1944 "Peace movement in Japan" by GILBERT BOWLES Friends Peace Committee

Full text of "Peace movement in Japan"

Full text of "Peace movement in Japan"

The Peace Movement in Japan 

by GILBERT BOWLES 

Reprinted from The Friend Hth Mo. 23, 12th Mo. 7 

and 21. 1944 

This pamphlet is made available for free distribu- 

tion by Friends Peace Committee 

304 Arch St., Philadelphia 6, Penn. 

Mission Board, Religious Society oe Friends 

304 Arch St., Philadelphia 6, Penn. 

“History of Japanese People” 

By Gilbert Bowles 

(We are very grateful to Edith F. Sharpless, long 

in the Friends Mission in Tokyo, for re-working, at 

his request, Gilbert Bowles’ notes on the history of 

the peace movement in Japan, and making it avail- 

able in this form for our readers . — Eds.) 

Introduction 

Is a peace movement possible in Japan? Can a 

liberal element be found among her people? Gilbert 

Bowles answers these questions from first-hand ex- 

perience. His essay is a record of historical fact. 

On this account his story deserves the close atten- 

tion of all who seek a lasting peace among the coun- 

tries bordering on the Pacific. 

This presentation is so largely objective that a few 

words about Gilbert Bowles himself may help to a 

true picture. He took an important part in many 

of the peace activities that he portrays. Brought up 

in the simple, country atmosphere of a Friends’ 

home in Kansas, where he breathed in reverence for 

God and man, he received his higher education in 

Penn College, a Quaker institution in Iowa. In 

this environment he formed habits of thinking all 

round a subject before acting; of forming judg- 

ments of men in the light of the best that is in 

them ; of lending a hand to the needs of those who 

cross his path ; and of applying the spirit of recon- 

ciliation to the solution of conflict. Arrived at man- 

hood he felt the need of entering a wider and more 

active world. His marriage to Minnie Pickett in 

1898 took him to service in Japan, where she had 

already been working for some years. Their work 

was under the auspices of the Foreign Mission 

Board of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, 

and they continued in Japan until 1941, when they 

retired to Hawaii. 

Before Gilbert Bowles left home a friendship had 

begun between himself and Dr. Benjamin F. True- 

blood, former President of Penn College, and later 

secretary of the American Peace Society. Although 

the Pacific Ocean lay between them during most of 

their active lives, through The Advocate of Peace, 

organ of the American Peace Society, Dr. True- 

blood made monthly visits to Gilbert Bowles’ study. 

“More than to any other single influence,” says 

Gilbert Bowles, “I owe to the continued reading of 

The Advocate of Peace, the definite decision made 

one day while standing at a reading table in my 

study, to take the initiative in the organization of a 

new peace movement in Japan.” 

Before we start on the main current of Gilbert 

Bowles’ story, one other side light may help the 

reader to a greater degree of understanding. This 

is a short historical sketch of the period immediately 

preceding the beginning of the peace movement in 

Japan. It will be remembered that Japan had closed 

its doors to foreign countries at the beginning of the 

17th Century, and had kept them closed until the 

coming of Commodore Perry in the middle of the 

19th Century. During these 250 years Japan’s for- 

eign relations had been confined to a very restricted 

trade with Dutch merchants, and to handling a few 

ship-wrecked sailors cast on her shore from foreign 

boats which had come to the Pacific on whaling ven- 

tures, or for trade with China. Japan’s civiliza- 

tion had been more or less static. In the west, on 

the other hand, these two hundred and fifty years 

had been a time of revolutionary change and prog- 

ress in almost all phases of life. 

Several attempts were made by outsiders to force 

Japan’s doors open, but none was successful until 

1853 when a United States squadron under the com- 

mand of Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay. 

In the following years, treaties were made by Japan 

with the principal foreign powers. These were 

largely unilateral in character, for Japan was not in 

a state of preparedness to insist upon her rights. 

After the signing of the treaties, sea-going ships 

began to be built, their nationality marked by the 

rising-sun flag first adopted at this time. Gilbert 

Bowles says of the part played by America in the 

opening of Japan : “Thoughtful Japanese have all 

through the succeeding years appreciated the fact 

that America’s part in opening Japan to the world 

was not exploited for American nationalistic ends.” 

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the 

treaties were revised. The right of extraterritorial- 

ity was .renounced, and as Gilbert Bowles says — 

“This recognition of Japan’s responsible position in 

the life of the world opened the way for normal 

international relations. . . . The Japanese people 

were now open to creative world influences.” The 

ground was cleared for a peace movement. 

Edith F. Sharpless. 

The First Period, 1889-1906 

In 1889 William Jones, an English Friend, vis- 

ited Japan as secretary of the London Peace So- 

ciety, then the oldest peace society in the world. 

This visit was part of a world tour for securing 

from representative statesmen of various nations 

4 

signatures to a pronouncement in the interests of 

international peace. In China Li Hung Chang, 

Prime Minister, and in Japan, Count Okuma, Min- 

ister of Foreign Affairs, signed this petition. 

Stimulated and guided by William Jones, the first 

Japan Peace Society, strongly anti-war and avowedly 

Christian, was formed in Tokyo. George Braith- 

waite, an English Friend, Agent of the British and 

Foreign Bible Society, Joseph Cosand, pioneer 

American Friends missionary, and Manji Kato, then 

in Tokyo, later for many years a Friends minister 

in Mito, were active in the formation and early 

work of this Japan Peace Society. Joseph Cosand 

published in Japanese a small volume on government 

with suggested applications of peace principles. At 

the time of its dissolution at the outbreak of the first 

Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the Japan Peace Society 

was publishing a small monthly periodical in Jap- 

anese. 

Passing over a period of eleven years, the next 

beginning of peace work in Japan was the formation 

in the autumn of 1905 of the Council of the Friends 

of Peace and Arbitration, a small, informal group 

of missionaries, American and British Friends tak- 

ing the lead. This Council was eventually to be 

superseded by the formation of a real Japanese 

Peace Society. The chairman of the Council was 

a Canadian, Dr. Benjamin Chappell, of the Aoyama 

(Tokyo) Methodist Seminary, a deeply concerned 

and earnest peace worker until his death. The secre- 

tary was Gilbert Bowles of the American Friends 

Mission. 

The Second Period, 1906-1924 

The end of the Russo-Japanese War in the au- 

tumn of 1905 was followed by a marked renewal of 

Japan’s interest in the life of the whole world. The 

national spirit, at first disappointed and embittered 

by the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty (1905), 

mediated by President Theodore Roosevelt, was 

markedly tendered by the visit of William J. Bryan, 

whose messages turned the thoughts of the people 

to peace and world cooperation. About this time 

Saburo Shimada, M.P., in his Tokyo Mainichi 

(“Daily”) was telling the people they had been re- 

ceiving much from other nations, and the hour had 

come for giving somehting back into the life of the 

world. Dr. M. Anesaki, of the Tokyo Imperial 

University, gave an address at the beginning of this 

period, on the influences upon world thought of 

Isaiah’s vision of a day when spears would be turned 

into pruning hooks and the world would learn war 

no more. 

3 

In early March, 1906, Gilbert Bowles, in consul- 

tation with Japanese friends, prepared for signature 

a statement in substance as follows : “Believing the 

time has come for the formation in Japan of a peace 

organization, the undersigned hereby express their 

purpose to be present at a group conference to be 

held at 3 P.M., May 18th, in the Tokyo Y.M.C.A. 

to consider the organization of a peace and arbitra- 

tion society suited to the needs of the times.” Car- 

rying this paper from person to person for about 

two weeks, Gilbert Bowles secured the personal sig- 

natures of thirty-six representative Christian men. 

All except three or four were Japanese. Perhaps 

if this had been a few years later, women would 

have been included. Only two individuals refused 

to sign, and one of these. Dr. K. Ibuka, President of 

Meiji Gakuin (Presbyterian College and Seminary, 

Tokyo) actually attended the meeting and served as 

chairman. The other person who refused to sign 

was Kanzo Uchimura, who was then and continued 

to be till his death, a militant, Christian pacifist who 

did not cooperate with others. * 

The first to sign was Sho Nemoto, a member of 

parliament. He signed on the second line, reserving 

first place for Soroku Ebara, M.P., Principal of 

Azabu Middle School, the recognized lay leader and 

for several years the public representative of the 

whole Japanese Christian movement. In presenting 

this paper for signature, Gilbert Bowles began with 

those of whom he knew to be sympathetic. He 

took time for unhurried conversations, gaining from 

each visit new experience and courage. The process 

was as interesting and stimualting as rolling up a 

snow ball ! Conversation with one person would 

lead to a suggestion about another almost certain to 

be interested. In several cases personal introduc- 

tions were given. These were of special importance 

because at that time the young missionary had had 

only five years’ experience in Japanese life. 

