Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-07-02

0p .>s.
JAPAN IN VICTORY.
Maurice Low in the current issue OF
the Forum, contributes an interesting
article on Japan in Victory and De-
feat" in which the query is presented
How will Japan act in defeat?"
Thus far she has had victories on land
as well as sea and It Is an old saying
that anyone can stand success but it
takes brave. wise and reasourceful
man to Stand defeat. Mr.. Low says:
Japan has shown that she possesses
all the qualities that together form
the sum Of national greatness; she
has exhibited them in such marked
degree that she has won the worlds
admiration, the admiration even Of
her political opponents. She has dis
played the qualities Of courage, patrio-
tism, far-seeing Intelligence; the JAP
anese are a military as well as COM
mercial people; ON sea az well as on
land they have shown themselves mas
tiers Of their craft. Now, a nation so
richly endowed as this is NO more TO be
destroyed by defeat (tf defeat oomes)
BY preponderatd force than land can
be rendered sterile because growing
J110e nj ,n
merciless attack Of hail. rain, and
scrching sun. It is within the range
5of possibilities chat Japan may meet
with reverses, that IN the course Of her
triumphant progress there may come a
dime when she can make no further
headway, and the result may be a
sta1emate. Even so. IL the worst be-
falls and she must sue for peace, her
defeat will no more mean her political
effacement than the entry Of German
troops into Paris in 1871 stilled the
voice OF France in the council Of ma
tons .,.--5.s s--,., ID
There is only one phase of the
character OF the Japanese of which we
know nothing. We should like to
know IL they can be as resolute in de-
feat az they have shown themselves
restrained In victory. So far, the re-
ports OF the japanese naval and mill
tary commanders have been models of
modest brevity Facts have been
stated in the most concise terms, and
deeds OF rare heroism have been
recorded in language SO terse that it
almost seemed as II Japan alone of
all the world were unimpressed by the
devotion Of her defenders. We know,
however, that the Japanese are want
/, Ing in their imagination nor feeling;
but their emotions do not easily rise
to the surface, and they glory in their
selfconfrol. The history Of the world
has shown that the Asiahc has ever
been able to stand up under severe
punishment. Defeat destroys his
4 morale, and with the fatalism insep-
arabic from his character he bows his
head to the inevitable and waits in
N stolid hopeIessness until Kismet shall
once more revo1ye the wheel in his d.
rection BUT the Japanese are the
b paradox Of Asia; of all Asiatics they
\ are the least Asiatic. I have always
been impressed by the fact that the
accident Of geography has had ire
mendous influence upon the Japanese
character, and that 1t is because they
D are an island people that they are to-
\ day disproving all the worlds precon-
ceived theories. For the Japanese are
Z In all Asia the one island nation, and
the profound mystery OF the sea is
never more profoundly revealed than
\ 81 the unconscious effect It has on the
character and moral fibre Of q people
whose very blood runs more quickly
d because the salt Of the sea is In their
VEINS and their faces have been
washed by the spume Of ocean"
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