The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1913-08-05

COMPLY WIFI tle request. Inc veteran
statesman thinks that the California
question is not so simple that his trip
TO America could settle it, because it
involves, in his opinion, the funda-
mental question of the assimilability
or unassimilability of his countrymen.
He says in effect:
There are two things which we
must do in order to solve the Japanese
question in California. First, we must
strive to improve the moral and in
tellectual qualities of the Japanese;
and secondly, we must appeal to the
sense of justice of all the leading ma
tons.
THE anti-Japanese agitation in
America owes its origin to racial pre-
| JUDGE, and the prejudice against our
people comes from the assumption,
not altogether unfounded, that the
japanese can not assimilate with for
eign races. In respect of intellectual
ity or morals we can not regard our
selves as superior to Europeans and
Americans. If we want to be treated
on equal terms with other civilized
peoples, we must first try to Guido
Europeans and Americans by increas-
ing our store of knowledge, elevating
our standard of morals, and enriching
our national treasury. Then the for
eigners' prejudice against us will give
place to admiration"
This leaves us still rather at sea as
to Count Okuma's real views on the
question of assimilation. But Profess
sor Ukita, of Count Okuma's Waseda
University, gives more definite opin-
ion in the popular Tokyo monthly, the
Taiyo, edited by himself. By assimi-
lation the professor, of course, means
mental, moral and political assimila-
ton. Considered from that point of
view, the Japanese, he thinks, are as
similable, and he reasons thus:
"a race or people which does not
spiritually assimilate with other races
inevitably lacks capacity for progress
and stability. Both Americans and
the Japanese have attained their pres
ent prosperity by dint of their remark
able power of assimilation. Japan,
however, has suffered from the effects
of the long seclusion maintained I'M
der the Shogunate regime. 1t has put
the Japanese out of the race in the
universal progress of the world bred
narrow provincialism and prejudice.
and deprived her of opportunities of
establishing colonies of her own. In
the future her task should be to de-
velop in the bosoms of her people
broad cosmopolitanism, thus enabling
them more easily to assimilate other
civilizations and making them more
tolerant toward those peoples whom
they regard as inferior or backward.
"At the same time, it must be adj
mitted that the Japanese are possessed
of essential qualities which enable
them to assimilate foreign civiliza-
lions. What | contend is that such
qualities should be more fully devel-
oped. Western critics who are in.
clined to believe in the unassimilabil-
ity of the Japanese turn to Lafcadio |
Hearn as one great authority whose
Interpretation of Japan confirms their
views. Yet the thoughtful and scien-
tific investigators, both foreign and
native, more and more disagree with |
Hearn. With all his poets intuition,
Hearn failed to see Japan and the
Japanese without glamour. His des-
cription of the Japanese inevitably
creates with the Western reader, and
for that matter with the Japanese
reader, an impression that the inhabit-
ants of Nippon are endowed with
traits and ideals so radically differ
ent from those of other peoples that
they will never understand, or be I'M
derstood by, the West. Hearn may
be immortal as master of English
prose, but not as an interpreter of
Japan.
THE common argument in America
against the Japanese is that they are
so intensely loyal to their native
country that they will never become
attached to an adopted country. This
contention is not we'll founded. 1t is
simply an ad priori argument. True,
the nature of the political organiza-
ton of America differs from that of
Japan, but the spirit of loyal allegi-
ance is the same. A patriotic Japa-
nese, when made an American citizen,
will prove as loyal and faithful to his
adopted country as any other natur-
allied citizen. If in the past the
Japanese showed traits that favored
the opposite conclusion, it is because
they have been Disseminated against,
and also hapauce hove hoo,, -