Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-09-01
Books, BOokish
People and Things
SIDNEY L. GUllCk
Writes Of
THE WHITE PERIL OF THE FAR
EAST"
l<<<<<<<<<<<++<<+*+<<<<

l
depreciation of the Significance of the
Russo-Japanese War" and with un-
disguised sympathy for the japanese
holds up for our inspection the ro-
verse side Of the shield We have read
much about the yellow PERIL" but
now In this book we may find our fears
dlspelled and discover that Japan and
China have more to fear from US than
We have from them.
In a simple. pleasing style the au-
thor furnishes much historical infor-
nation regarding japan and its rela-
tions with the outside world.
The author of THE Evolution Of the
japanese" has fine faculty for tracing
out cause and effect and clearly shows
why and how Japan has passed
through the phases that have some-
times made 1t chargeable with ma
tional fckleness.
The United States is given due ere
dit for the important work it did
early in Japan's awakening:
Fortunate was II for Japan that the
United States was the first nation ef-
fectually to seek entrance to the coun-
try and that Townsend Harris, the
American, was the first diplomat to
negotiate treaties. II required infinite
tact and patience and absolute truth
fulness and tireless, unruffied insist
ence on his part to persuade the gov
eminent to make and ratify treaties
which have proved to be wise and use
full to Japan. To this day, the gov
eminent OF the United States has been
the single white nation always free
from aggressive schemes and always
regardful of japanese rights and i'm
terests."
in the chapter entitled Reaction"
We are told how much the Unitarian
movement had to do with Japan's lat.
ter religious tendencies:
Moreover, IL was not strange that
they should not only listen, but that
they should also become followers
when they discovered that many of the
views advanced were held by the most
highly educated preachers and theolo-
gical instructors in Germany, England
and America"
The modernized. educated japanese
does not seem to have benefited moral
ly by his knowledge of good and
evil":
To-day on every side one may hear
lament over the degeneration of the
young men, sad result OF modern
education. Indeed, few doubt that the
older Bushido training produced a
virility and manhood unattainable by
the present occidentalized education"
What DR.. Gulick writes on the
treatment Of the Russian prisoners by
the japanese Is very cheering, and
helps more than anything else to make
the white reader turn away from his
own blood.
No doubt by his birthright and long
residence in Japan, the author is some
what prejudiced against the Russian;
but there is good ground for much Of
the feeling.
The Russians while protesting peace
full intentions, have been preparing for
war. They have intended to extend
their Asiatic territory. At the request
of Russia, Germany and France, Japan
returned" Port Arthur to China for
"the peace OF the Orient" then Rus
STA occupied the position herself, play
Ing a trick Of diplomacy upon Japan.
Then Russia's autocratic government
OF all her peoples, her persecution of
the Jews and injustice to the Polish
people, her late brutal treatment Of
japanese prisoners-all serve to alien
ate the sympathy which the white man
might feel for his own.
The argument in THE Mission Of
Japan is probably that of an en-
thusiast, for the japanese are hardly
fitted by psychic nature to interpret
the Far East to the Far West"
| This Is nearer the truth: "a more
manifest mission of Japan to the West
Is the contribution she is likely to-
make to the development of our culture
in conduct Here the Asiatic Is Tar and
away superior to the American and the
European. Compared with the aver
age Asiatic the most of us are country
pumpkins in matters of courtesy and in
social relations. That Is what they
have conspicuously developed and that
is what we conspicuously lack"
AS for the section of the book on
"The Yellow Peril vs. the White Peril"
| think 1t all very true.
DR.. Gulick takes the position of the
altruist; of the man who practises the
ethics he breaches:
Still further, the presence of the
white man in the Far East has been
distinctly destructive OF morality. We
count the Oriental immoral, but do we
realize that we have helped to make
him so? The Orient and especially
Japan has been debauched by white
men. The menace of his presence to
the higher and nobler development Of
the East can hardly be realized by one
who has not lived there and sought
the uplift of the people,"