AMELIORATIVE EFFORTS
The reader will desire to know what, if any, have been the efforts to
ameliorate the evils described in preceding pages. They are of two
kinds: first, governmental in origin, general in scope, legal and
educative in method; and second, private in origin, both general and
specific in scope, personal, educative, ethical, and religious in
method.
The general educational policy of the government is not to be regarded
as a philanthropic or ameliorative effort to meet the conditions already
described. This policy however does have a powerful elevating influence
on the lives and character of the entire people. As we have seen, over
ninety-seven per cent. of the girls of school age are in attendance,
according to the reports. Though we allow a discount on these figures
(and some may perhaps be necessary), we can still say that, if the
present policy of six years of compulsory education is carried out, the
rising generation of boys and girls will be able to read fairly well the
daily paper and simple books. To millions of women this means the
opening of doors of knowledge and opportunity which in ages past have
been closed to them.
The government has also been the chief initiative force in all recent
movements to improve the economic and industrial conditions of the
people. Railroads in Japan owe their existence to the government, as
also do many forms of modern industry. Agriculture and fruit and stock
raising owe much to the government, which has imported Western seed,
Western fruit trees, and new breeds of horses and cattle. All these
efforts have done much to improve the economic conditions, thus
elevating the scale of living. People eat better food and more of it,
live in better houses, and wear better clothes than they did fifty or
more years ago, and--an important item--they pay less taxes in
proportion to their income. A general uplifting process is modifying
their life and thought, and this is profoundly affecting Japan's working
classes, and, of course, her women.
In regard to the specific evils introduced by Western industrialism, we
have already seen how the government has sought to remedy the
difficulties, so far as laws can go, but hitherto its efforts have
largely been thwarted by capitalists.
Among the notable efforts of the government to promote wise social
reform movements have been the large gatherings, at considerable
government expense, of leaders of philanthropic and benevolent
institutions for instruction in the most recent and approved
sociological principles. Competent specialists from all over the country
have been employed to instruct these leaders, and thus the whole country
is given the benefit of the special knowledge of the few. The government
has also, during the past four years, distributed some forty thousand
yen annually among those eleemosynary institutions which it regards as
models of efficiency.
Furthermore, opportunity for the higher education of women, first given
on a wide scale during the past decade, while not yet affecting working
women to any appreciable extent, cannot fail to do so as time passes,
for it proclaims the intrinsic ability of woman and gives her a standing
of intellectual equality with man, in sharp contrast to the humiliating
position assigned to her by popular Buddhism, which has taught that
women must be reborn as men before they can be saved. Indeed, they are
born women because of their sins. A Japanese proverb has it that one
must never trust a woman, even if she has borne you seven children! This
long-believed doctrine as to the inherent incapacity and essential
depravity of woman has no doubt been a powerful cause of her social
degradation. Under the present system of general education, however,
these doctrines and beliefs will soon be completely overthrown, thus
making room for and producing great changes in the social and industrial
conditions of all women.
But the government is not the sole worker for the social amelioration of
industrial conditions. Through private effort forces are being
introduced which are more potent than any the government knows or can
control. I refer to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This has already
introduced such a leaven into Japanese society that nothing can now
prevent its transforming the whole mass in time.
Should the entire foreign body of 624 Protestant and 371 Roman Catholic
missionaries be withdrawn from Japan, there would still remain (January,
1914) 728 ordained and 713 unordained Japanese Protestant pastors and
trained evangelists, and 331 Bible women. Among the 815 organized
churches, 182 are wholly self-supporting. In addition to the 90,000
Protestant communicants, 67,000 Roman Catholic people, and 32,000 Greek
Christians among the Japanese, it is estimated by Christian pastors that
there are many hundreds of thousands of the people who are conducting
their lives according to the principles and with the spirit of Jesus.
Furthermore, a careful study of modern Japanese civilization shows that
the Christian conception of man as having intrinsic and inherent worth
has been embodied in the constitution and laws of the land and is being
put into wide practise. The rights of children, women, and inferiors and
the duties of parents, husbands, and superiors are new notes in Japan,
and are sounding forth a richer music than has ever before been heard in
the Orient.
Of course there are still discordant notes, as we have seen when
considering the subject of the buying and selling of geisha and
prostitutes; but so there are even in so-called Christian lands.
Nevertheless, the conception of the value of the individual and of his
rights is inspiring a hope among the lowly and hitherto downtrodden and
oppressed sections of the nation which cannot be extinguished, and will
in due time powerfully transform the traditional civilization, giving to
woman a place of equality along with man in the estimation of all.
