The sun., 1919-10-08
out to Wreck Rice shops.

Just opposite our building was a rice
shop; we soon discovered this to be the
objective of the rioters. A half circle
was described in front and at the given
word those having the matter in charge
proceeded to take the house to pieces.
This job having been accomplished the
crowd pushed on to the next house
plotted cut and so on until a sufficient
number of rice hoarders' shops had been
destroyed to satisfy the crowd of a good
nights work, and then as mysteriously
as they had come they vanished. At
first we thought this part Of the
erama and fully expected to hear an
explosion with ourselves suddenly dis
tributed over Yokohama. Our fears were
soon put at rest, however. by the man
ager, who informed us that there would
b.. no more rioting until the same time
the next night and we were free to
so on with our festivities
In little mating covered room be-
low. seated around a low teak wood
table awaiting our "befu text" (beef
Steaks and "sarada" (salad), We began
discussing the subject of the riots and
their causes. We had some difficulty in
accepting a definition of what We had
seen as that of a mob of frenzied. hun
cry. half starved rice hounds, bent upon
wanton destruction. To us 1t seemed a
congregation, of orderly. self-controlled
men, who. knowing their business and
their particular objective for that oc-
casion, went about their task delib-
erately.
An examination of some OF these shops
which had been demolished showed
plainly how careful they had been not
to damage adjoining property; so far
as We were concerned our experience had
been revelation. Here we were
brought face to face with a demonstra-
ton staged in the height of the riotinG
at a time and in a place where it was
supposed no foreigner could possibly be !;
we had seen the remarkable poise. the
perfect control, the mastery of self even
under the heat OF determined revenge.
1t was easy now to understand the siege
OF Port Arthur and Tsingtau and to
know something of the spirit that
caused the same conquerors 20 make
life for their prisoners so intei esting
that there was shedding of tears when
freedom came and they were obliged
to go home. These stories had all been
discredlted before. but our nights ex-
perience on the roof garden of the little
cafe was enough hereafter we would
see for ourselves before pronouncing
judgment.
Emperor's Word Magical.
We were so filled with emotion that
when we arrived back at othe Grand
Hotel we gathered about us a group OF
young American business men and re-
lated in detail the whole story. The
evening was concluded with "Banzais"
for Japan and America
1t wouldn't be fair not to tell you
of the conclusion of the rice riots. On
the next night one of the members of
the Japanese police force went before
the throng and called them to halt, that
he had message from the Emperor
This was enough; no Japanese is so
lacking in education that he doesn't
the meaning of such a mes
sage; they were promised relief at his
own hands Immediately, they were re-
quested to cease rioting and go to their
homes and await action by the Gov
ernment
Thus one Of the most sweeping and
&c enerally widespread disturbances which
threatened the internal peace OF Japan
was brought to quick and positive
stop The Mikado took OF his own pri-
vate funds millions of yen and dis
tr!huted these to the sufferers and the
Government took speedy action to bring
the offending hoarders to justice.
This is but one incident, there have
been hundreds fully as convincing in the
life of the writer, My hope in chroni-
cling this is that II may bring home one
thought, that possibly some of the de-
ductions now beng put upon the activi
ties or the Japanese by our friends might