Entirely apart from the criticisms that may be passed upon these schools because of incompetent teachers and because of their attempt to perpetuate in America their native language and traditions, the maintenance of these schools tends to draw the Japanese more closely together and reveals something of the strength of their national feeling.

In this connection there ought also to be mentioned the great influence of the Japanese vernacular press in promoting the growth of a common public opinion among the Japanese immigrants. Says Dr. Gulick:

It is doubtful if the immigrants from any other land are as alert as those from Japan in the use of the press for the promotion of their interests. Is there any other national group in America which, in proportion to its numbers, supports so many publications?1

The Japanese people are great newspaper readers. The periodical press in Japan circulates widely even among the lower classes, the majority of whom possess enough education to read the newspapers. This same desire to read is characteristic of the Japanese in America. In spite of their limited numbers they support twelve daily, six weekly, and thirteen monthly newspapers and periodicals, all published in the Japanese language. Besides these larger publications, many of the small groups and organizations issue a kind of bulletin or news letter at frequent intervals in order that their members may keep in touch with one another.

1 The American Japanese Problem, p. 100.

Through these various channels of communication news is presented from the Japanese viewpoint and a public opinion is formed which makes united action possible.

That a people so sensitive to their environment and so open-minded in their attitude toward western civilization should maintain such strong racial organizations must largely be explained by the prejudice existing against them. The hostile attitude of the American people has compelled them to organize in defense of their own interests. It is only by standing together that they can establish themselves in an unwelcome environment. They have felt that united action is necessary in order that employment may be secured, and their need of recreation and social intercourse has driven them still more closely together. They have faced in an intensified form the same problem that has confronted immigrants of all nationalities, and their response to the situation has differed from that of the others only in degree. The reaction of nearly all immigrant groups to their new environment has been organization to protect their interests. In so far as the Japanese have followed this natural tendency, they merit no special attention.

What is striking about the Japanese is their success in maintaining organizations that exert such strong control over all their members. The explanation of this fact must be sought in the social structure of the Japanese nation. In the Far East individuals have always been kept in the background. Such an idea as

personal liberty has never gained wide popularity in Japan. The individual has been taught to subordinate his interests to those of the family, the community, and the State. The principle that private interests must conform to the general good has permeated all the philosophy of the Orient. Consequently, subjection and obedience to authority are a characteristic of the Japanese people. They have learned how to increase their strength by standing together. That a people who have learned so thoroughly the lesson of social solidarity should present a united front in their contact with American environment is to be expected. Schooled as they have been in the idea of the supremacy of the group, the individualistic American spirit has affected them more slowly than it has the immigrants from Europe.

CHAPTER IX

THE PROBLEM OF INTERMARRIAGE

EVER since the beginning of the white invasion of

the Far East in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there has been going on to a greater or less extent an intermixture between the white races of the West and the colored races of eastern Asia. Foreign sailors while in eastern ports have formed alliances with native women which have sometimes resulted in illegitimate offspring as inferior in character and social position as their parents who gave them birth. As soon as Westerners began to take up settled residence in the East for the purpose of engaging in business or in administrative work, more permanent unions with native women were entered upon, some being registered as legal marriages, while others, and these were by far the most numerous, were merely a state of concubinage winked at by the law and regarded as a necessary evil by the foreign communities. This aspect of the mixture of the white and colored races can best be seen in India, where the process has been going on for more than two hundred years and has brought about the formation of groups of Eurasians and Anglo-Indians sufficiently large to constitute one of the problems of that country.

In Japan, where free association with foreigners has

existed for only a comparatively short period, the Eurasian problem has not had time to assume much significance as far as numbers are concerned. There has been, however, an unusual amount of illicit relationship between foreign men and Japanese women of the lower classes. The attractiveness of the Japanese women together with their reputed willingness to hire themselves out to foreigners for a small sum has made the ports of Japan popular with sailors, traders, and visitors with a tendency to loose living. The few children that have resulted from these liaisons have generally, as might be expected, turned out badly and have served to strengthen the popular impression that Eurasian children are necessarily of an inferior type. This idea was given scientific expression by no less an authority than Herbert Spencer who, in a personal letter to Baron Kaneko, strongly condemned the practice of mixed marriages.

To your remaining question respecting the intermarriage of foreigners and Japanese, my reply is that, as rationally answered, there is no difficulty at all. It should be positively forbidden. It is not at root a question of social philosophy. It is at root a question of biology. There is abundant proof, alike furnished by the intermarriages of human races and by the interbreeding of animals, that when the varieties mingled diverge beyond a certain slight degree the result is inevitably a bad one in the long run. I have myself been in the habit of looking at the evidence bearing on this matter for many years past, and my conviction is based on numerous facts derived from numerous sources. By all means, there