Many surprising discoveries in the field of person- 

ality were made as Gilbert Bowles went day after 

day from one carefully chosen home to another. 

One was the deepening life and thought of one of 

the young men in the Friends’ group, Setsuzo Sa- 

wada, then a student in Tokyo Imperial University, 

who assisted in the secretarial work. He had al- 

ready chosen consular and diplomatic service as his 

way of contributing to the cause of peace. Though 

in later years the Japanese government policies lim- 

ited his sphere of activity, he carried out the spirit 

of his early call to his service in the Japanese em- 

bassy in London and as Charge d’ Affaires in Wash- 

ington, and later as Ambassador to Brazil. 

6 

Dr. Kawakami said that since his work as a physi- 

cian was to save and prolong life, he was ready to 

support a peace movement for doing this on a larger 

scale. Naoshi Kato, a young business man, student 

and interpreter of Tolstoi, gave efficient help in the 

early days of the Japan Peace Society, and later be- 

came the center of peace work in Osaka. 

Member of an informed group of Christian law- 

years and judges which had been studying peaceful 

miethods for the settlement of international disputes, 

was Judge Noboru Watanabe, Chief of the Tokyo 

Local Court, later judge of the Highest Court of 

Appeals in Korea. He was chosen first President 

of the Japan Peace Society, but decided that the 

Japanese law, prohibiting judges from participating 

in political activity, made it unwise for him to serve. 

Christians only were invited to the organizing 

meeting of the Japan Peace Society, not with the 

purpose of excluding others, but in the belief that 

when the group of promoters assembled they should 

themselves decide on the policy. Without a dis- 

senting opinion, they agreed to place no religious 

bar to membership. For the first few years how- 

ever, the leaders and active workers were Christians, 

and the office was for some time located in the 

Tokyo Y.M.C.A. The first president, Soroku Ebara, 

influential member of the House of Representatives, 

and later, member of the House of Peers, did much 

to give the new society a recognized standing in the 

nation. He served faithfully until on his own initia- 

tive, Count Okuma, previously Foreign Minister, 

and later Premier, was chosen president. Count 

Okuma (later Marquis Okuma) was a notable leader 

of the Meiji Era, and one of the most widely known 

Japanese at home and abroad. With his inaugura- 

tion as president of the Japan Peace Society, its 

Christian influence was lessened, though Christian 

men continued to hold responsible positions. 

The Vice-President of this organization from 

1910 was Baron Sakatani. As Vice-Minister of Ei- 

nance during the Russo-Japanese War, and later as 

full Minister, as Mayor of Tokyo, and as a member 

of the House of Peers, Baron Sakatani had a solid 

background of practical, political experience, which 

added to his expert knowledge of national and inter- 

national finance, and his rvide acquaintance with 

Japanese statesmen, assured serious consideration 

for any cause which he espoused. 

Not lightly did Baron Sakatani accept the Vice- 

Presidency of the Japan Peace Society, for he knew 

well the absorption of its President, Count Okuma, 

with a multiplicity of causes and enterprises, and an 

unceasing stream of visitors. He could foresee that 

the actual responsibility for guiding the Peace So- 

ciety would fall upon him. But from the hour of 

his acceptance until the Japan Peace Society trans- 

ferred its work in 1924 to the League of Nations 

Association of Japan, Baron Sakatani did not fail 

to bear constantly on his mind a sense of responsi- 

bility for the trust which he had accepted. Every 

detail of finance, the choice of staff members, their 

work and their lives, he knew intimately. He un- 

derstood well the purpose for which the Japan Peace 

Society was organized, and he was always eager to 

learn more about related movements in other coun- 

tries. He was courteous and hospitable in welcom- 

ing a great variety of peace workers from foreign 

countries, eager in planning personal conferences 

and meetings in which the vision of peace could be 

given to the public. 

The basis of the second Japan Peace Society was 

not pacifist, according to the use of that word in 

later years, and not directly anti-war; its purpose 

was to work for international understanding, and 

“as far as possible for the solution of all interna- 

tional disputes by peaceful means.” This was in 

accord with the prevailing peace organizations in 

America and Europe after the new beginning of the 

peace movement at the Paris Peace Conference of 

1889. Furthermore it was recognized as the only 

basis of peace work with promise of appeal to the 

Japanese people, so long as the Western nations de- 

pended upon the ultimate appeal to force. But upon 

this agreed platform of the Japan Peace Society, 

great liberty was allowed for a wide range of dis- 

cussion, even for the expression of absolute pacifist 

convictions on the part of individual speakers. 

In the earlier years the principal work of the 

Japan Peace Society was the study of current prob- 

lems ; the holding of public lecture meetings; the 

publication of occasional pamphlets ; public observ- 

ance of “Hague Day” with educational programs 

commemorating the opening of the first Hague Con- 

ference in 1899; arranging for group conferences or 

public meetings for foreign visitors who brought an 

international message ; assistance to religious organ- 

izations in the annual observance of Peace Sunday ; 

and correspondence with foreign peace organizations. 

“The Japan Peace Movement,” a monthly peri- 

odical, with an English department, served for some 

years as the organ of both the Japan Peace Society 

and the American Peace Society of Japan. While 

the English department contained notes on the 

peace movement in Japan, the Japanese department 

gave space to the peace movement in foreign coun- 

tries. 

8 

Early in 1907 the Society translated, printed and 

sent for distribution to the delegates of the Second 

Hague Conference the special message and appeal, 

written by Count Itagaki, who was the outstanding 

leader in the early Meiji Era in agitating for a con- 

stitutional government with a legislative assembly, 

and the founder of Japan’s first political party. On 

the monument erected to hirh in Tokyo are the his- 

toric words which he spoke to his would-be assassin : 

‘Ttagaki may die, but liberty will live.” 

Another of the deeply interested and active mem- 

bers of the organized peace movement of this period 

was Viscount Shibusawa, father-in-law of Baron 

Sakatani, mentioned above. Gilbert Bowles writes 

of him : After Marquis Okuma the best known pri- 

vate citizen of Japan was Viscount Shibusawa. 

Many times he recalled the enlarged outlook which 

had come to him since the time when as a young 

Knight, he came to Yedo (Tokyo) in 1853, pre- 

pared to fight Commodore Perry and the other ‘“bar- 

barians.” He was an official in the Treasury De- 

partment of the national government at the time 

when General Grant came to Japan in 1879, and 

served as chairman of the Tokyo committee to wel- 

come him. He soon resigned his government posi- 

tion in order to apply himself to business and to the 

economic and industrial leadership of Japan. 

His life philosophy, largely drawn from Chinese 

classics, was that individual ethical principles are 

applicable to all relations between nations. As a 

young man he was greatly disturbed on his first visit 

to Europe to find the prevailing German state doc- 

trine that ‘‘Might makes right.” Often Gilbert 

Bowles has heard him say that this is the same as 

the Chinese proverb, ‘‘The flesh of the weak is the 

food of the strong.” 

Retiring while still in full .vigor from active busi- 

ness life, in which among many other enterprises, he 

had founded Japan’s first bank and the Tokyo 

Chamber of Commerce, he gave many years to such 

social and educational work as the founding of the 

Japan Womens’ University and the Tokyo Home 

for the Poor, and to the promotion of American- 

Japanese understanding. 

One of the greatest blows to Viscount Shibusawa’s 

hopes for world peace was the entrance of America 

into the first World War. His sorrow was the 

deeper when he learned that this step Was approved 

by the great majority of American Christian lead- 

ers. Although not an avowed Christian himself, he 

had come to believe that under the leadership of 

American Christians, world peace could be realized. 

After he learned that there were American Chris- 

9 

tians who still retained their unshaken peace convic- 

tions, he regained courage for continued efforts to- 

ward international understanding and peace. 

Various other peace organizations were devel- 

oped during this period, each fulfilling some special 

function. There is not space here to do more than 

list the names of some of the more important of 

them : 

1. The Oriental Peace Society, founded by Dr. 

Harada, President of Doshisha University, and 

others, in 1907, worked along much the same 

lines in western Japan as the Japan Peace So- 

ciety did in the east. 

2. The American Peace Society of Japan, founded 

in 1911 by thoughtful Americans, resident in 

Japan, to deal with the situation created by the 

anti-Japanese agitation on the Pacific Coast. It 

cooperated with the Japan Peace Society 

through a joint committee of the two organiza- 

tions. Its first president was D. H. Blake, 

chairman of the Yokohama Foreign Chamber 

of Commerce. 

3. The Carnegie Endowment of International 

Peace. Japanese representatives in this En- 

dowment were appointed as early as 1912. 

4. The Japan Council of the World Alliance for 

International Friendship Through the Churches, 

the founding principle of which was brought 

back from Europe by D. Ebina, President of 

Doshisha University, in 1920. 

5. Women’s Peace Association of Japan, organ- 

ized about 1918, and presided over for more 

than ten years by Mrs. Hide Inouye, President 

of the Women’s University of Japan. This 

proved to be a real outlet for the abilities and 

faith of Japan’s women. 

