191 13 Evils of Partisanship 



1. He is an American representing a great and friendly 

 nation. 



2. Some fifty Japanese graduates of Stanford University are 

 to be found in our leading cities. 



3. He comes with a message of peace. 



Here my readers will perhaps allow me to make a 

 few observations on the current international poli- 

 tics of Japan. In general and to an increasing degree 

 each event in the Far East is obscured by the smoke 

 of partisanship, for almost every foreign resident of 

 Eastern Asia seems to be either pro-Japanese or anti- 

 Japanese, and impatient of any intermediate posi- 

 tion. As a consequence, fulsome praise and biting 

 criticism are equally common. 



According to the pro-Japanese point of view the p™- 

 busy people of the islands are human beings like the /«?<»«"^ 

 rest of us — sincere, lovable, courteous, simple- 

 hearted, idealistic, acutely patriotic, sensitive to 

 praise or blame, very hospitable and fond of compan- 

 ionship, prone to make judgments gregariously, and 

 having a genius for cooperation and adaptation; 

 politically they do the best they can under changing 

 conditions, for the traditions and conciliations of two 

 thousand years cannot be obliterated in a half- 

 century. 



The prevalent critical view indicts the whole race : amx- 



Japanese 



The Japanese know that Western civiHzation cannot be 

 escaped, but they despise and fear it. They imitate what they 

 do not understand, therefore undertake what they cannot carry 

 through. Being extremely clannish, they are bad neighbors to 

 outsiders. Militarism they cherish because it has brought 

 them world notoriety, formerly lacking; the ruling powers 

 therefore follow German models. The government is a close 

 corporation or bureaucracy, directed by the Genro — " Elder 

 Statesmen" — a clique of leaders of the three fighting clans, 



I 403 3 



