The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1905-04-29
BY EDMUND BUCKLEY, PHI. d.
university of Chicago, formerly professor
IN the Doshisha college. KyotoD

III d CWSlVSmOnln the aStOnlSheC
gaze of the civilized world has beer
lntently fixed upon the naval and mill.
tary achievements of the Japanese
Inc reason? A nation of scientists
n soldiers compact in one mind, g
nation that is gifted to do just two
things, but those the two indispensable
10 success: to see a condition clearly
n to meet it fairly.
lhls vision and action correlated in
one heroic mar would be impossible
but for one heroic woman, the mans
mother that forms his ideals and the
mans mate that shares them. Con-
slider the heroic Nogi, that spared not
his own first-born to storm Nanshan
mountain, nor his laSt-born to take
Meter hill, the pivotal points in the
capture of Port Arthur; and then draw
conclusion to the wife and mother of
these heroes, unreported in The mes
sages, but revealed in the men!
Foreign observers have hitherto actu-
ally held that the Japanese woman even
more than matches the man for pre-
eminence in the qualities that distin-
gulsh her SEX. The continuous chorus
of praise maintained by these observ-
ers has raised a suspicion of woman
worship; but this position is untenable
because, in fact, women are as con-
SpicuouS in the chorus as are men. In
particular Miss Alice M. Bacon, of
famed New England stock, and above
suspicion for integrity of purpose and
s~oundness of judgment, has made her
Japanese Girls and Women" 4 telling
tribute TO the rare traits of its sub
jects. She concludes her book with
an epilogue: IF, through this work,
one person setting forth for the land
to comprehend The thoughts, the needs,
and the virtues of the noble, gentle,
self-Sacrificing women who make up
one-half of the population of the island
empire, my labor will not have been in
vain"
What Miss Bacon has substantiated
in serious prose, Mr.. Hearn-who him
self married a Japanese lady-has
summed up in Well-nigh poetic phrase.
Before this ethical creature, criticism
should hold its breath; for there is
here no single fault of a moral charm
unsuited TO any world of s~elishness
and struggle. Thus to succeed
required angelic goodness and pa
thence; and the Japanese woman real
lied the ideal at least of a Buddhist
angel. A being working only for
Others, happy only in making pleasure
for others, a being incapable of I'm
kindness, incapable of selfshness, in
capable of acting contrary to Ter own
inherited sense of highland in spite
of this sOftness and gentleness. ready
at any moment to lay down her life,
to sacrifice everything at the call Of
duty; such was the character of the
japanese woman" 1t will surely prove
worth while to peer a little closely
into this paragon of virtue, that may
serve as a pattern for some hitherto
unsupported ideal.
No one that knows her entertains
any doubt as TO the moral power of
the japanese woman. 1t is certainly
peculiar, but as certainly true, that
one hears nothing bad about her. She
has no outstanding vice or even foible,
unless. p~erehance, devotion to her mate
be one, and what an infirmity of noble
mind that would be! The conscience
of Samurai women has been compared
fn that of q NnT Ennlon1nn fronr
mitted through the bluest of Puritan
blood And once her duty is recog- |
nized by this peer of the PuritaS
neither modification, timidity, nor
chastity is allowed to thwart ita
execution; and Of course mere selfish"
ness or Incidence offers no obstruction
at all worth the name. 1t is on recoru
that a school girl read before her lit
erary society, with breaking voice
often interrupted by sobs, confession
of shortcomings in filial piety to her
and lately deceased grand
mother.
The first two Samurai ladies to
serve as nurses in wartime went to the
front at the civil war in 1877 to make
atonement for past disloyalty to the
mikado. when their clans opposed his
restoration to active rule in 1866, IL
years before. Samurai women under
the old feudal regime were taught
and were expected to deferd
their lords castle in the absence of
men. A favorite theme for the stage
represents a lady's maid who avenged |
the disgrace unto death of her mis-
tress by the skill of her own sword
exercised upon the offender. When
the Russian tsarewitch, visiting III
Japan, had been attacked by a fanatic,
heroic maid wiped out the stain
her beloved country's honor by
committing suicide before the gate of
the imperial palace in Kyoto.
But chastity. How could that thwart
the execution of a wOman's duty?
This way, according to the hierarchy
h a is, the order of precedence-of
duties in the japanese moral scheme.
LOYALTY in man and obedience in
woman are above all; and must be pre-
served. if need be, at cost OF other
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