6. The Eellowship of Reconciliation in Japan, 

founded in 1924. The clear cut pacifist basis 

of the F.O.R. makes it difficult of application 

in a country with a conscription law. However 

it has continued to work quietly, though report- 

ing regularly to the authorities. Michio Kozaki, 

a Congregational pastor, is its continuous chair- 

man, and Seiju Hirakawa, one time principal 

of the Eriends Girls School, its secretary. 

The Nature oe the Movement During 

This Period 

Prom this sketch of the movement, and from the 

accounts of its activities it will be seen that the 

peace movement in Japan was in the main not so 

much a theoretical interpretation of peace principles 

10 

as it was a series of organized efforts for the peace- 

ful solution of Japan’s actual international prob- 

lems. Peace education was carried on in various 

ways, but the main interest was almost continuously 

commandeered for dealing with current and often 

dangerous international situations. 

All kinds of men and women, Christians and 

Buddhists, high and low, were enlisted in the Peace 

IVIovement, which was by no means limited to those 

connected with the Peace Society. Gilbert Bowles 

tells of a Japanese laborer whom he met in Tokyo. 

He was deeply impressed with the armament burden 

and the recurrent threats of war, and had founded 

single-handed an organization which he named “The 

World Peace Society.” With a limited knowledge 

of English, and less of world affairs, he bore a sense 

of personal responsibility for the promotion of peace 

and good will. Working hard to make a living, he 

none the less saved time to carry on his own should- 

ers his “World Peace Society,” of which so far as 

known, he remained the sole member. Where is he 

now? Personal knowledge of his unshaken peace- 

making purpose, gives assurance that his life still 

lies on the altar of world peace. 

Gilbert Bowles tells also of hearing a young man, 

deeply moved, tell the story of his peace convictions. 

Brought up under Buddhist influences, he had re- 

cently, by what seemed a direct revelation of truth 

seen the full implication of the precept which warns 

against taking life. Having seen that precept in re- 

lation to war, and having felt its application to his 

own life, he definitely decided to take his stand, no 

matter what the State might do to him. 

Miss Michi Kawai is another who purposefully 

guides the students of the Keisen Girls School, of 

which she is founder and principal, along a liberal 

way of inter-racial and international life and 

thought. 

Then there was Mme. Yaljima, the national Pres- 

ident of the W.C.T.U., who was an indefatigable 

worker for peace. At the time of the Washington 

Disarmament Conference, at the end of 1921, she 

carried to Washington and presented to President 

Harding, a petition signed by 10,000 Japanese 

women, appealing to the President to do everything 

possible for the success of the Disarmament Con- 

ference. She was close to ninety years of age when 

she did this. 

Many foreigners resident in Japan cooperated in 

the work for peace. The American Peace Society 

of Japan has been mentioned. Missionaries made 

open doors for peace work and were congenial co- 

workers. In the early period Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, 

n 

of the American Board of Missions, was outstand- 

ing. Later Theodore Walser, an American mission- 

ary of the Presbyterian Church, with his Open-Door 

Student Movement, gave much time and thought to 

international education. Financial support too, came 

from the Mission Boards in America. And many 

emissaries of peace from western nations made the 

long journey to Japan, to bring a message of good 

will. Mention has been made of William Jones. J. 

Gundry Alexander and Alfred H. Brown were other 

English Friends who performed important services 

in Japan for international understanding, the latter 

especially in the field of Australasian- Japanese rela- 

tions. Other well-known names are Hamilton Holt, 

David Starr Jordan and Fred B. Smith. Perhaps 

no one had more influence on public opinion than 

Helen Keller, who made a nation-wide lecture tour 

in 1937, which Gilbert Bowles says “was perhaps 

the most widespread, vital and impressive demon- 

stration of creative love and good will the Japanese 

nation has ever witnessed.” 

But this enumeration of foreign names has taken 

us aside from the main trail, which is the native 

peace movement of Japan. 

The situations which called for action by those 

who believed in peaceful methods of settlement dur- 

ing this time, may be grouped under three headings : 

those in which Sino-Japanese relations were in- 

volved; those created by friction with the United 

States; and those concerned with Korea and its in- 

dependence movement. They will be treated in the 

succeeding sections. 

Efforts to Promote Sino-Japanese 

Understanding 

Viewing Japan through her aggression in China, 

especially since the Sino-Japanese War broke in 

1937, it is difficult for us to believe in any sincere 

Japanese attempts at understanding. To appreciate 

the efforts that were made, one should begin with 

the realization that previous to the official Japanese 

propaganda of the first Sino-Japanese War period 

(1894-1895), the all but universal Japanese attitude 

was one of deep respect, almost reverence for the 

Chinese people as their ancient teachers and cultural 

superiors. The military victory of Japan at that 

time, and her defeat of Russia in 1905, tended to 

reverse this relation of teacher-pupil, in that it indi- 

cated that Japan had become the champion of Orien- 

tal peoples in relation to Western aggression. This 

was evidenced by the rush to Tokyo Universities of 

some 10,000 Chinese students within the next few 

years. Within the setting of this teacher-pupil re- 

lationship, complicated by increasing economic, po- 

litical and military conflicts, there were many efforts 

to promote wider, mutual understanding. 

In 1917 the Friends in China and Japan had their i 

first definite experience in fellowship. That year j 

Gilbert Bowles with the encouragement of Friends? 

in Japan, went as one of the five Japanese and mis- 

sionary fraternal delegates of the inter-denomina- 

tional Japan Continuation Committee, to the China 

nation-wide Christian Conference at Hangchow. At 

this conference, acquaintance was made with a 

Chinese Friend, for many years clerk of West China 

Yearly Meeting, the late S. C. Yang, who before 

returning to his home, visited Friends in Japan. 

That was the beginning of a fruitful friendship be- 

tween him and Seiju Hirakawa, at that time clerk 

of Japan Yearly Meeting. 

In promoting fellowship between Christians of 

the two countries one of the most fruitful move- 

ments was the holding of two group conferences, 

one in Hangchow in February 1922, and one at the 

base of Japan’s Mt. Fuji in July of the same year. 

The prime mover in arranging for these confer- 

ences was Dr. Henry T. Hodgkin, an English Friend 

who after missionary experience in Chengtu, and a 

period as secretary of the English Friends’ Foreign 

Missionary Board, had now become one of the 

secretaries in the Shanghai office of the China 

National Christian Council. He took up this 

work under a prophetic sense or mission to 

assist the Christians and other leaders in China and 

Japan in efforts to prevent what he foresaw might 

develop into open conflict between the two nations. 

In preparation for these Sino-Japanese Christian 

Conferences, Henry T. Hodgkin in Shanghai and 

Gilbert Bowles in Tokyo carried on correspondence, 

and cooperated with representative Christians in the 

two countries in selecting delegates and making other 

needed arrangements. Save by the Spirit’s pre- 

cision instruments, it is impossible to measure the 

results of this Hangchow conferenfce, where some 

fifteen Chinese and Japanese Christians with three 

or four missionaries spent five days in intimate and 

frank sharing of viewpoints concerning the rela- 

tions of their two countries. The same could be 

said of the Mt. Fuji Conference when Chinese and 

Japanese Christians and one missionary, Joseph E. 

Platt, then secretary of the Mukden Y. M. C. A., 

shared without reserve (after the first day) 

their deepest insights, convictions and prayers 

for Sino-Japanese understanding and coopera- 

tion. One of the missionaries present from Japan 

has never ceased to be grateful for the hopeful 

13 

discovery made in that conference that when eco- 

nomic, political and military conflicts are tran- 

scended, the two nations have an inexhaustible reser- 

voir of common cultural life which may be used for 

the enrichment of all their present day relations. 

Passing over a ten year period with its many ef- 

forts to foster cooperation, we come to the end of 

March, 1932, just after the truce which temporarily 

ended the Sino-Japanese military clash, in which a 

large part of Shanghai had been destroyed. While 

the Shanghai fighting was still raging, the Chinese 

National Y.M.C.A. Student Secretary, Y. T. Wu, 

was sending messages to various national student 

organizations preparatory to February’s annual Day 

of Prayer. When he came to Japan on his Jist, he 

hesitated momentarily, but then realized that he was 

representing a Christian organization ; and sent the 

message to the National Y.M.C.A. Student Secre- 

tary in Japan. He added an invitation for a Japa- 

nese Christian deputation to visit Shanghai to study 

’on the spot the new situation that had arisen. In 

response to this invitation a deputation of four 

Japanese Christian leaders and five missionaries ar- 

rived in Shanghai near the end of March, and spent 

five days, and far into the nights, under the guid- 

ance of Chinese Christians and missionaries, study- 

ing intensely amidst material ruins and wrecked 

hopes the place of Christians in the Sino-Japanese 

world of that hour. Returning from Shanghai to 

attend Japan Yearly Meeting of Friends, Gilbert 

Bowles with the encouragement of Japanese Friends 

went directly to Mukden to join four other members 

of the Shanghai deputation in a study of the situa- 

tion precipitated there seven months before by the 

capture of Mukden by the Japanese military, and 

the subsequent rapid conquest of all Manchuria. 

