Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/13

Rh even more likely that, in seeking to be a second England, Japan wishes to emulate the industries, the commerce of our country, and not the wars, which have too often retarded the national development and impoverished our people.

Be Japan's ambitions what they may, it is undoubtedly the Japanese who will have everything to say in directing the national policy, and therefore it is of more than mere interest—it is of vital importance—that the opinions of the men at the head of the Japanese State and business enterprises should be known to the world. It is, as I have said before, most difficult for any foreigner to speak authoritatively of Japan. I may have some little knowledge and some little understanding of the Japanese people, but I certainly could not write authoritatively on Japan. I may have succeeded in acquiring a certain amount of Japanese atmosphere, and a deep sympathy may enable me to see many things and understand many things Japanese which others do not. But for that very reason, I know better than anyone else how absurd it would be for me or any European to write such a book on Japan as this. As all the world knows, there are thousands of books on Japan; it was at one time the fashion for every chance visitor to write a book. Some of these books are favourable, some are unfavourable, to Japan. Some few are excellent, the majority are inaccurate and misleading. How many people in the past, and even now, form their opinions of Japan upon Piérre Loti’s ‘Madame Chrysanthéme,’ and similar books, without pausing to consider that the writers had deliberately placed themselves beyond the possibility of seeing real Japanese life. What would be said of a Frenchman who should come to England to live, as Piérre Loti did in Japan, and then write a book, delightful and attractive in style, of his experiences? ‘Madame Chrysantheme’ and such books are extreme cases, but the fact remains that the hundreds of books which exist do little to dispel the ignorance which exists in the outside world concerning Japan. At best they are only critical works from the outside. In the absence of authoritative writings, however, they have usurped the position of authorities. This was inevitable. The Japanese were so busy making Japan a great State that they had no time to write books. Also, doubtless, the butterfly books of the chance traveller were more to the