The general education of girls, and especially their higher education,
is signal proof of a wide acceptance of Christian conceptions. According
to the _Resume Statistique_ (1914), there were, in 1911-12, 250 girls'
high schools, public and private, whose pupils numbered 64,809. In
addition, the number of women in normal schools preparing to become
elementary school-teachers was 8,271, and in the higher normal schools,
570. The number of female teachers is reported at 42,739. These girls'
high and normal schools, through the ability they give their graduates
to converse with men on a basis of intellectual equality in regard to
topics of current interest while retaining their modesty and personal
character, are so transforming the reticent habits and unsocial customs
of Japanese ladies that ere long scant room will be left for the
old-time geisha.
The change Christianity is silently bringing to the home life of Japan,
adding to its sweetness, purity, and conscious unity, and contributing a
mighty uplift to both head and heart, few as yet have either eyes to see
or ears to hear. The influence already exerted by Christian ideas and
ideals on the traditional conceptions of Japan in regard to home life,
marriage, childhood, the poor and lowly, the orphan, the blind, the
leper, and the diseased generally,--in a word on the value of the
individual and his inalienable, God-given rights,--is so widespread and
so beneficent that it receives little specific comment and no
opposition.
There were no doubt in old Japan certain influences predisposing many to
the new ideals and practises introduced from the West. It is difficult,
perhaps impossible, at this stage in Japan's development to reckon
accurately how much of Japan's new life is due to new factors introduced
from Christendom, and how much to ideals already operative in the
feudal system. No one can doubt, however, that Christian ideals have
been the most important factors in the West to give woman her present
status. Nor can we doubt that Christian ideals and practises are playing
an important role in the modern emancipation of women in Japan.
Those who criticize missionaries as forcing the Christian religion upon
unwilling peoples know not whereof they speak. The Christian faith would
make no progress whatever in Japan were it not found by Japanese
themselves to be ennobling and satisfying. It is welcomed because it
brings hope and peace and power to those who were hopeless and restless
and powerless.
But he is very shortsighted who thinks that the main forces
Christianizing Japan are wielded by the foreign missionary. The
missionary doubtless is an essential agent, but of far more importance
is the work of Japanese Christians themselves; and in addition to these
is the general though vague influence exerted by Western civilization
as a whole, and particularly by the English language and literature. In
that important work, _Fifty Years of New Japan_, are many remarkable
chapters, but especially noteworthy are those entitled "Social Changes
of New Japan," and "Influence of the West upon Japan," from the pens of
competent, wide-awake Japanese scholars.
Consider what Professor Nitobe says: "The greatest influence of the West
is, after all, the spiritual.... Christianity has influenced the thought
and lives of many individuals in Japan, and will influence many more,
eventually affecting the nation through the altered view-point and
personnel of the citizen and the administrator. The character-changing
power of the religion of Jesus I believe to be only just now making
itself appreciably evident in our midst." Somewhat further on, referring
to the English language, he writes: "The effect of the acquisition of
the English tongue on the mental habits--I had almost said on the
unconscious cerebrations of our people--is incalculable.... The moral
influence of some of its simple text-books used in our schools cannot be
overrated.... They have been instrumental in opening new vistas of
thought and vast domains of enterprise and interest to young minds."
No student of Japan's new life, resulting from the influence of Western
and Christian ideas and ideals, should fail to familiarize himself with
the eighth issue (1910) of _The Christian Movement in Japan_, which
gives a series of remarkable addresses delivered by Japanese and
foreigners at the semicentennial celebration of the beginning of
Protestant missions in Japan. Especial attention should be paid to the
section treating of the "Influence of Christianity on Japanese Thought
and Life."
It will be obvious to any thoughtful person that changes so wide and
deep, affecting all the fundamental conceptions of life, of manhood and
womanhood, of the state, of law and justice, of right and duty, are not
confined to those whose privilege it is to study Western books and
acquire the higher education. In ten thousand ways the whole national
life is being transformed, slowly it may be and silently, yet surely and
steadily. And the benefits are accruing to the most lowly and least
educated no less than to those at the top. All the working women of
Japan have already received in some degree, and in the future will more
and more receive, the blessings and the uplift which are coming to the
nation through its contact with the Christian conceptions and standards
embedded in Western civilization and literature.
A volume--nay, many volumes--would be needed to tell in detail the story
of how the Christian message has been and is being conveyed to the
people of Japan. We should make known the story of Joseph Hardy Neesima,
of the Kumamoto Band, of Dr. Clark and Dr. Hepburn, of Young Men's
Christian Association teachers of English in government schools, of
faithful, self-sacrificing pastors, evangelists, Bible women, and
missionaries. We should recount the deeds of heroic lay Christians in
all the walks of life, and above all in their homes, too often hostile,
commending their new-found faith by their new spirit and life. We should
tell of the work of Christian teachers of ethics in the prisons, and the
remarkable results secured. We should relate the experiences of those
who have struggled for the rights of prostitutes, of Salvation Army
officers, of matrons of reform homes, of managers of ex-convicts' homes,
of founders of orphan asylums, of supporters of private charity
hospitals. We should tell the story of the scores of Christian
institutions the central aim of which is to express in concrete life the
Christian's faith and hope and love.
