Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/91

 faced herself, subordinating her own interests to the important object of maintaining the coöperative union of Western Powers, much of the suspicion with which she had been regarded in Europe ought to have been dispelled.

Much of it was dispelled, doubtless, but not all. Racial prejudice has not been softened by the touch of time. It is customary with a great many Europeans, especially those residing in Japan, to accuse the Japanese of harbouring anti-foreign sentiments and to upbraid them with not having fully laid aside their traditional dislike of aliens. But, if plain truth be told, the anti-Japanese prejudice displayed by the foreign communities themselves is incomparably more profound and demonstrative than any anti-foreign prejudice that can be detected among the Japanese. Nothing Japanese meets with approval among foreigners residing in the settlements. The general attitude — there are exceptions of course — is one of contemptuous tolerance or frank antipathy. Something of this is an aftermath of the resident foreigner's long struggle to retain the privilege of being judged by his own law courts and exempted from taxation. But racial prejudice is in the main responsible. The Japanese is counted an inferior being, and his persistent attempts to reverse that verdict provoke resentment rather than approval, while any display of impatient self-assertion on his part is attributed to inbred hatred of Occidentals. Himself maintaining an