The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-02-05
JAPAN TRANSFORMED AS
IF BY MAGICIAN'S WAND
Leaped Chasm of Ten Centuries in
Her Civilization in Bret
Period of Thirty-Five Years.
WORK OF THE EMPEROR

LONDON, Feb. 4-The following lioiH
the London Mails special correspondent at
Toxic Japan, is a vivid description of how
the present Emperor transformed his coun-
try as if by magic in thirty-five years;
Life must seem like dream to Mutsuhito'
the Emperor gician of Japan, the man
Of the hour in the far East to-day, as he
looks back to the time when he came 10
power. AS long as Japan has a place in the
world his name must live on the roll OF the
worlds great men. II was not given 10
many of the great world-figures who made
history and founded empires TO SOW the
seed and watch the harvest gathered In
England toiled painfully through the cen
turtles, through war and revolution, now
suffering long oppression, now beating
down its Kings, out of the long night or
feudalism into the freedom which she has
spread throughout the earth. But TO one
man in the world il has been given to find
a nation bound and to set it free, to as
cend feudal throne and to base it firm up
on the peoples will.
Mutsuhito has brought Japan to Europe.
1t is almost as if he had, by stroke of a
magic wand, transformed the England OF
the Conqueror into the England of to-day.
Half thousand years seem to have slipped
by forgotten in the generation which Mutt
suhto has reigned.
Time and history seem both to be playing
tricks when think of the rise of Japan
The things which should be centuries old
are only thirty years, and almost on the
same page we find Prime Ministers and
feudal lords. There are men, and men not
very old, who remember when for an Eng
lishman to set foot in Japan was peril
Gus thing, when Japan was to Europe as q
closed book which none had dared TO open.
Then, across the vast distance came rumb-
lings of storm, the dim message Of
mighty change, and Europe knew that
Mutsuhito, young man in an old country,
the youngest, perhaps of all the rulers in
the world. had broken down the power OF
centuries, swept aside all but thousand
years of custom and laid the foundations
OF new Japan
LED BY YOUTH IN TENS.
1t was the work, as it were, of a night.
In a short war, the Shotgun, the dynasty
which had ruled japan for seven hundred
years was overthrown, and the dynasty
which through all the centuries had ruled
Japan in name now ruled in fact. That was
| in 1868, when Mutsuhito was sixteen, and it
| seems an incredible thing outside a novel
that a youth in his teens should lead a
| kingdom out of Egypt into the Promised
| Land. Yet all that is modern and powerful
| in Japan has come into being since the EN-
peror was sixteen. and in his short life is
| bound up all the strange change which has
| made Japan the hope of the East to-day.
| Even now there are times when japan
| looks rather like a picture in a fairy book
| than country on the map. At the Emper-
| orS garden party grey veterans Scrape up
| the soil where his chair has rested and
CORY 1t away and if the Emperor has
| taken piece of cake and left half of it,
1 no guest need think twice who would carry
| off the crumbs When a prince is born
| he who presents the babe to Mutsuhito
| must cover his mouth lest he breathe by
| chance upon an Emperor of Japan, and
| Alice in all her dream of Wonderland saw
| nothing more strange than she might have
| really seen If she had been awake IN the
| Land OF the Rising Sun.
But there were wonderful things for the
| world to see in Japan when we were young.
| Such things as men had rarely looked upon
| were those to gaze upon when Japan drew
! up its blinds and threw open it's doors to
| all the continents. Great mobiles gave UP
| their lands and castles to the States The
| feudal lords, heads of great families
| which had ruled Japan a thousand years,
| the sword-bearers who had fought her bat
| ties and preserved her fame in war laid
| their wealth and dignities and traditions
| their very homes and incomes, on the altar
| Of the New Japan Two hundred landed
| lords gave up their estates to the Emperor
| who was building up a kingdom which
could have no room for other lords than he:
| No such laying down of rank and power
had been seen since the mobiles sacrificed
| their privileges I'm the National Assembly
|
| event, this surrender of its glories bv a
| proud nobility, which somebody has said
throws into the shade the achievements
| of Peter the Great, the reforms of Joseph
| III and even the French revolution itself .
| 1t was, at least, a sight which neither gods
nor men had seen more than once or twice
| since the gentlewomen of Florence fune
| their rings and bracelets on SaVonarola' s
Bonfire of Vanities.
THE LOVE OF THE OLD.
But Savonarola himself could hardly have
changed the whole life Of a nation: we know
how his kingdom fell. And there wers
crises and storms in Japan, with revolt,
against the new regime and risings Of m.
old. and once, when the streets of lamar
ran with Japans best blood, the tragic clos.
of thirty thousand lives marked foreve,
this parting Of the ways between East AND
West. Nor was it easy for the Emperor Z,
deprive of their last privilege all the lord,
who had magnanimously laid down the rest
Yet so small thing as the wearing of 9
sword came necessarily to be forbidden ane
slowly inc ola tradition and Heterogeneous
or lie In Japan passed away before IN,
nations eyes. Japan was 10th to let /
pass We like TO remember that story q
the wite OF japanese ambassador who wa,
attended by leading physician I'm Vianno
She had a bed such as any great lady i,
Vienna might sleep upon: but i'm if IN
p physician round board upon which sh
L
lay the old-fashioned head-rest common I,
the old Japan. How hard il is TO LEI m,
habits of a lifetime goi
But all Japan. indeed. lived two lives /,
those strange times. It's young men cam
10 Europe, saw our civilization, studied ON
ponties, and learned in our schools Mar
quis Ito, with Count Inouye came to Lon
don In their teens 20 learn the wav /,
which a nation should go, and landed a
the docks so hungry and lonely and helm
, less that they threw down one of the onl
TWO dollars they had on a bakers counter
snatched up a loaf. and ran back with II =
an empty ship. in which they spent IN
night In the heart OF Japan the desire 4
throw OIL the weight Of the ages of m
East and put on the mantle OF the Yves
was not TO be kept down. But il is not
sinple thlhg 10 leave undone to-day tn
year, ana Japan did not easily conquer If
self Everywhere there remained Iineer
ing affection for the old
Thirty-nve short years. and to-day me,
tremble 10 think what thirty-fve shor
the modern world. 1870 y