p. 3 | The East and West

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 14, 1907

“The East and West”

As would naturally be expected, the decision of the San Francisco school authorities to exclude the Japanese from certain grades of the public schools of that city arouses much interest in Japan, and is a subject of discussion in the papers of the country. The action in this matter has opened up the whole race question, and the future relation between the nations of the Western world and those of the East.

As indicating something of the trend of feeling from the Japanese view-point, not only upon the school question, but also upon the broader question of the attitude of Japan toward the civilization of Europe and America, we quote at some length from an editorial in the issue of the Japan Times for Dec. 27, 1906. The whole article is of much interest, but it is too long for our use entire. We will therefore confine our extract to the following paragraphs:—

We have said it is both misleading and unjust to include Japan unqualifiedly in the designation “Orientals.” We do not say this from a mere sense of self-importance. There were days when we saw with a feeling of abhorrence Western men and women shake hands or walk arm in arm. Then kissing appeared absolutely immoral to us, while the act of walking into houses with shoes or boots on was evidence to us of the inferiority of the Western race. What a host of other practises and usages we might recall of Europeans and Americans that once shocked our sense of decency and politeness! But they no longer do so, and for good or bad we ourselves are rapidly adopting these manners.

So long as those practises and usages disgusted us, they formed so many sources that fed and fanned our prejudice against the Westerners; but they no longer disgust us, and this turn of affairs is the most conclusive proof that the anti-foreign spirit is dead and gone in Japan.

We have for a long time shared with the other nations of the Orient the sense of being humiliated by the West. But unlike the others, young Japan started her career with a hope, resolution, and faith that she would outlive the period of self-resignation, win a place of respect and consideration in the world, and that by her silent and unremitting exertion for self-betterment.

We are now on a fair way toward the accomplishment of this aspiration, with reasonably encouraging prospects before us, and we have nothing to complain of.

And taught by our past, we look with disdain on all hot-headed attempts and noisy clamorings which often characterize the doings of our fellow Asiatics.

If there is a caste of the East, we have freed ourselves of its shackles, and we are not Orientals in that respect.

In our relations with the West, there is, therefore, nothing on account of which we should be disposed to entertain any social antipathy toward the nations of Europe or America. If the accident of complexion is to be insisted upon as a mark of our racial inferiority, we will not stop at pitying the innocence of those who adhere to such a proposition, but will yet strive to disprove the allegation in a manner as will do credit to our past.

The racial problem, then, in so far as we Japanese are concerned, is one that does not affect us so much as the mode of thinking or the way of looking at things on the part of the Westerners.

We have hinted above as to our attitude toward the rest of the Oriental nations. In view of the spirit of restlessness now observable throughout those countries, it will be well to be definite on this point. We have gained new prestige since the late war, and this has given new power and influence. There seems to be a vague feeling among a section of Westerners that we will use this power and influence in setting the East against the West.

The idea is absurd on the face of it. To incite the East against the West, with Japan as the rallying-point, will be to make this country the vortex of the mad whirl of vast Asia, untrained, unsystematized, mob Asia, and Japan would be drawn up into the waterspout, then dashed and ruined before she could lead the hordes in battle array. Japan would not be so foolish. If Japan is at all inclined to exert her power and influence outside her own limits, it will be always in restraint and guidance, and to promote better understandings between the East and the West. For all this disposition on our part, which is sincere and genuine, it is in the power of the West to distrust and blackmail and ultimately compel her to throw in her lot with the East and rise or fall with the East. Then the responsibility will be on the West. But with England as our ally, the United States as our most trusted friend, France coming to the side of world’s peace, and Germany knowing us better, such a turn of events will never occur.

There are some statements in this quotation which are worthy of special attention as being the utterances of a Japanese who exerts a molding influence among his own people. It is declared to be the purpose of Japan to win “a place of respect and consideration in the world, and that by her silent and unremitting exertion for self-betterment.” This representative Japanese further states that “we look with disdain on all hot-headed attempts and noisy clamorings which often characterize the doings of our fellow Asiatics.” As to the influence of Japan upon the other nations of the East, this writer says: “If Japan is at all inclined to exert her power and influence outside her own limits, it will be always in restraint and guidance, and to promote better understandings between the East and the West.” At the same time this writer recognizes the possibility that the Western nations may compel Japan “to throw in her lot with the East and rise or fall with the East,” but in such a case as that he affirms that “the responsibility will be on the West.”

The views expressed in this editorial are such as ought to command the respect and confidence of all candid thinkers, and especially those in the Occident who profess to regard it as a part of their duty to give the gospel to Japan. In proportion to the light which they have received, the Japanese are more clearly revealing some of the fundamental principles of the gospel than are some of those in the West to whom the people of the far East are looking for help in their effort for “self-betterment.”

We earnestly hope that those who know the message for this generation, which is the one thing that Japan needs more than anything else, will feel their responsibility to impart the saving gospel to those who are thus looking expectantly toward the West for something better.