Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-08

of Chicago are very rude. InlS opinion
should carry some weight, because the
Hon. Toshio Fujita is a gentleman
from country where people are not
rude. ana he knows whereof he speaks.
He is the consul in Chicago Tor his
imperial majesty the emperor of ia
pan.
According to Mr.. Fujita they do
things differently in police circles in
his native country. The policemen are
never hauled up ION the carpet before
the chief for beating innocent citizens
with clubs. When the Japanese consul
takes his walk abroad in Chicago he is
shocked and surprised to see every po-
Iiceman swinging or tossing a mighty
oak stick and evidently on the alert to
swat somebody with it. In fair Nip
pom, whence Mr.. Fujita comes, the po-
licemen are called "peacemakers" and
their mission is of far more pacific
nature than that of the police officers
here. They are not looking for trouble.
They try to prevent it. They do not
seek to arrest as many prisoners as
possible. On the contrary, they strive
to quiet the angry passions of the little
men who occasionally engage in
brawls and quarrels and send them to
their homes.
But it must not be thought that the
Japanese police officers are without
means OF defense or in such a position
that they would have to retreat before
belligerent prisoner. They make ar
rests when necessary, but they do so
in very different way from the Amer
leans. There is an aria trick of
wrestling to the police force of
the little empire which enables them to
subdue refractory prisoners without
breaking their skulls with an oaken
club. That method would be called
trough work" by Toshio Fujita were
he given to America slang, which he is
not. It is an art very difficult to ex-
plain to a Chicagoan, but just as easily
used on Americans as on Japanese if
only the Chicago police were instructed
in the method.
When a disorderly man in Toxic or
Yokohama objects to accompanying a
police officer, instead of beating him
into submission as though he were a
refractory horse or a dog, the Jap >nese
policeman seizes him with a peculiar
wrestling grip in which the thumb
and forefngers of the right hand
come into play and the prisoner
speedily finds himself on his back. He
is not hurt; it is not necessary to send
him to hospital. He is merely over.
powered by superior cleverness, and in
a few minutes he finds himself in the
patrol wagon started for the station
for they have patrol wagons in all the
principal japanese cities.
This at of handling prisoners is
taught the policemen in the gymnastic
course which they must undergo before
they are eligible for the force. AS in
the case in London, the policemen are
not passed physically merely because
of the possession of certain amount
certain weight or push an indicator to
a required figure on a dial. They must
be agile, athletic and adept in manly
exercises and the principal of these is
the method of handling prisoners so
they may be subdued without unneces-
Sary violence.
John T. O'Brien, former member of
the Boston police department, went to
Nagasaki, Japan, a year or more ago
and was engaged by the police depart
ment there to instruct the officers in
certain branches of police work
peculiar to the western peoples. He
was especially struck with the method
of handling refractory prisoners with
the thumb and foreinger and picked
up the trick himself. He has lately
returned to Boston and in now engaged
in trying to demonstrate to the police
commissioners how far superior to the
club is the Japanese system. The COM
missioners have been faVorably i'm
pressed by the idea and may adopt it.
If it meets with success there it will
probably be taken up in other parts of
the country and eventually the police
mans club-the most potent cause of
trouble for oficers-may disappear.
The Japanese policeman is armed
with short sword, but he never uses
it except for self-defense. Even then
he is not permitted to use it unless he
is attacked by more than one man or
by a prisoner with a weapon, which
occurs very seldom. A Toxic police
man would not last an hour on the
force if he drew his sword and as
saulted single prisoner. Of course,
that is the theory on which the Chi
cago police are supplied with clubs
and revolVers-that they may defend
themselves, but in nine cases out of ten
they are used for offense instead of
defense IF q man 11Odar arroct shows