The Awakening of Japan

THE NIGHT OF ASIA

The sudden development of Japan has been more or less of an enigma to foreign observers. She is the country of flowers and ironclads, of dashing heroism and delicate tea-cups,—the strange borderland where quaint shadows cross each other in the twilight of the New and the Old World. Until recently the West has never taken Japan seriously. It is amusing to find nowadays that such success as we have achieved in our efforts to take a place among the family of nations appears in the eyes of many as a menace to Christendom. In the mysterious nothing is improbable. Exaggeration is the courtesy which fancy pays to the unknown. What sweeping condemnation, what absurd praise has not the world lavished on New Japan? We are both the cherished child of modern progress and a dread resurrection of heathendom—the Yellow Peril itself!

Has not the West as much to unlearn about the East as the East has to learn about the West? In spite of the vast sources of information at the command of the West, it is sad to realize to-day how many misconceptions are still entertained concerning us. We do not mean to allude to the unthinking masses who are still dominated by race prejudice and that vague hatred of the Oriental which is a relic from the days of the crusades. But even the comparatively well-informed fail to recognize the inner significance of our revival and the real goal of our aspirations. It may he that, as our problems have been none of the simplest, our attitude has been often paradoxical. Perhaps the fact that the history of East Asiatic civilization is still a sealed book to the Western public may account for the great variety of opinions held by the outside world concerning our present conditions and future possibilities.