The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-02-25


Japan has two educational problems:
First, the increase in the percentage Of
those going from the primary to the
middle schools, and second, the cultiva-
tion of. an ideal which will connect
respect for manual labor with intel
lectual advancement. Today a large
majority of her people work with their
hands and at labor which forbids the
wearing of good clothes. It is probable
that the education of the masses will
show itself to some extent in improved
methods and in the more extensive use
of animals and machinery, but there
must remain a large amount of work
which requires daily contact with the
soil. The rice crop grows in the mud
and cannot be harvested by machinery;
the fields too are so small that they
cannot well be cultivated with the aid
of animals. The farmers boys and
girls are now going to school and grad
|ually adopting the European dress. Will
they be content to return to the paddy
fields when they have finished their
pull 'rikishas in the daytime in order
to earn money to attend school at
night; will their learning make them
unwilling to do hand work. Or will
they substitute the cab for the 'rikishaf
Japan faces the educational problem
that confronts the civilized world, viz,
how to put behind trained mind an
ideal which will make the educated citi-
zen anxious to do service rather than
to be waited upon. Tolstoi's solution Of
the problem is "bread labor" that is,
physical toll sufficient to produce what
one eats. This he believes will teach
respect for labor and by dignifying it
unite all parts of society in sympathetic
cooperation. Has any better solution
/ been proposedf
| With broader educational founda-
ton Japan will find it necessary to
extend the suffrage. At present the
| right to vote is determined by strict
I property qualification, but there is al
ready an urgent demand for the re-
/ duction of the tax qualification and it
will not be long before large addi-
ton will be made to the voting popu-
lation.
| The most serious national problem
with which Japan has to deal is that
imposed upon her by the attempt to
extend the sphere of her political infu-
ence to Formosa on the southwest and
Korea on the northwest. The people
! of Formosa do not welcome japanese
sovereignty and an army Of some 5000
or 1000 is kept on that island to sup
port japanese authority.
/ +
| But Korea presents still more
delicate and perplexing situation. For
more than 1000 years feud has exist
ed between Japan and Korea and two
attempts have been made by the for
mer to invade the latter, the last about
300 years ago. At that time number
of captives were carried back to kogo
} shima where they, as before mentioned
) introduced the art Of making what has
since been known as Satsuma ware. The
fact that the descendants Of these cap,
: tives have lived in colony by them
selves for three centuries without inter
marrying with the japanese is sufficient
evidence of the feeling entertained to
ward them by their captors.
\ p 10 dRSIdSdGS tHO 1iioeSOh -
been engaged in two wars, first with
China and then with Russia, over ko
rea, and it was also the cause of one
!; civil war in Japan. Having driver
China from Korea ten years ago ane
now driven Russia out, she is undertak
J. ing to exercise a protectorate over The
I country. When it is remembered thai
Korea is separated from both Manchu
ria and Siberia by an imaginary line
and that the Koreans themselves regar.
the japanese as intruders, some estl
: mate can be formed of Japan s task
$ In future article on Korea l shall
} speak of this subject more at length
r but the matter is referred to here be
: cause the experiment is as dangerous t.
: japan as it is to Korea.
Will Japan be able to accomplish
s what other nations have failed to do
: viz. exercise a colonial power withou
e abusing it and without impoverishini
4 herselfa