THE GROWING EMPIRE
Although in many of her newer phases Japan is less fascinating to the
casual tourist than where she is still "unspoiled," the efforts she is
making to get into step with the rest of the world, and to solve the
problems which are confronting her, are full of interest to the student
and to the more sympathetic traveller.
To wide-awake Americans the growing Japan should be of especial
interest, since however much we believe in and hope for continued peace
between the two nations, there is bound to be more or less commercial
competition.
Where the British Islands have stood in regard to shipping and commerce
on the Atlantic, the islands of Nippon bid fair to stand on the Pacific.
Even to-day the Pacific is by no means an empty ocean, but its
development still lies largely in the future. It is the near future,
however, and Japan knows it. The Panama Canal is almost completed; China
is awakened and beginning to take active notice; Japanese colonies are
being planted in South America and elsewhere.
While many countries of the Western world are facing a falling
birth-rate, Japan's is rising rapidly. There is a tradition which
accounts for this state of affairs. It seems that there was once a
quarrel between the creators of the land, Izanami threatening his wife,
Izanagi, that he would cause the population to die off at the rate of a
thousand a day. The goddess, however, got the last word, and increased
the birth-rate to fifteen hundred a day. Apparently she has been able to
maintain the ratio to the present time--at any rate, there is an annual
gain of half a million.
With a population already averaging three hundred to every habitable
square mile, it is little wonder that the nation feels the need of
extending her boundaries and to that end is trying to open up new
territory to her emigrants.
Emigration began in 1885, when the King of Hawaii called for settlers in
his island realm. Emigration societies were organized, under the control
of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and to-day the men of Nippon greatly
outnumber the whites. The Foreign Minister still has entire charge of
the societies: he grants all passports, and sees to the proper
distribution of the thousands who every year leave their own country to
settle more or less permanently in other parts of the world. Many
emigrants go to Manchuria, Korea and Formosa, some to the Malay
Peninsula and Australia, a few to the Philippines, and an increasing
number to Central and South America. But they are a home-loving people,
and eventually three-fourths of those who go out, return to Japan to
settle down once more with their families.
Greatly to Japan's mortification, her people have been repulsed in
California. Professor Peabody of Harvard returned recently from a trip
to the Orient, and had this to say on the subject: "We accept as
citizens the off-scourings of Eastern Europe, and shut our door on the
thrifty Japanese, whose colour may be no darker and whose descent may be
from the same original stock. What nags the Japanese in the matter is
the indirect insinuation of bad blood, the intimation that a people
whose education is compulsory and self-help is universal may not prove
as serviceable elements in a commercial democracy as the average of
Syrians or Copts; that, in short, the Far East is intrinsically inferior
to the Near East." He points out that after twenty years the Japanese
hold only about one per cent. of the agricultural land in the State of
California, and that there are five thousand less of them there now than
there were three years ago, owing to a "Gentlemen's Agreement," by which
Japan limits her emigration to the United States.
This land question came up after we left Tokyo, but it naturally
interested us intensely. The Californians seem to fear the Japanese
because they live so cheaply and work so hard that it is thought they
may come in time to own the whole state.
A recent competition, with a prize offered for the best essay on the
California trouble, showed a world-wide ignorance of the real situation
and its causes. Since this was true of both American and Japanese
competitors, it seems to show that even the more educated among us need
to think and study more deeply into the problem before making up our
minds.
An extract from the _Japan Magazine_, which is published in Tokyo, shows
how men of the better class feel regarding the land question: "Japan is
not angry, but she is earnestly anxious to know whether America will
rest content to allow the California attitude to pass as national. No,
Japan is not wrathful, but she is mortified to see any section of the
country that calls itself her friend, somewhat abruptly suggest that her
absence is preferred to her presence.... Happily, the California
attitude does not represent the American people, so that Japan still has
hopes of a reconsideration and a reinstatement. On the other hand, it is
unfortunate that the majority of Japanese residents in the United States
are not really representative of Japan. Certainly the average of
emigrants going to America is not at all on an intellectual or social
equality with the average citizen at home ... they are the poorest and
most unfortunate of their countrymen, and would never have left home if
they could have succeeded as well in their own country. The same may be
said of every immigrant from Europe.... When the lowest class can do so
well, a better class would do even better.... The main hope lies at
present in so instructing intending emigrants that they will be able to
assimilate speedily and amicably with American society and abide by the
customs and laws of the country."
