Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-06-27
DECLARES JAPAN
ENTERS new ERA
President Of keiO University Asserts
Country Must Cease Worship
and Begin to Cultivate.


ISOLATED Press)-Pre sident Eikichi IA.
mazda of keio university declares that
Japan has now entered a new era and
that the time has come for her to
cease worship of the west and to as
plre to independence in science, COM
mercial leadership and greater sea
and land power.
Dr. hamada in the Japan Magazine
says; "Henceforth as nation the
empire enters on a new career of I'M
limited hope and ambition. Japan's
goal is now the most important and
most significant possible to a people.
up to the present Japan has been
kept in the leading strings of Euro
pean thought and civilization, lying
abject at the feet of German science,
sending her young men abroad to &C
quire occidental knowledge before
they were thought fit to lead their
countrymen. This state of affairs must
now change. Japan should cease to
worship at western shrines
For Japan period of new inven-
tons and discoveries is dawning. Up
to the present we have been all too
busy adopting and adapting and imi-
tatinG European civilization until i'm
itation has grown to be a habit with
us; but our world of thought and sci
ence is not now so poor that we have
nothing to admire and emulate at
home.
In my opinion the Japanese are as
capable of thought and invention as
any other people. Germany, whom we
have been worshipping so far in this
respect was not the originator of
those things for which we adore her.
but herself an imitator of England,
America, France and Italy where mos
of the great inventions and discover
les took place. 1t is, indeed, great
mistake to regard Germany as a great
inventive nation.
While up to the present Japanese
commerce and industry have been IN
der the domination of the west, Japan
should now make a change and exert
herself for worldwide recognition
The best time to do this is the pres
ent, while Europe is engaged other
states are too busy to modest US At
present England and France are too
much taken up with the war to take
much interest in competition, while
Germany. which has made the poverty
stricken east her unwilling customer
is now surrounded and cut off from
maintaining her commerce abroad
The whole trade field of the orient
| lies open to Japanese commerce, and
if she does not seize the opportunity
! it will be her own fault. We have thus
| the rarest of chances for unusual de-
| velopment."
| For the sake of national commerce
and industry, if for no other reason,
the writer considered that Japan must
! develop her sea power. He added:
! 1T is necessary that the nation should
see also to the completion of its prep
arations for ornamental expansion.
| The whole nation should be drilled and
ready to defend the empire in time OF
emergency. The present method OF
keeping a small number of young mel
! in barracks for long intervals is not
only uneconOmical but impractical;
| for those so drilled, to the exclusion
of others, might all be killed in battle
] and then no trained soldiers would be
left to take their places. What Japan
wants is universal military service.
| The whole nation must be ready to
/ bear arms if need be.
The war now raging IN Europe
proves that men, after training OF a
| few months, fight as bravely and sue
cessfullv as old soldiers, and the out
come now depends more on the num-
/ Der of those who can go to the front
than on the amount of drill they have
received. Thus to Confine drill to a
small number is a fatal policy for eff
cheney in national defense. Also it is
uneconomical Narrowminded mill
tarv martinets may scoff at such a
! suggestion. but practical men will ap-
prove of it The state must Re con-
sidered before the opinion of clan spe-
/ cialists. The system of military drill
used in Japan is an invention Of the
time Of Napoleon and takes no thought
of modern inventions, such as aero
| planes and so on"
| Or. Kamada concluded: Thus Jap
ans hopes for the future depend oD
having stress on those three objects
Scientific development as a business
commercial expansion as a goal, and
sea power as a consequence, with a
more modern system of army training.
| Weaker nations must always follow
stronger ones"
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