Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-07-06
HI.-THE RELIGION OF LOYALTY,

III.-THE RELIGION OF LOYALTY,
Washington, d. c., July 1.-The
statesmen Of Japan have announced
that the ambitious Japanese program
for military and naval expansion Is
fixed and unalterable. 1t Is beyond
human power to change or amend, be-
cause the late emperor sanctioned 1t,
and now that the emperor is dead, no
man may modify line of 1t.
The people Of Japan take this for
an adequate explanation of the govern
ment's course. The moro intelligent
may see that the nation Is already
staggering under bigger debt than
she can carry, that the people are be-
ing taxed to the limit, and under the
projected program will have to be tax
ed still more-but when the statesmen
are called to account, they have only
to fall back on the sanctity of the I'M
perial approval for their battleships
and battalions. The incident Is sig
nif1cant. 1t Is worth careful considera-
ton, because 1t brings out a condition
running all through Japanese society,
that constitutes one Of the principal
safeguards of the Japanese state in
it's present form, as we'll as one OF the
greatest menaces to any nation which
willingly or unwillingly, is forced to
oppose japan. .. q.
No country whose relations with
Japan promise to be as complex and
delicate as those of the United States
can afford to be ignorant OF the I'M
mense part played in Japanese life by
the sentiment of loyalty to the en-
peror. 1t is more than loyalty; 1T is
worship-not the worship men pay to
a hero but the worship men give to a
god. The emperor Is direct de-
scendant from heaven. He can not be
said to rule by divine right, in the old
European sense of the term, for he
himself is divine. Japanese loyalty to
the imperial line has all the combined
force of patriotism and religion. The
Japanese citizen exists for the greater
glory of the emperor. Service OF the
people is no program for Japanese
politician. Service Of the emperor
must be the main plank in his plat
form. ....- f.. .a.-.ts
1t is possible to serve the people by
lowering taxes, by introducing indus
trial reforms by sticking to policy OF
peace and quietude. Such a program
makes a poor sort of glory for the EN-
pire and the mikado. To magnify
him before the nations of the earth, tc
carry his. flag supreme over the Pa
cif1c, to make his army and his navy
invincible, to make him the wonder
and the master of the orient-that Is
the sort Of thing that makes an en-
peror's glory, and consideration OF
Japan's history, ever since she grew
big enough to fight shows that she has
stuck to it closely. e.
She has fought three wars in the
last two decades; her arms have never
met serious reverse. Her place has
been won by the sword. She has got
ten great areas OF new territory, she
has taken high place among the ma
lions that have to be reckoned with ir
world politics., she has annexed three
thousand year old kingdom, she has
startled the world, in way; and yet
tho mass of the Japanese people
might be better off today if she had
stayed at home and attended to bust
ness. The people were never con
suited. Their we'll being never came
into consideration. It was the glory
of the empire. This creed Of loyalty
to the mikado is not a pacific creed
It Is a creed of militarism, as 1t has
proved again and again.
The exaltation of loyalty into the
chief of the virtues has other signifi
cant results. It explains great many
things about Japan. It throws light
on the marvelously rapid way in which
Japan took on all the trappings OF
western civilization, and at the same
time it casts a certain doubt on the
old idea that her progress in western
ways entities her to infinite credit.
Japan took up the industrial culture
Of the occident because : the little
group of men who ruled her fifty years
ago, as little group of men rule he1
today, had the intelligence to see that
she must either join the procession OF
be tramped under foot by It. The
people were never consulted. The
ignorant and superstitous masses re
garded railways and telegraph lines
with all the fear and hostility that
might have been expected from them
They offered no appreciable opposition
because they had been trained for
centuries as no other people ever have
been trained, in the custom Of yielding
to authority. The relation of every
rank to every other rank was fixed
and iron-bound. Retainer owned al
legiance to his lord, and the lord bow,
ed to the mandate Of his overload
A. +ba hood ~ tho oop,n1ov svatov,,