The Foundations of Japan eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 576 pages of information about The Foundations of Japan.

The Foundations of Japan eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 576 pages of information about The Foundations of Japan.
more and more and his views less and less.  It is not his theoretical Christianity but his courageous spirit which attracts.  He is a courageous man and we have very great need of morally courageous men.  Although Christianity is impossible without Christ, Buddhism is possible without Buddha.  A variety of religions is not harmful, and we have to take note of the Christian temperament and the Buddhistic temperament.  Orientals can only be appealed to by an Oriental religion.  Christianity is an Oriental religion no doubt, but it has been Westernised.  It must always be borne in mind that Buddhistic literature is in a special language and that it is difficult for most people to get a general view of Buddhism.”

In further talk the speaker said that in Japan the individual had not been separated from the mass.  But it was difficult to exaggerate the swiftness of the national development.  The newer Russian writers were “certainly as well known in England, possibly better known.”  As to Tolstoy alone, there were at least fifty books about him.  But it had to be admitted that, generally speaking, the Japanese development though rapid had not gone deep.  In painting there was dexterity and technique but few men knew where they were going.  Their work was “surface beautiful.”  They had not passed the stage of Zorn.

We spoke of conscription and I said that it had not escaped my attention that many young men showed an increasing desire to avoid military service.  From a single person I had heard of youths who had escaped by looking ill—­through a week’s fasting—­by impairing their eyesight by wearing strong glasses for a few weeks, by contriving to be examined in a fishing village where the standard of physique was high, or by shamming Socialist.[224] Many Japanese bear uncomplainingly the heavy burden of the military system.  But the others are to be reckoned with.

Said one of these to me:  “We Japanese are not inherently a warlike people and have no desire to be militarists; but we are suffering from German influence not only in the army but through the middle-aged legal, scientific and administrative classes who were largely educated in Germany or influenced by German teaching.  This German influence may have been held in check to some extent, perhaps, by the artistic world, which has certainly not been German, except in relation to music, and after all that is the best part of Germany.  Many young people have taken their ideas largely from Russia; more from the United States and Great Britain.  But Germany will always make her appeal on account of her reputation with us for system, order, industry, depth of knowledge, persistence and nationalism.”

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The Foundations of Japan from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.