to whether it would be possible to overcome geographical difficulties sufficiently to enable them to get their timber to the sea; where my Japanese friend from Nagoya had about as much difficulty in making himself understood by the natives as I had; and where even the Japanese food was so bad that he had a difficulty in eating it; and I made up my mind that, at all events as far as education was concerned, that district could be left white, or nearly so, on the map. Again I was mistaken, for the Government returns show most of this portion of the country to be a first-class educational centre. In the face of all these conflicting facts, which go to shake one's ordinary theories-for even that proverbial civilizer, the railway, seems to have had no direct influence on the proportionate scale of Japanese elementary education-it is difficult to find a satisfactory reason for the peculiar conditions. I can only come to the conclusion that, as far as the masses are concerned, education makes more effectual progress in some of the quiet and outlying districts which are practically undisturbed by the foreigner, or by modern methods; where the old native industries flourish steadily and uninterruptedly; where the Japan of to-day is still to a certain extent the Japan of the past; and where the only modernizing influence which is now making itself felt is occasioned by the Government regulations, which insist on a good elementary education of a nature hitherto unknown. The problem which presents itself, if the above assumption be correct, is an exceedingly interesting one; for it would seem to imply that side by side. with the progressive, ambitious Japan which we know (a Japan which is led still by a comparatively small body of highly educated men, who have a thorough knowledge of the outer world), there is another and equally useful community springing into existence, which in ten or twenty years from now will make itself felt in Japanese politics. I refer to the communities shaded black and double cross-barred on my map, which are made up as a rule, not of men taught by the foreigner, but of those who are being educated quietly and systematically, in the Government and other schools, by their fellow-countrymen, who in years gone by have imbibed their instruction from the foreigner. The masses who go to make up such communities will in a few years be able, not only to look on matters from a broader point of view than can the common people of to-day, but will understand their political value under existing laws. They should, in fact, eventually form that backbone to the policy of Japan, the voting power, which will solve the future destinies of their country in its permanent modern policy-a power for good or evil, as the case may be, but which is lacking to-day. Captain Brinkley, who is perhaps our greatest authority on Japanese modern policy, and certainly the greatest writer on the subject, has maintained that the politics of Japan are those of the individual and not of the party. It is to the millions of boys |