THE JAPANESE CHARACTER.
Why Contact Must Impair Our American Civilization.

Asia is commonly assumed to have been the cradle of the human race, and all mankind to have descended from Asiatics. Whatever the truth in respect to this it is certain that the plains and valleys of Asia were teeming with dense and highly organized populations at those remote periods when, if Europeans existed at all, they existed only in the very lowest forms of barbarism. All religions which have secured any hold on the hearts and lives of men are of Asiatic origin. The mightiest armies which were ever assembled were Asiatic and they were commanded by the most terrible warriors who have devastated the face of the earth. No philosophies are more subtle than those which are the product of Asiatic origin. The mightiest armies which were ever assembled were Asiatic and they were commanded by the most terrible warriors who have devastated the face of the earth. No philosophies are more subtle than those which are the product of Asiatic thought. Among none is artistic feeling more highly developed than in some Asiatic peoples. Whether, therefore, we consider virility, intellect, emotional or ethical qualities, or human accomplishment, no race may rightfully esteem themselves superior to the Asiatics. They have not, until Japan awoke, concerned themselves with those physical sciences which are the foundation of Western civilization. Their material accomplishments are the product of hard labor and they have been free from those forms of social trouble which result from the substitution of machinery for human labor. The lower classes are under the influence of most degrading superstitions. The upper classes are highly educated according to their cult, and for the most part do not admit the superiority of Western civilization to their own. They seem to believe that the earth's bounty can be more profitably employed in the support of a dense population which is contented with little than in the maintenance of a smaller number, no more contented and happy, who are constantly struggling for a more attractive, convenient or luxurious material environment.

Asiatic peoples differ among themselves perhaps even more widely than those of the Caucasian race. The Japanese and the East Indian are further apart than the American and the Slav, but there are certain racial characteristics which seem common to all. Among these are a fatalism, which seems to exclude all fear of death, low ideals of womanhood, and little conception of sexual mortality as we know it; a tendency of the upper classes to abstract philosophical speculation; class distinctions such as have never existed in any Aryan race, and which are almost impossible to be overcome; a high sense of personal honor in the upper classes, and no conception whatsoever of such a thing in the lower classes; a standard of life which we call low, but which they call sensible--simple diet, cheap dwellings, unchanging fashions, long hours of labor, abject submission to authority, and, above all, the habit of adhering to their ideals, customs, habits and racial and national characteristics wherever they go.

All these characteristics are possessed by the Japanese, who are the unquestioned leaders of the Asiatic races, excelling all others in intellectual alertness, and who are thus far unique among Asiatics in possessing the power of seizing upon all of Western science and art which they deem necessary for their purposes and successfully grafting it upon the stock of their ancient civilization. There is no evidence of any intent or desire on the part of the Japanese to in any way change their national ideals. They apparently propose simply to make use of Western methods to defend, perpetuate and extend them. They expect to succeed by employing Western science in connection with the economic Asiatic standard of life. In nothing is Asiatic habit of thought more manifest in Japan than in the almost impassable line drawn between classes. It is said that each Japanese must place upon his door the emblem denoting the class to which he belongs. In old Japan there were four classes--the nobility and military, who alone were honorable, and beneath them the farmer, the laborer and mechanic, and below all, except grave diggers and tanners, the merchants--all below the military representing various degrees of dishonor. Doubtless this old classification has been in some degree modified by the general enrollment for military purposes involved in the adoption of Western "civilization," but in essentials it remains. The distinction between laborers, merchants and artisans may be gradually disappearing in their common array in the line of battle, but the gulf between the intellectual, high-spirited, strictly honorable noble and governing class and all below them is as deep and wide as ever. Saving certain points in which their ideals of morality differ from our own the governing classes of Japan would be a credit to any country which they might honor with their presence. They are not coming here as residents. They do not intend to come. The Japanese who are colonizing in America are of the classes who at home are regarded as untrustworthy and degraded beings, fit only for the servile tasks unworthy of their masters. And such colonization cannot take place on any important scale without danger to American civilization. It is not merely that they displace American labor. It is also that they corrupt American employers. A race of masters is as objectionable as a race of slaves.