The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-06-15
DISREGARD OF LIFE.

The Japanese keep adding to their I'M
enviable record as men of violent pas
sions, who do not hesitate to use knives
or other weapons for purposes of re-
venge or in the madness of rage. Not
that the people of other nationalities do
not occasionally commit crimes of VOL
ence, but the Japanese undoubtedly
carry the palm for this species of crime
upon these Islands.
The cases are not isolated ones, but
come from all parts of the Islands.
Some times they are the result OF a
sudden access of anger, some times they
are deliberately planned and carried
out in the most cold-bIooded manner.
Some times the perpetrators get pun
ished and sometimes they elude the
law altogether, or the evidence against
them breaks down, and a jury cannot
in conscience convict
Two Japanese were executed last year
for murder, one is under sentence of
death now, and a considerable number
are in Jail for long terms. The Waia-
lua murder has never been cleared up,
but remains a mystery to the present
day. AS most will remember it was the
murder of a woman. The crime un-
doubtedly lies among three men, whose
names are known. There must have
been several people cognizant of the
crime after it was committed, but 1t
has been found impossible to obtain evil
dence that would bring the crime home
to the guilty parties BY this is shown
the estimation which a certain class of
Japanese put upon human life. The
witnesses will not tell what they know,
not having that view of the sanctity of
life which we hold To them evidently
| the killing of woman more or less,
was nothing so very terrible, and they
mingle at work and in their amuse-
ments with the to them known MUIR
derer with perfect equanimlty.
The murder of Joe the Malay, another
mystery of crime, is laid at the door of
Japanese, but there is no proof to be
obtained. This crime occurred but a
short time ago. The man was found in
an alley way off King street, close to a
Japanese lodging house, but beyond the
fact, nothing has TRANSFERRED
1t is not to be wondered that Japan
csc display this carelessness of life. A
contempt for human life is characters
tic of all Asiatic nations. They inf1ict
the punishment of death with careless
/ impartiality, and they meet death with
stoicism which is very different from
the Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic and Latin
races. And yet in spite of his lack of
fatalism, the European and American
is far the drawer man.
The Japanese may have a veneer of
! Western civilization, but just as if you
scratch the Russian, according to Tally
rand's saying, you find the Tartar, so
under the Japanese veneer, you find
the true Oriental, with the peculiarities
which marked him in the time of Alex
ander the Great, to now, and one of
these is his disregard of human life We
need not therefore be surprised at Jap
anese crimes of violence, but we should
mark very strongly and forcibly,
through our administration of justice,
our disapproval. 1t should not be made
pleasant for a Japanese to commit
crimes of violence. The example of one
is infectious. No sickly sentimentality
should prevent those who have come in
to the clutches of the law from suffer-
ing it's full penalties.