The Weekly Journal. — 1904-11-04 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

JONAS GADFLY.  time show that the Catholic missionaries were intriguing, after the manner of the Armada movement against England, to establish Christianity in Japan by the overthrow of the civil government, with the aid of Catholic nations. When the missionaries  goaded their people to destroy Buddhist temples the ruler Hideyouhi published a decree recounting these outrages and giving the missionaries full notice to leave the country. Later a Spanish captain named Landecho, who was wrecked off the coast of Japan,  aroused deeper anger by boasting (according to Charlevoix): " Our kings begin by sending into the country they wish to conquer their priests and monks, who induce the people to embrace their religion, and when these have made considerable progress troops are sent to combine with the new Christians, and then  our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest." On this being reported to Hideyoili he cried: "My states are filled with traitors, and their numbers increase every day." Still the missionaries smuggled themselves into Japan in defiance of the law, and et length the massacre came. But that it was not the Christian religion that was aimed at is evident from Ilideyoshi's proclamation: "So long as the sun warms the earth let no Christian be so bold as to conic to Japan, and let all know that King Philip himself, or the God of the Christians, or the great God of all, if he contravene this prohibition, shall pat for it with his head." Christ and God are here clearly regarded as human beings bent on doing evil to Japan. "Sweep the snow from your doorstep," says a Japanese proverb, "and do not trouble yourself about the icicle,' on your neighbour's roof." When we have taken account of the provocation that Japan had in the matter of the missionaries, in an age when Christians were massacring Christians, we come to the further charge that Japan for long churlishly closed her gates to the world, that foreigners who landed on her coasts were killed, that Hara-Kiri (a form of suicide by ripping open the belly) is common, and that ten years ago the Japanese soldiers cruelly killed Chinese at the storming of Port Arthur. The closing of the country follows naturally the revolution caused by the intrigues of Christian missionaries. And as for the killing of Chinese without quarter at the storming of Port Arthur, let it be remembered that the Chinese cruelly tortured Japanese prisonerso even as they tortured British agents at .the time when, in retribution, we burned the Summer Palace at Pekin and were not gentle with any Chinese in arms that we met, whether they wanted quarter or not. Coming to Hara-Kiri, let it bo borne in mind that this has often been a high form of self-sacrifice. "A typical and touching case of suicide for expiation," says the reviewer to whom I have referred, 'occurred when an obscure young girl committed suicide in a grove for her country's sake after a murderous attempt had been I made by one of her countrymen on the present Czar Olen, as Czarewitch, he travelled in Japan. By her death she hoped to expiate the crime and to save her country from the wrath of the gods and of Russia, as she said in a letter which she left behind her." But even with the cuNtoin of Ilara-Kiri, often dictated by high sense of honour, as when captured soldiers disembowel themselves because of their humiliation, the suicides in Japan are fewer than in some European countries. Mark this table, showing the average number of suicides a-year per million inhabitants:-France Denmark Switzerland Germany Japan In this and other Anglo-Saxon countries the suicides are fewer than in Japan, but that nation stands well in comparison with the civilised and eminently Christian communities named. It does not seer to me, in fine, that the Japanese can justly be called barbarian unless every civilised nation is to rank in the same category.