ABSTRACT
INDIANS who visit England often find a strange contrast between the geniality of the people whom they encounter here and the arrogance of the ruling nation of which they have had experience in their own country. In the same way, Japan, viewed from a distance, in her rôle of aggressive imperialism is an unattractive figure, and yet the Japanese people are known by foreigners who have lived among them to be, on the whole, kindly, unassuming, and generous. It would be unfortunate, therefore, if the last impression of the reader of this book should be of the Japanese in their capacity as empire-builders, for in that capacity they reveal their worst qualities. This is true of most peoples. It is a platitude that as narrow “patriots” (in the Johnsonian sense) men are everywhere ready to perform actions which as private persons they abhor. So the lawless acts of Japan as a sovereign State and the prevalence of violence and fanaticism in her internal politics are not to be regarded as symptomatic of the character of the people in their ordinary life. The Japanese differ only in degree from other nations in this association of private virtue and political unscrupulousness.
