The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-05-12
Japanese immigration.

to the outlook, with the editors
answer:
Japanese immigration.
Will you allow me to call your at
tention to certain misconceptions
which underlie your two articles on
Oriental immigration" and Japan
csc" respectively? They appeared
in your issues of January IA and %.
AS help to the understanding of my
personal equation, l may say that,
apart from furloughs, l have resided
in Japan continuously since 1869, and
have enjoyed a fairly wide and varied
acquaintance with her people. In
the latter article you justify the I'M
willingness of the people of the Pa
cific coast to admit large numbers
of Japanese or to allow small mer-
chants and others to take up land,
on the ground that Japan in differ
ent ways takes the same attitude.
More specifically, you say: Japan
csc do not allow foreigners to hold
land in Japan save under such re-
strictions as to make it practically
impossible to do So"
Now, this is hardly fair state
ment of the situation. Since the
present treaties came into operation
in 1885, foreigners have been able to
acquire a so-called superfcies title
to real estate. Many of these run
| for ninety-nine years, a few for 999
years, and there is nothing in the
, law to prevent their running for
5000 years. For nearly all practical
purposes these titles are sufficient,
though they give only surface rights.
Again. foreigners, either alone or
in company with Japanese, may form
corporations for any lawful purpose
and purchase all the land needful for
their business. Nearly all mission
property is held by such corpora
tions, and they enjoy the same rights
as a corporation constituted solely OF
Japanese. Furthermore, last winter
the Diet enacted law at the in
stance of the government enabling
/ foreigners to hold land anywhere in
Japan, excepting in certain sections
under a quasi colonial regimen,
namely, the Hokkaido, Formosa, etc,
provided that the home country of
such foreigners allows the same priv
ilege to Japanese. The law has not
yet been promulgated, but it is I'M
derstood that it will be so soon as
the treaties now being negotiated
come into force.
This law has been in contempla-
ton for some time, and a prominent
member of the Japanese Consular
Service has assured me that the de-
lay has been chiefly, if not solely, 10
the fact that it was deemed ineXpe-
dent to yield this privilege until
Japan should gain her two great de-
siderata, namely, complete tariff auto
nomy and the control of the coasting
trade.
But there is a more vital point
where it seems to me you base your
argument upon a misconception. You
do not claim that the Japanese or
the Chinese are inferior, but you
assert that they are different; and
it is better that different men, though
frankly recognizing one another as
equals in the major qualities of civ
ilization, should have different
homes" mo nation is large enough
for two races" You quote with ap
proval the saying of Lafcadio Hearn
that the more you cultivate a Japa'
nese child "the more he will think
in the opposite direction from you.
You say "Lafcadio Hearn had Ger
tainly no anti-Japanese prejudice
If you had read Japan; An Interpre
tation,' you could hardly have writ
ten that sentence. AS a matter Of
fact Hearn had no sympathy will
the new life in Japan, and, so far a:
appears, never came into such rela
lions with the people at large as tt
render him true interpreter of tho
thoughts and sentiments which char
acterize the nation today.
Even within what might seem t.
be his own special province, his de
scriptions of Japan and her people
were the pictures of an impression
list, and the subjective element was
always abnormally prominent. One
might as well quote Augustus ]. c
Hare as an authority on the life anC
aspirations of the leaders of though
in modern Italy as to refer to La
cadio Hearn regarding modern Japan
The power of assimilation of th'
Japanese is very great-quite al