THE JAPANESE IN AMERICA.*

Tim volume is an unofficial record of an enterprise which is being conducted quietly enough, but which we take to be the most daring and far-sighted of any hitherto attempted by Oriental Powers : the undertaking, namely, of the Japanese Government to assimilate Western culture,—we must not say European, for America was the first object of their embassy-, and Americans have had a prominent share in procuring the removal of the mystery which long kept Japan and the outer world in mutual ignorance. The construction of the book is best stated in the words of the Preface :— "The whole work consists of three parts. The first is devoted to the history of the Embassy, giving a detailed account of the objects of the mission, and the reception it has met with in the United States.

The second part consists of a collection of essays written by Japanese students. The third gives a description of Life and Resources in America, prepared under the direction of Jugoi Arinori Mori, the Japanese Minister in Washington."

Of these the first part is decidedly the most interesting : the third appears to be well done, and is no doubt extremely valuable for its purpose, which is to give Japanese readers a general notion of the United States, but for that very reason does not offer many points for special remark; the second is not without curiosity, but the essay s are much less original and more occidentalised (to use an ugly but almost inevitable term) than one at first hopes to find them. But it is to be remembered that they are the work of young students, none much over twenty-one, as it seems, and at least one considerably younger, and that they are written as exercises in a foreign language, with an obvious endeavour to imitate Eng- lish models of composition. The language is generally fluent and correct enough, not strong or idiomatic, indeed ; but after all, it is at least as good as the average English prose of the fifth form at any .of our public schools might be expected to be.

We may pass over the first formalities attending the arrival of the Embassy at San Francisco : the speech of the Japanese Vice- Ambassador (Secretary of Legation ?) gives a summary of the improvements recently effected in Japan. It will be news to many readers in Europe, though not to our own, that several hundred miles of telegraph are already open in Japan, that lighthouses are estab- lished, and railways in course of construction. It appears that in one direction the Japanese have gone very far indeed in the advanced" liberal policy ; they have disestablished their Church, and offered (as it seems) no compensation to the clergy beyond 'suggesting to them to enlist in the army.

An episode which occurred at Salt Lake City shows that the diplomatic service of Japan is not deficient in the tact proper to the profession. Brigham Young requested one of the Embassy to call on him ; it was suggested that the Prophet himself should make the first call, whereupon it came out that "the Prophet was unwillingly confined to his room in charge of a Federal officer. The Prince saw the point at once, and, with a frown, said, We came to the United States to see the President of this great nation ; we do not know how he would like us to call on a man who had broken the laws of his country and was under arrest.'" Then we have an account of the State reception given by Congress to the Embassy ; and lastly, some biographical particulars of the persons of whom the special mission is composed. The Chief Ambassador was one of the principal agents in the late revolution in Japan, which broke up the old aristocracy, and he is now in a position more or less analogous to a Cabinet Minister's, though we do not know how far the analogy really extends. The circumstance which most strikingly shows how far the -Japanese are beyond other Asiatic nations in social enlightenment and the desire of social improvement, is that five Japanese girls of distinguished families are now being educated in the United States at the expense of the Imperial Government. It seems that, in the history of Japan, women have always occupied a better position than in China, and the reformers of this day are fully alive to the importance of "enlisting the assistance of educated mothers and daughters" in their great work.

One of the best written of the students' essays (by Shioji

The Japanese in America. By Charles Lanman, American Secretary, Japanese Legation, in Washington. London: Longmans. 1872.

'falcate) is on the subject of mixed education. He disposes of the difficulties not without some of the confidence of youth, but also not without showing, as far as can be shown in an essay of three pages, that he has taken pains to understand the matter. The next essay we have marked is one on Japanese costume, the most boyish in manner of the collection. The construction is abrupt, and the writer is not yet perfect in the use of the English definite article ; these little blemishes have their value, however, as showing that the work of the Japanese students has not passed through any American revising hand. Here is a speci- men :—

"The hair of the men is generally arranged by a barber once in two -

days with a quantity of hair-oil, and so they don't comb their hair every morning The hair of the women is gathered, and tied in bunches smaller than those of the Europeans I have now written all about their heads, and I will next speak of their bodies."

We have a curious account by M. Toyama of the impression produced on him by the Roman ritual. It is to be observed that the Japanese have a traditional and, as they think, well-founded hostility to the Papacy, the Jesuits having given them considerable trouble two centuries ago :—

"Although I felt from the first somewhat heathenish, it was only when the worthy priest began to read the service that I was almost at a loss to know whether I was in a Buddhist temple or a Christian Church of the nineteenth century, so great was the similitude between the tone and accent of the father's voice in saying the service, and that of our heathen priests in reciting theirs [Then follows a rather graphic summary of a sermon against Protestants and infidels.] That is decidedly a man, I fancy, who knows perfectly well how to convince

the ignorant people like the Irish From what I saw and heard, I shall always believe Mr. Preacher when he says his Church alone has stood firm and unchanged, because it is shocking to imagine that it ever was or ever can be any worse."

The same writer addresses a strong appeal to the gentlemen of the missionary societies to suspend their operations in Japan until a sufficient foundation of general education has been laid. "Till that time, free religion is worse than a mere idle phrase. The educated people alone can enjoy free religion. What da you think of the free religion of the Irishmen ? On this question depends the whole future destiny of our countrymen. It depends on the issue of this question whether they are to become the Eastern Irishmen or the Eastern Yankees." Some of his remarks are almost vituperative, and orthodox readers may charitably presume, that he is not quite aware of the force of the English expressions he employs. Some translations of Japanese poetical aphorisms are given at the end of the essays ; it is not very clear whether they are isolated fragments or extracts from longer pieces. Some of these are striking:— "There are many ways of climbing a mountain, but all who reach the summit are sure to look upon the same moon.

"I call that place my home where I happen to be in all the world."

The account of life and resources in America, which fills the latter part of the volume, contains a good deal of information well put together, pure exposition with an occasional subtle flavour of naivete or irony, we are not sure which. We do not profess to have tested its accuracy ; but as it is of a semi-official character, and the compiler had abundant means of consulting the best authorities, we may fairly assume that it may be relied on ; and we imagine, from our cursory glance over it, that European as well as Japanese students might find it a very useful compendium.