Again, no one can measure results of these and 

many other efforts, but Christian fellowship was 

maintained across the widening chasm, and Chris- 

tians from Japan carried back a solid body of sober- 

ing facts for use with their own constituencies, even 

though they could not reverse the course of Japan’s 

national policies. 

At this point it seems appropriate to include an 

account of a constructive attempt to foster good feel- 

ing between the two countries, made by a Japanese 

Christian, Dentaro Maruyama, first as a Methodist 

missionary in China, and then as friend and guide 

to Chinese students in Tokyo. The earlier years in 

China gave him a good working knowledge of the 

Chinese language and a basic understanding of Chi- 

nese psychology. 

But the chief life work of Mr. Maruyama and his 

14 

wife has been done through their own home in 

Tokyo, and its extension dormitory for oriental stu- 

dents. Not only to the students in that home-hostel, 

but to many others who came for advice and friend- 

ship, Mr. and Mrs. Maruyama were attached as with 

parental ties. As Chinese students in Tokyo uni- 

versities were often cut off from financial support 

from home, especially in times of civil disturbance, 

the finances of student hostels for them were often 

severely strained. 

The chief life work of the Maruyamas has been 

done through their own home in Tokyo with its 

dormitory for oriental students. Not only to the 

students in that home-hostel, but to many others 

who came for advice and friendship, Mr. and Mrs. 

Maruyama were attached with almost parental ties. 

As Chinese students in Tokyo universities were 

often cut off from financial support from home, 

especially in time of civil disturbance, the finances 

of the student hostels which gave them residence 

were often severely strained. But so long as they 

had rice and pickles, Mr. and Mrs. Maruyama 

would share with their student friends. Recogniz- 

ing the value of this work for foreign students — 

often including young men from Korea and the 

Philippines — the Japanese Y.M.C.A. leaders, acted 

for some years as moral and financial sponsors. 

Until the Chino-Japanese War broke out, one of 

Mr. Maruyama’s most effective channels of service 

was through the Chinese Y.M.C.A. in Tokyo, which 

from 1905 was the social, spiritual and international 

headquarters for Chinese students in Tokyo’s many 

universities. They numbered at times as many as 

10,000 and averaged about 3000. 

When the great Tokyo earthquake and fire of 

1923 'completely destroyed the Chinese Y.M.C.A., it 

was rebuilt by Japanese business men. Later when 

another severe earthquake so damaged the new 

building that it had to be condemned, it was again 

rebuilt by Japanese business men. In both cases the 

understanding encouragement of Mr. Maruyama 

and his personal friendship with the Chinese Gen- 

eral Secretary, Ma Haku-en, was of great service. 

For some 3 ^ears one of Mr. Maruyama’s deep con- 

cerns was to cooperate with a Japanese committee 

in collecting data concerning the extent and con^ 

sequences of Japanese involvement in the sale anq 

use of opium and its derivatives in China. He kepA 

these data before a large number of influential Japa-^ 

nese. Although from the point of view of China 

this was largely ineffective, in Japan it did mean 

something to have a group of concerned men se- 

15 

riously facing the problem. Baron Sakatani’s chal- 

lenge to the government on its policy regarding 

opium through an interpolation in the House of 

Peers was a reflex of this Japanese concern. 

Mr. Maruyama earlv discovered Chinese visitors 

to Japan, and was thus able to render them essen- 

tial service and to promote individual and group 

conferences with representative Japanese. Through 

the years of increasing tension, this was one of the 

most important services in keeping open, channels 

of thought exchange. If Japan had had more work- 

ers with the attitude and knowledge of Mr. and Mrs. 

Maruyama, the Chino- Japanese War need never 

have broken out. 

American-Japanese Relationship 

The effectiveness of the peace movement in Japan, 

as it concerned relations with neighbors across the 

Pacific, depended to a great degree upon the wax- 

ing and waning of anti-Japanese agitation on the 

Pacific coast of the United States of America. Dur- 

ing the years 1890-1910 large numbers of Japanese 

had migrated there and to Hawaii, in response to 

the demand for labor. That this migration was not 

the result of pressure from Japan is clearly seen by 

Gilbert Bowles’ account of the attitude of Viscount 

Kaneko, at that time Japan’s Vice-Minister of Agri- 

culture and Commerce. He says : 

“Like many other Japanese educated in America, 

especially in the earlier period, Viscount Kaneko 

had a background for understanding American-Jap- 

anese relations, not possessed by the majority of 

his countrymen. As a Harvard classmate and per- 

sonal friends of Theodore Roosevelt, he had nat- 

ural, direct access to him, not only during his ad- 

ministration, but in later life at times of crisis. 

Exchange of messages between the two men had 

international significance.” 

Gilbert Bowles well remembers Viscount Kaneko’s 

personal account of the way the first Japanese la- 

borers were brought into America. As Vice-Min- 

ister of Agriculture and Commerce at the time, he 

refused the first request of American employers, 

stating his conviction that if Japanese laborers were 

permitted to enter America, the time would come 

when anti-Japanese agitation would arise and create 

serious difficulties between the two countries. But 

the employers were persistent, and finally supported 

by officials of the American Legation, not yet at 

that time an Embassy, direct appeal was made to 

the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. The 

Vice-Minister’s judgment was overridden, and the 

16 

first Japanese laborers were permitted to leave 

Japan for the United States. 

In later years, especially in 1913 when the Cali- 

fornia Legislature passed the Alien Land Law, and 

in 1920 when a more drastic law was passed by a 

state-wide referendum, the Viscount expressed deep 

regret that his original judgment had been over- 

ridden. 

For some years within the period of recurrent 

anti-Japanese agitation in America, Viscount Kaneko 

served as chairman of a joint American- Japanese 

Relations Committee. This body was unofficial, and 

worked quietly, studying the situation from both 

angles, exchanging information and seeking coop- 

eration of men who might be helpful in solving 

pending problems. 

The work of this committee paved the way for the 

formation of the America-Japan Society in Tokyo, 

with Viscount Kaneko as president. In an intro- 

duction to K. Obata’s “Life of Viscount Shibu- 

sawa,” Viscount Kaneko gives the following mov- 

ing account of the effect of the American Exclusion 

Law of 1924 on his own life : — 

“We, the members of the America-Japan Society, 

and of the American -Japanese Relations Commit- 

tee, were deeply disappointed. I could not stand 

the disgrace, and resigned the presidency of the 

America-Japan Society, issuing a public statement 

as to my attitude toward the American action. . . . 

For sixty long years I have endeavored to provide 

better understanding and good will between our two 

countries, but’ the reward I received was ‘a stone 

for bread and a scorpion for a fish.’ ’’ 

The Viscount never recovered from the blow, and 

spent his remaining years largely in quiet retire- 

ment, except when his duties as a member of the 

Privy Council called him to Tokyo. 

But aside from tragedies such as this it is certain 

that illuminating and helpful influences were brought 

to bear upon some members of the Joint Commit- 

tee and their constituencies. Friendships formed 

and deepened at that time were doubly appreciated 

by American business men from Kobe and Yoko- 

hama who had not hitherto had many opportunities 

for close association with some of the finest Japa- 

nese leaders of that period. It was at one of the 

meetings of this Joint Committee that Baron Saka- 

tani said that even if at some future time war 

should break out between Japan and America, and 

even then there were times when this seemed a pos- 

sibility, this could not destroy the friendships 

formed through this close association in the cause 

of Japanese- American understanding. 

17 

Many other influences were also at work on the 

side of good will. One of them was the Friend 

Peace Scholarships. In 1911 Theodore Richards 

of Honolulu, with the cordial support of Japanese 

educators, business men and statesmen, whose 

spokesman was Count Okuma, founded “The Friend 

Peace Scholarships.” “The Friend” a small peri- 

odical published in Honolulu is the organ of the 

Congregational Church of Hawaii. From 1911 to 

1929 the Japanese Board selected graduates of Japa- 

nese Middle Schools, for study first in Honolulu 

and later in mainland institutions. From 1929 schol- 

arships were made available to Hawaiian-born high 

school graduates of all nationalities for a study of 

their own racial cultures. Between 1911 and 1936 

forty-five young people of Japanese and three of 

Chinese descent shared the benefits of these schol- 

arships. Perhaps the most widely known recipient 

of this grant is Dr. Iwao F. Ayusawa, associated 

with the International Labor Office in Geneva from 

1920 to 1935, and later Director of the Far Eastern 

Office of the International Labor Office in Tokyo 

until the Japanese government withdrew from that 

organization. 

