Evening star., 1916-06-28
HOW ABOUT JAPAN?
HI.-The Religion Of
Loyalty.
By Frederic J. Haskin.


nounced that the ambitious Japanese
program for military and naval ex-
pansion is fixed and unalterable. It is
beyond human power to change or
amend, because the late emperor sane
toned it. and now that the emperor 10
dead no man may modify a line Of it.
The people of Japan take this. for an
adequate explanation of the govern
ments course. The more Intelligent
may see that the nation is already
staggering under a debt bigger than
she can carry; that the people are be-
ing taxed to the limit. and under the
projected program will have to be
taxed still moro. but when the states
men are called to account they have
only to fall back on the sanctity of the
imperial approval for their .battleships
and battalions. The incident Is signifi-
cant. 1t Is worth careful consideration.
because it brings out q condition rum
ming all through japanese society that
constitutes one of the principal safe
guards of the Japanese state in its
greatest menaces to any nation which,
willingly or unwillingly, Is forced to
oppose Japan.
No country whose relations with ia
pan promise to be as complex and deli
cato as
More Than Loyalty; those Of
Amounts to Worship. states can
afford to be ignorant of the immense
part played in Japanese life by the
sentiment Of loyalty to the emperor. 1t
is more than loyalty. it is worship-not
the worship men pay to a hero. but the
worship men give to a god. The en-
peror is a direct descendant from heav-
en-. He cannot be said to rule by di-
vine 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 patriot
ism and religion. The Japanese citizen
exists for the greater glory Of the en-
peror Service of the people is no pro-
ice Of the emperor must be the main
plank in his platform
II is possible to serve the people by
lowering lowe taxes. by introducing indus
triai reforms. by sticking to policy of
peace and quietude. Such a program
makes a poor sort Of glory for the em-
pire and the mikado. To magnify him
before the nations Of the earth, to
carry his flag supreme over the Pacific,
to make his army and his navy invinci-
bic, to make him the wonder and the
master of the orient-that is the sort
OF thing that makes an emperor's
glory, and a consideration Of Japan's
enough to fight shows that she has
stuck to it closely.
She has fought three wars in the last
two decades; her arms have never met
serious re-
Fights Three Wars verse, Her place
:, r n has been won by
III wv oecaoes- the sword. She
has gained great areas Of new terri
tory. she has taken high place among
the nations that have to be reckoned
with in world politics. she has an
nexed three ee-tho1sand-year-old king
dom. she has startled the world, in a
people might be better of today il she
had stayed at home and attended to
business. The people were never con-
suited. Their well being never came
the empire. This creed of loyalty to
the mikado is not pacific creed. 1t is
a creed Of militarism. as 1t has proved
again and again.
The exaltation Of loyalty into the
cant results. It explains a great many
things about Japan. 1t 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 her today.
had the intelligence to see that she
must either join the procession or be
tramped under foot by 1t. The people
were never consulted. The ignorant
and superstitious masses regarded rail-