dropped. But the act was performed so skillfully and imperceptibly, like the transition of magic pictures on the screen, that the Western world felt no shock at all. Japan knows the publicity game and plays it well. She knows the value of honourable intentions in the public opinion of the West, and she employs every means within her power to create a most favourable impression of herself and her aspirations in the Western world,—especially in the United States and England. To this end, she has many agencies working constantly. They form an elaborate system of interior and exterior espionage, publicity propaganda, press censorship, control of the news both as to its sources and its distribution, skillful governing of the impressions made upon foreigners who visit Japan. I THE OFFICIAL ESPIONAGE I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SYSTEM T HERE is a wrong impression in the generally cunning and sly. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although the Westerner may condemn the Chinaman for his fogyism and low standard of living, he certainly may not condemn him for dishonesty. The credit system was firmly established in China long before it was known in Western Europe. There were no contractual laws in China; they were not needed, as the Chinaman's word is as good as his bond. It is a well-known fact that the Western banks in the Far East prefer Chinese cashiers to those of any other nationality. Even in Japan, the majority of the cashiers in large banks were Chinese, because of their superior commercial integrity and high code of honour, until the Japanese found out that this fact was considered a reflection on the honesty of the Japanese people before the Western public. The Japanese themselves, before coming into 116 contact with the Western world, were not so subtle as they are now. The Samurai were professional warriors. They despised wealth and manual labour, and upheld honour and bravery. But the swift abolition of the feudal system and the "gulping" of Western culture, the product of more than five thousand years of slow progress,—in a single generation, has made the Japanese civilization of to-day a peculiar structure, in which the sense of proportion is almost utterly lacking. They have copied the material achievements of the West without absorbing the underlying spiritual truths; they have adopted the policy of expediency rather than principle. The military, educational, and industrial systems of Japan are modelled after those of Germany. Their slogans, Banzai and Dai Nippon, are other forms of "Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles, über alles in der Welt." There is a remarkable similarity between the Japanese spy system and that of Germany, as was revealed at the opening of the European War; only the Japanese system is more elaborate, and carried out to finer points. It is more than probable that the aggressive Empire of Asia learned the dishonourable but expedient trick from the military bureaucracy of Europe, and has become a greater master of the game. It is needless to say that Japan reaped great advantages from her spy system during her re cent wars. The Chino-Japanese War in 1894 was in many respects like the Franco-Prussian War. Every Japanese officer had a thorough knowledge of the topography of China, her resources and military strength,-all acquired through the laborious and patient work of spies long before the opening of hostilities. The same system was used in the preparation for the Russo-Japanese War. "They had military maps of every nook and corner of Korea and Manchuria; they had spies working as coolies on the Russian railroads, and in Russian ports and shipyards. The collapsible boats, with which a pontoon was thrown across the Yalu, were made for that special purpose months before, when the Korean peninsula was yet to be invaded." Nothing was left to chance when Japan struck the first blow, which, to the ordinary observer in the West, came like a thunderbolt from the clear sky. In time of war, when a nation is engaged in a death struggle, espionage might be justified under the pretext of military necessity. But Japan maintains her spy system in time of peace as well as in time of war. The most curious fact about it is that so far no serious protest has been raised by her scholars and publicists against it. The only explanation of this strange silence is "The Russo-Japanese War," p. 25 (Collier and Sons, New York). that the oft-quoted phrase of Treitschke, "der Staat ist Macht," is the ruling motto with the better thinkers of Japan, and whatever is done for the benefit of the state is justifiable. This principle was fully demonstrated in the trial and acquittal of Count Miura and his accomplices after they murdered the Korean Queen in 1895.' The Japanese philosophy of the state advocates selfishness and deception as motive powers that energize the world. Only they appear in different manifestations in various activities of life. The forms of deception in business, for instance, are known as shrewdness; in war, they are strategy; in society, cleverness; and in relations between nations, diplomacy. But all these are only different combinations of the same element -deception. This philosophy may find its echoes among the followers of Nietzsche and Bernhardi; but no believer in liberty and democracy can endorse it. There are a few things in human society that outrage our natural feelings, and espionage is one of them. 2 2. SPIES IN OTHER LANDS It is not a hasty generalization to say that See "The Far East," February, 1896, vol. 1, p. 20; McKenzie, "The Tragedy of Korea,” chap. VI. See Liang Ch'i-Chao, "Liberty," pp. 148-152 (Korean translation from Chinese text). |