It is interesting to note that in Japan they talk of the "white peril"
and tell of the cruelty and oppression of Europeans to their "less
civilized" yellow brethren. They have no difficulty in finding cases
where might has made right, even in very recent times.
It is suggested by a Japanese newspaper that their diplomatists, in
dealing with our country, have been imitating the attitude of the
British toward the United States, apparently believing it to be in the
end the one most likely to achieve results. The main features of this
"attitude" are much patience and brotherly kindness, but unwavering
firmness.
Before leaving the subject a few statistics are not out of place. The
reason why the question centres about California is that sixty per cent.
of all the Japanese in the country are in that state, where most of them
are engaged in agriculture. During the last five years the number of
immigrants has steadily decreased. In 1911, the Japanese farmers
produced more than twelve million dollars' worth of crops, which is
nearly twenty per cent. of the entire yield of the state. Reckoning
their labour on land they do not control, however, they are responsible
for at least ninety per cent. of the agricultural products of
California, whether vineyard, vegetable, or fruit. The most successful
farmers are in the northern part of the state, where the low district
along the river is tabooed by Americans, and but for the men from Japan
would be idle and useless. The immense harvest of fruit and grain in the
San Joaquin valley could hardly be gathered without them.
During the agitation against Asiatics, when the number of Japanese was
reduced, and Indians, Greeks, Mexicans, and Italians took their places,
the American managers admitted that one Japanese was equal to three or
four of the other nationalities in agricultural work. The farmer from
Nippon is a hard-working man, always eager to have his own little hut
and a wife and family.
Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, in his recent book, "The American Japanese
Problem," points out the one-sidedness of the attacks made upon the
Japanese in California. He says, for instance, that "When Governor
Johnson and Secretary Bryan came to Florin [a town used as an 'awful
example' of Japanese occupation], Mr. Reese, already known for his
anti-Japanese attitude, was chosen by Governor Johnson to be their guide
and instructor, while Mr. Landsborough, known to Governor Johnson as
pro-Japanese, was turned aside." The report of the State Labour
Commission, which investigated the situation, was so favourable to the
Japanese that the state government is said to have suppressed it--at any
rate, it has never been published.
The _Los Angeles Times_ says: "The Japanese have become an important
factor in the agricultural and commercial life of the southwest. Their
thrift is remarkable, their patience inexhaustible, and they are natural
gardeners, seeming to read the secrets of the very soil and to know
instinctively what will do well and what will do better. The result of
this close study of soil conditions, close observation of crop and
weather conditions, enables the Japanese to control to a great degree
the vegetable-raising industry of Southern California."
Considering that there are more Italians in New York than there are in
Rome, and that one person in every three in our metropolis is a Jew,
while half the population of Norway is in this country--to mention a few
cases--it doesn't seem as if we ought to object seriously to a handful
of Japanese immigrants.
Although California repulsed them, South America has proved very
hospitable to the Japanese. The "Latin-American A-B-C" of Argentina,
Brazil and Chile, receives their colonists eagerly. Guglielmo Ferrero,
the Italian philosopher, finds traces of a possible racial likeness
between the Japanese and the natives of South America. While he is by no
means sure of this relationship himself, he says, "Japan will not shrink
from relying upon the anthropologic theories above stated for the
purpose of opening to its emigrants the ports of this immense and
wealthy continent and establishing the strongest ties of close
friendship where Europeans are gathering such harvests of wealth."
The friendship which exists between Japan and Argentina, however, is not
based upon any real or fancied racial ties. It began at the time when
the latter country sold the Island nation two new warships which she was
having built in Europe, thus proving herself a friend in need.
Emigration to Argentina has only just begun, but the future is very
promising commercially, not alone on account of the cordial relations,
but because the republic offers a good market for Japanese
merchandise--with a population of but six million, she buys and sells
more in a year than China with her three hundred million.
There is a great demand for Japanese immigrants in Brazil, where there
is no race prejudice to be encountered and much fertile land to be had
for the asking. Brazil is a Portuguese country, which is especially
appropriate, since Portugal was the first to send missionaries to Japan,
nearly three centuries ago.
A company has been formed in Japan for the purpose of colonizing in
Brazil, aiming to settle the surplus population in a country where it
will be well treated. At least three thousand immigrants a year are
promised by the company, but more will be welcomed, Brazil promising
land, roads, and transportation from Japan. Farmers, who in their own
country received perhaps fifteen cents a day, are able to save from one
hundred to three hundred dollars a year to send home, while wages are
steadily rising.
