328 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



demand made on the child may easily become exces- 

 sive and thus stand in the way of its development. 

 This happens often enough in European countries, 

 but in Japan the subordination of the interests of the 

 children is part of a stereotyped system which no one 

 dares to question. Parents accept sacrifices from 

 their children which they have no right to demand, 

 and this course is none the less reprehensible because 

 the sacrifices are willingly made. The oriental looks 

 to the past and not sufficiently to the future; but 

 nature looks to the future, and the future belongs to 

 the young generation and not to the old. The 

 nations which do not give their young the fullest 

 opportunity to develop, unhampered by arbitrary 

 and excessive parental duties, must remain undevel- 

 oped intellectually and industrially in comparison 

 with the countries that realize the possibilities of 

 youth and the increased inherent advantage that 

 each new generation has over the one that preceded 

 it. But these advantages cannot be secured to 

 children except as the result of the most enlightened 

 family life, where the mother, as well as the father, 

 cooperates to give the children every opportunity for 

 mental, moral, and physical growth, even when this 

 entails great personal sacrifices. In countries like 

 China and Japan the family life that leads to the 

 fullest, most unhampered growth of the children is 

 something unknown. I consider that the reason that 

 such growth is there impossible is because of the ab- 

 sence of those higher and more subtle relationships 



