Japan -- Social life and customs; Women -- Employment -- Japan; Women -- Japan
It will be obvious to any thoughtful person that changes so wide and
deep, affecting all the fundamental conceptions of life, of manhood and
womanhood, of the state, of law and justice, of right and duty, are not
confined to those whose privilege it is to study Western books and
acquire the higher education. In ten thousand ways the whole national
life is being transformed, slowly it may be and silently, yet surely and
steadily. And the benefits are accruing to the most lowly and least
educated no less than to those at the top. All the working women of
Japan have already received in some degree, and in the future will more
and more receive, the blessings and the uplift which are coming to the
nation through its contact with the Christian conceptions and standards
embedded in Western civilization and literature.
A volume--nay, many volumes--would be needed to tell in detail the story
of how the Christian message has been and is being conveyed to the
people of Japan. We should make known the story of Joseph Hardy Neesima,
of the Kumamoto Band, of Dr. Clark and Dr. Hepburn, of Young Men's
Christian Association teachers of English in government schools, of
faithful, self-sacrificing pastors, evangelists, Bible women, and
missionaries. We should recount the deeds of heroic lay Christians in
all the walks of life, and above all in their homes, too often hostile,
commending their new-found faith by their new spirit and life. We should
tell of the work of Christian teachers of ethics in the prisons, and the
remarkable results secured. We should relate the experiences of those
who have struggled for the rights of prostitutes, of Salvation Army
officers, of matrons of reform homes, of managers of ex-convicts' homes,
of founders of orphan asylums, of supporters of private charity
hospitals. We should tell the story of the scores of Christian
institutions the central aim of which is to express in concrete life the
Christian's faith and hope and love.
But in addition to the narrative of direct Christian work, full heed
should be given to the evidences of the wide acceptance by the nation of
the best Christian ideals in matters of philanthropy. To meet the needs
of the famine sufferers in north Japan during the winter and spring of
1914, and of those who were deprived of their all by the terrific
volcanic explosion of the island of Sakurajima in January, 1914, more
than a million yen ($500,000) of private gifts flowed into the hands of
the relieving committees. For the earthquake sufferers the Diet voted
622,883 yen ($311,441).
The late Emperor, shortly before his death, was so moved by the medical
needs of the poor that he contributed a fund of a million yen for the
systematic undertaking of medical work in all parts of Japan. This
started a movement among the wealthy which has resulted in the
establishment of a Medical Relief Association (Saiseikwai), having a
fund of $5,000,000 already paid in and pledges for $8,000,000 more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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