A writer in a recent issue of a Brazilian bulletin comments on the scene
at the dock when the first shipload of Japanese immigrants arrived. "The
spectacle was curious and very different to the disembarking of European
immigrants," he says. "The men, many of whom had their chests adorned
with the Manchurian medal, carried little flags in which the Brazilian
and Japanese colours were mingled, green and gold, white and red. The
extreme cleanliness of the Japanese was remarkable; while European
emigrants, and particularly those from the south of Europe, leave the
ship that has transported them in a filthy state, the cabins of the boat
on which the Japanese travelled were on arrival as neat as at the time
of departure. Each of them had in his baggage ... numerous articles of
toilet, tooth-paste, and tooth-brushes."
As yet there is little commerce between Brazil and Japan, but another
year will probably see a change in this respect, for the opening of the
Canal will make the route four thousand miles shorter, and the
freightage, as a consequence, much lower.
The Panama Canal will make a considerable difference in Japanese trade
with the United States. At present her exports to our country are nearly
double her imports from us. There are now two routes to New York--the
quicker one, to San Francisco and thence by rail, the slower one, all
the way by sea, through the Suez Canal; the former is expensive, while
the latter may require six months. It will be possible to make the trip
by way of Panama in almost the time needed for the shorter route, but
with the low freightage charge of the longer.
The Canal will also facilitate trade with the eastern coast of South
America, giving direct intercourse, not only with Brazil, but also with
Argentina. At present exports to these countries are sent via Europe and
transshipped.
On account of her insular position Japan has always been a sea-going
nation, but her shipping has increased enormously since the war with
Russia. She now has over six thousand ships, manned for the most part by
her own seamen. The question of building larger liners, such as are
being put into commission for the Atlantic trade, has been discussed. At
present the Japanese steamers which carry passengers are as good as the
American ones, if not better. Instead of buying them abroad, Japan is
beginning to build her own steamships--there are large shipyards at
Nagasaki and Kobe.
In her efforts to cope with her rapidly growing population and
multiplying industries, Japan is seeking trade-openings all over the
world. Her business men are touring the globe in search of them. At
present she is, perhaps, most interested in China, which has doubled the
amount of her annual trade in the last ten years. The first months of
1913 showed a gain of forty-six per cent. over the corresponding months
of 1912 in exports to China, while the United States exceeded her
previous purchases by only three per cent. Of the hundred thousand
Japanese in the former country, nearly all are engaged in commercial
pursuits, rather than in farming as they are in other parts of the
world. Japan also has the advantage of being near this great market, and
with labour so cheap she can easily compete with England, Germany, and
the United States. She could make great profits if it were not necessary
for her to buy most of her manufacturing machinery abroad.
America is by far Japan's best customer. She sold us and our colonies
over a hundred million dollars' worth of goods last year--about a third
of her total exports. Incidentally, she is an excellent customer of
ours, for she bought over thirty million dollars' worth of cotton alone,
in 1912, and much else besides.
Usually the Empire finds it necessary to import the raw materials and
the machinery for their manufacture, while she exports the finished
product. Much of her Oriental trade consists in yarn and cloth; the raw
material is brought in from China and America and sold again to China
and India.
In no way is the growth of Japan more striking than in her industries.
Sixty years ago she had no foreign trade, for she had nothing to export.
To-day Great Britain finds her an interesting rival. Mills and factories
have sprung up like mushrooms, almost over night. The conditions which
accompanied this change and rapid development are worth noting.
In feudal times both the arts and the industries were carried on under
the patronage of the nobility--the _daimyo_ and the _samurai_. They were
great lovers of beauty, these warlike lords; it is said that many a
_samurai_, returning from the wars covered with glory, preferred the
gift of an exquisite vase as a reward for his valour, rather than lands
or decorations. They encouraged their subjects to make things; but, more
than that, to make them beautiful.
Nevertheless, manufacturing conditions were very primitive. There was no
division of labour, so that often a man would need to be skilled in
several crafts in order to make a single article. Each man worked by
himself. A boy inherited his father's trade, whether he liked it or not.
Each trade had its guild, to which a worker must belong if he wished to
be free to carry on his business. These guilds still exist to-day, but
have far less power than labour unions in America or guilds in China.