During one of the periods of anti-Japanese agita- 

tion on the Pacific Coast when it was very difficult 

for the Japanese people to understand how the State 

Department at Washington could favor a policy of 

mutual understanding with Japan while California 

was continually aggravating the situation, Tsunejiro 

Miyaoka, who had served several years with the 

Japanese Foreign Office, having been at one time 

Charge d’Afifaires at Washington, helped to relieve 

the tension by a two-hour lecture before a large 

I'okyo audience on the American doctrine of States’ 

Rights in relation to the Federal Government. 

At another time when on account of agitation 

caused by the California alien land legislation, Japa- 

nese-American relations seemed to have reached an 

impasse. Count Okuma, a non-Christian, called to 

his Waseda residence a group of about twenty-five 

representative Japanese Christians and American 

missionaries, together with John R. Mott, who was 

then in Japan. Standing up before them, he spoke 

in substance as follows: “Relations between our 

two countries have become so critical that the wis- 

dom of statesmen is unequal to the tasks laid upon 

them. Believing that you know how to call down 

into human affairs the wisdom of God, I have called 

you here to ask you to pray for wisdom for a peace- 

able solution of pending problems.” No one can 

measure the effect of that group meeting on Amer- 

18 

ican- Japanese relations, but all went home with a 

new sense of prayer-responsibility, and American- 

Japanese peace was not broken for three decades. 

In 1914 soon after Japan had declared war on 

Germany, one of the Tokyo dailies carried a story 

that the United States fleet was. to be sent to Far 

Eastern waters. Naturally the Japanese people were 

stirred, taking this as a military threat of the na- 

tional government of the United States to follow up 

the Pacific Coast anti-Japanese agitations. Gilbert 

Bowles, sensing the dangerous effect of the rumor, 

as interpreted by Japan’s best informed leaders, de- 

cided some action must be taken immediately to 

ascertain the facts about the situation. After learn- 

ing from an American press representative that 

nothing was known as to the basis for the rumor, 

he proceeded at once to Miyanoshita in the Hakone 

Mountains, where the American Ambassador was 

staying. The Ambassador appreciated the serious- 

ness of the rumor and promptly authorized a com- 

ment, which served as an effectual denial. He as- 

serted that he had no inkling of any such movement 

of the fleet, and he was certain the State Depart- 

ment would have informed him if any such plan 

was contemplated. Early next forenoon this denial 

was given to the central Tokyo news agency, and 

its wide publication effectively silenced the rumor. 

On inquiry it was found that the Tokyo daily which 

had published the rumor, did so on the basis of a 

story sold to it by an American, a graduate of one 

of our leading universities, whose irregular life had 

exhausted his funds ! 

One of the best known of the men who labored 

for better understanding between Japan and Amer- 

ica was Dr. Inazo Nitobe. Because there are some] 

who found difficulty in understanding his attitude 

toward the end of his life, Gilbert Bowles has writ- 

ten rather fully of Dr. Nitobe’s reactions to the 

events of the times. For such men as he the double 

allegience to country and to the sense of interna- 

tional mission, spelt- deep tragedy at such times of 

tension. 

One main life purpose of Dr. Nitobe was to make 

his experience serve as a bridge across the Pacific, 

uniting Japan and America. This purpose was 

formed while he was a student in the Sapporo Agri- 

cultural College, under the inspirational guidance of 

President Clark. Throughout a varied career as 

student in the Tokyo Imperial University, in Johns 

Hopkins University, and later in German univer- 

sities ; or when teaching in his Sapporo Alma Mater, 

lecturing on Agricultural Economy and Colonial Ad- 

19 

ministration in Tokyo and Kyoto Imperial Univer- 

sities, or serving as Principal of the Tokyo Govern- 

ment College, Dr. Nitobe always kept in his heart 

this sense of international mission. Deeply in- 

fluenced by the religious peace principles of the So- 

ciety of Friends, as he saw them applied in Balti- 

more and Philadelphia ; versed also in the literature, 

philosophy and religion of both East and West; and 

at home in both ancient and modern history. Dr. 

Nitobe remained always very human, close to chil- 

dren, students, and hard-working fathers and 

mothers. 

Through nearly three busy decades as educator 

and administrator, writer and lecturer, the deepest 

impressions he made were upon those who came 

within the circle of his own hospitable home. His 

wife was Mary P. Elkinton of Philadelphia. In 

their Tokyo home Dr. Nitobe was the delightful 

host of scholars, statesmen, and friends ; confidant 

and advisor of workers for many important causes ; 

and always the guide and, one could almost say, the 

parent of young men and women passing through 

life crises. 

While Dr. Nitobe never forgot his life concern 

to serve as a bridge connecting Japan and America, 

his largest specific service in the promotion of inter- 

national cooperation was as Under-Secretary of the 

League of Nations. For seven years from 1919, 

first in London, and later in Geneva, Dr. Nitobe 

gave himself to the coordination and promotion of 

international cultural movements. Persons familiar 

with the staff of the League of Nations have favor- 

ably commented upon his personal, intellectual, and 

spiritual influence upon the life of Geneva during 

that period. 

From 1927 to 1932 Dr. Nitobe, again in Tokyo, 

was occupied with writing and speaking on interna- 

tional questions, w'ith national service as a member 

of the House of Peers, with cooperation in the 

League of Nations Association of Japan, and with 

activities in connection with the Institute of Pacific 

Relations. During this period he resumed his ad- 

visory connections with the Tsuda English College, 

the Friends Girls School, and the Japan Yearly 

Meeting of Friends. He was also active in the de- 

velopment of the Tokyo Women’s Christian College. 

Though sustained by quiet renewal of his religious 

faith, and by courageous and philosophical good 

cheer, he suffered in his later years two crushing 

blows, from which he never wholly recovered. The 

first of these was the passing of the 1924 Exclusion 

Law by the American Congress. While applicable 

20 

to all Oriental peoples, the Exclusion Act was es- 

pecially aimed at Japan. The second was the up- 

surge of Japanese militarists, first in Manchuria, 

later in Tokyo, finally as a result of the League’s 

Manchurian Commission, occasioning the with- 

drawal of Japan from the League of Nations. 

In the two years between the taking of Mukden 

by Japanese soldiers, September 18, 1931 and Inazo 

Nitobe’s death in Victoria, Canada, October 16, 

1933, his deep griefs were multiple. As a sincere 

patriot, feeding his spirit from childhood on the 

finest aspects of Japanese life, pouring back into 

that life his own gathered treasures of world culture 

and practical wisdom, loving his own .nation with 

passionate devotion, his heart was overwhelmed with 

disappointment and. grief as he saw her turn to, and 

swiftly pursue the course to which militarists and 

narrow reactionary nationalists were driving her. 

He clearly saw that this course was fraught with 

peril to Japan and to the world, which he also loved 

with clear insight and a great hope. At the same 

time he was deeply grieved because the bitter Amer- 

ican criticism of his own nation lacked understand- 

ing of the heart of the Japanese people. Also there 

was little penitence for America’s own responsibil- 

ity over two decades in helping to create the military 

nationalism which was now threatening the ruin of 

Japan. Added to all this was the break between 

his own country and the League of Nations to which 

he had given more than ten years of his life. 

His criticism of the Japanese militarists had 

brought death near his door, but it was not fear for 

his own life, as some have asserted, but the belief 

that he could help toward an understanding of his 

nation, that led him and Mrs. Nitobe to sail for the 

United States in April, 1932. This was a reversal 

of his previous decision never to set foot on Ameri- 

can soil until the Exclusion Law of 1924 should 

have been repealed. 

The determination of Dr. Nitobe to visit America 

at this time was felt by some of his best Japanese 

friends to be a mistake. Many Americans who 

heard his explanations of Japan’s policies shared in 

this sorrowful judgment. It was therefore a great 

relief to his friends to see that toward the end of 

this American visit, he changed from a defensive 

to an interpretative and educational emphasis con- 

cerning his own country. In this he once more 

found his real life mission. 

But his health was broken. Following his parti- 

cipation in the Banff Conference of the Institute of 

Pacific Relations, he went to Victoria where his cour- 

21 

ageous life efforts to serve as “a bridge across the 

Pacific” were ended. 

