Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1924-11-28

There Is q marked background of
American influence in the rise of Japan
.-one Of the most rapid and striking
national developments recorded in his
tory.
In half a century Japan's popula-
ton has more than doubled, her wealth
has increased twenty-fold, and she has
been transformed from an almost for
gotten hermit nation into world pow
er, leader In industry and COM
merce, with an ambition to be second
to none in capturing the markets of
the world.
For Japan's development, there are
reasons both internal and external.
First and greatest of all was the new
mind created long ago by the Oyomei
philosophy, which threw the reaction
airy Confucian cult into comparative
shadow.
In this mental discipline It should
be noted that every one, without ex-
ception, Of 1.-THE fifty-five creators" of
the New japan was trained, and some
proved to be past masters. Without
this element, the Japan we now know
would not, could not, have been. In
troduced from China, in the Seven
teenth century, the philosophy Of
Wang Yang-ming (Oyomei In jap
anese) was developed and taught by
books and expounders in fifty differ
ent centers.
Two hundred and fifty years of
peace sufficed for the accumulation of
the nations potencies in preparation
for emergence, when the opportunity
should come.
During all this period there was I'M
broken contact with Europe through
the Dutch at Nagasaki. Even the
Portuguese and Spanish contacts of
seventy years, with merchants, mill
tary men, and engineers, had left their
mark on the japanese language, archi-
lecture, music, military science, and
dietetics. Then, from the Dutch, with
their mechanics, physicians, language,
books, apparatus, and hospitals, such
wonderful results were wrought in art,
science, invention and trade, in ideas
and commodities, that Swift, through
his knowledge of Holland, was able to
pen his extravaganza, "Gulliver's
Travels" Dutch culture had been like
seed sown everywhere.
A thousand spots Of light foretold
the coming dawn of long bright day.
Hundreds of native physicians read the
noble Dutch language and in a meas
ure practiced European medicine. At
Nagasaki, DR.. Pompe van Merdervoort
had established hospital and trained
physicians, while Dutch mechanics,
with the aid of Japanese workmen,
had built steam yacht.
"BIack Ships" From America
In a word, Japan was as rich
clover field already pollenized from
the Occident. Like steady line of
bees, the Dutch ships had been bring
ing the vitalizing Influences for more
than two centuries. Yet to the jap
anese, the modern revelations, on
large scale, were the ''black ships" of
the American whalers that gathered
in their waters. What the islanders
learned both from honestly ship
wrecked sailors and from the vol
untary waits (chiefiy mutineers) quick
ened the national temperament.
President Fillmore's fleet, which was
ordered to sail for the East In 1852,
on the same day that Japan's greatest
emperor, Mutsuhito, was born, con-
sisted largely of store ships, which
were loaded with American inventions
and products.
After Commodore Perry had COM
pleted his treaty-making, there was
held in 1854 on the strand at Yoko-
hama. Japan's first industrial exposi-
ton. In 1872 the more ornamental
presents were In storehouse at
Shizuoka, the place of the last sho-
guns Punishment The things of use,
in agriculture and the arts. had al
ready been widely distributed and
copied, especially in that new part of
the empire called the Hokkaido
(Yezo), which throughout bears a
very American aspect; and the reason
of this Is clear. A commission Of
scientific and practical men, sent out
from Washington, was active in the
island between 1870 and 1880.
Even more impressive to the student
Of Japan's evolution were the personnel
and equipment of at least Ave OF the
first American missionaries. Three,
besides being mature in experience,
had been long before in China, or
we're men of science and technical
ability. DR., ]. G. Hepburn opened a
hospital and disnensary and trained
the first surgeons and physicians, and
oe ard s. r. Brown built the bridges