The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-05-01

young men now living that the greatest
OF japanese scholars declared that Eng
| disappearing people were inherently
wicked because of the outrageous Ian
guaee they used He said that an Eng
lishman or an American would say
"see the moon" in stead of ''moon
see,' which was absolutely idiotic, be-
cause if the moon was not there how
could anyone see it! Now a knowledge
of English is required as a standard of
eligibility to many positions, and with
out it no one is reckoned an accom-
plished scholar.
The men educated in the universities
of America and England speak excel
lent English, but there are many jap
anese who have never been outside of
their own country who are equally as
proficient. One of the leading news
papers in Toxic has an English sub
editor who was born in a small village
of interior Japan His father and
mother were Christians, and he fell un-
der the influence of American mission
aries. He studied English in a Japan
csc university, and then went to live
with an American missionary family.
He speaks not only English, but Ameri-
can, and is equal to making an original
joke in the purest of George AIDE. His
accent is strange, of course, but no one
has any difficulty in conversing with
him upon the most abstract subject.
He translates the foreign cablegrams
for his newspaper, and when such dis
tinguished visitors as Secretary Taft
L. 70 TanaU ha ia sent
to interview them He is often asked:
"Where did you study in Americai"
and it is not without pardonable pride
that he replies: my English was
made in Japan. "
The japanese students look to
American sources more often than to
English, perhaps because of the fact
that American translators have been
more active than their British cousins.
In the native book shops scattered all
about the great city of Toxic one sees
the unmistakable evidence of Ameri-
can influence. There are several differ
emit editions of "The Life of Roose
velt' and books which hide their mys-
teries under the cryptic Chinese char
acters declare their origin by the half
tone cover pictures of Washington,
Benjamin Franklin, General Grant,
Lincoln, Bryan, Gladstone, Napoleon,
and other great men of the Occident.
The great majority of books trans
lated from English into japanese are
of a scientific or technical character.
Many standard English novels have
been translated, but many more are to
be found in editions for the student
of English, containing copious foot
notes in japanese. In this way the
japanese student is introduced to the
delightful romances of Sir Walter
Scott and to the stirring tales of ad-
venture from the pen of Alexander
Dumas, coming irom the French via the
English. The influence of Western lit
erature is making itself felt upon jap
anese writers, and many novels are APP
pearing which take English fiction for
model of construction. Heretofore
Japanese poetry has been confined with
in the narrowest possible limits of me-
chanical Journalism, the custom requir-
ing that a poem must consist of either
thirty-one or sixteen syllables; no more,
no less.
Everyday use of English is increas s.
ing more rapidly than exact knowl-
edge of correct grammsr and orthog-
raphy, and the result is a multiple l.
ton of ridiculous errors. Even the
ambitious publications are not always
careful of their transls tons. Tokyo
Puck is comic weekly modelled along
the lines of its New York contempo-
rary of the same name in physical
appearance, but differing vastly in the
character of it's humor. This publica-
ton is entirely the product of Japa-
nese natives, but it appears with a
dual dress of japanese and English.
It's illustrated jokes and cartoons have
their japanese legend attached al the
right hand of the picture, running
vertically, and their English legend
underneath.
It's humor is so coarse and broad
that it would not be permitted to
circulate in America, and it is con-
demned by the higher class of Jap
anese newspapers as indecent and
scurrilous. However, it has a big cir
culation. In politics it is 'agin the
government" and it does not hesitate
to attack anything short of the throne.
In a recent issue there was a car
toon showing the prime minister and
the minister of finance seated in a
carriage, their faces distorted as if in
terror, reading a newspaper. Above |
were portraits of the late King and |
Crown Prince of Portugal, and under |
meath this legend: Marquis Saionji |
and Mr. Matsuda, who raised the |
taxes, read the news of the Portuguese
assassination" Some of it's attacks
on the Prime Minister, although print
ed in English, are so vile that their
exact character may not even be hint
ed at.
The usual English as she is spoke"
curiosities may be seen everywhere in
japanese cities. "Ferrules and Ice
here" is a puzzler until one finds that
ferrules'' is free rendering of
fuel" Beef and Hen Met Here" is
the sign over a butcher shop. Cen
Milk" is milk from which
he germs have been expelled by the
Pasteur method. The sublime tailor
md the higher washman" are out
or business, as is the man who
writes my company do send bag
cages into any direction with a good
.heapness." The sign over a candy
tore reads: European Infections
Here" Even these things are to be ,
aiken as an earnest of the national
inhibition for Western learning.