The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-22
LEARNED JAPAN.

stagnant. Even very few years ago
 the hostility to all private schools was | not to be overcome. Many of these
 were eXcellently equipped but their
 students were not admitted to an equal | ity with those of government schools in
 entrance examinations for higher instt-
 tutions of learning, But the worst fea-
 ture of the invidious distinction was
 that they could not secure exemption from the three years of military duty.
 The disabilities thus inflicted told
 with special severity on the fine schools
 established by the American miSsiona-
 ries. Private schools, although every 1 possible obstacle was flung in their
 way, were yet expected to conform to all the standards of official schools. Not only must their grade and finance
 be assured, but they must also he non- religious. It was this attitude that tended to drive the Bible out of the large and successful mission schools, which had attained immense popularf-
 ty. The number of their pupils was
 greatly reduced. and the well-knoWn
 Doshisha trouble ensued,
 The reason why education was thus
 DlUCheu, so Idf as western luGdS were
 concerned, down to very recent date,
 was found in the dread of individual
 ism. The national ideas were founded
 on the family as the unit, and since
 western ideas were finding expression
 in private schools without the supervi-
 sion of the government, it was feared
 that these schools might become hot
 beds of extreme individualism. Chris
 tian schools, especially, were offensive,
 in that they exalted the worth of the
 individual. Even Kato Hiroyuki, then
 president of the Imperial university, said that the Christian principle of
 worshipping God alone would tend to
 imperil the throne. It was this same fear that for years prevented the ap- pearanoe of the family law, and made it almost impossible for a time to promul- gate the new civil code at all.
 To the old school of the Japanese the introduction of personal rights seemed like dangerous attack on the family and the stability of society. The cry arose, Save the peculiar institutions of Japan!" It was accompanied by the other watchword Let education be on nationalistic lines!" The students were excited. Foreigners were grossly insult ed, and missionary ladies have told me how they were actually spot on by young rowdies set on them by the influ- ence of the sentiment propagated by narrow nationalistic teachers.
 The opening of the new century wit messed a complete change. By that time government opposition had ended, and private schools are now firmly es- tablished. If Christian schools had been the only private ones, they would have been surely overwhelmed with disaster and ruin. But, fortunately for Japan, the country possessed such non- Christian men as Count Okuma and the late MT. F'ukuzawa, who boldly stood for the right to establish schools of their own. Count Okuma, as an educa- tonist, has won the warmest admira- ton of the missionaries, although he has not conformed to the Christian faith. His college, founded from purely patriotic motives, at great cost to him self, is now blossoming out into uni versfty in the northwestern part of To- kio. tfs
 Many of the ablest military officers in the Japanese army are graduates of the now famous Kelo Gijuku, the college founded by MT. F'ukuzawa. That school has grown, from humble begin nings, into university, whose large buildings, on compass of fifteen acres, loom up on the Mita Hill in the south ern part of Tokio. Out of this celebra- ted school, which had not many years ao tn rfr e than from any other quarter have come the new business men of Japan, men taught to make money, not for moneys sake, but because money is essential to national progress.
 America has really made the new Ja- pan, in the same sense in which she made the new Bulgaria, by establishing Robert college on the Bosphorus, and educating the youths of the Bulgarian upper classes, in spite of the displeas- ure of the Sultan. Many of the fore most Japanese professors were educa ted at Harvard Yale Johns Hopkins or other American institu- tions. Perhaps the most remarkable of all developments in Japanese education is the establishment of the Womens uIllNcl Sllyt tllt bl lS III Ol WHICH iS lt- mantle indeed A young student, pen nless himself, but sent by Count Oku- ma, on behalf of the government, to study in the United States, gave special attention to the New England colleges for women. Returning to Japan, he gave himself to the task of securing the creation of a university for his country He conquered all difficulties, won the confidence of the people of wealth, gained the approval of Count | Okuma, and actually at the very begin l ming of the new century saw the insti- l tuition he longed for opened with fac | ulty of forty-six members, several be- | ing professors in the imperial universi- | ty There is now a body of five hun | 1red and fifty students. One Japanese l organ said '"The most remarka ble oc- | in Japan during this opening l year of the century is the establishment l of this Women's university"
 Out of the five universities of Japan, | three are independent of government l aid The fear which hindered the | growth of these and self-supportinge edu- institutions has been happily lissipated The stability of the empire of Japan depends on reverence for the throne, and it was at one time appre- of |