nature with considerable admiXture of
the Malay and the kanaka, the resulting
blend being one producing special gifts and
extraordinary qualities. The pure japanese
Ia 90 ha
nese; from which, however. 1t takes today,
for colloquial and literary purposes, large
proportion Of words and phrases. Yet no
Chinese vocable ever steals into Japanese
poetry, which appears, therefore, musical
and graceful beyond the reach of the celes-
tial tongue.
The first point to have in mind while con-
templating the otherwise amazing social.
civil and militant advance of Japan is her
ancient and strictly Indigenous civilization,
during the vast prolongation OF which the
Japanese, unseen and unknown by the outer
world developed certain entirely special
national qualities and national arts, the
former of which render them one OF the
strongest peoples in the world potentially,
while the latter place them absolutely at
the head of mankind for several valuable
traits and social superiorities.
The revolution of 1865, so radical and
thoroueh-going that the Japanese them
selves style it o Jishin Cthe honorable
earthquake'O, must not by any means be
taken as the starting point of the modern
the present era of Meiji. ana marks the
moment when Japan entered into the west
ern system. 1t must be clearly understood
that, like skillful gardener who gratis
new rose or a new apple upon a healthy
and welI-established stock, so did Japan
adapt the scientific and civil achievements
of the west to an eastern root, full of Wig
orous life and latent forces
The "globe-trotters" who write their light
appropriations without even speaking the
lsnguage or seeing more than what guide
can show them, forget to speak of the eX-
tensive public services established ai IN ME he
arrangements, the telegraph, electric light
ing educational medical and sanitary u,, de, de-
partments; and they did not and could not
know as closer students knew, how the
Japanese-earnest. exact and artistic in all
things-had carried into the organization
of their army and their navy that same
conscientious craftsmanship and minute
fidelity as to details which you see all over
the land wherever carpenter fits plank
or an artist carves an ivory netsuke, OR 4
japanese lady ties up a present for her
friend with the inevitable red and white
string, and the nochi.