The Korean Independence Movement in 1919 

The first news of the cruelties of the Japanese 

military and police in attempting to suppress the 

Korean Independence Movement which broke in 

Seoul in March 1, 1919, was given out by mission- 

aries through mission boards in the United States 

several weeks before even Members of the Japanese 

Parliament and other public men in Japan were 

aware of what was happening. Two or three mis- 

sionaries first brought the authentic news of the 

sufferings of the Korean people to a few Japanese 

Christian leaders and missionaries in Japan. After 

an unhurried conversation with two of them, Gilbert 

Bowles appealed to members of the Executive Com- 

mittee of the Japan Peace Society, including Baron 

Sakatani and Seroku Ebara, a member of parlia- 

ment, to give these missionaries a hearing. The 

reason for the hesitancy of these sincere public men 

was that they could not believe such things had been 

done by Japanese people. But consent was finally 

secured, and an hour’s recital of what these men 

I had seen was so convincing that Baron Sakatani 

itook the responsibility of sending a personal repre- 

sentative to Korea. He was joined by Pastor Ishi- 

zaki, of the Methodist Home Mission Board, and 

Gilbert Bowles, who represented the Conference of 

Federated Missions. In the leading Korean cities 

for nearly two weeks, this trio as a unit gave them- 

selves from morning till late at night to personal 

interviews and group conferences with Koreans and 

Japanese residents, Christian and non-Christian, with 

piissionaries, with Japanese and Korean police, with 

the highest officers of the Japanese military police, 

with prefectural officials and with the ^Governor Gen- 

eral. The conclusions were unanimous that there 

had been abuse of authority and cruelty on the part 

of the police and the military. A part of the evi- 

dence they saw with their own eyes. 

The effective use in Japan of what these investi- 

gators had seen in Korea was the real test of their 

work. Publicity which had been given in foreign 

countries had awakened only prejudice and anger. 

First reports in Japan of the Korean findings were 

. . mad^ to the sending bodies. Among reports made 

later, was one by Pastor Ishizaki to the assembled 

suudents of the Aoyama Boys Middle School, Col- 

lege, Seminary, and Girls High School. When it 

was finished the Dean of the Seminary said there 

1 was not a dry eye in the assembly — and the Japanese 

I are not given to expressing emotion. 

22 

But the most important report, judged by results, 

was that in which the missionary member of the in- 

vestigating trio was invited to make a full state- 

ment and answer questions in a conference to which 

Baron Sakatani had invited a few members of the 

two Houses of Parliament, also one or two respon- 

sible men close to the Army and Navy. 

In the meantime by June of that same year, fur- 

ther news of what had taken place in Korea was 

beginning to filter through into Japan. Awakened 

liberals gave facts, and made appeals to their con- 

stituencies, and conservatives in touch with liberals 

quietly brought influences to bear upon the Cabinet 

and Privy Council. Viscount Kaneko who has al- 

ready been alluded to was one who as member of 

the Privy Council entered earnestly into informal 

Tokyo group conferences with these men who had 

set themselves to see that radical changes were made 

in the Korean administration. 

Eventually the Governor General of Korea was 

recalled, and regulations were changed so as to per- 

mit a civilian to be appointed to the post. There 

was keen disappointment that the new Governor 

General, appointed in August, Admiral Baron Saito, 

was not a civilian. However he had retired from 

naval service, and there was universal confidence in 

his human interest and integrity. Although he had 

to work within Japan’s imperial policy, his fairness 

and unselfish devotion to the Korean people soon 

won their gratitude and held it throughout his ad- 

ministration. When as Lord Keeper of the Privy 

Seal, he was assassinated by military reactionaries 

in 1936, there was no grief deeper than that of his 

many Korean friends. As late as the summer of 

1941, Korean women would come and sit weeping, 

near the home of Baroness Saito, partly to express 

their own grief, and partly in sympathy with the 

Baroness. 

Although in previous accounts of the Sino-Japa- 

nese and American- Japanese relations, the story of 

the peace movement has been carried down beyond 

the year 1924, yet on its organizational side that year 

marked an important change, and serves as a con- 

venient dividing line between the second and third, 

or final period of the organized peace movement. 

For in 1924 the Japan Peace Society was absorbed 

by the League of Nations Association. 

Very early after the formation of the League, the 

Foreign Office of Japan, in order to help educate 

public opinion in support of the cause to which it 

had committed the nation, gave definite encourage- 

23 

ment to the formation of the League of Nations 

Association of Japan. The general Secretary of its 

promoters for the first period was Setsuzo Sawada, 

at that time chief of one section in the Foreign 

Office. Baron Shibusawa threw his great influence 

into the formation and financing of the Association, 

and he continued his strong support until his death 

in 1931. Baron Sakatani also, responding to Presi- 

dent Wilson’s vision for the League of Nations, gave 

himself without reserve to the movement, and be- 

came one of its two responsible Vice Presidents. 

For one whole decade his time and thought were 

spent generously for a nation-wide international edu- 

cational movement. 

In 1924 when this educational activity was being 

vigorously pursued, the Japan Peace Society de- 

cided to turn over all its work, records, and two 

staff members to the Association. From the early 

twenties to the withdrawal of Japan from the League 

in 1933, the League of Nations Association was an 

effective agency for educating the nation in world 

affairs. It had generous financial support ; a Gen- 

eral Secretary, loaned by the Foreign Office, and 

experienced in practical world politics ; a growing 

staff of university-trained men ; centrally located 

and well equipped offices ; and a growing interna- 

tional library. It published two monthly periodi- 

cals, one of which was designed for youth. This 

educational work was carried out by a great variety 

of institutes and conferences, through branches in 

many of the prefectures. Later a Student Depart- 

ment cooperated with branches in practically all of 

the government and private universities and col- 

leges, including some higher institutions for women. 

As a help in understanding the energy and drive 

of this educational movement, Gilbert Bowles re- 

calls a scene which he witnessed on several occa- 

sions within this period. This was a student repre- 

sentation of the annual “Assembly of the League of 

Nations,” with “delegates” from the widely scat- 

tered university branches of the Student Division 

of the parent Association. These delegates were 

carefully chosen to represent the various member 

states of the Geneva League. As an example of the 

seriousness with which the delegates prepared to 

represent the different nations, one of the students 

chosen to represent China, gave up his summer va- 

cation at home in order to get the “feel” of China 

by living and studying there in preparation for the 

September sessions of the “League Assembly.” As 

a help in actually carrying through the sessions in 

true Geneva form, a member of Japan’s diplomatic 

staff, with actual experience in Geneva’s Assembly, 

24 

served as coach for the delegates. 

There were heroes of peace in Japan who were 

not closely connected with the organized movement. 

One of these was Yukio Ozaki, at one time Minister 

of Education, many years later Minister of Justice, 

Mayor of Tokyo for about ten years, and Member 

of Parliament from the first session in 1890 until 

as late as 1941. He was throughout his public life 

an outstanding leader of sane public opinion. He 

was a forceful advocate of universal manhood suf- 

frage and of limitation of armaments. 

With the courage for which he was well known, 

Mr. Ozaki once made a clear cut confession of one 

public act which he had since come to believe was 

wrong. This was his part as Minister of Justice in 

the Okuma Cabinet, which in 1915 presented the 

famous Twenty-one Demands to the Chinese govern- 

ment. He commented that at the time he believed 

this proposed step by Japan would save China from 

a worse fate, but he came to see clearly that this was 

a mistake, and hence he must make open confession 

of his share in the wrong. 

Another courageous act of Mr. Ozaki was the 

publication of his open criticism of Japan’s Man- 

churian policy of 1931 and onward. Caught in 

America at the outbreak of the Manchurian diffi- 

culty, he later went to England, where he published 

his indictment of Japan under the title, “My Tomb- 

stone.’’ As this title suggests, he knew that assassina- 

tion might be awaiting his return to his country. 

He came back home prepared for this as a probabil- 

ity. For some years the government carefully guarded 

his life by police protection. 

Some time after his return from England, Mr. 

Ozaki — though not himself a professed Christian, 

asked his intimate friend Daikichiro Tagawa, a Mem- 

ber of Parliament and prominent Christian layman, 

to arrange for him to meet informally with a group 

of representative Japanese Christian leaders. The 

writer was One of the two missionaries present, and 

vividly remembers the searching questions Mr. Ozaki 

put to that group : “Is there any claim on a man 

higher than that of the nation? Is national loyalty 

the last word? Is the Kingdom of God a reality 

to which Christians acknowledge allegiance trans- 

cending the claims of their own nation?’’ 

Seldom has a group of Christian leaders in any 

country been suddenly and sharply confronted with 

more searching questions. They were not posed by 

a mountain-top mystic, but by a seasoned statesman 

who through more than four decades had been a 

Member of Parliament, Minister in two Cabinets, 

25 

and for ten years Mayor of Japan’s Imperial City. 

It was well known that the question, “To what order 

does man owe his supreme loyalty” was not posed to 

confound his friends, or for debate. It came from 

the deep heart-searchings of a practical statesman, 

seeking for light on the problem of what to do when 

the course of one’s own nation is running counter 

to what is seen to be the just claims, and the larger, 

ultimate interests of a neighbor nation, or of all man- 

kind. It was not felt that the replies to that ques- 

tion and the discussion that followed it, were wholly 

satisfying. The writer, who took some share in the 

discussion, wonders what representative group of 

Christians in any nation would have given a satisfy- 

ing answer. Yukio Ozaki’s practical quest for the 

ultimate loyalty, challenges every man today, espe- 

cially every follower of Christ. 

