During all this time of outward changes the real feeling between
the races--the mutual dislike of Oriental and Occidental--had
continued to grow. Of the nine or ten English papers published in
the open ports, the majority expressed, day after day, one side
of this dislike, in the language of ridicule or contempt; and a
powerful native press retorted in kind, with dangerous
effectiveness. If the "anti-Japanese" newspapers did not actually
represent--as I believe they did--an absolute majority in
sentiment, they represented at least the weight of foreign
capital, and the preponderant influences of the settlements. The
English "pro-Japanese" newspapers, though conducted by shrewd
men, and distinguished by journalistic abilities of no common
order, could not appease the powerful resentment provoked by the
language of their contemporaries. The charges of barbarism or
immorality printed in English were promptly answered by the
publication in Japanese dailies of the scandals of the open
ports,--for all the millions of the empire to know. The race
question was carried into Japanese politics by a strong
anti-foreign league; the foreign concessions were openly denounced as
hotbeds of vice; and the national anger became so formidable that
only the most determined action on the part of the government
could have prevented disastrous happenings. Nevertheless oil was
still poured on the smothered fire by foreign editors, who at the
outbreak of the war with China openly took the part of China.
This policy was pursued throughout the campaign. Reports of
imaginary reverses were printed recklessly, undeniable victories
were unjustly belittled, and after the war had been decided, the
cry was raised that the Japanese "had been allowed to become
dangerous" Later on, the interference of Russia was applauded and
the sympathy of England condemned by men of English blood. The
effect of such utterances at such a time was that of insult never
to be forgiven upon a people who never forgive. Utterances of
hate they were, but also utterances of alarm,--alarm excited by
the signing of those new treaties, bringing all aliens under
Japanese jurisdiction,--and fear, not unfounded, of another
anti-foreign agitation with the formidable new sense of national
power behind it. Premonitory symptoms of such agitation were
really apparent in a general tendency to insult or jeer at
foreigners, and in some rare but exemplary acts of violence. The
government again found it necessary to issue proclamations and
warnings against such demonstrations of national anger; and they
ceased almost as quickly as they began. But there is no doubt
that their cessation was due largely to recognition of the
friendly attitude of England as a naval power, and the worth of
her policy to Japan in a moment of danger to the world's peace.
England, too, had first rendered treaty-revision possible,--in
spite of the passionate outcries of her own subjects in the Far
East; and the leaders of the people were grateful. Otherwise the
hatred between settlers and Japanese might have resulted quite as
badly as had been feared.
In the beginning, of course, this mutual antagonism was racial,
and therefore natural; and the irrational violence of prejudice
and malignity developed at a later day was inevitable with the
ever-increasing conflict of interests. No foreigner really
capable of estimating the conditions could have seriously
entertained any hope of a rapprochement. The barriers of racial
feeling, of emotional differentiation, of language, of manners
and beliefs, are likely to remain insurmountable for centuries.
Though instances of warm friendship, due to the mutual attraction
of exceptional natures able to divine each other intuitively,
might be cited, the foreigner, as a general rule, understands the
Japanese quite as little as the Japanese understands him. What is
worse for the alien than miscomprehension is the simple fact that
he is in the position of an invader. Under no ordinary
circumstances need he expect to be treated like a Japanese, and
this not merely because he has more money at his command, but
because of his race. One price for the foreigner, another for the
Japanese, is the common regulation,--except in those Japanese
stores which depend almost exclusively upon foreign trade. If you
wish to enter a Japanese theatre, a figure-show, any place of
amusement, or even an inn, you must pay a virtual tax upon your
nationality. Japanese artisans, laborers, clerks, will not work
for you at Japanese rates--unless they have some other object in
view than wages. Japanese hotel-keepers--except in those hotels
built and furnished especially for European or American
travelers--will not make out your bill at regular prices. Large
hotel-companies have been formed which maintain this rule,--
companies controlling scores of establishments throughout the
country, and able to dictate terms to local storekeepers and to
the smaller hostelries. It has been generously confessed that
foreigners ought to pay higher than Japanese for accommodation,
since they give more trouble; and this is true. But under even
these facts race-feeling is manifest. Those innkeepers who build
for Japanese custom only, in the great centres, care nothing for
foreign custom, and often lose by it,--partly because well-paying
native guests do not like hotels patronized by foreigners, and
partly because the Western guest wants all to himself the room
which can be rented more profitably to a Japanese party of five
or eight. Another fact not generally understood in connection
with this is that in Old Japan the question of recompense for
service was left to honor. The Japanese innkeeper always supplied
(and in the country often still supplies) food at scarcely more
than cost; and his real profit depended upon the conscience of
the customer. Hence the importance of the chadai, or present of
tea-money, to the hotel. From the poor a very small sum, from the
rich a larger sum, was expected,--according to services rendered.
In like manner the hired servant expected to be remunerated
according to his master's ability to pay, even more than
according to the value of the work done; the artist preferred,
when working for a good patron, never to name a price: only the
merchant tried to get the better of his customers by bargaining,
--the immoral privilege of his class. It may be readily imagined
that the habit of trusting to honor for payment produced no good
results in dealing with Occidentals. All matters of buying and
selling we think of as "business"; and business in the West is
not conducted under purely abstract ideas of morality, but at
best under relative and partial ideas of morality. A generous man
extremely dislikes to have the price of an article which he wants
to buy left to his conscience; for, unless he knows exactly the
value of the material and the worth of the labor, he feels
obliged to make such over-payment as will assure him that he has
done more than right; while the selfish man takes advantage of
the situation to give as nearly next to nothing as he can.
Special rates have to be made, therefore, by the Japanese in all
dealings with foreigners. But the dealing itself is made more or
less aggressive, according to circumstance, because of race
antagonism. The foreigner has not only to pay higher rates for
every kind of skilled labor; but must sign costlier leases, and
submit to higher rents. Only the lowest class of Japanese
servants can be hired even at high wages by a foreign household;
and their stay is usually brief, as they dislike the service
required of them. Even the apparent eagerness of educated
Japanese to enter foreign employ is generally misunderstood;
their veritable purpose being simply, in most cases, to fit
themselves for the same sort of work in Japanese business houses,
stores, and hotels. The average Japanese would prefer to work
fifteen hours a day for one of his own countrymen than eight
hours a day for a foreigner paying higher wages. I have seen
graduates of the university working as servants; but they were
working only to learn special things.