The feudal system came to an end in 1868, and private ownership of
property began. Organized industries appeared on a small scale:
machinery was imported from Europe and America, railroads were built and
factories started. Nine years later the first industrial exposition ever
seen in Japan was held in Tokyo; soon afterward the Island Empire was
sending exhibits to Europe and America to show the world what she could
do. This, of course, resulted in stimulating the export trade and the
manufacturing of such articles as were most in demand.
After the Chinese war, in 1895, there was a great boom. Old methods of
private enterprise were no longer adequate to meet the increased demand.
Stock companies began to be organized. The Government itself took over
certain forms of industry for the purpose of raising revenues. Improved
machinery was introduced from the Western world, and experts were
engaged.
Since the Russo-Japanese war industries have multiplied so tremendously
that the demand for labour has been very great. Wages have gone up, and
the workers have become much more independent. As yet, there have been
no labour strikes of any importance; fortunately, no Gompers or
McNamaras have appeared.
For the first time in Japan women began to be employed. They are to be
found in large numbers in the factories near Osaka (which is called the
Chicago of Japan) and Kobe, as well as in the districts near Tokyo. Most
of these women are peasants from the provincial sections who serve on
three-year contracts. Children are still employed, although the
Government does not allow them to go to work under twelve years of age.
Wages in all branches of industry are still very low, and the cost of
living is rising. But living conditions, even at their worst, are much
better than with us among corresponding classes. Weavers, dyers, and
spinners receive from ten to twenty cents a day, while a streetcar
conductor gets five or six dollars a month.
The factory owners keep their employees in compounds, where they provide
some sort of shelter free and charge a nominal amount for meals. In the
older type of factory there is often crowding and a low standard of
living, but in the more modern and socialistic ones great attention is
paid to the worker's needs, physical, mental and moral.
There is a fine factory in Hyogo from which many of our mills might well
take pattern. Besides having beautiful recreation and dormitory gardens,
there are rows of pretty, two-storied houses with tiny gardens in front
of each. The owners also furnish a theatre for the use of their
employees, a coöperative shop, a spacious hospital, and schools and
kindergartens for the children.
Japan has more than seventy cotton mills in operation, and can
manufacture cloth as cheaply as any of its rivals. The home demand is
large, since the lower classes wear only cotton the year round. Cotton
towels, printed in blue and white, have become so popular in America
during the last year or two that the export trade in them has increased
enormously.
Four years ago a boy of eighteen, Torakichi Inouye, succeeded to the
hereditary management of a large towel firm in Tokyo. He realized that
foreigners seemed much attracted by the pretty designs, and were buying
them in surprising quantities at the shops where they were for sale. So
he began trying them on the American markets, with the success that we
have seen. To-day his factory is making two hundred thousand towels a
day, and in ten months shipped over 175,000,000 pieces. He originated
the idea of printing designs that could be combined into table-covers,
bedspreads, etc. The patterns for the towels are cut in paper, like a
stencil, and are folded in between many alternate layers of the cloth.
The indigo-blue dye is then forced through by means of an air-pump.
Instead of importing all their machinery, as formerly, the Japanese are
now beginning to manufacture it for themselves. They get the foreigners
to come and teach them how to build steamships and locomotives, and as
soon as they have learned whatever they wish to know they put their own
countrymen in charge of the work. Although at one time there were many
foreign engineers in different parts of the Empire, every year finds
fewer of them filling important positions. This is true in every branch
of industry.
Inventive genius is being cultivated, too, for clever people are not
content simply to imitate. A system of wireless quite different from
that generally in use is said to have been perfected for the navy.
Wireless telephones are used over short distances, and are being rapidly
improved and extended. Quite an advance has been made this last year in
aviation also. Experts in both army and navy are making good records.
In spite of many difficulties several thousand miles of railway have
been built during the last forty years. Engineers often find it
necessary not only to tunnel through mountains, but under rivers the
beds of which are shifting. To make matters even more interesting, there
are typhoons, earthquakes, and torrents of rain which end in floods.
Notwithstanding the cost of building and maintaining the roads under
such conditions, railway travel is cheaper than with us or in Europe.
First class costs less than third in an English train.
For the wherewithal to feed her people, Japan depends largely upon her
native farmers. In spite of their poverty these are of a higher class
socially than in most Western countries. The _samurai_ and _daimyo_ made
much of agriculture, ranking it above trade. The Government to-day
continues to do all that it can to aid and encourage farming. Experiment
stations have been established, and various coöperative societies formed
for the use of the farmers, who also have a special bank of their own.