In one of the last personal conversations the writer 

had with Mr. Ozaki, he said he had hoped to live 

until his fellow countrymen could receive with 

understanding a written message by which he wished 

to share his convictions concerning nationalism and 

internationalism. This message would interpret the 

wider meaning of the loyalty of the Japanese “ronin" 

(wandering, unattached knights) who in the pre- 

Meiji Era, left their own feudal lords, watching for 

opportunities to espouse the cause of national unity, 

through transference of their loyalty to the Emperor. 

Mr. Ozaki believed the hour had come when people 

ought to be willing to renounce even their own citi- 

zenship in response to the claims of world loyalty. 

Another of these heroes who dared to experi- 

ment along economic rather than political lines, is 

Tenko Nishida, sometimes called the Buddhist-Chris- 

tian St. Francis of Japan. He is the founder of a 

community outside Kyoto, whose members do the 

most menial service “in a spirit of prayerful peni- 

tence, believing that the conflicts of the economic and 

international world root back to our own possessive- 

ness and pride, and must be rooted out there.” Gil- 

bert Bowles will tell us more in detail of this man 

and the community which he founded. 

Since the publication some twenty-five years ago 

of the “Life of Penitence,” the name of .Tenko 

Nishida has been well known in Japan. Based on 

his own experience, and vigorously interpreting his 

life philosophy, this book made a very definite ap- 

peal to a wide range of people. 

Born in the vicinity of Kyoto. Tenko Nishida 

studied for a time in Doshisha University, a Chris- 

tian institution, and while still a voung man joined 

a local Congregational church. Though he did not 

26 

long keep up his active connection with this church, 

he has always been deeply influenced by the spirit 

and teaching of Jesus. 

Responding to the pioneer appeal of the island of 

Hokkaido, the American “out west” of modern Japan, 

Tenko Nishida settled in that island, as ^business 

manager of an agricultural colony. He finally left 

this work and wandered alone in great mental and 

spiritual distress, pondering over human life and the 

prevailing materialistic basis of society, “and seek- 

ing a way of living which would not be based on 

exploitation, but which would remove the roots of 

violence.” 

Some spiritual comfort and light came to him one 

day when in walking along a country road, he picked 

up some grains of rice which had sifted through the 

straw bags of the farmer on his way to the grain 

market. Eating them with sincere gratitude he felt 

that “his eyes were lightened,” and from that time 

he was happy to do the most menial tasks, asking 

nothing in return, but gratefully accepting the small- 

est gifts that would sustain life. With no fixed 

abode, sleeping under bridges or wherever he could 

find shelter, he was happy in the privilege of living 

and serving others. 

The next step in the pilgrimage of Tenko Nishida 

was taken on a night which he spent in prayer in 

the grounds of a Buddhist temple near his boyhood 

home. That night his experience was one of Ught, 

which seemed to illuminate for him the meaning of 

life and the way to overcome the evils of society,- — 

the way of renunciation and service without expecta- 

tion of reward. 

By sharing this revolutionary, personal experience 

of the light, he gradually drew to himself a small 

band of followers. In order to assist and train these 

disciples, he secured the use of a house in the edge 

of Kyoto, giving it the name of “Ittoen,” or “The Gar- 

den of the Single Light.” From here his disciples 

went out for humble service, gradually discovering 

homes or institutions where such service was under- 

stood and welcomed. 

All applicants for admission to Ittoen were re- 

quired to pass through individual, pioneering ex- 

periences, living on what was given, sleeping wher- 

ever they could find shelter, while growing in under- 

standing of the light. Persons lacking in decision 

of character, perseverence, industry, insight, or 

humility, and those who could not agree to this 

mode of life, dropped out. 

In the period when the Ittoen colony was being 

developed, Tenko Nishida was occasionally called in 

27 

to family councils to assist in settling domestic or 

financial difficulties. After spending some time in 

the troubled home of a well-to-do family in the 

Kyoto region, he finally saved it from threatened 

ruin. The man was so grateful that he offered a 

tract of land which was thereafter developed as an 

industrial cooperative colony, called the “Kosenrin,” 

or “The Spring-of-Light Grove.” Here are settled 

the families that have been built out of the service 

experiences of Ittoen, which still continues as a 

receiving and training home. 

In this colony are housekeepers, farmers, carpen- 

ters, printers, and other essential workmen. Simple 

industries are developed to meet the needs of the 

colony or the community. The basis of their life 

and service is kept continuously before its individuals 

and families. Once each year, each of them, includ- 

ing Tenko Nishida himself, leaves the colony and 

goes out to begin anew the life of “takahatsu,” as 

their simple service is called. In this way each tests 

for himself his basic life philosophy. Return to 

Kosenrin is only by invitation of the colony. 

Tenko Nishida clearly recognizes that his way is 

not a pattern for all people, but he does believe that 

the spirit of service, and freedom from dependence 

upon things have meaning for an “acquisitive soci- 

ety,” plagued by labor-capital conflicts, inter-racial 

friction and riots, and a world torn by war. 

A more direct peace effort is being made in the 

agricultural colony of his disciples in Manchuria, 

which seems to be demonstrating a way by which 

Japan can help to develop that country without vi- 

olence or exploitation. Tenko Nishida himself writes 

in the Ittoen magazine, after a visit to China in 

December, 1940: “I can’t help being pessimistic 

about the future of our (national) policy in Man- 

chukuo and China after my trip there. We lack the 

most important point, — the spirit of absolute re- 

pentance. . . . The whole world must realize the 

necessity of this repentance, or there will be only 

destruction.” 

Personal acquaintance with Tenko Nishida, as a 

“light travelling” guest in our home ; observations 

of the Kosenrin on different visits there ; and ac- 

quaintance with a number of influential men, whose 

life policies have been strongly influenced by his 

“ideals on legs,” support the belief that he is exert- 

ing a marked influence on Japanese thought and 

life. That influence is largely Christian in ethics, 

though Buddhist in its renunciation and worship 

forms. The whole movement has caused an “arrest 

of thought” concerning the wide-spread, competi- 

28 

tive, materialistic trend of modern Japan. 

There is space to mention only one more of these 

heroes, Toyohiko Kagawa, who needs no introduc- 

tion to American readers. What follows is Gilbert 

Bowles’ estimate of the man. 

Though Dr. Kagawa has not been identified with 

organized peace movements, his whole life, philos- 

ophy and service have worked as peace leaven in the 

lives of his widely scattered followers, and the social 

movements which he has inspired. 

The circumstances of T. Kagawa’s lonely youth, 

which drove him into intimate association with 

nature, and his response of heart-hunger to the deep, 

simple, creative message of Jesus, laid the founda- 

tion of his sharing life with the slum people of Kobe. 

From their tragedies and poverty, back to the homes 

and working conditions of common laborers, then 

back to the farms whence factory laborers were re- 

cruited, and finally back to capitalists, employers, 

legislators, and to society, went Kagawa searching 

for sources of conflict and exploitation, and for con- 

crete ways of organizing life on a cooperative basis 

which would care for “the least of these.” 

In his search for Truth as applied to human life, 

Toyohiko Kagawa began with the lowest strata of 

society, and with people nearest to him. The Japan- 

ese proverb, “Dark at the foot of the lighthouse,” 

could, not be applied to him. Standing on a solid 

factual foundation of social experience and personal 

knowledge, he has continued through the years his 

ceaseless studies in sociology, economics, psychology, 

history and philosophy, testing everything by the 

application of Jesus’ life and teaching, and by the 

illumination of the Holy Spirit. In one of my last 

calls on him in his home, I found his secretary 

supplementing his limited eyesight by reading from 

a large, highly technical book on crystals. None of 

his studies is an end in itself. All are utilized in 

guiding social settlements, peasant schools and 

brotherhood movements in the cities and country 

towns of Japan. 

At one period, his leadership of the labor move- 

ment was inclined to be militant. He has kept near 

to the laborers since then, and exerts his influence 

to improve their lot and guide their thinking, but 

he has given more time to industrial conciliation, 

to the development of social settlements and coopera- 

tives, to educating public opinion and to serving as 

social welfare adviser in municipal and national 

administration. 

No matter where he may be, or what he may be 

doing, Toyohiko Kagawa carries ever on his heart 

29 

two penetrating and driving concerns. One is that 

through the dignified, cooperative, intelligent labor 

of man the economic resources of the world may be 

so developed, utilized, and distributed that the mate- 

rial and cultural needs of all people of the world may 

be met. To hasten the consummation of this hope, 

he gives himself unstintedly, guiding movements in 

his own country, and interpreting hopeful, sugges- 

tive experiments in Great Britain, Denmark, New 

Zealand, or other parts of the world. 

But deeper than this is his other purpose, — that 

of exemplifying in his own life, and of interpreting 

to others in convincing, appealing ways, the life 

teaching and spirit of Jesus. In doing this he be- 

lieves he is making his greatest contribution to the 

cause of peace. It is his way of making peace- 

makers, and those who know him well, recognize its 

effectiveness and its world-wide significance. 

