"Thank God, that's over," said Butterfield. "If there's anything much more deadly than the banquets of the Nippon-Columbia Society, I don't want to see it."  
They had come down from the banquet hall in the Imperial Hotel, a group of correspondents, Kittrick, Kent, Butterfield and Templeton, with Roberts, just arrived from New York to gather material for a series of magazine articles; Sands, an engineer who had something to do with the new subway, and one or two others. At one end of Peacock they found a table where they might observe the crowd, the men coming down here to meet the women who had dined below in the main dining room, Japanese and foreigners , concentrating in little groups about the guests of honor, an engineer from America, a Cabinet member from Washington, and a couple of Congressmen of whom no one in Tokyo had heard until they arrived in Japan, unofficially, of course, it was given out, but as "Ambassadors of Friendship," as the newspapers called them.
 
Butterfield was still grouching. "Here I've been to dozens of these affairs, and I wonder if I'll ever come away from one without a bad taste in my mouth. It makes me sick, all this . Take to-night, Barry talking as if the Japanese were the only engineers in the world, as if they had invented the steam engine, electricity, telephones, radio and all that. Here Japan is suffering so badly from head that the best service one may do her is to tell her the[Pg 278] truth, for her own good, and still whenever we have visitors here, they always insist on making of themselves. Barry is a pleasant enough, old , but, heavens, the only way I could stand his speech to-night was by watching Matthews. He has in one way or another been behind half the things that Barry was our Japanese friends for. Did you see his face? It was the only fun I got out of it all, seeing Matthews' face getting redder and redder. I thought he'd have a fit. But all the rest of it honestly gets my goat; the main table, with old Count Ibara sitting through the speeches waiting for the time when he'll have a chance to spring his eternal story about his college days with President Wilson. I can stand on my head and write a complete report of these meetings as they were ten years ago, as they will be ten years from now; old Nishida leads off with "Perry's Black Ships" and love for America. Eminent American stands up and talks of Bushido—I have lived here ten years, and I've yet to hear Bushido mentioned by a Japanese; it's as dead as the rules of knighthood with us—more Eminent Americans tell the Japanese how wonderful they are. Why the devil is it that when an American comes here, he must almost invariably make a fool of himself? Of course, the trouble is often that they are generally mediocrities who become all up at the attentions they get here; and then we do send out such asses. Do you remember the Congressional Party some years ago? The men acted like clodhoppers, and their women were worse. That's where the Japanese are wiser than we are. When they let any one represent them, officially or semi-officially, abroad, they hand-pick them, send only the best they have, and our people at home get a wonderful idea of the advanced stage of Japan. That's how half the[Pg 279] good spirit towards Japan was built up at the Washington Conference; they sent their best men in the entourage of the , who chummed with our newspapermen and writers; the best kind of .
 
"But we let loose third-rate Congressmen, business men, who let Japanese hospitality get to their heads and proceed to slobber all over the landscape. I wouldn't mind if it were not for the fact that just as we in America judge the Japanese people from the Japanese who make a splash there, thus the Japanese judge us Americans from the kind of who come over here and spill their foolishness as these fellows did to-night. We Americans ought to have a censorship here to prevent visiting notables from making speeches which have not been carefully edited."
 
"But what do you come here for then, if you dislike it so?" It was Roberts, the magazine man. "Why do you belong to the Society at all if you think it does no good?"
 
"But I don't say that. I admit it does good. Anything does that brings Americans and Japanese together in a friendly way. But what I object to is the effervescence of our visitors. I think it is proper that we should be , cordial, friendly towards the Japanese, but what's the use of telling them that we think they love us, when we know darned well they don't. That old chap at the left of Barry tried some time ago in the Council to have the Japan American suppressed for no reason except that it had translated some embarrassing editorials from a Japanese paper. The business of Americans are by the police and are constantly being made that 'a certain nation' is this country with spies; some of our most prominent [Pg 280]engineering firms are having their business seriously with because of constant 'spy' charges. They have no use for us, and they have no use for England. They think we euchred them at the Washington Conference. They feel that when we called off on militarism, we did away with the one chance which Japan had to be a great nation. They have no use for us big nations who, they feel, are constantly with the development of the policies they would like to pursue in Asia. Mind you, I believe in being friendly—it's indefensible to stir up needless trouble between America and Japan—but I don't believe in slopping over, and I think it is right to let them know that we know jolly well how they feel about us. The funny thing is, Roberts, and every man who has lived here any time will tell you the same, that just as sentiment in America towards Japan has become more and more friendly since the Washington Conference, in the same ratio Japanese sentiment is becoming unfriendly towards America. It may be largely the doings of the militarists. Possibly they're the ones who are egging the police on with these eternal spy scares. It may be part of their plans to the general for army reduction; to an army, there must be a potential enemy, and America is the most obvious one. So put it down to the militarists, if you like. They're the official goat, anyway."
 
"Yes, that's the popular game to-day, cussing the militarists," cut in Kent. "Still, you know, I can see their point of view even if, God knows, I their methods. Look here, there's no use denying that just one thing made Japan great, her army and navy. Take them away, and the other Powers would put her in the class of, say, Spain. Now we have decreed that hereafter we will measure nations by industrial[Pg 281] and commercial greatness, and the Japanese see that they're being left way behind. The militarists see that Japan can remain great only in the same way as she became great, by the sword. Now, it's probably sure enough that they have given up the old idea of an offensive outside of Asia; but what I think they are working up to is establishing a line of to the , and once that's complete, they will be ready to do as they please in Asia; probably they feel that we won't easily be led into war against them, anyway.
 
