Imperial Valley press., 1922-01-06
THE LITERARY DIGEST
DEVOTES NUMBER
TO JAPAN
Story of Nippon Empires Dazzling
Years of Advance and Accomplish
ment Told b. American Journal

nv AAeSAoAS Di Sot VI =
will be special japanese number
Without deviating from the Digest's
customary impartial presentation of
current topics, this number will be a
veritable encyclopedia of information
about Japan, covering her history and
achievements, and recording her enor-
NOUS expansion that has brought her
into friction with China, America and
British possessions in the Pacific
These difficulties and developments
will be fully treated with facts and
figures on every phase of the situa-
ton. The subjects will cover Japan's
army and navy; her commercial and
industrial growth; her internal po-
litical system and appreeiations of
her art and literature.
There will be various maps show
ing the spread of her influence. Top
les picked at random from the con-
tents include: The Japanese Psych-
ology; Japan's Conquest of Corea;
Woman's Life in Jaapn; Japanese
Scientific Achievements; Labor in ia
pan; Japan's Rival Religions.
To American eyes no fact so clear
ly fixes Japan as a world power as
the quadruple pact of the Pacific. We
have had treaties and agreements be-
fore now with Japan, but in this one
we are signed up with Japan, Great
Britain and France in an interna-
tonal agreement in the widest sense
as wide as the vast reaches of the
owrld's greatest ocean. The pregnant
event comes as a dramatic climax in
the drama of Japan and the United
States which began with Commodore
Perry's expedition to the China Seas
and Japan in 1898.
When the "big black fire-ships Of
the barbarians," as the Japanese Of
the fifties described Perry's squadron
of two steam frigates and two sloops
of war, appeared in the harbor Of
Yeddo, they anchored fifty miles from
the city. Nevertheless the terror Of
the japanese at "such war-like ap-
paration," writes |. Nitobe ('Inter-
course Between the United States and
Japan') threw the city into convul-
sion of fear:
"In all directions were seen moth
ers flying with children in their arms
and men with mothers on their backs.
Rumors of an immediate action eXag-
gerated each time they were COM
municated from mouth to mouth, add
ed horror to the horror-stricken. The
tramy of warehouses;, the clatter of
armed warrios, the noise of carts, the
parade of firemen, the insistent toll
ing of bells, the shrieks of women,
the cries of children, the DINING all
the streets of the city of more than
million souls made confusion worse
confounded."
In time Commodore Perry succeeded
through strenuous negotiation in per-
suading the japanese of his peaceful
intent and of convincing them of the
mutual advantage of trade inter-
course with the Western world. Since
then the progress of Japan in sheer
imitation of the West has been so
dazzling down the speedway OF the
wears as to blind the eyes and alarm
the souls of the peoples of the West
ern world as ominously as the Jap
anese themselves were terrified hys-
terically when the American squadron
dropped anchor off Yeddo. The pres
ent cover of the Literary Digest COM
memorates Commodore Perry. The
Japanese inscription at the Commo-
dore's right means "Japan's Seventy
Dazzling Years.; and the one at his
left means Especial Japan Number
o~~~~~~~~"~0~0"-o-"-~~0"
lutely false. There is nothing to ado
to nv statement in New York on Mon
L 80