of national unity has at last seized upon the national mind and heart, and is giving the people an enthusiasm for the nation, regardless of the parts, which they never before knew.  Japanese patriotism has only in this generation come to self-consciousness.  This leads it to many a strange freak.  It is vociferous and imperious, and often very impractical and Chauvinistic.  It frequently takes the form of uncompromising disdain for the foreigner, and the most absolute loyalty to the Emperor of Japan; it demands the utmost respect of expression in regard to him and the form of government he has graciously granted the nation.  The slightest hint or indirect suggestion of defect or ignorance, or even of limitation, is most vehemently resented.

A few illustrations of the above statements from recent experience will not be out of place.  In August, 1891, the Minister of Education, Mr. Y. Osaki, criticising the tendency in Japan to pay undue respect to moneyed men, said, in the course of a long speech, “You Japanese worship money even more reverently than the Americans do.  If you had a republic as they have, I believe you would nominate an Iwazaki or a Mitsui to be president, whereas they don’t think of nominating a Vanderbilt or a Gould.”  It was not long before a storm was raging around his head because of this reference to a republican form of government as a possibility in Japan.  The storm became so fierce that he was finally compelled to resign his post and retire, temporarily, from political life.

In October, 1898, the High Council of Education was required to consider various questions regarding the conduct of the educational department after the New Treaties should come into force.  The most important question was whether foreigners should be allowed to have a part in the education of Japanese youth.  The general argument, and that which prevailed, was that this should not be allowed lest the patriotism of the children be weakened.  So far as appears but one voice was raised for a more liberal policy.  Mr. Y. Kamada maintained that “patriotism in Japan was the outcome of foreign intercourse.  Patriotism, that is to say, love of country—­not merely of fief—­and readiness to sacrifice everything for its sake, was a product of the Meiji era.”

In 1891 a teacher in the Kumamoto Boys’ School gave expression to the thought in a public address that, as all mankind are brothers, the school should stand for the principle of universal brotherhood and universal goodwill to men.  This expression of universalism was so obnoxious to the patriotic spirit of so large a number of the people of Kumamoto Ken, or Province, that the governor required the school to dismiss that teacher.  There is to-day a strong party in Japan which makes “Japanism” their cry; they denounce all expressions of universal good-will as proofs of deficiency of patriotism.  There are not wanting those who see through the shallowness of such views and who vigorously oppose and condemn such narrow patriotism.  Yet the fact that it exists to-day with such force must be noted and its natural explanation, too, must not be forgotten.  It is an indication of self-conscious nationality.