The latest word from Japan indicates that in this 

period when large public meetings are impossible. 

Dr. Kagawa is giving himself to guiding his social 

settlements in Kobe and Tokyo, to the strengthening 

of the Christian churches, deepening their fellow- 

ship and helping to prepare them for the testing and 

the tasks which lie before them. His world-wide 

circle of understanding friends will continue to trust 

him to the guidance of the Master who has given 

him a universal spirit and a world vision. « 

One last chapter of the peace movement remains 

to be chronicled : About 1922, with the encourage- 

ment of the League of Nations Association, repre- 

ysentetive foreign residents of various nationalities, 

formed the “Foreign Section of the League of Na- 

tions Association of Japan.” The Executive Com- 

yinittee represented various national groups. Hugh 

I Byas of England, correspondent of the London 

U Times and the New York Times, was chosen chair- 

I man, and the American Gilbert Bowles was chosen 

/ secretary. Under the guidance of this executive, 

I. most of the actual work of the branch was carried 

y on by the secretariat of the parent Association. But 

) upon the withdrawal of Japan from the League of 

Nations, and the subsequent change, under pressure, 

in the nature and name of the League of Nations 

Association of Japan, the Eoreign Section volun- 

tarily disbanded, as its members were not interested 

in supporting a nationalist “International Associa- 

tion.” But even after this, members of the foreign 

organization continued to give encouragement to 

staff members who as far as the new limitations per- 

mitted, were sincerely seeking to salvage and utilize 

as much as possible of the Association’s great her- 

itage, — a heritage which sorhe day Japan will claim 

and again make her own. 

American Responsibility 

Some American people now discuss the problem 

of how they can assist in the “re-education of Japan” 

in order to get her cooperation in plans for an organ- 

ized world. In such an hour thoughtful Americans 

may well do penance that in the decade from 1920 

to 1931 when the active leaders of Japan were using 

practically all known educational means for guiding 

the nation toward world cooperation, America was 

holding coldly aloof, and continuing to press its anti- 

Japanese legislation, including the Exclusion Law. 

This did more than anything else to weaken the 

hands of Japan’s international statesmen and edu- 

cators, and at the same time furnished the most 

powerful weapons for some of her hitherto thwarted 

militarists and narrow nationalists. 

Perhaps the most important thing for Americans 

in responsible positions to bear in mind, and to bury 

deep in their hearts in the coming months, is a clear 

sense of this feeling of the Japanese nation concern- 

ing the recurrent waves of anti-Japanese agitation 

and legislation, from the rise of the San Francisco 

school question in the year 1906. Throughout the 

year beginning July 1937 to July 1938 my wife and 

I spoke before various groups of representative 

people in widely scattered areas of the United States. 

Only one man challenged my main thesis of that 

year : “that the people and government of the United 

States should bear a heavy share of the responsi- 

bility for the drive of the Japanese military,” — at 

that time in the direction of China. In terms of 

percentage, whether it be fifty-fifty, or forty-sixty, 

makes no difference, so long as Americans who have 

to do with post-war Japan have a due sense of 

responsibility for the share that their own Govern- 

ment and people have had in the past years in creat- ' 

ing a war psychology in Japan. The last sentence 

of this paragraph may well be a quotation (from 

memory) of a news item which appeared in one ofs 

the Honolulu papers only a few days before Pearl 

Harbor day. It was to the effect that Congressman 

May, Chairman of the House Military Affairs Com- 

mittee, had said, “The United States ought either 

to declare war on Japan, or send the American fleet 

into Tokyo Bay and blow hell out of the Japanese.” 

In regard to post-war reconstruction of Japan. 

Gilbert Bowles makes the following statements : In 

preparation for the post-war reconstruction of Japan, 

the most urgent thing for America and Americans 

is to put our own house in order. In the earlier 

.11 

years of American relations with Japan, the Japanese 

people were deeply moved, and their life concepts 

strongly influenced by stories from American his- 

tory,- — of Washington and Jefferson, the Declara- 

tion of Independence, the great word of the founding 

fathers that “all men are created free and equal” ; 

and of Abraham Lincoln giving freedom to the 

Negro slaves. But for the past three decades the 

American light which had come to the Japanese 

people, has been dimmed by bitter experience of our 

racial prejudices and discriminations. To point to 

their own mistreatment of other people does not heal 

the wounds thus received. 

... If I were selecting human engineers to co- 

operate with Japanese leaders, I should certainly 

include representatives from the following countries : 

Chitia, for the two peoples know that their safety and 

prosperity are linked together. Some of the clearest 

words of world statesmanship since the war began, 

have come from Generalissimo and Madame Chiang 

Kai-Shek ; India, for Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and 

other Indians have an important message for the 

Japanese people in helping them to readjust to a 

balanced view of life ; Denmark, which is Japan’s 

Mecca for folk schools, creative agricultural changes, 

and the cooperative movement ; Switzerland, symbol 

and embodiment of the coopefration of potentially 

conflicting cultures for the mutual protection and 

safety of all. 

The call for the active cooperation of these nations 

would at once awaken hope that the Great Powers 

will not smother the life of the Japanese people — 

few of whom are responsible for starting the present 

war — who have in themselves possibilities of a renais- 

sance, if given new hope and a chance to cooperate 

in building the kind of a world which they, in com- 

mon with all forward-looking people, know ought to 

come into being. 

Any realistic plan for assisting Japan once more 

to take her place in the larger life of the world, will 

recognize the stabilizing influence of the Imperial 

Family. Although theoretically, the Emperor is 

supreme, responsibility for crises in domestic and 

foreign policies, is always placed on the Premier, 

Cabinet ministers, and other officials. Nothing so 

quickly brings down upon Ministers the wrath of 

the people, as for them to attempt to hide behind 

an Imperial Rescript, thus avoiding responsibility. 

There is no reason to believe it will be otherwise 

at the close of this war. 

As to the place of religion in the post-war recon- 

struction of Japan, it is pertinent to ask that Ameri- 

32 

can and British representatives bear ever in mind 

that the Founder of the faith in which their rulers 

pray, made no exceptions to the Golden Rule of 

doing unto others what you would wish others under 

similar circumstances, to do unto you. 

The recent appointment of Mr. Joseph C. Grew, 

former Ambassador to Japan, to the office of Chief 

of the Far-Eastern Section of the Department of 

State is a hopeful sign. Throughout his years in 

Japan, when asked to speak on a great variety of 

occasions, and to a wide range of audiences. Am- 

bassador Grew always spoke fitting words, worthy 

to be remembered. At the opening of a large new 

building of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Tokyo, 

which has emphasized preventive medicine, Mr. Grew 

in his congratulatory address, said he would like to 

be able to create a world foundation, dedicated to 

diagnosis and early treatment of symptoms of inter- 

national situations which might lead to war. The 

outbreak of war between Japan and America was 

not due to lack of watchful effort on the part of 

Ambassador Grew. Familiar as he is with Japan 

and the Far-Eastern situation, he will know well the 

importance of an international settlement, in which 

no seeds of future war are planted. 

In a discussion a few days ago with three men who 

have taken training as civilian affairs officials, the 

question was asked, “Has Japan’s reservoir of good 

will toward America been exhausted?’’ The refer- 

ence was especially to America’s generous assistance 

following the 1923 earthquake and fire. I replied 

in substance as follows : “No, that reservoir of good 

will is far from exhausted. It is fed from something 

deeper than assistance in earthquake and fire, gen- 

erous and important as that was.” 

Gilbert Bowles has tried to specify what are some 

of those deeper bases of good will. He says : Japan 

has a large number of influential men and women 

whose knowledge of the world links them with 

Americans who desire an ordered and cooperative 

world. 

Hundreds of educated Japanese, many of them 

with periods of study in American institutions, have 

formed life-long friendships with Americans. These 

friendships will outlive war. 

Although the influence of war propaganda upon 

the youth of Japan, can not now be measured, there 

are good reasons for believing that the wide spread 

appreciation of the highest American ideals, will sur- 

vive as bridges, over which the best people of Japan 

will again cross in a life of cooperation. This will 

33 

however depend on the degree to which America 

is true to her own ideals. 

Sections of the Japanese military and police have 

shown themselves capable of unreasoned cruelties, 

but there are well known traits of Japanese char- 

acter that respond to courtesy sincerity and genuine 

kindness. The young Chinese military officer, who 

in 1932 carried from the Shanghai battlefield a 

wounded, unconscious Japanese officer, sent him to 

Nanking and saw him nursed back to life, was almost 

idolized during the time he later spent in Tokyo. 

Although American officials in post-Armistice 

Japan will face difficult tasks and situations, they 

should constantly realize that the Japanese people 

can recognize and do respond to absolute sincerity, 

humility, and unselfish service. 

84