The National Geographic Magazine 



As keenly and as profoundly as we look 

 toward our future and our prosperity — 

 the future of our family and our na- 

 tion — we cling still more keenly and 

 more delicately to our past — the tradi- 

 tion of our forefathers and our nation. 

 We always look ahead in search for 

 something higher than our present con- 

 dition for our descendants. Our pres- 

 ent welfare and happiness is nothing to 

 us when compared with an illustrious 

 past and a great future for our family 

 and our nation. 



Thus looking forward to our future, 

 we constantly strive to mark out ' ' the 

 grand policy for a century to come." 

 This is a rather high-sounding word, 

 but when we examine our history we 

 always find it underlying in our national 

 movements — social, religious, and polit- 

 ical — because the Japanese from time 

 immemorial have shown their peculiar 

 characteristic to mark out what they 

 will do for the future. In order to es- 

 tablish this grand policy they always 

 study the problem with a far-reaching 

 foresight. This trend of mind is the 

 characteristic of our race. When they 

 contemplate a great problem for national 

 affairs they never think of themselves, 

 but always look forward through the 

 labyrinths of the future to find out 

 the surest way to attain their ultimate 

 aim and goal. According to Japanese 

 notion, compared to this grand policy 

 for the future the present welfare and 

 happiness of ourselves dwindles into 

 nothingness. This policy was clearly 

 and positively marked out by our Em- 

 peror on his ascension to the throne, 

 in 1868. Upon that memorable day he 

 swore before the nation in his ' ' Five Ar- 

 ticles of the Imperial Oaths": "Seek 

 knowledge in the civilized world, and 

 discriminate the good from the bad and 

 adopt the best ; and finally establish 

 the national assembly where all the im- 

 portant affairs of nation shall be decided 

 by public voice." This is the funda- 

 mental principle of our national aspira- 



tion, closely followed by the Emperor 

 himself and down to the meanest peas- 

 ant. In order to carry out this policy 

 we must first bear in mind and maintain 

 the past traditions of our country and 

 then engraft upon them the western 

 culture and science. 



WHAT WE HAVE TAKEN FROM EUROPE 

 AND AMERICA 



With this view we began to reorgan- 

 ize our country in 1868. Since the im- 

 perial restoration we have studied the 

 systems of government of the United 

 States and European countries. As you 

 have divided your government into 

 different departments, we divided our 

 government into similar departments. 

 We adopted a compulsory system of 

 national education, exactly on the same 

 plan as your common-school system, of 

 eight years of compulsory education. 

 A boy and girl must attend school as 

 soon as they attain the age of six, and 

 remain there until the age of fourteen. 

 The first four years we teach them the 

 Japanese and Chinese languages, and 

 the latter four years we add English ; 

 therefore when a boy and girl graduate 

 from our common schools they can read 

 and speak English. By teaching the 

 Chinese and English languages besides 

 our own we bring up a new generation 

 prepared to seek knowledge in the outer 

 world, as commanded by the Emperor. 



In the organization of our army 

 we copied the German system, and in 

 our navy the English and American. 

 In our code of laws we imitated Ea Code 

 Napoleon, and afterward the German 

 principle and method. In finance we 

 copied your system by adopting your 

 gold, silver, nickel, and copper money, 

 and we went so far as to copy the green- 

 backs from you. Our first paper money 

 was made and printed in New York in 

 1870, and if you will take up those old 

 Japanese greenbacks you will find them 

 exactly the same as yours, and no differ- 

 ence except in the writing. 



