The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-08
COUNT OKUMA
AND HIS CAREER
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin.(

advertiser Correspondence, Copyrigh
by Frederic j. Haskin.(
TOXIC, April 16.-Count hige-nob,
! Okuma is the Great Commoner of JapaI
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
up. AS the leader of the Opposition
Count Okuma undoubtedly seized upon
these questions as a club with which
to belabor the government, but at the
same time he did not compromise with
his conscience to do so. He holds that
the japanese people are racially the
equal of other peoples, or rather that
there is no difference Of degree inher-
ent in difference of race.
Historically, Count Okuma is ac-
counted one of the Elder Statesmen,
but as the leader of the Opposition and
I 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 underestimated, 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 a 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
fuence 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
overthrown in few decades.
Both Ito and Yamagata are of the
clan of Choshu. Count Okuma can
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 a 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 by
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
the highest authority upon questions of
japanese history of the past half GEN.
tury.
Fifty years ago Count Okuma was
boy of twenty, living in small Japan
ese town, trained in the virtues of the
ancient japanese learning, and sharing
with his fellows all the beliefs and
prejudices of their exclusive race. But
to these ideas he added curiosity, and
curiosity was his making. The visit
of Commodore Perry and the granting
of treaty rights to foreigners by the