But in addition to the narrative of direct Christian work, full heed
should be given to the evidences of the wide acceptance by the nation of
the best Christian ideals in matters of philanthropy. To meet the needs
of the famine sufferers in north Japan during the winter and spring of
1914, and of those who were deprived of their all by the terrific
volcanic explosion of the island of Sakurajima in January, 1914, more
than a million yen ($500,000) of private gifts flowed into the hands of
the relieving committees. For the earthquake sufferers the Diet voted
622,883 yen ($311,441).
The late Emperor, shortly before his death, was so moved by the medical
needs of the poor that he contributed a fund of a million yen for the
systematic undertaking of medical work in all parts of Japan. This
started a movement among the wealthy which has resulted in the
establishment of a Medical Relief Association (Saiseikwai), having a
fund of $5,000,000 already paid in and pledges for $8,000,000 more.
Men of wealth in Japan are following the example set by the best
Christian life in the West. In recent years several large gifts have
been made for education. At the close of 1913 one of the most wealthy
and always generous families of Japan, Sumitomo of Osaka, announced
their decision to establish an industrial school for the poor, at an
expense of $200,000. And in the same year Mr. O'Hara, one of the
wealthiest and most philanthropic men of Okayama, announced his plan of
opening a high-grade agricultural school for poor boys of that
prefecture. The amount of the gift is not stated, but in addition to the
large sum needed for buildings and equipment, he donates as permanent
endowment some 250 acres of rice land whose value, roughly estimated,
may be about $50,000.
There are in Japan of all denominations and religions the following
institutions for the uplift and regeneration of the downtrodden and for
the help of the poor:
Orphan asylums.......................... 100
Rescue work............................. 92
Dispensaries............................ 45
Reformatories........................... 47
Homes for ex-prisoners.................. 37
Homes for old people.................... 22
Poor farms.............................. 11
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Of these institutions, the compiler of the statistics states that for
one Shinto and three Buddhist, there are five Christian institutions.
The leaders and inspirers in all the forms of philanthropic work are
Christians, as from the nature of the case might be expected.
"In the matter of Christian Social Service," writes A. D. Hail, in the
_Japan Evangelist_,[8] "the Federated Missions have been represented by
two Committees whose fields of endeavor are quite distinct. The one is
the excellent Eleemosynary Committee. It deals with the delinquents,
defectives, and dependents of society....
[8] January, 1915.
"The Industrial Welfare Committee seeks to Christianize the industrial
classes, and to encourage the development of dealing upon Christian
principles with the complicated questions growing out of the relations
of capital and labor. By the industrial classes we mean the
non-capitalistic laborers and bread-winners. It includes men, women,
and many thousands of children. They do not own the machinery they
handle, and have no voice in the control of the industries with which
they are connected. Being without any say in the control of factories,
machines, and raw material, they can be discharged at any moment by
employers for reasons satisfactory alone to themselves. Their bodies,
their minds, and oftentime their morals, become subservient to foremen
and managers. The unskilled laborers in particular have no margin of
either wages or time for wholesome recreations, for accidents, old age,
widowhood, and unemployment. Besides these there is another large class
in Japan, of small traders who rent their shops and eke out earnings by
the sweating process, or by renting rooms for doubtful purposes. To
these are to be added fishermen who do not own tackle, tenant farmers
and their employees, and the main body of school-teachers; also an army
engaged in transportation, together with postal clerks, postmen, and
others. Incidental to this are the districts of large cities and mining
camps, where there are congested populations of unskilled laborers
subjected to diseases occasioned by bad drainage, inadequate housing,
and all the consequent evils. As these do not earn sufficient wages to
entitle them to vote, they have no voice whatever in the betterment of
their surroundings....
"There is a growing tendency toward the fixedness of a gulf between
laborers and their employers, so much so that Japan's great danger in
this direction is that she may fail to realize that she has a labor
problem on hand, and one that can be solved here, as elsewhere, only on
the basis of Christian principles of common fair dealing."
In spite, however, of abundant evidence that Christian ethical and
philanthropic ideals are receiving wide acceptance in Japan, far wider
than would be suggested by the statistics of membership in the Christian
churches, it is also true that the evils of Occidental industrialism and
materialism are sweeping in like a flood.
Turning now from general statements as to the ethico-industrial
conditions of the working women of Japan, in the next chapter I give the
story of a single institution.