In the following pages I have depicted certain Japanese ideals and
notions, as well as some historical facts which seemed likely to
interest those of the sympathetic Western public who may be inclined to
study the mental side of Japan.
The dialogues are founded upon actual conversations, not indeed always
in exactly the same phraseology, nor under exactly the same
circumstances, but something very like. The questions put into the
mouths of the characters in the book are the kind of questions which are
being constantly put to me, and my answers are always on the same lines;
so that my readers may regard the book as a serious treatise so far as
the materials are concerned. This is the reason why I have written this
book in a light, conversational style, and not in the form of an
ordinary critical or expository treatise. Besides, I thought that more
lucidity of exposition and more penetration into the inner views could
be achieved by writing in the way I have done.
The period to which these conversations relate is chiefly the summer of
the present year, 1905, and the greater part of this book was written
before peace was concluded, and therefore there may be occasionally some
dicta which sound somewhat polemic. On that point I can request my
readers to show leniency.
I have appended to the dialogues a few papers on various subjects. They
deal with subjects germane to those treated in the body of the work, and
it is hoped that they will afford the reader first aid in acquiring
information relative to the analysis of Japanese social life which has
here, however imperfectly, been attempted.
I may add a few words. In publishing this volume, I am not in the least
degree actuated by a desire to exalt my country unduly,--still less to
boast about her achievements. My sole object has been to show Japan as
she is, and to claim Occidental sympathy to such a degree as she may
deserve.