The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-06
COUNT OkUMA
and HIS CAREER
One of the Elder Statesmen,
but Is Always in
Opposition.
Advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin.)


| TOXIC, April 16.-Count Shige-nobu
Okuma is the Great Commoner of Japan
and in many respects has the most in
teresting personality in the Land of the
Rising Sun. He is peculiarly interest
! ing to Americans because of the fact
| that it was he who led the Japanese
protest against the United States when
the San Francisco school question and
the immigration agitation first came
Count Okuma undoubtedly seized upon
these questions as a club with which
TO belabor the government, but at the
same lime. he did not compromise with
his co science to do go. He holds that
the japanese people are racially the
equal of other peoples, or rather that
there is no difference of degree inner
ent in difference of race.
Historically, Count 0kuma is ac-
counted one of the Elder Statesmen,
but as the leader of the Opposition and
as an essential democrat, he has not
been admitted to that privileged circle
of the Genro which directs Japanese
national and international policy. His
influence upon affairs of state is not to
be underestimate, however, for his at
titude in opposition has been such that
many of his ideas have been forced
upon the government, and the Japanese
public still hears him gladly. Of the
six survivors of the group of men who
brought about the Restoration and
made New Japan possible, Count Oku-
ma is the most democratic, and Prince
Yamagata the most aristocratic. Be-
tween these two, Prince Ito has steer
ed middle course and has become the
greatest constructive statesman of the
Orient. The student of comparative
history cannot fail to compare his
course with that taken by Washington,
midway between the policies of Ham
ilton and the ideals of jefferson And
Ito, like Washington, leans more to the
conservative than to the democratic.
While Japan has adopted the forms
of popular government, the voice of
the people in affairs of state is heard
but as from afar. Count Okuma is
both admired and suspected because of
his democracy, and if~that quality has
won him many warm admirers among
the people, it has also lost him the in
huence with the governing class which |
he might otherwise WELD The explain |
alton of his status goes farther back |
than the modern political career of the |
Elder Statesmen. In old feudal Japan
the two strongest clans were those of |
the Choshu and the Satsuma These
two clans still rule in Japan, despite
the changes in form of government. |
Centuries of clan feeling cannot be |
overthrow in few decades.
Both Ito and Yamagata are of the
elan of Choshu. Count Okuma can i
claim alliance with neither of these
ruling families. He is without the pale |
of the oligarchy, and has maintained |
his influence by sheer force of charac- |
ter, broadness of mind and knowledge |
of practical politics Yet his power /
has been great. In the days when it |
was still question whether the re-
stored Emperor would resign the greater |
part of his power to the people, Okuma |
stood as the champion of popular rights. |
His program was always modified byl
the powers that were, but nevertheless
he always gained part of what he
fought for. He was the founder of |
the Progressive party in Japan, has
been Prime Minister and now. al |
though retired from active politics, is
still to be reckoned with as a power. |
He, like the other Elder Statesmen, /
has been connected with governmental
affairs from the time of the downfall
of the Shogunate. He was the init
mate friend of Okubo, one of the great |
triumvirate which brought about the
Restoration, and is today regarded as