The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-23
AMBITION Of
THE JAP ANESE
Their Version of S0-CaIIed
Yellow Peril of the
Orient.
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J.. Haskin.)

| ny
| TOXIC, April 2.-Unbiased student
of the Far Eastern situation who rea(
the arguments advanced by those wh'
fear the Yellow Peril viii not fail Il
carefully consider the attitude of thu
japanese people toward the questions
at issue. The answer of Japan to the
cries of the alarmists, as gathered
| from those close to the controlling
craftsmanship of Toxic, may be ex
pressed thus:
That their laudable ambition for ma
tional growth should be looked upon by
| Western nations with alarm is cause
for establishment to japanese states
men. Those men who guide the des-
TIMES of Japan desire nothing more
earnestly than that their country be
permitted to stand shoulder to shout
der with the Western nations, striving
| to advance the common cause of mod
ern civilization, and in peaceful rivalry
for commerce and all those things
which 60 to make a people happy, pros
porous and great. Japan has ambitions,
as every nation worthy of the name
must have, but their accomplishment
implies no danger to other powers. Nat
urally, it will try to do all that it can
to attain commercial supremacy in
Asia, and as long as it acts fairly and
with due regard for the rights of
others, why should it not gain the
goal? If it does not act fairly, then
it will fail. Are the other powers not
willing to enter the lists with Japan
under a guarantee of a fair field and no
favor9 Would they combine against
Japan9 And if so, would not that ac-
ton force Japan to attempt an Asiatic
alliance and thereby bring about the
very thing which is said to be fraught
with so much danger to the Occident?
In Korea, Japan is attempting to
remedy the curses of centuries of mis-
rule The control of Korea came to
Japan with the legitimate sanction of
the Treaty of Portsmouth, and in ac-
cordance with the European standards
of international policy. Japan would
resent interference with its position in
Korea just as the United States would
resent interference with its administra-
tion in the Philippines or Porto Rico.
If Japan, having adopted Western civ
ilization and Western methods, is not
to be permitted to do its part in spread
ing that civilization to less enlighten-
ed peoples, then the money and effort
expended by Western nations to bring
Japan up to their standard has been
wasted If Japan has no mission in
Korea and Mapchuria to help the peo-
pie there by its superior civilization,
then what is the mission of England
in India, or of the United States in the
Philippines
True, there have been complaints of
excuses committed by japanese sub
jects in Korea, and frightfful tales of
wrong doing. Some of these stories
may be true, but have we not heard the
same kind of tales from India and the
Was there not mutiny
among the Hindoos, an instruction
among the Filipinos7 In all that Japan
is doing toward national expansion, has
it not the glorious precedent of the
example of every Western nation :
Shall the japanese take Western ideas
and put them to use in pulling the |
chestnuts out of the fire for European |
while the world applauds, and
then be stopped from using those ideas |
for its own benefit Are the Western
nations afraid of the newest recruit |
to the ranks of their form of civiIiza- |
tionP If they do fear a Yellow Peril, |
then they must ask, with Bill Nye:
SIS civilization a. failure, and is the
Caucasian played outR''
Japan is endeavoring to make a |
richer, happier and better Korea. Toi
accomplish that end its foremost states
man, Prince Ito, has abandoned the
rest to which his age and his great |
services entitle him, and has under |
taken a task in which others, includ- |