"And it seems plain that they must go into the continent of Asia. That's where they must get raw materials for their industries which they haven't at home. That's the only place to which we'll let them emigrate——"
 
"Oh, hell, don't spring that worn-out theory of Japan's overflowing," interrupted Templeton. "As Japan industrializes, she'll take care of her population; and there's still room in Japan for lots of additional people. Hara himself told me once that there was room for millions in Hokkaido alone."
 
"Sure," Kent flashed back. "Just as there's lots of room in America for the Americans. We don't have to emigrate, and still we would resent it, wouldn't we, if we were told that we couldn't go where we pleased. Here Japan sees her friends, America and Great Britain, possessing enormous that lie idle for want of settlers—take Australia, for instance, where they are yelling for immigrants, and still they won't let the Japanese in—and while the Japanese would like to go there, and would develop these lands highly, as we all know, we tell them no, stay home in icy Hokkaido. You talk about worn-out theories, Templeton; what about that old stuff about Japanese driving out the whites wherever they enter.[Pg 282] How is a nation of less than sixty millions going to all over America and Australia and the rest of the earth. They may breed like rabbits, but they would have to breed like herrings to do that. And, anyway, even if we must keep them from into America in masses—as we ought to keep out the of low class Latins and Slavs, people a sight lower than the Japanese, whom we have let overrun our country—we might be less offensive about it. We all know that what makes Japan sore is not the fact that she can't send her surplus over to America; the Japanese Government wants them to go west, not east, in fact; but it's the insult to her race pride, the circumstance that a Doctor Takamine, a Doctor Kitisato, people who rank among the best brains in the world, can't become American citizens, should they wish to do so; but under our laws we can give to Kaffirs and Hottentots, anything that's black and comes out of Africa.
 
"You're looking into conditions in the Far East, Roberts. Take a look at that angle of the question. We, the Anglo-Saxons, insist on holding the Oriental down. We say that's not because we think he's lower than we are, but what are words? We're judged by our actions. Now, you notice how the Japanese papers every now and then break out with Pan-Asia propaganda, calling for a combination of the peoples of China, of India, of all Asia, to stand together against the White, under Japan's 'hegemony,' as they put it. If you'd been here at the time Kemal Pasha was telling England to go to Hades, you would have noticed how the Japanese press applauded him; here, they boasted , was finally an Asiatic defying the Anglo-Saxon, the , and getting away with it. We're bringing it upon ourselves. Japan has lost lots of chances in the past to become the leader of[Pg 283] Asia, but she may become so yet; and that's what I think may be the militarist policy; either they to hold Japan in readiness to lead the rest of Asia, or they may simply be preparing for the next time Europe and America are too busy elsewhere to watch Asia, and then take what they want in Manchuria and Mongolia. When you look upon all these things in the light that the Japanese militarist looks upon them, you can, at least, understand what he's driving at. I'm not a jingo. War between Japan and America would be the most silly, the most damnable thing you can think of; but I don't think we are using the best methods to avoid it. Instead of going so strong on the stuff, hands across the seas and empty words, we should try to understand Japan a little better. As it is, I'm sure that the nation at large, the Government as represented by the Foreign Office, for instance, wants only friendship; but you must remember that the General Staff is still running things to a large extent, and is there any one of you who doesn't think they do not expect war with us sometime, sooner or later?"
 
"Suppose they do," Sands, the engineer, leaned forward. "What hope can they have of success? The next war will be fought in the air, they say, and there Japan is helpless. We run regular air-mail services from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Japanese have not as yet been able to stage a mail flight between Tokyo and Osaka, a few hundred miles, without having participants dropping to earth. The Japanese have no machine sense; they can run an engine when it's running , but they're at sea in an emergency. That's why they're always tumbling down with their airplanes. And modern war depends on industrial organization, ability to work up and maintain tremendous outputs of material. Japan simply hasn't the[Pg 284] ability to do that. She'd be beaten on that point alone."
 
"You may be right, Sands," Kittrick took up the argument. "But it is not a question of war just now or for some years to come, thank God. The next point of difference, I take it, will be the racial equality question that has been ever since the Paris Conference. And that's just where the world has been treating Japan wrong, granting national equality, but not racial. It should be just the opposite. I'm willing to grant any moment that racially the Japanese is as good as we are and a sight better than lots of the white scum we admit to citizenship, but nationally, no, sir; as long as Japan is run as she is at present, with militarists capable of and quite willing to break the nation's international pledges, no matter how sincere the may or may not be in making them, just so long do I object to national equality. The individual Japanese may be quite as good intrinsically as we are, but the present system is not bringing out his , and to contend that Japan is as great a nation as America or England is plain rot."
 
"So you would want to admit Japanese to American citizenship?" asked Roberts.
 
"Only after they had assimilated American training and ideals; but that is just the point; as they are here in Japan I don't think they're fit for citizenship of any country, any more than are the low-class Europeans we import; but I contend that they are just as capable of assimilation as are any other nationals. There's a bird here in Tokyo who used to be in charge of the school system in Hawaii where forty per cent. of the school children are Japanese, and he tells me that these kiddies, under American training, are becoming as capable, as honest and as loyal Americans as are any children under the flag, white, black or brown.[Pg 285] The American-trained Japanese is as efficient as we are; the Japanese-trained Japanese is ineffective; it takes four or five of them to do the work that a white man can do. It all shows that the fault lies with the government here, the whole system. There's nothing the matter with the Japanese............