The Fight for the Republic in ChinaPutnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
History
The Fight for the Republic in China
Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
China -- History -- Republic, 1912-1949; China -- Politics and government
The Japanese, who owe their whole theocratic conception to the Chinese,
just as they owe all their letters and their learning to them, still
nominally look upon their ruler as the link between Heaven and Earth,
and the central fact dominating their cosmogony. Although the vast
number of well-educated men who to-day crowd the cities of Japan are
fully conscious of the bizarre nature of this belief in an age which has
turned its back on superstition, nothing has yet been done to modify it
because--and this is the important point--the structure of Japanese
society is such that without a violent upheaval which shall hurl the
military clan system irremediably to the ground, it is absolutely
impossible for human equality to be admitted and the man-god theory to
be destroyed. So long as these two features-exist; that is so long as a
privileged military caste supports and attempts to make all-powerful the
man-god theory, so long will Japan be an international danger-spot
because there will lack those democratic restraints which this war has
shown are absolutely essential to secure a peaceful understanding among
the nations. It is for this reason that Japan will fail to attain the
position the art-genius and industry of her people entitle her to and
must limp behind the progress of the world unless a very radical
revision of the constitution is achieved. The disabilities which arise
from an archaic survival are so great that they will affect China as
adversely as Japan, and therefore should be universally understood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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