The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-16
JAPAN TRIES TO
 SIMPLIFY WRITING
Romaji-Kai Movement Seeks to Substitute Roman Alphabet
 for IdeOgraphs.

AOA 1OCOSA opAAASs
 eff I were to pick out any one thing that lies at the bottom of the differ euce between American and Japanese education I would point to the ideo- graph writes Baron Na1bu Kanda in ''Japan's Message to America" a book of thirty-f1ve chapters, each chapter written by one of the foremost men or women of Japan Baron Kanda is the Dean of the. Tokio Higher Com mercial College and a member of the Japanese House of Peers. It may be mentioned also that he is a graduate of Amherst College of the class of 1879.
 In the chapter of 'tJapan's Message to America" of which he is the au- thor, Baron Kanda points out that prior to the intrduotion of Chinese civilization. into Japan, which was about 800 A. D., the records indicate that Japan had no regular system of writing. As proof of this he calls at tention to the famous collection of an- cientN Japanese poems, the Man yoshu,'' which were written more than 1000 years ago, and in which Chinese; fdeographs are used phoneticalIy to spell out Japanese sounds.
 Thus from the earliest times, com tinues Baron Kanda, "Chminese liter ature, with it's wealth of poetry and philosophy, formed the foundation of our lcuILuTe. 1C was the pdCkDOn0 or our education until, with the advent of western civilization, a little over half a century ago, our whole educa- tional system was modelled after the pattern of west and all the subjects taught in the schools of Europe and America were Included in the .currt-t cuIurn of studies.
 ttIt at that early stage, together with many other sa1utary reforms, the gov ernment had been wise enough to foresee the far reaching result of sub stftuting Roman letters for the ideo- graphs, they would have conferred 8 priceless blessing upon all posterity. One imperial edict would have settled the question once for all, and added the brightest gem to the glory of the Mejji era- The golden opportunity is lost forever, and today every Ques- decided by the popular assembly and questions of more pressing nature en- gross the attention of the members.
 Thus the ideographic letters re- main, and all our textbooks except those for foreign languages, are writ ten in these forms, the mere acquist- ton of which is a great tax the mental energy of the young. The written language of the present day is a. mixture of Chinese ideographs and the Japanese syllable alphabet called the Kama, which was invented over a thousand years ago, and is known as the Sinico-Japanese."
 Baron Kanda asks why is it not pos sible to write the Japanese language entirely with the Japanese syliabary of forty eight symbols? That, he points out was the contention of the Japanese reform movement known as the ''Kanano-Kar' started some thirty years ago, but which failed to make headway before the customs and usages of thousand years dura- ton.
 ssThe conservatfves,'' Baron Kada adds, stc1aimed that as the Japanese language contained so many 1 homonyms introduced from the Chi nese,- the syllable alphabet was ut terly inadequate as a medium for the expression of complicated thought. For one who has mastered the ideo- graphs to express ones thought in concise and readily understood char Eacters, instead of by spelling out each. charm of which the initiated can form no idea Besides the graceful strokes of the soft and pliab1e brush, so much more expressive of feeling than the hard point of a steel pen, had raised calligraphy to the rank of an Iart almost as exquisite as painting it. self.
 -sNevertheless, with all that can be said in favor of ideographs, when we 1 realize how much mental energy the y mere signs, thus diverting 1t from the acquisition of useful knowledge. the conviction that fdeographs should have no place in the education of the twentieth gentry comes home to us with tremendous force.''
 Following the failure to make prog ress of the Kana-ko-Kai movement another reform movement was start ] ed, which came to be known as the Romaji-Kai. The object of this move ment, as Baron Kandab points out, was | to substitute the Roman alphabet for the ideographs.
 E. Unlike it's less fortunate sister so-
 ciety," Baron Kanda concludes, ''the l Romaji-Kai under the present name 1 of Romaji-Hirome-Kai happily still exists, and with the aid of its organ monthly published Nin transltterated
 Japanese is doing it's best in slowly, but steadily pushing on the work of propaganda But 1t is hard to pull against the stream of long usage and popular prejudice, and the blessing which the writer wished to bequeath l to his children may not be realized
 even by his great t-grandchildren.