The Days of a Man 



always, partly carried on through interpreters, partly 

 in the French language, which as a page in the 

 Japanese Embassy at Paris he had learned in his 

 youth. 



For me and our host the day began at nine in the 

 morning with a breezy drive to a boys' school in which 

 he is personally interested. At eleven o'clock, Mrs. 

 Jordan having joined us, we proceeded to the beauti- 

 ful Shibusawa home, set in a fine, large garden 

 through which we were conducted by our host and 

 The his good wife. At noon we sat down to a formal 

 l unc heon. Among the invited guests were two or 

 three Cabinet officials and other leading citizens, 

 besides several interesting members of the Shibusawa 

 family itself, though one of the distinguished sons-in- 

 law, the Baron Sakatani (afterward mayor of Tokyo), 

 was then absent on a mission in England. At the 

 close of the meal the gentlemen all went into the 

 garden, Mrs. Jordan meanwhile remaining inside 

 with Madame Shibusawa and her daughters, who 

 had arranged a most interesting program of classical 

 Japanese music by highly trained performers. 

 An The Baron now asked me to have a "heart-to- 



interesting j ieart ta ifc" ( so his secretary phrased it), first with 



conference T . .. , t -r* m i i i i 



Ishn 1 and next with Baron Takahashi, the then 

 Minister of Finance. Ishii discussed mainly the 

 question of the Japanese in California and "the 

 gentlemen's agreement" of 1907. Personally he be- 

 lieved that it was adverse to the interest of Japan to 

 let her unskilled laborers go to America, for not 

 only were they ignorant and strange to our ways, 

 but they also gave the American people a wrong 



1 Both Ishii and Takahashi as well as Shibusawa now (1920) hold the title of 

 viscount. 



C 366 1 



