The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-19
THE NEWLY REVEALED JAPAN
m RELIGION THE MOST MODERN
NATION OUTSIDE OF MARS.
A Secular Religion . Japanese Invention
divorces and MOtherS-iD-law- Com.
merclSl MoralIties- The Secret Of
JRpan's observation-disclosures Books.
BY poudLAs sLApHN.

By DOUGLAS eLADHN.
Modern books in Japan, inspired by the
Japanese themselves, say nothing to show
that the Japanese is not born In the ordinary
vay, though the remainder OF his existence
Is phenomenal.
The Japanese girl Of my acquaintance
used to begin carrying the last baby almost
as soon as she was weaned herself; and at
this age her brother was intrusted with
binding books and decorating Satsuma
china intended for the Western market.
This must have interfered with education,
but nowadays the ~Jaranese is nothing
IL he is not educated.
Every kind Of knowledge Is put before
him; he devours it with the same avidity
that the American child shows for candles.
But knowledge, we are told, Is not considered
the important part Of his education. It Ia
the ethical side which signifies.
The Japanese schoolboy is brought up
on the Imperial Rescript. the keynote TO
which is that Sin Japan all virtues are mainly
viewed as a point Of duty of those upon
whom the conduct OF those virtues Is In
cumbent." This Is a platitude worthy Of
Plato. q do not mean that platitude is
derived from Plato, though 1t ought TO be.)
The Japanese loves platitudes; but IL does
not signify, because he tries to live up to
them. His glowing heroism can vivify even
plstitldes.
ITO be loyal to the Tmperor is the duty
Il a subject; to be patriotic to his country
is the duty Of a citizen; truthfulness Is the
duty OF a friend, and reverence Is the uty
- a child to Its parent says the Imperial
pesoript. We have read and written much
the same in Darnell's copybooks, but we
never regarded these as rules for the keep
ing Of our England great and free; we
thought they were part Of a m
The Japanese took them to mean that
his life and his fortune n his family
lies were to be cut OF, as we cut the blossom
of a flower, IL his country needed them.
II Ia thus that he crossed the trenches Of
2O5 Metre Hill on the piled up bodies Of
his comrades and saw Port Arthur and
Russia at his feet.
The five foot high Japanese man has
taught the world in her old age that she
had never quite known the true stuff OF
heroes. Cromwell's Ironsides and the
Fuzzy-Wuzzies of the Mahdi did not go
10 their doom like these japanese Tommies.
Tie one had visions OF a heaven OF harps,
and the other a heaven of houris, but the
heroes OF Port Arthur had no religious
convictions like these to buoy them up in
The supreme moment They died as no
other troops have ever died, because they
thought it would be disgraceful to do other
wise.
II have killed the Japanese of before
finishing with his religion or ever marrying
him il is in order to consider their attitude
- A. H. -. . Ia . ~ IAnl
When Togo got back TO Toxic he went
~ make a solemn sacrifice to the spirits
II his fallen men. When Nogi had taken
Port Arthur he went to the highest point
apd thanked the dead for winning his
victory.
We are told that st is no honor to the
lead IL one makes IN Offering and reasons
n his mind at the same time that the dead
" nothing more han dust or that its spirit
oould not be in existence or, at all events,
far away from us in an unknown region.
When a foreigner sees the shrine erected
in Toxic where men, Generals and oldiers
alike. who died for their country are con-
-ecrated as a sort of deity he is apt to
it a peculiar custom. But what
Inference is there between our observance
Of the illustrious dead and that OF burying
4 distinguished statesman or soldier in
he Pantheon or Westminster Abbey"
Religion should come before marriage,
nd in religion the Japanese are the most
modern nation outside Mars just as the
Italian has invented a civil Sunday, the Jap
has invented a secular religion, and he has
gone far with il. He has even made it a
sacoess in board schools. which, considering
The i'll SUCCESS that has attended all efforts
10 make education free, secular and com
mlsory in Great Britain and her colonies.
even more surprising than the part it
rlsyed in the capture Of Port Arthur,
No people have ever taught the world so
much in a year as the japanese, and the most
Cd ira ordinary thing they have taught it
is how TO have a secular religion, 1t is
tine that we had professors from Japan
lac they used to have professors from us) TO
teSch us how to have a secular education
.hot retains the merits Of a religious one;
Tor their secular education taught them to
defy death in a way that must have been a
refreshing novelty to the devourer Of all
I'm.
gave the moral teaching Of the Japanese
national religion, which they call Shinto,
The Way OF the Gods, in three lines. Tit
ceremonial side will not take much more.
1t consists chiefly Of putting fresh cakes and
a spng Of green in the little family shrine
called the God shelf each morning.
There are priests and temples, but the
priests have hardly anything to do except
bury people, and they do not have much Of
that. because most Japanese are Buddhists
as well as Shintoists. and having lived as
good Shintoists for the sake Of their En-
reror and their country, prefer to die good
BuddhistS. There would be more Chris
ttans in Japan 10 the missionaries would
allow the converts TO retain their other
The japanese might not OBJ
to giving new religious beliefs a trial
u he was not asked to abandon those which
he knows are safe.
Even the moral side Of Buddhism cannot
he summed up in three lines. One must
take that as road, as they say at board meet
and proceed to marriage.
The Japanese marriage mas become q
and il is sometimes Of the most
temporary nature, but he says Christian
countries have their temporary marriages,
Too This 10 not a sound tu-fu'aut. for in
Japan you can get in and out Of a legal mar
almost as easily az you can get In and
out Of a cab, and we can only get out OF q