CHAPTER VII. 

 JAPAN, THE HAIRY AINU, A'OA'A'.I. roHMoSA, LIl'-KIU ISLANDS, AND TIBET. 



JAPAN. 



THE Japanese people live in what has been aptly described as an empire of islands. Their 

 own native name Nippon signifies "Land of the Rising Sun." They sometimes speak of it as 

 Great Nippon, just as we ourselves speak of Great Britain. Geographically their country has 

 a very strong analogy to ours in its proximity to a vast continent, in latitude, and in having 

 its shores washed by a great ocean current of warm water from the tropics. The area of 

 the country has been estimated at 155,000 square miles, which is 34,000 square miles larger 

 than the United Kingdom. But besides the four large islands of Yezo, Hondo, Shikoku, 

 and Kiusiu, to which the above figures refer, there are in the Mikado's dominion about 4,000 

 small islands, among which are the Loo-choo and the Kurile Islands, not to mention the 

 large island of Formosa taken from China in 1895. The census taken in 1891 showed a 

 population of 40,719,000. 



The fact that several different races are blended and combined in the Japanese type of 

 to-day may be reasonably explained by the geographical situation of the country. It is 

 connected with the Malay Archipelago by groups of islands. From the Peninsula of Korea, on 

 the mainland of Asia, it is separated only by a narrow strait. With Kamschatka it is more or 

 less connected by a chain of islands, and by another chain it is similarly connected with the 

 North American Continent. Hero we have at least four routes by which Japan has always been 

 accessible with the most primitive 

 means of transport. Mixed though 

 they are, the Japanese have not often 

 been conquered. Chinese attempts 

 to annex Japan have always failed. 

 In the war of 1891-95 Japan defeated 

 China, and in that of 1904-05 she 

 defeated Russia. The Japanese early 

 became skilful and daring navigators. 

 With Arabs they may have made 

 voyages even as far as India. Their 

 junks have undoubtedly sailed to the 

 coasts of Central America, and as I ^_ 

 freebooters they were once the terror 

 of the people on the Chinese coast. 



The Japanese, like ancient 

 peoples with hardly an exception, 

 have an accepted account not only 

 of their origin as a distinct race, 

 but of the creation of the island 



realms destined for their habitation i-uoto ty .IA /.. A'^Umi ,i- *.< 

 and heritage. They say that, when THHEE JAPANESE CIRL. 



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