THE JAPANESE A Study in the Psychology A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF TH PREFACE HOUGHTFUL students of our immigration problem are more and more turning their attention to the immigrant invasion from the Orient, now small in volume but impelled by powerful forces that may some day be beyond our control. The overwhelming numbers of the Asiatics, the social and economic discontent of the people, and the aggressive nationalism of the Japanese are danger signals that are arousing us from our complacent feelings of security. Vast possibilities for both good and evil are bound up in the rapidly developing Orient. It is of the highest importance that our Government work out an Oriental policy based upon a thorough understanding of the Far Eastern situation and designed to conserve the best interests of all concerned. This book is an attempt to study one phase of this Oriental problem-the racial aspects of the Japanese immigration. Its interest is psychological rather than historical or economic. Emphasis is laid on the changing mental attitudes of the Japanese immigrants and on their reaction to the race prejudice they are compelled to face. The writer tries to show that the problem is deeper than that of social assimilation. The fundamental difficulty is a difference of color and physical character istics so marked that the Japanese cannot merge themselves unnoticed into American life. This makes inevitable the establishment of a color line between the East and the West, no less real than that between the White and the Black. Nothing is gained by ignoring the racial aspects of the question as is now the tendency in some quarters. A frank statement of facts is one step toward a better mutual understanding and lays the basis for a more satisfactory solution of the Oriental immigration problem. The author's first interest in this problem arose during his seven years' residence in Japan as a teacher in a mission college in Sendai. Without the background gained by this long contact with the Japanese people, this study could not have been carried out. Among the many friends, both Japanese and American, who have furnished data of various kinds, special mention should be made of Dr. William G. Seiple, of Sendai, Japan, who has been at great pains to keep the author in close touch with public opinion in Japan. The author wishes especially to acknowledge his great indebtedness to Dr. Robert E. Park, of the University of Chicago, under whose patient and stimulating supervision this book was written. Chicago, January, 1917 J. F. STEINER |