Prices are rising, and, on the whole, the prospects are good, although
the nature of the land is against any great advance. The surface of the
country is so mountainous that only about one-seventh can be cultivated,
and that is not especially fertile. Sixty per cent. of the population is
agricultural.
Each man owns his own little farm, which he tills in primitive fashion,
growing rice, wheat, or beans, according to the soil or season. Almost
no livestock is kept, and pastures are rarely seen. An average farm,
supporting a family of six, has about three and a half acres.
[Illustration: A RICE FIELD.]
The soya bean, which is much grown, really furnishes an industry in
itself. It has many uses. _Soy_, the national sauce, is made from it,
and also bean cheese. Recently an English chemist has discovered a
method of producing artificial milk from it. Its oil is extracted and
sold to foreign markets, rivalling the cottonseed oil, which is better
known. The pulp remaining is used as fodder and fertilizer.
Rice is the favourite crop and is of such good quality that much of it
is exported to India, whence a cheaper grade is imported in return for
the use of the poorer classes. Instead of forming the national diet, as
we are inclined to suppose, rice is really such a luxury that many
people never eat it except in sickness or on feast-days.
For all the Japanese farmer is so independent, he is often miserably
poor. An acre of rice may in good years produce an annual profit of a
dollar and a half, but there is quite likely to be a deficit instead.
When one considers that it takes the labour of seventeen men and nine
women to cultivate two and a half acres of rice, this is not surprising.
Vegetables do better than grain, and mulberry plantations for the
raising of silkworms do best of all, but it has been figured that a
hard-working man, with very likely a large family to support, does well
if he clears a hundred and twenty dollars in the course of a year. As a
result of this, most of the peasantry are in debt, and many of them are
leaving their farms and going to the city, as they are doing in our own
country.
Really more important than rice, of which we hear so much, is the sweet
potato, of which we hear so little. The first one reached Japan some two
hundred years ago as the gift of the King of the Loochoo Islands to the
Lord of Satsuma. The latter prince was so pleased with the taste of it
that he asked for seed-potatoes, and before long the Government
commanded that the new vegetable should be grown throughout the country,
since it could be raised even in famine years, when other crops failed.
In Tokyo there are over a thousand sweet-potato shops, where one buys
them halved or sliced or whole, all hot and nicely roasted, serving in
cold weather to warm one's hands before delighting the inner man--or
rather, child--for they are a delicacy much prized by children. There is
no waste in their preparation, for not only are the peelings sold for
horse-fodder, but the ashes in which they are roasted are used again
around the charcoal in the _hibachi_!
The silkworm was introduced into Japan by a Chinese prince in 195 A. D.,
and a century later Chinese immigrants taught the people how to weave
the new thread. To-day sericulture is largely carried on by the women
and children of the farm, and is twice as productive as the rest of the
crops. As in poultry-raising, however, the gains are not in proportion
to the size of the plant, the smaller ones being the more successful.
The mining industries have been much slower to develop than most of the
others, although they are of ancient origin. A great deal of
metal--gold, silver and copper--was exported during the Middle Ages. It
has been suggested that Columbus had the gold of Japan in view when he
set out upon the voyage which resulted in the discovery of America.
Japan has been described as the missionary to the Far East. Certainly,
whatever her motives, her influence in Korea and Formosa has been most
helpful. The latter island has been nearly freed from smallpox and other
plagues, while its revenues have been increased six hundred per cent.
Her influence in the liberalizing of China is marked, too, although it
is less concentrated, of course, than in the smaller fields.
The Japanese have an undoubted advantage over other nationalities in
China. Their agents know the language, but more than that, they are able
to adapt themselves to native conditions of living and to "think
Chinese." For ages past China has been the godmother of Japan, teaching
her many valuable lessons in art and industry. It is now only fair that
the pupil should do what she can to help her ancient teacher. Naturally
the form which this expression of gratitude takes is by no means
unprofitable commercially to the younger nation!
"With regard to that part of Manchuria which comes under Japanese
influence," writes a British merchant, "the conveniences and facilities
afforded by the Japanese to one and all in regard to banking
institutions, railway communications, postal and telegraph service are
far and away superior to those afforded by the Russian and Chinese
institutions."
It has taken Europe six hundred years to do what Japan has done in
sixty, and if the little Island Nation has left a few things undone, or
has made mistakes and perhaps gone too far in some directions, it is not
surprising. The marvel is that with the thrill and bustle of modern
business life she has kept so much of the ancient charm and delight as
to make us even to-day feel the witchery of her Spell.